Tips: Lunch & Dinner

  • Eat sandwiches or wraps that include several vegetables, such as mushrooms, tomatoes, sprouts, green peppers, cucumbers, or other raw vegetables.

  • Eat a cup of your favorite sweet cherry variety for a delicious after-dinner snack. Melatonin from cherries will also help you get a good night's sleep.

  • Crunch before lunch! A recent Penn State University study found that people who ate a whole apple 15 minutes before lunch, consumed fewer calories during lunch.

  • Include a mixed green salad or a vegetable soup with your lunch or dinner.

  • After a run or walk on your lunch break, snack on some power food — fruits and vegetables. And quench your thirst with 100% juice!

  • Choose AppleSweets® or a baked potato or sweet potato in place of French fries.

  • Add crunch and color to pasta or potato salad with green or red pepper strips, broccoli florets, carrot slices, or cucumber.

  • When grilling, be sure to wrap vegetables in aluminum foil. Or grill skewers of pineapple, eggplant, nectarines, zucchini, or cherry tomatoes.

  • Bring color or character to your salads by sprinkling in baby carrots, shredded cabbage, or spinach leaves.

  • Perk up deli salads like coleslaw, chicken, or tuna with apple chunks, pineapple, or raisins.

  • Grill fruit or vegetable skewers over medium-hot coals for a fun-to-eat and flavorful BBQ treat.

  • Toss grapefruit and/or orange sections in a fresh crunchy salad of mixed greens. The sweet citrus and crisp lettuce are an incredible wake-up call for the taste buds, and the juice from the segments moistens each leaf.

  • Make homemade salsa with tomatoes, mangoes, avocados, red onions, cilantro and lime juice.

  • You can get some of your fresh servings at a restaurant too. Try vegetable pizza, vegetable pasta (but watch out for cream sauces), or a fresh vegetable “wrap.” Instead of French fries, order a plain baked potato, vegetable soup, or a small salad.

  • Try tossing fruit into your green salads. Oranges, grapefruit, or nectarine slices add extra flavor to your salad.

Stay healthy:

Nutrition facts, recipes, tips & news

Learn more