Diet Recipes
Pat Ramsey's Bean Salad
3 - 4 T olive oil
3 - 4 yellow onions
6 - 7 stalks celery
2 cans Goya small white beans
2 cans Goya pink beans
1/3 to 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
1. Chop onions into small (about 1/4 to 1/3 inch) pieces and sauté over medium low heat in olive oil for about 3 or 4 minutes.
2. Add the celery, which has been chopped into 1/3-inch dice. Stir and let simmer while you
3. Open cans of beans, rinse them well and drain in colander.
4. Put well-drained beans in large bowl and add vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and stir to mix.
5. Add onion and celery mixture and stir to mix well.
6. Transfer salad from bowl to a container (at least two quart size) and refrigerate.
This recipe makes about two quarts of salad and lasts more than a week in the refrigerator. It's a favorite at my garden club. I developed this recipe when I decided to eat healthy and lose weight. It's filling, healthy and
relatively low calorie (less than 100 calories per 1/2 cup serving) so it's become a staple of my diet program. Phil likes it hot so he warms it in the microwave. For variations you can add sliced green or black olives or chopped sweet pickles. I've also tried it with diced cheese, diced ham, and diced Italian salami. All good even though they add calories.
Pat Ramsey's Cabbage and Sausage Soup
This is another recipe I developed for my healthy eating weight loss plan. It calls for hot sausage, but sweet sausage can be substituted for those who prefer less spicy fare. Pat Ramsey
3 Tbs Olive Oil
6 - 8 cloves garlic chopped
3 or 4 medium onions sliced
4 large or 5 small zucchini sliced into rounds
1 1/2 or 2 cups sliced carrots
1 large can tomato puree
1 large bag shredded cabbage
10 - 12 links hot Italian sausage
Hot pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
1. Start browning the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat. As the links
cook, turn them and pierce them liberally to allow fat to drain out.
2. In a large soup pot, sauté the garlic (which can be either chopped or sliced)
in the olive oil over low heat for a minute or two. (You don't want to
burn the olive oil or brown the garlic too much since it will make the whole
thing bitter.)
3. Add onions and sauté with garlic until translucent.
4. Add can of tomato puree and two or three cans of water to pot with about 1 t
of salt, several grinds of fresh black pepper and 1/4 to 1/2 t hot pepper
flakes.
5. Add cabbage, carrots and zucchini and let come to a boil over medium high
heat. If liquid doesn't cover the vegetables add more water.
6. When the sausage is cooked, remove to plate and drain excess fat from
skillet. Drain fat off carefully because you want to save the good browned
bits on the bottom of the pan.
7. Deglase the skillet by transferring two to three cups of the soup liquid (not
vegetables) to the skillet and placing skillet back on burner. Stir
contents of skillet to remove the good brown bits and reduce soup liquid.
8. When soup liquid is reduced by about half transfer it back to soup pot.
9. Sausage should be cooled enough to handle by now so slice each link into thin
(10 to 14) slices per link. This can be done while you wait for liquid in
skillet to reduce.
10. Stir sausage slices into soup.