foodies Watching their Weight…
8 Smart Points/Mac & Cheese * 2 Smart Points/Tenders I’ve tried pumpkin and squash. I’ve even puréed heads of cauliflower. I’ve used and abused low-fat cheese, but I never made a Mac & Cheese that I love as much my splurge-y bechamel-based number. In desperation, I got trashy and gussied up an idea I... Continue Reading →
3 Smart Points/Soup * 2 Smart Points/Optional Garnish From the heal to the Alps, every corner of Italy serves a bowl of pasta and beans, or Pasta e Fagioli. Varied according to local tastes and available produce, this simple dish is often debated and highly divisive. Even here in the States, immigrants from famously... Continue Reading →
0 Smart Points/Chili * 9 Smart Points/5-Way with crackers Picture this -- Cincinnati, Ohio 1920s: A couple of Slavic-Macedonian immigrants started serving a “stew with Mediterranean spices” to top their hot dogs at the Empress stand located nest door to a burlesque theater. Eventually the unique, beanless sauce was offered as a spaghetti topping in... Continue Reading →
0 Smart Points From Poland to Lithuania, chilled borscht is a popular earthy, sweet and not-so-sour Eastern European refresher. With a base of good beets and thick Greek yogurt garnishes vary from fragrant wisps of dill to golden-yolked hard cooked eggs, spicy radishes, and bright spritzes of lemon. Let this make-ahead wonder marinate in... Continue Reading →
5 Smart Points The rise of mercury in summer and my desire for tender, yet decadent creamy pasta constantly tumble. And while tender most homemade Italian macaroni may prove too much for the heat, my emotional self still seeks the simple comfort of noodles, fresh cream, and cheese. Enter Malfatti, translated to “badly formed,” a... Continue Reading →
2 Smart Points/1X Egg * 2 Smart Points/Dressing Long, rambling, and completely inconclusive, the history of Scotch Eggs sees them from countryside picnics of wealthy Victorians to blankets of “good brown gravy” as middle class supper. Recently re-discovered by (mostly American) gastropubs after falling stale to gas station cold cases in the 90’s, the... Continue Reading →
1 Smart Point Bright vegies and fresh flat-leaf parsley pile into a crispy flatbread and minced-meat wrap for a perfect hot weather lunch. With nearly a half dozen spellings from just as many countries, in Turkey, Armenia, Lebanon, and Syria, Lahmacun is a big deal. Often compared to pizza but bearing very little resemblance save... Continue Reading →
6 Smart Points/Pork Chop * 2 Smart Points/Polenta There isn’t very much particularly Roman about Saltimbocca alla Romana except perhaps for its inclusion on 99.99% of the city’s menus. It’s pan sauce almost French in technique, fashioned from white wine and butter (not here, my weight watching friends) and Prosciutto di Parma front and... Continue Reading →
3 Smart Points Silly name. Serious dish. Although I wasn’t raised on Egg Foo Yong, as a child of the 80’s, in a world of sweet-and-sour chicken, it read serious glaa-mmmmour. Something Angela Lansbury might order in Boston’s Chinatown on “Murder She Wrote,” or Charo might find on the “The Love Boat’s” Lido deck... Continue Reading →
2 Smart Points I tried them all. Every…single…turkey or chicken meatloaf out there. Disappointment came in the form of leaden and dry, hard to swallow loaves, or dark-meat versions with nearly as many Points, fat, and calories as their beefy counterparts. It’s when I thought of meatloaf as one humongous meatball, I finally hit... Continue Reading →
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