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A FitSugar Reader Recipe: Summer Salad With Avocado Yogurt Dressing

Fit Community — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:40:11 PDT

It seems our readers can't get enough of warm-weather salads! FitSugar reader VersaStick posted this recipe in our Healthy Recipe group for just that - a crunchy and refreshing salad with jicama, radish, and pineapple, and an avocado-yogurt dressing.

This salad has become a warm-weather favorite! It's easily adaptable and a great way to incorporate the best your local farmer's market has to offer. Here, we've used our favorite local radishes, cucumbers, and basil with jicama and pineapple for a winning combination. Try it and let us know what you think!

Read on for the full recipe after the break!

Fast & Easy Dinner: Southwestern Shrimp

partysugar — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:50:07 PDT

When it comes to speedy dinners, the rotisserie chicken is a wonderfully versatile ingredient. Another one that's not as popular (but definitely should be!) is peeled and cooked shrimp. They're sold in seafood counters across the nation and make a great protein base for all sorts of dishes. This recipe goes beyond the classic shrimp cocktail preparation and looks to the Southwest for inspiration. The shrimp is tossed with salsa, jicama, and avocado to create a quick and simple filling for fajitas. Serve with a salad of canned black beans, fresh tomatoes, and corn, and you've got a hearty meal that's perfect for weeknight entertaining.

See the recipe here.

Move Over Cabbage, Jicama Takes Coleslaw

YumSugar — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:00:41 PDT

Every Fourth of July, I make the ultimate burger. This year I slathered my burger with homemade mustard and ketchup and covered it with a crunchy jicama slaw. If you are not keen on coleslaw as a condiment, it's also a refreshing and crunchy side dish for hot Summer days. A complex slaw, this recipe doesn't exclusively use jicama, but combines radishes, carrots, bell peppers, and cucumbers in a sweet and spicy dressing. Although it's simple, it does take time to prepare - many of the vegetables are grated. It goes fast with one person grating and another chopping, so get someone to help you out (like I did!). To make this colorful and crisp Summer slaw, keep reading.

Chip Substitute: Jicama

FitSugar — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:30:00 PDT

For me, the word snack is synonymous with crunch. I find snacks more satisfying if they have some snap to them. Needless to say I am a chip lover, but they are not the most nutritious food on the planet and can be rather fattening too.

Luckily, my love affair with chips is cooling now that I have found jicama. It is a Spanish word; so pronounce the "j" with the sound of "h".

Native to the Americas and sometimes called the Mexican potato, and a mix between a potato and a pear. You can also compare it in texture to a water chestnut, and in fact jicama is made up of almost 90 percent water. A cup of jicama has almost 6 grams of fiber and only 50 calories. It is also high in vitamin C, potassium and folate.

Peel the coarse, papery skin and julienne the white flesh, into carrot stick size pieces, and squeeze some lime juice on it to keep it from browning. Add a pinch of chili to the lime juice and you have an excellent treat right there. It is also great in salad. I like to use jicama as a vehicle for salsa, and that is why I call it a chip substitute.

Source

5 Surprising Ways to Eat Nut Butter

FitSugar — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:49:49 PST

Nut butters are good for more than just sandwiches. As a source of healthy fats and plant-based protein, nut butters can be a nutritional powerhouse. Whether you prefer classic peanut butter or one of the healthy peanut butter alternatives, here are five unexpected ways to incorporate nut butter into your diet:

Blend it into your smoothie: Make your breakfast sip a bit creamier - and more satisfying - by adding some nut butter to the mix. For a bit of indulgence, try a chocolate strawberry banana smoothie. The healthy fats and dose of protein will help you to stay full and get your day off to an energized start.
Add it to your soups: Boost pureed soups with a spoonful of nut butter. Not only will it create a thicker texture, but it will also add rich, unexpected flavor to standard recipes. Surprise your taste buds by adding almond butter to butternut squash and or blending walnut butter into a beet soup.
Turn it into a dipping sauce: Marinate meats in your favorite nut butter before grilling, or use it as a dipping sauce for fruits and vegetables. Get creative with your combinations: try jicama dipped in cashew butter for a fresh twist on peanut butter apples.
Toss it into Greek yogurt. Get double the protein punch by mixing nut butter into your serving of Greek yogurt. For extra energy and nutrients, add fresh berries and rolled oats to the bowl.
Use it in your salad dressing. Blend nut butter with other oils and spices to create a smooth, rich salad dressing. Not sure where to start? Try a Thai dish, like this kale slaw with peanut dressing recipe.

