Grapefruit

Some foods possess whimsical qualities. These foods magically turn delicious and irresistible the second I start a diet. For instance, if I am off-plan, trail mix isn't even on my radar. But when I am on a diet, trail mix takes on the characteristics of crack cocaine... and I have to measure it out into 1/4 cup servings lest I eat a week's worth of calories in dried fruit and nuts. Thankfully, not all these chameleon foods are high in calories. When I am eating healthy, I also crave Grapefruit. (mmmm...grapefruit)

Sadly though, we have a love-hate relationship. I can't stand the outer white bitter stuff. Which means before I can actually EAT a grapefruit, I spend forever separating the yummy part from the icky part. It is tedious and very messy. I have tried cutting out the sections with a knife...and using a grapefruit spoon. I even bought this fancy grapefruit-sectioner-thing....which didn't work very well...and left most of the grapefruit in the rind.

What's a girl to do? The only thing TO do when you are stumped. Google it.

After just a few seconds I learned that Grapefruit got its name because it grows in clusters like grapes. And that the fruit was known of since the 1600's but only used as an ornamental plant. It wasn't until the 19th century that people started to actually eat it. (I guess no one was on a diet before then.)

Google also brought me to this very helpful video that promised to show me how to speed-cut Grapefruit. I was skeptical and had to try it for myself.

First, I cut off the top and bottom ends like this...

(Yes...I have a pink knife.)

Then I cut it in half.

Then I flipped the grapefruit halves over and used that pink knife to cut the rind off.

When I was done it looked like this....

Then I cut each half into quarters like this....

At the pointy part of the quartered piece there is that hard white bitter center. See it?

I cut that off of each quartered piece like this.

When I was done with that, I sliced up the quarter pieces and put them in a bowl.

And then I sprinkled it with a little Truvia.

The verdict? It still isn't as easy as peeling an orange or a banana. But it's a lot faster and less messy than the way I was doing it before. This will definitely be my go-to method from now on.