Monday, April 26, 2010

Picnic Foods Vegetarian and Fat Free


Pssssst! Don’t tell anyone, but there are such things as ‘healthy picnic food’. With warmth, I recall friends and family joining two picnic tables together under a shade-tree then covering them with red gingham table cloths and piling its length and girth with mysterious casserole dishes, macaroni salad, mountains of fried chicken, creamy potato salad, deviled eggs yeast rolls with butter, baked beans topped with bacon strips and Cole slaw. The wooden behemoths creaked and moaned from the vast accumulation of die-hard American icons.
It’s true you’d be mocked Foghorn Leghorn-style for bringing a healthy dish to, of all things, a pitch-in dinner. “Well, that’s downright un-American, boy. Picnics are for cheatin’, breaking the rules and feeling good. No one gives hoot about healthy food, son. Now, go on; shush-up and pass me another, I-say, I-say, spare rib!” the chubby face of our nation’s health care disaster; denial and a difficulty breaking from self-destructive dietary traditions. After all, misery adores company, but our higher source requires us all to be responsible stewards of His once-in-a life-time gift.
Often, our favorite feel-good foods open the oven door to uninvited diseases within the Holy Temple. No need to give them up; discreetly tweak the ingredients a tad and no one will know the difference unless you point it out; a fatal fault to the sneaky, loving plan. Most of us are quite busy these days. We mean well, but often run out of time to cook and tend to submit to compromise. All anyone needs is food literacy, a focused plan, a food processor and a sauté pan and you can commence eating better, quicker without feeling cheated out of the memorable ‘feel-good’ flavors of America’s traditional pitch-in orgies.
In the Cole Slaw redo we will use cabbage and asparagus as cancer-fighters; cilantro to removes heavy metals, and cauliflower, another groovy anti-carcinogen quells the fires of internal inflammation linked with a constellation of largely preventable diseases. I’ve omitted mayonnaise-based slaw dressing and saturated fat from pork and beans to reduce the accumulation of food stuffs that clog your arteries and screw up digestion. Please forego the pre-shredded bags of cabbage. They were processed then transferred hundreds of miles from here, many days ago and likely contain dangerous MSG to prevent spoilage, hence, nutritionally insolvent. Fresh is infinitely best for Holy Temple biochemistry considering fibrous cabbage is an awesome cancer-fighter.
Vegetarian baked beans do not contain artery-detonating swine lard and are widely available. If you add several drops of liquid smoke, the dish will still have a porky bacon flavor. Ba-ba dee, Ba-ba-dee, tha-a-at’s all you gotta do folks! If you close your mind to popular Smart Dogs, then you need to talk to my grand kids who dig them. They look, boil and taste like the real thing without cancerous nitrates and food colorings that exacerbate ADD and ADHD.
Together, let’s joyously prepare these two tasty picnic icons with a bit more health consciousness so everyone can continue enjoying them without felonious assaulting family health. I’ve added the health benefits of each ingredient to the recipes so you can clearly appreciate their health mojo. Food is indeed good medicine and Chef’s are the doctors of the future.
Quick & Easy Veggie Cole Slaw
Food processor¼ head of cabbage-ANTI CANCER

6 stalks of asparagus-ANTI-CANCER

4 cauliflower florets-ANTI-INFLAMMATORY

1 carrot-CLEANS THE LIVER

2 green onions-ANTI-CANCER

½ cup chopped cilantro-REMOVES HEAVY METALS FROM OR BODY

2 tbs. Marzetties Lite-Slaw Dressing

Juice of one fresh lime or lemon-VITAMIN C
Cut the veggies up into smaller pieces before processing
Pulse all veggies in food processor. Do not over pulse, however.
Place chopped veggies into a mixing bowl, squeeze in the lemon juice and blend. Keep chilled.

Beans and Franks
1 can vegetarian baked beans-FIBER

1 pkg. Smart Dog Soy Hot Dogs cut into bite-size pieces-CLEAN PROTEIN

2 tbs. organic Heinz Ketchup-LYCOPENE

½ diced onion-HEART HEALTH AND ANTI-CANCER

4 drops of liquid smoke to replace the ham flavor
Toss everything into a sauté pan and heat gently till all is hot. Stir often