Dried Fruit and Cheese Platter Summer Party Idea

We are now in the middle of summer and you are all probably not interested in cooking in the your hot kitchen at home. Grilling seems to be the best option for summer. Everyone wants to be outside whether it be in the yard or at the beach. 
Next time you have people over, think about serving a cold cheese platter and some white wines to cool your guests down after a hot sunny day at the beach. There are so many great cheeses to choose from now that you can really have everything from Humboldt Fog to Cheddar on your platter along with fresh berries, nuts, grapes, and dried fruit. Add some bread sticks and sliced toasted raisin bread and you have a whole meal for a hot night. The dried fruit is full of fiber and gives a depth of flavor to the cheese that is usually overlooked. 

Make a cheese platter and add some of the Megafruit baby pineapple, lychee, and mangosteen flavors to your dried fruit mix on the cheese platter and get your guests curious about the new flavors they are trying for the first time.

Lance Armstrong food for training

What does a champion cyclist like Lance Armstrong eat to stay in shape and get an optimum performance? Like a runner, cyclists need to eat foods that give them energy and endurance. They also have to change their foods throughout the training period based on their training schedule.

Lance Armstrong has been training with Chris Carmichael since 1990. Carmichael is a former cyclist who created the Carmichael Training System to help cyclists like Lance Armstrong eat the right foods for their best performance on the bike. The type of program Carmichael developed is called Periodization. "Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are tied together and linked to how you perform," says Carmichael. On top of eating more calories as your training intensifies, the ratio of carbohydrates to fats to proteins in your diet needs to change as well. "If you are training for a half-marathon, for example, you need a greater percentage of carbohydrates in your diet than if you're just running for fitness," he explains. Like Lance Armstrong, when you're at the peak of your training, it's important to increase the percentage of carbs in your diet from about 60 to 70 percent to ensure you're giving your body enough fuel to enhance your workouts.

When looking at this guide - I substituted Megafruit baby pineapple, lychee, and mangosteen in place of the fruits. Megafruit is made up of healthy carbohydrates that are free of sulfites and sugar. It is an all natural alternative to other carbohydrates. Check us out on Amazon.com.

Here is a Periodization For Idiots guide from Chris Carmichael from the Eat Like A Champion article written by Kristen Wolfe Bieler from the August 2004 issue of Runner's World.

How do you apply the principles of periodization to your diet without complex nutrient calculations? Remember that the concept of eating more carbs during your heaviest training is more important than trying to adhere to specific numbers.

But when you're upping the miles, adding just one of these mini meals per day gives you the extra carbs you need to keep running strong.

1 cup vanilla yogurt + 1 cup fresh fruit (60 grams carbs)
Bonus Benefit: provides over 40 percent of your daily calcium needs

1 cup orange juice + 1 banana (52 grams carbs)
Bonus Benefit: packs almost 200 percent of the Daily Value for vitamin C

1 slice banana nut bread + 1 cup skim milk (about 45 grams carbs)
Bonus Benefit: gives you 25 percent of the Daily Value for calcium

1 PowerBar energy bar + 8 oz PowerBar Endurance sports drink (62 grams carbs)
Bonus Benefit: provides plenty of sodium and potassium to keep you well hydrated

Smoothie of 2 cups skim or soy milk + 1 1/2 cups strawberries + 2 Tbsp soy
protein (about 50 grams carbs)
Bonus Benefit: contributes about 5 grams of fiber

1 1/2 cups multigrain cereal + 1 1/2 cups skim milk (54 grams carbs)
Bonus Benefit: contains over 100 percent of the Daily Value for iron

1 bagel + 1 banana + 1 Tbsp nut butter (about 75 grams carbs)
Bonus Benefit: provides 12 grams of protein

Fashionindie Suggests Eating Megafruit to Power Up for Next Sample Sale

Fashionindie.com suggested that their readers should get some Megafruit to power up for their next sample sale. Good idea. Megafruit Mangosteen, Lychee, and Baby Pineapple flavors are full of good carbohydrates, fiber, and antioxidants. Everything you need to have the energy to exercise, go to a sample sale, for the kids on the way to their soccer game after school, or while sitting at your office working all day.

