Sunday, January 4, 2009

Fast. Cheap. Healthy.

We made three yummy salads for dinner that are also nice and light for this post-holiday-binge (this applies to food and money) time of year.

Chickpea Salad
Three ingredients. This might sound gross, but it is delish. I modified my friend Jen's recipe to make this. 

2 cans garbanzos, rinsed and drained
2 or 3 tablespoons of light mayo
2 or 3 tablespoons of medium salsa, the chunkier the better

Combine all ingredients, adding more salsa and mayo to suit yourself, and add some S & P. Bet this would be good mashed up a bit and smeared on crusty bread!

Healthy Tuna Salad
Just replace the mayo in your usual tuna salad with Sabra hummus. Have you tried Sabra hummus? It is the best, good for so many things beyond just dip. I use it as the base for many salad dressings in place of oil. I smear it on sandwiches and bagels. Mmmm. Tuna with a few crackers is one of my comfort foods.

Spicy Thai Cucumber Salad
This is dressing pretty healthy actually. I mean, I guess it is salty, but it is low in fat. Brett said his dad would be a fan of this, and I take that as a compliment because his dad is one of those hot and spicy food freaks.

Chili Paste (I use the Hokan brand)
Juice of half a lime 
Soy Sauce (Trader Joe's has a great soy sauce, it tastes just like the stuff at restaurants, unlike LaChoy, which was always a huge disappointment growing up when I'd put it on an eggroll. Gross.)
Little brown sugar

Combine a few tablespoons of the chili paste and soy sauce with the other ingredients. This is excellent with cucumbers and would be great on a salad with grilled steak. I try not to eat beef, but sometimes I crave it and this salad is so good!

You might be thinking that these are three foods that you normally would not eat together, but we were kind of in a weird mood and it actually worked! And was a good distraction from something I have been dreading: Sunday night after vacation. I have worked a few days these past two weeks, but the thought of a five day work week on the other side of this night just fills me with dread. I think it's that I have no travel planned and I always have travel planned! Nothing to look forward to right now. Sigh. 



2 comments:

Katie said...

I like the tuna salad for two reasons:
1. I was there when you discovered Sabra hummus and I remember everything about that trip to Publix. We taste tested the hummus on pita chips (Stacy's, I believe) and I felt badly for the girl who was running the taste test because she was very overweight and I thought that probably the last thing she wanted to be doing was standing in the middle of the store with all eyes on her. But then again, maybe she is comfortable with her size and if so, shame on me!
2. When I think of tuna and crackers I immediately think of eating it in the McGowans' basement, probably listening to EnVogue. That was usually Mrs. McGowan's go-to snack and it will likely be one of mine when I am a mom!

Courtney said...

I love the Sabra hummus! Being the suburbanite I am, I get the big container at Costco. It's one of the very few healthy things (albeit, I have to call it jelly) that Benjamin eats, too.