The second page includes a chart of scoop/disher sizes. Ice cream scoops come in many sizes for a variety of applications. Who knew? Alton Brown recommends using a #20 disher to scoop his cookie dough onto the cookie sheets. I researched what that meant and gathered the info to share with you all.

Theresa’s Decadent Chocolate Cookies

I bought these colorful carrots at the Farmers Market few weeks ago.  I served them with cheese ravioli.
The second photo shows them cut up so you can see the color was different on the inside.

free range ground beef (no hormones or antibiotics),  smoked rainbow trout, smoked hummus, Colby Longhorn cheese, cranberry-walnut bread and spelt bread, delicious, juicy, summer peaches, a large amount of golden apples and a crap-load of veggies.  I got some red okra and lots of peppers in all shades or green, yellow and red.  I got some cute little garlic and little onions.  I got several kinds of lettuce, yellow wax beans.  I even got a new cedar air freshener for the car.

]]> http://www.eatfreeordie.com/2009/08/farmers-market-shopping-list/feed/ 0 http://www.eatfreeordie.com/2009/08/smashed-chickpea-salad/ http://www.eatfreeordie.com/2009/08/smashed-chickpea-salad/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:40:04 +0000 Theresa http://www.eatfreeordie.com/?p=360 At 7pm, I still didn’t know what I was going to make for dinner.  Fortunately, I had stocked up on canned chickpeas a couple of weeks ago.  Also, fortunately, I went to the Catonsville Farmers Market yesterday.

I Google-d “chick pea salad” and found a great recipe over at Smitten Kitchen.  I had all of the ingredients in the house.  Unfortunately, for the second time in a row, the dog ate the whole grain farmers market bread, so I had to scrounge crusts from the store bought.

I served the chick pea salad on the toasted crusts and over fresh local lettuce, garnished with diced fresh, local bright red and yellow peppers and more black olives.  It was very tasty and DH was still hungry afterwards.  We finished up by eating local cranberry-walnut bread and some fresh, delicious summer peaches.

You can find the recipe and photos here:

Smitten Kitchen’s “Smashed Chickpea Salad”

Case in point – we love the folks at Springfield Farm. They’re a bio-conscious operation in northern Baltimore County that raises laying hens, roaster chickens, turkeys, hogs, and lambs on natural pasture.  You can see their laying hens in the photo above.  That little red building all the way in the background is the hen-house, and the food & water’s as far away from it as possible, so that the hens spend most of their time outside.  They’re exercised, in the open air, and free to forage for bugs and tasty plants.  They’ll strip most of the green vegetation off this section of pasture, and will be rotated onto pasture vacated by the sheep.

Springfield’s eggs are very reasonably priced – $3.75 for a dozen large, which compares well against the $3.49/dozen for “organic, cage-free” at the supermarket.  Here, though, you get to visit the hens laying your eggs, and can buy them before they ever hit a refrigerator.  They’re fresh, the pasturing produces eggs with brilliant orange-yellow yolks, and they’ve got a great rich flavor.  Win for everyone.  Springfield has almost 2500 layers in their flocks, and the operation has scaled well to offer an outstanding product at a reasonable price.

Now, we get into the pasture-raised meats.  Our cheap meat supply, based on subsidized soy and corn feed, is under scrutiny as a potential contributor to our unhealthy eating habits. We eat too much animal protein,  too few fresh vegetables and very few legumes, because we can afford to.  We spend approximately half of what people in the early part of the 20^th century did for our food, and we eat probably twice as much meat as we should.

So, is it reasonable to pay premium prices for what we have taken for granted as a cheap everyday consumable?  If chicken parts are selling for $1.49 a pound at the local megamart, is it sane to pay three times that for a hormone- and antibiotic-free version, raised on pasture and eating a well-rounded diet?

Being that Springfield is a poultry farm that you can actually tour without a gas mask, and that the roaster flocks spend most of their time wandering about in the open air, there’s a case to be made that premium prices are worth it if only for reducing the amount of agri-industry we depend on for our daily sustenance.  However, these truly free-range birds have an extra benefit – they actually taste good.

