My O My Papaya

My O My Puh-PIE-ya !

We did it!!! I am embarrassed to admit we have bought at least four papayas that sit on top of our fridge or in our fridge and ALL of them went uneaten :(  But this week we committed ourselves to trying fresh papaya and the verdict is - eh!  It wasn't bad but I don't need to rush out and buy more today. 

I wanted to like this fruit - a lot!  First off say the word - papaya (puh-PIE-ya).  Isn't that fun?  And the fruit looks fun.  Its kind of big, not watermelon big - but good size.  It starts off a pretty green - think watermelon green.  And then you cut into this fruit and it has the coolest looking seeds inside.  They are perfectly singular and look like squishy BBs.  Their black color stands out very distinctively from the mellow salmon color background.  I have heard great things about these seeds - WHEN dried out.  They take on a peppery flavor that goes great with sweet dishes or a good rub for meat.  So I've been told.  But as a word of warning that must be their flavor when they're dry.  My experience as they were fresh from the newly sliced papaya was that they tasted like a squishy bitter caper - tangy with a nail polish remover bitter aftertaste.  Not all that yummy - to me at least.  And perhaps the size of a papaya made me reminisce about tough produce to slice in half or peel (Turban squash, anyone?).  This was not the case as my knife slid through very easily and the peeler slid smoothly removing the peel from around the fruit.

My initial taste of the papaya was mushrooms.  Now I admitted to my husband what I am admitting to you.  I might have picked up on the taste of what was cooking in our kitchen as I was disecting and investigating our new fruit of the week. In our kitchen cooking was the fixings for steak fajitas with red bell pepper, onions, sirloin tip, and nice thick portabella mushrooms.  YUM is the right word for this.  So there is a tasty aroma floating around me that at first covered up the mild flavor of the papaya.  Because I love mushrooms but a fruit the color of papaya shouldn't taste like them.  After a new consensus between both mine and my husband's palette we agreed the fruit tasted more like a cantaloupe.  This made more sense in my mind.  What would you do with a papaya?

We saw great recipes online - some cooking, some raw, but honestly we tended to be missing out on key ingredients.  For instance in a few recipes I found the ingredient - jaggery.  Ummm I have no idea what this is.  So with my line of logic I had to assume we did not have any jaggery in the house.  There were great tropical salads, and dessert goods, and more salads (lots of salads!) but a lot wanted to include fresh coconut and other tropical goodies that again aren't in our house as I looked up the recipe.  And as we were less than an hour away from dinner I was trying to keep ingredients local like within my own kitchen local :)  I decided to go the blender route.

Again I should stress I am not really a cook nor a chef nor a person with kitchen talent.  Another reason I married my fabulous hubby who keeps me from losing my way and keeps my tummy full.  He is great in a kitchen (So great I really would love for him to become a professional chef - but then he probably wouldn't want to cook for me and our son as that is what he would do all day at work- which means cereal anyone? :) 

So after that tangent you are probably thinking anyone can use a blender.  Oh how I chortle in your general direction.  My blender and I have had several catastrophic messes.  And I may have used the wrong part here or there.  So as I am assembling our three piece blender (base, container with blade attached, and top) I did ask my husband at least twice if I was putting it together right.  A lot of our time together is having this exact conversation -

He laughs a big laugh.  I ask "What?" His response always includes a shaking of the head and the one-word response "You".  I still to this day don't really understand how his response answers my question.  But I chuckle for the conclusion and we carry on with our activity.

So now I have the blender together.  We are missing a key ingredient pineapple.  There are only four ingredients and we are missing one.  But we forge ahead.  We toss in our peeled papayas in small chunks and two diced bananas and a dash of milk.  This was okay as a smoothie kind of drink but lacked a little bite.  Bananas and papayas were both mild flavors and then so is milk.  We added about eight - ten strawberries with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  The strawberries added a touch of sweetness and sour and the hopes were that the cinnamon would add a little warmth.  Still not quite the taste we were looking for so we added two capfuls of lemon juice to bring out a bit of the bite and a bit more milk to smooth out the texture.  It was okay.  I would like to try it with coconut milk and pineapple next time to give it more the tropical flavor and also maybe yogurt to give it a smoother consistency.

