Suddenly Salad<\/a> (which is what I was trying to emulate) I think you have to count at least 400 calories towards your day, so it was a win!<\/p>\nSuper easy too.\u00a0 First, take a box of rotini tri-colored pasta (the 6 serving size).\u00a0 I mean, you can use whatever you want, but I prefer rotini pasta in my pasta salad and the tri-colored stuff is just fun.\u00a0 If I was being SUPER GOOD I would have done wheat pasta but it was for a 4th of July BBQ.\u00a0 Festive looking won.\u00a0 Throw in some garlic while it cooks if you are as anti-vampire as I.\u00a0 Then, drain and rinse to cool to room temperature.<\/p>\n
Start dicing up your vegetable drawer.\u00a0 I added zucchini, celery, bell peppers, onions, broccoli, and califlower.\u00a0 I could see also adding cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, but my bowl was already overflowing so I skipped the rest.\u00a0 I think about half the bowl was pasta and the other half was veggie.<\/p>\n
Now the good stuff that makes it pasta salad-y instead of a bowl of veggies and carbs.\u00a0 Add a small can of sliced black olives, a good few forkfuls of green olives, and a few big pinches of crumbled feta.\u00a0 Mix that in.\u00a0 Then, spice it up!\u00a0 I added our generic “Italian Seasoning”, some parsley, and some pepper (my italian dressing already had a lot going on with it, I didn’t need much more).\u00a0 I had an audience that I wanted to keep things kinda mild for, or I would have rocked the crushed red pepper.\u00a0 Then, add about 1\/4 bottle of italian dressing.\u00a0 I used the fat free kind I usually use on a salad.\u00a0 I would suggest using something that you would consider eating with some lettuce and dressing because you *will* taste it.\u00a0 Mix that in.\u00a0 Chill overnight if you can stand the suspense because the dressing soaks in and tastes super yummy.<\/p>\n
Lowfat Dill-Ranch Potato Salad:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-snc1\/hs135.snc1\/5800_102624189449_789139449_1882235_4784977_n.jpg\")
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This is one of my potluck summer staples.\u00a0 It’s nice and light while still tasting like you’re eating something naughty-sauce.\u00a0 It’s a little higher calorie than the pasta stuff but still kills a potato salad craving for about 1\/2 the calories.\u00a0 It’s a little trickier too, but with a little practice you’ll get the hang of doing the ‘taters right.<\/p>\n
First, chop up 4 red potatoes into what I’ll call home fry size pieces.\u00a0 From the picture, you can see how big they are relative to the olives, and these were normal “sliced in the can” ones so they are pretty much standard size.\u00a0 Put the taters in a pot with some garlic (or not, but it was yummy), and bring to a boil.\u00a0 Then, put it on simmer and check once every 5 minutes at least.\u00a0 To check, pick up a chunk of tater and gently prod it.\u00a0 Once it is no longer hard but squishes a bit (err on the side off too done if you must, it’s better to have a bit of mush then raw taters), turn off the heat and drain them and rinse them to cool the spuds down (I think it took 45 mins total to do this).<\/p>\n
Then, the rest.\u00a0 Chop up 5 stalks of celery and add to the taters.\u00a0 This makes it a pretty good mix of veggie and starch, as you can see the celery is holding it’s own in the bowl along with the spuds, unlike most potato salads which feature a crunch of celery (if that) every few bites.\u00a0 Dump a small can of black olives in the mix, and chop half a bunch of green onion and about a quarter of a large red onion and add those too.<\/p>\n
Now, seasoning time.\u00a0 Add a hefty amount of dill (you really want to taste it, it goes GREAT with the other flavors) and a little less rosemary, parsley, and pepper.\u00a0 Mix it around, and you should see seasony goodness on each tater chunk.\u00a0 Then, the glue – add about 6-8 tbps of light ranch.\u00a0 I didn’t actually measure, I poured a little and mixed and poured and mixed until it had a good coating but wasn’t dripping.\u00a0 Next time I think I could use a little less, but just a *little*.\u00a0 That made about half a punchbowl full, and while I’m a little fuzzier on the calorie count, it had to be less than 1000.\u00a0\u00a0 It made about 8-10 good side dishes out of it, so at worst we’re looking 125 calories.\u00a0 And that’s probably a good 1\/4 plateful.<\/p>\n
Coleslaw:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-snc1\/hs155.snc1\/5800_102623114449_789139449_1882207_2147032_n.jpg\")
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This was Zliten’s doing, so I’ll keep it short.\u00a0 Chop head of cabbage.\u00a0 Grate a carrot.\u00a0 Add about 6-8 tpbs storebought coleslaw dressing (about 150 calories per 2 tbps).\u00a0 Mix with pepper.\u00a0 Enjoy!<\/p>\n
I loved them all, but the winner is the pasta\/veggie.\u00a0 I am still having dreams about that stuff.\u00a0 This is what it made me do:<\/p>\n
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Hope everyone had a good 4th (or a good weekend if you live in any other country)!\u00a0 So – make me hungry.\u00a0 What’s the yummiest thing you’ve ever made\/brought to a cookout?<\/p>\n
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