Veggie Kabobs

Vegetable kabobs are festive, colorful and low calorie. I made a couple of iterations for my birthday celebration, and they were very good. I called them Greek kabobs and Italian kabobs, although I suspect those labels may be flawed. Still, It's a good way to get your veggies, and as a bonus, the kids at my party also really liked them.

All the kabobs used grape tomatoes and red onions. These are a cold appetizer, not to be confused with grilled kabobs, which are also delicious. I am a little 'out of the box' on these, since I use mozzarella pearls and/or cubed chicken. After some figuring, I discovered that the 'pearls' have 6 or 7 calories per 2.5 gram pearl. A 1/2 inch cube of chicken is a bit more caloric, but also low enough to fit under the 30 calorie threshold for additions to a serving of vegetables. The picture shows plain kabobs, but for my own adult taste, I prefer to add the herbs in the recipes. It's fun to make these for yourself, because you can add your own favorite vegetables in larger quantities if you want.

Greek Kabobs
grape tomatoes
cucumber, peeled and cut into wedges approx 1/2" per side
red onion, cut into 1/2 " to 1 inch pieces, pulling layers apart
green stuffed olives (I use small size)
mozzarella pearls OR fat free feta cheese cubes
dill weed
salt

Using bamboo skewers, thread a tomato, cucumber piece, onion, olive, pearl (or feta), olive, onion, cucumber and tomato. If wanted, dill weed and salt can be sprinkled on the kabob.

Italian Kabobs
grape tomatoes
green pepper (cut into 1 inch pieces)
red onion, cut into 1/2 " to 1 inch pieces, pulling layers apart
small size black olives
chicken breast cooked and cut into 1/2" cubes
Italian seasoning or basil dried and crumbled
salt

Using bamboo skewers, thread a tomato, pepper piece, onion, olive, chicken, olive, onion, pepper and tomato. If wanted, Italian seasoning or basil and salt can be sprinkled on the kabob.

Eating Leaves

Farmers market is open! I can do this diet MUCH more easily when there is good, fresh food available at the farmers market. I love to experiment with new ways to eat my old favorites.
I get my radishes and beets with the leaves still on them, and then use the leaves in a couple of ways:

1. As I cut the stems off of the beets and radishes, I choose the smaller leaves that are not bruised or torn. I wash them gently but thoroughly and drain them on a dishtowel. I add those leaves to a spinach salad, four or five of each kind to a large bowl of spinach. Then, I add a small handful of washed blueberries, a few mandarin orange sections, and a quarter of a red onion, sliced longways into narrow slices. The radish leaves add a nice peppery flavor, and the beet leaves give a sweeter taste and visual interest to the salad. I use a 35 calorie raspberry dressing. I used to add a couple of walnuts, but I don't miss them, especially if I'm eating this salad with an entree.


2. I use the large beet leaves to stuff with tomato, mushroom,  pepper, corn and hamburger. I blanch the leaves very briefly, then roll the stuffing into them, like grape leaves. Four of these fit into the HMR entree tray. I am replacing 1 meal a day of HMR entrees with my own 200 to 280 calorie meals. The trick is to balance small amounts of meat and grains with larger portions of vegetables. I have a couple of stuffing recipes that I will be sharing in the next week or so, after I get photos and calorie counts on them. I'm pretty proud of the stuffed beet leaves, and I think they even look like a professionally prepared meal.

I had the stuffed beet leaves for lunch with a cucumber, mint and onion salad (salt and fat free sour cream included). I had the spinach salad with extras for dinner with a beef stew entree and then made a pear/banana vanilla shake for dessert. I was satisfied with a full tummy and happy taste buds.

Rhubarb Strawberry Dessert

I'm adding some long overdue recipes to this blog. First off, I'm busy baking a rhubarb strawberry dessert. It's like a cobbler or crumble, except the amount of topping has been cut way down from the original recipe. Here it is, with the nutrition information alongside it.

Preheat over to 375 and spray a 10 by 5 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
Combine cut up rhubarb, quartered strawberries, flour and Truvia baking blend in a bowl. Stir to combine well. Turn into greased baking dish. Combine brown sugar, rolled oats (that's regular oatmeal) and whole wheat flour in a small bowl. Mix well. (I use clean fingers to get it combined and to break up the brown sugar.) Drizzle in the vegetable oil and combine thoroughly. Sprinkle the oat combination evenly on the fruit. Bake at 375 for 30 - 40 minutes. Let cool. (This will thicken as it cools.) Cut in six pieces and serve with a really thick vanilla shake instead of ice cream or whipped topping.


The original recipe I modified this from had 305 calories per serving. The biggest changes were:

1. Doubling the amount of strawberries, thus bulking up on fruit to make up for less topping.

2. Using 1/2 cup Truvia baking blend instead of 1 cup sugar in the fruit portion.

3. Cutting the amount of topping by 1/3. Changing the ratio of sugar to oats from equal portions of each to 3 oats to 1 sugar proportions.

4. Taking out 1/4 cup butter and using 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil instead in the topping.

5. Serving this with a thick vanilla shake instead of ice cream is also a really good modification.

I have had to make a change so it thickens up better. Put 2 tablespoons of flour in the fruit and sugar mixture. Then, leave flour out of the topping.  This keeps the calorie count the same, but the dessert can be eaten while it's still warm, and will be thicker.