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[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

We've been asked by innocent, the smoothie makers, to find out how you hit the five portions of fruit and veg a day goal. Do you religiously munch on carrot sticks and apples or do you rustle up more imaginative healthy dishes? Or does the whole thing pass you by and you want to find out how to fit the recommended five portions of fruit and veg into your diet?

innocent want to hear your hints and tips on how to pack the fruit and veg in, whether it's recipe ideas or quick and easy snacks. They'd also love to hear how you go about getting your DCs to eat their 5-a-day - have you emerged victorious from any difficult battles with veg? Do you have any top tips for sneaking fruit and veg into what they eat? What hints/advice can you give other MNers facing the same problems?

Everyone who adds their comments to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win £150 Amazon vouchers. Your hints and tips may feature on innocent's mini-site on Mumsnet here.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

I, DD1 and DH use fruit to snack on during the day and eat vegetables with every evening meal. it's not hard.

DD2 on the other hand hasn't eaten a fruit or a vegetable for the last 12 years. I have tried every suggestion and method of encouraging/bribing/hiding/forcing her. It doesn't work.

We all manage at least our five-a-day here, easily. But we are vegan, so that probably helps! We juice fruits ourselves, as well as buying ready-made in cartons like Innocent. We have a good variety of meals, I aim to make them pretty and colourful, which means a good balance of different vegetables. I tend to make dessert to incorporate fruit I am not keen on enough to eat plain, like certain berries. Soups are also good for when I am wanting to increase my intake of veg I am less keen on.
DS is 15 months and loves fruit and veg, so so far so good with his eating.

It's not really an issue here... I don't think I've ever counted. I agree with posters who say just don't enter into any debate if the DC express dislike of something.
In the summer months, we start the day with fresh, homemade muesli, made with grated apple, oats and natural yoghurt as the base, then topped with whatever berries are on season. In winter we tend to have porridge with banana and raisins...
DS (2 years) will graze on fruit all day long. I always have a supply of fresh fruit in my bag. He must love it as I manage to BRIBE him back into his buggy with it once he's run himself ragged and he's dragging his feet. I find fiddly things like satsumas are great for keeping him
occupied in the pushchair on our way home.
The fruitbowl here is always full. When DS was teething, I always gave him cold sticks of cucumber or carrots to sooth his gums. Even though he now has all his teeth, he still asks for them often and will chomp through them.
We have plenty of veg with lunch and dinner.
Cooking from scratch means that everything I make includes a lot of veg. I try to buy whatever is in
season. DS doesn't quite get soup yet so I haven't made many this winter.

like other posters very few problems getting 5 a day in at our house. Our DDs have always eaten fruit and veg, as have DH and I. There has always been a fruit bowl on the side which they can help themselves too. Lunch boxes have fruit and veg/salad every day, and main meals include vegetables most days.

In the term time I actually find it easier to give the girls their 5 a day, as I make sure their lunchboxes have a smoothie (Innocent when on offer), at least 1 piece of fresh fruit and either a fruity squeezy thing (again, Innocent when I can) or a dried fruit item. They have fruit for tuck so that is 4 of their 5 without even thinking of breakfast and dinner.

DH and I both take packed lunches to work too, making sure we have a couple of portions of fruit in them. DH likes the veg pots from Innocent but I find I have to take something that can be eaten cold to work as I don't always make it to the staffroom.

I tend to have at least 2 portions in the main evening meal and we usually have 1 at breakfast too.

When the kids say they don't like whatever veg I've lovingly prepared, I tell them to choose the one they hate the least and eat that. Works every time!

When I stop to add it up we're really doing rather well.

:)

I make a fruit and veg juice in the morning - apple, Carrot, Beetroot and celery (much nicer than it sounds!)

Sacks - I now cut up an apple and pear for nibbly snack

I keep kiwis fruit in the fridge, so when I go to rummage for my chocolate stash (usually behind the cheese box) I grab a kiwi instead (cut it in halo and spoon out the fruit)

Always have a big salad as a started or with main course

Am addicted to tomatoes, so will have them on toast as a snack (or bananas)

I go to the gym 4 ish times a week, so have the habit of eating a banana on the way there.

I have a pressure cooker, so make up soups, especially whenever I have veggies going a bit floppy (can make for some odd combinations though, but generally ok)

Out peas or broccoli in macaroni or pasta cheese.

Keep two big fruit bowls topped up, and keep some low fat yoghurt in the fridge, which is yummy on fruit with honey and toasted oats.

I eat fruit with breakfast and only snack on fruit or vegetables. I also eat a lot of soups.

