Get more veggies in your diet

If it’s been a while since you’ve come face to face with some fresh produce, dust off your blender, food processor, or chopper. 

Using those machines is an easy way to help get fruits and veggies into your diet. The experts at Consumer Reports reveal the best blending tips to make tasty and nutritious treats.

If you’re having trouble getting enough fruits and vegetables, Consumer Reports says the right tools might inspire you—or at least make preparing those foods less of a chore. 

Maybe you have a food processor collecting dust in the back of your cabinet, like a blender. 

You can make smoothies with fruits that are out of season if you get the frozen ones. 

You can also purée some potatoes and butternut squash for soup.

Not all small appliances are created equally. 

That’s where CR comes in! In its labs, testers run the machines through a series of tough tests to measure how well a blender can make a smoothie and purée ingredients into a soup. 

And for food processors, testers shred, slice, and chop to find the best.

The Cuisinart Pro Custom 11 DLC-8S, priced at $144, can handle your chopping, shredding, grating, and slicing needs.

As for blenders, the Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System BN801, starting at $183, performed just as well in CR’s tests as some Vitamix models that cost hundreds more.

Besides getting a full-sized blender, one option is to opt for a blender food processor combo.

With that, you can do a variety of different things; you get the best of both worlds.

The Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004, starting at $50, is a combination food chopper and blender that isn’t going to purée as well as the full-sized blender; however, it offers impressive chopping and grating, starting at about fifty dollars.

Remember that frozen fruits and veggies help add variety year-round. 

Some options to consider now include beets, cauliflower, butternut squash, pears, and walnuts.

And just like that, you’ve lost every excuse not to eat your veggies!

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