Summer in Paris

Whoops, typo I meant Pairs.

It’s Hot time, summer in the city which means lots of salads, vegetables and fruits are fresh and yummy. Perhaps you also want to eat more vegetables to lose that bikini weight. Then, these pairs are for you.

Learn to think like a vegetarian. People often ask me, “If you don’t eat meat, what do you eat?” Then they look at me and realize I don’t miss too many meals.  You may have decided to leave meat out of a meal or two, or all. Since you cannot replace something with nothing here are seven pairings that you can incorporate into your summer menus for variety, flavor and nutrition.

Think outside of the butcher box.

Lime and Salad

Limes are high in vitamin C and a mild anti-inflammatory. They help freshen flavors and can replace salt. Squeeze a lime wedge over a fresh lettuce salad and it will pop.  You won’t need as much dressing, saving calories

Cantaloupe and Avocado

This is a powerful pair. High in vitamins A and C and mildly anti-inflammatory. Avocado has lots of good fat.

Slice the melon into cubes and serve with slices of avocado.  Ration 3 parts melon to 1 part avocado. The creamy avocado complements the cool moist melon. This makes a great breakfast, snack or dessert

Tomato  and watermelon

You likely know both these fruits are good for you. They’re full of vitamins, moisture and fiber. Both are ripe at the same time of year.  Buy them fresh, from a Farm stand if possible.  Luscious juicy tomatoes are a delight with luscious juicy watermelon.  Cube both and serve in equal amounts. So cool and refreshing, a great salad or appetizer.

Tomato and mozzarella

AKA Caprese.  Fresh slices of red ripe tomatoes, alternated with thin slices of fresh mozzarella. Salt lightly, sprinkle with olive oil and strips of fresh basil. Not exactly low in calories, but the olive oil is a good fat (MUFA) and fresh mozzarella is a healthy cheese.

You must use fresh mozzarella, the kind wrapped in a ball or floating in water. Lower in salts and fats. Not the pizza topping stuff grated or sliced in baggies. Fresh mozzarella is creamy and has mild flavor.

Eat this as a salad or put onto a pizza crust and bake. Then it becomes margherita pizza. Or toast bread in olive oil, lay a  couple slices of fresh mozzarella on top, cover with tomato slices and shred fresh basil over the top.   This is my go-to lunch this week.

Eggs and Olives

These two round beauties will kick up main dish salads. I use them for flavor and texture, not nutrition.  Although eggs do provide some protein.

Use the eggs hard-boiled. I finally have found a fool-proof way to cook them. More than once on a summer day I put eggs on the stove to boil then went outside for a while. Time passed and I got engrossed in gardening or talking to neighbors or splashing in the pool.  Later as I came inside there was a terrible sulphur smell, the pan had boiled dry and the kitchen was full of exploded eggs.  (Can you relate?)

Here’s how I boil them now.  I place 2-4 eggs in a sauce pan, cover with water and put on to boil. I stay in the kitchen until they are boiling well. Turn off the heat, Put a lid onto the pan and set the timer to 10 minutes. If you actually hear the timer when it dings, drain the eggs under cold running water until eggs are cool then put into refrigerator to cool them fully.  The worse that can happen if you forget about the eggs and run to the store or take a walk, will be the eggs are overcooked, but not exploded.

Olives.  For salad additions I prefer the green ones to the black. They provide more of a bite and salt to the salad.

Chopped up, both eggs and olives can be added to any main dish salad. They add flavor to potato salads, tuna macaroni salad, pasta salads.

Peas and mushrooms

I once read that together these create a complete protein.  Not sure if that is accurate, but they do pair well. Together they enhance warm and cold dishes.

I am talking about the actual peas, You can use snap pea or snow peas but a bag of frozen peas is a must have for anyone who wants to eat more vegetables. Inexpensive, they wait for you until you want them.

Thaw the peas and drain; add to lettuce or other cold salads.

Same with raw mushrooms.  Do not rinse mushrooms, this will make them rubbery. To clean, wipe them with a slightly damp paper towel.  Use the inexpensive, easy to find white button mushrooms from super markets.