But the big news is my o my we ate papaya :)  It is always fun to spend time in the kitchen and tackle the new produce item.  Because there is nothing like learning about food firsthand.  Don't be afraid to try new flavors - new techniques - at worse you may not eat your five dollar purchase.  But will definitely learn your money's worth about what works and what doesn't for your palette and possibly your self esteem :)  Its one thing to read a recipe, see a cooking show, but nothing like getting your hands dirty, giving it the ol' college try, and hopefully having fun!

May your HealthFULL journey offer you wisdom and laughter through experience, attempts, and successful endeavors. 'Til we meet again. . .   

Pearly Vine

We just had a wonderful family vacation.  And I could have made healthier choices but opted for indulgence.  In the moment indulgence is divine - but the aftermath not as fun.  I feel overstuffed, overcrowded, and out of sorts.  But when one is in New Orleans there are many yummy temptations and I tended to fall for everyone.  However we are back home and back on the healthfull track!!! Routines, familiar ground, and cozy comforts are within easy reach!  Our first matter of business was to have healthy produce at the ready which also meant produce of the week!  We spent the afternoon shopping after my son and I had a sleep in morning do to our vacation colds - BOO!  One of our quick purchases of today was pearl tomatoes on the vine from Trader Joe's. (love this place!!!)  For supper my husband baked a beautiful salmon, with roasted brussel sprouts (my fave - honest to goodness one of the best finds of our new produce of the week - definitely a staple around here!!!) and dirty rice.  I am not the biggest fan of dirty rice.  I enjoy it but feel it really doesn't satisfy me as an entree and rarely can think of a good meal where it can play side dish.  Tonight's dinner worked.  And to sweeten up dirty rice which texturally can be a little heavy and "dark" tasting.  I chose to just dice up the tomatoes real quick and threw one into my rice and delicious.  It added a sweetness and a bright note to the heavy side dish.  This is a great find for me.  Because I have an odd palate when it comes to tomatoes.  I like tomato based sauces but not a fan of just the tomato (unless of course it is Bob the Tomato from Veggie Tales in that instance - HUGE FAN!!!) .  I find a lot of tomatoes to be sour, sometimes bitter.  I like them as thin slices on a burger or the sweet little bombs in a salad.  But salsa, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and of course ketchup - delicious!  There are just few tomatoes though that taste yummy out of the gate for me.  These pearl tomatoes on the vine were a great note to the supper.  They added a touch of sweetness, a dash of sour, and just lifted the heavy side dish. 

Also it is nice to add a fruit/vegetable to the mix without too much fuss.  That's when it becomes difficult to broaden our tastes.  If the healthy alternative costs too much, requires too much effort, or just tastes nasty we let the excuses and the negativity turn us off and choose the familiar junk food because its cheap, easy, and we have convinced ourself tasty (which if you turn off the tv, close your eyes and really focus on the choices we eat - you will be shocked how little you like most of those comfort choices.  I have been - (but still am guily of reaching for these items out of simple familiarity)!
However I try to focus on the positive.  I may stall out.  I sometimes even take three steps backward.  But I remind myself every moment I can do better.  If I lose my footing and trail three steps - I need to try to push myself forward at least four steps and take no less than three.  Little by little as the Little Engine that could proved I think I can I think I can eventually will turn into I did it -  I did it!!!

So lets crush these tomatoes and improve our health together.  Don't let the vines tangle you but carry you closer to your goals.  May your HealthFULL journey be full of pearls of wisdom, precious gems, and the occasional irritant that turns beautiful with a little extra effort. 'Til we meet again. . .

O' Honey Honey

Oh Honey no go on the mango!  Our fruit of the week was the Honey Mango.  I thought I liked the flavor mango.  However, I realized tonight I do not really enjoy a mango by itself.  When mango is mixed in with other flavors I enjoy its tangy factor.  But by itself I find the mango flavor a little sickening - a bit like an overripe peach.  It has an overt sweetness with a tanginess.  Not really sour, but even thinking about it makes me scrape my tongue against my teeth in attempts of ridding myself of the flavor. 

