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.