Whereas the average supermarket bird is bland, with a mushy, cottony consistency to the cooked meat, a real free-range bird actually uses its muscles.  The result is firmer flesh that is simultaneously tender and juicy and provides some resistance to the tooth.  It has a coarser… meatier… texture that’s a pleasant surprise.  The flavor is more pronounced as well, in that while not being gamy, it actually tastes like something. While a standard bird generally needs an overnight brining to taste of anything, the free range chickens don’t need anything other than some basic seasoning.

Try this for a month, and see how it works for you.  Spend the same amount you would normally spend on meat, but buy better quality, non-industrially produced meats.  You’ll have less of it.  This affords you the second, fun part of the exercise where you supplement this smaller quantity of animal protein with legumes, pulses, and fresh in-season vegetables.  You may find that you’re enjoying more flavorful, but smaller portions of meats combined with a healthier proportion of vegetables and spending nearly the same amount on groceries.

“Oven-Grilled” Organic Free-Range Chicken Thighs

4 Free-Range Chicken Thighs
Kosher Salt
Pepper
Caribbean or Southwestern spice rub
Olive Oil

Free range roaster thighs tend to be larger than what you’re used to, because free-range birds actually spend a lot of time walking around.  An average free-range thigh is 6-8 oz. with bone.

Preheat your oven’s broiler on high for at least five minutes.

Rinse your chicken under cold water, rubbing lightly, and blot dry with clean paper toweling.  Rub or brush lightly with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and fresh-ground pepper, and rub lightly with spice mixture.

Space evenly on broiler pan and place under direct heat 6-7″ from broiler.  Broil for 20 minutes, turning every five, or until a thermometer in the thickest part of the meat (but not touching the bone) reads 170°F (77°C).  Remove from broiler and let rest uncovered for 3-5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4.  360-480 kcal/serving.

All of which presents a dilemma.  I want to have a good glass of wine with dinner.  But the quantity of food and the flavors makes choosing an appropriate drink a bit of a challenge.  With candied sweet potatoes, oyster stuffing, and turkey legs waiting to send you into carbo-overload and tryptophan nappy-time, this is not an opportunity to whip out the best vintages.  That being said, Thanksgiving is a “special occasion” with friends and family gathered around the holiday table, and cheap plonk just doesn’t seem right.

So, what’s called for are decent wines that won’t get lost or be squandered competing with the bounty of the rest of the table.  They also need to be assertive enough to hold their own against a fair amount of heavy eating without adding too much of their own weight.  To this end, I would suggest serving three wines, scaled in quantity to serve all of your guests at least one glass of each.

To start the meal, I’d like you to consider a dry rosé.  Something from Tavel or somewhere else along the Rhône valley, including the southernmost AOC from the Rhône, Costieres de Nimes.  Tavel wines are more famous, and thus more expensive than the Nimes offerings, but either offers good aperitif dryness and solid red-berry fruit flavors.  These are typically blends of Syrah, Mourvedre, Cinsault, and/or Grenache Noir.  While dry, they give the impression of a slight sweetness through their bright flavors.  White Zinfandel has been the inoffensive choice of many a Thanksgiving feast, and this changes things up a little without presenting a huge challenge to the average palate.  You should be able to find a good Rhône rosé for $10-12.

Once everyone’s tucked into their stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green-bean casserole, the intensity of the wine needs to step up as well.  I’ll be getting comfy at this point, and lighter flavors are not going to play well.  Still, there’s plenty of food on the table, and I’m usually eying seconds, so this is no time to drink a glass that’ll make me want to curl up on the couch.  Enter the secret weapon – Alsatian whites.  Riesling, Gewürtztraminer, and Pinot Gris from Alsace are still dry white wines, but they have an intensity of honeyed, floral perfume and bright apple, pear, peach, melon, apricot, and citrus flavors.  Their balanced, forward acidity refreshes the palate and cuts through heavy foods.  A solid vintage will be a $15-20 wine.

For that last go-round of the dark meat on the turkey platter, the stuffed mushroom caps, and giblet gravy, I want a red wine.  Not only that, I want a red wine that wraps everything up in a velvet package with a nice little bow on top.  That calls for a pinot noir or Beaujolais.  However, being that I’m probably stuffed to the gunwhales at this point, I’m not breaking out the best vintage Burgundy, Moulin-au-Vent, or a big-buck “cult” Californian.  There are a few Sonoma Valley pinots and Burgundian vin de pays (Burgundy wines bottled by varietal name, rather than the AOC) that fit the bill, for somewhere around $10-15 a bottle, and Beaujolais nouveau is on the shelves.  Young pinots should be opened and decanted before the start of the meal, and served at the end.  Beaujolais should be slightly chilled, but not cold.

