Your five a day suggestions

• Hummus is a superfood. Make some using 125gm dries chick peas, soaked and cooked (reserve liquid), 2 crushed garlic cloves, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 4 fl oz Tahini, juice of one lemon, pinch of paprika or cayenne, black pepper. Put all ingredients in blender and add enough extra liquid from chickpeas to make creamy consistency. Use the hummus with crudites of choice (carrots, coloured peppers, cucumber etc. Or have on toast, rice or oat cakes or crispbreads topped with olives, sliced red onion or any veggies you choose at any time you like.

  Submitted by Roberta Allen

• If you find it difficult to get your kids to eat vegetables, try hiding them in mashed potato - parsnip and potato or carrot and potato all taste lovely.

  Submitted by Linda Pirie

• Chop a red pepper into slices and place on a kabab stick along with some grapes, mushrooms, apple and tofu cubes

• Boil up some butter beans and steam some asparagus for a great tasting salad. You can add your own dressing, but we found apple juice and honey work well.

• Halve and core a williams pear(a pear per person) and fill the centre with some blackberries. Bake it in the oven at 180C until tender and juicy. Serfve as a breakfast with some low fat yogurt and maybe some honey. Or as dessert with cream or custard.

• For lunch split two wholemeal pittas in half and fill the middles with mashed banana and honey.

• Make a vegetable hotpot by boiling some washed but unpeeled carrots, swede, turnip and cauliflower or broccoli in some water with meditteranean herbs, tomto pureee and cayenne pepper.

  Submitted by Rebecca Rickard

• For a fun desert try some kebabs made from a variety of fruits, great to take on summer pic-nics!

  Submitted by Carol Port

• Red Cabbage (more accurately described as purple) is delicious cooked or braised with the addition at last 5 mins of a grated apple and/or carrot, any leftovers are delicious cold !!!

  Submitted by Susan James

• Try adding chopped herbs to your cooking, not only will this cut down on the need to add salt it also makes your food tastier too as well as helping to keep to the 5 a day target.

  Submitted by Fiona McGovern

• Cut a peeled sweet potato, some butternut squash, a parsnip or two into large chunks, add a couple of handfulls of peeled whole shallots, half a dozen sliced cloves of garlic, a green pepper cut into about six pieces and some whole button mushrooms. Toss in a couple of spoons of extra virgin olive oil with some torn basil and rosemary and put at the top of a medium to hot oven for 30 - 40 minutes. If pushed for time use frozen vegetables (like waitrose frozen butternut squash which is ready prepared). Serve on a bed of couscous.

  Submitted by Sonia Hawes

• Eat a salad at lunchtime with plum tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, yellow, red, green peppers, carrots and spring onions. Dress it with olive oil and garlic and it helps reduce cholestrol.

• Have dried fruits like figs, dates, prunes, cranberries or blueberries with porridge oats for breakfast.

• Have juice or celery apples and ginger and carrots.

• Have a soup with red kidney beans, tomatoes, green broccoli and fine beans.

• Have a dessert with just fruits: Bluberries, strawberries and blackberries.

  Submitted by Sonal Shah

• Keep a see-through container of dried apricots, prunes or figs lying on the worktop so that the family will eat them instead of biscuits when they are peckish.

  Submitted by John Park

• A healthy lunch is often a problem if you travel for work or are out and about. Pita bread is very handy as you can cut it in half, open each pocket up and fill it with loads more salad or char grilled veg than you can get in a sandwhich. You can have a different flavour in each half to make luch more interesting and it holds it all in better too so it doesn't end up on the front of your suit!

  Submitted by Alexandra Tinsley

• Buy yourself a decent penknife and at coffee time use your knife to peel a range of fruit instead of eating biscuits! Your colleagues will be amazed at your prowess at cutting open and peeling apples, pears, oranges, kiwi fruit etc! Enjoy!

  Submitted by John Asker

• Use up well ripened (spotty) bananas left in the fruit basket Peel, slice and freeze the bananas, then blitz the equivalent of 2 frozen bananas with a low fat vanilla or toffee yoghurt in a food processor or liquidiser - the frozen bananas thicken and freeze the yoghurt giving a delicious soft, sugar free ice cream.

