Weekend Carnivore

In the years since I moved to the UK, I couldn’t fail to notice some differences in the eating habits between the States and my new home. Largely, we aren’t all that different with what we eat but there are little variances that stand out over time. Often it is just differences in terms. For example, most people know that what Americans call chips are what the British call crisps and what the British call chips the Americans call fries. Other times though, it is more about our actual eating habits.

One of those that has been obvious to me as an American that has lived in the UK for so long is that the USA is much more of a a ‘chips and dip’ culture. By that, of course, I mean crisps type chips (confused yet?). In the States it just isn’t a party without a good selection of chips and dips. However, if I throw a party in the UK, the dips are often one of the last things selected by the guests. I can’t pretend to understand it because the love of dips is one of those American things I have just never been able to shake. If I am honest, I have no desire too either because what isn’t to love about a good dip? Perhaps it is that people think that dips are a bit down market but that doesn’t have to be the case at all. Really, hummus is just a dip by another name, isn’t it?

low fat carrot dip recipe

There is a problem with me having dips in my life these days though and it all comes down to fat and calories. If I am ever going to get my weight loss moving again and get to that magical 100 pounds lost (I am on an insanely frustrating and very long plateau) then I just can’t have anything high in fat. Even if it is as good as a dip!

Which means that I am always on the look out for low fat dip recipes that can help me satisfy my dip cravings whilst still tasting good. When I saw the carrot dip recipe over at the lovely Cupcakes and Cornwall blog I knew I had to give it a go. Pretty much the only ingredients in the healthy dip recipes are carrots, fat free Greek yoghurt and some spices. Who could argue with the healthy nature of that?

It turns out that the low fat dip recipe is also rather forgiving. For some reason, I forgot to cook the carrots in water for a few minutes before sticking them into roast. I remembered this about ten minutes into the cooking and decided to let them roast for another ten minutes to get them more tender. That worked just fine and when they came out they looked lovely and roasted with just a little bit of the tell tale black spots that come with a good roasting. By using cooking spray instead of the suggested olive oil, I managed to cut the already very low fat dip recipe down even more and they roasted just fine.

Once the carrots were roasted, the healthy dip recipe just couldn’t be easier to put together. I tossed the carrots into my mini chopper, threw in the spices and blitzed it for about 20 seconds. At that stage, I tasted it and it was really nice but I decided to add a little bit of garlic powder simply because I am a sucker for garlic in just about any dip. It would have been just fine without it too. I put the fat free Greek yoghurt into the mini chopper and blitzed it again for maybe 30 seconds and then the dip was done!

I cut up some lovely crisp celery and tore up some toasted pitas and had the low fat carrot dip for my lunch. With a healthy dip that tasty and easy around there is no reason for this chips and dips gal to shun them any longer.

Who doesn’t love pizza? I sure know that I do but ordering takeaway pizza is just a no no on my diet. When I have a lot of time on my hands, I am not adverse to trying making a homemade pizza dough recipe. Truth is though, I rarely think that far ahead. Even if I did, a homemade pizza dough recipe is still going to have more calories than I am likely to have spare.

Sun dried tomato and olive tortilla pizza recipe

Lately, I have been indulging my pizza craving moments by throwing together quick and very easy tortilla pizza recipes. It really is as simple as using a tortilla in place of the normal pizza dough and piling it high with the cheese and toppings of your choice. They are so easy and simple to make that I have taken to having them instead of a sandwich for lunch. I suppose, really they are an open faced sandwich or a an inside out quesadilla anyway.

You really can put just about anything on them and make a whole new tortilla pizza recipe each and every time. They are great for anybody following a vegetarian diet because the pizza topping options really are as varied as the types of vegetables you can find.

My recent favourite topping combination for my tortilla pizza recipe is sun dried tomatoes and a mixture of green and black olives. If I use reduced fat mozzarella I can pile those olives high and not worry too much about the fat. It is all good fat anyway, right?

