not diet recipes for Nowhere Girl

"By the way, would love the recipes! Anything to make cooking faster and easier?! ;)" - Nowhere Girl

i would be thrilled to share recipes with you. i was going to just email them, but i truly love food, so i decided to post and share instead of just private mail.

some are not truly recipes, but rather ways of preparing to make minor variations for interest's sake.

many are not sooper-dooper thrilling, and are a trifle obvious or mundane, but go over well with the kids, and are generally fast and easy to make when you are cruising a hundred miles an hour

the first is an appetiser - in honour of your post:

mini-bruschettas:

buy a decent tasting pre-made brushetta tomato mixture, a baguette, and some low fat mozzarella (there's enough in the brushetta mix), low fat parmesan (optional)

slice baguette into half inch slices (rounds). put a tablespoon of the bruschetta mix on it. put some grated cheese on top and parmesan if you choose

put them in the toaster oven or in a regular oven at about 350 until the cheese melts and the bread toasts a bit - then broil for as long as it takes for the cheese to brown slightly (or to taste) without burning the exposed edges of the bread

serve

ta daaa!

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if you want a lower fat brushetta mix make your own:

garlic cloves or powder, a very small amount of olive oil (a couple of teaspoons), balsamic vinegar (to taste), a little salt, pepper to taste, basil to taste, oregano to taste, tomato and onions (yellow, white, purple - all have their own flavour - always less purple than the others because of the stronger flavours)

chop and mix all of the above ingredients... put on bread - add cheese - bake - done

a variation of the above sees using a loaf of french bread cut lengthways in half

put in oven until bread is slightly crispy - then broil to brown cheese

slice the half loaves like you would garlic bread or cheese toast (2-3-4 inch slices)

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veggies with lemon-basil-oregano vinaigrette

you can buy frozen mixes of green and yellow beans with carrots (i get this one mix at costco) - beans/carrots full length - all 3-4 inches

microwave until hot/warm/not frozen put on counter to attain room temperature or thereabouts

previously you will have made the vinaigrette

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (or equivalent concentrate [read back of concentrate for proportions])
1/4 cup olive oil (or less for lower fat)
2 tablespoons oregano
2 tablespoons basil
onion to taste (yellow, green, white - or all of the above - not too much to overpower - a tablespoon or so)
1/4 teaspoon salt

let it sit on the counter at room temperature for the first few hours and then in the fridge for a few days to infuse

pour vinaigrette onto veggies

serve

kids like it

use same marinade for pork souvlaki... or anything you want to grill

i buy this stuff when i don't have the time, but you folks probably can't get it where you are... maybe



a link to a vendor that has a bunch of this company's stuff

not that I am suggesting you buy anthing form these people, they just have an online description of the various sauces made by gordo's