Healthy Picadillo and Spinach Salad

[CNA]

Since I've been chilling out tonight because I've been down with a bad cold, I figure I would post one more dish that I can think of off the top of my head. I haven't dug out my cookbooks yet but will hopefully soon. I've tried this recipe before and ended up heavily modifying it because I didn't particularly care for the raisins, olives, vinegar, crushed tomatoes (gave a very tangy taste), etc. I added more garlic, switched and added more Italian "stewed" tomatoes, added Italian seasonings, and so on. Rather than black beans, I would sometimes substitute corn or green beans but the black beans work well. I now don't remember where I pulled this recipe off the internet from, although it may have come from the food network site. If you don't want ground beef, you can substitute ground turkey. Or if you can find it, use ground "flank" steak. Flank steak is "one" of the leanest cuts of red meat you can eat. If you make it with rice, you can use the rice as a "bed" for the dish. Or you can mix the rice with the dish and put the mixture in the warm low-fat tortillas.

Healthy Picadillo

This spicy dish of ground meat cooked with tomatoes, garlic, and onions is popular in many Latin countries. It's lightened up by using extra-lean ground beef mixed with black beans. Serve with warm low-fat flour tortillas or rice.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 pound extra-lean ground beef (96% fat free)

1 can (15 to 19 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15 ounces) crushed tomatoes with tomato puree

1/4 cup dark seedless raisins

3 tablespoons coarsely chopped pimiento-stuffed olives (salad olives)

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

In nonstick 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion and cook six to eight minutes or until tender and golden, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook one minute, stirring. Stir in ground beef, breaking up meat with side of spoon; cook five minutes or until meat is no longer pink.

Stir in beans, tomatoes with their puree, raisins, olives, tomato paste, vinegar, cumin, salt, and pepper; heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer eight to ten minutes or until slightly thickened.

Recipe makes six servings. Serving size 1 cup.

Nutrition information per serving:

Calories 220

Carbohydrates 24g

Protein 22g

Fat 6g

Saturated Fat 2g

Cholesterol 35mg

Fiber 7g

Sodium 655mg

Spinach salad with raspberries and pecans with onions

If you don't want the spinach or fresh raspberries or onions, then you can use any type of lettuce with a Raspberry Vinaigrette and a few Pecan halves. If really watching the calorie intake, you can try Nakano's seasoned rice vinegars with your salad. It offers a lot of flavoring and seasonings with something like 12 calories per serving.

[Victor Pross]

I'm going to marry this girl one day.

[Kat]

Those look very yummy. For the Picadillo I will most likely skip the olives and raisins and make a couple of substitutions like chopped prunes for raisins and kidney beans because that is what I usually have around the house. I'll probably also use organic apple cider vinegar because that is Michael's health tonic and wine anything is a no-no here.

The salad looks great and I am missing growing my own raspberries. I used to have a couple of raspberry bushes at my old house and it was great to just go out and pick a few to drop in my cereal or in smoothies.

Kat

[emb021]

Healthy Picadillo

Serve with warm low-fat flour tortillas or rice.

Around here, this is a popular Cuban dish. Go to any decent cuban restaurant for this. My parents have made it also. Typically made with ground beef & pork (half and half).

Traditionally, this is served with black beans and white rice. The black beans are cooked into a kind of thick 'soup', and poured over the rice. You can also get the black beans and white rice mixed together, which is called (in spanish) 'blacks and whites'. Never seen it put on tortillas. Its a little too liquidy for that, really.

I've also never seen tomato chunks in any picadillo or raisans. Its tomato-based, and has green olives in it, and usually a bay leaf.