A yummy slow-cooked stew, with your choice of white or red meat. We loved this recipe so much that we had the dish twice in two days: with beef and chicken respectively! The only non-standard kitchen appliance you will need is a slow-cooker, aka Crock-Pot. It’s worth the 30 bucks it costs.

Ingredients (for 2)
* 350 gr of red or white meat of your choice
* 1/4 cup of red wine (white wine will do too)
* 2 baby potatoes (the ones that are eatable with skin)
* 90 gr frozen French green beans
* 3/4 cup of canned chunked tomatoes
* 1/4 cup of chunked carrots
* 80 gr green frozen peas
* 5 button mushrooms
* 1 tbspoon white flour
* 1 stick of celery
* 1 garlic clove
* 1 shallot
* 1 tbspoon of olive oil
* salt, pepper to taste

Execution
1. Turn ON the crock-pot on “high”. Cut the meat in big chunks and place it in the crock-pot. Sprinkle on top of the meat the flour. Replace the cover on the crock-pot.
2. On a cutting board, prepare the vegetables: Slice the shallot, carrots, garlic, celery and cut the mushrooms in half. Place them all in the crock-pot and then also add the frozen green beans and peas.
3. Remove some of the water from the tomato can, and then cover the ingredients in the crock-pot with the chunky tomatoes. Add the wine and 1 tbspoon of olive oil. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper. Stir, replace the cover.
4. If you chose chicken/turkey, cook for 3 to 3.5 hours. If you’ve chosen game or other red meat, cook for 5 hours.
5. Add the washed baby potatoes (with their skin) just 1 hour before you turn off the crock-pot. Serve hot!

Ben Mauer was over for dinner tonight (one of the MonoDevelop hackers), so I took the opportunity to also prepare a Greek salad. And it’s time to share my big recipe secret for the ultimate Greek salad (aka “horiatiki”).

Ingredients (for 2)
* 1 tomato
* 1/3 of a small cucumber, peeled
* 1/6 of a green bell pepper
* 1/6 of the big kinds of onion
* 1/4 feta cheese (~50 grams)
* 6 olives
* oregano, some lemon juice, optionally a bit of salt
* 3 tablespoons of virgin olive oil

Execution
1. Cut the tomato in 6 vertical slices. Cut the cucumber in round, thin-ish slices. Cut the green pepper in thin vertical slices. Cut the red onion in vertical slices (not too thin). Cut the cheese in cubes. Place all above ingredients and the 6 olives into a big salad bowl.
2. Sprinkle with the oregano, lemon juice and salt. Add the olive oil. Mix well.
3. Preferably serve with hot home-made bread or Italian ciabatta. Kali orexi!

Tip: If you don’t have the time to prepare the salad when also preparing lunch/dinner, after “step 1″ you can secure the bowl with a transparent wrap and place it in your fridge. As long as the “step 2″ ingredients have not being mixed into the bowl, the salad’s ingredients can keep fresh for up to 5 hours!

The easiest way to do a risotto — the lazy way! Not a low-carb recipe, but a low-cal one at 200 calories. Vegetarian and delicious!

Ingredients (for 1)
* 45gr of a rice of your choice (160 cals)
* 3 tablespoons of a Mexican chunky salsa of your choice (15-20 cals)
* 3 medium-sized washed, sliced portabella mushrooms (15-20 cals)
* 0 calorie non-stick spray

Execution
1. Boil rice as per package instructions in a pan. Drain.
2. In the meantime, spray in a small frying pan twice with the non-stick spray and fry the sliced mushrooms for 4-5 minutes. Set aside.
3. Back in the pan, place the salsa and under medium heat cook it until most of its liquid has evaporated.
4. Add the drained rice in the pan and stir well. You can choose to serve the mushrooms on top of the risotto, or stir them in too. Serve hot.

Tip: If the salsa you chose is pretty plain, don’t hesitate to add cilantro, thyme, parsley or any other similar fresh spice.

This is the Greek-style recipe for lentils, but with an added French connection: sausage. It’s a very healthy dish, lots of fiber and iron in it. If you don’t add any olive oil, you still get a big, filling plate of lentils that’s only 200 calories.