  Submitted by Lorraine Schaub

• Vegetable soup is a good idea to boost your intake of the five a day. I try to make soup every two or three days which keeps well and 'instant' in the fridge

  Submitted by Gillian Johns

• Cook red cabbage in cranberry juice and just before serving add a large spoonfull of cranberry jelly (or fresh cranberries) great as a dish on its own.

  Submitted by Karen Hunt

• The best way to eat lots of veg at this time of year is in soups, I could never eat all the broccoli that goes in my broccoli and stilton soup or all the leeks in my leek and potato soup, but I get a warm, filling and healthy meal.

  Submitted by Lynne Buddin

• Have a family fruit race! Chop up a selection of fruit into bite-size chunks on a large chopping board and place in the middle of the table. Give each player a fork, whip up a bit of pre-match frenzy, and say ready steady go! My competitive children will consume the lot.

  Submitted by Tim Gibb

• I always struggle to get my kids to eat enough fruit and veg, but I've found a great way to up their intake and they've not noticed yet.... I chop celery extremely thinly and add to my spaghetti bolognese sauce - it adds a nice crunchiness and counts towards their 5 a day!

  Submitted by Jo Orr

• When cooking asparagus add an Oxo cube to the water. It really brings out the flavour.

  Submitted by Maralyn Smith

• My children say they only like Tomato soup. I make my own using a vegetable stock cube, onion, carrot, courgette, potato and a bottle of Passata. Simmer all together and when vegetables are softened, blitz in a liquidiser for a smooth Tomato Soup with hidden goodness.

• During winter it's too cold to eat salad, but a warm salad is something different. Grill 3 rashers of dry cured bacon. Boil some green beans. Add both to a prepared plate of salad and rocket leaves. Finish with a slices of avacado and a light drissel of balsamic vinegar. delicious.

  Submitted by Jayne Townsend

• Put knife slashes into a halved butternut squash and then crush garlic into the bowl left by the scooped out seeds. Push the garlic into the cuts and roast with olive oil for a delicious side dish.

• Halve red peppers, then fill with cherry tomatoes and slices of garlic. Add a little olive oil, then roast in the oven (or wrapped in foil on the barbeque in the summer). Eat with plenty of good bread to soak up the juices.

  Submitted by Roberta Allen

• Cut apples into quarters for children. A whole apple is difficult for small mouths to eat, but they will happily munch on a smaller portion.

• Fruit like grapes and apples are great nibbled with cheese.

  Submitted by Christine Constable

• When travelling, carry a small plastic pouch filled with dried apricots. As an instant way to avoid Motorway Cafe fast food

  Submitted by John Knight

• I aim to eat a new fruit or vegetable every few weeks, that I've never had before. Last week it was sharon fruit.

  Submitted by Emma Higgott

• Red Peppers diced, with tomatoes, cucumber and celery, dressed with lime with some lime zest grated in with a little chilli is a quick and easy tasty way to have salsa.

• Sweet baked potato with low fat cheese mixed with a little goats cheese makes for a great meal.

  Submitted by Diane Wilson

• Make a warming chunky soup by using a tough joint of meat in a slow cooker, when cooked remove meat and replace with chunks of swede, potatoes, carrots, onions and leek. Cook slowly then serve with chunks of home made bread.

  Submitted by SADIE LEWIS

• Make a tomato soup/pasta sauce/pizza ragu - chop 4 small onions and 4 garlic cloves and very finely chop 3 celery sticks (I usually hate celery, esp cooked, but this is ok) cook in a spray of olive oil until translucent add 2 tins of tomatoes, dried herbs, a big squeeze of tomato puree, 2 or 3 very finely grated carrots (use a microplane grater-they are fab) and some soy sauce or balsamic vinegar (or a glass of red wine if you have any from last night). Cook for 10-15 mins until the tomatoes go a slightly deeper red then bliz up with a hand held mixer - you may need to add some boiled water to make it thinner. Have as soup with garlic bread, a drizzle of olive oil or just a slice of nice brown bread, or you could not thin it and have it on pasta with some parmaesan or as a pizza sauce. Very low fat, versatile and very yummy.

  Submitted by Alex Williams

• Using a slow cooker, place one chicken breast per person. Add one stock cube, mushrooms, chopped carrots, onions and green beans (or any other veg you have) top up with cold water to cover the meat. Leave to cook for the day and when you get home from work, just thicken with a touch of gravy granules (if needed), boil a few new potatoes and 'Hey Presto' a healthy dinner is served!!!!

