Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The ultimate summer snack

Since I've been writing down my calories lately I've been looking for new healthy snacks to eat. I tend to be a bit of a bored eater so I like to have something that I can snack on without too many calories. And I've rediscovered my absolutely favorite summer treat: frozen grapes. 

When I was young we ate a lot of frozen fruit. My mother always stocked the freezer with frozen blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. We would open a bag and not wait for them to thaw. The blueberries would dye our fingers purple but they were so incredibly delicious. The raspberries were my favorite. After I left my parents house I stopped buying frozen berries. I didn't have a good enough freezer to keep them in any of the crappy apartments I lived in. 

It was finally after college that a friend of mine introduced me to frozen grapes. I would buy two bags of grapes on every shopping trip. One would be washed and left on the counter to eat fresh. The other would be washed, pulled off the stem, and put into a tupperware container for freezing. They become little frozen popsicles and I can eat almost unlimited numbers. I've frozen them for years now and love the cold sweet taste and the fact that they are good for me. I've also started buying other frozen fruits as well. I simply eat them plain but you can cook with them, add them to yogurt, or even cereal. 

A couple years ago I found that the Mayo Clinic offers a Healthy Weight Food Pyramid. I have this tacked up on my fridge as a reminder of how to eat healthy. And the big thing for this pyramid is the fruits and vegetables. As you'll see, they are unlimited. And with treats like frozen grapes, that's an awfully sweet deal.  

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