With DC, I grate carrot or courgette into mince, add chopped frozen spinach cubes to pasta sauces, put pesto or grated cheese or butter on side vegetables to make them taste better. We grow our own vegetables too.

I don't like five a day I think it's misleading. For a start the full version is 'at absolute minimum 5 portions per day' and really it should be 7-9. And 'fruit and veg' s vastly misleading as the spectrum is MUCH wider than that. But also I think it encourages people to eat even when not hungry to get those extra portions, which is no good. Some days I'm just not hungry and I'll have only a very small meal or snack. Some days I'll be very hungry and eat three meals a day plus snacks, it depends. I don't eat when I'm not hungry.

Instead we aim for 2/3 of our daily diet to be vegetables, pulses, legumes, roots, nuts berries and fruits.

A portion is something the size of a person's fist.

I always put dried fruit (either raisins or chopped up apricots) on my cereal in the morning-its a quick way to get a portion and means you don't need any sugar sprinkled on

I try to get a couple of my 5 a day in at breakfast time, such as banana or dried fruit on cereal and a glass of juice. Otherwise I'm likely to go the whole day without any fruit or veg at all and end up with the prospect of cramming them all into one evening meal.

Have no tips on getting DCs to eat more as have generally tried and failed in this regard. DS will eat fruit (and loves smoothies!) but draws the line at veg, especially if it is green. Only time I have managed to outsmart him on the green veg front is by making soup containing lots of mixed veg including home grown purple carrots. The carrots turned the whole lot bright blue, thus making contents utterly unrecognisable. DS thought blue soup very amusing - ate the lot. I have an unlimited supply of it in the freezer.

Pretty easy in our house especially for the dcs. We don't make puddings except on special occasions so at lunch time and dinner time they have main course followed by fuit and yoghurt. Snacks mid morning and mid afternoon/after school are a piece of fruit plus a biscuit/breadstick/whatever. So that is 4 already and we have not even counted the veg which is salady bits at lunch so tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, lettuce and then veg at dinner, either various bits in pasta sauces or stews (celery, carrots and stuff) or peas/green beans as a side veg.

Ds is more difficult to keep track of now he is at school and eating school dinners but they have fruit as a snack in the morning and then he will tend to have a veg at least with lunch but doesn't always have fruit for pudding. He gets plenty at home though.

I am probably the worst one in our house as I don't have the fruit at snacks and often end up skipping pudding so don't eat the fruit then. I need ot be better at keeping things like satsumas which are easy to grab and eat rather than apples or pears which I need ot be hungry to want to eat.

I was brought up eating mainly fruit and veg anyway, so it's a lifelong habit with me and I don't have a problem getting the full amount. DD is the same.

It's harder to get dh up to five a day, particularly as he thinks wine=grapes=fruit and beer=hops=veg. He's a lost cause

I find hiding veg in meals the best way to get my children to eat it. When I make pasta sauces I always add veg and just give it a quick whizz with the blender. Cauliflower in mash is a good one too.
I also do lots of fun puddings like banana and ice-cream.

Ds1 - aged 3- loves fruit and is ok with veg...

I rebrand if we're struggling though: broccoli sticks are little trees, cucumber is often 'space junk' (rocket and space obsession ATM), carrots are cut into circles so they are planets or the sun, cabbage is seaweed (for some reason this works really well!).

I don't struggle to get his 5 a day into him all, as he has fruit as snacks too. Fuirt or veg or both with every meal too.

Dh and I aren't quite so good, but supper always has at least two veg, fruit juice at breakfast, and probably one other - at least 3 or 4 everyday.

Also, put carrot, courgette etc into tomato sauce for pasta - slightly disguised I suppose.

I give fruit after a meal, has to be eaten before "pudding" or left over Xmas/Easter chocolates.

Fruit salad is always a big hit, as are grapes if I am feeling decadent.
Chopped up cucumber or the salad/veg fad of the week.

1x fruit juice at breaskfast.

If all else fails Tomato Soup is apparently a portion.

It gets very expensive, I agree with the poster who said this earlier.

I also think I have no idea what a portion size of fruit is for a child. I use the same size for all, which is crackers.

DD (22mo) has always been good with fruit and veg, in fact she'd happily eat her weight in fruit, so no problems there. She has a piece of fruit with every meal, sometimes dried fruit as a snack, and veg with dinner. Often salad like baby tomatoes or cucumber with lunch also. Fresh fruit can be expensive so I try to give tinned some of the time (things like pears, peaches, mixed tropical fruit, all in juice).

I find it trickier to get 5 a day myself. I have dried fruit with porridge in the morning, a piece of fruit with lunch, probably two servings of veg with dinner. Sometimes also fruit as a snack, or dried fruit. I should really start drinking fruit juice or smoothies once a day, but I tend to stick with water or sugar-free squash to keep the calories down.

