A Salad by Any Other Name

For those who follow my facebook fan page and see what I have for lunch everyday, a common thread emerges.  No matter how I dress them up, or change up the ingredients and artfully arrange the plates...my standard lunch is basically a salad.  Somewhere along the way people fell into this rut of thinking a salad is this giant bowl of iceberg (bleccch) with a couple of dry carrot matchsticks and a lonely radish slice (bag'o salad right?) topped with the most ridiculous amount of ranch dressing and shredded cheese.  Lets not forget the bacon bits, ham cubes, hard boiled egg, fried onions, fried croutons and heaven only knows what else.  That is fairly typical salad bar accoutrements.

The problem with all that is...by the time you add three or four HUNDRED calories worth of ranch (and somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 or 40 fat grams and a whopping 1000 mg of sodium) you might as well have had a cheeseburger.  Then there is the 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar which packs on another 350 calories and 18 grams (at least) of fat and around 600mg of sodium.  The bacon bits can hit you up for around 300 calories for a couple heaping spoonfuls, 12-15 grams of saturated fat, and an obscene amount of sodium.  PLUS...with these nasty little boogers...you're getting a good dose of nitrates/nitrites, artifical smoke flavoring, caramel coloring and usuallly sulfites too.  I mean...come on...you may as well have had the DOUBLE cheeseburger with a large chili cheese fries and a milk shake!  Its outta control!

Years ago I worked for TGI Fridays and we used to joke about these uhm (how do I say this and be politically correct...ok there is no way so Im just saying what I think..as usual)..redneck families that would come crawling out of the hills on Friday and Saturday nights to get a "faincy dinner at that there TGI Fridees" (imagine how it would sound if said by Larry The Cable Guy).  They often came with the entire clan...grandma, ma, pa, all 7 of the youngun's, mama's cousin Bubba twice removed on her uncles, sister's brother's cousins nephew's side and of course the coon hound was tied up out front.  Im being silly of course but there is some truth in the humor.  They were typically an ENTIRE family of obese people...right down to the one in the highchair.  They ordered the highest caloried foods on the menu and LOTS of them...AND they requested ranch dressing in SOUP CUPS.  There were MANY families like that.  I actually heard a lady tell her kid one time...."if you eat yer salad, I'll git you them tater skins."  She gives this kid a plate with 4 or 5 pieces of lettuce on it and 3 ramekins of ranch dressing.  He dipped that lettuce in there and used it like a SPOON to ladle ranch dressing into his mouth.  When he got "done"...all 3 ramekins were empty and there were 3 of the 5 pieces of lettuce still on the plate...limp and greasy from being used as utensils and sucked clean of the last drop of ranch.  She did indeed order him a half order of potato skins and requested we leave off the sour cream and "just gimme one of them soup cups with some ranch dressing."  The kid was maybe 4 and that was 10 or 12 years ago.  I wonder if he's even alive and if so...how advanced is his atherosclerosis by now?  He'd be...oh..about 17 maybe...with the arteries of a 80 year old. 

I usually have a rule or two about salads whether they are classic lettuce salads or comhbinations of chopped veggies, legumes and whole grains. 

Number one is...you get ONE fat!  Let me repeat that...ONE FAT choice.  If you just gotta have ranch dressing...you MEASURE out the proper portion and make it go around but you must forego the cheese, egg, meats, croutons, etc.  If you can't eat a salad unless you have some cheese...at least go with reduced fat and you need to learn to like a sqirt of lemon or lime juice and cracked black pepper as a dressing. 

Number 2...protein.  Everyone should had some lean protein at each meal but you need to choose wisely.  I eat mostly vegan so my protein choices are lentils, black beans, garbanzos...whatever legumes I have around.  To round them out and complete the proteins I typically add a whole grain like cooked cooled kasha, triticale, brown rice, farro, wheat berries, quinoa, bulgar etc.  Whole eggs can fall into both the fat AND the protein category but if you opt for Egg whites alone...you don't have to count them as your one fat.
Even though cheese is also a source of protein...it's fat content (even in lower fat cheese) is high enough that you would need to count it as both.  Now...you may add additional protein WITH the cheese if it is lean enough..like egg white or poached skinless chicken...but lay off the deli type meat (for MANY reasons), fried bits of breaded chicken, bacon, ham etc. 

