Having trouble getting healthy food into your dinners? Here are a few tricks to amp up the nutritional value of your meals.

Vegify it
Pureed veggies can be folded into just about anything -- soup, pasta sauce, mashed potatoes. You’ll barely even notice they’re there.

Switch up your carbs
Try replacing your white rice with couscous or quinoa. Both taste especially good with other nutrient-rich goodies like cashews, raisins, and other nuts and dried fruits. If you’re baking, swap in whole-grain flour for your regular white flour.

Bring on the beans
Pureed beans can be worked into just about everything veggies can be. You can also use beans as a spread -- mash ’em up, add some spices and olive oil, and then spread on sandwiches or crackers.

Sprinkle it on
Ground seeds and nuts are great for shaking onto your cereal, yogurt, ice cream or even popcorn. Think flaxseed, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, almonds and walnuts. You can also use any of these as a topping on muffins or cakes.

Nestpert: Jacque Mular, MS, RD and MA in psychology

-- Paula Kashtan