Microwave potato chips.

Funny you should mention broccoli.

Last nite's dinner was broccoli heads nuked with olive oil, garlic powder, a dash of Romano cheese, a little malt vinegar, and above all, low-sodium soy sauce.

If you've got a medium potato, a microwave, and 6 minutes, you can make an excellent excuse for ingesting 1/2 tsp of salt and a 2 tblsp of low fat sour cream, and still be taking on only about 200 calories, total, provided you stick with medium (2 1/4 to 3 1/4 inch diameter 6.1 oz avg weight) sized potatoes. (That size is also what makes the 5 to 6 minute microwave "snack" time work.) Throw on some dried chives, or some basil (fresh or dried) for extra taste. Don't forget to pierce the potato before you nuke it, to avoid the occasional exploding potato.

These are good with vodka particularly, but they go OK with beer:

The simplest and quickest salty snack I've ever eaten or even heard of is peeled garlic cloves and a little chafing dish of salt. Dip the garlic in the salt, then gnaw until it isn't salty anymore, then repeat until you've consumed the clove.

Second simplest was a whole fish, gutted and boned but skin still on, put down in salt, which draws out all the moisture and preserves the fish. To eat, turn the fish inside and and begin gnawing. It's leathery but quite good.

No matter how strict I get with my diet, I always allow myself these three things: feta, olive oil, and almonds. This keeps me from feeling horribly deprived and unhappy... and likely to go off my diet.

I doubt you can get feta there, but if you can, stir fry up a bunch of veggies in minimum oil, and serve with a slice of feta on the side, and it feels indulgent. I have the idea that (goat) feta must be one of the cheeses most low in fat, but I don't actually know this.

I adore any kind of beans or peas cooked well (fresh Greek peas are omg-to-die-for), usually with some onions, tomato and potato, with lots of salt and pepper... and feta or yorgurt on the side, of course. :)

Almonds seem like they shouldn't be on a low fat diet, but I've seen them recommended on diet sites; they usually want you to have them non-salted, but I buy them salted and sometimes have nothing more than a hefty handful for lunch, and it's great. :)

Olive oil is antioxidant, good for "good cholesterol", blah, blah, but it's the most basic stuff of life here, so I'll never give it up. Actually, now that I'm writing this, I find that I'm most addicted to the most seriously indigenous Greek products (honey, and yogurt and olives, too - but I can live without those in a pinch) that everyone here considers both healthy and delicious. What are the minimum "absolutes" of Korean cuisine? The things that no Korean would ever give up? Just curious.

I have another weird diet kind of thing that keeps me sane - noodles with tons of raw cabbage. This works especially well with ramen (for me) because I'm kind of addicted to mushroom ramen, but ramen isn't good for us, so I sometimes cook a single small serving of mushroom ramen and make a big salad out of it with chopped cabbage so that it becomes a whole, filling meal.

Oh! Also, any kind of vegetable - cooked, steamed, raw, whatever - with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper = yum!

The things I can get here seem to follow no rhyme or reason. I can get feta (thankfully) and other cheeses — and feta is okay according to the Palm Beach diet. I can't get anything low-fat save for what this import lady sometimes wrangles, but none of that is ever a guarantee. I do have fat free blue cheese and ranch dressing, only 50 cals per two tablespoons, so that's nice. Fresh veggies are super easy (I just planted my very first tomato plants) but I'm getting sick of broccoli every day. And, oh yes, almonds hold a special place in my heart. Sometimes I just feel like veggies lack that "savory" taste unless the have a bunch of fats added to them. God, am I ever a sucker for cheese (all dairy, really), but I'm trying to cut back.

No Korean would ever be caught dead without kimchee. They eat it at breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's like salsa, kind of, or Korean salad. Fermented cabbage, basically, with a lot of red pepper paste too. However, I can't make it at home and I'm looking more for things to keep around the house since I don't work.

Great ideas so far. Thanks guys!

Kimchi is wonderful. I had this Taiwanese roommate in '87-'88 who liked it too, and between his and his buddies' cooking and salty, garlicky, stinky ol' kimchi, life was good. But I learned not to eat it at work -- especially not at my desk, and finally not even in the cafeteria. I'd have to sit outside (in central SC, it gets pretty warm by lunchtime, too) to enjoy it.