We’ve whetted our appetites with rosé.  We’ve re-stimulated our taste buds via the graces of Alsace.  Finally, as a prelude to a nap, pie, and coffee, we wrapped everything up with a restrained, approachable red – a cushion on which our weary stomachs may fall in repose.  We’ve tread the treacherous path of the Thanksgiving wine list, and emerged with a pleasant, wistful, if slightly drowsy smile.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

The weather here in the Mid-Atlantic is starting to turn cooler, but I’m just not ready to let go of the last shreds of summer.  So, before I delve into the earthy and warming flavors of autumn, I’ve got to give light, fresh, and vibrant one more go.  Make this on a fleeting warm October afternoon, or hold onto it to spring on friends and family (ha!) come April.  Or, let’s be honest, you can use this on a winter’s day to bring a little of the lazy days of Tuscan summer into the kitchen.  Just be aware that some of the ingredients are only going to be available from distant climes.

This recipe is fast, fast, fast.  After about 15 minutes of prep work, it comes together as a meal in less than 10 minutes in most cases.  The sauce literally takes 5 minutes to prepare, so start it when your pasta has about 5 minutes to cook.

Ingredients:

6 oz. (dry weight) long pasta – spaghetti, bucatini, linguini fini, etc.
1 dry pint grape or cherry tomatoes
8 oz frozen, pre-cooked shrimp, thawed with tails removed
1 lemon
6 large cloves garlic
4-5 basil tops, fresh
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp white sugar
salt
pepper

Cooking time: 6-12 minutes for pasta, depending on type, 5 minutes for sauce.

Set pasta pot with at least 4 qts. of cold water on high heat to boil.

Halve the grape tomatoes, or quarter cherry tomatoes and set aside.  Zest half the lemon and set aside, then juice the lemon, discarding any seeds.  Peel and coarsely chop the garlic cloves into about 1/8″ pieces.  Separate the basil leaves from the stems, roll sets of leaves into a cigar shape, and thinly slice cross-wise, then separate the ribbons.

When pasta water comes to a boil, add salt at the rate of 1 tsp per quart, then add the pasta and stir briskly.

Place a large saute pan over high heat, and add 2 tbsp of olive oil and wait until it starts to shimmer on the surface.  Add the garlic and saute briefly – just until it starts to soften and get aromatic, but before it begins to brown.  Immediately add the tomatoes and toss to combine.  Lower heat to medium-high to prevent burning.  When tomatoes begin to cook down and give up some of their juices (about a minute), add sugar and lemon juice, and toss to combine.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Turn heat back to high, add remaining tablespoon of olive oil, and thawed shrimp.  Toss to coat, and warm through.  When shrimp are heated through, add lemon zest and most of the basil (hold back a pinch or two to garnish), then toss to combine.  Immediately remove from heat.  The tomato and lemon juice should be reduced, concentrated, and thickened.

When cooked al dente, thoroughly drain the pasta and immediately serve into individual bowls, then top with the shrimp and tomato sauce.  Garnish each serving with a small pinch of basil.  Alternately, for larger groups, double the recipe, toss pasta with the sauce in a large bowl, garnish with basil, and serve at the table.

Serves 2.  Buon appetito!

Calories: about 630 per serving, and it’s filling.  The pasta and the olive oil are the killers here, but overall it’s a fairly healthy blend of carbs, protein, and monounsaturated fats.  Eat a reasonable portion, and there’s still room for a little sorbetto for desert.

I had a good dinner on Sunday for our wedding anniversary, but lately I just haven’t been feeling the food love.  Case in point: dinner last night – tuna salad sandwiches.  Dinner Monday?  Canned soup.  Dinner tonight?  Leftover tuna salad.

I haven’t fully changed seasonal gears yet, which is part of the problem.  Summer goodies are becoming more scarce, but so far I have not really managed to get the fall goodness under my skin.

That being said, it is starting to be apple season.  I need to get up to the orchards and find myself some Stayman Winesap apples.  If you haven’t tried these, do so.  They’re an heirloom variety – no super-sweet hybrid, this.  It was developed in the mid-1800s and is a beautiful apple for cooking as well as an unusual treat to eat out of hand.  It’s not a pretty fruit – dull red with a brownish bloom.  The flavor, though, is intensely sweet-tart and winy.  Many orchards grow them to add depth to their pressed cider.