• Chopped carrot batons are great to keep as a healthy snack in the fridge. Use a natural yougurt as a healthy dip.

• Watercress is a great source of iron. Use it in salads and sandwiches as well as salad leaves.

  Submitted by Lisa-Marie Jackson

• When cooking Greens, which are full of vitamin C and Iron, before they finish boiling add a half a teaspoon of Bicarbonate of soda to the water to keep them nice and soft and green looking.

  Submitted by Angela Homes

• Sautee diced onions,coloured peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms (and garlic if liked). Beat up 2 eggs per person and you have an omellette that looks as good as it is.

• Make a face on a plate, out of mashed sweet potatoes. Carrot nose. Mushroom eyes, Cherry tomatoes for a smile. Broccoli for a great hair style. Make fun out of eating.

  Submitted by Jane Homewood

• Get a steamer - vegetables will taste so much better than when boiled. Try different vegetables - carrots, potatoes, spinach and even frozen peas and braod beans will never taste the same again!

• Try roasting vegetables - e.g. asparagus or baby leeks - in some olive oil until crispy. Experiment with herbs - caraway seeds will give your vegetables a crunchy flavour.

  Submitted by S Masri

• For a quick mid-week supper, saute skinless chicken breasts with a chopped onion in sunflower oil until they are golden brown. Add a jar of Waitrose Perfectly Balanced cook-in Balti sauce and simmer until tender. Stir in a couple of large handfuls of fresh spinach leaves and a tin of chick peas. The spinach will wilt in the hot sauce but remain green and tasty. Sprinkle with fresh coriander and serve with basmati rice.

  Submitted by Lindsay Fournier

• Baked Sweet Potatoes, delicious topped with roasted vegetables or low fat creme fraiche!

• Roast an aubergine chop up and stir chunks into a tomato pasta sauce.

• Roast peppers and blitz up for a lovely dip or sandwich filling.

  Submitted by JULIE COOK

• My husband isn't keen on eating fruit but if I make up a bowl of fresh fruit salad and leave it in the fridge he'll help himself to that instead of snacks. By doing this I know he eats more than his 5 a day!

  Submitted by Jennie Tovey

• For a quick easy pasta sauce for children who won't eat vegetables simply liquidise a tin of Ratatouille serve with grated cheese.

• Buy pizza bases and get children to make their own pizzas. Put each ingredient into a small bowl and let them help themselves. I find they will eat vegetables they usually won't touch.

• When making lasagne or shepherd's pie add liquidised carrot, swede, onions and tinned tomatoes to the meat. They cook down with the meat and children don't realise there is vegetables in it.

  Submitted by Kathy Campbell

• We get veg boxes delivered and we're really loving the various mixed vegetable, and seasonal soups. Last night's was Jerusalem Artichoke and Leek. Made like a vichysoisse but with the Jerusalem Artichokes instead of potatoes and a little fresh ginger added, when sweating down the leeks. After blending, we added fresh chopped chervil and "creamed" it with soya milk, rather than cream. Rich and creamy, lower in fat, higher in protein and suitable for the lactose intolerant!

• Favourite early winter soups included fresh chestnuts but if you can't stand the hassle of blanching, then peeling, the vacuum packed ones are much easier to use (and work out cheaper). Try basing soups on celeriac, or brussel sprouts/cabbage, and adding chestnuts. They help thicken the soup, add a lovely subtle flavour and are a great, low fat nut to use in cooking.

• We love beetroot and as it's such a good iron source try to incorporate it wherever possible. There's a great Greek Pate in Madhur Jeffrey's around the world book, based on Beetroot, Potatoes, Walnuts, Olive oil, garlic and lemon. When pureed, it can be used as a lovely starter or as a filling for cold spinach roulade.

  Submitted by Roberta Allen

• Make a risotto using sweated onion and good arborio rice, with as much or as little butter and whichever kind of stock you prefer, include some white wine in the mix. Just before the rice is ready, add in grated raw beetroot, about the same volume of grated beetroot as raw rice. The colour is amazing and eating beetroot whilst it is hot but crunchy is unusual, retains more of the goodness and very tasty.

