Eating Light faux Caeser

I love a Caeser salad, but I don't love the calories. To lose a few pounds I am trying to restrict myself to 2000 calories a day. This means fruits and vegetables are my primary foods. No one ever got fat on too much Swiss Chard.

I really wanted that creamy, garlicky, cheesy dressing but in the interest of calories and not wanting to weight my mesclun down (no Romaine in the house) I made a lighter version, and damn it was good.

4 cloves garlic
Juice of two limes
1 egg white
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 anchovy filets
2 teaspoons parmesean cheese

Put everything in the food processor and pulse the hell out of it, then add...

1 tablspoon prepared mustard

Pulse again and lightly dress your salad. I used 1/3 of the dressing on a huge mass of greens for myself, so it was roughly 120 calories for 8 cups of mesclun.

The flavor was citrusy, garlicy, and intense. I really loved it. It is worth making even if you are not watching calories.

Composed Salad

I am not lazy...I swear I'm not. No updates because S.O. and I have been in Budapest. I took my computer intending to photograph and write about what we ate while there but the best intentions get wiped out when you are searching for that next wonderful bit of goose liver. I gained weight, no kidding, not massive amounts but enough for me to be careful about consumption for a few weeks.

S.O. had a version of this salad at the David Gregory restaurant (now closed) in D.C. and has been craving it ever since. The dressing I made is a lightened up version of their creamy herb and we chose our own vegetables. On a warm night this is a great starter when you want the vegetables to be the primary food group.

Dressing:

The juice of two limes
1 cup of dill fronds
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 anchovy
1 fresh egg
Black pepper
Dash salt

Combine everything in food processor and set aside.

You can use any vegetables you have. We chose mesclun, lightly dressed, fresh peas and greens very lightly blanched and chilled and zuchinni lightly grilled along with some fresh cucumber. Drizzle the dressing over the veg and serve on chilled plates.

Did I say delicous?

It was, of course our pledge to eat light ended with the salad. We polished off a bit of chicken paprikash afterwards and had some of the leftover chicken made into a hash this morning.

We like to eat.