I eat 5 a day easily (usually by the end of lunch ...) and on the whole so do my children (and I take less responsibility for dh). I think it's a start as you mean to go on exercise so we all have at least one portion at breakfast - ds2 isn't that keen on cereals but will happily eat beans on toast at breakfast time - works for me. I have muesli which is at least 50% dried fruit plus fruit on top mixed up with twekko yogurt (plain yogurt with stewed fruit to mix through).

Lunch is always a big bowl of homemade soup followed by an apple and banana. Afternoon snack is a nak'd bar which is essentially a lump of squished fruit.

Thus whatever dinner contains is a fruit/veg bonus but is inevitable veg heavy as feeding 6 means that we use less meat and more veg to bulk out.

Meant to say that it's open season on the fruit bowl here so replenished a couple of times a week as they all happily snack on fruit with the odd chocolate bar / packet of crisps thrown in.

With a growing family, I find it hard to get 5 a day into the children. I have recently been decreasing my shopping budget so have had to find alternative ways to source their diet.

I often buy as much fruit that is on offer and use frozen fruit to make the odd treat of a fruit pudding for the children in the winter. Vegetables again are purchased on offer, so it is often veg that is in season at my local market or Aldi store.

I encourage the children to snack on fruit during the day and they often have several pieces of fruit this way. Snack times often consist of sultanas as they are great way to increase the fruit.

I often try and put vegetables into homemade sausages to bulk out the meat and increase their veggies without them noticing.

this is what I do:

I make sure they have a portion at breakfast, whether it's some blueberries or a kiwi fruit or banana on their cereal.

they have 2 portions of fruit in their lunchboxes - one is a piece of fruit and the other is an innocent smoothie or tube-y thing (do I get brownie points?). They may also have some cucumber or tomato in their salads.

then they have 2 veg with their dinner. they may also have pasta sauce (which I count as one portion - it's tomato-y!) and I usually put carrots in pasta sauce/shepherds pie etc. I try to put veg into the meal if it's possible, but they don't like casseroles. their pudding is either fruit or yoghurt.

Veggies are more difficult to get inside my children than fruit, they will eat stirfries, fajitas, veggie lasagne, pasta sauce, roasted veg with couscous, but not much else. They always have 2 helpings of veg with their dinner, which I make them eat, but it is sometimes a challenge!

then they like to have a piece of bedtime fruit as their snack before bed - they aren't allowed anything else. they eat fruit very enthusiastically. If they want a snack during the day I encourage fruit or dried fruit.

I've seen people, on here and in rl, get absolutely obsessed with the 5 a day thing. Surely an all round healthy diet is more important than religiously aiming for 5 a day? I'm not stressed if my 2 go a few days without eating their fruit as I know they'll make up for it another day, and the stuff they eat instead isn't awful for them. Having said that, there have been times I notice they need more vitamins, particuarly my daughter who gets very pale with black rimmed eyes over the winter, so we try and make it more fun, not necessarily sneaky, to eat fruit and veg. My ds will happily decorate anything with a smily face, wether that's cut up veg on a pizza base or chocolate buttons on a cake, and the one thing both of mine like and consider a big treat is putting fruit into jelly before it sets. They like having 'dead things' floating in it, the charmers

oh and another thing that my older girls like is to have a little side salad on the table at dinner time, or a tomato and mozzarella salad, then they have some of that.

• Have a well stocked and appetising fruit bowl.
• Make veg part of lunch and dinner for everyone - salad, steamed veg, veg in pasta sauces/curries/casseroles.
• Get your kids to help you cook. Even tinies can get involved, and they are far more likely to eat the resulting dish.
• Have veggies for snacks as well as fruit - carrot sticks, cherry toms, cucmber, raw green beans etc, avocado (halve and eat with a spoon).
• Freeze smoothies and juices in the summer so kids can have them instead of ice cream.
• Remember that soups and baked beans count.
• And so do nuts and seeds.
• Do carrot and banana cakes?!

• one fruit juice or smoothie in a morning with breakfast - so first of 5 a day done quickly
• school snack (either provided by school or taken in) - ticks the second box

So, that leaves 3 a day which makes it more manageable I think.

• a piece of fruit for/with after school snack = 3rd

Then - make sure at least one a lunch and one at dinner - 4th and 5th

And I remember reading that a portion size is approx a handful. So a child's portion is a fair bit smaller than an adult portion.

Children will also tend to eat more if allowed to serve themselves ime too. So, have small bowls of evg with dinner to help themselves from.

Many children also refer raw veg to cooked veg.