Fruit/Veg Challenge: Day 29/62: Heritage Purple Bean

When I saw these in the supermarket the other day I had to have them. Other than being purple, they looked like green beans. Not only that, but they were inexpensive so I figured I had nothing to lose. Boy was I wrong. When I cooked these this afternoon as I watched them boil I realized I was losing the purple for which I'd paid the better part of a dollar and two quarters. These beans were magically stealing my novelty away and leaving me with green beans. Granted, they tasted perfect. I cook green beans so rarely that I'd forgotten I enjoy their flavor, and this food challenge is a great reminder for things like this, but if you want your purple beans to stay purple, you may have to eat them raw vegan style.

Fruit/Veg Challenge Days 21-28: Summary

Before my memory fails me, here's my list for the last 8 days. 

21- Mission Olives - We had a pizza luncheon for Net 2011. It wasn't a great day for eating fruits and veggies for me and sadly this was what I came up with

22 - Jalapenos - Jalapeno bagels and Jalapeno dip. I had other veggies this day, but the challenge is variety so here it is.

23 - Cucumber - My boss made a great vegan cucumber salad for our work potluck. I know it had some spices and a little Veganaise.

24 - Spaghetti Squash - With the heat wave I was relieved to find out this is easily prepared in the microwave. Once cooked, the squash can be scraped with a fork and it comes out in the shape of noodles. I flavored mine with a little Braggs liquid amino and some cayenne pepper. The braggs is very similar to soy sauce but with a little more sodium with an assortment of amino acids that are supposed to be healthy. I used it sparingly because I'm still not OK with the idea of putting that much sodium into my food.

25 - White Onion - I'm really not a fan, but they ended up on my sandwich and I ate them raw.

26 - Romaine Lettuce - A Caesar salad turned out to be one of my best options for eating breakfast/lunch without breaking the bank at a semi-local restaurant (Niles, MI). I didn't like the idea of paying $8 for pancakes when I could get them in Berrien Springs for $3.

27 - Rhubarb - I asked a friend who likes to bake to make us a strawberry rhubarb pie. The rhubarb wasn't as tart as we had hoped for but it did come out pretty good.

28 - Snow Peas - Since I don't eat these often, I'll use them for yesterday. I'm sure I'll cross paths with them again in Thailand and I won't be able to claim them there now, but I'll take that risk.

62 Day Challenge Days 17-20: Ugli Fruit, Avocado, Carrot, Blackberry

So I finally got my Ugli* fruit back on Sunday and it was still edible. With 12 hours at work the timing could not have been better. I took a little break and scarfed it down. The fruit is a Jamaican hybrid between a grapefruit, an orange, and a tangerine. It's like one side of the fruit takes on the size of the grapefruit and the other side takes on the size of the orange, and it comes out distorted and ugly. The inside is like eating a seedless orange, but the fruit is very sweet. To me this one reminded me of the flavor of a peach or an apricot.

*Ugli fruit is a trademark of Cabel Hall Citrus Limited

I'm claiming avocado in its traditional southwestern form: guacamole. This was one of the ingredients in our haystacks on Monday night at our work summer party.

Yesterday I had carrots in an excellent vegan carrot raisin salad. I loved it because instead of adding sugar and whatever dairy is traditionally used, this salad had three simple ingredients, carrots, raisins, and pineapples. The pineapple added enough sweetness to it without adding a lot of junk. The only downside was that it was a little watery from the pineapple.

Today I had blackberries for the third or fourth time since the summer began. My love for blackberries goes back to when I spent a summer in Oregon as an adolescent and they were growing everywhere at the farm we stayed at. From what I remember, they were a lot cheaper then!

Day 16 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Artichoke

This artichoke was huge and just looking at it in the produce section was making my mouth water. I don't really remember eating a boiled artichoke in at least 10 years and possibly not since the early 90s when I was a teenager. Sure, I've chewed up plenty of artichoke hearts since then but this time I wanted to cook the whole thing. After church today my wife and I finally got around to boiling this monstrous artichoke in our biggest pot and we sat down together with the goal of finishing it together. While it looked like a monumental task, and my memories of artichoke eating involved spending long nights at the kitchen table slowly eating one scrape at a time, it seemed to go fast with the two of us scraping away and before we knew it we were ripping out the heart of the poor artichoke.