Our plan was to eat the mango raw mixed into a fruit salad of strawberries, cantaloupe, and possibly a banana - kind of a tropical fruit sensation.  We figured this would pair well with our spinach and bacon quiche, possible asparagus puffs, and then the fruit. However, plans changed.  We still had the quiche which was delicious!  No asparagus puffs because I ran out of time to try out a new recipe that required effort and/or time.  So we substituted roasted brussel sprouts - one of my favorites.  Probably my favorite new produce of the week find - they have such a wonderful nuttiness, with a bit of earthy quality and they are so cute!!! Little cabbages that roast so tastily!  Also our fruit salad went through a major upheaval.  The cantaloupe was too ripe.  It was a bit mushy in texture for a melon.  Then we didn't even think to cut up the banana and my husband after two bites of trying the mango said he was done.  I offered him my incredible mixture of small toasts covered with a thin layer of cream cheese, sliced strawberries, diced avocado, and mango chunks.  Together it was a pretty good combination.  Again it was the combination factor not the yumminess of mango.  I wouldn't say I will crave this creation a lot in the future.  I did find the visual attractive, especially if you are going for a traffic light theme (red yellow and green).  But most likely in the future I will leave the honey mango on the shelf.  I am proud of us stepping out of the comfort zone but not all of our choices get to be winners!  Sometimes they are just an experience that leaves us wiser.

May your HealthFULL Journey include lessons, experiences, and enjoyment.  May every day be an adventure to appreciate all that is around you and inspire the willingness to keep learning new things.
'Til we meet again. . .

Nothing Like a Sweet Date

Oh have I got a fancy snack for you when you are looking forward to a romantic nibble.  Or just a snack that will impress your friends. It can be a bit pricey but oh so worth it.  Have you ever tried a fresh date?  They are delicious pieces of fruit, especially if you have a sweet tooth.  And once you take a bite you'll have a hard time believing these little treasures actually have a lot of health benefits. 

First what is a date?  They are fruits from certain palm trees that look like an oversized raisin with some plumpness.  At least the Medjool kind do.  The dates tend to run a bit expensive.  I usually have found them close to eight dollars for a pound or a little over a pound (Roughly thirty - forty dates).  However, on one of shopping trips in search of our new produce we found I believe the package is 18 oz for 4.99.  Well for that price we had to try these sweet jewels.  Yum! 

Now  a lot of sites on the web recommended eating them raw.  As long as you remove the pit.  You can keep the dates in a cupboard but if you store them in your fridge they last quite a bit longer.  Don't be scared of depitting these fruits.  Just start to  slit the tip as if you were slicing lengthwise.  But just starting to slice.  And you can open the slit far enough to slip out the pit.  The pit looks like a piece of a pecan.  Don't be tempted to taste it though.  They are inedible.  Most recipes recommending slipping in a nut or a cheese.  As dates are awfully sweet it is good to have a salty component.  Also dates by themselves contain NO sodium.  So if you  like your snacks to have some salt you'll have to add that component. 

However, being it was New Year's Day yesterday and our favorite team was playing we opted for a fancier snack.  Since you already have to remove the pit, you might as well stuff the date.   We bought some Brie cheese. Just a little dab into each date.  Then we chose to wrap the dates with a little prosciutto. Oh so good!  Prosciutto is an Italian ham. But not just deli ham.  There is a special process of curing/drying meat depending on the region and the slices are usually pretty delicate we have found.  Just a little bit of that rich fattiness to cover this sweet date filled with a smooth delicate cheese.  Italy meets the tropics meets France; what a beautiful world.  We put them in the oven on 375 degree F for roughly fifteen minutes.  This allowed the date to gooey its sweetness and allowed the meat to release its saltiness and the cheese to soften.  So delicious for a romantic game snack.  I liked the warmth to allow the flavors to blend and to soften the date.  Just handling the date to pit them you can feel the stickiness.  By wrapping the date, the sweet wasn't overpowering and yet had a luxurious texture. 

Some great benefits of the date include extremely small amounts of fat, obviously no cholesterol, some protein and yes it is mainly carbohydrates but a lot of that is fiber.  Because of other vitamins and minerals it includes dates are actually low on the glycemic index as they help regulate blood sugar.  So for those out there who have a sweet tooth but are worried about blood sugars this might be a snack to try,  especially if you stuff the date fruit with a nut.  Also a date is a good source of potassium, calcium, iron, and copper. (See http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/dates.html and http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/natural-foods/natural-weight-loss-food-dates-ga.htm for more nutritional information.)

This was definitely a thumbs up pick for my hubby and me.  I have a sweet tooth and I was a little worried for how sweet the fruit may be.  But with the way we prepared it, even my hubby who prefers spicy or salty over sweet enjoyed this find. 

May your HealthFULL Journey include fun discoveries and moments worth repeating. 'Til we meet again. . .