Dish #10 — Cold hot sweet peppers

About 5 minutes — About $5 — Serves 1-2 per pepper

Red bell peppers are sweet. Green ones are a bit dry. Yellow and orange ones are good, too, for mixing up flavors, but you really just need to start with one or two of any color bell pepper. Slice it up into chunks — bite sized pieces.

Throw all your pieces into a plastic bowl and shake cajun spice mix and cayenne pepper over the top. Shake the bowl to mix everything together.

The result is a 100 percent fat free snack with a heck of a kick. The cajun spice adds a great flavor, but it’s not overwhelming. If you really want to get out of hand you can use a lot more cayenne pepper or even some hot sauce.

I use a George Foreman Grill. Every college student has one. It’s cheap. It works.

You need good bread, firm tomatoes and fresh mozzarella to make it work. You also need fresh basil, but dried basil will work in a pinch. The result, which is perfect for those meat-free days.

Dish #9 — Tomato and mozzarella panini

About 20 minutes — About $10 — Serves 1

You start with the right bread. Here in Boston, we have Iggy’s. It’s the best. High-end restaurants use it instead of baking their own loaves.

Iggy's of Cambridge is the best bread in New England

Cut the bread at an angle using a serrated knife. Cutting it at an angle gives you more surface area for your other ingredients.

Using a brush or the reverse side of a teaspoon, spread some extra virgin (dark colored!) olive oil over the surface of the bread. Don’t overdo it. Just a little.

Shake some coarse salt, black pepper, oregano, basil and — if you want — some crushed red pepper over each side.

Cut some tomato slices. Half to 3/4-inch wide are fine. Lay them on the bread. Do the same with the fresh mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is available in any grocery store cheese section. If you’re at a nice store or specialty cheese shop, buy the store made or “loose” stuff. Whole Foods sells good fresh mozzarella in containers. If you’re at a “regular” grocery store, I’d stick with a brand name like Bel Gioioso, which makes a very good cheese.

Fresh basil leaves are recommended for this dish. It can be an added expense, especially if you’re just cooking for one, but it’s a flavor that you won’t regret having.

Drizzle about a teaspoon of olive oil between the tomatoes and the cheese. Close the sandwich and brush on more olive oil on each side of the sandwich. This helps it cook in the grill. More salt, pepper and herbs on each side.

Don't overdo it with the olive oil, and make sure you use the good stuff!

What I like to do here is plan ahead. Nine times out of 10, I just want to eat the panini right away, but the panini cooks better if you wrap it in foil and put it in the fridge for a day. Seriously. Maybe you should prepare two sandwiches, make one now and save one. I like it.

Either way, when you’re ready to cook, preheat the Foreman Grill for a few minutes. Plop the sandwich on there, and make sure nothing slides off as you firmly close the top over the panini. I find that a wooden spoon (just don’t leave it still for too long) will help balance the sandwich without burning your hand.

Let it cook and sizzle and toast for about 10 minutes, applying some firm pressure every now and then. If you did it right, the sandwich comes out browned, slightly flattened, and everything is still inside, hot and ready to eat.

This is a delicious sandwich that’s healthier than most things you’ll find at a restaurant, and it certainly beats cold cuts in that department.

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention that a friend reminded me of — the sandwich also tastes great cold! You don’t even need to grill it.

Think about it: yes, it’s the polar opposite of french fries. You hardly ever think “hey, I can really go for a super size salad right about now.” And how bout them cucumbers?

Don’t discount the sheer value here, however. A salad is filling, usually completely healthy, and can taste very, very good.

Dish #8 — A frickin salad

About two minutes — About $5 — Serves 2-4

Don't forget to wash your veggies!

Start with some story-bought baby arugula. It’s delicious and one of the most healthy plants you can eta. It’s loaded with vitamin C and potassium. If you want to double your green leaf pleasure, throw in some fresh baby spinach leaves for good measure.

I like to avoid lettuce and “light” green veggies. They’re flavorless and are mostly water. They don’t hurt, though. Veggies are still veggies.

Rinse the leaves thoroughly in a colander. Make sure you get both sides clean. Let the water strain out.

The salad is way under-rated

From here you can get as creative as you want. I tend not to get too creative. I do simple red and simple green. Carrots are healthy. Cucumbers. One of my personal favorites are raw green peppers. They are delicious. Red peppers work too and are a little sweeter.

