LAST DAY OF OUR FIVE DAY CHALLENGE!!!!

Today is Apricots!! I had two apricots in my hotel fridge that I purchased upon arrival on Friday. I also have a bunch of radishes that hubs better eat tonight or tomorrow before the plane trip and half a bag of carrots. So for breakfast is was the two apricots.

When I started looking up nutritional value of the apricot, I was surprised. I checked and double checked and all the sites said that a standard sized fresh raw apricot was only 17 calories! REALLY?   Yes, really.

There are so few calories that I am not even going to bother breaking it down for you. 34 calories for two apricots! Excellent! (Don’t worry I have had 3 cups of coffee and I put real sugar in my coffee. I have had some calories to start the day!)

Now I always knew I liked apricots but I had forgotten that unlike peaches they are soft and the pit is NOT cling! Rather the pit just falls out! Oh apricots (organic of course) will be on my snack list next week and I might just have to replace that nonproducing peach Apricots are a great source of vitamin A, carotenes and potassium. I knew about the vitamin A and carotenes, I had not been aware of the potassium. Turns out there are many antioxidants and trace minerals that are in a serving of apricots.

Note that a serving of fresh raw apricots is 3 fruits according to Health Canada (http://hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/choose-choix/fruit/serving-portion-eng.php) each apricot is 17 calories and it is 51 calories for all three.

The vegetable I want to talk about is celery. I don’t have any and I am sure I have talked about it before, but I want to talk about it again. Mostly because it is my filler food. I think it’s really quite versatile as long as it has been cleaned, prepared and ready to use.

I like to get my celery and chop off the bottom and about a quarter of inch of the tops (I don’t know why the top but I have always done that.) then take it apart and clean each stalk. I hate the leaves so I toss them, but some save them for soup and flavoring for other baked vegetables. If you like them, then by all means keep them and eat them and love them…. I don’t like the leaves.

Then I proceed to chop them up. I usually will have some of the bottom ends as 4 inch sticks, but the tops I chop into little quarter inch cubes and store them by the cup. Now I have them ready to go for tuna salad or added to yogurt with some cucumbers (also chopped fine) for a nice crunchy cucumber salad.

Chopped celery sautéed with onion and carrots make almost any thing better.

The calorie count for celery is ridiculously low. One cup of chopped celery is only 14 calories. OMG only 14 calories. You know I have heard that celery is a negative calorie count food because it takes your body 15 or 16 energy (calorie) units to process (chew and digest) 1 cup of raw celery. Too bad it isn’t a favorite food of mine. I will munch on the stalks if it’s close to dinner. Hubs likes celery with cream cheese. I prefer hummus. I really only like it chopped as a filler or sautéed. Still at 14 calories a cup, it will always be on my shopping list. **NOTE-if I don’t clean it right away and get it ready to use, it often will just lay in the fridge drawer until it’s limp and icky.

I just want to encourage you (and remind myself) prepare your go to foods (clean, separate into serving containers, and store) ASAP after you get home from the store!

Saves time in the long run, and calories as well as dollars (from trashing them)

Have a great day!

You are AWESOME!