healthy living

As the old saying goes, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. This is because apples are a great snack to reach for when looking for a nutritional boost. They contain high levels of Vitamin C, dietary fiber and loads of antioxidants that can reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, and help control weight gain. Apples also provide potassium which is important to many functions within the body including muscle contractions, nerve signals and can help reduce the risk of strokes and osteoporosis. Not only do apples provide all these health benefits, they are also incredibly filling relative to their low calorie count and so make a great addition to any healthy diet. But perhaps eating an actual whole apple a day doesn’t sound appealing to you. I love apples as much as the next fruit eater, but sometimes eating the same thing everyday tends to get old. This is why I started drinking an apple cider vinegar drink every morning. Not only do I get all the health benefits of an apple a day, I’m feeling the effects of the vinegar daily as well.

Apple cider vinegar has been gaining popularity lately for it’s long list of health benefits. Not only does it contain the nutrients from the apple, but fermenting the fruit brings the benefits to a whole other level of goodness. For me personally, I notice the change mainly in my digestion, skin and muscle contractions. As someone who occasionally gets heart burn, break-outs and foot cramps, I’m happy to say that since taking this drink every morning I’ve had less instances of each. This is because apple cider vinegar totes all of the nutrients necessary to boost these functions. The nutrients within it are also things that I probably was not getting enough of before just through my regular diet. And although I eat fairly healthy, the change from adding a small drink to my morning is surprising.

If you’re going to make this drink, be sure to use an apple cider vinegar that is raw, unfiltered and what will be labeled as “with the mother”. This might sound odd, but the “mother” is really just the healthiest part of the apple. In this type of apple cider vinegar, the “mother” has not been filtered out through high processing or pasteurization. It will sometimes appear in the bottle like a dark cloud. This cloud is the healthiest part of the apple cider vinegar, so you want to use a vinegar that includes it, otherwise you aren’t getting the healthiest part of the apple. Simply gently shake the bottle to disperse the cloud into the rest of the liquid before serving. Another great benefit to this drink is the honey. But again, it must be raw, unfiltered and preferably local. Having fresh local honey can help with allergies, boost your Vitamin B and like apples is loaded with antioxidants. Lastly, you can add a little lemon to your drink if you like for even more Vitamin C and digestion assistance.

Overall, this small drink really packs a nutritional punch. Do be warned that the first couple times may be shocking to your palate. The apple cider vinegar has a strong and acquired taste. Luckily the honey and lemon help to dispel that a bit, and after a few days you may even find yourself enjoying the flavor. Always be sure to use a method like this or similar for taking your apple cider vinegar – always dilute it before drinking. Drinking straight apple cider vinegar is not good for you because of it’s high acidity. You can destroy the enamel on your teeth as well as damage your esophagus. So always be sure to at least mix with water when ingesting, even if you don’t have the other ingredients available. I hope you enjoy this drink and find that the benefits are evident for you as well. If you are already drinking this daily, let me know what effects you’ve seen if any.

Apple Cider Vinegar Drink

Drink one of these mixtures in the morning daily.

8 oz warm water (to help melt the honey)

1 Tbsp raw, organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar (I like this kind)

1 Tbsp raw, organic, local honey (check your local farmer’s markets)

1/2 lemon, juiced (just squeeze however much lemon you want from 1/2 a lemon)

Stir to combine until honey is dissolved
Enjoy!

This week has been a lazy one filled with late mornings, take-out dinners and lots of free time. Not having to work has been a blessing and a curse when it comes to sticking to my New Year’s resolutions. It’s a blessing because I don’t feel the need to take smoke breaks or have a drink after a long work day, but a curse in that I find myself with a lot of free time and the desire to go out instead of staying home. In an effort to spend less money eating out, I finally went grocery shopping today. I sat down and planned out meals for the week that I can prep on Sunday and set a guideline for dinners and extras that will be needed in between. Meal prepping is part of my New Year’s Resolution #4: Become more self-sustainable when it comes to food (you can read a full post about that particular resolution here).

Shopping went fairly smooth with list in hand, and I actually decided to wait to buy my vegetables and herbs until tomorrow when I can hopefully find everything I need at my local farmer’s market (rain and farmers willing). Things only went slightly awry when I realized I had forgotten to include any sort of snacks or in between foods for my husband and I to take to work – things like granola bars, nuts, crackers, etc. Thankfully, I remembered (because I cleaned out my pantry recently) that I had a bag of raw almonds and a bag of raw peanuts at home. This lead me to the idea of making homemade granola nut bars. I’d never done it before, but how difficult could it really be? All you need is some of your favorite healthy ingredients, some oats, and something to make it all stick together. I hit the bulk section of my local grocery store and picked up some more items to throw into the mix. I love this section of the grocery store because it feels like you can get the exact amount of everything you need without all the extra packaging. You could even bring your own bags to cut down on waste. The prices can look a little daunting – the cashews were marked at $11.99 a pound – but considering you only need about 1/2 cup of each ingredient for this recipe doesn’t make the cost too bad. What I ended up with was a bag of raw cashews and a bag of dried cranberries (I got about 3/4 lb of each and still had enough leftover to make this recipe a couple more times). I knew I had a pretty exciting thing going so I headed home to start on my creation.

Many of the recipes I looked up online had way too much sugar for my taste, others used vanilla and that’s not really my thing either. I wanted these to be as natural and close to the flavor of the ingredients as possible. Eventually, I was able to come up with my own mixture, which I think worked out pretty well and was easy to do. My husband enjoys the dark chocolate drizzle over the top (which took me a thousand tries to get just right) and I love the tart snap of the cranberries mixed with the assortment of raw nuts. It should also be mentioned that this recipe could work with any multitude of ingredients. I would just be aware with chocolate or marshmallows (if you’re more into sugar) to add them when the mixture is closer to room temperature so your ingredients don’t melt all over the place. Let me know what I should try as my next combination and if you’re taking any steps to live life more frugally or sustainably when it comes to food!

Easy Granola Nut Bars

2 1/2 c. Oats, old-fashioned

1/2 c. Almonds, chopped

1/2 c. Cashews chopped

1/4 c. Pumpkin seeds, sprouted

1/4 c. Peanuts

1/4 c. Dried cranberries

1/4 c. Honey

1/4 c. Brown sugar

1/4 c. Butter, unsalted

1/4 tsp. Kosher salt

1/2 c. Dark chocolate bar, broken into pieces

Preheat oven to 350ºF and place oats, almonds and cashews on a baking sheet. Once oven is preheated, bake them for 9 minutes or until lightly toasted.
Line a 9” square (or round if you don’t have square) baking pan with parchment or foil.
In a small saucepan, combine honey, brown sugar and butter. Stir over medium-low heat until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.
Add the oat/nut mixture, honey/sugar mixture and the rest of the remaining ingredients to a large bowl and stir until well combined.
Once the ingredients are combined, press the mixture into the prepared 9” pan with a spatula making sure there are no large air bubbles in the mixture. This was the most challenging part for me – I thought I pressed enough, but will press twice as much next time to really make sure the ingredients are firmly stuck together.
Place the pan with the mixture in the freezer to set – about 20 minutes or so depending on how thick your mixture is and how well you pressed.
To make the drizzle, melt the dark chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until melted. Be very careful not to overheat, if you have tiny pieces of chocolate left I suggest heating at 10 second intervals and stirring until completely melted.
Remove 9” pan from freezer and cut granola/nut mixture into desired shapes/sizes.
Drizzle melted chocolate over the top of your pieces and let rest until chocolate sets/hardens.