Drizzle on some (SOME) light balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Another trick is to add some fresh ground black pepper and a little sea or kosher salt (coarse salt) to the mix for flavor.

Stuffed peppers are an old Italian standby.

The problem is that they’re awful for you. It’s ground red meat with tons of fat, and the cheese doesn’t make it any better. So I did some experimenting. I tried it with ground turkey. Brown rice instead of white rice. It’s come out ok — a little better each time. I ran into a great dish at the Tavern way over in Westfield once. They make their peppers with turkey, too, and their recipe shows that you can do it healthily and still deliciously.

The best way to do it is by baking the peppers with a chunky homemade red sauce. Of course, a good Italian red sauce takes all day to prepare. In a pinch, you can use canned peeled tomatoes or, gah, a jar of sauce.

Then a friend who works at Whole Foods turned me on to Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), a wheat free, gluten free, high-protein, organic grain that can be used as a rice substitute. That, combined with some crushed unsalted tops saltines, and POOF, I had it!

Dish #7 — Turkey and Quinoa stuffed peppers

About an hour and a half — About $25 — Serves 2-4

Get the Quinoa going first. Add a half cup of Quinoa to a cup of water and a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. Bring it to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium or whatever lets the water simmer without boiling over. Cook until the water is absorbed. Add an ice cube and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Rinse the peppers and lay them on a cutting board. Using a butchers knife, slice off the tops of each pepper and pull out any seeds. You'll be left with something that looks like a weird tropical cup.

You start with some bell peppers. Doesn’t matter what color. I like green and red, but you can do orange, yellow, whatever.

Rinse the peppers and lay them on a cutting board. Using a butchers knife, slice off the tops of each pepper and pull out any seeds. You’ll be left with something that looks like a weird tropical cup.

Place your pepper cups aside for now. (By the way, you can and should eat the scrap tops of the peppers. Raw veggies are healthy, and they taste good.)

Open up a pack (a little more than a pound — which will fill four to six peppers) of ground white meat turkey and place it in a large mixing bowl. Crack two eggs (or use liquid egg whites) over the meat. Add a half cup of water, a third of a cup of breadcrumbs, and five finely crushed unsalted saltines. Shake in some ground black pepper, some red pepper, a dash of salt, a teaspoon of dried oregano and the same amount of dried basil. Then dump in your Quinoa.

Make sure the Quinoa is cool or it will burn your hands!

Also, make sure your hands are clean.

Mix it all up with your hands. Comeon, get your hands in there. Mix it until there is a consistency to the meat/crumb/egg/grain mess.

Using a table spoon, scoop the mixture into each pepper, filling each to the brim and sliding off excess with the back of the spoon.

Coat a deep baking pan with cooking spray. Place the peppers on the pan, on their sides, with the meat sides facing each other. Now pour your sauce or your can of tomatoes over the tip and sprinkle some parsley over the top. You can also sprinkle some parmigiana on top too.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Then uncover the pan and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

The dish goes great with some whole wheat angel hair. The peppers also freeze very well and will last you a few months. Just take them out the night before and reheat in the microwave or oven.

Tasty and healthy!

Baking did not work for onion rings.

They’re not good for you.

According to About.com, a single serving of 8-9 onion rings contains 276 calories, 15.5 grams of fat, including 7 grams of saturated fat, 14 milligrams of cholesterol, and almost 20 percent of your daily sodium. Plus there’s more than 31 grams of carbs!

I set out to see if there was a way to reduce the fat content and still create some deliciousness by breading and baking onion rings.

I failed. And I set off the smoke detector. Three times.

Here’s what happened:

Dish #6 — FAILED Baked Onion Rings

20 minutes — About $5

Cutting onion rings is easy. Slice off the top and bottom of the onion. Just be careful. It’s really easy to slip with the knife here. Then make a shallow incision down the length of the onion and peel off the skin layer.

Crumbs, eggs, crumbs! Still didn't work.

Hold the onion very carefully on its side and slice it into half-inch rings. Peel the ring layers apart for individual rings.

What I did next was break and mix two eggs with about a third of a cup of water in a bowl. I combined bread crumbs, crushed saltines, salt, pepper and Cajun spice mix into another. I dipped the rings into the crumbs, the egg, and then the crumbs again and spread them out on a non-stick baking pan.

Then I baked them for 15 minutes at 450 degrees, but when they came out they tasted more like eggs and less like onions! They were also soggy and looked raw.