100 Things You Should Eat Before You Die – FoodProof.

I’d add a few things to this – sushi or sashimi, a Premier Cru Burgundy, fruit fresh from the tree, barbeque from a dodgy-looking pit shack, and kimchi.

How many have you had?  What are your suggestions?

ABC News: Orthorexia: Obsessing Over Health Food.

This is the reason that I get a little testy when people start speaking in absolutes about diet.  You know: carbs are always bad, sugar is evil, non-organic is poison, blah… blah…

The American diet is, on average, pretty awful from a health standpoint.  However, when diet and a quest for good food transitions from a general concern about, and responsibility for, one’s health to an obsessive quest for bodily purity and “perfect eating”, I get a little skeeved out.

To clarify my position – I primarily seek out good foods, fruits, and vegetables mostly because I like to eat, and good food tastes better than processed crap.  As a secondary benefit, good food is generally healthier and I can control what I’m consuming if I’m making it myself.  But when you’re killing yourself at 30 from malnutrition in order to avoid cancer at 70, there’s something very wrong.

Diet is a balance, and “everything in moderation” is a mantra by which most people can live good, healthy lives that don’t involve worrying and obsessing about every last bite they eat.  So, eat that fruit, but don’t overgorge on calories.  Eat those potatoes and parsnips, but not too many.  Have that pork chop, but eat your vegetables and leafy greens too.  Cook those carrots – sure some nutrients leach into the water and some are lost, but cooking makes plant nutrients generally easier to absorb by our omnivore digestive systems.

And stop worrying.

When it comes time to deal with the ghosts of dinners past, the first question that comes to mind is “What do I do with this?” followed quickly by “Do I really want to eat this again?”

Leftovers don’t have to mean rewarmed repeats.  You can take your Rubbermaid remnants and craft them into new and interesting meals.  Whereas our grandparents and those that came before them were schooled thoroughly in the art of getting the most mileage out of a meal, as a culture we’ve lost the touch when it comes to culinary re-runs.

Cold meats are a brown-bagger’s best friend.  Yesterday’s pork picnic shoulder is tomorrow’s Cuban sandwich.  Slice cold roasts thin for lunch meats – they’ll compete with the most expensive deli cuts, and are way better than the pressed, reconstituted stuff.  Everyone in the US is familiar with the leftover turkey sandwich post-Thanksgiving.  Why not use all your leftover meats with the same utility?  Serve cold pork loin with spicy mustard, pickles, and manchego cheese.  Rare and medium-rare roast beef is perfect with onions, Ementhaler cheese, and horseradish.

And why stop there?  Another great use for miscellanous meat and fish is as cold salads.  Leftover ham can be run through a meat grinder with a fine grind plate, and made into ham salad with the addition of some pickle relish, mayo, and diced celery.  Have leftover fish?  Flake up that salmon, cod, or other whitefish, and spice up a yogurt or mayo-based dressing with citrus zest, coriander, dill, or crab seasoning.  Serve any of these on bread, or with mixed greens and fruit.

Chicken is great for next-day culinary experiments.  De-bone leftover baked/roast poultry and reheat in a pan with a little oil, then toss with a bit of honey, rice wine vinegar, orange marmalade, sesame seeds, and red chili pepper – ersatz Szechuan Orange Chicken, just add some fresh rice.  Chop deboned and de-skinned thighs or breasts into a fine dice, add some raisins, slivered almonds, mayo and any one of: curry powder, dill weed, fresh tarragon, or lemon zest & sesame seeds.  Serve as you would any other cold salad.

Leftover salads can be re-spiffied with fresh greens, provided the veggies haven’t gone completely south.  Cooked vegetables can be recombined with other ingredients for maximum versatility.  One of my favorite uses for last night’s Chinese takeout (especially shrimp & veg stir-fries) is to re-saute the meat and vegetables with a little olive oil and garlic and serve over freshly prepared pasta.  Precooked hard vegetables also go great in soups.

Just a little bit of creativity reduces your food waste, maximizes your grocery budget, and banishes the boredom of the rewarmed plastic tub.