• We over estimated the amount of people who would be drinking at a recent party and were left with about a litre of mulled red wine. It was a pretty dry, but nicely spiced batch, so not too much sugar in it. It worked well when some was added to a red lentil soup, but the best was using it to cook red cabbage.

  Submitted by Joanna Adler

• We make our 4 year old pink milk just like Lola drinks by popping a small piece of peeled raw beetroot into a screw-top jar with some milk (cow, rice or soya,)giving it a good shake then removing the beetroot.

  Submitted by Judith Needham

• Simplicity itself - I have nothing but fruit for breakfast ! Not only is this the first foodstuff that hits my body in the day, which must be good, it's fast to prepare and provides at least three items of the recommended 5 a day. I eat a few grapes, a banana and a pear and sometimes add any seasonal exotic fruit which takes my eye. The result is a good physical boost to get you going each day, plus a huge injection of psychological "feel-good" factor.

  Submitted by Sally Rayne-Cutting

• When your family turn their noses up at parsnips, then make a parsnip mash... boil diced parsnip(centre core removed makes it easier to mash) and mash with a little milk/cream, butter and some grated nutmeg, the result is sweet and delicious.

  Submitted by Debbie Walker

• Ever tried eating fresh bananas with your bacon,egg and fried tomatoes?

• When making curries or stews I often add diced apple and pear.

• When stir frying vegetables add a spoonful of soya bean paste.

  Submitted by Rodney Tucker

• Somehow making your own 'healthy' chips seems so much more preferable to buying them! Here's a tried and well tested method. Heat the oven to 220C (hot), scrub, but do not peel, some nice, preferably organic, potatoes. Cut down their length into four or six depending on size and dry very thoroughly on kitchen paper. In a bowl put olive oil and seasoning into which you then toss your chips, making sure that they are well covered. Place the chips in a preheated roasting tray and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of your 'chip'. They are wonderful, almost as quick to prepare as commercial 'oven' chips and you can vary the type of olive oil/seasoning that you use in order to give slightly different flavoured chips.

  Submitted by Jean Harrington

• When making a bolognese or shepherds pie, add chopped red or green peppers with the onion to give extra nutrition.

  Submitted by Alison Magnuson

• Simple curry - Saute onions and celery and mix with a jar of curry sauce. Serve with rice or on toast.

• Spicy beans - a large onion and a little celery, carrot, green pepper, 3 large tomatoes, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp spice (eg cinnamon, ginger, garam masala, etc) 2 cups cooked beans (baked beans, butter beans, lentils etc), 2 tsp soya sauce. Cut up the veg, fry with the curry and spice, add the tomatoes and cook until done. Add the beans and soya sauce and serve hot.

• Pink Clouds - Pour boiling water onto 225g small mushrooms, leave for a minute, drain, and leave to cool. Line 4 serving dishes (or large wine glasses) with shredded lettuce. Mix 150 ml each of mayonnaise and double cream with 4 tbsp tomato ketchup. Mix in the mushrooms. spoon onto the lettuce and serve.

  Submitted by Bryn Jones

• spray a large shallow oven proof dish with oil, add chicken breast fillets diced potato, butternut squash, peppers, cherry tomatoes, courgettes. Sprinkle with oregano, spray with a little more oil, bake in oven gas 6 200 centigrade for 45 minutes or until cooked through. delicious.

• Add some olives and parmesan cheese to the above for a variation

  Submitted by Pam Craig

• Roast butter nut squash with red onions then pulse with vegetable stock to make a delicious soup.

• Banana surprise. slice a banana and mix with strawberry yogurt to make a quick and healthy dessert

• Mix red peppers and tomatoes drizzle with olive oil flash grill and serve on toast.

• Blanch spinach leaves(or curly kale) season with salt and pepper and serve with a poached egg for a quick and easy supper dish.

• Lightly coat a sliced and seasoned aubergine with olive oil. Roast aubergine until soft and then pulse with a crushed garlic clove to make a lovely dip to serve with pitta bread.

  Submitted by Caroline Easton

• Potatoes don't count as a '5 a day vegetable' but sweet potatoes do, so substitute sweet potatoes in recipes. Cook them exactly as you would ordinary potato eg shepherd's pie with sweet potato topping.

