Maureen Monaghan
The warmer temperatures make eating salads so much more enticing and the abundance of fresh produce makes it fun to experiment with new or different fruits and vegetables. There are dozens of fast and easy fruit, vegetable and pasta salads. I make sure to use whole grain pastas and try to stick to the low-fat salad dressings. However, my favourite part of summer is my BBQ. There are so many delicious healthy options for the grill. The charcoal flavour of the food means there isn’t a great need for sauces or extras to dress up the meal. I like to do foil packs of vegetables sprinkled with a bit of one of my favourite low-fat dressings instead of butter or salt. They cook up in 20 minutes and there’s no clean-up. I do watch that I don’t use sugary BBQ sauces or marinades that are too sweet. Speaking of sweet, healthy dessert options also abound at this time of year with so many luscious fresh fruits readily available. I never have trouble reaching my target servings of fruits and vegetables during the summer months.