NOW CLOSED Share your thoughts on eating your 5-a-day with innocent and win a £150 Amazon voucher

[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

As I'm a busy bee looking after a baby and working I do find it hard to get my 5 a day all the time, especially at work.. I love Innocent smoothies but they are often out of my price range so only buy when on offer. I try to make up for the lack of eating throughout the day by cramming loads of veggies in at tea time (not so hard as I am vegetarian!) so will make healthy thai curries, soups etc with lots of nice veg. DS is 10 months and loves most fruit and veg, will happily snack on a carrot stick or cooked veg. I often put blueberries or banana into his porridge in the morning too - an easy way to kickstart the 5-a-day in the morning.
My worst habit is skipping meals altogether as I just don't always find the time, so if someone would like to come and cook for me...

I agree with fuckity - no-one is going to die form having 4 a day, or from having 2 one day and then a bit more the next.

Broccoli is trees. I tell my DD if she wants to grow up tall she needs to eat trees as they get so big, she happily munches away on steamed broccoli.

I try to include fruit with meals, so a piece or two with breakfast, some dried fruit and one piece of fresh in their packed lunches, and if they are hungry in the evening they get offered fruit first.

Vegetables I have had success with my pasta sauce, which is tomato based but filled with roasted sweet veggies and blended, then with steamed mixed veg added whole. It's full of goodness.

I offer crunchy veggie sticks (carrots, peppers and cucumber) instead of chips if they are having something quick out the oven, having little pots to fill with dip of their choice makes it really exciting for some reason.

We also have fresh fruit juice with breakfast, and I'll have a pulse at some point at least three quarters of the week, beans of all kinds, lentils etc.

I order a fruit and veg box. I hate waste so I ensure that it all gets eaten up. It also means that we have a few meat free days each week so I reckon it brings our overall food costs down.

I'm vegetarian so a lot of my 5 a day are in my main meals-things like casseroles or curries made with lots of fresh veg. I also try to have a fruit juice and a piece of fruit for a snack everyday.

My 3 year-old on the other hand, is not keen on veg in things like casseroles- she likes to be able to see exactly what she is eating, so prefers veg on the side. I find she'll eat more if there's a variety or if she's allowed to choose what veg we have with the meal. She'll also munch on things like raw carrot, or sweetcorn straight from the tin while I'm cooking.

I'm not keen on veg by itself ie a portion of them with other food, however I do like them all mixed in sauces, casseroles etc so I make a lot of those types of meals.

At my most neurotic, when DS was a fruit'n'veg refusenik toddler, I once found myself pureeing 3 strawberries through a tea strainer in order to hide it in yogurt or ice cream. This is NOT a tip I would recommend!

At the difficult stage rely on what you can get into smoothies, milkshakes, pasts sauces etc, and then reach for the children's vitamin supplements, which if nothing else, are good for YOUR mental health.

Then calm down and wait for them to grow up a bit.

Find things they enjoy, such as corn on the cob to eat with fingers. Include lots of veg options in a 'build your own pizza' tea. Use dips imaginatively - cooked broccoli etc can be dipped in guacomole or other veg dips. Loads of guacomole can be incuded with nachos. Avocadoes are nice mashed into sandwiches. Freeze smoothies into lollies. Actually, I freeze those Innocent fruit tube things and offer them as dessert. Have pancakes with stewed apple and yog.

DS used to enjoy eating chopped fruit with a cocktail stick - so I let him. Process is half the battle with kids. Pineapple speared on a cocktail stick, strawbs whole with the stalk on and dipped in yogurt.

For myself, I don't veg-count, but I tend to chop some fruit into meusli, or make stewed apple from the tree for breakfast, and freeze loads for the winter. We all have some fruit at breakfast - chopped pineapple, a satsuma or a kiwi in an egg cup.

Lunch - a veggie laden soup, or a sandwich of avocado and tomato and some leaves, felafels and hoummous, an innocent veg pot if they are on special offer, I keep cherry toms on my desk to pick at.

Dinner - something with a tomato based sauce plus green veg, or two veg with the main.

Some days we achieve 5, sometimes 3, sometimes loads more.

I find it really hard to make sure dd , dh & me eat our 5 a day.
With dd I'm lucky if she eats 1 portion of fruit or veg a day.... she is super fussy!
We always have fruit in the house & dd can sometimes be tempted with a banana or some mango. She will always drink fruit juice so that helps.

veggies are harder. dh is a fussy eater too but if i smother veggies in cheesey sauce or smuggle them into a chilli or lasange I can get away with it!

