Fast Food NOT Fat Food, #7

We are on to the next segment of Fast Food Not Fat Food, my blog event created Jan this year - The rules remain the same and I think over the past year, many entires have been posted and each time, I see that my blogger friends are getting healthier and healthier with their contributions - Let's keep it that way and get off to a running start this time as well

Event Dates - NOV 1 - DEC 15
Event Rules

• Only vegetarian entries - baked, oil-free, smaller amounts of oil, sugar subs, these are a few examples...
• A healthy version does NOT mean a less appealing version
• Up to 5 entries – all blogged during this period
• Recipe can be your new innovative concoction or
• It could be a recipe that you have been meaning to try out or have bookmarked One sentence at least to explain how your recipe is healthier is a MUST
• Sign-up via google connect not required but appreciated J
• Use the Logo on your blog and link back to my blog
• Please use Linky tool below to submit entry

– Please forward to your other blogger friends who may be interested in participating – Non bloggers welcome ….
Looking forward to a FAT Volume of participation :-))))))

Steamed Green Beans Salad

Here is the back story - a true record of a conversation I had with myself :)
Fresh, tender beans stacked beautifully, so much so allz you need do is clip the pointed ends and steam them for about 3-4 minutes in your microwave - I say keep talking - in a flat large pan, saute in 1/2 tsp of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, cut like thin & flat along with 1/2 tsp of crushed red peppers- Getting more interesting, keep going, I encouraged myself - Well,  add the steamed beans to this and sprinkle salt and turn in the pan, keeping them whole & in shape. Okay and .... Well now you take about 20 pieces of almonds, cut flat with their skins on and sprinkle and serve HOT ...My alter ego says, Okay lemme taste this first (a chewing pause before) OMG, that is SOOOO delicious - Can I try some more, I say reaching out to grab a few when splat came my other hand clamping over the stealing one saying in a semi-stern tone - Ah ah ah... wait till its on the dining table along with the rest of the food, or you'll get nothing then...

There you have it. Now for the pictures and remember if you see these beans in the store, snap them up -this can be made in 10 minutes flat :)

My late and last entry for the Blogging Marathon -

Cheers and wishing you a healthy week and extreme enjoyment and joy in the simpler recipes of life :)

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Baby Spinach & Plum Salad

So here's my next salad for Srivalli's Blogging Marathon, and I chose to to Salad and Soups - sorry I have been salad heavy, but those are my daly lunch (almost) and it was fun to try out a different salad each day - Salad is to me things that I like or even love coming together in a simple and healthy form! I always garnish my salads with nuts, just to have that crunch to it and make it more appealing :) I did use my Balsmaic vinaigrette (Charles, tune in here :)

1.5 cups of Baby Spinach leaves
1/2 a plum
10-pinenuts
A dribble of Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Apple & Cottage Cheese Salad

Happy Deepavali greetings all - Hope you had a wonderful celebration - The first 4 hours of mine were spent cleaning my Lakshmi lamp :) I am sorry I could not post yesterday on account of working hard to keep the spirit of Deepavali alive for my kids in the place so far from home or even a bigger city where there might have been some community celebration - But here is a super simple salad, packed with protein that I made this afternoon -

1/2 apple - cubed

2Tbsp -cottage cheese, small curd

about 10 broken walnut pieces

1/2tsp of honey (optional)

Place in a bowl in the given order and dig in  - Hope to come back with another simple one tomorrow - Sorry I am not editing my photos today :(

Priya's Now Serving Apple-Cottage Cheese-Walnut Salad

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Arugula & Fresh Mozzarella Salad

Please don't kill me - This is yet again an Arugula based salad -  (A blogger friend just informed me that these are called rockets in England so I was tempted to change the title to Rocket & Mozzarella Salad - what can I say except I love these greens and they have made my salad experience incredibly enriched... Take a look at this fresh green leaf below and tell me you are not tempted :)

This time I paired it with Oh-So Fresh Mozzarella cheese and juicy beef tomatoes (not particularly fond of that name but...)

