Fresh Salads

Today I have 5 fresh salad recipes ideal for summer. 

Chunky Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 
2 1/2 lb. chicken breast 

1 1/2 cups celery

1 1/2 cups grapes (any variety)

1 cup pecans

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 cup lite mayo

Instructions:

Boil chicken until cooked thoroughly. Tear into bite-sized pieces. 

Chop celery, cut grapes in half, and break pecans in half. 

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. 

When boiling the chicken for this recipe, I like to use a chopped onion and a few stalks of celery, usually the yellow inner stalks from the bunch, with the leaves still on. Throw everything into a stock pot and cook the chicken. This makes the most delicious broth that can be drained and used later for any type of soup or dumplings! 

This recipe is also versatile. Any variety of grapes can be used, whatever you prefer or have on hand. The chicken salad is also good with some pineapple added. It's excellent on a green salad, a sandwich, or with some crackers.

Pear Spinach Salad

Ingredients: 

1 bag raw spinach leaves

1 ripe green pear

1 cup walnuts

2 cups raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Instructions:

Slice pears longways. 

Toss all ingredients together in a large salad bowl. 

Serve immediately. 

This salad is healthy, low calorie, and super quick and easy. The ingredients really don't even have to be measured. You can just toss everything together and add the dressing straight from the bottle. 

Summer Salad

Ingredients: 

1 small container cottage cheese

1 Tbsp. chopped green onion

1/2 cup finely chopped cucumber

1/2 cup finely chopped tomato

Instructions: 

Combine all ingredients. 

Refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to mingle.

Simple and delicious! 

The final 2 salads for this post are linked from previous articles on my blog. 

The first is my absolute favorite fruit salad ever, so enjoy! 

http://goodsouthernfood.blogspot.com/2011/02/aunties-fruit-salad-recipe.html

And the second is a delicious crab salad.

http://goodsouthernfood.blogspot.com/2011/02/seafood-recipe.html

Quick Quiche recipe

  This easy and healthy quiche is one of my mother's favorites. It was originally a Bisquick recipe that she found about 30 years ago. She has continued to use the recipe, with a few adjustments.   
  One of the best things about this quiche is that it can be altered with different vegetables or cheeses to suit everyone's own taste. Tomatoes, chopped ham, spinach, mushrooms, part-skim mozzarella cheese, or pepper jack cheese would all taste great. 
  The fact that the quiche is crustless reduces the calories, saturated fat, and trans fat significantly. It also has only 3 whole eggs in the entire 6 serving dish, but the whole eggs can be replaced with egg substitutes to reduce the cholesterol and saturated fat even more. 

Ingredients: 
2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli
   (Note: Do not cook the frozen broccoli.) 
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup green peppers, chopped
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups skim milk
3/4 cup Bisquick
3 eggs
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Instructions: 
Preheat oven to 400 F (reduce to 375 F for glass bakeware). 
Lightly grease 10 inch pie plate. 
Place broccoli, onion, green pepper, and cheese in pie plate. 
Beat remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour over vegetables. 
Bake 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Banana Pudding

This is a traditional banana pudding topped with meringue, but the sugar has been replaced with sweetener for baking. Use sucralose (in the yellow package). The name brand is fine, but the store brand works well too and is much cheaper. 

Bananas are plentiful this time of year, and the price is almost always low. Use ripe or slightly over-ripe bananas. 

This recipe also uses real butter, regular vanilla wafers, and egg yolks because they are all used in moderation. There is just a small amount for the entire dish. Using skim or 1% milk cuts out saturated fat, while still providing calcium and vitamin D.  Stick to about a 1/2 cup portion for serving size.

 Ingredients:

1/4 cup and 2 Tbsp. (separated) sucralose sweetener for recipes (the yellow package)

1/4 cup AP flour

1/8 tsp. salt

2 cups skim or 1% milk

2 eggs-separated

1 Tbsp. butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

33 vanilla wafers

4 bananas

Instructions:

Combine sweetener, flour, and salt in a medium sauce pan.
Stir in milk and cook until thick. 
Separate egg yolks into a small mixing bowl, and set aside the whites at room temperature for later. 
Beat yolks, and stir mixture into them. Then return entire mixture to sauce pan.
Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, then add butter and vanilla. Continue stirring over low heat for 1 minute until butter is melted and vanilla is well mixed. 
Layer in a 2 quart glass baking dish. 
Place first layer of vanilla wafers in pan on bottom and around sides. 
Then add 2 sliced bananas, and then 1/2 of pudding.
Repeat second layer with remaining wafers, bananas, and pudding. 
Beat egg whites until foamy, then add 2 Tbsp. sweetener. Beat to stiff peaks for a meringue. Top the dish with meringue. 
Bake at 425 F for 5 to 10 minutes until golden brown. 

For serving, let the pudding set for a few minutes and serve warm. It is also wonderful the next day served cold. 

Auntie's Fruit Salad recipe

1 can pineapple chunks

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1 T. AP flour

1 bag red grapes

3 bananas

1 can peaches

Drain 1 can pineapple chunks over a sauce pan to get about 1 cup of pineapple juice. 

Combine juice, egg, sugar, and flour in the sauce pan at room temperature. Mix until the egg is thoroughly combined. 

Then cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly.  

Let cool. 

Combine fruit in a large mixing bowl. Pour cooled dressing over fruit and stir thoroughly until all fruit is coated.

