Restricting calories is boring?

Well, it need not be and it need not be difficult either. Here are some simple little gems to brighten up your fish, your salad and your day. Please excuse the blur. After one day of working just fine, my camera is back to refusing to focus on anything except faces and it doesn't even have facial recognition. You may see strange amp things every time I use &amp and notice that the pesto is skew-wiff.  This is because blogger.com is effing useless.


Mango Salsa .

1 red pepper, roasted, peeled & diced
1 ripe mango peeled & diced
1/4 C spring onions chopped
1/4 C cilantro chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 lime juiced

Nanami Togarashi

Mix together. 
You can also add chili but my tummy doesn't do this well so I leave it out and if I feel like some, add some Japanese chili & citrus sprinkle. 
Note that barely a drop of fat goes anywhere near this. Still, it's not for pigging out on as mango is not a dieter's best friend.


Pesto

2 C fresh basil leaves, packed

1/4 C fresh grated parmesan

1/2 C extra virgin olive oil

1/3 C pinenuts

3 garlic cloves minced

salt & pepper to taste
In a food processor, combine basil & pinenuts & pulse a few times. Add garlic & pulse some more. Slowly add olive oil in a constant stream, scraping down the sides as needed. Add cheese & pulse until blended. Season to taste. 

Now this is not exactly how I did it as I don't have a food processor at the mo. I used a blender and tried to follow the order but it really wasn't happening so I tossed the whole lot in and pulsed the hell out of it. Not nearly as delicate a recipe as it's made out to be. Next time, I will tweek the ingredients a little; a little less oil, cheese & nuts, & a little more garlic and basil would suit my taste better. I don't like the flavour of olive oil much so would love to try making it with avocado oil but alas it's not available here. I count pesto as part of my daily fat allowance as with the next sauce.


Last, but certainly not least in the flavour stakes...

Roasted Red Capsicum Sauce

4 red capsicums
1 corm garlic (whole head)
2 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste


Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Put capsicums &amgarlic on baking tray and cook for 45 minutes, turning once. Sweat the capsicums off in a plastic bag for 30 minutes to make removal of skin easier. Peel, de-seed, drain & save excess liquid.
Put capsicums & liquid in a food processor & squeeze in roasted garlic pulp. Add oil & vinegar & process until smooth. Season.
Again, I adopted the chuck-it-all-in-the-blender-and-go-like-crazy approach with no harm done. Next time I make this, I will use less oil and more balsamic. A variation is to add a few chopped Kalamata olives. Note that 8 olives = 1 fat serve.


Enjoy!