Dining Out Healthy, and Tostadas Revisited

Dining Out

Saturday I mentioned to my wife that I missed going to the Chinese buffet and had even looked on the Panda Express web site for their nutritional information and how I wished I could come up with something that wouldn’t wreck my diet. All she heard was “going to the Chinese buffet” and started getting dressed. I was trapped. When we arrived she headed for the buffet and the garlic shrimp while I negotiated with the waitress, a former student, for no fat, no added salt, and low calorie options. Schezwan tofu with steamed vegetables and steamed rice seemed to fit the bill. The spicy tofu was delicious and I ate half of it, all the vegetables, and about a cup of steamed white rice. I estimated about 600 mg for sodium and hadn’t anticipated the 14 grams of fat in the tofu as I usually cook with NaySoya Lite tofu with only 7.5 grams of fat for the whole package. My diet was still intact.

Friday, the college board of directors hosted our annual appreciation luncheon. The menu was chicken fettuccine alfredo, roasted potatoes, salad, and orange cake. I brought my own four ounce portion of chicken Cordon Bleu, some steamed vegetables with Brussels sprouts, and my own salad dressing for the salad. While I was a little self-conscious and was tolerated by the faculty and staff members I shared a table with, some of the board members congratulated me on my weight loss and expressed appreciation that I was sticking to my diet.

Tostadas Revisited

Deborah commented and took me to task on my Non-fat Refried Beans and Healthy Tostada post for forgetting, “the salsa, or pico de gallo, or chopped tomatoes”. While I did forget them in the article, I remembered them when I ate them. I did have chopped tomatoes and green salsa. This time it was bottle green taco sauce, but when I have the time, I like to make my own salsa verde. To further elaborate, the timing on the tortillas in the oven should be about 12-15 minutes depending on the degree of browning you like. I left them in the oven at 400 degrees for fifteen minutes and turned them several times.

Salsa Verde

Here is my salsa verde recipe. One year at Christmas I made gift packs of four salsas, this one, my Polynesian Salsa, and two red ones. The gift was a big hit.

Ingredients

10 Tomatillos with husks removed
1 Serrano chili pepper
2 Jalapeno peppers, seeded
½ Onion-chopped
2 T chopped cilantro
3 T lemon juice

The original recipe included olive oil and salt. This recipe doesn’t suffer in the least from their omission.

Blanch the tomatillos and chili peppers for two minutes in boiling water, drain, and puree in the food processor. Drain and add remaining ingredients.

This recipe makes about two cups and contains 11.47 calories, .27 g protein, 1.62 g carbohydrates, .23 g fat, and .47 mg sodium per two tablespoon serving.

Here are my dietary recaps for the last three days.

Daily Dietary Recap-4/23/2007
Calories	Protein	Carbohydrates	Sodium	Fat	% Calories from Fat
1253	58.71 g	162.08 g	1450.75 mg	11.63 g	8.27%

Daily Dietary Recap-4/22/2007
Calories	Protein	Carbohydrates	Sodium	Fat	% Calories from Fat
1187.6	46.14 g	221.76 g	973.5 mg	13.77 g	10.44%

Daily Dietary Recap-4/21/2007
Calories	Protein	Carbohydrates	Sodium	Fat	% Calories from Fat
1105.42	63.14 g	164.83 g	950.53 mg	14.05 g	10.22%

Non-fat Refried Beans and Healthy Tostada

I decided that I could make my own non-fat refried beans that had no added sodium and tasted just as good as the canned beans. I started with pinto beans this time as it is more traditional and soaked the beans, rinsed them and changed the water, then cooked them (two cups dried) with two quarts of water, ½ cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 t. onion powder, and 1 t. garlic powder for about two hours. I then mashed them and spread about 2 T on a homemade tostado, added non-fat cheddar cheese, non-fat sour cream, chopped onions, and chopped lettuce.

To make the crisp tortillas, I preheated the oven to 400º and sprayed a cookie sheet with olive oil spray and placed corn tortillas (normally low in fat and sodium) in the oven on the sheet and turned them about every five minutes until they were crisp.

