Cheap Healthy Eats - Another Recession Buster - the 3rd

If you're middle aged like me, perhaps your nest egg is drowning in the toilet, with the stock market and the economy. "It would be a real shame, if you weren't alive and healthy, long enough to see the recovery," said Vito the Godfather. So here are a few healthy eats, to keep you staying alive, no matter how old you are. And they are cheap enough to keep you away from the loan sharks.

If you've come to the conclusion that large food conglomerates are trying to kill you with their processed food, believe me you're not paranoid. If your kids are running wild through the house on huge sugar highs it's time to make some healthy changes.

1) Why not quit eating candy for breakfast? I mean those expensive cereals loaded with sugar. Serve some hot oatmeal. Boo, hiss, eat gruel for breakfast? What is this the Middle Ages, or a concentration camp?

Try putting some delicious, golden raisins or dried cranberries in your oatmeal. If you toss the raisins into the pot first, they'll taste very tender. Serve with some bananas and seasonal fruit in the summer time. Sprinkle with cinnamon. You might actually get to like the stuff. I do! Get the 42 oz. container of quick oats at Aldi for $1.79 and eat for pennies. I like to cook it in a non-stick pot for easy clean up. Oatmeal is the cholesterol killer.

2) Stop drinking soda. Regular soda is loaded with corn syrup, and can give you diabetes, and the diet soda is not too good for you, either.

Herbal Teas

You can drink healthy herbal teas. But the Celestial Seasons tea bags, can get rather expensive, and time consuming, if you brew a tea bag every time you get thirsty. Here's what to do: You can heat up a pot of water and throw about 3 tea bags in and brew a whole quart or more. Put the pot in the refrigerator and leave the tea bags in. Then pour into a pitcher. Whenever you get thirsty, just heat up a cup in the microwave. For most teas, you can leave the tea bags steep in the pitcher for a couple of days, and add water.

A better alternative is to buy bulk herbal teas and brew up enough with a large tea ball, or two, for a half gallon. The cheapest, high quality, herbal teas can be purchased at http://vitaminwarehouse.com in NYC.

Their teas are excellent quality and come in factory sealed 1 lb. bags for freshness.

I always keep a pitcher of peppermint tea ($4.53 lb.) in the refrigerator. You can make your own Red Zinger by combining Hibiscus (10.96 lb) and Rose Hips. http://vitaminwarehouse.com/search/index.cfm?query=hibiscus&Type=Products

The Rose Hips are loaded with natural vitamin C. When brewing Hibiscus blends you can boil the tea in the pot for twenty minutes. That's the way they brew it in Mexico. It makes a great strong blend and you can water it down in the pitcher. If you put some sugar in, it the kids will think it tastes like red punch.

Peanut Butter

You know those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the kids like so much? Did you ever look at the ingredients on the labels? The stuff is little more than candy! Are you tired of the bastards messing with your food? Let's hope your family doesn't end up a failed chemistry experiment. What to do:

Buy Crazy Richards 100% Natural Peanut Butter. What's in there? Peanuts. That's it folks. A 16 oz. jar is a little more expensive than Jiffy and the others, but who cares? A 16oz. jar makes a lot of sandwiches. You can buy it at your local Acme Food Mkt. Look for a sale and stock up.

Try switching your jelly for 100% apple butter. Not the Musselman's. That stuff is loaded with more chemicals than a bottle of shoe polish. In the Philadelphia area, an old favorite is Kime's Apple Butter. What's in there: 100% apples, sweetened with apple cider made from, (you guessed it), 100% apples. It comes from orchards located 10 miles from Gettysburg PA. It's my favorite.

Here's the link:

http://www.kimescidermill.com/about.html

Kime's Cider Mill will ship you a 6 pack of their 17oz jars ($2.50 a piece) if you can't get it locally. Apple butter lasts a long time before expiring. I buy mine at Whole Foods Mkt. If they're out of it, they'll let you special order it and then hold it, until you come in.

I have a nasty habit. No, not the one with little boys, but another one. I, (come closer) like to snack late at night. Maybe it's genetic. Well if you're like me, then stop eating those salty, artery clogging potato chips. What to do:

Go nuts.

People used to say that nuts were fattening. No more. It turns out that nuts have the good fat, the kind that keeps you alive and healthy. In fact, I recently read that pistachio nuts are a super food. Who knew? Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen, the ones on Oprah, who wrote, "You - The Owner's Manual," recommend eating several walnuts a day. In 2007, Dr. Perricone had this to say about nuts, on the Oprah show: "These super foods function in a variety of ways such as in: weight loss, cancer prevention, heart disease prevention, and diabetes." As long as it's vegetable and the label's from God and not Kraft or General Foods, I'm all for it.

The cheapest place on line to get all your, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, healthy snacks, and candy is, http://nuttyguys.com/ They're a small business located in Salt Lake City, Utah. They ship for free if you order 20 lbs. or more. 20 lbs. may seem like a lot, but let me explain. You can buy a bunch of cheap stuff like golden raisins $2.25 a lb. (they are sweeter and juicier than regular raisins), and shelled sunflower seeds $1.75.lb. Sesame sticks (Cajun hot - $2.75 lb.). If you split the order with a few friends, before you know it, you're at 20 lbs. They carry every kind of dried fruit, nut, and snack, you can imagine. And they sell all kinds of chocolate nuts and pretzels, really cheap. (Chocolate pretzels $3.00 a lb.) Hey! Keep away from the candy!

If you buy the plain raw nuts, and shelled seeds, try roasting them in the oven on a baking tray at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes to make them crunchy. It works. Most nuts sold, are roasted in unhealthy oils and salt, which is why I purchase the raw nuts. Mix your nuts and dried fruits together and make some healthy trail mix. Try the dried Turkish Apricots ($3.75 lb.)

Check out my other Recession Buster articles, subtitled, Tricks from a Certified Cheapskate. Check out, The World's Best Stores for Bargains, by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Have you ever wondered how commercial cleaning services save money buying their supplies at wholesale prices? This is the real deal. I have links to the actual products I've been using for over 15 years in the house cleaning business, where to purchase them, and instructions on how to use them.

I also show you which cheap household items like baking soda and ammonia you can use, and the ones I don't recommend. See my article on cleaning supplies, by scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

Here's the link to all my articles: http://www.associatedcontent.com/rss/user_317872.xml

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