Really Good Cheese Helps Cut the Fat

I love cheese. Whether oozing lava-like on pizza, crumbled in salad, or forming the structural basis of quiche, it’s one of my favorite indulgences. This love affair makes keeping my fat intake to 25-30% of calories a challenge.

Of course I could avoid it all together, but a better option is to eat less. And eating less is easier when I pick better cheeses. Many imported and even some of the American Artisanal varieties offer many times the flavor of the bulk processed slabs, so it takes less to wonderfully enhance your culinary creations.

One example is Bulgarian Sheep’s Milk Feta. A ½-ounce serving is a cube measuring about 1 and 1/8-inches on each side, or 1 ½ tablespoons crumbled, with 37 calories and 3 grams fat. Compared to the big vat supermarket feta, its bite is multidimensional, building slowly to a powerful finish.

A fresh Greek salad showcases this exceptional feta. The recipe uses a relatively low fat dressing, with lots of rich red wine vinegar. It serves two as a side dish, or one as a meal. It’s a good source of Vitamins A and C, as well as folate, iron and manganese.

Certainly, it’s important to remember to pair high fat foods like cheese and olive oil with otherwise very low fat and low calorie main dishes. Skinless chicken breasts, lean fish like tuna or cod, along with orange and green vegetables, all cooked and served without added oils or butter help meet these lower fat goals.

Lean Chef’s Lower Fat Greek Salad

2 cups mixed greens
2 cups baby spinach leaves
2 thin slices red onion
4 small black olives, sliced
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 ounce Bulgarian Sheep’s Milk Feta
1 teaspoon virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
freshly ground black pepper

Combine the greens and spinach. Top with onion, olives, tomatoes and feta. Mix together olive oil and red wine vinegar, and drizzle over the salad. Add a grind or two of pepper.

Serves 2, each with 103 calories, 5 g protein, 9 g carbs, 3 g fiber, 6 g fat, (3 g saturated).