We are available now at Amazon.com.

New giveaway info:

Be the first 50 to purchase our product on Amazon and leave a review and you will automatically be entered into our Megafruit gift pack giveaway that includes a $50 Amex gift card. 2 winners will get this prize.

Megafruit Mangosteen sold on Amazon

Megafruit dried superfruits in the flavors of Mangosteen, baby pineapple, and lychee are now available for purchase at www.Amazon.com.

New contest for all of our Facebook and Twitter followers.

First 50 reviews for each product is entered in a contest for a $50 Amex Card. Proof of purchase and review write up is required to be eligible.

Our products are also available at our newest retail outlet:

Vicente Foods location:
12027 San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310-472-4227

Lychee Mango Coconut Panna Cotta recipe from Cinnamon

Summer is coming and everyone is thinking about nautical stripes, shorts, and flip flops already. What I love most about summer is the way we can eat lighter because there is so much fresh vegetables and fruits available to use in soups, salads, and everything else.

I found this recipe online by a blogger named Cinnamon from India and I wanted to share her recipe with you because it is just that good. I love panna cotta, mangoes and coconuts. When I found this recipe online and saw that it also included the lovely lychee fruit, it was love at first bite. Try this recipe for yourself. It is pretty easy to follow.

Let us know your favorite recipes for summer. Email them to Info@megafruitventures.com. We will post 4 of them on our blog one a week and you can vote on your favorite recipe of the 4 and we will give a prize to the number 1 favorite. Send us your recipes now.

Here is the recipe from Cinnamon.
This version is a little different, which includes Lychees, Coconut cream and Ginger!!!

Ingredients:
Cream : 200 ml
SemiWhipped cream : 200 ml
Coconut Cream : 100 ml
Sugar : 50 gms
Lychees : 100 gms, pureed
Ginger : 1 tsp, grated
Vanilla essence : few drops
Gelatin : 6 leaves

Method:

1. Soak Gelatin in cold water to soften and keep aside.
2. Take cream, coconut cream, sugar, ginger in a heavy saucepan and bring to light simmer, just till boiling for 10 mins.
3. Remove from heat and add the Lychee puree and vanilla.
4. Squeeze the excess water out of the gelatin and stir into the hot cream.
5. Allow the cream to cool completely.
6. Fold in the semi whipped cream and pour the mixture into moulds.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate till fully set.
8. Serve with Mango Syrup and chopped lychees... errr... mine was actually Mango puree :)
9. To serve, carefully pass a knife through the edges of the mould, and place the mould in warm water for few mins and then invert on to the serving plate.

Check out Cinnamon Trail here for other great recipes from India.

Lychee the imperial super fruit

The Lychee is known as an imperial fruit in China because of its history during the Tang Dynasty. The delicate fruit was a favorite of Emperor Li Longji's concubine Yang Yuhuan (Yang Guifei). The Emperor brought the fruit in using the Pony Express from modern cities such as Guangdong.

The fruit grows on a tree in clusters and has a juicy fleshy meat on the inside of a strong thin sell. The juicy meat of the Lychee is a very sweet delicate taste. Many people all over the world enjoy this exotic fruit.

Lychees are grown in China, Thailand, South-East Asia, India, Japan, and more recently in California and Australia.

The Lychee contains on average a total 72 mg of Vitamin C per 100 grams of fruit.^[3] On average nine lychee fruits would meet an adult’s daily recommend Vitamin C requirement.

A cup of Lychee fruit provides, among other minerals, for a 2000 Calorie diet, 14%DV of copper, 9%DV of phosphorus, and 6%DV of potassium.

Lychees are low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. Most of the energy in a lychee is in the form of carbohydrate (sugar). Lychees are high in polyphenols, containing 15% more than grapes, a fruit commonly referenced as high in polyphenols.^[4]

Megafruit Ventures is introducing the Lychee fruit in a dried fruit for easy snacking for our busy daily lives so that we can get all the vitamins and minerals we need in one convenient package. Click here to learn more.