Only nine percent of Americans are meeting their daily recommended consumption of vegetables, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This May, National Salad Month, make an extra effort to get your greens and meet the 2016 USDA Dietary Guidelines, which recommend that you consume between two and three cups of vegetables per day.
While this may sound like an impossible feat, it´s easy enough to accomplish with one simple dish, a salad. Not only can you make a dent in your daily consumption of vegetables, but you can also work your way towards achieving some of the other USDA Dietary Guidelines recommendations.
Here´s how: * Add meats such as steak or chicken and nuts such as pecans, walnuts and almonds to get a protein boost. It is recommended that an adult get anywhere from five to six-and-a-half ounces of lean and varied proteins per day.
* Add fruits such as oranges or strawberries to try and hit the two cups of recommended fruit serving per day.
* Crackers or quinoa can help you reach your allotment of three to four ounces of grains, half of which should be whole grains per day.
* A little cheese can go a long way in helping you to meet the three recommended cups of dairy per day.
* Salad dressings count towards the five to seven teaspoons of oils that you should be consuming each day and the oils in dressings, such as canola and soybean, help your body to absorb nutrients from vegetables.
Salads provide a healthy and easy avenue to gather several of the recommended nutrients. Here´s a simple recipe for Baby Greens with Roasted Pears, Feta and Walnuts to show you how easy it is to make a healthy and delicious salad.
All you need are pears, olive oil, baby greens, feta cheese, toasted walnuts, salt, pepper and your choice of salad dressings.
First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking
sheet with wax paper and drizzle four pears, peeled, cored and cut into eighths, with one teaspoon of olive oil. Roast in the oven until the edges turn golden brown.
Once the pears have cooled, toss with eight cups of baby greens and your choice of salad dressings (champagne vinaigrette is one recommendation). Sprinkle half-a-cup of feta and half-a-cup of walnuts over the greens, and season with salt and pepper. Now you´re ready to start enjoying National Salad Month like a pro!
For more recipes and ideas, visit The Association for Dressings and Sauces at www.dressings-sauces. org.