Chef Tim Says….

When I am creating recipes I choose ingredients that are lower in calories but very satisfying. Sometimes this means simply cutting down on the amount of fat in a dish by using healthier oils or leaner meats. A recipe might call for a substitution to give the dish more volume so that it’s more filling without adding too many calories. Adding more veggies like onions or mushrooms to a pasta dish, stew or soup, for instance, can make a big difference in the total calories.

There has been some very well designed research showing that eating lower calorie dishes that are higher in volume can be very satisfying. The interesting thing about this is that folks don’t tend to replace all of the calories they might be used to eating by snacking or eating more later in the day. Ingredients are Everything

Featured Recipe

Chilled Tomato Soup | Low Sodium Version

I started out thinking that I would make this soup with tarragon, but it just hasn’t grown well in my garden. I had the fresh basil and used it instead. I love this soup, but you should use what you have available, and basil, tarragon, oregano or even thyme would be great choices.

Featured Ingredient: Tomatoes

There are thousands of varieties of tomatoes and a look at any seed catalogue always makes my mouth water. I love some of the names — Isis Candy, Cupid, Tiny Totem, Snowberry…. Not many of these make it to the markets, however.

Buying tomatoes at the supermarket can be a daunting task. The quality is often poor because most are picked green and ripened in big rooms using ethylene gas. Even so, even the worst tomato can be made better by placing it stem side down on a sunny windowsill. It will continue to ripen further and if you want it chilled, place it in the fridge for only a couple of hours, as cold is the enemy of the tomato. Tomatoes