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June 21, 2005
Ways to Worship the Tomato
With excellent tomato season finally just around the corner, I've been racking my brains for new and exciting ways to worship my favorite vegetable/fruit. In my lowfat vegan days, I used to make an excellent pasta sauce with just fresh tomatoes at their ripest, simmered in dry white wine with fresh garlic and fresh basil. These days, I'd add a teaspoon of olive oil to it and serve it over spaghetti squash instead of pasta. But what about protein? I was thinking as I was flying all day yesterday that it would be great if I could come up with a high protein side salad kind of dish. Finally it dawned on me: an imitation "Greek" salad with eggwhite cubes instead of feta!
Here's the idea. Microwave a cup of eggwhites, cool, chop into bite-sized cubes. While the eggwhites are cooling, blend 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of flax oil, and 5 g capers along with about 3 - 5 g fresh oregano in the food processor. Pour the dressing over the eggwhites and marinate for a few hours in the fridge. Then serve over 50 g romaine with 50 g diced green peppers, 15 g loose capers, and 120 calories worth of kalamata olives. Put a 60 calorie scoop of nonfat cottage cheese in the middle for a bit of cool calcium and some more protein. Wouldn't that be a lovely salad to serve with the spaghetti squash and summer tomato sauce? Throw in a 3 oz glass of pinot noir and you have a nicely Zoned, 620 calorie meal.
Here's the crunch:
Food List : spaghettisquashtomatogreeksalad.FLS
DATE : 06/21/05
Num. Foods : 14
Food #1 : Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, June thru October average 150 g
Food #2 : Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, white 30 cal cooked down
Food #3 : Garlic, raw 3 g
Food #4 : Basil, fresh 5 g
Food #5 : Squash, winter, spaghetti, cooked, boiled, drained, or baked, without salt 300 g
Food #6 : Egg, white, raw, fresh 1 cup
Food #7 : Lettuce, cos or romaine, raw 50 g
Food #8 : Peppers, sweet, green, raw 50 g
Food #9 : oil 1 teaspoon flax, 2 teaspoons olive
Food #10 : Olives, ripe, canned (jumbo-super colossal) 120 cals
Food #11 : Capers, canned 20 g
Food #12 : Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, red 3 oz
Food #13 : Vinegar, red wine 3 tablespoons
Food #14 : lowfat cottage cheese 60 cals
NUTRIENT TOTALS:
Abs. Values %RDA/SA
Calories 620.52__cal 31%
Protein 41.50__gm 75% RDA
Total Fat 21.50__gm 33%
Sat. Fat 4.17__gm 21%
Mono. Fat 12.04__gm 42%
Poly. Fat 3.66__gm 55%
Carbohydrate 48.51__gm 16%
Fiber 12.20__gm 41%
Cholesterol 53.85__mg 18%
Vit. A 12511.02__IU 250% RDA
Vit. B6 0.73__mg 45% RDA
Vit. B12 0.98__mcg 49% RDA
Vit. C 111.07__mg 185% RDA
Vit. E 7.34__mg 92% RDA
Thiamine 0.34__mg 31% RDA
Folacin 151.80__mcg 84% RDA
Riboflavin 1.52__mg 117% RDA
Niacin 4.53__mg 30% RDA
Panto. Acid 2.12__mg 42% SA
Calcium 460.60__mg 38% RDA
Copper 0.77__mg 38% SA
Iron 8.71__mg 58% RDA
Magnesium 124.88__mg 45% RDA
Manganese 1.78__mg 59% SA
Phosphorus 276.53__mg 23% RDA
Potassium 1539.22__mg 77% RDA
Selenium 55.06__mcg 100% RDA
Sodium 2717.40__mg 113% SA
Zinc 1.80__mg 15% RDA
Tyrosine 2.84__gm 296% RDA
Lysine 5.62__gm 781% RDA
Phenylalanine 3.64__gm 380% RDA
Leucine 6.22__gm 648% RDA
Valine 4.19__gm 499% RDA
Methionine 2.09__gm 697% RDA
Cystine 1.24__gm 412% RDA
Tryptophan 0.95__gm 525% RDA
Threonine 3.29__gm 685% RDA
Isoleucine 3.86__gm 536% RDA
P:C:F = 27:42:31
My DWIDP doesn't have fresh oregano, but assume that it's the same as cilantro and add about 5 calories for a nice sized pinch to blend into the dressing, bringing us to to total of 625. 625 calories is a nice dinner for a CR'd boy. To adapt it to a girl, cut out the cottage cheese cause all girls eat their cottage cheese for lunch. Half the rest of the recipe. Make the 3 oz glass of wine a 6 oz glass of wine, because everyone knows that girls drink grown up sized glasses of wine because girls actually like to drink wine, while boys merely drink 3 oz because the evidence says it's good for them. That will make the girl's meal slightly lower protein, but since all girls eat 29 g protein for breakfast, that's okay.
If making recipe for company, serve with a dessert of small tart green apples sauteed in spiced rum and sprinkled with cinnamon over a dollop of nonfat organic vanilla yogurt, no artificial sweeteners. Or, if berries are good, simmer blueberries, raspberries and organic strawberries in port, sprinkle with cinnamon, serve in tiny shallow Revereware dishes, a different color for each guest.
If serving to cats, substitute a large dead salmon and several raw shrimp for the above. Add a generous dish of cool but not cold water, garnished with a leaf of fresh catnip.
Posted by april at June 21, 2005 6:46 PM
Comments
Just a note to say the "apple-cider vinegar" thing is very real. It was first mentioned by a doctor, in a book called "Vermont Folk Medicine".
This doctor studied the animals on his farm for
several decades, noticing, in particular, the types of weeds they ate. He noticed definite trends toward acidic weeds in all species. He also made many correlations to the human diet, for instance the way people go for a beer, lemonade, iced tea, cola, or other acidic drinks after a hot day's work.
One more notable connection was the combinations of acid fruits/vegs with our meat choices, like turkey/cranberry, liver/onion, beef/mushrooms, duck/orange sauce. These didn't happen accidentally, but were carried on from medieval times, when "bloodletting" was a valid medical treatment. These people didn't know why, but they did know that protein-rich diets clogged arteries and the addition of wine or other acids to a protein-rich meal aided digestion.
Posted by: Jesoph at June 22, 2005 7:51 PM