Wallet-Friendly Fruits and Veggies

The end of summer is ripe with fantastic fruits and vegetables that are farm fresh, either from your local farmers’ market or grocery store produce aisle. And not only are the current crop wallet-friendly, they also taste their juiciest best! Here are the 5 best fruits and veggies you can buy fresh right now.

1. Apples. Crispy, crunchy, sweet, and tangy, apples top the list of most folks’ favorite fruits. For the next few months, you’re sure to find your favorite variety readily available, and at its peak of ripeness. Scrub the skin clean and bite right in, or slice a few and add ‘em to a leafy green salad.
2. Blueberries. These tasty treats are loaded with antioxidants that’ll help keep you in the pink of health. Eat them by the handful, or whirl them into a frozen yogurt smoothie.
3. Cucumbers. Sure, you can find cukes year-round at the supermarket, but bagging them at your local farmers’ market makes ‘em taste extra fresh. Add thin slices to your sandwich to add zest and crunch, or toss them in a cold pasta salad for a late summer side dish.
4. Nectarines. Summer’s sunniest delights are so juicy, sweet, and delicious, it’s hard to believe they’re good for you, too. But they are! Nectarines are loaded with beta-carotene, fiber, and vitamins A and C. Take a bite and get the juices flowing! Or finely chop one and stir the morsels into fiery salsa for a sweet-hot sensation that’s out of this world.
5. Tomatoes. There’s nothing quite like biting into a tomato that’s still warm from the garden. But don’t worry if you didn’t grow your own this summer—just head out to the farmers’ market and bring home a bagful. Then slice ‘em, dice ‘em, and let ‘em brighten up your salads, pastas, and burgers.

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Can’t Get Enough Cantaloupe!

A slice of fresh, juicy cantaloupe is a tasty summertime treat.  Nothing beats an ice-cold wedge of it for instant refreshment after a long, hot run, walk, or your daily workout. But the sweet flesh of this melon is a lot more than just good eating—it’s surprisingly low in calories and high in health benefits.  At just 48 fat-free calories per cup, and packed with beta-carotene, vitamins A and C, and potassium, it is one of nature’s best body-bolstering and cancer-battling foods around.

So how do you select the sweetest and juiciest of these mouthwatering melons? Here’s what to do:

• Look for an evenly shaped melon, without dents, bruises, cuts, or discoloration.
•  Check out the color of the skin under the netting—it should be glowing golden.
•  Look for a melon that’s smooth and well-rounded at the stem end. Unlike other ripe melons, which have a bit of vine attached, ripe cantaloupes are free of the stem attachment.
• Choose a melon that’s heavy for its size—the sign of juiciness.
• Give it the sniff test—it should smell sweet, fresh, and fragrantly musky.

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Peel Off the Pounds with 4 Fat-Fighting Fruits!

At one time or another, just about every American adult has been on a diet to lose weight. And many of us may succeed in dropping some pounds, only to find them creeping back up a few months (or years) later. In this never-ending battle of the bulge, it’s time to enlist these fridge-friendly fruits:

APPLES. Believe it or not, eating apples actually subtracts calories from your diet. That’s because the calories your body uses to break down the fiber in the apple exceed those contained in the fruit. Bottom line: The more apples you eat, the more weight you lose. Just don’t get carried away—after all, man (or woman!) cannot live by apples alone.

AVOCADOS. Mash an avocado and mix it with lemon or lime juice and your choice of herbs. Then use it to replace higher-calorie spreads and toppings like mayo and cream cheese.

LEMONS. Drinking a glass of lemonade (homemade from fresh-squeezed lemons and sugar is best) between meals can cleanse your system of toxins and impurities, conquer cravings for junk food, and speed weight loss.

STRAWBERRIES. Studies show that smelling strawberries before you exercise causes you to burn more calories. So before you head off on your next power walk, or hit the treadmill at the gym, pull some berries out of the fridge, and take a good long whiff!