Yummy Snack

Here's my first food post. Soon I hope you will all start sharing some of your meal plans and food ideas so we can help each other. So here is a great snack to get you started.

Cucumbers and Vinegar

Slice up half of a cucumber. Put it in some kind of plastic container with a lid. Put in 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar(white vinegar works too). Add about 2 TBS water(you may want to add more or less water,the water is to dilute the vinegar). If the cucumbers aren't covered all the way add a little more vinegar and water. Add a dash of salt. Let sit for awhile in the fridge. When I take them out to eat I put pepper on them and enjoy. Obviously the longer they soak the stronger the taste. If you let them sit for more than 2 days or so they are too strong(for me anyway). That is why I only cut up a half a cumber, so I know I can eat them all before they get too strong. When you finish eating them you can just cut up more and use the vinegar again. Cucumbers and vinegar are really cheap! Side note, I was eating them one day and my 2 year old said she wanted some. Of course I thought she would hate it and I didn't really want to share :). I gave her one and she wouldn't leave me alone, she wanted more. You may be surprised that your kids like this too and it is a very easy after school snack.

Nutritional Facts for this snack
Cucumber(serving size 1/2 cup)
7 calories
.3 g proteins
1.9 g carbs
1.0 mg sodium
.1 g fat

Apple Cider Vinegar(serving size 1 cup)
20 calories
every thing else is 0
(you probably only get a calorie or two since we are only using 1/4 cup and you aren't drinking all of it)

Salt
Be careful with your dash of salt.
1/4 tsp salt
590 mg sodium.
* That's about a third of your daily intake.
*Sea salt has the same amount of sodium as salt. Sea salt really isn't any better for you just more natural. It has some other minerals in it but not enough to make it much better for you. I found that coarse kosher salt has 110mg less sodium than iodized and sea salt. That seems like a lot to me considering the serving size is only 1/4 tsp.

Health Benefits of Cucumbers

*The potassium in them is useful for high and low blood pressure problems
*They are the best natural diuretic.
* The help with bloating
* They prevent splitting of your finger and toe nails.

Health Benefits of Cider Vinegar
* Apple Cider vinegar is really good for you, unfortunately most of the cider we can buy in the store has been filtered and distilled so we have lost all of the health benefits. You can buy the raw stuff. How do you know its good? It will look brownish and have stuff floating around in it. I've never noticed if they sell that kind in the store. Next time I go I will check.

Hope you all enjoy!