Orange Vanilla Honey Fruit Salad…Get up and Grow with Dole

Now that berries are back in season, fruit salad is going to be a mainstay in our house.

I love having fruit prepped and ready to eat – it makes grabbing a healthy snack so much easier!

One easy way to make your fruit salad even better is to add a little bit of extra flavor that will also help keep the fruit looking great. This is definitely important if you’re using bananas or apples because you don’t want them to turn brown.

And lucky for me, I’m working with the right company this year! Dole is one of the companies I am proud to be working with, so stay tuned this the summer and fall for lots of fresh goodies!

This variation on fruit salad is full of Dole strawberries, blueberries, and bananas, plus an orange for a little citrus punch. I also squeezed out all the extra fresh juice from the orange core and mixed it with a little bit of honey and vanilla to dress the salad with. There’s not so much honey that it overpowers the fruit, leaving you with a fresh, light fruity treat!

Dole’s Get Up and Grow Tour!

Dole is convinced that the secret to a happier, healthier world is increased fruit and vegetable consumption so it is hitting the road this summer to directly challenge North Americans to make healthy eating their #1 priority!

After spending the past few summers sampling recipes and working with retailers to show what’s possible, they are turning up the volume in 2015 with the largest North American tour in its history and a first-ever customizable healthy-living pledge that rewards participants with various wellness incentives including Fitbits^®, DOLE^® produce and the chance to win a six-day health-makeover getaway to California.

Kicking-off in Dallas, New Orleans and Pittsburgh, the Get Up and Grow! North American Tour brings an expanded version of Dole’s popular mobile fruit and vegetable feast and nutritional celebration to 480 supermarkets and special events spread across 45 cities in 25 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces through September. The 115-day, 11,700-mile journey represents a joint effort between Dole Fresh Fruit of Westlake Village, Calif., Dole Fresh Vegetables of Monterey, Calif., and the Kannapolis, N.C.-based Dole Nutrition Institute (DNI), and is co-sponsored by Blue Diamond Almond Breeze^®.

Multiple colorful Get Up and Grow! Tour caravans with rolling kitchens will deliver innovative new recipes, product samples, a do-it-yourself smoothie bar, free giveaways for the whole family and other activities specifically created to showcase the fun, flavor and preparation possibilities of fresh fruit and vegetables and a plant-based diet. Visitors can also present a grocery receipt showing a qualifying level of DOLE^® fresh purchase to receive a limited-edition, commemorative Get Up and Grow! item.

The new recipes available for sampling range from the Banana and Blue, Breakfast Smoothie, Power Punch Smoothie and Spinach-Avocado Hummus to the Grilled Banana Parfait, Southwestern Gazpacho, Caesar’s Bounty Salad and Charred Summer Salad, which Dole has proclaimed 2015’s “Official Salad of Summer.”

Jenn LaVardera, Dole’s registered dietitian and the nutrition and health communicator for DNI, is heading up the Tour from a nutrition education perspective, and is attending a number of the Tour stops. She helped create the exclusive Get Up and Grow! scorecard being distributed to participants to help them track their summer eating.

“With Get Up and Grow!, we’re going beyond past Dole tours to directly challenge the public to adopt a healthier daily routine including eating more fresh fruits and vegetables,” said LaVardera. “Our role as nutrition leader comes with an obligation to inspire North Americans to set their own personal diet, fitness or other goals – and then provide the recipes, resources and motivation to help them reach those milestones.”

The new Get Up and Grow! Pledge is an interactive online exercise that allows visitors to create their personal Get Up and Grow! page where they can commit to living healthier in 2015, eating more fruits and vegetables and setting their own health and happiness goals. Those who return to their page to track their goals throughout the year will have the chance to receive free Fitbits, DOLE fresh fruits, vegetables and salads, and other rewards.

All pledge-takers will automatically receive a regular stream of health and nutrition tips from DNI while one lucky participant will be rewarded with a wellness getaway to the California Health & Longevity Institute at the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village combining medical, nutrition, fitness and life balance instruction, and spa services.

Most-ever U.S. and Canadian Tour Stops

Due to increased demand by retailers who participated in past Dole programs, the Get Up and Grow! Tour has been expanded to three regional caravans in the U.S. plus a separate ongoing effort in Canada – representing the most far-reaching Tour in the company’s history. A full Tour schedule is available at www.dole.com/getupandgrow.

The Eastern Tour departs from Pittsburgh and visits Carlisle, Pa.; Baltimore; Edison, N.J.; Morristown, N.J.; New York City, Boston; Albany, N.Y.; Rochester, N.Y.; Charlotte, N.C.; Greenville, N.C.; South Georgia; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Miami.

The Central Tour leaves New Orleans; Indianola, Miss.; Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Cleveland; Detroit; Grand Rapids, Mich.; St. Louis; Springfield, Mo.; Kansas City, Mo.; Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis; Omaha, Neb.; and Lincoln, Neb.

The Western Tour leaves Dallas and visits Houston; San Antonio; Phoenix; Los Angeles; Berkeley, Calif.; Sacramento, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Spokane Wash.; Boise, Idaho; and Salt Lake City.

The Tour also visits Vancouver, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and the Maritime Provinces.

As mentioned, this post is sponsored by Dole.  All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always. Thank you for supporting brands that support us!