I was surprised to find out that baked beans are 1 of your 5 a day - we eat them a couple of times a week.

I find it much easier in the summer when we can eat salads and strawberries, raspberries etc. I try to stick to seasonal foods so in the winter I make soups - current fave is butternut & sweet potato.

smoothies are a favourite too and we often make our in the summer.

I don't know if blueberry cake would count as 1 of our 5 a day but I made a delicicious one last week!

BigBadBear - aren't the actual beans in green beans poisonous until cooked? My brother and I were very sick after eating undercoooked runner beans with lots of the bean bits inside.
I wouldn't give children raw beans.

Out of all the things I've ballsed up by making a battle out of them with 2yo DS recently, I'm sooo glad that 5-a-day eating hasn't been one of them.

We just try and let him see what fun fruit and veg can be, either by whizzing up banana into a smoothie, hiding raspberry 'treasures' in yogurt for him to find and to make an enormous pantomime out of how much DH and I enjoy eating carrots and broccoli until he's begging to share ours

If he turns his nose up at something, we completely ignore it and don't hover or make a fuss.

Doesn't always work, but it's not the end of the world, right?

Also, I find having tinned fruit and frozen veg a really easy and less wasteful way of always having healthy food in the house.

We are a bit boring. A banana, handful of blueberries or other cutted up fruit on cereal first thing unless we are feeling very flush when we make either banana and honey on toast or yogurt pots (yogurt, cereal and fruit layered haphazardly in a toddler friendly small tub). We normally have a fruity snack (apples, clemmies, berries or grapes) either mid morning or afternoon (and biscuits for the other ). Finally, either carrot, Sweetcorn and peas or lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and peppers with dinner. This is as well as any veg we add in sauces. We also have tomato soups, fruit salads, melon and other things thrown in the mix but that depends on ds's mood and the weather.

I decided to never make chocolate or biscuits special. They aren't a treat, just another thing you can eat. Ds will often opt for fruit over biscuits and loves choosing his own fruits and veggies when we are shopping.

I find it quite hard to eat 5 a day - I don't really like fruit although I love vegetables but at the moment I'm knackered and can't be arsed cooking so it's a bit tricky sometimes.

I drink innocent smoothies sometimes, but they are way too expensive normally. I make my own in the blender quite often using fruit from the market. My favourite is banana and peanut butter - more of a milkshake, but it's one way of getting some fruit into my diet.

We eat a lot of tomato based pasta dishes.

I always put sweetcorn in if I'm having a baked potato and tuna.

Tend to have spinach in the fridge and always lob some into whatever I'm making, whether it's pasta or curry - it shrivels up to nothing and thickens the sauce a bit.

I love veg and so for me personally its easy to just add veg to my meals. Dh however hates veg and 3yr old dd will not touch any!

I started a veg patch so dd can grow things and try them in raw/cooked state. But then i have to go on a food hiding mission. I make root mash but put cheese on and tell them its cheesy mash. I chop peppers, onions, grated carrots etc into anything with a sauce.

Fruit i blend into smoothies or milkshakes or make jellies with fruit juices. I use pouches of fruit puree as dd will eat these off a spoon like a yoghurt. And often i'll reassure myself that baked beans do count.

Smoothies are fab way of quick burst of goodness though. Im pregnant and found smoothies particularly tolerable for morning sickness especially.

I am a bit hit-and-miss at getting my five a day, if I make an effort I can do it easily but if I don't meal plan it soon falls by the wayside.

I make my own muesli and add a tablespoon of dried fruit and a grated apple to it, that's two portions right there. Have it with a glass of fruit juice or a smoothie and it's three.

I have a banana or pear or other fruit as a mid-morning snack or with lunch, or even a banana sandwich if the fancy takes me. (Try it, it's really nice!)

Evening meal is usually easy as we eat lots of pasta dishes and stir-fry type meals, so with the onions, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes etc it adds up to eat least a portion, maybe two.

T'is sooooo easy to have your 5 a day.

Breakfast - cereal plus a glass of fruit juice and a piece of fruit

Lunch - sandwich with salad (either inside or on the side), fruit for pudding

Dinner - cooked meal with 2 or 3 veggies and then something like a fruit crumble for pudding or apple strudel

Et voila!! No bother at all

Smoothies for breakfast, can easily get 5 or more fruits in one glass. My DC love soup. Again, any number or combination of vegetables can be cooked up in a pot and blended.