Then I broiled them on high for another five minutes to try and get some crisp out of these babies. That set off the smoke detector.

When they came out, they still tasted eggy.

I guess I could have cooked them longer at a lower temperature, but I was more trying to crisp them out than bake them. I worried about the rings being too soggy if they baked at low for a while.

Broiling them didn’t work at all. The rings still didn’t taste right.

Another problem could be the mass number of rings piling on top of each other might diffuse the heat.

Another problem I thought of was that the mass number of rings piling on top of each other might diffuse the heat.

If I try this again, I might cover and bake them at 350 for about a half hour or more and then uncover them at maybe 425 for the last few minutes.

There are actually several recipes online for baked onion rings. Some ask you to soak them in water for a half hour first, which I might try.

Bottom line: There are still a ton of carbs, and the egg still adds fat and cholesterol. This might just be not meant to be.

One thing about “going out for lunch” is that sandwiches almost always come with fries or onion rings.

Another salad, but a good one. Bars and burger joints have come a long way from lettuce and Italian dressing, that’s for damn sure. Don’t be afraid to try some of these “bistro salads” either. They’re good.

Unfortunately, there are very few diets that will let you eat sausage on Italian bread.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to healthily cook and eat peppers and onions. They are fabulous for you; packed with vitamins, and they fill you up without making you feel disgusting afterward.

Shake and stir, baby!

Dish #5 — Colorful Peppers and Onions

20 minutes — About $5

You can find frozen, sliced, bagged peppers in your grocer’s frozen foods section.

If you’re a wuss.

Young people seem petrified of cutting food, and bell-shaped peppers seem to especially puzzle our Gen-Y minds.

Wash the peppers first. Turn one on its side and slice the each side off. Then slice the bottom off. Throw out the guys/center/stem. Congrats. You just sliced a pepper, and you didn’t even kill yourself. Some people try to cut out the middle and pull out the stem. Just do it this way.

Orange peppers are delicious. Yes, you CAN slice peppers easily and without bodily injury.

Slice your quarters into 1/3″ thick slices. You can make them thicker if you want, depending on your tastes. Throw all your slices into a plastic container.

To slice an onion, place it on a flat cutting board and slice off the top and the bottom. Then carefully make a slit down the onion from top to bottom, cutting the top layer or two only. Then you should be able to easily peel off those top layers. Then just cut the rest into 1/2″ slices as if you were cutting an orange. Make sure you thoroughly separate all the layers and pieces, and throw the onion bits into the container with the peppers.

Now, spice them. Spice them, dammit!

Add some ground black pepper, some cayenne (red) pepper, a little Adobo spice (or salt and garlic powder will do). Don’t overdo it on the salty stuff! Too much pepper you can live with, but do you know what you get when you put too much salt on these things? French fries!

Shake the container to mix everything up.

…

Put the cover on first.

Add a solid second worth of drizzle of olive oil to a big, deep frying pan and fire up the stove to medium-high. Once it gets hot, throw all your spiced veggies in and continuously stir until cooked, about 7-10 minutes.

These go great with Virtually Fat Free Chicken Tenders! Plus, they’re fat-free except for the olive oil you used to cook them. They also dip great in BBQ sauce.

On a health kick, my father threw together baked chicken tenders, and, if done right, it’s a healthy and delicious way to eat chicken.

When I retire and open a bar in 40 years, we will serve these little bundles of joy —

Virtually Fat-Free Chicken Tenders with Veggies!

Dish #4 — Virtually Fat-Free Chicken Tenders

40 minutes — About $15

You can save a few dollars buying whole boneless chicken breasts and cutting them yourself, but they sell handy tenderloins, already cut up.

Pre-heat a traditional oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

You need two things to bread meat: a batter and a breading.

To prepare the breading, pour about half a standard-sized canister of Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs into some kind of flat container that’s large enough to fit the chicken pieces. Add a teaspoon of salt, tablespoon of ground black pepper, two teaspoons of cayenne pepper, a tablespoon of paprika, and two teaspoons of parsley. These are rough estimates. Just shake some in.

Shake it up.

You can be creative here. You can crush Ritz crackers or saltines or even Cheese-Its!

To prepare the batter, pour some liquid egg whites into another flat container. Add a quarter cup of water and a few teaspoons of olive oil. Mix well.

