Two Simple Homemade Dressings (Cucumber Yogurt and Creamy Parmesan)

It's truly been wonderful having a back yard filled with some of my favorite herbs; basil, mint, rosemary and dill.  I just walk outside, pick whatever I want, and add it to my marinades, smoothies, and salads.  I wish summer never ended.  I guess I could move to Florida or something, but truth be told, I enjoy the changing of the seasons here in Ohio.  After all, fall is right around the corner and while I will no longer have fresh herbs, soon enough it will be OSU FOOTBALL SEASON!!  I'm giddy with excitement.

Ok, I just got off track.......

As you already know I follow a special diet for IBS-control.  The diet isn't so bad, most of the time, but there are two ingredients that are incredibly difficult to avoid; garlic and onion.  I've looked high and low for a low FODMAPS salad dressing, and while I've found about two, I still prefer making my own.  I found these two recipes not too long ago and both were already low FODMAPs, without me having to make any modifications.  They were both simple, and honestly, delicious.  What I'm saying is, even if you can eat garlic and onion endlessly with no side-effects (lucky duck!) you will still want to print these recipes and save them in your files (or just Pin them, since that's what we do these days).

Cucumber Yogurt Dressing

Slightly modified from a Nutrition Action Health Letter recipe

Makes 8 servings (2 Tbsp/serving)

Ingredients

1/2 cup English cucumber, chopped

1 cup plain fat free Greek yogurt

1 tsp. red wine vinegar

2 Tbs. chopped fresh dill

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint

1/2 cup crumbled reduced fat feta cheese

Directions

Blend well in a blender, Magic Bullet, Food Processor, etc.  Add 1-serving (~2 Tbsp) to 3-4 cups of lettuce to make a salad, and top with your favorite add-ons.

**NOTE:  If you are following a low FODMAPS diet you will be happy to know that this is low FODMAPs!  Also, if you are following a gluten free diet, be sure to use gluten free oats.

Estimated Nutrition Facts for 2 Tbsp.
Source: CalorieCount.com

I poured this dressing over romaine and added pepper, and feta cheese.  Sometimes simple is the way to go.

Next up, my all time favorite (of course, the one with more calories, go figure).

Creamy Parmesan

Slightly modified from a Nutrition Action Healthletter recipe

Makes 8 servings (2 Tbsp/serving)

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped basil leaves

1/4 cup chopped chives

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp. sea salt

Directions

Blend well in a blender, Magic Bullet, Food Processor, etc.  Add 1-serving (~2 Tbsp) to 3-4 cups of lettuce to make a salad, and top with your favorite add-ons.

**NOTE:  If you are following a low FODMAPS diet you will be happy to know that this is low FODMAPs!  Also, if you are following a gluten free diet, be sure to use gluten free oats.

Estimated Nutrition Facts for 2 Tbsp.
Source: CalorieCount.com

Again, a simple salad with romaine, dressing, and homemade croutons (I basically baked some stale whole grain bread in the oven and sprayed some Tuscan olive oil on top prior to baking).

There you go, two new dressings for your Pinterest board (or recipe files).   I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

QUESTION:  What's your favorite dressing, of all time?  For me it's balsamic vinaigrette.  But of course, I can never find one without garlic or onion.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your weekend!

The Candid Rd

Broccomole (low FODMAPs Friday!)

I once wrote a blog post about how much I miss cauliflower.  You see, I can't eat cauliflower because of its FODMAPs content.  Now in all reality you shouldn't feel too bad for me, because it's not like an allergy where if I eat it I will be seriously ill, or possibly worse....  It's more like if I eat it I will be in pain for a couple hours, and uncomfortable. So if I really wanted it, I could eat it, it's just not worth it to me (well, most of the time).  There are a handful of foods that I miss eating in endless amounts, other than cauliflower, one of them is mushrooms (I could eat mushrooms all day long back in the day, now I know better) and another is avocado.  In the summer avocados are everywhere; salsas, guacamole, salads, even smoothies.  Everywhere I go there is a new idea for how to incorporate avocados in your life. At work I have to do demos wtih avocados and while I obviously give each recipe a taste before I hand it out to customers, I can never eat more than a little at a time.  That's easy most of the time, but when it comes to guacamole it takes all my willpower to just say "no"!

Enter the broccoli plant.  Yes, broccoli contains FODMAPs, of course, but most people can tolerate more broccoli than avocado (1/8th of an avocado is about all you should eat if you are on a low FODMAPs diet, and for broccoli it's 1/2 cup.....do the math).  In addition to the fact that broccoli can be eaten in larger amounts, you can also reduce the FODMAPs with a Beano supplement (or other alternative alpha-galactosidase supplement, such as an "off brand"). There is no such enzyme for the polyols in avocado (and polyols, which are the "P" in FODMAPs, tend to be one of my worst enemies).  Ugh.  So sure, I can handle a little guacamole, as in 1-2 bites, but when I'm eating guacamole it's so hard to stop at that.  Come on.  But with broccomole, well, I didn't stop.  I kept eating, and no pain!

Broccomole

Serves: ~8 

Modified slightly from this source

Ingredients

3 cups chopped broccoli (fresh or frozen) **

1 jalapeno

2 Tbsp. Green onions, green parts only

2 ounces fat free cream cheese or Greek yogurt

1 Tbsp. cilantro, plus 2 Tbsp for garnish

1 tsp. tuscan or garlic-infused olive oil

1 tsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions

1.  Steam your broccoli until it is extra soft and basically overcooked.  Drain broccoli well.

2.  Add broccoli to a food processor, and combine with the rest of the ingredients (minus the extra cilantro for garnish).  Blend until smooth.  Add extra olive oil as desired, to get to a consistency you like.

3.  Serve hot, topped with extra cilantro (or serve cold, either way was tasty!)

**NOTE:  If you are following a low FODMAPs diet just be aware that any more than ~1/2 cup cooked broccoli might cause symptoms.  If you stick to one serving of this broccomole you should be fine.  If you take a Beano enzyme tablet you may even be able to handle more.

Estimated Nutrition Facts for 1/6th of recipe
Source: CalorieCount.com

Nutrition Highlights:  Under 50 calories per serving, excellent source of vitamin C


And just a warning, if you plan on sharing this with friends, start out by not telling them it's broccoli.  Seriously, I didn't tell my dad or brother it was broccoli, and they loved it.  You see, they believed it was avocado because I told them it was, therefore they thought they were eating avocado-guacamole and therefore they loved it.  It's all about perception.  If they knew it was broccoli they would have automatically hated it, even before trying it.  The texture of this broccomole was so similar to guacamole, they were fooled!

Quite honestly this dip was delicious cold or hot (although I personally preferred it hot, but if you want to fool someone, serve it cold...who eats hot guacamole?!).  With the low calorie content of this dip, you could eat the whole thing and barely put a dent in your calorie budget!  Of course....you may want to watch your chip intake, just sayin'.

I wish I could say this broccomole was homegrown, but as you see, our broccoli has grown flowers.  I'm not sure it's edible anymore.

QUESTION:  Have you ever used something other than the rich and creamy avocado to make "guacamole"?  I used asparagus once (not low FODMAPs, but low calorie!).  Broccoli is much better.

Enjoy your weekend everyone, and thanks for reading!

The Candid Rd