Former Fat Guy Blog

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Recipes: Healthy Christmas Dinner

December was soup month here on the blog, but I wanted to show everyone how we created a healthy Christmas dinner. We wanted to put a healthy spin on the traditional version. We started by buying a free-range organic turkey from a local farmer (), adding a festive salad with homemade Christmas salad dressing, and a fabulous sweet potato side dish to complete the dinner. My mom and sister made some other dishes but we skipped the white potatoes with butter and milk, and only had a tiny bit of the stuffing from white bread. So we wanted to show that if you offer to bring some dishes, you have control of what is in them, and you are contributing to the meal. Then you can eat a tiny bit of what else is offered if you want to be polite, but you also have some healthy choices that you’ve made to fall back on, if the main menu isn’t so healthy.

Healthy Christmas Dinner Recipes

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Recipe: Spanish Omelette

Spanish Omelette’s were traditionally served with potato as the only filling (so say the Spanish restaurant), but they’ve also come to be known as Spanish omelette’s if they contain a lot of vegetables, jalepenos and tomatoes or Salsa. This is the Spanish omelette recipe with salsa.

spanish omelette recipe

Spanish Omelette Recipe

– 6 eggs whites
– 2 whole eggs
– chopped red and green pepper
– green onions
– 1 jalapeno pepper chopped and seeded
– sea salt and pepper to taste
–
– tofu cheese

Mix eggs, peppers, onions and seasonings together well. Mix until eggs are frothy. Cook in small to medium fry pan on low-med heat with the lid on. When egg is slightly cooked around the edges, lift one side and pour a ¼ cup of water underneath – replace lid. When eggs are mostly solid (don’t jiggle when pan is shaken) put tofu cheese on top of one half and fold omelet in half. Replace lid until cheese is melted and eggs are solid.

Serve for 1 or two people with fresh salsa on top.

Rob is the which does very well with eggs, so this has a lot of eggs in it. He says this recipe has half the amount of eggs in it, but whatever. do very well with red meat, bison and eggs so a steak and eggs breakfast is perfect.

If desired, serve with chopped cooked chicken breast or steak on the side. Again, Rob’s modification.

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Spanish Omelette Recipe Photo Credit: Her View Photography

Recipe: Homemade Salsa

Salsa is the Italian and Spanish word for sauce, from Latin salsa “salty”, from sal, “salt”. Mexican salsas were traditionally produced using the mortar and pestle-like molcajete, although blenders are now more commonly used. There are many forms of Salsa including Guacamole, but this Salsa recipe is based on Salsa roja, “red sauce” using cooked tomatoes. Salsa using raw tomatoes is called Salsa Crude (“raw sauce”), also known as pico de gallo (“rooster’s beak”), salsa picada (“chopped sauce”), salsa mexicana (“Mexican sauce”), or salsa fresca (“fresh sauce”): made with raw tomatoes, lime juice, chilli peppers, onions, cilantro leaves, and other coarsely chopped raw ingredients.

salsa recipe

Homemade Salsa

There are several variations – make it different every time.
– small handful of cilantro leaves (I used 1/2 a bunch, I love the stuff)
– 1 onion: red or white
– 1 can 24oz of tomatoes (no salt!) or equal fresh ones
– 1-4 cloves of garlic, I used 6
– 2 serrano chillies or 1 jalapeno
– lime juice

chop onions and tomatoes finely
chop garlic, chillies and cilantro very finely – or use a food processor (if doing this I blend the onion, garlic and cilantro first, then tomatoes last – then I add some chopped fresh ones after)
to make thicker add a can of crushed tomatoes or paste

Optional
– oregano to taste
– tbsp olive oil
– corn or black beans

Make sure to get baked chips or pitas to dip – I love to take a pita 1/2, spread this on it, mush 1/2 an avacado put some cilantro leaves on top – fold in half and eat as a quick snack. If you have hummus – put a layer of that too. Depending on your metabolic type, you may want to avoid wheat chips or wheat pitas which would take your inner biochemistry out of balance. would be well advised to avoid wheat

Salsa Health Issues

Care should be taken in the preparation and storage of salsa, since many raw-served varieties can serve as a growth medium for potentially dangerous bacteria, especially when unrefrigerated. In 2002, a study appearing in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, conducted by the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, found that 66% of the sauces tested (71 samples tested, sauces being either: salsa, guacamole, or pico de gallo) from restaurants in Guadalajara, Jalisco and 40% of those from Houston, Texas, were contaminated with E. coli bacteria, although only the sauces from Guadalajara contained the types of E. coli that cause diarrhea.[1] The researchers found that the Mexican sauces from Guadalajara contained fecal contaminants and higher levels of the bacteria more frequently than those of the sauces from Houston, possibly as a result of more common improper refrigeration of the Mexican sauces. (Salsa information from Wikipedia)

Salsa Recipe Photo Credit: Her View Photography