I know, I know, I should eat more fruits and vegetables.

It’s not like I don’t want to be the healthiest person alive…it’s just that produce tends to be expensive in this city, and if I don’t eat all of it quickly, it goes bad and then I feel bad because I wasted money on perfectly good produce. Also, my fridge smells for days and that’s gross.

In my never ending-search to make myself healthier and waste less money, I stumbled across this little gem of a website not too long ago. NutriFruit was started in 1931 in the lovely little state of Oregon, and for years these people have been shipping quality freeze dried fruit to costumers all over the United States.

Freeze dried fruit?, you say, that sounds weird.

Well, yes, it is a little weird, but it’s also pretty healthy. Since NutriFruit takes out only the water from their berries, a canister of the stuff has almost all of the nutrients of fresh fruit — but you get a lot more bang for your buck. Sprinkle it over cereal or yogurt, add it to salads or smoothies, or simply sweeten up a slice of bread and butter! With all the options; banana, black raspberry, blueberry, cranberry, marion blackberry, red raspberry, and strawberry, you can fill your pantry with a virtual fruit salad — for a fraction of the cost. Plus, freeze dried stuff can’t go bad!

If you’ve ever wanted to get more viatims and minerals in your diet without stuffing yourself full of supliments, NutriFruit might just be your ticket to a healtheir bod. Just in time for summer!

I love granola so much that it nearly borders on an unhealthy obsession. I buy my favorite kind, Bear Naked, by the bagful (the best flavor is peanut butter), and I normally go through an entire huge bag every week. This is certainly delicious, but at almost $5 a pop it’s pretty expensive, too.

Before you get so attached to Bear Naked that you also find yourself whittling away your life savings on it, let me turn you on to something even better: making your own granola.

Is that even possible? Yes, yes, it is, and it’s sooooo worth it.

This is a good starter recipe, but unfortunately it makes 30 servings and uses a full cup of vegetable oil. Luckily, I’ve done the work for you and am here to offer this scaled-down, simpler (yet still every bit as good) recipe:

You’ll need one cup of oats, two tablespoons of wheat germ (this is optional, but it adds great health value), three tablespoons of your favorite chopped nuts (I like walnuts and almonds), two tablespoons of flaked and unsweetened coconut, and a quarter of a teaspoon of cinnamon. You’ll also need a few wet ingredients: about one and a half tablespoons of brown sugar, one tablespoon of honey, and no more than two teaspoons of maple syrup or vegetable oil. Read More »