Each tostada prepared this way has 83.75 calories, 6 g protein, 16.5 g carbohydrates, .5 g fat, and 110.75 mg sodium.

Here is my recap from yesterday.

Daily Dietary Recap-4/20/2007
Calories	Protein	Carbohydrates	Sodium	Fat	% Calories from Fat
1132.5	85.26 g	169.1 g	975.5 mg	19.92 g	15.74%

Healthy Tortilla Chips

Last night I had a hankering for corn chips. I made some healthy chips and enjoyed them with some non-fat sour cream for a special treat. I’ve referred to healthy chips before, but this time I made them a little differently. I used Mi Casa tortilla chips (lower in sodium and fat), and put them in the microwave for thirty seconds until they became puffy. I finished them in the oven under the broiler so they crisped up and lightly browned. They were delicious and had only 40 calories per tortilla, .5 g fat, and 28.5 mg sodium.


Here is my recap from yesterday.

Daily Dietary Recap-4/17/2007
Calories	Protein	Carbohydrates	Sodium	Fat	% Calories from Fat
1353.54	57.5 g	270.75 g	1232.49 mg	16.78 g	11.66%

Diet Recipes-Tofu Meatballs and Whole Grain Tortillas

I thought today would be a good day to share a couple of my diet recipes. In my attempt to reduce salt, fat, and calories I’ve tried a few experimental recipes. Here are a couple that worked particularly well.

Tofu Meatballs

Tofu meatballs are a vegetarian alternative to high fat meatballs with the added benefits of low salt, fat, calories, and they contain soy protein. This recipe makes about 24 meatballs and each contains only 55.88 Calories, 2.05 g fat, 6.39 g carbohydrate, 77.73 g sodium, and no saturated fat or cholesterol. These meatless meatballs freeze well and I usually add a few to my pasta sauce and freeze the rest.

Ingredients

• Tofu-NaSoya lite firm or other firm tofu 14 oz.
• Garlic Clove 1
• Plain Breadcrumbs 1 ½ Cups
• Eggbeaters .25 C
• Onion Powder to taste
• Garlic Powder to taste
• Parsley Flakes 1 T
• Italian Seasoning 1 ½ t.
• Medium onion, chopped 1
• Walnuts (shelled halves, chopped) ½ Cup

Preheat over to 350º. Add the first eight ingredients to the food processor or blender and process until it is smooth. Add the onion next and process minimally in order to leave some chunks. Stir the chopped walnuts into the mixture after it has been processed (better texture). Form this mixture into balls and bake them on a cookie sheet for 40 minutes at 350º, turning once.

If you are not too concerned about the fat content, you could easily increase the walnuts to 1C without adjusting any other ingredients, and I think the recipe would be improved. I didn’t have low-sodium breadcrumbs, but using them would significantly lower the salt content.

Whole Wheat Tortillas

These are really good! I put boiled chicken breast and mozzarella or non-fat cheddar cheese in them. I sometimes use them for fish tacos or just a bean burrito. Served with brown rice and red beans, these make quite a meal. Calories: 66.83, Fat: .67 g, Carbohydrates: 14.76 g, Fiber: 2 g, Protein: 2 g, and Sodium: 78.71 mg.

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt (I use sea salt)
• 1/2 cup warm tap water plus enough to make a good dough

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add warm tap water 1 T at a time until the dough makes a good ball. Add more water as needed 1 T at a time. Knead ball on floured surface 25-30 times. Let dough rest for 15 minutes. Divide dough into 12 equal portions and shape into balls. Roll the balls out from the center on a floured board until they become roughly circular. Cook the tortillas on an ungreased skillet over medium-high heat for about 30 seconds on each side until they become puffy. Cover the completed tortillas with a moist paper towel while you cook the others. These are also good cooked longer until they are crisp.

Here's my dietary recap for yesterday.

Daily Dietary Recap-3/9/2007
Calories	Protein	Carbohydrates	Sodium	Fat	% Calories from Fat
1349.45	72.72 g	211.34 g	1249.91 mg	21.64 g	14.42%