Healthie Beach Trip Snack: Avocado, Corn and Black Bean Salsa

This weekend, I went to the beach with some of my dearest college friends, and it reminded me how long it had been since I spent time on the Gulf. While I made a day trip or two to Emerald Isle and Atlantic Beach back when I visited Ben where he was stationed in Jacksonville, N.C., it had been about 2 and a half years since I had been to the beaches I grew up going to in Florida, It was so nice to be back!

The houses we were staying in were so unbelievably nice, and more importantly, stocked with cookware and basically every kitchen essential. So, rather than spending money going out several nights in a row, my friends and I had all agreed to pack things to eat and cook at the house. While the daiquiris and Parmesan garlic oysters I ate meant that I was hardly "good" all weekend, I did take the opportunity to bring a few healthy items to eat like those chicken Caesar wraps, my favorite "No Pudge" Fudge Brownies, fresh fruit, veggies and dip, and some granola bars.

The most satisfying snack while on the beach though, was the black bean and corn salsa that my roommate Caroline had made for all of us. It was SO delicious with Baked Tostitos (and a beer or two, I'll admit...). A few of us could barely stop ourselves from eating the whole bowl before the rest of the group got to have some. Here is a recipe based on what I think was probably in Caroline's, and based on some of the other recipe's I've seen around online.

Black Bean Salsa:

• 2 15 ounce cans black beans, drained.
• 1 17 ounce can of whole kernel corn, drained.
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped.
  
• 2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
  
• 1 large avocado, chopped.
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• cilantro (optional - personally I'm not a big fan and would prefer it without!)
  
• Salt, pepper, and juice of one lime.

You definitely need to make some of this at some point during our last few weeks of summer, and enjoy with baked tortilla chips and a light beer for a relatively healthy, completely tasty snack. I also thought this Watermelon Salsa recipe from Eating Well looked good, although I would probably add some cucumbers in to this one. Any other ideas?

Alton Brown's Roasted Edamame Salad

I love love LOVE this edamame salad. I just really don't know if I could ever get tired of it.

Half a cup of shelled edamame is 2 weight watchers points, and with some corn, tomato, scallions and a little bit of olive oil thrown in there, I estimate that that 3/4 cup of the salad is about 3 points. I keep frozen corn and shelled edamame around so that I can make this pretty easily on a whim. Try it, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Alton Brown's Roasted Edamame Salad:

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces fresh or frozen shelled edamame, about 2 cups
• 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels, about 2 ears of corn
• 1/4 cup finely diced scallion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup chopped fresh tomato
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the edamame, corn, scallion, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper into a 13 by 9 metal pan and stir to combine. Place on the middle rack of the oven and roast for 10 to 15 minutes, just until the edamame begins to brown. Remove from the oven and place in the refrigerator until completely cool, approximately 30 minutes.

Add the tomato, basil and vinegar to the edamame mixture and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning, as desired. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Lentil Salad with Blue Cheese and Scallions

When I saw a pack of precooked lentils at Trader Joe's on Friday I remembered how good a cold lentil salad was that I had once from Breadline in D.C.

Lentils have a delicious meaty flavor to them already, but I decided I would try to make a salad out of them that would mimic the version I first had. It had been a while, but I believe the salad has crumbled feta and maybe red onion. In my version, I used reduced fat blue cheese and green onion, since I had just bought a big bunch while I was a the store. I am now obsessed with this snack, since it has a ton of flavor and is only 2 Weight Watchers points per half a cup!


Ingredients

1lb (about 2.5 cups) lentils, cooked
1/4 - 1/3 cup reduced fat blue cheese crumbles.
1/3 cup sliced green onions
Salt to taste (I used a couple of pinches of Kosher)

Directions

Um, there really aren't directions. You just put it all together and enjoy... so it's really easy.

Half a cup of lentils are 2 Weight Watchers points, and 1/4 a cup of this light blue cheese was only 2 points. Since we didn't use much more of the cheese in the whole batch, the points per serving don't really go up on this. So half a cup of this mix would be a great snack during work for roughly 2 points. I'm probably going to kick the serving size up a bit for myself and portion out a cup's worth for 4 points so that it's more of a small, filling meal than a snack.

Black Bean and Feta Salad

This recipe was a pleasant surprise on the inside of the lid to my reduced fat ATHENOS Feta crumbles. I'm always looking for a little snack that's high in fiber, low in fat, but is actually TASTY (I am so not a raw carrot stick kind of girl... I gotta have some FLAVA!)

So here is what he recipe calls for:

• 1 can (15 oz.) Black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1.5 cups chopped tomatoes
• 1.5 cups cooked rice
• 1 pkg. (3.5 oz.) crumbled reduced fat feta (I guess you HAVE to use ATHENOS to pay homage to where the recipe came from?)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup italian dressing
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro or parsley.

Here are a few of my tweaks:

• I used brown rice: it's healthier, and I preferred the light brown color since the feta is already white. Silly I know but I like color in my food. Also - make sure to get minute rice. Just takes too dang long with regular rice....

• Reduced fat feta is key here - really saves on the calories and fat.

• I skipped the celery because I didn't have it on hand, and I hate buying a huge bundle unless I know I'll use it all. Definitely include it though to make it even more healthy and filling if you feel like buying!

• Use fat-free Italian dressing. Let's be honest, with all the other flavors already here you won't notice the taste difference, and it's about 1/3 or the fat.
  

• (I actually didn't have Italian on hand so I skipped it too!) I thought it was good with just a little bit of garlic powder, white wine vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil to give it a little bit more kick. Looking back the Italian dressing would probably be the best though, so go ahead and buy a bottle if you don't have it on hand and keep it around for a low-fat marinade for chicken.

• I also skipped the cilanto or parsley. Just didn't feel like adding it to the grocery list, and let's face it, the name of this blog is not "Fancie Foodie" and that's why. So there. My ignorant palette cannot taste the difference...

Mix it all together and refrigerate and you're done! Makes 5 servings, roughly 3/4 of a cup of the mix each. With fat-free Italian dressing, I would estimate this to be about 4 Weight Watchers points per serving, and around 200 calories. ( See below if you want to see how I calculated it!)



Weight Watchers Conversion -
Generally speakigng there are about 50 calories per WW point, although the program is much more complex, taking grams of fat and dietary fiber into consideration when making the real calculation.

• 2 Tbsp. of fat free dressing is 1 pt, so at 8 Tbsp.'s worth of dressing (1/2 a cup) that's 4 points' worth of dressing in the whole batch.
• 1 cup of brown rice is 4 points, so with 1.5 cups in the whole recipe, that's 6 points' coming from the rice.
• I calculated 3.5 points coming from the 15 oz. can of black beans.
• And with each serving of reduced fat feta being 2 pts. according to the nutrition facts, and roughly 3 servings in each package, I calculated another 6 points coming from the cheese.
• The rest of the ingredients are 0 points! (tomatoes, celery, green onions and parsley/cilantro)

At roughly 20 points in the whole batch, 5 servings would total up at about 4 points each! Not bad for a filling snack that gives you some protein and veggies all at the same time.

Let me know if anyone has better ideas for a different variation - Enjoy!