Sun dried tomato and olive tortilla pizza

Tortilla pizza recipe

Ingredients:
1 flour tortilla
1 tablespoon pasta sauce
1/3 cup reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and roughly chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons green olives, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons black olives, sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F/Gas Mark 6
2. Put the tortilla on a baking sheet and spread with the pasta sauce.
3. Scatter the cheese evenly over the tortilla.
4. Put the sun dried tomatoes and olives all over the top of the cheese.
5. Bake in the oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese melts. Watch it very closely during this cooking time as it can very quickly go from golden and melted to very burnt.
6. Put onto a plate and eat sliced into pizza style slices.

Serves: 1

The times when it gets difficult to stick to a vegetarian diet comes when I just have no energy to get into cooking a meal that takes a long time to prepare. It is also exactly these times when I am starving and need something that is really going to fill me up. It was just one of these moments when I came up with these Mexican bean stuffed baked potatoes.

I have always loved how a good twice baked potato recipe is an easy recipe but looks really impressive. The problem is though that so many twice baked potato recipes are usually rather high in fat and calories from all the butter and cheese that usually goes into making them. Anything that high in fat is a no no for me these days.

I am always looking for something else to put refried beans into. I know they don’t look pretty but I just love them and with vegetarian and low fat versions of refried beans now readily available in British supermarkets I pretty much always have a can in the cupboard. I usually have a bit of salsa in the house and we are never without some potatoes. So, this really is the sort of recipe that comes more out of a cupboard than a cookbook.

You can control the spice levels by picking the intensity of salsa that your family enjoys. I am a total spicy heat wimp. So, I used a mild salsa and then the two of us topped our Mexican twice baked potatoes with chillies. I went for the really mild banana peppers. These are fantastic and now sold as part of the Discovery brand’s range of Mexican foods. They aren’t in every supermarket but I usually can find them in Morrisons. My husband has much more of head for spices. So, he topped his with Jalapeños.

Mexican Bean Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Mexican bean stuffed baked potatoes

Ingredients:

4 baked potatoes, freshly baked
1 (435 gram/15 ounce) can fat free refried beans
1 cup salsa

Optional Toppings:

fat free sour cream
banana peppers
jalapeños
chives

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees or gas mark 6.
2. Cut off most of the top of the baked potatoes and scoop out the majority of the insides leaving just enough not to break the skins.
3. Put the potato shells into an oven proof dish and the insides into a large bowl.
4. Gently mash the potato insides but don’t mash so much that they are fully smooth.
5. Empty the can of beans and the cup of salsa into the bowl and gently mix so that everything is combined but not over mixed or it will get really loose.
6. Spoon the mixture back into the potato shells and bake for 20 minutes.
7. Top with any or all of the optional toppings and serve with a green salad for a low fat and healthy vegetarian meal.

Serves 4

When I am in a rush to put something on the dinner table, it can be so tempting to just reach for some meat and throw it in the oven to cook. However, I really am trying to eat less meat and eat as many vegetarian meals as possible. On top of which, I want to make sure everything I cook is a healthy recipe. It doesn’t always work out that way but that is certainly the aim.

The other day, we were in between shopping and had very little in the house and I had even less desire to spend a load of time standing in the kitchen putting together a meal. So, I opened the cupboards and took at look in the vegetable drawer to see what had made it to the end of the shopping week. It was a real mixture of stuff but for some reason it screamed ‘Mexican’ to me.

I warned my husband that I was trying a new vegetarian recipe and it was either going to be really good or really horrible. Luckily, my new recipe for vegetarian tacos turned out to be very good! On top of being a super easy vegetarian recipe, it is packed full of vegetables that your kids or other veggie phobic family members won’t even notice are there when they are chowing down.

