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Love, Love, LOVE Watermelon

DrKim — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:12:00 +0000

Last year at this time, I was quite pregnant. Pregnant and hot. With no air conditioning as is common here, I got desperate. And in my desperation, I discovered my love for watermelon.

I’ve always liked watermelon, I mean, who doesn’t? If you actually know someone who doesn’t like watermelon, I want to know who it is.

When I was little we’d always have watermelon seed spitting contests to see who could spit the farthest. Funny thing, though, I can’t even find a watermelon with REAL seeds anymore. Only the seedless kind around here. Easier to eat, but no contests!

I thought that my watermelon craving was only due to my pregnancy. Apparently, I was wrong. Here it is, watermelon season again, and I JUST CAN’T STOP EATING WATERMELON!

My friend Diane posted this great idea: slice watermelon, cut out with cookie cutters, and freeze on a popsicle stick. I can’t wait to try it!

The good thing is that it’s good for me! Live, fresh fruit. I can’t go wrong. This article tells all about what’s so great nutritionally about it. And if you want to know why it’s actually a Pregnancy Superfood, check out my blog post on it from last year.

Good thing that it’s inexpensive. Unless you buy one of these square ones, sold in Japan, for $100.

Happy Summer!

Watermelon: A Pregnancy Super Food

DrKim — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:54:00 +0000

I love watermelon, I always have. Crunchy and refreshing, it’s the Perfect Snack For Summertime When You Don’t Have Air Conditioning In Your House. (That’s pretty common in Israel)

And I just found out some great news. Watermelon is not only delicious, it has special qualities which make it a great pregnancy food. Apparently, watermelon:

Eases Heartburn
Reduces Swelling
Helps Morning Sickness
Alleviates Dehydration
Contains Minerals That Help Third Trimester Muscle Cramps
Contains nutrients important for the development of baby’s brain, vision, nervous, immune systems, and more.

Is high in Lycopene, an antioxidant which increases the skin’s SPF (besides all the other great things that antioxidants do). Who doesn’t want that during the summer?
Lycopene also reduces the incidence of preeclampsia by 50%.

I’m enjoying my second bowl of the day right now. Eat up!

This information came from an article on FitPregnancy. Here’s a link to the full article:

http://tinyurl.com/kmzcd4

Apple Crisp

DrKim — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:21:00 +0000

Most evenings we don’t have dessert after dinner. But once a week, we have a special treat. This is one of our favorites, and although cooking the apples takes away most of their nutritional value, at least it’s not loaded with sugar or other processed ingredients.

APPLE CRISP
Adapted from The Occasional Vegetarian by Karen Lee

8-10 apples
¼ c honey (preferably raw)
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp whole wheat flour (preferably freshly ground)
Optional: heavy whipping cream for garnish

CRUMB TOPPING

1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup brown sugar or sucanat
½ cup butter (1 stick), softened
Zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Peel, core, and slice the apples into eighths. Toss the apple slices with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and flour.
3. Put the apple mixture into a 9-inch round baking dish with high sides.
4. Using your fingers, in a different bowl, make the topping by crumbling together the flour, sugar, and butter. Add the lemon zest.
5. Distribute the crumb topping over the apples. Bake until the topping is brown and crusty, about 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Optional: beat heavy whipping cream with electric egg beater until desired texture. If desired, add 2 tbsp sugar and ½ tsp vanilla before beating. Place a dollup on each plate before serving.