July 30th, 2009

Orange Muscat Champagne Vinaigrette

This recipe is based on Trader Joe’s Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar.  But you can make it with regular champagne vinegar and the pulp-free juice (use a fine mesh stainer) of a fresh orange.  If champagne vinegar is too pricey or too hard to find, you can substitute with a white balsamic or an apple cider vinegar.

Ingredients

Olive Oil

Trader Joe’s Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar or Champagne Vinegar and the juice of one orange (pulp-free)

Brown sugar

Ground nutmeg

Salt and Pepper

Directions

Olive oil to the ½ blue mark

Vinegar to the top vinegar blue  line

(Add orange juice if necessary)

2 heaping spoonfuls of brown sugar (add more if you want the vinaigrette sweeter)

¼ spoonful of nutmeg

1 dash of pepper

2 dashes of salt

Shake vigorously in the SaladSuccess Shaker

Salad Suggestions

  1. Brown rice, carrots, scallions and some grated ginger
  2. Mesclun or boston lettuce, mandarin oranges, mangos, jicama, red onion

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July 28th, 2009

Two Mustards Vinaigrette

Often, when making potato salad (I love to make it with Yukon Gold potatoes, capers, hard boiled eggs and garden herbs), I want a little more punch to my dressing.  But you can use this dressing on any type of salad, especially a vegetable salad such as one made with cooked green beans with goat cheese and herbs.

Ingredients

Olive oil

Rice wine vinegar

Dijon Mustard

Honey Mustard

Salt and Pepper

Directions

Olive oil to the blue oil  line of the SaladSuccess Shaker

Rice wine vinegar to the top vinegar line

One spoonful of Dijon mustard

2 spoonfuls of Honey mustard

1 dash of pepper

2 dashes of salt

Shake vigorously in the SaladSuccess Shaker

Adapted from Newman’s Own Cookbook by Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner

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July 16th, 2009

Hunger in the Morning

garden-omelet-sl-257615-lI don’t know about you, but some mornings I wake up and I am STARVING, and other mornings a large cup of coffee and fruit does me fine.  This omelet  is what I eat in the morning when I am ravenous. The recipe was given to me by a dear French friend who is diabetic and has seen tremendous changes in her blood sugar by eating these omelets, including weight loss.  I haven’t yet perfected it (guys, jump in and help me) but it tastes good and FILLS YOU UP.  Plus it is low in fat, and full of good things.  For those of you that have overweight partners, they’ll love it.  Just don’t tell them how healthy it is.

Don’t Tell Them It’s Healthy Omelet

1.  Spray a small frying pan with olive oil and heat.

2.  Add ½ (60 calories) to 1 cup (120) of egg whites like Reddi-Eggs.

3.  Add 1 spoonful of flax seed and 2 spoonfuls of oat bran.  Mix well in to the egg whites

4.  When omelet is done, season with salt and pepper and add a lot of toppings otherwise it is very dry and cake-like.  I use no-fat cottage cheese, 3 slices of avocado, and lots of salsa.

5.  Drink lots of water due to the flax and bran.

So try it out, and give me more suggestions on other low-fat toppings.  Now that I think of it, replacing regular salsa with mango salsa should be delicious.  Well, I guess I’ll write that up next week along a wonderful way to preserve and cook salmon.

close-up-layout-722Using this recipe along with a lunch salad with vinaigrette made fresh out of  SaladSuccess shaker will help you eat better and feel great.  Remember SaladSuccess is just $9.95 and gives you perfect vinaigrette and salad dressings every day with no fuss.

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July 14th, 2009

Heart and Weight

close-up-layout-721I have a weight problem (I love great food) and my husband has a heart problem since his normal cholesterol level is high.  One of the caveats of this site is to produce recipes for SaladSuccess TM that are healthy for you and your family.  If you make great salads, you can cut down on the meat portion that you serve to your family.  Having a fun salad topped with 6 shrimp or salmon is healthier and more economical than making Shrimp Scampi for the family.  To paraphrase:  Salad:  It’s not that dull iceberg, glob of dressing  and a wedge of pink tomato anymore.

