I have never been much of a cook. I do not necessarily enjoy preparing food. However, I have a few recipes that I really wanted to share, the majority of them are fairly healthy and work well with the South Beach lifestyle.
Anyone who has ever been on the South Beach Diet knows how much this meal plan relies on salads and frankly, after awhile you get pretty sick of salads. In an effort to liven up my consumption of mixed greens, I created a strawberry-walnut salad using mixed spring greens, sliced up strawberries, reduced fat feta cheese, chopped walnuts, diced green onions and a light rasberry-vingerette dressing (6 grams of sugar, which I think technically it should be more like 3 grams). It tastes like something you order from a restuarant and has revived my love of salads. I absolutely love it!
One of my favorite South Beach friendly desserts is something I have dubbed the Chilled Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. You take 2 no sugar added fudcicles, microwave them for 15 seconds and then scrap them off the sticks into a bowl. Then you mix in 2 spoonfuls of light cool whip and 1 heaping tablespoon of natural peanut butter. Not only does it satisfy your sweet tooth for ice cream and chocoloate but because of the peanut butter, it is actually quite filling.
Yet another South Beach friendly recipe can be used for breakfast, snack or dessert. You take a serving of cottage cheese and mix 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, some chopped pecans and artificial sweetener to taste (which I omit). Unless you have just ate the real thing, it taste almost like a cinnamon roll but without all the carbs and sugar. This has been dubbed the Cinabon (found this on a SB forum awhile back but cannot find the link now to give proper credit).
My friend Rose made this delicious pasta salad and I modified to be more South Beach friendly -
1 package of whole wheat rotini ( I love Stater Bros. Full Circle Organic)
Reduced fat feta cheese
Chopped red onion
Chopped red pepper
Sliced grape tomatoes
Italian parsley
Garbanzo beans
Paul Newman's Own Light Italian Dressing (or Italian dressing of your choice)
Mix together using as much or as little as you like. I love to add turkey pepperonis to make it more of an entree. Great for gatherings.
I also have to share this no-bake cheesecake recipe I found on recipezar.com. This brings back very fond memories of my Grandma March who perfected the no-bake cheesecake. While it is not SB friendly, we all have to indulge sometimes. This cheesecake is so ridiculously easy it is downright dangerous and the flavor is not overly sweet. I did use all light dairy products and have thought about trying it with Splenda but so far have only made it with good ole fashion sugar.
Finally, my friend Ali turned me on to this simple caramel apple dip whereby you take 8 ounces of cream cheese softened, a half cup of brown sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla and blend well. Use it as a dipping sauce for Granny Smiths and it is oh so very yummy. This one I did try with not only light cream cheese but Splenda's brown sugar substitute as well and I could hardly tell the difference. I have to save this recipe for gatherings only though because otherwise I could eat the whole bowl.
One of my goals for fall is to start cooking more and experiment with some more recipes for dinner. Ultimately they would have to be fairly easy, not too expensive, without red meat, sugar or processed white flour (in other words something with chicken, ground turkey and whole wheat bread, pasta or tortillas) and liked by the whole family. This is a VERY tall order but I am open to suggestions.
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