I Live For Olives

Love, love, love olives!  Any kind, anywhere, in anything.  What I like about them is their fruitiness (they are considered a fruit), saltiness, meatiness, and they hold up well in cooking.  One of my favorite things to do is visit my local Wegman's every week, yes I do, just to get a container of this olive mix that they have on their olive bar.   It's a mix of all types of olives, cubed feta cheese and a dressing that they marinated them in.  When I get them home I add English cucumber and sliced grape tomatoes.  I will snack on this all day long, it's my new favorite salad and I can not get enough of it, I am sad to say I am addicted! Olives also contain a good amount of vitamin E, calcium, copper, iron, manganese and zinc, so they are good for you.  They also have mono-unsaturated fat acids - healthy fat.

Appe -teasers

I threw together a couple of quick and easy appetizers the other day to have before dinner.  My son has been bugging for guacamole, so off to the store I went for fresh avocados and cilantro.  I started by grating lime peel into a bowl then juiced the lime.  Next, I scooped out the avocados and mashed them with the lime peel and juice.  I minced - 1 jalapeno, 3 cloves garlic, and 1/2 red onion.  Then diced - 1/2 red pepper and chopped 2 tbls. fresh cilantro. Combine these  ingredients to the avocado mix and add salt and pepper to taste.  A very good guacamole, served up with tortilla rounds. Two of my kids will eat all kinds of ethnic foods, they get a kick out of trying new flavors from around the world.   I passed the kid test on the guacamole. It made me feel great!  I also made an easy anti pasta - these are some of my favorites.

 Small Anti Pasta

 1 block of  BelGioioso Sharp Provolone Cheese, cubed

 1 container prepared bruschetta, add 2Tbls. balsamic vinegar and stir in (I buy Costco's brand, really good)

 1 container marinated mixed olives with feta, from an olive bar (Wegmans has a great olive bar)

 1 bag of garlic flavored New York Style Panetini Oven baked Italian Toast