A common theme lately has been antioxidants, and among vegetables artichokes are #1 (but some fruits are better). One site credits artichokes with being able to regenerate liver tissue and slow the spread of cancer. Other listed benefits are common to most vegetables because the fiber content in vegetables helps with digestive health.

Day 15 of 62: My Fruit/Vegetable of the Day is Cherries

I've actually been chowing down on some cherries for about a week. It seems like you can munch on them for a couple of hours and still barely consume calories. I haven't managed to get a tummy ache yet and we're on our second large bag in the house. Each cherry is a little bit of a surprise because one might be sweet, another one tart, then the next one both sweet and tart. Cherries are one of the super antioxidant fruits and the cherry industry also promotes them as helpful for relieving pain from muscle soreness and arthritis by relieving inflammation. The next time my wife complains about stiffness in her neck I'll know that's my queue to go get her some cherries from the fridge.

Day 14 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Tuscan Cantaloupe

So, with 450 calories to spare toward the end of the day, I had already consumed plenty of fruits and veggies that I could have counted yesterday. I had been doing well on my diet and a McDonald's Sundae sure sounded like a refreshing idea that wouldn't break the calorie count for the day. Instead I went to the fridge, and by the time I would have been at the drive through window after getting ready, I had already consumed half of my sweet and juicy summer melon. Preparation was easier than deciding whether I wanted chocolate or caramel on my sundae, I about froze my teeth eating it, and the total calorie count came out to 100 calories. It also meant not adding a little more cholesterol into my body the night before a blood test that will show how I've been progressing in my cholesterol reduction goals. It probably cost a little more than the sundae (at least short-term) and was pretty satisfied with the substitution.

Days 12&13 of the Fruit/Veg Challenge: Beets and Napa Cabbage

My wife and I took some time to go out on a date night so I didn't slavishly update the blog, but never fear I am not defeated in my quest. Once again beets were up against another veggie, but this time I'm picking them over spinach since I'm sure I'll have spinach quite a few more times. We went out to a Greek restaurant in South Bend called Alexander's Grill. For our appetizer we got cold marinated beets and sadly they didn't have the wow factor like the cooked beets we had last week from Apple Valley. They were a little short on flavor but were still enjoyable, again they just didn't amaze us. I also had a classic Greek dish: spanikopita, spinach and feta with lemon juice cooked in filo.

This afternoon my wife made a wonderful Napa cabbage salad with an apple vinegar, ramen noodles, and roasted sesame seeds and almonds. I had three small bowls and loved it! The sesame seeds and almonds put a yummy crispy and sweet salad over the top. I'm so blessed with some of the things she makes.

Day 11 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Kale

Kale is a vegetable that survives in the wild by looking like something you don't want to eat. Even when it's removed from the ground and relocated to the supermarket, it still looks like something that you don't want to eat. Somehow my kale made it all the way to a restaurant that actually lets you look at your food before you eat it. It still managed to make it on my plate and into my stomach. I blame this fluke in odds on the very fact that I'm intentionally trying to eat different fruits and vegetables. So despite it's unappetizing appearance, it ended up on my plate because someone else had already done the work of cooking it for me and because it fit well into my plans of eating outside of my comfort zone. Then something odd happened, my wife ordered kale as well. I don't know what her excuse was but as with most foods that she orders, she ate what she wanted and saved the rest for me.

The nice thing was the kale was well-prepared and had a nice flavor to it. It seems to have been lightly sauteed in oil and rice vinegar. This helped overcome the slightly bitter flavor of the kale and even though it was cooked, it wasn't cooked to death. There was still plenty of crunch to it and it took a lot of chewing for each bite.I was pleasantly surprised and I'd enjoy eating kale again if it's prepared like this.

