Posts: 17

1. A Fruit Salad Recipe (Good with Wine)

   31.Jul.08, 14:41 EDT
   
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   We tend to think more of summertime as a season for fruit salads, and I've been experimenting lately with them.  Here's the latest one I've come up with.
   
   First, build a bed of lettuce in a regular size plate, or perhaps pasta dish.  In the center, put a healthy mound of cottage cheese.  Around the outer rim of the plate, make a circle of pineapple slices.  Just inside that make another circle of cantaloupe chunks, and inside that a circle of either peaches of orange slices.  You can use strawberries, if that suits your fancy.  Build a cup at the top of your cottage cheese (just mash it down some) and add blueberries or raspberries. 
   
   You don't need a dressing for this salad, but sometimes I put some old fashioned Thousand Islands dressing on it . . . or better yet, some oil and vinegar.  Walnuts are good on this salad too.  Don't get carried away with the dressing.  Just a little, much less than you'd usually use.
   
   As for the wine, you're on your own there.  My wife likes red wines with salads.
   
   One last tip:  Pineapple is overpowering sometimes, makes fruits taste less sweet than usual.  You might want to substitute something for that, if it offends you . . . or for that matter, you can experiment around with all kinds of fruits.  You'll find some that work for you taste.  And if you've just got to have a sandwich with your salad, try tuna or low fat ham sandwiches.  I prefer the ham, since it goes well with fruit.

2. Collard Greens and Ham hocks, with cornbread

   01.Mar.08, 22:58 EST
   
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   First I'll describe the traditional recipe, one that's got lots of fat in it, and then I'll show you one that's more health conscious. 
   
   In a large pot, the bigger the better, put in a little olive oil and add an entire onion (large) well diced.  Add a half dozen strips of bacon and cook that until it's done enough to have provided quite a bit of fat.  Then add a couple of ham hocks and enough water to cover them well.  Let that cook for about ten minutes, maybe fifteen, and then add the collard greens.  Fill the pot to the top, but don't stuff them down into the pot - just fill it up.  Put a lid on the pot and cook it for at least two hours.  Depending on the size of your pot, you might want to cook then three to four hours.
   
   You'll have to check the greens occasionally to make sure they've got enough water.  Don't add a lot of water because the object is the steam the greens rather than boil them . . . at least for the first half hour.  After that, the greens will have cooked down to less than half their original size.  Add just enoug water to make sure the ham hocks are cooking and the greens aren't burning.  Make sure you cook over low heat. 
   
   Now, if you want to cut back on the fat in your greens, leave off the bacon and other oils you used to start the process.  You'll still want to start with a little olive oil and onions, then dump in the greens and add a little water.  They'll still taste fine, but I still add the ham hocks.  Some people add chicken stock, and that's fine, just adds more fat and calories.  And I play around with the recipe and add some sugar (not a lot, but some), and even quite a bit of black pepper.  Some folks also add garlic, but I don't.  The onions work fine for me.
   
   As for the cornbread, you can come up with a decent tasting bread by making it with lowfat buttermilk.  I use white cornmeal, add baking powder, an egg, some canola cooking oil, and one egg.  Mix enough batter to fill a good sized skillet half to the rim.  Some people don't like thick cornbread, but I do.  I also add a spoon of sugar to my cornbread mix.
   
   There's no way to keep collard greens very low in calories and still have a good tasting dish (my opinion), but you can at least make it healthier.  Collards are about as good for you as any vegetable you can eat, so I don't worry about the extra calories all that much.

3. Fried Apples

   24.Jan.08, 08:21 EST
   
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   This one is a no-brainer, and it's good!  You can make this dessert in no time at all, and you can eat it as a topping over pancakes or waffles or french toast as a breakfast food.  I like it best over pancakes, but as often as not I just fry up the apples and eat 'em out of a bowl.  Here's how you fix 'em.
   
   Peel and slice apples into thin strips.  I quarter an apple, then peel it, then slice off pieces that look like little half moons.  Cut 'em the way you like, but you don't really need smaller pieces.  The kind of apples you use isn't all that important, but I like the sour apples best for this. 

    

   Heat a skillet (frying pan) at medium high, melt in an entire stick of margarine (low fat), and dump in the apple slices.  Once they're in the skillet, sprinkle a cup or two of sugar over them (you can use brown sugar here just as well), then about a tablespoon of ground cinnamon, and some salt.  Go easy on the salt, but you need a little.  Cook this for only about five minutes, but no more than ten for sure.  It's ready to eat any time you are, but right off the stove is the best time for this stuff.
   
   OK, here's some adjustments you can make with this dish.  You can improve the health quality of it by leaving off as much of the sugar as you can.  If you need the sweetness, the go with artificial sweet stuff.   Instead of low fat margarine, use canola oil or even olive oil, and you can be more sparing with the oil.
   
   And if you're eating the fried apples over pancakes or waffles or french toast, go with a healthy variety of breads.  With french toast, make sure the breat is wheat bread, or oat breat, or something with lots of grains.  With pancakes, make sure you get some oat flower in the mix.  I usually mix the oat flour half and half with regular flour. 
   
   I promise you, this is as good a breakfast as anybody needs.  You've got the rest of the day to burn off the extra calories you'll get out of this dish.  It's not a diet food, that's for sure, but it's not unhealthy either (if you go easy on the sweets and oils).

4. Potato Salad

   19.Dec.07, 17:40 EST
   
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   This is a simple potato salad that doesn't take long to fix and tastes great . . . if you use the right things.
   
