As Watermelon Day (Aug 3) is drawing near, more and more people are going ga-ga over the benefits of watermelons. Researches have brought to light the immense health benefits that watermelons store up within themselves and scientists are on the look out for some more revealing facts about this amazing fruit. Lycopene, one of the most-talked about nutrients in watermelons, is the target of observation of most of the scientists. Watermelons store a high percentage of water besides containing decent proportion of essential vitamins. It acts as an antioxidant, relieving the body of stress during the summer months. Watermelons are excellent rejuvenators, relieving the body of fatigue after an exhaustive day’s work. No wonder, watermelons are vastly becoming popular with the health conscious and diet freaks. Current trend reveals a huge number of people switching to watermelon diets so as to lead a fit and healthy life.

People recommend numerous ways of leading a healthy life. Hitting the gym, following a vegetarian or protein diet, fat-free food … the list is endless! Some of these diet patterns are often boring and tasteless. Variety is very important to tickle one’s taste buds. So whatever diet pattern a person follows, he or she should keep on altering so as to retain interest in food intake. Lack of attention to one’s diet might even cause anorexia without the person realizing so! To avoid such mishaps, try out some excellent mouthwatering recipes that are low cal and loaded with a number of essential nutrients. You guessed it right! It’s definitely gonna be some of the best-known watermelon recipes. These delectable recipes can act as snacks, appetizers, filling lunch or dinner, a refreshing drink, delectable desserts and what not! When so many healthy options are on offer, one can hardly control oneself from switching to a watermelon diet.

As appetizer, one can try out the Balsamic-dream appetizer i.e. watermelon cubes sprinkles with fresh limejuice and balsamic vinegar, to be served with cheese and crackers or bread slices on the side. Watermelon gazpacho makes an amazing summertime starter, using pureed watermelon as its base instead of tomatoes. A combination of cheese (feta cheese or goat cheese) and chilled watermelons can provide you with an energy-driven breakfast. Watermelons can also be used for dressing seafood like crab salad to make a healthy and wholesome lunch. Spicy watermelons, sprinkled with either pico de gallo seasoning (a chili-mixture available in Latin American markets) or an Asian chili salt (a mixture of salt and chilies available in Asian markets, such as the Vietnamese Bon Bon brand) are hot snacking items. Watermelons, in combination with dry sake (Japanese wine), make an excellent sorbet. Smoothies of watermelons are teamed up with various fruity flavors especially strawberries. Watermelon pies and other forms of its desserts are just too irresistible! Watermelon rinds can be pickled, barbecued or even made into salad with ginger and grenadine. These preparations can be made easily without any hassles and do not consume much time. These amazing varieties of watermelons can easily lure us to change our diet patterns.

Besides, most workingwomen find watermelon diet convenient both in terms of preparation time and health. So check out this new trend of food as well as lifestyle introduced by watermelons. For sure, the more people try this out, the more they are gonna stick to it, the primary reason being the desire amongst all of us to look and feel great. watermelon diet, therefore, is the key to man’s latent dream of acquiring a great body and is making its way into the hearts of people worldwide.

Suzanne Macguire is an Internet marketing professional with expertise in content development and technical writing in a variety of industries.
Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Honeydew

Here are 3 great vegetarian soup recipes for you to make and try.

ARTICHOKE SOUP.

1 lb. each of artichokes and potatoes, 1 Spanish onion, 1 oz. of butter, 1 pint of milk, and pepper and salt to taste.

Peel, wash, and cut into dice the artichokes, potatoes, and onion. Cook them until tender in 1 quart of water with the butter and seasoning. When the vegetables are tender rub them through a sieve. Return the liquid to the saucepan, add the milk, and boil the soup up again. Add water if the soup is too thick. Serve with Allinson plain rusks, or small dice of bread fried crisp in butter or vege-butter.

CARROT SOUP.

4 good-sized carrots, 1 head of celery, 1 onion, 3 oz. of Allinson wholemeal bread without crust, 1 oz. of butter, pepper and salt, and 1 blade of mace.

Wash, scrape, and cut the carrots into dice. Prepare and cut up the onions and celery. Set the vegetables over the fire with 3 pints of water, adding the mace and seasoning. Let all cook until quite soft, which will probably be in 1-1/2 hours. If the carrots are old, they will take longer cooking. When the vegetables are tender, rub all through a sieve, return the soup to the saucepan, add the butter, allow it to boil up, and serve with sippets of toast.