Sautee mushrooms to add them to hot dishes, especially rice. Peas don’t really need to cook, just toss them into the hot dish at the end of cooking time. Try them in pasta dishes or together as a side dish

Beans and cheese

Here is a good way to add protein, fiber and dairy to your vegetarian diet. You probably already love the taste of a yummy a bean burrito with cheese.

Garbanzo beans, kidney beans, cannellini beans, red beans, white beans, black beans, whichever you prefer.  Per cup canned beans have 215 to 300 calories, about 50% of daily fiber and 12 to 19 grams of protein. And they are inexpensive, flavorful and filling.

Serve beans out of the can and drained. Toss beans into any vegetable salad. They will add texture, flavor and nutrition.  Sprinkle some grated cheese over the salad and serve. Break up tortilla chips over the top for added texture. Or, let the kids use the chips as a tool instead of a fork.

You can serve this as a main dish for lunch or a side dish with supper.

From a ditch full of S… to my plate

I don’t know who first thought about digging  into a pile of manure to dig up ferns. But I for one am thrilled that someone discovered asparagus.  Of course my veggie-hating daughter calls them Aspara –gas.   Just leaves more for me.

Asparagus is low in calories, a mild anti-inflammatory and is high in vitamins A and C.

Asparagus is a vegetable that you love or hate.  For those who love these green spears let’s share the love.

First cleaning them.

My husband can just grab them and chew them raw. Without even washing them.  Ick.  I need them cooked, but just enough, otherwise they get stringy.

Asparagus are like women, some are tall, some are short, Some are fat some are skinny. Some are tough, others are tender.

Michigan Asparagus are grown locally and always snapped, not cut from the field.  Still I think the bottoms are tough so the first thing I do is snap off the bottoms.  They snap at the point where tough ends and tender begins.

Fat spears tend to have a tough skin so I use a peeler to scrape off the skin and those little buds. Thin spears are fine without a trim.

Wash them well or you might get grit in your teeth.  Sloshing in a bowl of salted water works best. Then drain.

Three good ways to cook them, unless you’re like my hubby and like them raw:

Saute

Blanch

Roast

To Saute, just heat butter and/or oil in skillet.  You can add flavors first by first cooking sliced shallots or minced garlic. Toss in the cleaned spears, add  salt, pepper and other spices and within 5-7 minutes they will be ready to eat immediately or add to other dishes.

To Blanch:  Boil heavily salted water.  Slice the spears into 1 to 2 inch chunks. Add to the boiling water for just 2-3 minutes.  Remove and cool immediately   Best way to cool is to drop into a bowl of ice water. This method is especially good if you plan to use the spears in a salad.  The trick is to dry the cooled spears before adding to the salad.  If they are left wet, they’ll water down the salad and the dressing will not stick to them. Dry them on a clean (please) dish towel.

Roasting. Yum.  This works in a hot oven or on the  outdoors grill.  Clean and place on a cookie sheet or grill pan. Pour a thin dressing of olive oil over all. Roll them around a bit so they’re all coated. (you can also add a bit of balsamic vinegar)  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and other spices as desired. Roasting time can be 6-8 minutes or longer if you like them crispy and carmelized.  As they cook, occasionally turn with tongs.

Once they are cooked you can add to pasta or rice dishes, salads, other vegetables, wrap in bacon or filo, the options are endless.  Paula Deen has a great recipe for an asparagus sandwich.

Here’s what is for dinner tonight:

Ravioli and asparagus.

Ingredients

12 oz packaged of refrigerated or frozen (thawed) ravioli.  (I am using 3 cheese ravioli)

1 lb of asparagus

2 Tablespoons of sliced onion (preferably red or shallots )

Salt and pepper

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin olive oil

3 Tablespoons butter

12 oz package of sliced mushrooms

¾ cup prepared Alfredo sauce

One large tomato cut into ½ inch dice.

Garlic powder and dried oregano to taste

Pinch of dried red pepper

Grated parmesan cheese

Total time 15 minutes

For my husband this will be not quite 2 servings

For me, it’ll be 4

Boil a large pot of heavily salted water

While that cooks, prepare your asparagus, clean, trim and cut into 1 1/2inch pieces

Drop asparagus into boiling water, Cook for 3-4 minutes. Scoop spears out of water into colander. Bring water back to a boil and cook ravioli until almost done.

