Five Fruit and Vegetable Servings a Day - DAY 2

Five Fruit Servings a Day – for 5 days!

And

Five Vegetable Servings a Day – for 5 days!

What is on the menu today at the house of Nottingham? Watermelon and Cauliflower!

Lets start with Watermelon. Another fruit that might have a bad rap but it’s also one of the tastiest fruits that is low calorie, lasts for ages and healthy!

Here’s the skinny on the calories and what makes up the calories:

For a single diced cup of watermelon :

There is .02 grams of fat (9 calories per gram of fat) = 1.8 calories of fat

There is .09 grams of protein (4 calories per gram of protein) = 3.6 calories of fat

There is .03 grams of carbohydrate (4 calories per gram of carbs ) = 44 calories of fat

**now the carb breakdown is:

****fiber 0.6 or 2.4 calories

****sugar 9 or 36 calories

******* I don’t know where the rest is, but probably lost in rounding down to make it look good. ;-)

Still we are looking at only 49.4 calories a cup of diced watermelon!

If we rounded up to 50 calories per cup of diced watermelon, you could have 10 cups a day for only 500 of your calories! Now I am not suggesting this make up your entire day of food, but heck if that isn’t a great hourly snack!!! And depending on what your daily calorie limit is, you might have anywhere from 700 calories to 1300 calories left to eat what you want!!!

So, why is watermelon so healthy? How about the fact that a watermelon has 20% of your daily needs of vitamin c PER CUP! So you are getting 200% of your vitamin C in those 10 cups I suggested! (ok… so the challenge is 5 servings a day! So…. Save 5 of those cups for tomorrow!!! Problem solved!)

Watermelon also appears to have more lycopene than tomatoes! Lycopene is one of those nutrients that is considered a super antioxidant! So YAY!

And some studies suggest its good at relieving sore muscles, lower blood pressure, and basically vessel health!

Oh and this is also a plus for me, if you have followed my posts, you might remember that more than once I have had to take back fruit to the store that ‘went bad’ way too fast. A thick skinned watermelon, whole, uncut, should last 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator and maybe even longer! Ask your grocer when you are picking up your watermelon! You know, since they are in season right now, I might just have to trade my love for cantaloupe for my new romance with watermelon!

Now let’s talk vegetable! --- I LOVE CAULIFLOWER!!! Hubs can take it or leave it, but I love it! I have a great recipe that is to die for but it’s also to put pounds on, so what is a girl on a diet to do to eat cauliflower not so plain?

First

Here’s the skinny on the calories and what makes up the calories:

For a single diced cup of cauliflower:

There is .0 grams of fat (9 calories per gram of fat) = 0 calories of fat (that was easy!)

There is 2 grams of protein (4 calories per gram of protein) = 8 calories of fat

There is 5 grams of carbohydrate (4 calories per gram of carbs ) = 20 calories of fat

**now the carb breakdown is:

****fiber 3 or 12 calories

****sugar 2 or 8 calories

For a total of 28 calories a cup!

Ok I love cauliflower – but not so much plain. I mean I will eat it fresh raw and plain, but I kinda prefer to dip it dressing – so watch out! Make sure you are counting the calories of that dressing and measure it out into a little dish or on your plate! Its easy to waste 200-300 calories on your ‘dipping’ sauce and turn a lovely healthy low calorie snack into a tearful morning scale number!

One thing I have noticed on my 7 month diet journey (did I mention I have lost 50 pounds?????) is that RAW – REAL – FOOD tastes better. I hardly eat any salt. I have hidden my salt shakers and use the salt in cheeses and dressing as my ‘salt’ now. I do watch my salt intake. I know the body needs salt but hey, it comes naturally in food! Cauliflower has 30mg of salt! And we only need 1200-1500mg a day … I think… that’s for you to look up, don’t take my word for it. I just know it’s way way WAY lower than I was eating! And water weight is not my friend! We do need some salt because we are made up of a lot of water and in the summer we might dry up like a worm on the sidewalk without it… still the North American diet has way too much in it. Salt deadens the taste buds. So, now, things taste better to me b/c I don’t eat so much salt. Interesting isn’t it.

Anyway, here is what I do with my cauliflower these days. I usually buy frozen flowerets. The bag I buy says it has 5 servings and nothing added (no butter or salt) I might thaw it in the microwave (or I might just cook it there!)

I have been known to chop it up + mix in some chopped onions + a tablespoon of pickle relish (don’t judge me until you try it) and add some egg whites (like a cup!) and make like a crust-less quiche. Baked in the oven in a dish that is in a dish of water like you might do a custard.

I also have gone another route with my cauliflower and thawed it, chopped it, and added taco seasoning (btw Mrs. Dash makes one – I do prefer McCormick – except the week before weigh out!!! You know b/c of the salt.) – so I sprinkle some (I put my seasoning packets into old clean sprinkle lidded spice jars) and sprinkle some shredded cheese (the sharper the better) maybe ¼ a cup? Not much – and I also might sprinkle some parmesan cheese on it (cause it’s a strong flavor and few calories)!

So there you have it. Today my food are watermelon + cauliflower + probably some egg whites + cheese + yogurt + meditarian vegie burger pattie + OH YOU GET THE PICTURE…. The challenge is to include 5 servings of fruits and vegetables into your day not ONLY EAT the 5 servings!!!! ;-) but do watch your calories! If you are in my game and reading this we only have this week to WIN this game!!! So watch those calories and watch the salt and get up and move!

Have an AWESOME day!