As the days get colder, we start feeling like warm and hearty meals and snacks rather than light and healthy salads. Sometimes we can find it harder to get our five serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit each day. However, winter is a fabulous time to enjoy seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Winter vegies include: beetroot, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, fennel, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, radicchio, silverbeet, spinach, swede, sweet potato, turnips.
Winter fruit include: apples, avocados, banana, custard apples, dates, grapefruit, kiwifruit, lemons, mandarins, nashi, oranges, pomelo, quince, rhubarb, strawberries, tangelos.
Seasonal produce is often better quality and cheaper, helping you to create delicious, nutritious comfort food on a budget.
Slow cooked and oven baked recipes not only warm your tummies but also your home! They smell delicious too.
Try these nourishing winter meals. Cook extra for dinner and pack leftovers for lunch or pop in the freezer for a speedy mid-week meal.
- Mushroom, spinach and lentil lasagna
- Sweet potato and lentil curry
- Shepherd’s pie
- Cauliflower and broccoli “Mac N Cheese”
- Cauliflower and spinach dahl
- Roast vegie quinoa bake
- Green Frittata
- Tomato, spinach and pesto calzone
- Chicken and vegetable pie
…and snacks:
- Stewed apples and sultanas
- Healthy apple crumble
- Baked vegetables such as pumpkin, sweet potato, beetroot
- Creamed corn on wholemeal toast
- Baked beans on an English muffin
- Bowl of vegetable soup (try our new vegie pasta soup)
- Apple ring pancakes
- Zucchini and cheese hash brown cups
- Pizza muffins
- Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Scones
- Baked vegie chips
To save time you can bake lots of vegetables in one go such as pumpkin, sweet potato, potato and capsicum and use them for several meals and snacks over the next couple of days. Just toss them in a little olive oil with some rosemary or thyme when doing a roast dinner then use leftovers to top pizza muffins or in a quick and easy frittata the next night. Roast sweet potato and capsicum are delicious the next day in a left-over roast meat wrap for lunch. While the roast is on, stew some apples with some sultanas for a warm dessert, topping your breakfast porridge or for sending to school for a snack.
For more recipes and ideas visit healthylunchbox.com.au.
The Healthy Lunch Box website was created by Cancer Council NSW to save you time and money, and our clever tips for adding fruit and vegetables to your diet can set yourself and your family on a path of lifelong healthy eating, to reduce your cancer risk. Help us continue our work in cancer prevention –Donate now