First, I would exhort you to make these from scratch.  Jiffy mix and Bisquick are convenient, sure, but that box of miscellaneous baking mix that’s been sitting in your cupboard for months isn’t going to give you the best results.  Besides, if you’re going to spend the calories on something tasty, doesn’t it make sense to put some love into it?  Making your own batter also ensures that you know exactly what you’re eating.  Plus, it’s just really simple to do.

Ingredients:

1 c flour, unbleached all-purpose
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 c soy or skim milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 whole egg
1/4 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground if possible
1 c blueberries, fresh or frozen, rinsed & drained

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon.

In a 16-oz. Pyrex measuring cup, or small bowl, combine milk, oil, and egg.  Beat lightly until combined.

Pour wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined, but still slightly lumpy.  Let batter stand for 5 minutes, then briefly mix again.

Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat until hot.  Lightly wipe or brush with vegetable oil, and add 1/4 cup of batter to pan for each pancake.  Add blueberries to the top of pancakes once in the pan while the batter is still liquid, before flipping.  Cook first side until golden brown, flip, and cook until done.  Remove finished pancakes to a plate in a warm oven until ready to serve.

Makes about 8 pancakes.  Each pancake is about 125 kcal, most of it from the starch in the flour, before you add any butter, syrup, or honey.  There’s really no way to make these “light” – cutting the oil in half only saves you about 20 kcal per pancake.  But, honestly, a little powdered sugar might be all you want for these guys.  They’re moist, fluffy, and fruity all on their own.

And, by market I don’t mean a trip to the nearest strip-mall supermarket with cart corrals, though I shop at Giant and Safeway like everyone else.  It was walk-to-market day.  I work from home one day a week, and every other Wednesday I’m afforded the luxury of my own private branch office in Catonsville, MD.  Not only to I get to save 20% on my commuting fuel consumption, I can walk or ride to somewhere interesting on our “main street” at lunch time.

Every Wednesday morning, from May to November, we have a local farmers’ market.  It’s small, it’s in the community center parking lot, but it’s better than just about any grocery store’s produce department. All vendors must grow or produce for themselves all of the goods they sell.  No “faux-farmers” offloading trucks of greenhouse tomatoes from produce distributors; these folks grow it, care for it, pick it, and truck it to your community.  We use the farmers’ market a lot.  When I’m home on Tuesdays instead of Wednesday, Theresa makes the trip to gather the goods.

Today’s catch was excellent – August is a peak harvest month for vegetables here in the Mid-Atlantic.  The early ripening tomatoes are tailing off and the late ripening ones are in full swing – Romas and cherry varieties produce prodigious yields throughout the summer starting in July.  Summer squashes are piled high, in beautiful condition, and dirt cheap.  Yellow crooknecks and zucchinis share a season, for the most part, and they produce like crazy all at once.  The ones pictured above weigh about a pound and a half a piece and were in the huge “Take my squash, please!” bin at 3 for $1.00.

Cantaloupe and eggplants of all sorts are in full swing.  The melons, heavy and sweet smelling, were piled high at a buck each, and the large eggplants were going for 75¢ apiece.  I bought two of each.  Roasted eggplant is a great diet food – filling and low calorie, it soaks up other flavors with aplomb and has a savory sweetness of its own.

Some of the specialty items can get a little more pricey, but I’d much rather pay a local organic farmer $4 for a carton of beautiful, unblemished fingerling potatoes than $5-6 for a half-dried-out pint in a gourmet market.  I didn’t get any dairy or smoked fish this week, which kept me from a lot of the higher costs.  A pint-sized mixed variety of yellow, orange, red, and purple cherry tomatoes cost me all of $3.  A plastic package of not-quite fully ripe Mexican grape tomatoes runs $2.50 at the supermarket – you do the math.

Roma tomatoes were on the list, and there were some beauties for $2 a quart – firm and fleshy but sweet.  I breeze by the heirloom vegetables every time I’m there without buying.  I must commit some sort of foodie heresy by saying that I really don’t taste the big deal.  Maybe it’s just this one vendor picking early to get the premium prices these rare fruits demand.  Of course, this makes me want to experiment with growing them myself.

