Canned fruits and vegetables: Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny that they are essential in our mission to feeding our hungry neighbors. And really, why all the hate? They’re a convenient, nutritious, cost-effective way for all of us to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into our diet year-round, especially our neighbors who are on a tight-budget or who don’t have the right resources to store fruits and vegetables safely.
The bottom line is that we need to get more fruits and vegetables into our diet; it doesn’t matter if it comes in a can, frozen, or fresh. We need to choose the forms that are most conducive to our own personal lifestyle and resources.
Here are some ways to make canned fruits and vegetables a healthy, delicious part of your diet:
- Reduce sugar and salt content by rinsing canned fruits and vegetables in a strainer.
- For canned fruits, choose options that are packed in light syrup or 100% juice.
- For canned vegetables, choose low-sodium or no-salt-added options.
- Use canned tomatoes for a delicious, homemade pasta sauce.
- Make a beautiful breakfast parfait with low-fat yogurt, canned fruit cocktail, and your favorite whole grain cereal.
- Use canned beans to make a quick dinner for taco night.
- Serve canned pineapple or peaches atop a cup of low-fat cottage cheese for a yummy snack.
- Prepare a dip of pureed canned white beans (or garbanzo beans) with a little lemon, garlic, oil, and your favorite herbs. Serve with sliced vegetables or whole grain crackers.
- Make a hearty vegetarian chili with canned tomatoes, corn, and a variety of beans.
- Get fancy and toss your whole grain pasta with sautéed canned roasted (diced) tomatoes, garlic, lemon, canned white beans and Italian herbs.
For more information and recipes, check out the Canned Foods Alliance website.
What are your favorite ways to use your canned staples? Please share with us below!
Laura Urban is the Nutrition Education Coordinator for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and has been with the organization since 2011. Laura is passionate about building healthy communities through nutrition education programs, spreading the good word about good food, and getting clients excited about fruits and vegetables. Have a healthy recipe to share or want to know more about our ever-growing, nutrition education programs? Reach out!