  Submitted by Marian Ramsay

• Use frozen mixed summer fruits along with banana and yogurt to make a delicious smoothie, my 3 year old loves making and drinking them and feeding them to her baby brother.

• wrap some sticks of carrot, and cucmber to childrens lunchboxes along with little pots of hummus or salad cream.

• My daughter loves fruit faces, I use grapes for teeth, strawberries or kiwis for eyes and whatever fruit I have to make ears, eyebrows etc etc, its a great way of getting kids to try new things and have a good variety.

• Fry a mix of chopped veg such as carrots, celery, peppers, courgettes with onion and garlic in olive oil, add chopped tomatoes and some oregano and basil, stir in some cream cheese before serving. Thia makes a fab pasta sauce that all my family love.

  Submitted by Nicola Wilson

• For a quick, inexpensive and easy soup, simply blend together a tin of tomatoes, a tin of carrots and clove of garlic. Heat, season to taste and serve with either a splash of balsamic vinegar or a dollop of low-fat creme fraiche. Delicious.

• If you're trying to get vegetables down pasta-loving kids, serve Spaghetti squash. This is an oval-shaped yellow squash containing spaghetti like strands which yield a mild, lightly sweet and fresh taste.

  Submitted by Scott Glover

• Easy squash soup: peel and chop a squash put in a saucepan with a chopped onion, 1 chilli and empty in a can of coconut milk. top up with water to cover and add a stock cube. cook till tender and blend. result: a brilliant creamy soup that's great for cold days.

  Submitted by Jane brooke

• If your children (or you!) can't be bothered peeling oranges try this - cut 3 or 4 oranges into segments (hockey match half time style, remember?!)throw into a dish and place on the table casually - no one can resist and they'll all be gone fast - try it as an experiment!

• Make your own crispy seaweed - shred a whole crinkly green cabbage, throw it in a wok heated to smoking with a tablespoon of sunflower oil and stir fry it with a shake of salt - this may not be the proper Chinese way but it worked for us and was authentically crispy and looked oddly like real seaweed!

• Bake 6-8 medium onions whole, with their skins on, around a joint or roast chicken or with potatoes/peppers/carrots if your'e a veggie - when they're soft they're done and people can cut off the tops and squeeze out the baked inside onto their plate - delicious, time saving and fun!

• Vegetable chips - cut carrots, potatoes, turnip, parsnip, Jerusalem artichokes into your favourite shaped chips and having heated a roasting tray with a dessert spoonful of olive oil in a 200C oven, put the chips in and turn over a few times with your fingers to coat them lightly with oil. Give a tiny shake of salt and maybe black pepper, then leave them in the hot oven for ten minutes or so, keeping an eye on them closely. When they start to brown turn them over with a fish slice and cook for another 10 - 15 minutes. Keep doing this until they are crispy. They are the best chips ever, low fat, spectacular and readily eaten by habitual carrot refusers!

• Red kidney beans, tinned or cooked, red onion,seasoning,one large free range egg,a handful of medium oatmeal or enough to make a sticky mixture - shape into burgers on your hands dusted with oatmeal or flour and fry in a little hot oil - serve with fried onions, tomato slices and relishes in wholemeal buns - with vegetable chips that's your five veg covered!

  Submitted by Julie Eccleshall

• Mix shredded pale cabbage(even the centre of green cabbage or brussel sprouts), grated carrot, choppped green 'leaves' of spring onions, (the bits you may usually discard)chopped celery, chopped walnuts and raisins (or sultanas)and even a little red /green pepper if desired. Dress with mayonnaise or an oil and vinegar dressing, whichever preferred.Serve with cold meAts, cheese or as part of a green salad dish.

• Mix thick grated (or 'julienned') carrot with peanuts (any sort)and raisins (or sultanas)and a fresh french dressing with parsley.

• Quick soup. Use real chicken stock or good stock cube(Marigold low salt)two leeks shredded, two medium courgette grated, one medium potato chopped small and enough water to cover. Cook, but not overcook; liquidise, add milk and a dash of cream, pepper to taste. You can substitute two large grated carrots for the courgettes.

