Salad with Middle Eastern Flavor

A traditional dish from the north of Africa and Middle East reinvented. A meal in a dish and another option for a packed lunch as it can be served warm or at room temtperature.

INGREDIENTS
1 can garbanzo beans (15 oz net weight)
3 cup cooked couscous
1/2 lb ground lamb
1 cup cooked and shelled green broad beans or shelled edamame

Super Quick Couscous
3/4 cup dry pre cooked couscous
3/4 cup + 2 tbs water, salt to taste
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp butter

Dressing
1 tbs white wine vinegar
1 tbs water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
4 tbs olive oil


Super Quick Couscous

1. Set the couscous in a pan that can go to the microwave or oven and that has a lid. Drizzle with a little olive oil to prevent sticking.
2. Add salt to the water and heat it to the boiling point. If you do this in the microwave, it would take under two minutes on high. Remember to introduce a plastic spoon or wooden stick, it would help you stirring it afterwards and it is an extra precaution to prevent the liquid from exploding if you overheat it.
3. Pour the boiling liquid over the couscous, cover and let it stand five minutes.
4. "Dry" the couscous by introducing the covered pan ten minutes in a preheated oven, at medium, or microwave for 30 seconds at 50% power.
   Add a the butter and fluff with a fork while the butter melts.
   

Dressing

1. In a salad bowl set the vinegar, sugar, salt cumin and coriander. Mix. Sugar and salt will begin to dissolve. Add the olive oil and mix with a fork or tablespoon until you get the consistency of a vinaigrette.

Salad

1. Pour the warm couscous into the salad bowl with the dressing and mix.
2. Drain and wash the garbanzo beans. Defrost the broad beans. Add to the salad bowl.
3. Season the ground lamb with salt and pepper and shape it into small meatballs -measure a heaped teaspoon and shape into a ball.
4. Heat a frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil or use an olive oil spray. Lamb usually has plenty of fat on its own. Cook the meatballs -small ones usually cook in two to three minutes. Be sure they are thoroughly cooked.
5. Add to the salad bowl and mix. You can serve immediately or let it rest to blend the flavors. Best served warm or to room temperature
   
   
   Preparation time: 15 minutes
   Cooking time: 15 minutes
   Ready in: 30 minutes
   
   Brunch, Main Dish, Salad, Spring, Summer
   

Cooking Tips

You can substitute the lamb meatballs by frozen turkey meatballs, just follow the package coking instructions.

I have seen this plate served chilled, but some people do not like cold meatballs> If you plan to serve this salad chilled, use cooked chicken breast or cooked ham.


Recipe Source
Source: All Foods Natural, Allabor free recipes

HEALTHY SNACKS

• Cheese and crackers.
• A small sandwich, just one slice of bread, made whit whole grain bread and deli meat, or the traditional peanut butter and jelly.
• Half a cup of tortilla chips with 1/3 cup of bean dip or guacamole
• Cereal and milk – try to make it whole grain cereal and partly skimmed milk, more fiber, less fat.
• Small can of tuna with bread or crackers - feel free with lettuce ant tomato, careful with the mayonnaise.
• Yogurt with applesauce or fruit spread.
• Half a cup of home made trail mix: ¼ roasted nuts, ¼ sunflower seeds ½ and raisins, for instance.
• Raw vegetables with hummus, peanut butter, baba ganoush, guacamole or low fat cheese -baba ganoush is a dip made from roasted eggplant, with garlic and lemon juice.
• Chocolate, an ounce, with nuts and raisins or whole grain bread.
• Skim milk and one or two cookies, bran muffins, slice of fruitcake, or flapjacks, all that is great home made, no trans fat.
• Cheese, try fresh cheese, or yogurt with fruit: banana, 12 grapes, 10 strawberries, one small apple.
• Milk shake or fruit smoothie made with reduced fat milk or low fat yogurt, frozen fruit, two teaspoons of sugar and two or three drops of vanilla extract.
• Baked beans on toast.

HEALTHY EATING

Orchard of Health - Natural Health Benefits from Everyday Fruit

Eating healthy is fast becoming a way of life. Studies show Americans are living longer and enjoying more active lifestyles. Due to advances in food technology, we are only just beginning to discover the health secrets Mother Nature placed in simple everyday fruit. In fact, in early 2005, the U.S.D.A. revealed the updated version of the food pyramid that suggests five to nine daily servings of fruit and vegetables.

Poppin' Up Big Scoring Super Sunday Snacks

Super Bowl Sunday is not only the biggest game day of the year; it's also the biggest snacking day of the year. Last year more than 130 million Americans tuned into the Super Bowl and salty snacks were fans' top game day picks.

BREAKFAST

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. There is no need to provide ham, bacon, eggs, and home fries, with warm toast dripping butter, on a daily basis.

Start the day with a good breakfast, supplying protein and energy foods. It is a good opportunity to get some of your calcium allowance in the form of milk, yogurt, or cheese. This is especially important for young children, whose bones and teeth are developing, teenagers, usually going through spurts in growth that require extra nutrients, and women, who are more at risk from osteoporosis. Dairy foods are the biggest single source of dietary calcium. They provide also protein and other important vitamins. Lower fat versions are preferable, and an equally useful source of these nutrients. Children as young as two can benefit from 2% fat milk.

For a week day breakfast, you might like to find some simple wholesome alternatives to cold cereal or a bagel –or a quick something grabbed on the go. Although most breakfast options can be prepared in less than thirty minutes, there are ways to speed up the process even more.

• Muffins can be made in advance and frozen.
• Have pre grilled bread slices frozen, ready to pop in the toaster.
• Pancake mix can be prepared the night before and stored in the fridge; this way you can make pancakes in a hurry.

