There is much to look forward to in the summer months. Who doesn’t love the long, warm days and balmy nights, fun pool parties and outdoor dining? And summertime is a wonderful opportunity to renew your health goals that might have gone astray from those January resolutions. With an abundance of fresh summer fruits and vegetables in every color of the rainbow, eating healthy is only a forkful away.
I started thinking about recipes that would highlight all of this. No one wants to spend hours in a hot kitchen, so I created easy recipes that get food on the backyard table quickly. And with the thought of donning a swimsuit on the minds of many, the recipes had to be as easy on the figure as they would be in preparation.
In the summer, I am always looking for foods that are filling, but not hot and heavy, and cool bean salads fit the bill nicely. In the Mediterranean Bean Salad shown above, two varieties of fiber rich beans are combined with crisp, cool vegetables dressed up in a pesto punched vinaigrette. Pesto is such an intense flavoring and using reduced fat pesto adds a wallop of flavor to this bean salad, but keeps the fat and calories on the slim side. Use the vinaigrette to dress up a green salad or as a marinade to seafood, poultry or lean meat for summer grilling.
I started thinking about recipes that would highlight all of this. No one wants to spend hours in a hot kitchen, so I created easy recipes that get food on the backyard table quickly. And with the thought of donning a swimsuit on the minds of many, the recipes had to be as easy on the figure as they would be in preparation.
In the summer, I am always looking for foods that are filling, but not hot and heavy, and cool bean salads fit the bill nicely. In the Mediterranean Bean Salad shown above, two varieties of fiber rich beans are combined with crisp, cool vegetables dressed up in a pesto punched vinaigrette. Pesto is such an intense flavoring and using reduced fat pesto adds a wallop of flavor to this bean salad, but keeps the fat and calories on the slim side. Use the vinaigrette to dress up a green salad or as a marinade to seafood, poultry or lean meat for summer grilling.
And speaking of grilling, there’s nothing more delectable in the summer than smoke-touched foods. These Party Shrimp Skewers are paired with a nutrition-filled vegetable salsa that makes a fun appetizer or light main course. Zesty pesto once again adds richness and depth of flavor to an easy tomato salsa and is a wonderful foil for the smoky flavor of plump grilled shrimp.
If its summer, there has to be ice cream somewhere on the menu, right? You need not deprive yourself of one of summer’s favorite foods; ice cream can be enjoyed even with the focus on health. Frozen Vanilla Peanut Butter Pie makes a fine finish to any summer meal. Edy’s Slow Churned Light Vanilla Ice Cream is whirled with nutty peanut butter all piled high into a low fat graham cracker crust topped with potassium-rich bananas. One cool slice of this deceiving decadent pie paired with your health goals sounds like a summer indeed to look forward to.
Enjoy your summer!