Then there’s the bread – I spare no expense with the bread.  If I could eat enough of the stuff in a week, I’d drop a double-sawbuck here every time I walked by.  Today, though, it’s just a loaf of crusty Italian bread with rosemary.  The baker at the market is Atwater’s – one of the premier bread makers in Baltimore, perhaps even in the region.  Their artisanal breads are hand-formed, baked locally daily, and use locally sourced ingredients, including organic flours.  Besides the gorgeous loaf shown here, they offer a rustic wheat loaf, a round boule with kalamata olives, another sourdough boule with cranberries and toasted walnuts, and dense, chewy whole grain raisin-nut bread.  If bread is the staff of life, Atwater’s whittles a hell of a stick.  $5 a loaf, on average, which is a steal for handmade goods of this quality, and they also offer pre-made soups and locally produced cheeses.

When all was said and done – I had two shopping bags full of goodies holding somewhere between twenty and twenty-five pounds of food.  In the process, I spent about $22.  Much of it was organically grown, all of it produced within about an hour’s drive, and all of it at the peak of freshness.  I mean, just look at those plump, almost translucent cherry tomatoes in that picture.

Find a market in your area – if you can walk or bike to it, even better.  You’ll directly support people who need your patronage to earn their living, and you’ll be rewarded with top of the line ingredients for your kitchen.  Take reusable bags and paper sacks with you – that way you won’t be bringing home a wad of plastic film bags, destined for the landfill.  If you walk, consider a canvas tote with comfortable handles.  If you bike, saddlebags, bike baskets, and backpacks will help with your haul.

Linkin’ it up for y’all:

• Atwater’s Bakery
• LocalHarvest Farmer’s Market Directory

I’m sitting here with a small plate in front of me.  On this plate is a sandwich.  The sandwich consists of two slices of artisan-made rosemary Italian bread, lightly spread with mayo.  Between this bread are slices of tomato, from a ripe Roma tomato still warm from the summer sun.  There is a bit of salt and pepper.

There are currently three bites out of this sandwich.

I’m about ready to pass out from joy.

Here’s an easy one – almost every community has a local or regional dairy, and farmers’ markets explode with fresh herbs and summer vegetables.  The Caprese Salad of tomato, mozzarella cheese, and basil with a vinaigrette dressing is a fantastic starter for a meal or side dish for a picnic.  If your farmers’ market has someone who’s selling a boutique buffalo mozzarella, grab it!

More refined versions of this dish call for olive oil only, and layers of sliced Roma tomato, cheese, and whole basil leaves.  This more rustic version is heartier and packs a bigger flavor wallop.  This salad is vegetarian, but not vegan.

Ingredients:

1 lb. assorted cherry tomatoes (red, orange, yellow, purple varieties)
8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese (part skim)
10-12 leaves fresh basil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

Halve the cherry tomatoes.  If they’re large and/or oblong, cut them into pieces no more than 1/2 inch.

Slice the mozzarella 1/2 inch thick, then cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

Rinse the basil leaves (BTW – they’re best picked from the pot you’ve got growing on the patio) and shake dry.  Pinch off the stem ends, stack, and roll into a tight little “cigar.”  Very thinly slice this cigar of basil cross-ways so that you get very fine ribbons.  Gently separate the ribbons with your fingers.  Congrats, you’ve just learned how to “chiffonade“, a valuable knife skill for leafy herbs.

Combine the tomatoes, cheese, and basil in a chilled glass (or ceramic) bowl.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add oil and vinegar, and toss to combine.  Cover and refrigerate at least 15-20 minutes before serving.

Very Simple.  Very fast.  Very Tasty.  Serves four.

Nutritional breakdown:

Tomatoes are very low calorie, and the tablespoon of olive oil is never completely consumed – about a third to half of it ends up left behind in the bowl.  The biggest “sin” here is the cheese, and there’s only two ounces per serving.  Plus, mozzarella’s a fresh cheese with a high water content.  Let’s break down what we’ve got in a bowl of the stuff (one quarter of the total recipe).

• 4 oz tomatoes: 20 kcal, vitamin A, vitamin C
• 1 1/2 tsp (maybe) of olive oil: 30 kcal, vitamin E, vitamin K, omega-6 fatty acids
• 2 oz mozzarella cheese: 142 kcal (168 for whole milk or buffalo), complete proteins, vitamin A, riboflavin, vitamin B12, calcium, phosphorus, zinc and selenium

Total calories: 192 for a 6 oz. serving.  Not bad.