While the pasta cooks Saute onion and garlic in skillet and 2 Tbls olive oil When soft add asparagus spears  and mushrooms. Add in butter as the mushrooms soak up the oil   Cook until mushrooms are soft. Stir in alfredo sauce. Stir in diced tomato. Add seasonings and spices. Scoop ravioli from boiling water. (Reserve pasta water)  Stir gently until combined. Add pasta water ¼ cup at a time until the sauce is smooth.

Remove from heat. Shred a bit of parmesan cheese and serve.

To add protein use chunks of cooked chicken, tuna or salmon.

Olive This Lunch

Here’s what Vegetarian recipe Nazis who put nutrition above taste will never tell you: You don’t have to eat brussel sprouts, carrots, tomatoes only.  There are yummy vegetables.  I give you:  Mushrooms and olives. Yes, these are vegetables.  If you goal is to power pack vitamins, then go for the broccoli, Lima beans and cauliflower.

If you goal is to eliminate or reduce meat, but still want a satisfying lunch, you’ll love this lunch too.

Olives and mushrooms offer mild anti-inflammatory qualities. (Important to we who have Lupus)

Olives have low cholesterol, provide vitamin E,  but they are a bit high in sodium.

Mushrooms have low sodium, offer many benefits including, fiber, Protein, vitamin C, Zinc and other minerals.

Now that we’ve rationalized consuming tasty veggies Here’s a great lunch.

Basically it’s a quesadilla. Quesadillas are  quick, tasty ways to have a non-meat lunch.  You can have them for supper too,  Offer a few variations and each family member can get what they want. Other suggestions include onions, summer squash, tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, lettuce, spinach, salsa and even meat.

Here’s the quesadilla I love:

For one serving

1 flour tortilla (Read the labels. Some brands have only 100 calories per tortilla)

½ cup olives (green or black)

¾ sliced fresh mushrooms (white button or baby bellas)

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Seasoning (I use Emeril’s essence)

Cheese (I use two slices of vegetarian non-dairy cheese, found in a produce section, You can use as much of what cheese you like)

1 Tablespoon sour cream

1 teaspoon hot sauce

In a hot saute pan, pour one turn of olive oil. Drop sliced mushrooms into pan.  Leave them undisturbed a couple minutes, they’ll get brown and yummy,  Sprinkle with Seasoning and turn.  Add sliced olives to pan. Continue to saute 2 more minutes.

Remove from pan

Place tortilla in hot pan,  Place cheese on one half of tortilla.  Leave in pan until cheese is soft and tortilla is slightly brown on bottom.

Slide tortilla to plate.Place olives and mushrooms on cheese, fold and cut into half.

Mix the sour cream and hot sauce on plate, and use a a dip for the quesadilla.

Busted!

Getting your family to go along with meat-less entrees can be a challenge.  I started when my kids were young, but I got busted.

Everyone I know loves lasagna .  While my kids were still young and innocent I made meat-less lasagna so that I could eat it with them. It was tasty enough I got no complaints. . .  Until the day daughter Casie stayed for dinner at her friend’s house.  When she came home her eyes had that “what do you mean there’s no Santa Claus?:” look.

“Mom,” She exclaimed. “her mom put MEAT in her lasagna!”  Busted! Of course Italian sausage ramps up lasagna from an 8 to a 10.  Here I had forced her to suffer through meat-less lasagna her entire short life. So from that day on whenever I make lasagna I have to make two pans one with meat and one for me. Here are my two recipes. I think the meat-less one is fine, I hope you will too.

If you have a favorite lasagna recipe you can follow that and just leave out the meat. My version gets high praise from guests and my husband even eats the meat-less dish and likes it.

You’ll include the standard five steps

Noodles
Cheese mixture

Mean and/or spices

Marinara

Mozzarella cheese

Noodles Use a full box of dry  lasagna noodles

I have yet to find no-cook noodles that actually perform well, plus they break when layering in the dish.

Cook per label instructions just short a couple minutes so they are pliable but not soft. I add salt and olive oil in the boiling water. This helps flavor the noodles and seems to discourage them from sticking to each other as they dry.

