Friday, September 2, 2011

Special Spinach Salad

I have a real passion for great Spinach Salads. A great Spinach salad is hard to beat and even harder to keep low calorie. I do not like most bottled dressings but I have found some great spinach salad dressings.


Cold Spinach Salad:

Recipe for dressing:
1/3 cup of olive oil
3 Tbs of sugar -- I use a substitute
2 Tbs White Wine Vinegar -- I use Rice Vinegar
2 Tbs Sour Cream-- I use Greek Yogurt
1/2 tsp ground mustard
Blend all ingredients on a covered jar and place in refrigerator

Add dressing when ready to serve over
1 pkg (6 oz) of Fresh Baby Spinach
1/2 cup of walnuts (toasted optional)
1/2 cup of dried cranberries or craisins

I do not have walnuts or cranberries tonight so I will probably use blueberries, fresh pear pieces and chopped fried chicken pieces.

Hot Spinach Salad

Recipe for dressing:
1/3 cup of olive oil
3 Tbs of sugar -- I use a substitute
2 Tbs White Wine Vinegar -- I use Rice Vinegar
2 Tbs Worcheshire Sauce
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp of grated garlic
1/4 corn starch to thicken if desired (corn starch will need to come to a boil if added at the end. Increase heat long enough to mildly boil for three minutes and then return heat to low)
Blend all ingredients over low heat and set aside dressing until ready to serve over
1 pkg (6 oz) of Fresh Baby Spinach
2 hard boiled eggs chopped --- egg whites only if needed
1/2 cup sliced white mushrooms
1/2 cup of thinly sliced red onion


Now for a Ruth Pet Peeve:

I love reading the menus in fancy restaurants explain wonderful spinach salads. Many restaurants will offer great sounding spinach salads with strawberries, orange vinaigrette's, all kinds of great ingredients along with wonderfully described dressings. If the salad is priced over 7 dollars --- my biggest pet peeve is spinach leaves with 2-3 inch stems on the spinach leaves, One strawberry sliced into 3 parts and a bottled or very old tasting dressing.
Of course I would not do it but the inner Ruth wants to send the spinach salad back and ask that the chef trim the spinach.

Now for the Irony of this blog: A true Ruthism (You can never win!)

In an effort to provide a healthy diet --- Spinach Salads seemed like a sure thing. Iron, green, low carbs,........ but I have developed a sensitivity to oxalate. This sensitivity led to kidney stones (Ouch! Ouch!)
So I was given a CAN NOT EAT list by my doctor.

High-oxalate foods-higher to lower

rhubarb
spinach --- what??? my health food?
beets
swiss chard
wheat germ
soybean crackers
peanuts
okra
chocolate ---- HUH?
black Indian tea --- I love my stress reducing black tea
sweet potatoes --- my go-to food thickener ; and I love a great sweet potato pie.

Foods that have medium amounts of oxalate may be eaten in limited amounts.

Medium-oxalate foods-higher to lower
grits
grapes -- a favorite
celery
green pepper --- love it in my food
red raspberries
fruit cake
strawberries --- a favorite
marmalade - love it


So if I am to have a low glutton, sugar-free, low oxalate diet the list of okay foods is shrinking.

So we need to eat to live and not live to eat.

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