As far as nutritional value, kale is a superfood. While it grows in the ground snubbed and ignored for it's ugly look, it grows in nutrients while other plants get killed and eaten before they can get so many nutrients. In fact, it has so many nutrients that I can't talk about them all without plagerizing someone else. Here is a link for a good article about the nutritional value of kale on WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/the-truth-about-kale

Day 10 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Figs

So I found myself needing to make a grocery store run to see what caught my eye for the fruit/veg challenge today. Just as I was planning on eating something usual, I saw a package of figs out of the corner of my eye. I certainly don't go eating figs often and I've probably only eaten them raw a few times in my life.

When I got the chance I split the fig by hand and just ate the fruit and the seeds. I enjoyed the texture of the seeds popping in my mouth as I chewed. The only similar experience I could think of was when I tried some sushi with fish eggs. These particular figs weren't exciting as far as flavor goes and at over $5 for 7 figs I was a little dissapointed in the flavor and quality. My food diary is showing them at about 35 calories each. I just have the hope that there are many figs out there that will taste much better than these ones.

Day 9 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Watermelon

We had a church picnic in the park this afternoon and when I bit into this sweet melon I thought to myself, "What a melon!". I left the other fruit I was planning on having today at my friends' house but I had plenty of veggies at the picnic and a very sweet helping (or two) of this perfect melon. There isn't much more to say about it, and I'm looking forward to the second full week of the challenge which begins tomorrow.

Day 8 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Key Lime

I haven't had a lot of key lime yet today but I'm still hoping for the dessert we began working on before I had to leave for an appointment. The key limes are about the size of a ping pong ball and are one of two fruits I'll be having from the Carribean region this weekend.

For the sake of my challenge, I ate a whole key lime raw and I have to say it made my lips pucker and my face clench up. These things are sour! My friend and I picked up two bags with the idea of making a nice sorbet tonight and let me tell you, juicing two bags of key lime takes some time. They smelled wonderful and I'm hoping my wife will bring me a serving either to work or for when I get home.

Update: This is by far the most intense sorbet I've ever had. We also added some mint which brings out the intensity even more. My serving size was only 1/2 a cup and that seemed like a lot. Each bite was a blast of sour bitterness followed by the soothing relief of the sweetness of the condensed milk. Maybe we could have used half the lime juice since we were originally planning for two batches. I'm also thinking the greek yogurt we tried using wasn't the best choice as it adds sourness where sourness wasn't really needed. A smoother vanilla yogurt might have been better. We did discuss cream cheese as an option.

While this dessert might have a lot of high-calorie/questionable ingredients for a health challenge, I'm allowing for a little fun in the form of a dessert here and there and by it's nature this dish came with portion control!

If Fruits and Veggies Aren't Your Thing

My friend is starting to blog his meat challenge, which I poorly suggested since he was teasing me about my own blog. He hasn't posted yet but says he'll start tomorrow http://eatyomeat.blogspot.com His username is meatatarian :P

Day 7 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Canary Melon

Why have I never bought one of these bright yellow melons before? The canary melon also known as Juan Canary melon is a bright yellow melon that is slightly larger than honeydew and cantaloupe with a bright yellow "canary" skin.

I've had the melon sitting around for about a week because when I saw it I knew it would fit into my challenge of eating different fruits and veggies. If you can't tell from my opening line, I was clearly not disappointed with this melon.

I cut it in half and then into slices like a cantaloupe and then proceeded to eat all but two of the slices, and that's only because I decided to throw them away because the fruit on those pieces didn't look good. The parts I threw away sort of had a honeycomb look as if it had become dehydrated in that spot or something. The rest of the fruit was simply delectable. The inside looked like honeydew with a slightly darker color and the seeds just about slid off when I scraped them. The texture was incredible as the sweet fruit just about melted in my mouth. The flavor wasn't unlike cantaloupe but it was a bit sweeter.

The best news is this is early in the season and I might have a chance to eat a few more of them before they go away. They are also grown in the southern hemisphere so they might be a reminder of summer when we freeze over for the winter in Michigan.

Day 6 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Chayote Squash

As soon as I saw the chayote squash I knew I had to have it; I don't ever remember seeing one before and what could be more ideal for a food variety challenge than that? The squash is shaped like a pear but the skin is wrinkly like a crookneck squash and then some.

