Recently we had been to Olive Garden for the first time. I think they should rename it as “Salt Garden” instead. Right from the appetizer bread sticks to the main entree, every dish was very very salty. Even though I have to agree that we as a family have restricted our intake of salt and chillies/spicy stuff, the amount of salt used by the restaurant was way too high. The bread sticks, minestrone soup and the salad had the highest sodium content. When enquired the waitress about this, she told us that this is how it’s prepared everyday and it made us feel like we were from a strange planet. It really made us wonder if the average American is eating so much salt? But on the good side, the prices were definitely reasonable. With so much awareness about health in general and specific issues too, I cannot understand why they would use so much salt?

I don’t think that we will be going there again anytime soon for 2 reasons. a) it’s too far away from our place and b) we don’t want to consume so much salt. So in the meantime to satisfy my husband’s “pasta cravings”, I have to find pasta recipes which are easy to prepare, tasty and healthy as well. On the mission, I borrowed Betty Crocker’s Easy Everyday Vegetarian book from the library. This “Lemon Pepper Pasta” recipe caught my eye because it used very less ingredients and no cheese at all.

Since Divya’s Diet Foods event came to my mind, I decided to make it even more healthy by using whole wheat pasta instead of regular pasta and also reduced the amount of oil mentioned in the original recipe. Whole wheat pasta, asparagus and navy beans are rich in fiber, so we felt full very soon, ended up eating less. This dish is also protein rich, which again is key, when it comes to “diet food”. Whole wheat pasta does taste good, nothing like I dreaded and we also didn’t miss the cheese.

Mint is my favorite herb and until recently I didn’t know that I can grow it myself. I usually buy mint from the grocery store. When my mother in law visited us last winter she took few thick mint stems (after using the leaves for cooking) and potted it. Both my husband and myself couldn’t believe our eyes when it started growing small leaves. Initially it took sometime to grow but later it started leafing rapidly. One week I completely forgot about watering it. Because it was winter we had the pot indoors and we got the bulb which is available for indoor plants and we forgot to switch it on also. When one of our friends were visiting my husband was boasting about our mint plant and then only I really remembered about it and when we checked, the plant had dried out completely. I was so upset, but without losing heart I started watering it again and to our surprise it started growing.

Ingredients
Water – 2 cups
Tea powder - 2 teaspoons
Ginger, grated – 1 small piece
Sugar – 3 teaspoons or as per your taste
Lemon juice – 2 tablespoons
Mint, finely chopped – 10 leaves

Step-by-Step Procedure with Images

(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)

1. Boil water in a saucepan.
2. Add the tea powder.
3. Grate the ginger root and let it boil for another 5 minutes.

4. Add the sugar for your taste.
5. Let it simmer for another 2 minutes.
6. Filter the tea.

7. Let it cool at room temperature. Add the lemon juice.
8, Then add the mint leaves and chill it in the refrigerator.
9. Serve it cold.

My Notes
1. Above I have reproduced the recipe as it is in the magazine. I followed the recipe and found that the tea was little bitter to my taste. So I added a couple more teaspoons of sugar.
2. The tea tastes good even when it is hot, but is excellent when it’s cold.
3. Check out the health benefits of mint here

My friend Dee made the announcement for the event she is hosting for AFAM (A Fruit A Month), started by Maheshwari on 1st of May and I can’t believe it’s the 24th already.  She has chosen Raspberries as this month’s fruit.  I did spend a lot of time searching the net for interesting recipes and bookmarked a lot of them, but somehow it got delayed.  Finally here I am, with a recipe for a simple lemonade with raspberries.  Hope I will able to send another one too.

Before going to the recipe, a small trivia I found about Raspberry.  According to legend, raspberries were originally white. The nymph Ida pricked her finger while picking berries for the crying infant Jupiter, and raspberries have since been tinged red with her blood. (The botanical name of the raspberry is Rubus idaeus. Rubus means “red”, and idaeus means “belonging to Ida”).

Ingredients:
Frozen or Fresh Raspberries – 2 cups
Juice of 1 big Lemon
Water – 5 cups
Sugar – ½ cup

Procedure:
1.  If using frozen raspberries, thaw them as per the instructions in the package.
2.  Blend it using approximately 2 cups of water.
3.  Strain the raspberry juice using a fine sieve repeatedly to get rid of the seeds. (that’s what it’s called right?)
4.  In order to dissolve the sugar, I added the sugar, lemon juice and a little bit of the raspberry juice in a blender and blended it thoroughly.  To this add the remaining 3 cups of water, raspberry puree and mix it well.  That’s it, Raspberry Lemonade is ready now.  Serve it in a glass with ice cubes and garnish it with mint leaves.

Alternatively you can also pour the lemonade in ice pop moulds and freeze it, for a cool popsicle.  My son loved this version.

And this will be a lovely treat for summer.  Enjoy!

Sangeeth has passed me the “You Make My Day Award”.  Thank you very much Sangeeth.  You also make my day with your lovely comments in my blog.