Thrive Kitchen: The Veggie Tray

A lot of people have a challenging relationship with food, but often those who’ve undergone treatment for cancer can find eating and maintaining nutrition extra challenging. Foods may taste different or seem unappetizing, your mouth may be dry or have sores, or you may be trying to take off weight gained during treatment.

Regardless of the situation, nutrition recommendations remain the same for cancer survivors: maintain a healthy weight, get essential nutrients, and practice food safety.

This month from the Thrive Kitchen we share a hack that can help you get in more fruits and veggies while adhering to several of the tips provided by Cancer.Net’s nutrition team.

We give you: THE VEGGIE TRAY. Once relegated to parties and potlucks, we argue that the veggie tray should have a prominent place in your fridge on a daily basis.

What’s the hype? When you pre-wash veggies (a nutritionist food safety tip) and cut them up into easy-to-eat slices or sticks you’re more likely to graze on them throughout the day and find eating them less of a chore.

(Nutritionists suggest eating several smaller meals, so this hack checks that off the list too.)

Veggie trays can be as simple or as fancy as you’d like too. Hate celery? Substitute in some bell pepper strips. Add a few olives or get a package of multi-color cherry tomatoes to liven up the color. Carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, radishes, or even blanched green beans or asparagus. The sky is the limit.

You could even add in some fruit, or create a separate tray with berries, grapes, melon or pineapple.

Add some dip such as hummus or low-fat ranch, tzatziki or low-fat cream cheese spread. If you need a little dip to get you started on adding more veggies to your diet then go for it in moderation.

The thing is, you’ve turned eating veggies into a party-style occasion.

Cheers!