Tag: Chocolate

Light And Fresh As A Salad

No small thanks to weight watchers everywhere, the salad is beginning to take on center stage from an obscure, little corner during the earlier times. Indeed, salad is now enjoying the same popularity of the, well not exactly pizza, but at least fast food.

New diet and fitness methods seem to pop out everywhere on a monthly basis. From crash to yoyo to Low Carb-High Protein, to the After Six, to South Beach to something as crazy as color dieting.

The methods vary mostly in the food composition that must be consumed while on the diet, but what’s common to all these are the inclusion of salad in one form or another.

Indeed, the humble salad has found its way even to those fast food counters as health consciousness begins to grow. Even the Fast food king, McDonald’s himself, had to yield to the pressure and has started to offer healthy alternatives that includes, you’ve guess it right, the salad.

There are more than a thousand ways to prepare a salad. This can be served as an appetizer, a main course, dessert and even as a sandwich filling. Although most often associated with all those big nutritional stuff such as the lettuces, romaines, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber and grapes, the salad can also take on the form of a heavier meal.

While chicken and tuna are the most common ingredients, pork, turkey and peking duck have already found their way in bowls everywhere.

Generally, the term salad refers to a preparation of chopped and / or sliced ingredients. Although meat can be incorporated in it, it has to contain at least one or two vegetables and fruits. It can be served dry or with a dressing.

The most common dressings are whipped cream, vinaigrette, thousand island, honey-mustard and ceasars’ dressing. And the most common ingredients are lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and cucumber. Eggs have also become a regular ingredient.

The popularity of the salad has grown mostly because of its nutritional value. It satisfies the hunger pangs without weighing in too much on the scale. And this is why it has become a favorite preparation for the health nuts everywhere.

Come to think of it, one need really not be a health enthusiast to enable him or her to enjoy this preparation. With the variety and interesting textures that come up every time, one is bound to find one that he or she can be addicted to.

Indulge In Taco Salad Recipes

Want to have a party Mexican-style? Why not try these recipes that are sure to get your spirits in that festive mood? The taco salad recipes listed below can be whipped in to time at all. Thirty minutes max and you’re set to get these going on the table.

Mexican food is basically spicy with a lot of meat and tomato. However, you can adjust the ingredients to suit your taste. There is nothing at all in putting these wonderful dishes together. Just choose which recipe will fit your needs and you are off to go.

TEN-MINUTE TACO SALAD RECIPE (Recipes from: Cdkitchen.com)

Ingredients:

2 cans (16 ounce size) chili beans, undrained
1 package (10-1/2 ounce size) corn chips
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
4 cups chopped lettuce
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 can (2-1/4 ounce size) sliced ripe olives, drained
1 1/4 cup salsa
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

In a saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, heat the beans. Place corn chips on a large platter. Top with beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, olives, salsa and sour cream. Serve immediately.

ZESTY TACO SALAD RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 clove garlic finely chopped
3/4 pound ground turkey
1 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cups washed torn lettuce leaves
14 1/2 ounces can Mexican style diced tomatoes drained
1 cup rinsed drained canned garbanzo beans or pinto beans
2/3 cup chopped peeled cucumber
1/3 cup frozen whole kernel corn thawed
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 jalapeno peppers seeded finely chopped optional
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
12 nonfat tortilla chips
fresh greens optional

Directions:

Combine oil and garlic in small bowl; let stand 1 hour at room temperature. Combine turkey, chili powder and cumin in large nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until turkey in no longer pink, stirring to crumble.

Combine turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, cucumber, corn, onion and jalapeno in large bowl. Remove garlic from oil; discard garlic. Combine oil and vinegar in small bowl. Drizzle over salad; toss to coat. Serve on tortilla chips and fresh greens if available.

Go Heathy With These Fantastic Tuna Salad Recipes

Tuna is probably the most versatile type of seafood. It is a healthy substitute for meat. It has a distinct taste that makes it perfect for salads as well as sandwich dressing. Like chicken, tuna’s taste is not strong so as to contrast with the taste of all the other ingredients that it mixes with. Below are some interesting takes on the good old tuna salad.