Ingredients (for 1)
* 50 gr raw brown lentils (120 cals)
* 1/2 of a small tomato (10 cals)
* 1/2 of a low-cal sliced sausage (60 cals)
* 1 shallot (3 cals)
* 2 cloves of garlic (2 cals)
* 1/5 cup of lemon juice (5 cals)
* 1 tbspoon of olive oil (optional, 120 cals)
* salt

Execution
1. Put the lentils in a big open dish and go through them one by one to remove any non-lentil elements or small stones that may be found in the package. After that, wash the lentils with running hot water for a minute (use your hands to literally wash the lentils).
2. Add 3 cups of water in a saucepan under high heat. Cut the onion & the half tomato in small pieces and add them to the saucepan. Then, add the garlic, the lentils and the salt (and the olive oil if you are not dieting).
3. Replace the cover of the saucepan and let it cook for at least 30 minutes. Add more water as needed if the lentils are not yet cooked through (it should be a bit watery, but not as much as a soup — cooking times are different between brands so you will have to experiment).
4. About 5 minutes before it’s all ready, stir in the lemon juice and the sausage and continue cooking in medium heat. Serve hot.

I call this recipe In-Basil, and it has only one requirement: that you like the basil-garlic taste. JBQ doesn’t like it for example, I do though. This version has about 200 calories, depending on the meat or fish used. It is also South Beach Phase-I compliant.

Ingredients (for 1)
* 110 gr of either chicken/turkey breast or white fish (80 to 120 cals)
* 1/2 cup of fat-free vegetable (or chicken) broth (10 cals)
* 60 gr of garbanzo beans (35 cals)
* 10 thin slices of zucchini (5 cals)
* 1 big minced garlic clove (3 cals)
* 1 tspoon minced basil (2 cals)
* 2 button mushrooms (10 cals)
* 6 cherry tomatoes (15 cals)
* 1 shallot (5 cals)
* 0 calorie non-stick spray
* Black pepper

Execution
1. Preheat grill-pan to high heat. Grill the meat or fish of your choice until done. Set aside.
2. Cut the shallot is small pieces. Cut the mushrooms in two. In a saucepan, spray twice with the non-stick spray and bring to heat. Saute the shallot and mushrooms for about a minute. Add the basil and garlic and saute for another 30 seconds.
3. Add the vegetable broth, zucchini, garbanzo beans and black pepper. Stir and let it cook until few tablespoons of sauce remain.
4. Add the tomatoes and stir again. After about 30 seconds place the contents to your plate, but try to keep most of the sauce still in the saucepan.
5. Return the saucepan to the heat and add the fish/meat. Turn over 2-3 times and cook until most of the sauce has evaporated (usually a minute later). Serve hot next to the vegetables.

Tip: You can substitute the garbanzo beans with some potato gnocchi if you are not dieting (not pictured). Asparagus is not bad in this context either.

One of the products I use as a dessert in my low-calorie diet is Del Monte’s “Mandarin Oranges in Lite Orange Gel” (or peach). The pack has 4 cups, 128 gr each, for 60 calories each. Today I found a brand new product from Jell-O though, called “Jell-O Fruit Passions” (difficult to find as of yet, I got it at San Mateo’s Draeger’s), which has 60 or 70 calories (depending on the flavor, choose from 4 different flavors) for a full 170 grams. Their cups are huge! Very filling. Price wise Jell-O’s new line is 20% cheaper than Del Monte’s, but the thing is that Del Monte offers 4 small cups while Jell-O 2 bigger ones. Nevertheless, the Jell-O version will definitely replace the Del Monte ones in my diet (even if it requires refrigeration at all times and has smaller expiration date). Jell-O’s version lets me eat 25% more, for the same amount of calories.

As long as you don’t follow a very-low-carb diet, but instead a low-fat/low-calorie one, this filling vegetarian recipe is perfect for your carb cravings, at just 200 calories. It is adapted from one of Ronzoni’s recipe suggestions to fit a low-cal diet. Only requirement is that you should like peppers!