When opened, the inside has the color and texture of a granny smith apple. It can be eaten raw or cooked. We went with the recommendation of others and cooked it for a few minutes in order to maintain crispness. The recipe I found online involved slicing it into wide strips and cooking it in a little bit of olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne and lemon juice. The recipe actually called for vinegar and people recommended substituting lime juice instead. We didn't have limes handy so lemons worked. I also forgot to add a little sugar, which might have accentuated some of the other flavors but wasn't critical. One pleasant surprise was that when I handed my wife a small plate with the cooked squash on it she actually ate it all. I probably used a little too much lemon juice but she said it tasted fine. The cayenne pepper added a nice kick to it and I can still feel just a little tingling on my lips.

I'll skip the nutritional stuff today because we really need to get out of the house and do something.

Day 5 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Eggplant

We had to go out for a late lunch today and decided to stop at the deli at Apple Valley. It's an option I enjoy because the store doesn't sell meat at all to my knowledge and the deli seperates vegan offerings from vegetarian ones. I am not vegan but I like having the choices which are usually at least a little healthier. We went with a vegan rice dish, some vegan spinich dip and pita bread, cooked beets and an eggplant curry. Well, that seems like a lot of food but don't worry we only ate a reasonable portion. I'm saved the rest for later which turned out to be a blessing since my attempt to stop at the drive-through restaurant fifteen minutes before work was clearly not happening with six or seven cars waiting.

So my choices to claim for the day were spinach dip, which I used too sparingly to really say I'd had a serving of spinach; eggplant or beets. Both of the dishes were quite good and I'm picking eggplant because the eggplant often takes a bit of preparation and they seem to have beets available more often than eggplant.

The curry had eggplant, potatoes, some bell peppers and a small amount of Fri-Chik (which made it the one non-vegan thing I ate today). It was a light curry with a bit of sweetness to it. My wife said she wished it had a stronger curry flavor but they probably have to go easy to keep their less adventurous customers happy.

Here are some interesting facts from Wikipedia about eggplant. The plant originated in India (making eggplant curry quite appropriate), comes from nightshade plants, and is botanically classified as a berry. It is also related to tobacco and contains trace amounts of nicotene. Don't worry though, it would take 20 pounds of eggplant to get the nicotine contained in one cigarette. One last bit of trivia: my grandmother tried every way she could think of to sneak eggplant into my father's diet and it continues to be one of his least favorite foods to this very day.

Eggplant contains histamines and may cause some symptoms to people who get hay fever. I wonder if that's why I had to sneeze a few times while we were eating it.

Day 4 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Strawberry

Today is one of those less exotic days in the fruit and vegetable journey. My work and sleep schedules didn't allow for anything fancy, but I did have a chance to go out with my wife to breakfast. We went to Sophia's in Benton Harbor, Michigan and I was dreading the temptations I'd be facing. I was worried that if I got fruit on top of my pancakes that it would be drenched in sugar, but for the lack of better choices I asked for just two pancakes with strawberries.

I was pleasantly surprised when the pancakes came out unbuttered, with just a sprinkle of powdered sugar and the strawberries were in a bowl freshly sliced without any syrup. I dumped the berries on top of the pancake and left the butter and the syrup on the side of the table and dug in. The berries were tart and not overripe. I didn't ask for whole-grain pancakes or anything but two should be plenty for anyone and portion control is often easy to forget when dining out.

Strawberries are one of the best sources of antioxidants available, especially when considered by volume consumed. As far as fruits grown in the U.S. go, only blackberries, raspberries, and cranberries have more antioxidants.

I found this page on strawberries quite interesting for more trivial/nutritional info: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=32

Day 3 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is Tuna!?!

So, it sounds like I'm already stretching the definition of fruit or vegetable on day three. Well, I am slowly eating red and green tuna as we speak and there's nothing fishy about it. Spanish speakers often call it tuna, and in the store it was called a cactus pear, and the most common name seems to be prickly pear, which is the fruit of a cactus plant.

While reading up on this fruit I decided to use gloves to open it for two reasons. There can be tiny cactus spines that get stuck in the skin and cause serious irritation and with the red fruit it is quite easy to stain anything that comes in contact with the inside; I may never be able to use this paper plate or plastic fork again because of the stains.

