Side Dishes

For a healthy dinner, imagine your dinner plate in 4 quarters. The meat/fish part is one quarter, the starchy side is another and your vegetable should be about half. I usually have about a cup and a half of veggies (green) with my dinner. I treat winter squashes and other starchy vegetables as a starchy side, not a vegetable. Try baking some acorn squash (without fat), and then add some lemon juice and a tablespoon of brown sugar.

Although whole grains are probably better for you than white starches, it is important to have and enjoy a good tasting dinner. Why would anyone eat lots of what they don't like? I'm not crazy about plain brown rice, but when I have a meat or fish dish with a tasty sauce, I'll cook brown rice for a side dish and let the sauce improve the flavor. I see nothing wrong with having potatoes occasionally, as long as they are not loaded up with calorie laden fat. I've already posted a recipe for fat-free mashed potatoes. I'll cook baked potatoes sometimes, topping them with fat free plain yogurt (and some salt and pepper). That dish you need to try to appreciate. It is hard to tell it's not sour cream when it's all mixed into your potato. Good salsa makes a nice topping for baked potatoes too. I also like oven roasted red potatoes. Cut up the potatoes, put them in a plastic bag and add (for 2 people) 2 t. olive oil. Press all the air out of the bag and move the potatoes around in it to coat them with the oil. Layer a shallow pan with foil, give the foil a quick spray of Pam, and put the potatoes in the pan in a single layer. Arrange then cut sides up, so they will brown nicely. Sprinkle them with some Kosher salt and dried rosemary. Bake at 400 degrees until browned and cooked through, about 45 minutes. For another yummy potato dish, slice potatoes and an onion, mix together with some Dijon mustard and a little "seasoned" salt and pepper. Cook sealed in heavy duty foil in the oven.

Don't be afraid of pasta, just don't eat a huge dish of it. If you like the whole wheat kind, all the better. I confess I can't sell it to my husband, so we eat regular pasta. What goes on it does matter. A homemade tomato sauce with low fat meatballs (more about this later) and perhaps a small piece of lower fat sausage with a nice big salad makes a great change of pace dinner. I am astounded at the number of calories in jarred sauces, so I never use them (OK, so I'm really a snob about sauce, and it has to be homemade).

I will occasionally use a boxed rice, sometimes doctored up a bit. The problem with the boxes is they tend to be high in sodium and usually have some trans fat, so use them only in an emergency or when really needed. For company, if I want to have a fancy but lightened up wild rice type side dish, I'll cook boxed wild rice without added fat, then add some (raw) bean sprouts and chopped tomato. To give this a wonderful earthy taste, add 1 to 2 teaspoons of truffle oil just before serving. Truffle oil is olive oil with a tiny piece of a truffle in it, sold at specialty shops or online. It's pricey but goes a long way.

When I make Thai dishes, I like to serve them over Jasmine rice. Yup, its white, but wonderfully delicious with those recipes. Just gotta have variety.