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How to Plan a Fruit and Vegetable Menu

Planning a menu around the freshest ingredients will prove to be a rewarding meal for the body. Focusing on taste is surely a way to make a healthy meal even more enjoyable. Fruits and vegetables are full of color and packed with nutrients. No matter weather you chop, dice, saute or steam, you are likely to have a great meal that just might look good enough to eat. Before you get started, come up with a great theme to keep it simple. For example you could go with Thai, Mexican, Mediterranean or California style cuisine.

Things You'll Need

  • Knives
  • Plastic wrap
  • Bowl
  • Crock pot or steamer
  • Garlic, salt and pepper (any seasonings you love)
  • Soy sauce or oil and vinegar
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Instructions

  1. Healthy and Delicious

    • 1

      Wash and drain lettuce you have chosen for your first salad course. Create a Mediterranean-style salad with onions, tomatoes, rich dark lettuce and kalamata olives. Drizzle it with some balsamic vinegar, and serve. Combine baby corn, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, snow peas and thinly chopped carrots to create an Asian-themed salad. Top it off with a drizzle of soy sauce if you wish. Toss your salad by putting plastic wrap over the bowl, and shake gently while holding the plastic in place.

    • 2

      Chop up some potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and celery, and put these ingredients into a crock pot with some vegetable stock. Cook the vegetables until they are tender. Add some herbs and spices to enhance the flavor. Dice up some tomatoes, peppers, onions (or whatever you want for a cold gazpacho if you prefer a cold soup.

    • 3

      Cook some beans over an open stove top and serve with sauteed peppers, onions, chili peppers and jalapenos, if you dare. Mash up some avocados and throw in some tomatoes, along with green chilies to make a guacamole. Scrape some corn off the (steamed or boiled) cob and add it to some salsa. Slice some limes to squeeze over the dish.

    • 4

      Cut up all your favorite fruits now because this is what you will have for dessert. Use coconut to sweeten the dish. Drizzle some chocolate sauce onto the plate for dipping (chocolate comes from a bean, after all). Experiment with the insides of a vanilla bean. Add the "guts" of the bean to a fruit salad, and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours to allow the flavor to penetrate the fruit.

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