Vegetarian Bean and Lentil Tacos

Vegetarian Bean And Lentil Taco Recipe

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 cup carrot, shredded
1 cup zucchini, shredded
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup mushroom, finely sliced
1 (14 ounce) can cooked lentils, drained
2 1/2 teaspoons fajitas seasoning mix
1 (15 ounce) can fat-free refried beans
8 taco shells
1/2 cup reduced-fat cheddar cheese, shredded

Toppings:
reduced-fat sour cream (optional)
salsa (optional)
guacamole (optional)
jalapenos (optional)

Directions:
1.Heat oil in a large pan over a medium heat.
2. Add in the shredded carrots, zucchini, chopped onions and the garlic powder.
3. Stir for a minute two before reducing the heat and letting them sweat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the lentils, mushrooms and fajitas seasoning and cooking, stirring often, over medium heat for another five minutes.
5. Meanwhile, put the taco shells in the oven to cook through. The ones that I buy take about 5 minutes so this can be done while the lentils and mushrooms are cooking down.
6. Stir the refried beans into the vegetable and lentil mixture until everything is combined and the beans are just warmed through.
7. Spoon the lentil and bean mixture into the taco shells and top with shredded cheese.
8. Add any of the other toppings you may enjoy and eat as you would a ‘normal’ taco.

Makes 8 tacos

If you ask me, dill is such an underused herb. As much as I love pickles, there is just so much to dill than floating in those pickle jars only to the poured down the drain or thrown out in the trash. This vegetable recipe for Lemon Dill Green beans posted by January Bride, is a great example of how just a little bit of dill can really transform a basic ingredient into something special.

Lemon Dill Green Bean Side Dish Recipe

Not only is this a very easy vegetarian recipe but it actually passes as a vegan recipe too. However,even the meat eaters at your table are going to love this green bean recipe. Simply by using some dill and some whole grain mustard, the same old boring green beans become a really special vegetarian recipe with a whole bunch of flavour.

This low fat recipe will be as home on a plate next to some fish as it would be settled alongside your favourite vegetarian meal. So, really a great side dish for any Weekend Carnivore out there looking to ease their family into eating less meat.

Who doesn’t love a good potato salad recipe? In fact, pretty much everybody swears they have *the* best potato salad recipe. Truth be told, there are so many different wants to jazz up your spuds to make it into one yummy potato salad that you can understand why so many people would think that to be the case of their particular potato salad recipe.

Even though most recipes for potato salad are naturally vegetarian recipes, the one thing I tend not to like about them is that they also tend to be packed with fat. Plus, if you are a vegan you are going to have trouble finding a vegan friendly potato salad because of all the mayo and also because a lot of creamy potato salad recipes also have egg thrown in.

While, I am not a vegan myself, I do have to watch those fat grams if I am ever going to reach my goal weight. So, when I saw this dairy free Low Fat Warm Potato Salad recipe posted on Recipezaar by Annacia I knew I needed to give it a try.

Low Fat Potato Salad Recipe

I am really glad that I did too because this potato salad recipe is packed with flavour! There is a bit of olive oil in it but not enough for it to be much of a calorie counting concern. Then the combination of Dijon mustard, rice vinegar and red wine vinegar gives the potato salad recipe a wonderfully tangy taste. It truly makes a great alternative to the normal creamy potato salad recipe and you can enjoy it even if you require vegan recipes.

I want to show off this vegetarian dessert recipe because I am so proud of myself for making it and not totally messing it up! I have always been a bit afraid of any recipes that involve whipping up egg whites to the point of the infamous stiff peaks. So, making a pavlova was totally out of the question. That is what I thought anyway until I was tempted into trying out the Australian Pavlova recipe posted by Sharon123 over on Recipezaar.

I was tempted by the pavlova recipe because it is a vegetarian recipe but also because of the use of egg whites, it is also a low fat dessert recipe. Who can turn that down? So, I gave I decided to have a try at making the recipe but I truly expected to fail. Much to my surprise my attempt at making this dessert recipe worked!

Pavlova Dessert Recipe

Not only did this vegetarian recipe for dessert look fantastic but it also tasted great. I filled the pavlova with low fat Greek yoghurt and then piled it high with chopped up kiwi and mango. As if that wasn’t tasty enough, I then sprinkled the top with macadamia nuts. It turned out to be an indulgent tasting dessert recipe. Best of all, even though it tasted so good, it was actually fairly healthy and of course it was a vegetarian recipe.