Fruit!

I know, I know.  You know how to "make" fruit.  The question is, "do you know how to CUT fruit?"  As part of our new healthy lifestyle (aka Dave's healthy lifestyle and my supportive girlfriend lifestyle), we've been eating a lot of fruit.  Tomorrow for Super Bowl, we will have all the usual suspects: hot wings, dips, bite-sized sandwiches, more dips... but to make things a BIT healthier, I decided to do fruit kabobs. This means my evening consisted of slicing, dicing, and peeling.  I like to cut fruit myself rather than paying to have someone else do it.  This way I know it was done properly, and by properly, I mean cleanly! Remember, if the knife touches the outside of the fruit, it touches the inside! So wash your cantaloupe,  pineapple, and kiwi before you cut it!

After washing comes the fun part, actually cutting the fruit.  I started with cantaloupe.  First, cut it in half. (Please don't criticize my cutting board. It's one of three I own and it does the job!)

 Next scoop out all the pump and seeds, get some of the mushiness out too.

Now cut the half in half, and then half again. (It will be in eighths when it's all said and done. And cut.)

Now slice the fruit away from the rind, and slice to whatever size you'd like!

Easy enough!


Now onto a slightly more complicated fruit.  Pineapple.
Slice off the top (with the green), and the bottom. Then start slicing down the sides.  Try to get as much of the rind off (it leaves little indentations), without losing too much of the actual fruit.

 Once you get all the edges cut, you'll end up with this.

 Cut into quarters.

 Slice the core away from the fruit.  Again, try to get all the core cut away, without losing too much fruit! Then cut into desired sized slices!

Lastly, my favorite.  Kiwi! Not only do I love this fruit, I love this method of cutting it.  It's so easy and you don't lose all the fruit you would normally lose if you tried to use a knife for the whole process.  First of all, cut the top and bottom.

 Next is where it gets tricky. Slide a spoon in-between the fruit and the skin. (This picture was not easy to take!)  Then slide the spoon all the way around the edge of the fruit.

And you end up with this!

Perfect!

Now I'm all set to make my fruit kabobs in the morning.  I already have the strawberries cut up, and my grapes are all washed.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of the finished product tomorrow!