fruit

Luscious, juicy, sweet-as-candy fruit is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. It's full of vitamins, fiber to keep you full, water to keep you hydrated, and the natural sugars make it a healthier alternative to sugary treats. You should aim to eat three to six servings of fruit each day, but if that seems like a lot, here are some ways to sneak fruit into your diet.

1. Add fruit slices to sandwiches. Sliced pear, apple, and watermelon add a unique texture and unexpected flavor to run-of-the-mill sammies.
2. Mix pureed fruit into plain yogurt. When comparing six-ounce containers of Greek yogurt, plain offers 18 grams of protein for 100 calories, and strawberry is 140 calories with 14 grams of protein. Instead of buying the premade flavors, make your own by adding pureed fruit to plain yogurt. You'll save money, avoid added sugars, and be able to customize the flavor to wow your taste buds with distinct combos like blackberry peach or strawberry pear.
3. Add fruit to baked goods. We've all made banana bread, but that's not the only fruit-based treat you can whip up. Lower the fat in just about any recipe by replacing oil with applesauce, or get creative with muffin recipes by adding diced strawberries, or mix bits of dried apricots into cookie dough.
4. Cut up fruit and store it in the fridge. It takes effort to wash and cut fruit, enough to make you reach for something easier (and less healthy) instead. Make fruit as accessible as a bag of chips by storing cut up fruit in containers in the fridge.
5. Eat fruit for dessert. Save calories and skip the refined sugars by enjoying nature's dessert. Here are ways to make fruit even more decadent and enticing — the almond butter and granola filled dates are one of my faves.

Quince is one of those fruits that still manages to mystify us. Despite the fruit's rich history, up until recently, it was nearly forgotten! But lucky for us, lovers of the fruit have called for the revival. They've been coined the "quintessential slow food"; when eaten raw, the flavor of quince is rather displeasing, but once you cook one of these beauties up, a sweet aromatic scent fills the air. Keep reading for some ideas on how to make the most of quince this season.

Fig season is like pre-Fall in the fashion world, a tasty little teaser that helps bridge the gap between Summer and Autumn. Perhaps it's partly because the season is so fleeting that this fruit tastes so sweet, but when figs are just right, they taste downright sinful. When people tell me they don't like figs, I say, they just haven't had a good one yet.

This soft, fleshy fruit with a thick but edible skin comes in many colors and forms. In North America, the most common types are Mission figs, Brown Turkey, and Brunswick, which have dark skin and a pink-purple middle; Calimyrna, the green-and-pink beauties like the fig pictured above; and Kadota, another green-skinned variety.

Keep reading to learn how to select fresh figs, and how to prepare them.

Fruit flies are a pesky kitchen menace that always seem to appear when the produce is plentiful, like right now at the end of Summer. Peaches, tomatoes, melons, squash, and grapes attract these teeny brown bugs that multiply in mere minutes. Don't be scared if you're facing an infestation, it's easy to outsmart fruit flies. Read more to learn how you get rid of fruit flies.

The simplest preparation of ripe watermelon, fresh from the fridge and sliced into wedges, is arguably the best way to eat it. But I'm going to play devil's advocate and recommend that you do something unexpectedly delicious with watermelon. Fresh popsicles or another sweet treat are awesome uses of watermelon, but they are a little too common. To really blow your friends and family away, incorporate the juicy pink flesh of watermelon into a savory dish. Here are four to try:

1. Salad: Arugula (or some other green, like watercress), feta, and watermelon salad has popped up on so many restaurant menus it could practically be considered a classic salad! Other salad ingredients that pair well with watermelon are jicama, mint, red onion, olives, tomatoes, goat cheese, radishes, basil, cucumber, avocado, and fennel. Try adding watermelon slices to Caprese salad: it tastes wonderful with balls of fresh mozzarella.
2. Seafood: The brightness of watermelon complements many kinds of seafood from squid to swordfish to crab.
3. Cocktail: When pureed and strained, watermelon juice is a refreshing ingredient in many cocktails, specifically drinks that have a little spice like this chipotle-rimmed tequila beverage.
4. Grill it: Earlier this Summer, Mark Bittman, columnist at The New York Times, blew me away with his recommendation for grilled watermelon burgers! If that's a little too adventurous for you, grill watermelon and add it to a salad.

Do you use watermelon in savory dishes? Share your techniques with us below!