Source: Flickr User Rusvaplauke

Time to Salsa With Mango, Jicama, and Black Beans

Lauren Hendrickson — Thu, 05 May 2011 01:29:23 PDT

Cinco de Mayo is mañana, and there is no better time to try your hand at simple homemade salsas. The combination possibilities are truly endless, and this salsa mixes the crunchy texture of jicama with the sweetness of mango. It is perfect to serve with tortilla chips or as a topping for tasty tacos. If you want a little extra heat, be sure to include the jalapeno seeds! Time to start planning your fiesta so keep reading for this incredibly easy recipe.

'Tis the Season to Dig Into Root Vegetables

YumSugar — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:30:31 PST

We may be months and months away from the glorious Summer fruits and vegetables we all love, but we should make the most out of root vegetable season. I'm a huge fan of nutrient and vitamin-rich vegetables like beets, carrots, and rutabagas, so all of these recipes sound amazing to me. Even in the dead of Winter there is so much flavor to celebrate! We've included some classic recipes (like glazed carrots) and some unusual ways to highlight your roots (like roasted root vegetable pasta or chocolate beet cake).

Carbonara Potato Skins	Mashed Rutabagas	Roasted Root Vegetable Pasta
Jicama Coleslaw	Glazed Carrots	Chocolate Beet Cake

3 Surprising Ways to Sneak Veggies Into Your Breakfast

FitSugar — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:53:00 PST

Most breakfast options favor fruits and grains, but adding vegetables to your morning routine will kick-start your energy and provide you with plenty of vitamins, straight from the source. Here are three simple, unexpected ways to start your day off right and incorporate veggies into your breakfast routine.

Toss them into a scramble. Boost your breakfast by mixing nutrient-rich vegetables like spinach, red pepper, and onion into your standard scrambled eggs. A half cup of spinach, a quarter cup of red pepper, and a tablespoon of chopped onion amounts to only 21 calories, but all three foods are major sources of fiber and vitamin C. The water-rich vegetables will help you to feel fuller while also providing a medley of essential vitamins - A, E, K, and B6 - plus iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and folate. Other great add-in options? Tomatoes, mushrooms, and asparagus.

Read on for more veggie breakfast ideas.

In Aspen, Ming Tsai Opens Up About Clams

Susannah Chen — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:36:04 PDT

We spotted Ming Tsai at a late-night party in Aspen for the Food & Wine Classic Friday evening - so it wasn't a surprise to find the chef roughing it a little at his early-morning cooking demo the next day. Still, the Next Iron Chef contestant and Blue Ginger proprietor managed to bring his best when it came to wit and cooking skills.

Ming made a number of dishes from his new cookbook, Simply Ming One-Pot Meals, but my favorite was his demonstration of a dish called Clams, Pork, and Jicama, in which he offered up a number of helpful tips that I wasn't familiar with. Follow these bivalve suggestions next time you cook at home, and you'll be happy as a clam. To see them, keep reading.

4 Savory Ways to Enjoy Watermelon

Katie Sweeney — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:52:00 PDT

The simplest preparation of ripe watermelon, fresh from the fridge and sliced into wedges, is arguably the best way to eat it. But I'm going to play devil's advocate and recommend that you do something unexpectedly delicious with watermelon. Fresh popsicles or another sweet treat are awesome uses of watermelon, but they are a little too common. To really blow your friends and family away, incorporate the juicy pink flesh of watermelon into a savory dish. Here are four to try:

Salad: Arugula (or some other green, like watercress), feta, and watermelon salad has popped up on so many restaurant menus it could practically be considered a classic salad! Other salad ingredients that pair well with watermelon are jicama, mint, red onion, olives, tomatoes, goat cheese, radishes, basil, cucumber, avocado, and fennel. Try adding watermelon slices to Caprese salad: it tastes wonderful with balls of fresh mozzarella.
Seafood: The brightness of watermelon complements many kinds of seafood from squid to swordfish to crab.
Cocktail: When pureed and strained, watermelon juice is a refreshing ingredient in many cocktails, specifically drinks that have a little spice like this chipotle-rimmed tequila beverage.
Grill it: Earlier this Summer, Mark Bittman, columnist at The New York Times, blew me away with his recommendation for grilled watermelon burgers! If that's a little too adventurous for you, grill watermelon and add it to a salad.

Do you use watermelon in savory dishes? Share your techniques with us below!