Who doesn’t love a great recipe? Who has hours of free time to devote to the hunt? Since you guys are busy, and I’m immersed in food and cooking, recipes and research all the time, I’m happily stepping up. I stumble upon so many really great recipes when I’m surfing the net for assignments and inspiration, it’s all I can do to keep myself from screaming, I’m On Top of the World, at the top of my lungs all day long.
Don’t you just want to call everyone you know when you find a really great bargain in a store or a really great deal online? It’s the same for me with recipes. There’s nothing I love more than discovering recipes that inspire me to drop everything and cook. They have to sound really great; Zuni Café great, Foreign Cinema great, Chez Panisse really great.
Before I invest an ounce of energy, the recipes must past my stress test. Is the recipe built around naturally healthy ingredients? If the recipe is higher in calories, can I easily re-work it to slash the calories per serving? Is the ingredient list yardstick long? Have I at least heard of all of the ingredients? Can I afford them? Are they lining the shelves at Piggly Wiggly? Is the recipe going to take half an afternoon to prepare? Yes answers and I'm headed to the test kitchen. I make no promises about how often I'll post great
Will These Recipes Make Me Fat?
The most popular complaints I hear from people trying to lose weigh aret; the food is boring, my husband wants meat every night, my kids won’t eat anything accept hot dogs, pizza, spaghetti and chicken nuggets. My reply is always the same; you don’t have to eat diet food to reach your health and weight loss goals. My Mother’s advice is always the same, “If you kids didn’t like what I was serving, I reminded you how many hours it was until breakfast. As far as I know, you all survived.”
When you first start out to improve your health and or get your weight to a level that you and your doctor have discussed as being ideal for your health status, age, height, and activity level, it’s downright challenging to figure out ways to cut calories, sugar, salt and fat from everyday favorite foods and weekly menus. Instead of focusing on every meal as being "perfect", concentrate on making the numbers work out in a 24 hour period, over your week and throughout the month. Work all-you-can-eat veggies and side salads into every meal, exercise regularly and you can have your cake and be fit too!
Georgeanne Brennan’s
Oven Roasted Prunes
Wrapped with Pancetta
This recipe seems the perfect accopaniment to a wintertime meal of Pan Seared Pork Tenderloin and Mashed Sweet Potatoes (from my first book, Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen, 200 Easy Recipes for Healthy Weight Loss or for another favorite Pan Seared Pork with Fruit Chutney. I can see also see serving these delicious Pancette Wrapped Prunes at an impromptu cocktail party, a gathering of friends around a crackling fire.
I stumbled upon the recipe in the Food Section of a San Francisco Paper. It's an excerpt from an article Singing Salumi's Praises. Hardly the kind of article you'd expect to find a recipe that would fit into a healthy diet. Precisely my point for creating, Recipes From Around the Web. The recipe calls for real blue cheese and real pancetta! Ms. Brennan includes the nutritional values for her recipe so you know right off the bat that 3 pieces per person will cost you 135 calories. Cut it back to two and you’re looking at a mere 90 calories per serving or 45 calories per piece. Not bad for a bacon fix.
Serve this with 3 ounces of pounded pour tenderloin (139) calories and there’s plenty of room for plain mashed sweet potatoes (about 128 calories per mashed half cup) and a great garden salad with low calorie dressing.
Oven-Roasted Prunes Wrapped with Pancetta
Makes 24 -- Serves 8
People love the sweet-salty combination of this appetizer. You can substitute bacon for the pancetta, if you want an even more intense taste.
* 24 pitted prunes
* 3 ounces soft blue cheese
* 3 ounces thin-sliced pancetta, cut into 1 1/2-inch lengths
Instructions: Preheat a broiler. Stuff each prune with about 1/2 teaspoon cheese. Wrap with a piece of pancetta and fasten with a toothpick.
Place the prunes on a baking sheet and broil until the pancetta is lightly crisped, turning once, about 5 minutes. Too long under the broiler and the cheese will melt and ooze out.
Per serving: 135 calories, 4 g protein, 16 g carbohydrate, 7 g fat (3 g saturated), 15 mg cholesterol, 348 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.
Georgeanne Brennan is an award-winning Northern California cookbook author and freelance writer. E-mail her at food@sfchronicle.com. Her most recent book is "A Pig in Provence" (Chronicle Books, 2007). Information about her cooking classes is available at georgeannebrennan.com.
Those who ignore health in the pursuit of wealth usually wind up losing both.
Posted by: texas retirement community | 01 December 2011 at 07:41