Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Posting on Wednesdays and weekends



Slimming Down Your Usual Foods...

Midweek, a bright and crispy cold winter day. Hmmmm, supper, what to have for supper? I don't have menus done ahead for this week, winging it from day to day instead. Check the cupboard. What looks good...

We'll be having baked beans, brown bread and cole slaw for supper tonight. Now, Bert will have a piece of ham from the freezer with the beans, which are vegetarian for me. I've already made the brown bread and the cole slaw earlier this morning. If you haven't tried the recipe in The Frugal Family's Kitchen Book for easy un-steamed brown bread, it's a gem.

Made with two cups whole wheat and only 1/2 cup white flour, this brown bread has no added fat. There's molasses, raisins and chopped nuts and two cups of sour milk which I make with low- or no-fat milk. This makes a dense, fragrant loaf loaded with good nutrition.

So far, so good for a high fiber, low fat supper. Now , that cole slaw. Very tempting to make it as usual with some mayo or mayo-yoghurt mixture for dressing. But, I saw a recipe, no added fat, in one of my cookbooks, and I made that slaw while the brown bread was baking.

You finely shred four cups cabbage (I used a mixture of red and green), mix in some finely chopped onion and green pepper, sprinkle with 1 tsp. celery seed and two TBSP sugar, then add 1/4 cup vinegar (I used wine vinegar) and 1/4 cup water, mixing well. The recipe says, that like most slaws, it'll be even better if it sets overnight, but I made it early enough that at least it'll have all day for the flavors to get acquainted. I've made a recipe similar to this before where you made almost a syrup for the dressing, and it was good, but this was even simpler.

For one week, try to pick just one dish each day to prepare in a more healthy way. Just that one small step. Boy, do I feel virtuous about this supper! Now, if I can just keep from slathering cream cheese on the brown bread. Well, it really doesn't need it...

Mary

P.S. I noticed when I posted this that it listed the time as something ridiculous, like 6:45 in the morning. Good heavens! I wouldn't want you to think I was up cooking at that hour... It's actually about 10:30 as I post this!