The nice folks at Royal Rose Radicchio sent me a ton of radicchio to try out. Radicchio is actually one of my favorite lettuces in salads and this gave me the chance to try it in some summer recipes. The radicchio pictured above is Radicchio di Chioggia. It's the most widely available variety and is especially prized for it's vibrant maroon color and sharp, intense flavor.
I'm teaching an Operation Frontline class this July and I wanted to come up with some new summer recipes to incorporate in the class. This is my version of a panzanella which uses lots of fresh vegetables and gets its protein from both beans and fresh cheese.
Cameo Apple, Jicama and Orange Salad
So it was what passes for hot here today and I was in the mood for something light and fruity. Also, I wanted to make sure we were getting our fruits and veggies in and this salad was the way to do it. Remember that orange, I zested when I made the Bran Muffins with Golden Raisins? It was just sitting in a plastic bag looking all scrapped and pathetic, so I peeled it, sliced it into strips and threw it together with some jicama and apple. For dressing, I squeezed a couple of the orange segments dry and used the juice that was left from the baby lemon. Fruit Salad on the cheap!
Orange (already accounted for) 0.00
Jicama about 1 pound 1.47
Cameo apples 1 pound 1.48
Lemon juice (already accounted for) 0.00
Total for eight servings 2.95 or .36 a serving
There's something about bran muffins. They just sound so very healthy and I always feel slightly more virtuous when I order one. The problem is that most commercial bran muffins pack a healthy dose of sugar and very little actual bran. Take Otis Spunkmeyer, their Harvest Bran Muffin contains 19 grams of sugar and 10 grams of fat. I might be able to live with that, but what freaks me the hell out is that individually wrapped muffins have a 35 day shelf life. Did you get that? You can keep these babies on your shelf longer than a month with no loss of quality. If you run across an unwrapped Spunkmeyer muffin at a coffee shop, they have a 14 day shelf life. Mind you this is after they've been defrosted, so who knows when they were originally manufactured? No thank you. I've had relationships that didn't last that long. I don't need that kind of commitment from a muffin.
Anyone else trying to cut down on the amount of meat and saturated fat in their diet? I'd raise my hand but at this point it's covered in barbecue sauce from my baby back ribs. I use to be a whole lot better at making vegetarian meals than I am now. I don't know if I just got lazy or bored or maybe a little of both, but I'm back on the bandwagon now and trying to make more meat free recipes.
Did you know that you're much more likely to keep your New Year's Resolution if you set a specific time to work on your goal? I bring this up because I ran across a great site that I wanted to pass on to you all (or y'all if you're in the south, or youse guys if your related to me by marriage.) The site is Meatless Mondays, which is joint project begun in 2003 by the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The site encourages Americans to make Monday meatless in an effort to reduce saturated fat in our diets. Sounds like a worthy goal to me! You can go to the site for recipes, nutritional information and if you want, sign up for their weekly e-newsletter, with the latest health news, product recommendations, tips and coupons.
This recipe is one of my old veggie standbys. I don't know why I haven't made it in so long. You can serve this as an appetizer with pita bread for dipping or take it along as a lunch and dip all kinds of veggies into it, carrots, celery, red pepper strips, they all make great carriers for this high protein dish.
My favorite way to serve hummus is inside a pocket pita bread with sliced cucumbers and lettuce. Yummmm..... I'm particularly partial to Basson Bakery Original Pocket Pita Bread. It's made here in Washington, but I don't know if it's available nationally. They also don't have an Internet presence (Hey Basson! Get with the program, it is 2009, you need a website!) If you want to stuff your hummus inside a piece of bread make sure your pita is the "pocket" variety and not the flat Greek variety.
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