We all know the importance of getting our daily servings of fruits and veggies. Some easy and inexpensive ways to build more of them into our diets include: substituting spinach, onions or mushrooms for half of the cheese in omelets; adding broccoli, carrots, or zucchini between the layers of your favorite lasagna recipe; and adding spinach, cucumbers and tomato to lunchtime sandwich wraps. Do you have any other tips to share about how to get more fruits and veggies into our meals?

I serve fruit with every meal at our house. Right now it's usually sliced apples, because apples are in season where I live. If I have time I might make fruit salad, and sometimes it's canned fruit in its own juice. Making sure that fruit is part of every meal helps my family meet their fruit requirements.

I tend to toss shredded zucchini in pretty much any meatloaf or meatball that I make. I also shove it in most any long cooking soup, including chili, it pretty much disappears.

Exchanging applesauce for oil in most of my baking.

Pretty much if you are a veggie in the fridge you end up in some type of stir fry or "crisper soup" at the end of the week.

Quiche is a GREAT way to hide veggies.

I keep frozen grapes in the freezer all summer long in large batches and smaller ones in the winter for a cold treat instead of ice cream. Another great ice cream swap is mashed frozen bananas, add a tiny bit of chocolate syrup and it is like a banana split. Freeze bananas in chunks out of the skin so they dont get brown. Once they get to turn throw them in the skin in the freezer and when they thaw you can squeeze them like toothpaste into banana bread or any recipe that needs overripe bananas.

In the summer, I always have smoothie fixings in the freezer.Frozen fruit with a container of yogurt and some ice makes a great snack, or add some protein powder and it replaces breakfast.

These are GREAT ideas! I love the mashed frozen banana split. I also like the idea of "hiding" veggies in everyday meals like mac and cheese (a big favorite at our house). Pizza is also a good food to heap veggies on top of (especially artichokes, peppers and broccoli).

I especially like the frozen ideas, as I tend to crave something sweet after dinner. That would definitely help curb my cravings and would be much better than sneaking in something gooey and chocolately or ice cream.

I eat vegetables first before I eat anything else. I try to "fill up" on that first before the rest of the meal.

Smoothies (home-made) are great. I use lots of ice in the summer. I like the idea about adding vegetables to chilis and soups. Will try that when it gets a little colder.

This discussion has inspired me to eat a big tossed salad this afternoon for a snack. I added some nuts and lean ham for protein, and really enjoyed it. Thanks for all the ideas!