Number 3....carbohydrates.  I know this one is gonna hurt.  If you have followed the first two rules and kept your protein lean and your fat limited to one choice you can afford a limited amount of carbs.  Is there anyone who knows what ONE serving of carbohydrates is?  It's 1/2 cup of a grain (and don't waste it on white junk), ONE slice of bread.  If you've chosen a vegan salad and used say Kasha or quinoa or whatever with some beans...you're done with the carbs!  These are double duty ingredients.  If not...you can have a serving of croutons but you need to take care that they don't bleed over into the fat rule.  Making them yourself is best.  Dried fruits would fall in this category.  These are your fast carbs...they are more or less like mainlining sugar.  *Legumes and whole grains are slow carbs (see next paragraph)

Number 4....the veggies.  Aim for a minimum of 6 different veggies preferrably in different colors because each color has its own unique set of antioxidents, minerals and vitamins.  My favorite is what I like to call the "Twenty Veggie Supreme"....it's just what the name implies; twenty (yes...2dot0) differnt raw vegetables.  I usually make a huge bowl and nosh on it for two days.  There are carbs here as well but they are slow carbs...carbs that the body must digest and break down into sugars to burn for energy. 

That's pretty much it for Jill's Crash Course on Salads.  Now...you're probably saying...uhm BORING!  It doesn't have to be though.  Let me give you an example of how to "work" the rules.  Divide your serving so that you CAN have a little salad dressing AND a sprinkle of cheese.  Have a half serving of whole grain (1/4 cup quinoa or whatever) so you can add a couple small wedges whole grain pita.  Half a serving of sunflower seeds (fat) and half a serving of dressing or olive oil (fat).  This gives you the variety but doesn't break the rules. 

Use salad making as a means to clean out the fridge too.  You know..I don't care if you had double coupons, buy one get one free AND it was on sale too...if you end up throwing it away...it was expensive!  You still wasted your money.  Consider using green bags to extend the life of your produce.  They WORK and they are reusable up to 10 times!  What a great resource.  I got an herb keeper from Pampererd Chef and it's awesome.  I put a bunch of cilantro in it and it was still good 10 days later.  I hate spending money on herbs and having them go bad in 2 days. 

Just keep in mind...a salad by any other name is still a salad.  You don't HAVE to eat lettuce to have a salad.  Be creative, innovative and even if it's just for your...make it look pretty!

Here are a few of my salad lunches........

a twist on a greek salad, with a couple shards of feta and 3 greek olives

notice the variety of color and texture of the veggies

and the half serving of homemade lemon tahini dressing is strategically placed where it will taste the best..in other words, drizled on the veggies that go best with the dressing.

this is my take on a thai noodle salad with crispy cukes and radishes.  There are far fewer noodles than you think because I cut the noodle serving in half so I could enjoy the agave I used to make the sweet and savory dressing.  I cut the veggies into "noodle like" shapes (long shreds) to give the illusion that there are more noodles.  The entire salad was tossed in the dressing and marinated in the fridge for half an hour to let the dressing soak in.  The dressing was a serving of fat divided between olive oil and sesame oil (for authentic flavor).

Even though I call these "Spring Rolls", closer inspection reveals they are basically a salad wrapped in rice paper.  Cute huh?  A colorful array of fresh raw veg, my fast carb is the rice paper, my fat is the coconut milk dipping sauce.  But look how impressive it plates up?  Whose going to look at that and say...ugh, raw veggies AGAIN!

here's the close up...nature is amazing isn't it? You can wolf down the whole plate sauce and rice paper wraps included for less than 300 calories!

Here's an example of a good high protein lunch.  A simple salad of white beans mixed with chopped veg and dressed with a lime juice vinaigrette (olive oil is the fat) served with a side of black rice.  The beans and rice were actualy a half portion each (because of the carbs..not the protein) and the other veg helped fill it out.  I used an edible cup of Radiccio Leaf for the salad.  It was delicious by the way!