You can use whole eggs, but you are adding a bit more fat and cholesterol. I use whole eggs usually, because I have them lying around. Liquid egg whites are amazingly useful but a bit expensive.

The eggs and olive oil are the only real fats in the chicken. The olive oil is needed because it helps brown up the chicken. You can take it out if you’re really concerned about the fat, but it’s all good, trust me.

Take each chicken piece and trim any visible white stuff (fat and some tendons).

Now, this next part is very important.

Crumbs, egg, crumbs!

Flip the chicken over in the crumbs. Then place it in the egg and make sure all surfaces are coated. Allow the excess to drip off. Then flip it a few more times in the crumbs. With two fingers, pat the breading firmly onto the chicken. Flip. Repeat.

Place each chicken tender on a non-stick baking pan and bake for about 30 minutes. Flip the chicken over at the 15 minute mark. Make sure both sides are browned, and serve.

If you did it right, you’ll have delicious, crispy, tender, browned chicken tenders that only have a drop of healthy olive oil baked in.

Not fried. You’ll feel good afterward. Enjoy!

These go great with a cup of brown rice or some sauteed peppers and onions. I’ll be showing you how to make both in a few weeks!

The problem with cooking healthy is that it is a widely-known fact that the flavor is often in the fat. But fresh herbs, however daunting that section of the produce department is, are the secrets to dishes that are packed with healthy flavor. If you want a dish that rises above a salt or pepper shaker, you might want to stray to the land of funny leaves and stems — even if only once in awhile.

Likewise, where a potato leaves something to be desired in nutritional content, its funny-colored cousin is a perfect substitute. Sweet potatoes are one of the most nutritious vegetables on earth (and they are also one of the oldest veggies known to man).

Thus, these sweet potato wedges with crispy sage is a snack that only take a few minutes to prepare, satisfy a quick, healthy carb fix and deceptively doses you with nutrients that you didn’t even know you wanted.

Plus its about 80 calories per serving, and zero fat.

That’s 80 calories. No fat.

Bon apetit!

Dish #3 — Baked Sweet Potato Wedges with Crispy Sage Leaves

30 minutes — Market Price — 80 calories per serving

You’ll need:

• 2-3 medium-sized sweet potatoes
• A pack of sage (it’s in that department, as mentioned)
• Olive Oil
• Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 465 degrees. Coat the bottom of a cookie sheet with non-stick spray — like Pam.

Peal two medium-sized sweet potatoes. If you don’t have a peeler, all the better, cut the sweet potato peels off on each side. It should resemble something like a brick.

Slice the sweet potato like thick chips. I like to cut on the angle, then turn the potato and cut the opposite side. Repeat.

They should resemble a wedge. Don’t make them too thick, and remember, the more uniformed the slices, the more evenly they’ll cook.

In a large bowl, place the wedges and pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Then a tablespoon of black pepper, and three teaspoons of salt.

Next, separate the all the sage leaves in the package from their lengthy stems. Rip the leaves into thirds and throw then into the bowl of oil, salt, pepper, and sweet potato.

Mix the ingredients until the veggies are all coated with the herb mixture. Spread them out onto the cookie sheet (leave some space between the wedges, so they don’t become soggy when cooking).

Bake for 20 minutes, and remove. Let the sweet potatoes cool for 5 minutes before plating. Sprinkle with (a bit more) salt, and enjoy.

Dipping sauces are always welcome. Watch out for butters and things that add fat and calories, though.

So, I’m visiting the family in Connecticut, and my brother and I decide to run out to the bar Sunday night after my Steelers whooped the Chargers.

Of course, EVERYTHING comes with French fries, right?

Enter the tale of the BAR SALADDDDSSSS.

Salads at bars are traditionally terrible, but what I’ve found at three bars across New England so far in 2009 is that more and more bars are adding gourmet, fancy salads to their menus of chicken fingers and burgers.

This was also true at the SBC Brewery here in Branford. The Crispy Green Salad ($3.99 small, 6.99 large) mixes chopped crispy greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers, and your stomach will thank you.

The moral of this post is: don’t be afraid to say “can I do a salad instead of the fries?”

It didn’t happen overnight for me either.

I was the pickiest eater in my family growing up, and forget about veggies. I actually gagged the first time I really sat down to eat a plate of broccoli when I was 17. But it was all in my head.

When I learned how to cook, I first got good at cooking food that wasn’t good for me — obviously. Last year I dieted to the tune of losing 50 pounds, and one of the things that really made it happen was my learning how to prepare vegetables that would taste good without sacrificing health.

