Gooooood morning!! :)

How are you today? I hope your week has been lovely so far. I’ve got a busy day ahead helping out with a recruitment event at work and teaching 2 spin classes, but before all of that happens, let’s get to the recap of all new things tried this Tuesday!

1. Recipe of the Week. Even though the weather isn’t getting any warmer, I’ve been finding myself eating more raw fruits and veggies lately. Winter usually has me craving warm, cooked foods, but last week I made a delicious quinoa creation that I’ve made twice since.

You’re looking at Pack-It-In Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, a combo of quinoa, veggies, and edamame in a blood orange vinaigrette. In addition to being delicious, this dish on its own provides over 100% of your recommended vitamin A and C intake. Perfect if you’re suffering from a winter cold!


Although these peppers contain 2 protein sources (edamame and quinoa), I understand that there are many men who won’t eat a meal without meat. If this is the case in your household, I’d recommend adding in cooked shredded chicken before adding the dressing to the mix. But really, they’re just fine without chicken too!

2. A mangosteen. I’ve found another piece of exotic produce! This time, it’s a mangosteen, and I’ll admit I had to look at the sign in Whole Foods to figure out what it was. After googling it, I learned that this fruit is in no way related to a mango in taste, texture, or appearance. It originated in Malaysia, and other warm countries like India, Thailand and Indonesia also grow this fruit. In the western hemisphere, they come mainly from Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

They also have a really cute butt!

I read that in order to eat it, all you need to do is crush the outer shell with your hand and you’ll find a white piece of fruit inside. Its supposed to look like a piece of garlic that separates in segments. Sounded easy enough…..

How the heck is my palm supposed to crack into that??? As you may have guessed, I broke out a knife for this job.

When I finally managed to chip away enough of the rind (which seemed kind of waxy), I found this:

The fruit did come apart in segments, and just like I’d read, there was one significantly larger segment that contained a bitter seed that is normally discarded. Interestingly, the number of points on the flowery-looking bit under the fruit (the butt shot above) is supposed to indicate the number of segments inside. If this is true, I should have found 6, but I only found 5. Maybe it was under-ripe?

As for taste, I read a number of people’s descriptions which ranged from various fruits like (like strawberries and peaches), and even vanilla ice cream. I had my fingers crossed for the latter, but sadly I was disappointed. It had a creaminess to it, but really didn’t taste much like anything spectacular. I’m going to go with the assumption that I might have had a bad one since the inside didn’t look much like the images of mangosteens that I found prior to testing.

(Source)

Can any experts weigh in on this?

3. A super environmentally friendly water bottle. A little while ago I was contacted by a representative from the Bamboo Bottle Company who kindly asked if I’d like to try one of their new water bottles. I checked out their website and learned that these bottles have some pretty cool features, including…

  • They’re made from natural materials
  • They contain absolutely zero BPA, so you don’t have to worry about chemicals leaching into your bevvies
  • The interior is glass, dishwasher safe, and keeps hot and cold drinks insulated
  • The exterior is made of bamboo, a sustainable material that decreases CO2 emissions

When the box arrived, I pulled out this:

The bottle comes apart so that its dishwasher safe bits (the glass, lid, bottom, and green ‘nut’ that screws on around the top of the glass bottle) can be separated and cleaned.

The only non-dishwasher safe part is the bamboo sleeve, which slides off once you take the green nut off of the glass.

I’ve only used the bottle for holding water and steeped iced tea at work, but this what I think so far:

Great because:

  • The bottle is glass, and therefore doesn’t make my water taste like plastic, metal, or any beverage that was in it before.
  • It’s dishwasher safe (although I’ve just rinsed it out a couple of times – no need for the machine yet!)
  • The design is different and attractive.
  • The materials are environmentally friendly, as is the company that produces it.

Not so great because:

  • It’s quite heavy for a water bottle, even when there’s no liquid inside of it.
  • It’s a little hard to grip. Don’t get me wrong – I do love the look of the bamboo layer, but by the time you put that on over the glass bit, you’ve got a pretty big circumference! My hands are by no means small but if I were to bring this to the gym, I worry that I might drop it.
  • The green nut that screws on the glass top is a little hard to get on.
  • The actual bottle capacity is only just over 2 cups.

As the company’s website points out, their production process isn’t perfectly ‘green’ yet, but I do think it’s great that they’re working towards creating products with more sustainable materials. The weight of the bottle was the main downfall for me, but the fact that the interior is glass and that it can be easily cleaned were 2 huge advantages over other water bottles I own.

Alrighty, that’s all I’ve got for you today! I hope you have an awesome Wednesday, and before you go, tell me…

  • What’s your preference for water bottles: glass, stainless steel/metal, or plastic?
  • Ever tried a mangosteen? If so, do you have any idea what was wrong with mine?
  • I’m taking Recipe of the Week suggestions, so if you have any, let me know!
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