This was a fun one...a bento style (fancy Japanese lunches in laquered boxes) lunch without the box.  Im endlessly fascinated with Bento but usually don't have the time to fuss this much.  ONce in a while it's fun though.  The protein and fat are in the form of roasted red pepper hummus that I decoratively piped into a radiccio cup.  It serves as a dip for all the veggies.  I used some watermelon for a sweet carb boost and as you can see...a myriad of colored veggies.  Isn't is stunning?

close up...see the hummus?

These are just a few examples of sophisticated and healthier salad making.  Play around with it and come up with your own creative ideas.  I look at the salad bowl/plate as a blank canvas and wonder...what can I create today?

(c)copyright Jill Anderson

The Homegrown Gourmet

Pineapple Chicken and Very Veggie "Fried" Brown Rice

I don't concider myself a great cook of  Chinese (American Style) food by any stretch of the imagination.  Frankly, it's just not my cup of green tea.  That is mainly because of the salt, fat and calorie content AND the dubious "other" ingredients found in your standard slop trough buffet joints.  However, I do think there are some wonderful flavor combinations to be explored and one of my favorites is the marriage of pineapple, chicken and bell peppers.  That being said, I set out to determine if a healthier, lighter version could be made.  It turns out that it CAN!
It just so happens we had it for dinner last night. 

If you are looking for the thickly breaded, deep fried nuggets of chicken in a cloyingly sweet pineapple sauce, you won't find it here.  The chicken is flash sauted and then simmered in sauce.  A small amount of potato starch mixed with chicken broth at the end thickens the sauce just enough to glaze the chicken and vegetables.

The brown rice is more veggies than it is rice.  That was deliberate.  We eat late and I try to keep my evening carbs from starches low but I still wanted a side of "fried rice".  With this recipe, I could have a generous scoop (3/4 cup) and still not exceed the mere 1/3 cup of rice I would normally eat.  The other side is one of my all time faves in the produce aisle...crisp, sweet Sugar Snap Peas.  Flash sauted and sprinkled with a few drops of Sesame Oil and some toasted black sesame seeds... they are addicting!  I have to make 1 1/2 pounds for two people.  One pound for me and the rest for my husband. 

Pineapple Chicken

1 pound organic boneless, skinless chicken breast, 1" cubes

2 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 cup organic diced red bell pepper

1/2 cup organic diced green bell pepper

1/2 cup diced onion*

2 cloves pressed garlic

2 cups chopped organic Roma Tomatoes

1 1/2 cups cubed fresh pineapple

1 cup unsweetened pinapple juice**

2 tablespoons organic brown sugar or succanat

2 tablespoons organic apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon reduced sodium tamari

1/2 inch fresh ginger, grated

1//4 cup water or reduced sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon organic potato, corn or tapioca starch

1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil

slivered scallions

toasted black sesame seeds

Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan.  Add the chicken and brown lightly.  Chicken does not have to be cooked through at this point.  Remove chicken with a slotted spoon and set aside.  Saute the bell peppers and onion for 2-3 minutes; stir in garlic and cook 1 minute more.  Add diced tomato, pineapple juice, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, tamari and fresh ginger.  Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat and add chicken back to pot.  Simmer covered for 10 minutes.  Carefully stir in pineapple chunks; return lid and simmer additonal 5 minutes until pineapple is tender.  In a small bowl, dissolve starch in chicken broth or water.  Increase heat to pineapple chicken until it just starts to boil.  Stir in starch slurry until sauce thickens and looses it's cloudy appearance.  Stir in sesame oil for flavor.  Garnish with sliced scallions and toasted black sesame seeds. 

*It is not necessary to purchase organic garlic or onions unless you just want to.  Their pungent oils are natural deterants to pests and the vegetables are therefore not sprayed. 

**You may substitute organic canned pineapple chunks in natural juice.  Just drain the chunks and set aside while the dish simmers.  Adding the pineapple along with chicken and simmering for the full 15 minutes will just disentigrate it.  You may add the canned pineapple after the dish is finsihed and stir to heat through.