LEEK SOUP.

2 bunches of leeks, 1-1/2 pints of milk, 1 oz. of butter, 1 lb.
of potatoes, pepper and salt to taste, and the juice of a
lemon.

Cut off the coarse part of the green ends of the leeks, and cut the leeks length ways, so as to be able to brush out the grit. Wash the leeks well, and see no grit remains, then cut them in short pieces. Peel, wash, and cut up the potatoes, then cook both vegetables with 2 pints of water. When the vegetables
are quite tender, rub them through a sieve. Return the mixture to the saucepan, add the butter, milk, and seasoning, and boil the soup up again. Before serving add the lemon juice; serve with sippets of toast.

Discover more great vegetarian recipes for soups, savouries, puddings and more at http://www.recipesforveggies.com/

I know what you’re thinking! Sure, chicken is easy and yes, it can be healthy, but can it really be gourmet? Absolutely! It’s all in the presentation. Grab a pen and paper; here’s how you do it.

Preferably, it’s a heck of a lot easier to use an electric frying pan. This way you can make your sauce. Add about 2 Tbls. of extra light virgin olive oil into your pan. Take two nice size garlic cloves, peel them, smack them with a knife, chop them up and put them in your pan. Slice up some red onion (about 3 inches long and a half inch thick). Quarter a handful of mushrooms and sauté them on low along with the onion and garlic. This is a great meal with a yummy Pinot Grigio so I’ll pour myself a glass and use about a quarter cup of it to throw into the sauté. Let that reduce a little and stir it around a few times. Next, add about 2 or 3 Tbls. of Balsamic Vinegar (I like Colavita because it’s a little sweeter), stir and cover. Onto the next station!

Now, rinse off the boneless, skinless chicken breasts, removing all of the fat. I used 3 7 oz. breasts. Turn up the pan to about 300 and sear the breasts tenderloin side down first. After about a minute and a half, turn the chicken over and repeat the sear. Turn down the pan to about 200 and add two cups of water. Once the liquid begins to boil again, add a teaspoon and a ½ of low sodium, plain chicken broth paste. Stir it around so it dissolves properly. Add about a quarter size amount of Thyme on top of the chicken along with some fresh ground pepper. Startin’ to sound good yet? Now, you just let it go! Onto the next station!

You can do this with really any kind of rice. My personal favorite is jasmine white (because it’s not as mushy) but you could do whatever you like. Also, you could even dress up your rice a little by using some slices almonds or cashews. Cook your rice about a half hour before you would like to eat but make sure that it’s not too mushy. This way, you’re not pressured. Anyway, the longer the chicken is in the sauce, the yummier it will be! You just want to make sure that you stir it and turn them every 10 minutes or so and keep the temp down to 200. Make sure that you keep about 2 cups of liquid in the pan at all times.

Ready to eat? Okay, remove the chicken and cut it into slices or chunks (whatever suites you best). Take a 1 ½ tsp and mix it with a small amount of cold water (maybe a ¼ cup of water). Pour the mixture into the sauce and stir. Once it gets a little thicker, add another teaspoon to a ¼ cup of water and do it again. Add the chicken to the sauce and stir it up. Let the sauce cook for about 10 minutes… stir it often. You want the sauce to be thick enough to coat the chicken nicely. Onto the next station!

Here’s where the presentation comes in. Now I’m one of those people who would use his or her “nice stuff” any time I could. So, my philosophy is, if you’ve got it, use it! While you’re messing around in the kitchen, finely julienne some pretty peppers. Red, orange and yellow are my favorite because they add some really nice color to the dish. Sauté them just enough to be limp and you can either clump a little bit onto the plate or spread it out a little. You don’t want it over powering that’s all. Ladle about a cup and a ½ of rice onto the plate. Now make a small pocket into the top of the rice. Ladle a nice amount of sauce into the top of the pocket. Add your chicken to the top and garnish your plate with your peppers and the final touch which is a nice piece of herb. I like to use rosemary sprigs because they’re so pretty. But you could use virtually anything I suppose.

Viola! You have now created Chicken and Rice dish that is EASY, HEALTHY and GOURMET!

Bryanna Bredius’ experience in cooking has come from an abundance of experience, study, and a first hand trial and error approach. She considers herself to be her best test subject. To learn more about this topic, visit http://www.thepound4pound.blogspot.com