Ingredients (for 1)
* 45 gr of Ronzoni Healthy Harvest spaghetti (140 cals)
* 1 small red onion or shallot, finely chopped (3 cals)
* 1 clove of garlic, minced (2 cals)
* 50 gr of red, yellow and green bell peppers, cut into strips (15 cals)
* 25 gr of frozen peas (20 cals)
* 1/3 tablespoon of cornstarch (10 cals)
* 1/2 cup of fat-free vegetable (or chicken) broth (8 cals)
* 1 teaspoon of finely chopped fresh basil (2 cals)
* 0 calorie non-stick spray

Execution
1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain.
2. In the same pan you cooked the pasta, spray twice with the non-stick spray. Saute the onion for 30 seconds under high heat.
3. Add the garlic, peppers, peas and basil. Saute for about 1 minute. Add the broth and bring into boil.
4. Add the cornstarch and keep stirring. Boil and stir for a few more minutes, until the sauce is thickened and most of the juice has evaporated.
5. Add the drained pasta into the mix, stir a few times, and serve hot. Enjoy!

My filling Sunday lunch!

I am entering my third week into the diet this Monday. I’ve lost 7.5 lbs so far. On Tuesday we will start South Beach Phase-I with JBQ that will last 2 weeks (it is similar to Atkins’ Diet Phase-I, except that you don’t eat too fatty meats and you have freedom over more vegetables). Overall, South Beach is “Atkins version 2″, a more healthy approach at it.

However, yesterday I found Hostess, a brand new low-calorie chocolate mini-cake pack, that only has 100 calories in it, and despite a first visual impression of “cakes are bad for you”, they are actually more healthy than the SouthBeach-branded Kraft power bars! The Hostess-100 have way more calcium and fiber than the power bars, and they weigh 9 grams more (when you are on a diet, even 9 grams of more food matters)!

Problem was, when I ate one of these chocolate mini-cakes, I wanted more. I am obviously addicted to chocolate, because I am 2 weeks on a diet and haven’t craved for anything so far! And then, the chocolate hell came — just by tasting a bit of it in these mini-cakes. All this made me remember the Kinder chocolate and especially my favorite Greek chocolate, the classic version of Lacta. I found Lacta’s web site and it brought me back memories from when I was a kid. Sniff…

Bad chocolate! Bad!

This is a very healthy, filling recipe and it has between 180 and 200 calories — depending on the kind of white fish you will choose to use. I used Gorton’s fish fillets (100 cals per serving), which they can be found in 3 flavors: as white fish in Italian herb, or lemon & pepper sauce, and salmon in buttery sauce. I used the salmon with its buttery sauce, although you can save an extra 30 calories if you choose to use frozen cod instead (won’t taste as good though). This recipe is also South Beach Phase-I & II compliant.

Ingredients (for 1)
* 90-100 gr of any low-fat white fish or a Gorton’s fish fillet (100 cals)
* 3 slices of a big eggplant, cut 0.5″ each (about 50 grams, 15 cals)
* 3 thin slices of the big kinds of onions (15 cals)
* 1 big tomato sliced to 0.5″ slices (25 cals)
* 5 slices of zucchini (10 cals)
* 20 gr of fat free feta cheese crumbles (found at Trader Joe’s, 20 cals)
* 5 sprinkles of your favorite Spritzer’s salad dressing (optional, 5 cals)

Execution
1. Preheat oven at 400F (205C). Preheat a grill pan on “high”. When the grill pan is really hot, take the 3 eggplant slices and grill them. Turn over twice each side, grill for about 2-3 minutes overall.
2. In a personal-sized oven dish arrange the tomato, eggplant, zucchini and onion, one after the other, like a fallen domino.
3. If you are not using Gorton’s fish fillets sprinkle 5 times on top of your veggies and fish with your Spritzer’s salad dressing. If you are using Gorton’s fish fillets you don’t have to do that because their fillets come pre-marinated.
4. Add 1/4 cup of water in the oven dish and place it in the oven. 20 minutes into the baking, take a tablespoon and get some of the juice from the oven dish and sprinkle it over the veggies. Bake for another 10 minutes.
5. Get the fat-free feta cheese crumbles and sprinkle on top of the veggies. Bake for another 5-10 minutes, until the eggplant and zucchini are done. Serve hot.

