Don't you just love summer time!  Besides being able to enjoy fresh air and sunshine (well hopefully most of the time), camping trips, running through sprinklers. having campfires and more we also get to indulge in many fruits and veggies in season and being able to buy them fresh and local.   The quality and variety of the local products  really exceeds what you find in a conventional grocery store.  When we do shop at buy fresh food locally we are putting money directly back into the local economy and the produce is fresher.   Eat what is in season right now.  It is not only cheaper but tastes amazing.  Of course what is in season depends on where you live but generally speaking here is a list of what is in season in June and July (and I am sure I am missing some): 

Fruit

• strawberries
• cantaloupe
• watermelon
• raspberries
• cherries
• blueberries
• peaches
• kiwi
• apricots
• plums
• of course bananas seem to pretty much always be in season

Vegetables

• corn
• lettuce
• cucumbers
• tomatoes
• green beans
• summer squash

Wow, I am making myself hungry.  Doesn't this list just make your mouth water :)  it is a great idea for you to can some of your favorite fruits or vegetables during the months that they're cheap.  So stock up while you can.  Summer is a great time to make jam too.  My family loves strawberry and raspberry jam and it is healthier to make it yourself plus you get the added bonus of knowing there aren't any bugs in your jam when you make it yourself :)  We all know there are some smashed up bugs in those jars in the grocery store.  Yuck!  I worked in the berry fields enough in my youth to know what goes in there.  Of course I am not saying that little ol' me let a bug or 2 go by me on the berry belt just because it was too big and nasty to touch, I would never do that :)  Ahhh, fond memories.  I also buy extra berries to freeze and have year round for my smoothies.  I can't believe how many berries I go through.  I have a smoothie every single day and they just need berries to taste good.

Ok, time for me to get a snack.  

 

A new find – Pure organic bars.  They were created when looking for healthy vegetarian snacks.  Their requirements when trying to create these yummy bars were: They would only use real ingredients, organic fruits (certified organic, which means 95% of their ingredients are organic) and healthy nuts untouched by harmful herbicides and pesticides. No refined sugars, no chemicals, no genetically-modified stuff. They wanted ingredients rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and omega-3 fats. Most importantly, it had to taste amazing…and they are gluten free…yippee!   Sounds pretty great right!  Sign me up to try them.

The bars have between 3-5 grams of fiber and 5-7 grams of protein.  You won’t find refined sugar in these bars.   Awesome news!   Hate it when they hide that stuff where it isn’t needed.   They use agave nectar as their sweetener.   Keep in mind though that these bars range around 200 calories each, so I wouldn’t recommend more than one in a day or even necessarily every day but they make a good snack.  There are good to have in your car or purse for when you get stuck between meals and need something to grab quickly or hey, throw them in your kid’s lunch.  I just really like when I find something and read the ingredient list and can actually read and know what every ingredient is that is listed.

They sent me so many flavors to try and I was looking forward to sampling each of them.  Here they are in order of my favorite to least favorite.   I enjoyed the texture of each bar.  Nice and crunchy, not gummy or grainy which some bars I have found seem to be like.  Apple cinnamon (wow, holy taste bud alert – in love), wild blueberry, banana coconut (love me some coconut), cranberry orange, chocolate brownie, dark chocolate berry, chocolate almond, peanut raisin crunch, cherry cashew bar, super fruit nutty crunch (this is the only one I did not like the flavor of).  Wow don’t those flavors sound inviting?  You want to try them?  If you are local you can find them REI, otherwise check them out online.