What's On Your Plate?

 What's on Your Plate?  This year, the experts at the USDA who decide what makes a healthy diet, dumped the old food pyramid and introduced the fresh "MyPlate" as the guideline for Americans to use in planning healthy meals.
Visit Choose MyPlate.gov
This fresh approach  is simple to understand and remember. Basically, one half of your dinner plate should be fruits and vegetables (and you know I recommend favoring the veggies), 1/4 protein, and 1/4 whole grain.
With a serving of low-fat dairy on the side.
Here's what the graphic looks like:

And here's how it looks in practice, on my dinner plate:

 On my plate are roasted squash and potatoes, green salad with more vegetables and feta cheese, 4 ounces of grilled salmon with a mango and tomato salsa. I had a whole grain roll on the side.

With fresh vegetables in-season and plentiful now, you can fix many vegetable-rich dinners for very little expense.

Another night, I opted to eat meat-less, and chose beans for my protein:

For this dinner, I had a salad, steamed veggies, and black beans and Parmesan cheese mixed with whole brown rice.  Broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, avocado, tomato, green pepper and mushrooms - 7 different vegetables! The variations for this kind of dinner are endless and best of all: it's low-calorie and takes under 25 minutes to prepare.

So if you are wondering how to feed your family in a way that's healthy and meets the recommended daily nutritional requirements, check out the simple recommendations on http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ --then head to your garden or local farmer's market for the veggies to fill at least half your plate. And let us know -- what's on your plate?