Muesli or a granola breakfast, fresh fruit with yogurt, fresh fruit smoothie, or a quick omelet provide an excellent start to the day. It takes less than five minutes to put it together. If you have to go for the cold cereal with milk, make it whole grain and add berries or raisins.

There is still room for a breakfast sandwich on busy day, where the next meal can be delayed, and for a traditional cooked breakfast on the weekend, even as a brunch option.

LIST OF WINTER FOODS

Make use of the wide range of root vegetables. It is time for baking and stewing.

VEGETABLES

BEST QUALITY: Jerusalem artichoke; white beans, lima beans; beetroot; broccoli; Brussels sprouts; cabbage; carrots; cauliflower; celeriac; celery; kale; leeks; lettuce; onions; parsnip; potatoes; sea kale; shallot; turnip; watercress. AVAILABLE: avocado; French beans; chicory; endive; fennel; kohlrabi; mushroom; okra; pepper; salsify; squashes; sweet potato; zucchini.

FRUIT

BEST QUALITY: apples; cranberries; pears; citrus fruits, such as grapefruits, lemons, limes, tangerines, clementines, satsumas, oranges, ugli; chestnuts, hazelnuts, and walnuts. AVAILABLE: bananas; coconut; dates; lychees; mangoes; persimmon; pineapple.

MEAT
Beef and pork roasts, chops, calf’s liver, buffalo. Before refrigeration, pork used to be eaten fresh only in the winter months. This was also the time to make sausages

POULTRY
Chicken, chicken livers – turkey – goose - Guinea fowl, though available through much of the year, is at its best from the second half of the winter.

GAME
Hare, wild rabbit, farm rabbit is available all the year, partridge, pheasant, wild duck and venison.

FISH

BEST QUALITY: cod, dogfish, flounder, haddock, hake, halibut, mock halibut, plaice, skate, sea bream, sole, whiting, as white fish; carp, herring, mackerel, grey mullet, perch, pike, pilchard, sprat, as oily fish. AVAILABLE: turbot as white fish; conger eel, rainbow trout as oily fish.

SEAFOOD

Clams, crab, lobster, prawns, shrimp.

SEASONAL FOOD - Fall

VEGETABLES

BEST QUALITY: fava beans, runner beans; beetroot; broccoli; Brussels sprouts; cabbage; carrots; cauliflower; celeriac; celery; corn; cucumber; leeks; lettuce; marrow; mushroom; mustard and cress; onions; parsnip; peas; peppers; potatoes; pumpkin; radish; shallot; spinach; sweet potatoes; squashes; tomato; turnip; watercress. AVAILABLE: asparagus; avocado; chicory; eggplant; endive; fennel; kohlrabi; pepper; zucchini.

FRUIT

BEST QUALITY: apples, crab apples; cherimoya; cranberries; dates; figs; grapes; grapefruit; lemons; pears; pomegranate; quince; all nuts, almonds, Brazil, hazelnuts, pecan, walnuts, and, later, chestnuts. AVAILABLE: bananas; coconut; pawpaw or papaya.

MEAT

Ham, beef and pork tenderloins.

POULTRY

BEST QUALITY: duck; duckling; goose; turkey. AVAILABLE: chicken; Cornish hen; Guinea fowl.

GAME

BEST QUALITY: grouse; partridge; pigeon; wild duck; hare; venison. AVAILABLE: pheasant; quail; rabbit.

FISH

BEST QUALITY: cod, dogfish, flounder, hake, halibut, mock halibut, red snapper, skate, sea bream, sole, white sea bass, whiting, as whit fish; carp, herring, mackerel, grey mullet, red mullet, perch, pike, as oily fish. AVAILABLE: haddock, plaice, turbot, as white fish; pilchard, sprat, rainbow trout, yellowtail tuna, as oily fish.

SEAFOOD

BEST QUALITY: California lobster; clams; cockles; mussels; oysters; scallops; whelks; winkles. AVAILABLE: crab; lobster; prawn; shrimp.

SEASONAL FOOD - summer

VEGETABLES

BEST QUALITY: artichoke; beets; broad beans; carrots; corn; cress; cucumber; French beans; green beans; runner beans; lettuce; peas; peppers; radish; salad greens; tomatoes.

AVAILABLE: asparagus; avocado; broccoli; cabbage; cauliflower; celery; fennel; kohlrabi; mushroom; onions; turnip; zucchini.

FRUIT

BEST QUALITY: apricots and strawberries during the first half; all berries and soft fruits, bilberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, gooseberries, loganberries, raspberries, redcurrants, white currants; cherries; peaches; plums; melons; nectarines; watermelon; later, grapes, almonds and hazelnuts.

AVAILABLE: bananas; figs; grapefruit; mangoes; pineapple; there are also walnuts and Brazil nuts.

MEAT

Better to choose lamb or filet steaks. There is also mutton; veal, beef; pork.

POULTRY

AVAILABLE: chicken, duck, goose, guinea fowl, and turkey. BEST QUALITY: duck, which is at its best from the second half of the summer.

GAME

AVAILABLE: pigeon, quail, and rabbit. BEST QUALITY: venison.

FISH

BEST QUALITY: Freshwater bass, hake, sole, and turbot, as white fish; carp, herring, grey mullet, red mullet, perch, pike, salmon, sardine, brown trout, sea trout or salmon, albacore or yellowtail tune, and whitebait, as oily fish; mackerel from the second half.

AVAILABLE: cod, dogfish, flounder, haddock, mock halibut, plaice, whiting; mackerel, pilchard, rainbow trout.

SEAFOOD

BEST QUALITY: crab, lobster, scallops, whelks, winkles. AVAILABLE : clams, cockles, prawn, shrimp.