posted June 22, 2000 01:18 AM            

Here are some recipies that I can think of off the top of my head for cooking veggies and making them taste good.

Sauted Brocolli Raap.

Brocolli Raap ( I don't know if I spelled this right but it is pronounced "Rob") is in the family of brocolli. It taste much like brocolli but has a hint of pepper in it's flavor. If you can not find brocolli raap, regular brocolli will work just fine. All you do is in a non-stick pan place a little oil or cooking spray and saute the brocolli with a little chopped garlic, the garlic is to taste or if you are eating with a significant other, on medium high heat covered for around 10-15 minutes. The key to seeing when it is done is when the brocolli has softened some but not limp. In the last couple of minute of cooking sprinkle red pepper flakes, again to taste. The traditional recipe has parmeasan cheese sprikled on top and served with vermicalli pasta, but for fat loss skip the cheese and pasta. I like it with a squeeze of lemon juice on top, but I use lemon juice as a subsitute for salt on just about everything.

Carribean Salad

Salad Mix:
-2 parts Romaine
-1 part Red leaf Lettuce

Protein:
-6 oz. White meat chicken (Breast, Tenderlion, not canned)

Marinade for Chicken:
-.5tbls Soy Sauce
-2tbls Pinapple juice
-.5tbls honey
-sprinkle garlic powder
-light sprinkle powdered ginger

Honey-Lime Dressing:
-.5tbls Canola Oil
-1.5tbls Fresh Lime Juice
-.5tbls Honey
-Sprinkle Oregano
-Fresh Cracked Black Pepper to taste

Salsa:
-12 plum tomatoes chopped
-1 small red onion chopped
-1-2(or more if desired) jalapenoes seeded, de-ribed and diced
-sprinkle of garlic powder or small amount of fresh chopped garlic
-.5 cup chopped cilantro (do not pack the measurement full pretty strong stuff)
-juice of 2 limes

-Prepare salsa and let sit for a couple of hours.
-Mix dressing.
-Mix marinade ingredients and add chicken, allow to marinade 4-12 hours, over night is too long. Now grill chicken.
-Mix dressing and salad mix in a bowl. ( Mixing your dressing and salad greens in a bowl allows you to use far less dressing but still get the flavor mixed evenly all over your salad)
-Place chicken on top of salad mix with 1-2 spoonfulls of salsa and enjoy. This meal has higher than normal carb amounts, but not too high, but this is my favorite dish and is really healthy.

Ohter good foods that have high fiber:
-Oatmeal
-Popcorn( This suprised the daylights out of me when i looked at the labels on my microwave popcorn. 10g of dietary fiber for a bag of popcorn. Just make sure that it is the none butter or light butter on your cheat day)
-Berries. Strawberries, blueberries, etc. you just have to watch the carbs. They are great in your oatmeal.
-Corn (I can't eat enough of the stuff, no butter)
-Spinach (there are some suppliments that spinach messes with their absortion, can't think of them at the moment. Maybe ZMA, I will get back to you on that one.) You can saute spinich like the brocolli recipe without the red pepper flakes. Saute it for just a few minutes, 2-3 and uncovered. Can also used roasted garlic instead of fresh for different flavor.

Another key is look for low-glycemic carbs. There are places on the net where you can find web-sites that will explain to you what this means and give you a glycemic index. What I understand about the glycemic-index is that low glycemic foods is that the carbs disberse into your blood at a much slower rate than foods that are high-glycemic. I will get back to you on this after getting my info in front of me.