'Low fat meals' archive

Capsicum halves stuffed with chicken, cheese and vegetables

This is my second attempt at making stuffed capsicum (or bell peppers, if you prefer to call them that) and I finally did it right. The first time, I stuffed the peppers with raw ground meat mixed with raw vegetables. The juices from the meat and vegetables soaked the peppers during baking, making it very soggy. This time, I cooked the filling first, stirred in lots of grated Parmesan and stuffed the sticky gooey mixture into the cavities of the halved peppers. I baked them only long enough to brown the tops and to cook the bell peppers just until they were tender-crisp.

Baking, Crisco and Splenda

This is not an ad for Crisco or Splenda. It hurts that I have to buy them. It hurts even more that I am writing about them. They are screaming Artificial!!! right at my face but it’s substituting Crisco for butter and Splenda for sugar or no baking cakes and cookies at all. Hard to argue with one’s blood sugar, you know. The heartening thing is that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. It’s a matter of getting used to, both in taste and in baking techniques, but I’m learning. And the learning process sometimes yield pleasant surprises.

Teriyaki udon

The name of the dish sounds very Japanese but I doubt if you’ll find teriyaki soba listed in the menu of Japanese restaurants. I sort of invented it last night because I wanted a low-fat meal with meat in it. You know, like making a statement that low-fat means neither meatless nor a total abstention from red meat. I bought lean pork meat a few days ago, sliced it thinly then marinated the sliced pork in teriyaki sauce overnight in the fridge. Twenty-four hours later, I used the marinated pork to make this noodle dish.

Tuna and fresh mango stir fry

It was inspired by dish called fish fillets with mango salsa that I saw during one of the rare bloghopping opportunities I’ve had recently. I liked the idea of combining mangoes with cilantro but I wanted that definitive Oriental kick. So, instead of the very Western way of topping grilled fish fillets with salsa, I transformed the dish into a stir fry. Stir fries too greasy for someone on a low-fat diet? With a good-quality non-stick pan, non-greasy stir fried dishes are possible.

Tuna and cabbage spring rolls

…that you’ll be seeing a lot of vegetable spring roll recipes in the coming days. Why? Served fresh, vegetable spring rolls are low-fat, tasty, and I don’t know what it is about the experience of cutting into a spring roll… it’s just so exciting. It’s like exposing a secret that’s been waiting to be discovered.

These spring rolls were made with grilled tuna belly, shredded cabbage and carrots. Grated garlic was added for bite and, in lieu of the traditional dipping sauce, the sauce was stirred into the filling before the spring rolls were assembled.

Tuna belly fillets with garlic and rosemary

The complete title of this entry should be tuna belly fillets with garlic and rosemary served with tomyao but that’s a pretty long title so I used the shorter version. The life of this dish depends largely on the proper seasoning of the fish fillets. If you try to scrimp thinking that salt and pepper will be enough, you’ll miss the entire experience.

It is not absolutely essential to serve this dish with tomyao but I was fortunate enough to buy a tray of the stuff at Robinson’s Supermarket recently. Any green salad can accompany the fish but…

Chicken, mushrooms and potato salad

If all low-fat meals can be this good, I won’t miss lechon kawali and crispy pata. It was a borne out of a split second of inspiration which struck as I was simmering chicken for last night’s chicken and vegetables soup. Before adding the cabbage and chayote to the pot, I took out a large piece of chicken thigh and decided I was going to make a salad with it. And so, I did.

Low fat, low sugar diet

The thing, of course, is to do away with the notion that low-fat and low-sugar necessarily mean tasteless food. Oh, no way. In my family, tasteless food is a crime. Ergo, the challenge is to be able to cook old favorites in healthier ways. And it can be done, trust me. It might mean throwing out a lot of things in the pantry and replacing them with their low-fat and low-sugar versions but that’s okay. The important thing for me is that my family continues to eat great meals but now with a little more conscious effort on the health aspect.

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House On A Hill

Love tofu?

• Sweet and spicy tofu
• When tofu met pesto
• Ma Po tofu
• Tofu in oyster sauce
• Lechon con tokwa
• Tofu with three sauces… and cilantro
• Tofu and eggplants with salted yellow beans
• Tuna and tofu stir fry
• Tofu and Vegetables Stir-fry
• Tokwa’t isda sa gata (fish and tofu in coconut milk)

Chicken recipes

• Fried chicken and vegetable salad
• Oven-grilled breaded chicken
• Speedy’s chicken burgers
• Fried chicken, garlic-mayo sauce & pineapple cole slaw
• Chicken livers and string beans
• Cooking for Father’s Day? Here’s an idea.
• Pork and chicken in coco milk and pesto
• Chicken tetrazzini
• Capsicum halves stuffed with chicken, cheese and vegetables
• Chicken and potatoes in yogurt