The prickly pears are egg-shaped and about the size of my fist. The skins are lime green and pomegranate red respectively and I can see from google that they come in other colors as well. To prepare them I put my gloves on and cut the fruit in half lengthwise then peeled the skin off and discarded it. The green one has the shade of the inside of a watermelon rind and the texture and taste remind me of watermelon as well, but with a lot more seeds, which have the size and firmness of grape seeds. Some of them are brown and visible and some of them blend in with the fruit. I'm even getting seeds just by scraping the fruit with the edge of my front teeth to get a little taste of the fruit. The inside of the red prickly pear has a deep purplish-red color like a sugar beet. The texture and seeds are similar but the taste has a little something different. Neither one are overpowering in flavor and I think it would take a long time to finish eating them in the house. I think my plan will be to go outside to finish them where I can spit the seeds. This may be why the fruit is readily available throughout many continents; it may rely on its seeds being spit out all over the globe as we learn that it's really too much work to eat it. Humans have responded by eating other parts of the cactus as well. In Mexican cuisine nopales, the paddle shaped part of the cactus, is used in many different ways.

The fruit is rich in vitamin C, fiber, and magnesium (fiber seems to be a trend but I think that's half the point of eating all these fruits and vegetables. One sight recommends it for weight loss, possibly because you burn more calories than you take in as you work your way around all the blasted seeds. The greatest allergy risk is of course from the bristles which may cause dermatitis (which is only a generic term for inflammation of the skin). And of course I'll leave further research up to you and just like yesterday, here's a link to get you started in case you don't know how to use Google on your own.

Now I'm off to make a mess of my yard and to risk a cactus outbreak in my neighborhood from a plant that's actually become a pest species in Australia. But why not? We already have rabbits.

Day 2 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is a AsParagus

Today my wife and I shared whole wheat spaghetti with boiled asparagus and lightly sauteed red bell peppers flavored with garlic and some cheap non-alcoholic cabernet sauvignon that we didn't care to drink on its own. I guess we're not going to be wine snobs, not even of the non-alcoholic variety. The asparagus was hand snapped and boiled in the same water as the pasta since we have horrible pipes and have to get our cooking water from the grocery store. As I was cutting the red bell pepper into little squares my wife looked at me and said "Give me the knife". She cut the last bit into much larger pieces and through it all in the pot with the olive oil and garlic. It all came out wonderfully. The savory flavors of the whole wheat pasta, the asparagus, and even the pungent wine blended together perfectly with the sweetness from the bell pepper and the garlic helping to lighten the dish up.

Choosing a whole-wheat spaghetti increases the fiber content drastically for more complex carbohydrates and brings more flavor to this dish. Asparagus is also a good source of fiber and is rich in antioxidants, folate and Vitamin K and low on calories. Many of the sites I researched mentioned asparagus was good for strengthening blood vessels. Asparagus allergies can occur and most frequently happen when eaten raw or when handled. Asparagus allergies are in the same family as onion and garlic allergies. Asparagus also has some other minor side effects that will just give a sense that you've consumed asparagus in the recent past.

Since I'm doing this all for fun and for my own interest, I'm not citing sources or treating my google/wikipedia research in an academic way. Here is a link to get you started if you want to research further on your own.

We both ended up eating about two small plate-fulls of the dish for lunch and the calories estimate from the ingredients was about 530 based on my wife's estimate that she used 2 tbsp of olive oil for the dish. This is a few less calories than a Crunchwrap Supreme from Taco Bell and that's after having seconds.

Link for Ideas on Fruit/Veg Variety

Here is a link from a friend on Facebook with well over 100 possibilities (she counted in the 120+ range)

http://localfoods.about.com/od/searchbyregion/a/CAFruitsVeggies.htm

Day 1 of 62: My Fruit/Veg of the Day is a Mango

I've been craving mango for a week, but it seems that store bought mangoes like to play hard to eat. I was sitting in the lobby of Apple Valley, our local supermarket, all day last Friday. We were selling Buddy Poppies to raise funds for our local veterans relief fund for the VFW (shameless plug for a good cause). Apple Valley was having their quarterly produce sale and the store was packed. All day I stared at the flyer which beckoned me to by mangoes for 68 cents a pound. I called our post quartermaster to make sure I had a little time to buy some produce before the store closed and picked a couple of mangoes out that looked like they had potential.