Food and Nutrition Tips:  This recipe is ideal year round, since any type of fruit can be used.  Just plan on about 5 cups of fruit total, and add the pineapple juice. Canned fruit and any seasonal fruit works really well.

This salad is very bright and colorful and tastes great. It's perfect for special occasions, and is also a healthy fruit salad to have at home. 

I have prepared this recipe for groups before, and they asked about the egg yolk and the sugar, worried that the dressing wasn't healthy. The salad contains about 5 cups of fruit-a lot of fruit! The dressing only has one egg yolk and a little bit of sugar, so it is not enough to make a big difference in cholesterol and sugar intake for this salad.

Diabetics should have about a 1/2 cup portion. 

The Low-Fat Diet Myth

Remember in the 90's when you could get fat-free everything?  Fat-free cookies, chips, salad dressings.  Many of these products are still around today, but they are not always the healthiest options.  
In most fat-free or low-fat products, the fat is replaced with sugar, which is not any healthier than fat, and may actually be worse.  What we normally think of as fat, as a broad term, is saturated fat.  This is the bad fat, which along with cholesterol can lead to higher blood cholesterol levels and heart disease risk. 
What we have left out, though, are the good fats, the unsaturated fats-polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. These fats are common in the Mediterranean diet, and have shown benefits to heart health and even to weight management.  The foods pictured below all contain healthy, good fats.  Foods like nuts, fish, vegetable oils, and even chocolate are good for your health. They have been shown to improve cholesterol levels and to reduce inflammation throughout the body. In fact, the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourage increased polyunsaturated fat intake.

Good fats.

In addition to heart health, eating good fats can help you feel full and more satisfied after a meal, since fat provides flavor and takes longer to digest.  Moderation is always the best practice, as fats do add calories to foods. Try stir-frying or lightly pan frying in vegetable oil to get the benefits of oils without a lot of extra calories. Be sure to limit servings of nuts and peanut butter to about 2 tablespoons.  Reduced fat salad dressings and margarine are good options for getting good fats with fewer calories. Eat a variety of seafood, such as salmon and tuna for healthy omega-3 fats. 

The bad fats.  
If you grew up in the South like me, your mother probably had a grease cup.  The drippings from bacon and sausage filled this cup, and were used to fry and prepare other foods.  Unfortunately, this type of fat is mostly saturated fat-the bad fat.  High fat meats also contain cholesterol, which should be limited.  The rule of thumb is to limit fats that are solid at room temperature, as they are usually saturated fats.  Try limiting high fat cuts of meat, and replace them with seafood or lean meats.  Eggs are also fine in moderation.  Also cut back on dairy fats like whole milk and soft cheeses. Try 1% milk, non-fat yogurt, and part-skim mozzarella cheese.  If you eat high-fat dairy such as butter or ice cream, just have a small amount.  Substitute grease drippings with vegetable oil.  Olive oil has been the gold standard for a few years now, but any vegetable oil is fine, and is much less expensive than olive oil or even butter.

Bad fats.

In conclusion, eating healthy fats can be as easy as substituting oil for grease, snacking on peanuts, or having fish more often. The healthy fats are not only beneficial to your health, they also add flavor to foods and keep you full longer than fat-free foods. 

Dietary Guidelines Selected Messages for Consumers

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/DietaryGuidelines/2010/PolicyDoc/SelectedMessages.pdf

Dietary Guidelines Executive Summary

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/DietaryGuidelines/2010/PolicyDoc/ExecSumm.pdf

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DietaryGuidelines.htm

The New Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The new guidelines were released in January 2011. They emphasize portion control, more fruits and vegetables, skim or 1% milk, lower sodium foods, and healthy fats. They also encourage you to drink more water instead of sugary drinks. 
To reduce portion sizes, use smaller plates and bowls, and order smaller sizes when eating out at restaurants. Also, eat slowly and enjoy your food. This will allow your stomach enough time to feel full, and will also help you feel more satisfied. 
Increasing fruit and vegetable intake can be as easy as snacking on fruit, adding vegetables as side dishes to meals, and eating fruit for dessert. Fresh, frozen, or canned fruits and vegetables are all good for your health. 
Changing to lower fat milk cuts out some saturated fat, or bad fat. Saturated fats are usually solid at room temperature, and include high fat cheeses and milk, butter, high fat meats, and shortening. Shortening also contains trans fats, which are bad for your heart health. But, all fats are not bad. Some fats are actually good for you, these healthy fats are unsaturated fats (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated). You will find them in nuts, fish, vegetable oils, and salad dressings. Foods like boiled peanuts or tuna fish sandwiches have these good fats. 
Watching out for sodium, or salt, is also important in a healthy diet. The best change to make is to avoid the salt shaker at the table. Use pepper and other herbs and spices to flavor foods. Lite salts are also a good option as long as you are not on a potassium restricted diet, as these products replace some of the sodium with potassium. 
At first glance, it may seem difficult to change the way you eat, but small changes go a long way. If you look at your current diet, you are probably already enjoying healthy foods, like nuts, garden vegetables, and fish. For the less healthy foods, try gradually replacing them with better options. Make changes slowly and one at a time. This will also help your family or anyone else you may cook for, to adjust to the changes. Of course, moderation is the key. Find healthy foods that you really enjoy and let these foods make up most of what you eat, then you can occasionally splurge on favorites.    
To view the new Guidelines, visit http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DietaryGuidelines.htm