Very Veggie "Fried" Brown Rice

1/2 cup (dry) organic brown rice

1 1/2 cups water or unsalted chicken broth

2 teaspoons olive oil

about 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup diced onion

1/4 cup organic diced red bell pepper

1/4 cup organic diced green bell pepper

1/4 cup organic celery, diced

1/2 cup organic carrots, diced

1/4 cup thawed organic green peas

1/4 thawed organic corn kernels

1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil

1 tablespoon reduced sodium tamari

scallions to garnish

Cook brown rice in unsalted water or chicken broth until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.  Uncover rice and fluff with a fork; set aside.  Heat olive oil in large saute pan.  Add both bell peppers and onion; saute 2-3 minutes.  Stir in celery and carrots.  You will need to have extra chicken broth on the side to add to the pan since there isn't very much oil.  Cook veggies until crisp tender.  Stir in the cooked rice, thawed peas and corn, sesame oil and tamari.  Stir "fry" 2-3 minutes adding additonal broth as needed to keep rice from sticking.  Serve with pineapple chicken, garnised with scallions and black sesame seeds.

Sesame Sugar Snap Peas

This really isn't a recipe at all...too easy!  Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large skillet.  Add desired amount of pea pods.  Saute until crisp tender.  Sprinkle with a few drops of sesame oil and sesame seeds; toss to coat.

This meal serves 6 people

 Per serving:  328 calories, 7g fat, 44g carbohydrates, 22g protein, 7g fiber, 481mg sodium

*Amounts are as close as I can figure out without professional nutritional analysis so don't hold my feet to the fire.  They are close enough for government work!

Zen Dinner

Enjoy!

(c) copyright Jill Anderson

The Homegrown Gourmet

Portobello Pizzeti

The Portobello mushroom makes a great platform for building a healthy little personal pizza.  They are large enough to hold toppings and meaty enough to withstand baking without falling apart.  Plus...they are delicious! One portobello has as much potassium as a large banana.  For those with high blood pressure potassium plays a crucial role in escorting sodium out of the body and thereby helping to decrease blood pressure.  If you take a NON potassium sparing diuretic, chronically low potassium levels can cause Hypokalemia.  Potassium rich foods include dark leafy greens, mushrooms, oranges, legumes, tomatoes, kiwi, peaches and bananas of course!  Not that this article is specifically about potassium but...one of the best sources of potassium and my personal favorite is young green coconut water.  I'll take that on in another post soon! 

As to our recipe...there is no grain crust for these pizzeti or "little pizzas".  The mushroom caps are the "crust".  Filled with low fat, high protein ground white turkey and low sodium, lycopene rich marinara sauce; they certainly aren't missing any of the flavor!  I use reduced fat (organic) mozzarella cheese but if you have dairy allergies you could substitute a rice milk based cheese product.  Check the label for the words casein, caseinates or whey even on cheeses that claim to be non-dairy.  These ARE milk proteins and will aggrivate your dairy allergy.

Portobello Pizzeti

8 extra large organic portobello caps

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 lb. organic ground turkey breast

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium green bell pepper, diced

2 cloves pressed garlic

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried Italian Herb blend

1 1/2 cups Muir Glen organic Marinara Sauce

1 cup organic reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese

*I always have homemade marinara in my freezer but I realize everyone doesn't so I wrote the recipe using Muir Glen for the sake of figuring out the nutritonal content of the dish.

**Using a dark/white ground turkey blend will significantly affect the fat content of this dish

Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat and add olive oil.  Break up ground turkey into the hot skillet and cook until most of the pink is gone.  Stir in chopped onions, bell peppers and garlic.  Saute 3-5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Season with black pepper and Italian herbs.

Stir 1 cup of the marinara sauce into the turkey mixture.

Set the prepared turkey aside and clean the mushrooms.  Wipe with a damp towel to remove any loose dirt.  Remove stems and scrape out dark "gills" with a spoon.

Place prepared musroom caps in baking dishes.  You will probably need two to hold all 8 mushrooms.  Divide turkey mixture evenly among the 8 portobellos. 

Use the remaining 1/2 cup marinara sauce to top the filled mushrooms.

Sprinkle each "little pizza" with 1/8 cup of shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese.

Bake uncovered in preheated 350F oven for 25 minutes.  Enjoy!

Each Portobello "Pizza" has 170 calories, 4.5g fat, 250mg sodium, 11g carbs, 3g fiber and 20g protein

I generally serve 2 per person with a nice green salad

A 2-mushroom serving has a whopping 1000mg of potassium!

