Mediterranean Bread Salad

With the produce coming in fast and furious, consider making a bread salad.  You will need half of a baguette,  and if you can find a reduced price day old one, so much the better. cut in 1/2 inch cubes and toast with a bit of olive oil in a 425 degree oven for 5 - 10 minutes. 

6-8 tomatoes, from the garden (or someone's garden) if possible, cut into one inch chunks.
4 oz. baby spinach, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced really THIN!
8 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1/4 cup chopped basil, fresh, of course.
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese


Mix tomatoes thru basil in a large bowl.  Save all tomato juice from chopping.  Dress with 2 T. balsamic vinegar (I use white) and 3-4 T. olive oil.  Toss in bread cubes and toss well to miss ingredients.  Salad can sit a few minutes for bread to absorb juices.  Just before serving, sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan.

Serves 4-6. 

Although it seems counter-intuitive, the salad can be eaten with sliced bread.  Serve a soup or a hearty dessert.


Enjoy!    I like to eat the soggy salad the next day. 

Eating Cheap while Dieting: A Dieter's Dilemna

So . . . the long New England winter and some company and a couple trips to the Big Apple to say nothing of Mother's Day have all added an unacceptable weight gain to the residents of this house, which includes a hugely plump (fat as mud) diabetic cat.  Only the "new" cat is slim, but he refuses to tell us his secret.  


I am not a low-fat diet person.  I never met a fat gram I didn't like.  Just about gagged yesterday when some diet site recommended spraying your breakfast English muffin with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray.  I sure as hell could believe it's not butter.   So, except for extreme exercise and starvation and lots of rice cakes, the only diet I've ever lost weight on is low carb, i.e. Dr. Atkins.  Now, there's this to say about me and diets:  the moment I see no caffeine and no wine, I am out of there.   When the South Beat diet recommended "Fat Free Half and Half" I just about urped.  See, the other thing is that I am into real food, the unprocessed kind where the the label says, "all natural."  


Now all this quibbling would be fine if there were unlimited food resources, like $600  a month or more.  Hell, we could do Jennie Craig for $700.00 plus extras.   The challenge will be to eat meat, fruits and vegetables  (I do like my fruit) and not break the bank.  Yesterday's grocery bill at $150.00, was not a good start, but I got meat for two weeks and lots of very fine veggies and some (on special) scallops to start off with.  We have been eating all the rest of the "bad" food in the fridge: the sour cream strawberry cake, the spaghetti and meat balls, the bread, the muffins, etc. God, was the spaghetti and meat balls tasty.  I do miss pasta when dieting.     

My idea is to buy all the weekly produce and meat specials and to shop at two stores and plan my meals around these.  The bigger challenge will be to accommodate the summer guests while we continue our diet.  I do not intend to deprive myself of modest amounts of dark chocolate, either.    Due to all these accommodations to dieting  I don't expect to lose particularly quickly, but I will be happy with a pound  a week after the initial week.  The South Beach Diet has some dynamite recipes, and I have a couple of diet desserts that are low enough cal to have once in a while.   Not big on artificial sweeteners, and only low-fat ricotta.  We use 2% milk for the coffee.  So it should be doable and I will share the results.  What works, what doesn't, and how hard it will be.  

This noon I'm having lunch at Boston's infamous 99 Restaurant (the 9's) with a friend.  The 99 has some great luncheon steak tips and you can get double veg instead of veg and a starch.  A goodly enough portion that you won't start snacking at 4:00 pm.  We bought apples to eat with our evening cheese hors d'oeuvres and some colorful peppers to grill and eat with a bit of ricotta salata.  Peppers on sale,  apples on sale.  

Let's see how it goes.    


The Cheeseparer and hoping to be the pound parer

The Cheeseparer has a Dinner Party

An old writing friend came to town this week and I invited her and some others for a mid-week dinner.  I tried to find something everyone would like which wouldn't totally blow out our diets.  Settled on a mostly Mediterranean menu which contributed to delicious lunches.  The full fat Greek yogurt rocks, as did the special feta from Whole Foods.  Here are photographs of the meal.  The orange-mascarpone tart with pistachios was to die for.  Oranges will be cheaper than berries or chocolate desserts.  Very healthy too.  Whole Foods has a nut table where the shopper can pick out exactly the amount she needs.  No waste or extra money.   Ratatouille  is also an economical choice and can be made a day ahead of time.  The Mediterranean Diet is healthy, but not cheap to cook.