The dressing a simple store bought, fat-free Annie's Raspberry Vinaigrette - start with smaller drizzles and add more if necessary - the trouble with store-bought being they can get taste acidic.

Pictures are self-explanatory, but the single serving remains the same

For 1 Serving
2 cups of fresh, washed arugula
3 - 1" thick slices - These come pre cut and can be sliced thinner if desired)
Note This can be substituted with Tofu or Paneer if desired
3 fairly thick slices of tomatoes

Place the bed of Arugula and arrange tomatoes over it
Add the Mozzarella pieces over the tomatoes and there you have it
Drizzle dressing over it and enjoy

This was shared by 4 adults who love salad :)

Apple & Arugula Salad

After the comments I got for my Arugula Salad, I realize that Arugula may not be so popularly known - so let me inform you that it is one of the best salad greens - I am not a fan of lettuce and I far prefer spinach and even more so Arugula as the green salad base - So please if you see some fresh arugula, make a swipe for it :) and you won't regret it - it contains none of the bitterness that romaine and often red cabbage/lettuce do -

I split the pack I got over 2 days to make 2 different salads out of them - In this recipe, I used apples - Here again, call me an apple snob, but I am not fond of any apple except the following - Pink ladies or Honey crisp - For a salad, you want an apple that feels crunchy, that is juicy, that has a thinner skin, that has a beautiful blend of sweetness and sourness - Fuji, Gala, Jazz etc are a far second to the first mentioned apples - We get the mavu (pasty) kinds in India supposedly from Kashmir - could never stand them - matter of fact, can't say I've tasted any that I liked in india - Apple to me was a cultivated taste that came with eating the Pink Ladies - Those are I believe a product of New Zealand - I could move to NZ just for these, and the untouched, pristine, intensely beautiful scenery would be just a perk (lol)
Pink Lady apples are a dollar per - but totally worth it, but sometimes you may be lucky and hit a sale1

All kidding apart, if you don't like apples, pick a fruit that pleases you and use that - I love anaar, but we do not find them here :(

For individual servings
2 cups of FRESH, washed and dried arugula (all these pack say pre-washed, but I wash them anyway, just in case
1/2 Apple (Pink Lady or Honey Crisp) with skin cut into thin slivers
2Tbsp Cottage Cheese (low fat, small curd)

 Cherry Juice-Mustard Dressing (very low fat)

2Tbsp Pure Cherry Juice (can be substituted with any other 100% juice that is available and liked)
1 squirt (bout 1/4 inch) of Dijon Mustard or other
Whip until mustard is nicely mixed into the juice
Drizzle generously over salad
Grate mozzarella or fresh parmesan (optional)
Dig in :)
This is my second recipe for Valli’s Blogging Marathon  and my theme is Salads and Soups

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Nutty Arugula & Strawberry Salad

Kicking of second week of Valli’s Blogging Marathon with this super salad

The key to a green salad is FRESH greens – cannot emphasize that enough J

This is a salad that can be thrown together in a matter of minutes (much like any greens based salad) – Tastes delicious and even my salad-hater daughter has been converted to a fan – Salad is a food that needs to be exciting, with at least 2 things you can see in it that say, Hey, I could eat this salad for that ingredient - Or at least that is the philosophy that I subscribe to, not having been a much of a salad person either – give it to me cooked any day, I said until I learned to make a mean salad which was at once healthy and pleasurable – So try this one

Prep time: 10 minutes or less

For a single portion for Salad

2 cups FRESH Arugula (wash & spin dry or dab with paper towel)

2 strawberries diced from top to bottom

1tbsp walnut – crushed

1tsp peanuts (optional)

Grated Parmesan garnish (optional)

Here is a wonderful 10- minute recipe for a no or very, very, low fat dressing

Again this for a single portion of dressing

2tbsp Low fat yogurt

2tsp agave nectar

1/2tsp garlic flakes

Fresh ground pepper (pepper mill)

Whip these together and drizzle over salad

Ta-dah – gourmet salad good to gorge on 

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