  Submitted by ANNE WALL

• When making a beef, chicken of lamb curry (usually with the Sunday joint leftovers, as well as the basics of onions, garlic and tinned tomatoes I always put in lots of extra veg, too, such as mushrooms, courgettes, peppers and green beans. Cauliflower and broccoli are OK too but need to be carefully timed to avoid disintegration.

• Roasted vegetables are fantastic for taste. Just peel and chop any root vegetables you fancy into a roasting tin with chunks of courgettes and peppers, quartered onions and mushrooms. You can even add (unpeeled) potato wedges if you have room. Add a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary and some freshly ground black pepper, sprinkle the lot with olive oil and pop the tray in the oven on about 190 for about 45 minutes or until the veg are coloured. The roasting brings out much more flavour than cookking in water.

  Submitted by Lorna Reynolds

• The only way I can tempt my 15 year old son to eat vegetablesis by making my own vegetable soup. Throw in any combination along with potatoes for thickening and you have a hearty, healthy meal.

• I leave the fruit smoothie machine out for my 15 year old son to make his own. I'm always sUrprised with the various combinations he mixes together, sometimes with milk or yoghurt.

  Submitted by Julie New

• for a busy working mum slice a lemon and steep in hot water in a jug..cover and leave for the evening and use instead of squash for you and the kids adding sweeteners to taste.

• use left over mashed potato to thicken sauces and stews

• add a little dried seaweed to coleslaw to increase vitamins and colour

• red cabbage and diced mango is pleasant combination for salad

  Submitted by Yvonne Rautenbach

• Buy some of those Waitrose Scottish Blue Potatoes. Amazing! Dark purple when hot, then dark blue when cold. Kids of all ages would love Blue mash, Blue chips or Blue salad!

  Submitted by Robert Slater

• I agree, eat seasonally but I reckon Waitrose frozen British Raspberries count, they are huge, beautiful and wonderfully scented. My Saturday morning ritual is yoga followed by a smoothie made with these raspberries,fozen blueberries, mango, banana, natural yougurt and pressed apple juice.

  Submitted by Shirley Whitaker

• Eat seasonally. My problem in the past with eating five a day was that shopping with no regard to what was in season - buying tomatoes in December when, lets face it, they don't taste of much at all and are hardly a pleasure to eat. Eating seasonally available fruit and veg you get a much better flavour which really encourages you to eat five a day, and in the case of veg this really supports British growers. The regional section at Waitrose is really useful in directing you straight to seasonal veg, such as purple-sprouting broccoli, parsnips etc.

• Fruit juice is a very painless way to get towards five a day.

• My favourite salad is fennel and orange - simply finely slice the fennel, peel the orange and slice and toss in good quality olive oil with salt and pepper. It takes all of 2 minutes to prepare, looks very swanky and tastes gorgeous.

  Submitted by Louise Brennan

• Winter salad incorporates a whole load of different coloured and textures and using cheap seasonal veg. Shred red cabbage and add to grated carrots, apples, turnips. Mix in chopped cherry tomatoes, avocado,chopped parsley, spring onions and watercress or rocket. You can also add seeds - hempseed, pumpkin, sunflower or whatever. Dress it with a sweet & tangy dressing of roast pumpkin seed oil, Dijon mustard, tabasco and apple balsamic vinegar. Great with baked potatoes & cheese.

• Halve and deseed red and yellow peppers. Chop tomatoes and mix these with 1 chopped clove of garlic and some fresh thyme leaves. Place the tomato filling in the peppers, then top with slices of halloumi cheese. Roast for about 40 mins at Gas 6. Serve with couscous with harissa paste, chickpeas and fresh coriander.

• Halve, core and deseed quinces. Place each half on a square of foil. Add a slice of unsalted butter and a teaspoon of sugar to each half, then make a tight parcel with the foil. Bake in a dish at GM6 for at least an hour until the quinces are very soft. Serve with Greek yoghurt or thick cream to which you have added rosewater and a little sugar to taste.

  Submitted by Ruth Nicholls

• Throw tinned lentils and any veg you like into a pan with a tin of tomatoes, stock, Worcester sauce and seasoning. Cook, covered on a low heat or in the oven until the veg is cooked and most liquid absorbed. Add some grated cheese if desired. A great favourite in our house especially as an accompaniment to sausages. It's different every time, based on what veg you put in, and none of the goodness is lost.

  Submitted by Ann Ovens