I try to eat at least four portions with my breakfast and lunch so will have a piece of fruit with my breakfast, take cucumber sticks to work, have salad in my sandwich and another piece of fruit with lunch. Then if I'm feeling lazy and opt for a takeaway or chips for dinner, it's not a complete disaster!

I used to be quite bad at getting my 5 a day, but have made a concerted effort to be a good example since having my DD.
We are very good with fruit (adding it to breakfast, having juice to drink, putting it into puds etc) but veggies are a bit trickier. We're OK with the usual suspects (peas and carrots, toms and cucumber) but I struggle to enjoy others.

I think the trick is to make bolognese sauces etc with plenty of veg (toms, mushrooms, onions etc) and my family loves a rice salad with sweetcorn, tiny cubes of pepper etc.
And I generally make a big vat of soup at the weekend to take to work during the week.

Hmmm in our house it seems we are so keen on getting the DCs to eat theirs that we often omit to eat more than about 3 (and that can be a good day - oops)

The DCs have a fruit for breakfast and one fruit juice and veggies/fruit in lunchbox, then a piece of fruit at 'tea-time' when they come home and then veggies in their dinner.

It is easier to get DD to have 6-7 a day but struggle to get veggie-loathing DS to have more than 5 a day....

DW manages to 'hide' red peppers, carrots, onions and garlic in a home blitzed tomato sauce.....which DS tucks into without knowing the veggie truth!

Although we do eat meat, most of the meals we cook at home during the week are vegetarian, as I know my dcs have a hot meat lunch at school/nursery every day.

We all eats lots of fruit & veg, and my dcs are great both at eating stuff they know and trying new things. I generally find that getting them to help me (for example, with making coleslaw) will result in them munching on cabbage trimmings and carrot ends....I've found that with some things they enjoy the desconstructed items more than the end result, so am happy to let them investigate flavours and textures during the process.

All the dcs take fruit or veg to school for their morning snack each day....they mostly have more veg with their school lunch, and always have the fruit which is available for dessert (and any cake as well!), then they have 2-3 items of cooked/raw veg with their dinner, as well as fruit for dessert.

They probably hit 10-12 a day!

DH and I take a selection of fruit to work and snack on that through the day; I usually have a salad or veg based lunch (or veg soup), and we both eat tons of veg and fruit for dinner.

We probably average 8-10 a day :)

DD1 is 3yo and is a bit of a picky eater. I've bought a plastic snack tray in the shape of a flower and I put it out a few times a day with several different fruit and veg snacks in it. Letting her graze seems to be better than trying to get her to sit down and eat.

Veg like carrots or cucumber in stick form make quick and easy snacks. We have competitions to see who can make the loudest crunch when biting a carrot stick.

I always put fruit on cereal, it's such an easy and quick way to add 1 of your 5 a day.

Soup or smoothie to get more fruit and veg into my children. Luckily 3 out of the 4 eat fruit and veg without fuss but for my teenage ds I still resort to grating carrot and courgette into spag Bol sauce or pizza topping.
We are a vegetarian household and for work I regularly eat the microwave pots that you can buy now and smoothie pouches for the children's lunch boxes.

I struggle to hit the 5 a day.
But we try by having loads of veg at dinner and fruit as snacks.
It gets expensive though so struggle to do this every day.

I make veg (and pulses) soup to have for my lunch most days and we will have soup at least once a week for dinner too.

My DS (3) has a fruit snack at nursery and he also has a piece of fruit with his lunch that I provide. To be honest he'll eat almost any fruit it's veg he has more of a problem with. I just blend them into dinner if needs be, such as pasta sauce etc.

He loves innocent smoothies in the cartons so when they are on offer i'll buy those too. (I nearly got the whole alphabet in magnets last time they were on offer!) He always has a glass of normal fruit juice a day too.

We are vegetarian so I really don't want my DS to start hating veg!

It takes a lot of planning but the girls packed lunch usually has most of their 5 a day in it. Their lunch consists of an Innocent smoothie carton, dried fruit (often raisins) raw veg (carrot, courgette, mushrooms and Tomatoes. Piece of fruit and a cold pasta salad or sandwich.

Cottage Pie, Fish Pie, Spaghetti Bol and casseroles are great for hiding lots of veg in the sauce provided its chopped finely.

I would buy smoothies that had vegetable juice mixed with fruit juice say carrot and orange or beetroot and blackcurrant I think most kids would give this a try if it's in a Carton!

I try to get my girls involved in the prepping of our meals now as they tend to want to eat what they have had a hand in making.