So I figured out how to make broccoli that tasted good.

Dish #2 — Tasty Broccoli

20 minutes — Under $5 — 43 calories per cup

I like to buy the massive bag-o-broccoli from Costco (or any local bulk shopping club) because it’s the cheapest way to buy, and the broccoli is already cut into florets. If you really like the stems, you can buy fresh broccoli or whole frozen broccoli.

This is a perfect case study in the three T’s of cooking: Time, Temperature, Taste. Cooking Tasty Broccoli is all about flavoring them right, cooking them at the right temperature, and for just enough time.

Start by adding however much broccoli you want to a medium sized-medium depth pan. Spread about a tablespoon of minced (read: jarred) garlic and drizzle about the same amount of olive oil around the veggies.

Then take my favorite spice on the rack, Adobo, and sprinkle it lightly over the surface of the broccoli. You can substitute garlic powder, salt and black pepper if you can’t find Adobo. This seasoning is usually reserved for meats, but it works here. Add some cracked black pepper as well. If you are feeling gutsy, I like to add a liberal amount of Cayenne pepper as well.

Fill the pan about 1/3 the way with tap water and stir to mix everything up.

Make sure you lower the heat when you cover the pan!

Drain the pan and add some more Adobo to the pan. Not too much, and you should skip this step if you are really trying to avoid salt.

Enjoy broccoli that tastes good!

Got an idea for a No Fries in ‘09 feature? Email me!

Oh my god this is painful. I am working on a story for the Boston Globe here in Middleborough, and the only place I could find with wireless Internet to file my story is … a McDonald’s.

I’m totally not a paying customer. I’m not buying anything, especially French fries.

I’ll be mixing potato dishes, veggies and whatever else I can find to fill me up.

Though, I’m sure I’ll need your help. Email me any ideas!

Dish #1 — Barbecue sauce-infused green beans

10 minutes — Under $5 — Under 100 calories

One of several downsides to giving up french fries completely: dipping sauces. This dish is a way to enjoy some of the flavor without nearly any of the fat or carbs.

It’s also one of the cheapest things you can buy at the grocery store. Even at the local and usually more expensive Whole Foods Market, I got a heaping handful of green beans for 89 cents.

Rinse your green beans thoroughly in a colander under cold water. Chop off each end of the beans.

Season your green beans as you wish. I like to lightly coat them in black pepper and add a few shapes of Adobo spice and Cajun spice mix.

Add a few drops of olive oil to a proportionally sized pan over medium-high heat. Add a quarter teaspoon of minced garlic immediately. When it starts to cook and sizzle, throw in all your beans. Using a wooden or sturdy plastic spatula, continuously stir the beans for about five minutes until beans are tender.

Then add about two tablespoons of the barbecue sauce of your choice and stir it in for about a minute. Turn off the stove and remove from heat.

And enjoy!

Make sure you don’t cook the beans over super-high heat or the sauce will burn, clump, and stick. I probably cooked mine a little too hot, but they were still delicious.

The whole dish is 8 Weight Watchers Points, but I get no points for presentation.

I paired them with two Tyson chicken tenders and some store-bought mini egg rolls. The whole dinner with two glasses of water is eight Weight Watchers points.

We need to talk.

The years have gone by so fast for us. From my first McDonald’s fry 24 years ago to the wide crinkle cut deliciousness at Glenwood in Connecticut and Town Spa in Stoughton.

It’s always been good. That was never the problem.

Something changed between us. It became all about you. I was changing, and you were staying the same.

We’re going in different places. It’s obvious, and I think we both know that.

Oh, I guess it started in high school when I would order two Wendy’s Biggie Fries with my Crispy Chicken Nuggets. It’s my fault I suppose. I was stuck at a desk sitting on my ass and you were always just there. So convenient. And … God … so good.

But it wasn’t good. When we were together — in the moment — I didn’t really care, but afterward I felt dirty. Unfulfilled.

So that’s where we’re at. We need some time apart, and that’s all there is to it.

I never stopped caring. I just wish there was another way.

Love,
John

There you have it, folks. French fries got dumped. I am pledging to go one year without eating a single French fry.

It’s going to be a year-long feature for Blast, and I’ll be posting 50 side-dish and food ideas and recipes that aren’t fries or as unhealthy as fries.

Stay tuned