July 9, 2012
10-Second Recipes: Cool Food That Helps Your Kitchen Cool Down

(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)

By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

Whether it's for "the environment" or your own personal environment, one of the best solutions this summer is to keep things cool by operating your oven as little as possible.  Running your air conditioning and your oven at the same time is a competition that sees your energy bill come out the loser without even the satisfaction of a kitchen that is as pleasant a temperature as the rest of the house.  Studies show that lingering heat from the oven does just that: lingers.  If you don't have air conditioning, then you probably need no convincing to give the oven a day off.  That doesn't mean you should just settle for recycled cold lunch fare for dinner.  Easy perks can be both distinct and economical, such as a flavorful salmon pate made from economical, but usually very high quality, canned pink salmon, or a chilled summer soup with a fruity green tea and fresh herb foundation.

Helpful dishes like these also prove cooking can be easy, nutritious, economical, fun - and fast. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for tasty home cooking and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it! Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" from family members and summer guests.

Summer Soup with Ancient Ties
To avoid any heat from brewing, chill bottled fruit-flavored green tea, add fresh whole raspberries and blackberries and finely chopped fresh mint and fresh thyme.  Serve as a chilled soup accompanied by thick cucumber slices lightly spread with mint jelly.

Sum it Up with Salmon
Canned pink salmon is usually high quality and economical.  Drain it and place chunks in a blender with thinly sliced carrots and celery, a dash of champagne vinegar, freshly ground black pepper, and curry powder, and blend until pate-like.  Spread onto whole wheat tortillas, top with spicy mustard and a mixture of minced mushrooms and gherkins, and then wrap.

Super Food Side Dish
Gently mix a crunchy nugget whole-grain barley cereal (like Grape-Nuts or its generic versions) with sliced green and black olives and a dash of tahini (the highly nutritious ground sesame seed paste usually available canned and inexpensive in most supermarket ethnic aisles).

Frozen Fun
Press dried cherries and bits of fresh banana into store-bought macaroons, drizzle with sugar-free chocolate sauce and freeze.

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  Packaged vegetable chips, though often slightly more expensive than most empty calorie chips, can pack up to a serving of vegetables into every serving while being every bit as delectable.  Alternatively, you can very thinly slice your own vegetables, like carrots and sweet potatoes, season with spices, like cinnamon, curry powder or garlic, and bake until crisp.

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. 

Posted by Staff at 2:01 PM