All my cream recipes are “low-cal” since I use buttermilk and low fat yogurt, lite mayo or lite sour cream. If you want them creamier, you will have to use cream, or the regular sour cream and mayo.  Yogurt is better for you to use than sour cream.  If you have an organic section in your food store, try Nancy’s Low Fat Yogurt.  It is excellent.

Try my Moroccan dressing: it is fabulous and exotic.  Since salad can get boring, you need to add fruits, legumes and nuts.  With heart concerns, make sure you add chickpeas, kasha (buckwheat groats), couscous, white beans.  I love adding mangos – I get them at Costco, let them ripen and the salad is fabulous with walnuts and perhaps goat or feta cheese.  You can’t mess up a salad.

We also found a trick for heart and weight problems.  It’s hummus, a garbanzo bean dip, sandwich spread.  We put it on whole wheat bread (make sure that there is no corn syrup of fructose syrup in the bread), a dab of French mustard, tomatoes, avocados, olives, pickles whatever – EXTREMELY FILLING.  Warren would have 2 for lunch, be stuffed and lose weight.  Beware though – he’s 6′6 and can down a lot more calories than I.

NADINE’S HUMMUS SPREAD

1. Drain 4 cans (low sodium) of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

2. With the metal blade in the food processor, put in the drained chick peas, process and slowly add water until mixture becomes a think smooth paste. It’s about ½ to 1 can of water. This takes about a minute

3. Add 2 stems of scallions (green onions) and a level tsp. of cumin.

4. Add salt to taste (unless you are on a salt free diet).

5. Process until there are no signs of the onions.

6. Put in a container and refrigerate.

close-up-layout-723Using this recipe along with a lunch salad with vinaigrette made fresh out of  SaladSuccess shaker will help you eat better and feel great.  Remember SaladSuccess is just $9.95 and gives you perfect vinaigrette and salad dressings every day with no fuss.

Enjoy.  Comments always appreciated.

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July 2nd, 2009

Tzatzikis – Cucumber Yogurt Salad & Dip

japanes-cucumberIt is that time of year when cool creamy salads are delightful.  This is a wonderful, quickly-made greek salad that doesn’t need dressing or a shaker.  If you are planning to serve this immediately as a salad, there is no need to strain the yogurt or sweat the cucumbers.  However if the tzatzikis is to have a longer shelf life – go ahead, strain the yogurt and sweat out the water from the cucumbers.  Sweating is easy, an hour before making the salad, cut the cucumbers, – I use the fine slicer on the food processor – put in a bowl, salt heavily, and mix well.  An hour later there will be a lot of water in the bowl and the cucumbers will be limp.  Squeeze out the remaining water from the cucumbers and rinse well.   Sweating cucumbers gets rid of the water and any bitter taste.

Ingredients

3 large English Cucumbers – You can use any cucumbers, but if they have large seeds, cut them out.

1 Cup of Yogurt – Greek yogurt is the best, but recently I tried Nancy’s Low Fat Yogurt and it was excellent.   Dannon’s no-fat was a “thumbs down”! Nasty texture.

1 large clove of garlic finely chopped or pressed

5 large sprigs of dill finely chopped

Couple dashes of pepper

Directions

Finely slice the cucumbers – sweat them if necessary

Place in a large bowl

Add yogurt, garlic, dill, pepper

Mix well

Serve with pita bread or chips as a dip.  I love it with the pepper lamb bits I buy at Trader Joe’s or when I make a leg of lamb with rosemary, garlic and anchovies.  Side dish is rice cooked in chicken bullion and curry powder (1.2 a tsp.).

Hint - When I am using this as a dip, I use the shredder attachment of my food processor.  After the cucumbers have sweated, I chop them up as finely as possible.

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