Eating an entire squash in one sitting can't be that bad for you right?

In similar news I've totally fallen in love with the idea of bento lunches. This is a totally random obsession, as I am not Japanese, nor do I really know anyone who is. But checking out the amazing looking lunches at http://www.cookingcute.com has encouraged me to try my hand. She has some truely strange fruits that I had never heard of before--but I'm off to an asian grocery store this weekend to try and find them!

It's out of print, but you can often find it at used book stores or the library. The book is alphabetical by fruits and then veggies. For each fruit or veggie, the authors explain the basic nutritional value, a little history of the food, how to tell if the fruit/veggie is ripe, and the common ways to prepare the item. They also explain when the item is in season, so you know when it might be cheaper to buy them. After the 2-3 page summary, they offer 3 or 4 more elaborate recipes for each item, but like I said, the basic summary explains how to clean, prepare and cook the fruit or veggie, so you can go basic or go fancy. I love it because I can find things at the produce store and then look up what the heck to do with them at home.

As for your Asian pears, they are known for being much more crunchy than Bartlett pears, so they are often used in salads. Asian pears with a little bit of mixed greens, a little cheese and some vinegarette is heavenly.

Glad to hear you are having so much fun exploring new fruits and veggies. I keep meaning to find the starfruit you mentioned so I can try it out.

Store-bought oranges are a fruit I have trouble with. For the most part, blech.

PQ--Even if it was a big batch of sweet potatoes, think of how good it was for you--all that fiber, all the vitamins! I know volume consumed is important, but as a baby binge food, you could do worse:-)

You can cook them just like regular potatoes. You can bake them in foil under the broiler. You can stab a fork in several times and microwave for 8 minutes give or take. Slice down the middle and add a little teeny bit of butter or margarine, whatever you use, a little teeny bit of brown sugar or splenda, and some pumkin pie spice.

You can peel and cut into chunks and boil. Mash and add some reserved cooking water or some milk, a little butter or margarine, brown sugar or splenda, and pumpking pie spice.

Easy, cheap and yummy.

The sweet potato, tho - man ... have you had it mashed yet, with chipotle peppers in adobo and a little laughing cow or butter? ooo la la - good in a whole nother way than the fries.

Best wishes to you :)

The baked fries are also delicious.

So, so, so good!

Continuing the weirdo theme, I don't like sweet stuff on my sweet potatoes. I just scrub them and bake them like regular potatoes, then split them in half and add a tiny dab of butter, salt, and LOTS of black pepper. That's my favorite way to highlight the perfumy sweetness of sweet potatoes.

For cauliflower, I've found that steaming, then serving drizzled with a tiny bit of butter melted in a pan with garlic is just heavenly. Lima beans are good warm (steamed or microwaved), with a basic olive oil vinaigrette. Beets are good as a replacement for about half the potatoes in your potato salad. And the way to make bitter greens is either in rice, with chicken stock, or else sauteed with olive oil and garlic. Grapefruit needs nothing at all to be delicious (the white ones have the most flavor), but if you really want to gild the lily you can broil it with brown sugar.

Yum.

Sometimes the best portion control occurs at the checkoutline.

Jicama! Have you tried Jicama. Peel, slice, eat raw, add to salad, etc. 5 ounces make a generous snack, 50 calories, 11 grams of carbs, of which 6 are fiber!

melons - cantaloupe, honeydew and the new sweet round watermelons. Peel whole, slice of a small part of each end, so the melon can stand on its own, then start from the top and slice down and around to remove the rind. Cut in half, scoop out the seed, turn over cut side down, and slice. . . delicious and only 10 calories an ounce.

acorn squash. . . follow Joyce's advice, only when you have scooped out the seed, put about 6 small chunks of pineapple (I use fresh, but canned will do) into the whole. Bake at 350 until the flesh is soft - about 45 minutes

Yummy and very simple.

If you have a big sweet potatoe, you can share it with a friend. :)

d

Can you stand one more way to prepare sweet potatoes? Peel and slice crosswise into rounds. Spritz with olive-oil cooking spray and sprinkle with fennel. Grill until tender. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

If you don't care for fennel, I think cinnamon would be a wonderful substitute.

I loved it.

Now, sweet potatoes have replaced regular potatoes in my diet nearly 100%. We even have a recipe for oven baked sweet potato french fries that is awesome.

Brian

I don't like sweet potatoes that much, but I love yams. Go figure.

Can you give us an example of your daily menu now that you are so close to goal? Do you eat snacks, dessert? Thanks!

And now I have a couple more yummy recipes. I didn't know you could make healthful "fries", and never thought of chili peppers in adobo with sweet potato! Woohoo!