I Love Dairy

I love dairy. Seriously. LOVE. Dairy is my downfall and my saving grace at times. I tried to be a vegan many years ago. My doctor told me I needed to eat meat or dairy, some kind of animal product because I was getting so sick. I know, I know, this is not necessarily true. No I mean he said it and he was a vegetarian so I believed him so I went ovo-lacto. The way my body works, this was best. I veered away eventually and went back to a major meat diet and reduced my veggies and subsequently gained weight without my salads to round anything out. Then I stopped beef and pork and became slightly healthier. In those days there were not a million resources for eating better, there was Richard Simmons and Susan Powter, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. You were kinda on your own unless you wanted to pay for help. (I hope this doesn’t sound like whining because I don’t mean it to be.)

Back to what is important, I love dairy: butter, sour cream, yogurt, cheese, milk, ice cream…dairy!  I have long been a fan of Greek yogurt after working for Greeks for years. They used to make it for me, I was a spoiled girl. Moving back to South Florida after I had my son I had to search for it. Fage was the only option and locating it was few and far between. Then I could only find the FageTotal – which is delicious but outside of my current dietary restrictions. It was then as well but you know, gaining 80lbs because you make excuses is easy.

So back to making changes and having a brighter future I am making chicken and sweet potato tacos later tonight and wanted something creamy and delicious to go with them. I had Chobani 0% and cilantro in the fridge, along with some cutecumbers I needed to use and so my ChoCucLantro sauce was born. Cucilbani sauce? Cucumber Cilantro Yogurt Sauce? That sounds better. So I gathered my ingredients.

Cucumber Cilantro Yogurt Sauce

1 Tub of Chobani 0% plain yogurt

1 handful of cilantro

2 cutecumbers – probably 1/4-1/2 cup of shredded cuke

2 cloves of garlic – I buy mine pre-peeled in the big container and freeze them – easy to grate and microplane, not to mention crush when thawed.

dash of sea salt

1/4 tsp of jalapeno powder

1/4 tsp of white wine vinegar (not pictured)

I grated the cucumbers first and then threw into my miniblender/food chopper with the cilantro and garlic and spun that for about 30 seconds. Added the yogurt and spices  – blended for another 30 sec to 1 min. Put into a container and mixed in the vinegar by hand.

I won’t lie, it came out really good. Reminiscent of Pollo Tropical’s Cilantro Garlic Sauce. Which I love, and miss. Oh, how I miss you!

My new favorite everything!

So this is my new plan for salad dressing and sour cream. I figure if it has flavor and less fat/calories than the usual then better to mix in my own ingredients and make it what I want it to be. Happy Being!

You can take the Fat out of the Girl…but cheese still tastes good.

My Grandfather grows tomatoes in his backyard. Yes, an 89 year old man is still raising food for his family. He amazes me everyday. I could write a book about that man, but for now, tomatoes. So he needed to take out the tomato plants as season is pretty much over. Yay South Florida! So we wound up with around 20 tomatoes. No bigs, right? Now to figure how to use them without just making marinara sauce.

Here are 13 of the lovelies!

I cut the beauties into wedges – I totally used my Steve Irwin voice as I said this. Put a small amt of olive oil into a pan and then wiped the pan with a paper towel so there was just a light coating. I do this when I make pancakes too. Cuts down on the oil and avoids greasy pockets. I threw the maters on in there over medium high, a little sea salt and pepper then I added torn spinach leaves. I know what you’re thinking, “didn’t she say something about cheese?” I did. In a separate pot I took SmartBalance and a little oat flour – oatmeal I put in the blender and made a roux that I added unsweetened almond milk to. Then some pecorino romano cheese, jalapeno powder, garlic cloves and a tablespoon of pesto. Maybe a cup to a cup and a 1/2 of sauce total. I felt guilty for this, but everyone has their day and the Gods of Hormones have decided today was my day. Some whole grain Barilla, mixed in the veggies and the sauce, baked for 15-20 min then broiled the top for crunch and voila!

I refuse to feel guilty for my meal. Before I would have been regular pasta and alfredo pesto with mozzarella on top and made with cream and blah blah blah. I have to be proud of the small steps for that is what keeps us moving.