Cook the Noodles well ahead of time so they can cool off and you won’t burn your fingers.

Cheese mixture

In a large bowl combine
1 ½ cup of ricotta cheese

One pound package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and wrung dry

Two eggs, slightly beaten

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Minced garlic

A handful of dried parsley

1 teaspoon of dried basil or oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Stir well, This mixture should be on the dry side.

 

Meat

Brown a pound of Italian Sausage, sweet, mild or hot, whatever you prefer. Break up the links as they brown.

Spices

To the meat-less version I also add two spices that remind me of Italian sausage:  a pinch of dry red-pepper flakes and about a tablespoon of caraway seeds.

Marinara

You can make it from scratch, but I think lasagna takes long enough and uses enough pans and dishes without adding this step.  I use a good store-bought sauce. At least two jars.

Mozzarella
You can use fresh, packaged, slices or grated. They all taste wonderful

Assemble in two separate casserole dishes in layers

½  of the Noodles

Dot with  ½ of the cheese mixture

Cover with ½ of the meat or spices

Pour 1 jar of marinara sauce evenly over the top

Sprinkle ½ of the grated mozzarella cheese

Repeat.

Note: for the top layer if you sprinkle the mozzarella before pouring the marinara, you'll avoid getting a burned cheese top.

Bake both in the same oven 350 degrees 30 -40 minutes. 

Allow to cool before serving.

Two pans can serve 12 people, but my family seldom stops at one serving.

Noodles, cheese mix and meat

Noodles, cheese mix and spices

First layer: meat

First Layer, no meat

Yummy lasagna

Meatless lasagna

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Eat Your Spinach

Ask anyone who’s ever watched Popeye cartoons, spinach will make you strong. Alas,as  with many cartoon created conceptions, spinach will not give you big sailor muscles.  Nor can you  get flattened by a truck, get back up, shake yourself out and keep on running.

But, spinach is good for you. One cup has only 7 calories and little more than 1 carb. It delivers 11 vitamins and is especially high in A and K. .  You’ll also get 9 minerals from each cup of spinach.

Growing up at my house, it was served boiled and the best we could do was cover with salt or vinegar, ick. According to my parents, and probably yours, starving children in China would love my un-eaten spinach. And probably like you, I offered to send it to them.

Times have changed,  First those Chinese kids eat pretty well these days. We have found spinach is great in calzones, artichoke dip, Hidden Valley dip and creamed . It’s a good thing there are only 7 calories in a cup of spinach because all those dishes add lots of calories and fat. Here’s a way to get your family pumped up on vitamins and minerals without all the calories and fat.

Spinach Pesto

You might be familiar with basil pesto. Replace with spinach to make it more cheaply, more healthful and spinach is available all year long.

You’ll need a food processor for this.  I was able to make it in my Bullet/mini food processor. This will yield about a cup of pesto..  It’s like magic. You’ll put in more than 2 cups of ingredients and end up with a smaller volume.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh baby spinach.
Juice of ½ lemon

1 clove garlic, chopped

2T chopped nuts (walnuts or pine nuts)

Olive oil

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (use freshly grated hard cheese. Soft cheese will gum up the blades)

Salt

Pepper

1/8 t ground nutmeg

Grind up the spinach with the lemon juice. Add garlic and nuts. Process until fine. Slowly add in olive oil, you may use up to ¼ cup.  You want to add the olive oil slowly until the pesto is a smooth consistency, or as you like it.

Add the Parmesan  cheese slowly, again watch for desired texture.

Mix in nutmeg

Add salt and pepper to taste

Of course your family won’t want to eat this with a spoon like oatmeal, You’ll need to serve it over some thing.  I used a package of fresh tortellini (sold on dairy aisles)

Cook per package directions. During the last few minutes, I dropped in a handful of broccoli florets. When pasta is done and broccoli is slightly cooked, drain. Put back into dry, hot pan. Stir in a few slices of roasted red peppers. (You can roast your own, or buy a jar already roasted) .  Turn the heat on low. Add the pesto, stir til warm.

When ready to serve, grate a little more Parmesan over the top.