(c) copyright Jill Anderson

The Homegrown Gourmet

Pudding It All Together

I mentioned yesterday that if this turned out good, I would post the recipe today.  You never know until you test since the reduced fat/no fat dairy products COULD affect the texture of the finished dish.  Plus, I'm always looking for ways to get the refined sugar out of desserts.  Since I don't advocate the use of artificial sweeteners (even though we all manage to get a hit of sucralose or aspartame from SOMEWHERE), playing with fruit purees or stevia based sweeteners may affect the quality of the finished product too.  I generally have good luck but every now and then even the best cooks drop a culinary bomb! 

I've been lucky lately with the stevia blends.  I haven't tried baking with them yet so I don't know how well they'll do.  However, for puddings or fruit sauces or things of that nature that you can sweeten AFTER removing from the heat...they are working out great.  Once I've gotten over my kickboxing induced impairment and I can actually STAND without supporting myself on the counter, I plan to get in there and bake up something with some Truvia in it and see what happens.  I'm feeling rather scone-ish at the moment.  Oh rahhhther scone-ish...with a spot of jam and a steaming cup' o good Earl Grey!  It must wait until I can get off this blasted heating pad though.

In the meantime, these puddings I've been whipping up are quick and easy.  Their low calorie, fat and sugar counts make them even more appealing.  Plus, I am enourmously proud of the fact that they are NOT all junked up with sucralose and aspartame.  Oh, I don't know...I suppose if you don't mind a little chlorine with your sugar (sucralose) or some formaldahyde or ethinol (breakdown by-products of aspartame) in your chocolate pudding then knock yourself out (literally).  I digress.....

Back to the pudding....or as I said in the title....Pudding it all together.  I am discovering that using such greatly reduced butterfat products can prove challenging to texture and mouthfeel more than taste.  Sometimes you have to take a different approach in technique.  The classic Italian version of sweet polenta pudding has sweetened mascarpone either dolloped on top or lightly swirled through the warm pudding.  Well sure...with the cream and whole milk thats already in the body, the mascarpone is rather like "icing on the cake".  Its a stand alone ingredient.  With the lightened version, I found that actually melting the low fat whipped cream cheese into the hot polenta gave it the creaminess that it lacked from just being cooked in skim milk.  The drizzle of honey in the classic is yummy but superfilous.  The pudding is sweet enough without it.  Yes, you could a spoonful of all-fruit natural jam swirled through your pudding instead of my lighter strawberry coulis but again, we are back to calories and sugar that you really don't need to make this dessert work.  I actually preferred the simple strained strawberrie sauce.  The fresh, ever so slightly tart tang of the berries was a perfect foil for the thick, creamy polenta.  I've gone and made myself hungry now!  In any event...try it and see for yourself. 

Creamy Vanilla Polenta Pudding with Fresh Strawberry Coulis

2 cups organic fat free milk
pinch kosher salt
4 teaspoons Florida organic sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped
1/2 cup (dry) non-gmo fine grain polenta
3 packets stevia blend sweetener (I use Truvia)
4 tablespoons low fat whipped cream cheese ( I use weight watcher's brand)
2 cups fresh hulled strawberries
1-2 additonal packets of stevia sweetener

In a 1 1/2 quart saucepan combine the fat free milk, kosher salt, sugar and vanilla bean.  When mixture begins to boil; gradually stir in polenta.  Cook 3-4 minutes; stirring constantly until polenta is thickened.

Remove from heat and discard vanilla pod.  Stir in 3 packets of Truvia and the low fat cream cheese.   Mix well; until cheese is melted.  You may add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract for extra vanilla flavor if desired.

Divide among 6 dessert dishes or ramekins and set aside while you prepare strawberry topping.

Place strawberries in blender or food processor and process until smooth.  You may need to add a few drops of water to help blend.  Strain out seeds and sweeten with 1-2 addtional packets of stevial sweetener. 
Swirl strawberry coulis into the warm polenta puddings.

Makes 6 servings
Each serving:  105 calories, 18g carbs, .5g fat, 1g fiber, 3g protein, 75mg sodium

*These puddings are so low calorie/fat that you can afford a nice dollop of low fat or fat free Greek style vanilla yogurt on top!  Don't forget to add the extra calories though.

(c) copyright Jill Anderson
The Homegrown Gourmet