Gourmet Tuna Salad

1 (12-ounce) can tuna, drained
2 chopped green onions
1 stalk celery, diced
1/4 cup stuffed green olives, chopped
2 tablespoons capers, diced
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream

1.In a mixing bowl, combine tuna, green onions, celery, green olives, capers and almonds.

2.In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream and the Worcestershire sauce. Blend together dressing and tuna mixture.

3.Serve on bed of lettuce or your choice of fresh bread as a tuna salad sandwich.

TUNA SALAD RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

2 large tomatoes, cut in quarters
1 red bell pepper, cut in matchstick strips
1 green bell pepper, cut in matchstick strips
1 small onion, sliced in rings
1 can (6 1/2 or 7 ounces) tuna in vegetable oil
4 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons wine vinegar
1/2 small clove garlic, finely minced
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
12 pitted black olives, chopped

PREPARATION:

Arrange tomato quarters on a salad serving platter; place pepper strips and onion rings in center. Drain oil from tuna into a small jar; flake tuna and arrange in center of platter. Make salad dressing: add olive oil, wine vinegar, minced garlic, salt, pepper and dry mustard to tuna oil in jar.

Seal tightly and shake vigorously to blend. Sprinkle over tuna salad platter. Sprinkle chopped olives over the salad. Tuna salad serves 3 to 4.

TUNA SALAD WITH MELON RINGS

INGREDIENTS:

1 large honeydew melon
lettuce
2 cans (7 ounces each) tuna, drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

PREPARATION:

Peel honeydew melon; cut into circles about one inch thick. Remove seeds and place on beds of lettuce. Mix tuna, mayonnaise, and celery, thyme and pepper. Spoon into centers of honeydew circles. If desired, garnish with fresh parsley. Tuna salad recipe serves 6.

CRUNCHY TUNA SALAD WITH GREEN BEANS

INGREDIENTS:

2 packages (10 ounces each, or 3 cups total) frozen cut green beans
2 cans (7 ounces) tuna, drained and flaked
2 cups thinly sliced celery
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups chow mein noodles
salad greens

PREPARATION:

Directions:

Cook green beans according to package directions; drain and let cool. Combine cooled green beans, tuna, celery, mayonnaise, lemon juice, soy sauce, and garlic powder; toss to mix well.

Chill salad thoroughly. Just before serving tuna salad, stir in chow mein noodles. Serve tuna salad on salad greens. Tuna salad serves four to six.

Everything You Need To Know About Fruit Salads

Most of the people know only one thing about fruit salads; and that is how to eat them. How could you eat something that you know nothing about? Well, aside from the fact that they are delicious?

A fruit salad is a delicious dish with different kinds of fruit, sometimes served submerged in their own fruit juice, or lathered with syrup. It is oftenly served as an appetizer, if not that, dessert. Eitherway, fruit salads are definitely delicious, you can have them for both appetizer and dessert.

Making your own fruit salad is not hard; you just need to prepare its ingredients. And the ingredients used are neither extinct nor hard to find, you can just whip out your wallet and make the march to the nearest grocery store.

It needs one pint of basket of fresh California strawberries, which you are supposed to stem and make into halves; a teaspoon of finely chopped fresh mint or a half teaspoon of dried mint; a half cup of light sour cream; lettuce leaves; a half teaspoon of honey; two cups of fresh fruits that are in season. See? These ingredients do not require you to go hiking up in the mountains, looking for exotic fruits.

For you to make a strawberry dressing, you must puree an ample amount of the strawberries in an electric bender, about a half-cup, to make a cup of pureed strawberries. In a separate bowl, stir the puree, together with mint and honey, into a sour cream so that they will all blend. In assembling your fruit salad, line individual salad plates that contain lettuce. Arrange the strawberries that you have reserved with the other fruits on the lettuce and top with the strawberry dressing. Sounds good, huh? You could bet that this tastes even better.

