(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Certain products are known to help stretch a food budget, like day-old bread crumbled into meatloaf, wine mixed with fruit for a sangria, and mock crab used in salads instead of the real thing. Planning around seasonal ingredients can be even more delicious and effective, since they are bursting with freshness and often on sale. Watermelon is a juicy summer case in point, as the following diverse split-second ideas prove, like a spicy salad, scrumptious main dish skewer and perfect parfait. Many varieties of the luscious fruit are now seedless. Buy one on sale, often for pennies per pound on special, and watch it work its wonders all week long.
Fun fare like this also shows innovative food and beverage preparation can be easy, nutritious, economical, entertaining - and fast. They take just
10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The combinations are delicious evidence that everyone has time for tasty "home cooking" and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it! Another benefit: You - and your kidlet helpers - effortlessly become gourmets, since
there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong mixtures, so whatever you choose to use can't help but draw "wows."
This Spicy Salad SizzlesGently mix seedless or seeded watermelon cubes with fresh orange juice, hot sauce, peanut oil, salt and freshly ground pepper. Just before serving, toss with torn fresh mint and basil leaves, and sunflower seeds.
"Melon-Cauli" Summer Soup - or SauceSteam cauliflower, let cool, and puree with a larger amount of seedless or seeded watermelon. Stir in fresh lime juice and curry powder. Chill well and serve as a cold soup, or heat, add freshly ground black pepper, and serve as a sauce over grilled shrimp or chicken.
Skewer This Delicious DishThread on skewers chunks of seedless or seeded watermelon, blocks of feta cheese, folded whole basil leaves, chunks of cooked store-bought or homemade skinless rotisserie chicken, and cherry tomatoes, and repeat. Serve at room temperature.
Seed of an Idea for a Smoothie
In a blender container, blend seedless or seeded watermelon chunks, peeled pear chunks, peeled cucumber slices, fresh ginger and lime juice and, once mixed, add ice cubes and continue blending until smooth.
One Perfect ParfaitIn a bowl, muddle (gently pound) seedless or seeded watermelon chunks until there is juice and pieces. Add a no-calorie, natural sweetener, like stevia, unsweetened shredded coconut and white chocolate chips, and gently mix. Place a layer of sugar-free frozen vanilla-flavored yogurt in an individual serving dish and alternate layers of the frozen yogurt and watermelon mixture, ending with the watermelon mixture on top.
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Cut a large peeled white onion in half and secure it on a long barbecuing fork. Dip the outward smooth side of the cut onion half in cooking oil and swipe the greased onion along your outdoor grill just before heating (re-dipping it in the oil if necessary). This should make it less likely that foods will stick to your grill and often leaves a slight, pleasant scent and flavor of onion on the cooked food.
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