   First, start with red potatoes.  Boil them until they are done but still firm.  If there's one thing that really ticks me off about potato salad, it's when the potato ends up being creamed.  Don't like that, want mine to stay together in chunks.  Don't remove the skins either.
   
   Chop up one small to medium onion in to small pieces.  Don't dice, just get the pieces fairly small. 
   
   Chop up a large red chile and a large green chile.  Stay with a mild to medium chile, not the hot ones.  Don't add chile powder!
   
   Boil several eggs and chop them up.
   
   Add some chopped celery if you like it . . . and you can also add a little corn.  I don't.
   
   Mix gently together in large bowl with low fat mayo.  If you don't like the taste of mayo, then use olive oil and a little vinegar.  I like it either way.  And don't stir this hard, just gently - enough to get it mixed.
   
   Add black pepper and salt to suit your taste.
   
   Goes great with cold slaw and grilled chicken . . . or barbeque. 
   

5. Cold Slaw

   19.Dec.07, 17:31 EST
   
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   This recipe is for quick cold slaw that's decent tasting and very easy to make.  In fact, it's sort of stupid to spend a lot of time making cold slaw.   You can find plenty of fancy cold slaw recipes on the internet, if working hard at it is you thing.  Here's an easy way that's healthy.
   
   Shred the cabbage (any way you like, but an old fashioned hand run grater is the best bet for nice texture for slaw).  One medium size head of cabbage will do the trick.  Put grated cabbage into large bowl, then add mayo.  Forget all the fancy mixtures for cold slaw because all they are is just the basic ingredients of mayo.  I prefer Hellmans, and I get the low fat kind.  You can use the no fat mayo and still have decent tasting cold slaw.
   
   Start mixing in the mayo with a fork and stop now and then to check for consistency.  You don't want too much mayo, so just add it until you're satisfied with the mixture.  Add some black pepper, but go easy on the salt.  You might not need it at all, depending on how much mayo you used.
   
   Some people love vinegar cold slaw (my wife does).  I like it with certain things, but I like it made with mayo better . . . especially if I'm eating it with barbeque chicken.

6. Scrambled Eggs (almost)

   28.Nov.07, 09:46 EST
   
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   Here's a breakfast that will fill you up, taste decent, and not kill you with fat and cholesterol.  It consists of scrambled eggs, toast, and coffee.
   
   First off, coffee is not bad for you.  Drinking several cups in the morning is not going to hurt most people.  As for the toast, use wheat bread (anything other than white bread).  Myself, I like oat bran bread.  And there's a raisin bread that's good.
   
   As for the scrambled eggs, you'll need the following:
   
   2 eggs
   1 carton of eggbeaters (substitute eggs)
   chopped onion
   chopped green chile
   chopped mushrooms
   chopped ham (low fat variety)
   
   Mix real eggs and eggbeaters in bowl, adding a little milk (not much). 
   Put chopped onions, chile, mushrooms, and ham in a skillet and saute them for a few minutes (not long).  Do this with low fat margarine or canola oil or olive oil (not much, perhaps a tablespoon).  Add the egg mixture and cook over medium heat.  You can stir the mixture around if you like, or you can cook it on one side and then turn it over.  Easily serves two people.
   
   Don't ruin the healthy attributes of this by cooking your scrambled eggs in butter or lard or lots of oil.  Use just enough in a teflon pan.  Eat your toast dry . . . no butter or jelly or anything like that.  No sugar or cream in your coffee, either.
   
   

7. Banana Pudding

   27.Nov.07, 23:09 EST
   
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   Making banana pudding is easy . . . if you just follow the directions on the box of pudding and take a little advice about how to make it taste good and be more health friendly.
   
   About the bananas
    
   my complaint with most people's banana pudding is that there's lots of pudding and not enough bananas and wafers.  This is easy to fix.  Make sure you use three large bananas per batch of pudding.  And don't use green ones, make sure the banana is ripe (otherwise you get sour pudding). 
   
   About the wafers
   
   Use low fat wafers, and use plenty of them.  I usually use half a box for one batch of pudding.  You can use regular wafers, but that will ruin healthy nature of your pudding.  Get used to the low fat wafers. 
   
   About the milk
   
   Do not use cream or whole milk, but don't try to make pudding with skim milk or even 1% lowfat milk.   It just won't work.  Use 2% milkfat milk mixing as box states for large batch, which will be three cups.  You'll have to stand over your mixture at this point, heating it to a low boil slowly over medium or less heat.  Stir often.
   
   Putting the pudding together
   
   Cut up three bananas in medium/large bowl (fairly thin horizontal slices) and put them over about a half inch of crumbled wafers.  Line the edge of the bowl with whole wafers.  Pour in hot pudding mix, then add more wafers.  I poke them down into the pudding with a spoon or fork, then cover the top of the pudding with wafers.
   
   Serving banana pudding
   
   Do not refrigerate.  Allow pudding to cool down for about half an hour, then dig in.  I don't know who started the cold banana pudding thing, but they're nuts.  It's better warm.  If there's a lot left over, then I put it away in the refrigerator.  And don't try to nuke it warm again.  That just doesn't work.   So . . . it's either warm or cold, but not rewarmed. 
   
   You can play around and add other fruits if you like, but stay away from whipped cream.  No decent banana pudding deserves to have whipped cream dumped on top of it.
   
   And learn to eat it this way . . . if you hope to live a healthy life.  Eating regular banana pudding is never good for you, especially as you grow older and need to keep off extra weight.