Grapefruit Jalapeno Fish

  This recipe was inspired by an article I read in the September 2011 issue of Vogue magazine. The author had traveled to Mexico and wrote about a chef that used grapefruit with chili peppers. A lot of spicy Mexican dishes use lime to balance the heat from the peppers, so grapefruit seemed like a nice change up on the usual citrus fruit. I kept this idea floating around in my mind for a few months trying to figure out the best base for the sauce. Then a Foodista fish recipe caught my attention. It was a more typical lime and pepper recipe, but it had mayonnaise as the base. Mayonnaise is used more frequently in actual Mexican cooking, as opposed to the Tex-Mex that most Americans are used to. The taste of this dish is phenomenal, even if I did make it!

Ingredients: 

1/3 cup lite mayo

1 Tablespoon lime juice

1/2 red grapefruit

1/4 cup sliced, pickled Jalapeno peppers with the juice

12 ounces of Pollock fillets

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 425F. 

Combine the first 4 ingredients to make the sauce. Be sure to remove the juicy grapefruit segments from the tough membranes. Also, there's no need to chop the peppers, the slices from the jar are perfect! 

Stir together the ingredients for the sauce, mashing grapefruit with the spoon.  

Place fillets in a glass baking dish. 

Cover with sauce. 

Bake 9 to 11 minutes.

  Here is a picture of the feast I served with the fish. Fresh corn on the cob with tub margarine, a scoop of fat-free vegetarian refried beans with shredded mozzarella cheese, a cucumber, tomato, and buttery red leaf lettuce salad, and some chips and salsa for good measure.

Broccoli Salad

  This is a really good broccoli salad recipe from the store brand broccoli mix. It's easy to make, and the slaw mix was super cheap.

I  

Ingredients: 

10 slices bacon or 1 package pre-cooked bacon pieces

1 - 12 oz. package FS Broccoli Slaw

1/4 cup red onion, chopped

1/2 cup raisins

3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

2 Tbsp. white sugar

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup sunflower seeds, shelled

(Note: I prefer to make it without the raisins, but it's just a personal preference.)

Directions:

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside. 

In a medium bowl, combine the broccoli slaw, onion, and raisins. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, and mayonnaise. Pour over broccoli slaw mixture, and toss until well mixed. 

Refrigerate for at least two hours. 

Before serving, toss salad with crumbled bacon and sunflower seeds. 

Refrigerate any leftovers. 

Surviving Summer Cookouts

  The 4th of July has passed, and I hope everyone had a good time grilling out and watching fireworks shows. Although the holiday is over, we are still in the middle of summer cookout season. Here are some tips for lower calorie foods and healthier cookouts. 

The Grill: 

  Meats typically used for grilling-hotdogs, sausages, and hamburgers-often contain high amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol. Look for reduced fat hotdogs, sausages made with chicken, lean hamburger meat, ground turkey for turkey burgers, or veggie burgers that can be grilled. 
  The grill is not just for meat, try grilling marinated vegetables like tomatoes, zucchini, onions, and peppers. They can be put on skewers or into aluminum foil. Chopped potatoes with the skins on are also great grilled in foil. Just spray some non-stick cooking spray onto aluminum foil, place a handful of potatoes or other vegetables in the middle, and wrap them up into little potato boats.
  Another opportunity to add some extra vegetables is in toppings, slice fresh tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers to top burgers and hotdogs. Also try whole wheat buns rather than white.

Salads and Side Dishes: 

  A nice, fresh salad is another great way to get some extra servings of vegetables. Top tossed salads with reduced fat dressing to lower the calories, but still get the health and taste benefits of polyunsaturated fats. Leave the peels on vegetables and fruits for more fiber and nutrients. Make potato salad with lite mayo and unpeeled potatoes. Use whole wheat pasta for pasta salads. Also try one of these Yummy Salads.

  Baked beans are a good source of fiber and protein, but can often contain a lot of extra sugar and saturated fat. If you are preparing baked beans, limit the amount of brown sugar and bacon fat that you add. Have a moderate sized serving, about 1/2 cup. Have chips in moderation, too. If that bag of potato chips is calling your name, go ahead and have a few to avoid feeling deprived and eating the whole bag.

Desserts:

  One of the best desserts in the summer is fresh fruit. Any variety is available this time of year, especially yummy berries. Try blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries over frozen yogurt or sorbet.

  Throw together your own Fresh Fruit Salad , or try my Fruit Salad recipe. Frozen bananas or other types of frozen fruit can be refreshing on a hot summer day.
  My American Flag Cake recipe is also a lighter option for a more traditional dessert.

Beverages:

  The best thing to drink in the heat to cool off and rehydrate is ice water. Since it can be a little boring sometimes,and not everyone likes water, lower calorie drinks like sugar-free lemonade or diet sodas are good, too. If you're planning to have alcohol at your cookout, go for light beer and spritzers.  

  Cookouts are a staple of the summer season. These healthy tips should keep you on track and eating right all summer long.

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

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. 

Seafood recipe!

Mom's Seafood Salad

This is a yummy recipe that my mother makes.  The recipe lists imitation crab meat as the main ingredient, but any seafood can be substituted, including real crab or shrimp.

8 oz. imitation crab

2 T. lite mayo

2 T. reduced fat sour cream

1/4 cup celery, chopped

2 T. onion, diced fine

          or dried mined onion

1 T. lemon juice

2 T. lemon pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until crab meat is well coated. 

Serve this crab salad with whole wheat crackers, celery and carrot sticks, or on a sandwich. 

Nutrition tips: Crab and most seafood is a good source of protein and healthy polyunsaturated fats-the good fats. Lite or reduced fat mayo and sour cream also provide good fats with fewer calories.  Reduced fat products are typically better than fat-free because when fat is removed from foods like mayo and salad dressing, it is replaced with sugar. This replaces the healthy unsaturated fats with unhealthy sugar, which is not desirable. 

Lemon pepper can be a great low-sodium seasoning, but be sure to read the label. Some lemon peppers contain salt or sodium. So be aware of what you are using to flavor your food.