Yes, you now know how to make a fruit salad after knowing the necessary ingredients. But still, do you know where fruit salads came from? This is added knowledge, thus, it would be best if you keep this pieces of information in your memory.

The origin of fruit salads relies highly on what you initially mean by “fruit salad”. Fruit salads that are made up of combinations of different fresh, dried, candied or sugared, and stewed fruits or vegetables. This type of fruit salad originated from the ancient times. The ingredients and the recipes that are used depended on what were available in the country, or if what ingredients were in season. They also depend on the socio-cultural attitudes of the people toward the ingredients, whether the fruits were socially considered to be healthy or not.

The fruit salad, as we know of it today, is a production of the mid-nineteenth century. There has been unearthed culinary evidence that confirms the saying that sometimes, fruits salads are purposely mixed with sugar and alcohol, thus, given the term “fruit cocktail”. The non-alcoholic variation of this recipe, also the jellied fruit salad, was famous in the 1920s. In the period of the World War II, fruit salads were introduced to the world as a proper supplement of Vitamin C, and were, in fact, included in the American diet.

However, fruit salads in the European countries evolved quite differently. The recipes contained amounts of mayonnaise. Have you heard, or better yet, eaten a Waldorf salad? Well, this is the name of the said fruit salad that is lathered with mayonnaise.

Now is the time when you can say that you know everything you need to know that concerns fruit salads. Fruit salads contain one hundred twenty-three calories, two grams of protein, eleven milligrams of cholesterol, four grams of fat, and twenty-one grams of carbohydrates. What more can you ask for?

Faking Away Sweets in Sugar

When one speaks of sugar, first thing in mind is the advantage of having a sweet taste of food. It is difficult to find someone who does not like a taste of it, one time or another in a person’s life. It maybe, he refuses intake of it at present for health reasons but in the past he admits, had the joy of eating many kinds of sweet foods.

Children like candies because it is associated with something tasty-sweet. In the earlier days of our grandparents, when people know nothing about calories and disadvantages of some excessive food intakes the elderly finds joy in the thought of having chocolate for breakfast because of the pleasant sweet taste associated when the native chocolate is sweetened with plenty of sugar as a beverage.

Low calorie sweeteners became a household word recently, for reasons that today’s generation is more aware of cases of diabetes and obesity associated with eating excessive sweets. Uncontrolled intake of carbohydrates, which has plenty of starch and sugar, is not advised to people who suffer diabetes, or those prone to obesity.

Researches in the earlier 21st century have proven that low calorie sweeteners had been introduced in the market to substitute the use of actual sugar. Actually some chemical contents are substituted, reduced, or refined to certain degree as to fake the sweet taste in natural sugar. It becomes in a way synthetic, but beneficial to the general health of the public. The faking of the sweet taste reduced the calories present in the actual glucose sugar. It is not surprising that consumers products displayed in the markets today include grocery items on low calorie sweeteners.

Why such preference on the synthetic-made sugar, rather than the organic sweet? Table sugar or sucrose is our common table sugar. There are many kinds of sugar in different sweeteners around, both in fruits and manufactured table sugar. Fruit contains fructose sugar, and milk contains lactose. Reducing or transforming natural-sweet-taste sugar to certain low calorie level is that which makes it more healthful.

Today’s market offers various brands in the making of low calorie sweeteners. The FDA of the United States had an extensive evaluation and test for the assurance of safe use for public consumption. Safety measures against complications in the reproduction; genetic effects, risk to cancer, the central nervous system, and body metabolism were strictly
considered.

Kinds of manufactured low calorie sweeteners:
*Sucralose – the only low calorie sweeter that is made from actual sugar, made 600 times sweeter than our table sugar. It’s available in a very wide range of food distribution with a need of sweetener, branded in the name Splenda (granular and packets) in several outlets. *Aspartame a non-calorie sweetener used in beverages, 200 times sweeter than sugar. They’re several others of similar values.