When I showed my prized mangoes to my lovely wife and offered to share with her, she told me what I already knew, "These mangoes aren't ready to eat yet. They're too hard." Accepting temporary defeat, I placed them in our cupboards where they've been tormenting me and our unwanted guest fruit flies ever since.

So this morning with the excitement of a new month and a new challenge my patience has paid off. For breakfast I'm eating Bob's Red Mill 7-grain hot cereal with mango added. The full, grainy flavors of the cereal need a little something to keep it from becoming a chore to eat and I've found I enjoy the cereal more with added fruit. This is my first time trying mango with the cereal and I can definitely say there is a lot going on with my taste buds. The mango adds both sweetness and a pleasant tartness at times to the cereal. I wasn't convinced on my first bite that this was a successful combination, but as I am finishing up my bowl I'm pleased with the results.

When adding fruit to a hot cereal, cook the cereal as recommended and simply add the fruit after the first minute of boiling the cereal. For the mango, I wasn't worried about cutting it into neat little pieces. I sliced the mango in half lengthwise then scooped the fruit out from the side that didn't end up with the pit into a cereal bowl. I poured the fruit into the cooking cereal at the right time and then squeezed the skin over the cooking cereal to get some of the juice in.

Recipe:
3 cups of water
1 cup of Bob's Red Mill 7-grain cereal
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of mango

The container says it makes four servings at 140 calories before the mango is added but I found my real serving size was double that. A whole medium mango has about 130 calories. I used half a mango for the cereal and ate about half of what I prepared, so the mango portion of my cereal would be 30-35 calories with a total of about 315 calories for my serving. Of course I can't let the mango go to waste so I'm finishing up what's left and adding another 65 calories to my breakfast for a total of 370 calories. I could still eat another mango or a piece of toast and be on target for a calorie consumption of 1500-1800 calories for the day.

Whole grain cereals are great breakfast choices for digestive health and cholesterol reduction. My fiber intake from this breakfast was incredible, with 12 grams from the cereal and another 3 from the 3/4 of a mango.The meal gets its calories from carbohydrates but the cereal itself is very low on sugars at 1g per serving. The mango contains high amounts of natural sugars with about 31g of sugar in an average sized mango. The mango is high in vitamin C and B6 and a bit of calcium.

Food allergy information: The 6-grain cereal is processed in a facility that uses tree nuts, soy, wheat, and milk. Some people may have adverse reaction to mango because the peel and sap of the mango contains urushiol, which is the same substance that causes reactions from poison oak and poison ivy. The quantity of this chemical is lower in mango and it may take a few hours for signs of reaction to show.

The 62-day Fruit and Vegetable Challenge Begins

As the little rabbit rabbit heralds in the new month, a few people with the goal of having fun and making healthy eating choices have endeavored to embark on a new challenge. The goal: eat a different fruit or vegetable every day for the 62 days of July and August.

I'll be leading the challenge with some suggestions and ideas. Each day participants should eat their fruit or vegetable of the day and claim it on their list. Eating the same fruit or vegetable on any other day doesn't negate it from being included on the list, but each fruit/vegetable can only be claimed once during the challenge. Ideas and suggestions will be sent out a few days before a week begins and are provided to keep things fun; missing a day or a suggestion shouldn't discourage participants from continuing with the challenge.

Weeks begin as weeks should begin: every Sunday. As the challenge begins on Friday, days one and two are kickoff days with the following suggestions:

a. fruit with breakfast
b. Share a veggie dish with a friend.

Week 1 ideas/suggestions:
1a. Buy and eat local produce. Visit a farmers market or a fruit stand.
1b. a red fruit/veg
1c. a fruit or vegetable that has pointy things on it
1d. a melon
1e. a fruit/veg you haven't had in at least a month
1f. a creative salad
1g. Share a pie with a friend.