Yes, a 200 calorie full pizza! When you usually find frozen diet pizzas with about 150-200 calories in them, usually these only include one slice, or very-very small-sized mini-pizzas! Here you are, an 8″ full pizza (or 6″ for deep-pan dough), cooked the very healthy way, at just 200 calories and with the real flavor of a pizza vegetariana. I just had this for lunch (the idea was in my mind for a while after finding this fat-free feta cheese at TraderJoe’s store) and it was delicious! I used whole wheat flour as it is healthier and it has fewer calories than white bleached flour. It is a bit tricky to do the dough without going over the calorie restriction of the flour, but with a bit of effort, it is doable. While the recipe looks complex, overall, it is just a 15 minute job.

Ingredients (for 1)
* 25 gr of Trader Joe’s fat-free feta cheese crumbles (25 cals)
* 45 gr whole grain or whole wheat flour (140 cals)
* 3 small slices of yellow bell pepper (3 cals)
* 3 small slices of green bell pepper (3 cals)
* 3 small slices of red bell pepper (3 cals)
* 1/10 of the big kind of onions (10 cals)
* 60gr diced canned tomatoes (12 cals)
* 1 big button mushroom (4 cals)
* salt, black pepper, oregano
* 0 calorie non-stick spray
* 1 teaspoon dried yeast

Execution
1. Set aside 1 tablespoon of flour (that’s about 5 grams). Get 1/4 cup of warm water and set aside. Take a bowl and put in it about 30 grams of the remaining flour and save the rest 10 grams. Add some salt and the yeast in the bowl.
2. Turn on the oven at 400F (205C) for about a minute just until it gets slightly warm. Turn off the oven.
3. Very carefully, add 1 tablespoon of the warm water in the middle of the flour in the bowl. With a fork try to create the dough, by adding small bits of water each time and the rest of the 10 grams of flour as needed. Be very careful to not add too much water, or you will have no alternative but to add more flour to make the dough rigid enough (and that would mean more calories). When the dough is rigid enough and it doesn’t stick to your hands anymore, work it out a bit with your hands. Replace it back to the bowl and put the bowl to the warm-ish oven. Leave the dough there to rise for 1 hour.
4. Dice the already-diced tomatoes in even smaller pieces. In a pan, add 1/5 cups of warm water and the tomatoes. Add oregano, salt and a bit of black pepper and bring it to high heat, until most of the water has evaporated. The sauce should not be too “watery” as this pizza’s sauce is mostly consisted by bits of tomatoes. Remove from the hot stove.
5. Cut the mushroom and onion, vertically, in thin slices. Take a small frying pan and spray twice with a non-stick oil spray, bring to high heat. Add the mushrooms, onions and peppers and saute the ingredients for 1-2 minutes until the veggies are starting to get softer, but not too much. Remove from the hot stove.
6. Remove the dough from the oven, place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat it at 400F (205C). In a clean surface sprinkle some of the flour that you had left aside in the tablespoon. Using your roller pin and flour from that tablespoon as needed, roll your pizza to a circular shape, about 6″ to 8″ in diameter.
7. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon flour on the top of your pizza peel. Transfer the pizza dough from the working surface to the peel. Use a spoon to spread the tomato chunks/sauce on the top of the pizza.
8. Use your hands to equally distribute the frying pan’s ingredients on top of the pizza. Sprinkle with the fat-free feta cheese on top of everything.
9. Carefully transfer your pizza on top of the hot pizza stone and bake it for about 9-10 minutes until the crust is done.
10. Remove from the oven, and use a pizza wheel to cut the pizza in 4 triangles. Enjoy warm!

Tip: You can certainly add some fat free ham (thinly sliced) just before you sprinkle the cheese. TraderJoe sells big slices of fat-free ham for just 20 calories each! In fact, for this pizza size, half of that slice would be enough. That would make the overall calorie count 210 calories. Or, you can substitute it with the onion or the three kinds of peppers.