You usually don’t think of cucumbers in a hot dish, but they make a perfect sautéed side, much like you would sauté zucchini.

Sauteed Cucs

4 servings
82 caloriess per serving

1 medium cucumber
1 T butter
1/4 t salt
Chopped parsley

Peel cucumber, cut in half, remove seeds and slice, sprinkle with salt. Melt butter in a skillet and sauté cucs 3 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

This is all the good stuff out of the salad and leaves the lettuce behind. Crisp, refreshing and a great summer salad.

Mediterranean Salad

8 servings
109 calories per serving

2 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 green pepper chopped coarsely
1 red or 1 yellow pepper chopped coarsely
1 zucchini, cut lengthwise in half, and chopped coarsely
½ of a small cucumber, peeled, seeded and julienned
1/2 c fat free Italian dressing
2 T chopped basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 low fat mozzarella sticks, sliced into small rounds

Mix all together and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Chimichurri sauce is a great condiment – super low cal, but bursting with flavor. Served atop this already super savory steak, you can’t go wrong.

Grilled Steaks with Chimichurri Sauce

6 servings
322 calories per serving

Meat and rub:
3 boneless beef chuck flat iron steaks, ¾ inch thick – use sirloin steaks
1 t Kosher salt
½ t garlic powder
½ t ground cumin
½ t chili powder
½ t pepper
¼ t cayenne pepper

Sauce:
1 c cilantro leaves
1 c flat leaf parsley
¼ c white vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ t Kosher salt
½ t red pepper flakes
¼ c olive oil

Place meat on a baking pan. Mix together the meat rub spices and sprinkle on both sides of the meat then rub it in and cover with plastic and chill 1 hour.

Mix the chimichurri ingredients other than the oil in a blender or food processor then slowly add oil as mixture is blending. Heat grill and cook meat 5-6 minutes each side or until desired doneness. Serve with sauce.

Make this as spicy as you like by adding more Cajun seasoning. We like it hot, hot, hot ! This one takes over every tastebud in your mouth !

Grill Basket Cajun Shrimp

4 servings
243 calories per serving

1 lb. shrimp, peeled and cleaned
4 c mix of sliced onion, yellow bell peppers, green bell peppers
2 T oil
1 T Cajun seasoning
1 t garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Lime wedges
Pam

Heat grill. Toss shrimp and 1 T oil. Mix veggies and 1 T oil and seasoning.

Spray grill basket with Pam and heat. Add shrimp and cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add veggies and cook 6 minutes or until shrimp is done. Stir in juice of one lime. Serve topped with parsley.

The horseradish really does come through in this dressing. I can see this doing equally as well on a chilled seafood salad, but I used it on greens and it really made for a zesty, spicy salad.

Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette

6 servings
129 calories per serving

2 T tomato paste
1 small lemon, juiced
2 T prepared horseradish
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/3 c olive oil
½ t salt
¼ t celery seed
¼ t sugar
1 t or more black pepper
Tabasco sauce, to taste

Mix all and chill for at least an hour.

By mixing the cream and the vinegar, you are almost making your own ‘sour’ cream. This is a very rich tasting dressing for the cucs and it is a nice side dish to serve with chicken or fish dishes.

Cucs in Cream Sauce

2 servings
70 calories per serving

2 medium cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
2 t salt
2 T heavy cream
2 t vinegar
¼ t salt
1/8 t pepper

Mix cucs with salt and let stand 1 hour in a colander. Drain and pat dry. Mix cream, vinegar, salt and pepper and add cucs. Chilll 3-4 hours.

I recently got a Zoku Quick Pop Maker. BEST THING EVER ! I love making pops but hate the wait time. Now I have ‘em in 7-9 minutes This is one of the recipes I pulled from the Zoku book – of course, I’ve tweaked many of the recipes to suit my own tastes, bring down calories, and to get creative with the pops, but some are in their original goodness.

You can make any of these recipes in traditional pop makers – each pop here is 2 oz. so adjust accordingly. And if you love pops like me, then do yourself a favor and get a Zoku

Zoku Quick Pop Maker

6 servings
265 calories per serving

1 c water
2 1/3 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I used ghiradelli bittersweet morsels)
1/3 c sugar
1 pinch salt
1/3 c skim milk
1 T fat free half and half
½ c very thin banana slices
6 T Magic Shell chocolate shell for ice cream
3 T chopped peanuts

In a saucepan whisk chocolate, sugar, water and salt and cook until completely melted, about 5 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes in the fridge and then whish in the milk and half and half. Then return to the fridge and cool completely (about ½ hour).

Working in 2 batches – Place bananas on the sides of the maker molds then pour in the mix. In 7-9 minutes you’ll have creamy, fudgy goodness with a bit of banana thrown in for interest

If you are using traditional molds, you can suspend the bananas by filling the molds half way. Freezing a bit, then adding the bananas and the rest of the mix. Or you can just let the drop to the bottom – it will still taste dandy ! Freeze 6 hours.

Bella Sun Luci produces more than just Sun Dried Tomato products. Just like their line of sun dried tomato items, their marinades that I tried had fantastic flavor. This company knows their food and they do it right !

Marinades

The marinades are only 10 calories per tablespoon – so you just can’t go wrong ! And the amount of flavor you get is phenomenal. The Carne Asada and Basque Norte marinades are great on chicken and beef alike. The Carne Asada was perfect on a thin, thin sirloin that I grilled. When done, I sliced it up and had it inside flour tortillas with some salsa and caramelized onions – OH SO GOOD !!

Marinade

Be sure to look for these products are your favorite grocer. They are definitely superior products from a company that cares about quality and value.

Sun Dried Tomatoes

The folks at Avocados From Mexico have just launched a new recipes section on their site “Recipes From Avocado Lovers” to give foodies who love avocados, the opportunity to upload their favorite avocado recipes, download ringtones, wallpapers and other fun items to show their avocado love and discover other fan favorite avocado recipes.

Avocados are such a favorite of mine. As well as providing MUFAs in your diet they add soooo much flavor to any dish. Here is one of my favorite recipes – it highlights all the creamy goodness of avocados.

Avocado Tacos

Avocado Tacos

6 servings
290 calories per serving

12 6 inch tortillas
3 avocados, mashed
1/4 t garlic salt
¾ c chopped cilantro
Pepper to taste
A few drops of Tabasco sauce
12 tomato slices
Lime juice

Mix avocados, garlic, pepper, Tabasco and cilantro. Spread the mixture in each tortilla and add 2 tomato slices. Squirt with lime, fold and eat.

Check out “Recipes From Avocado Lovers” today and get some great ideas for this perfect food !

This sponsorship is brought to you by Recipes from Avocados From Mexico who we have partnered with for this promotion.

Grilled Portobello mushrooms make any sandwich a winner in my book. The turkey and cheddar are just the supporting cast here – the mushrooms are really the stars

Turkey Sandwich Deluxe

1 serving
365 calories per serving

1 T low fat mayo mixed with ¼ t minced horseradish
1 small club roll
1 slice cheddar cheese
6 slices lean and thin deli turkey breast (Oscar Mayer has great lean deli meats pre-packaged and ready to go)
1/2 c sliced grilled portobello mushrooms

Spread mayo mix on buns. Fill up the sandwich and enjoy !