It was useful to drive off panhandlers...
"Hey, man, got a quarter?"
"No spare change, but want to try a bite of this?"
"HELL, NO!"

Wasabi peas. I am totally addicted to them.

Also, as long as we're talking diet stuff - my easy mushroom soup that I came up with while dieting (but love so much I have it often, even when I'm not being vewy, vewy careful about calories).

I've since made it at a friend's house where she didn't have a food processor or blender (though she did have the handheld), so I sauteed all the chopped veggies in the olive oil *before* cooking in the water, and it was even better. Like really, really, really good. I'm crazy for mushrooms, though. Also, I happened to find a lo-cal cottage cheese here that also has olives and oregano in it, which is soooo good (so good I have to be stern with myself not to just buy it and eat it all up in an instant), so I use that in this recipe when I can get it, but it becomes fairly obvious that, failing that, one could add a bit of oregano and a couple of chopped olives to the recipe, as well, though I don't, usually, when I don't happen to find my preferred cottage cheese). :)

I also just thought of this: I love stir fried veggies in rice paper wraps with chopped (pounded, whatever) peanuts (and soy sauce, of couse)... but I'm really bringing ice to Alaska (coals to Newcastle, etc.) now, aren't I?

Thanks taz. I'm getting bored with my carrot, celery & onion soup, and have all the ingredients in the fridge for mushroom soup, so I'll make that instead tomorrow.

Popcorn is the shiznitz - provided you have an air popper.

4 cups of air-popped popcorn is like 100 Kcal. That's hugely filling compared to other shacks. The problem is that it tastes like stale styrofoam.

To fix that, get a can of butter flavored cooking spray. Mist a bowl of popcorn, toss, mist, toss, mist. Then salt the bejesus out of it. You've upped the calories by maybe 10, and added a ton of flavor.

To kick it up further, pour a generous dose of your favorite hot pepper sauce to coat the side of the bowl before you salt and toss to coat (if you pour directly, the popcorn will shrivel up). I like using Tabasco Chipotle sauce, but any Tabasco-like sauce will do.

Can you get canned or frozen artichoke hearts? I'm a fan of Mimi's artichoke dip, with plenty of black pepper and hot sauce dashed in.

If you can get pita or another flat bread, cut them into wedges, spray very lightly with oil, sprinkle with chili powder and salt, and broil. These crispy wedges are perfect for scooping up the tangy, salty artichoke dip.

Or serve it with vegetables. Carrots, cucumbers, or thin crispy rounds of zucchini are delicious, sliced or wedged tomatoes are heavenly, and it completely transforms broccoli. (Incidentally, I never eat broccoli raw anymore; steaming or blanching it even for two minutes makes it much more palatable for me. I always blanch broccoli for crudité platters, and it's often the first thing to disappear.)

This artichoke stuff only takes a few minutes to make in a food processor or blender, and is fantastic in sandwiches, too. In fact, I think I'll go make some... right... now...

When I'm eating lean, edamame is my best friend. I buy them frozen, shelled or unshelled, heat them in boiling water, and then shake some kosher salt and crushed red pepper over them. They are so delicious: like green peanuts, only very good for you. High in protein, low in fat, full of soy goodness. And a little bowl full feels like an indulgent popcorn-style snack.

I love almonds too. They ARE high in fat and calories, so don't go nuts (rim shot). But they pack a lot of Omega-3s and protein in a small package - they're nutritionally dense, as they say, and very satisfying.

Olives are the same way for me: healthy though calorie-dense, and worth it for flavor. Olives with pits still in are best, because the process of nibbling around the pit slows down the unthinking snack glomming reaction.

I sauteed all the chopped veggies in the olive oil *before* cooking in the water, and it was even better

That's a good tip for cooking in general - when you do a quick oil saute in a nonstick pan, you caramelize a lot of the natural sugars and develop a richer flavor range for the same calories. Another similar trick is to oven-roast vegetables that you're going to use for soup or stew or pot pie - same effect.

Ooh. Also, I take regular small corn tortillas (2 for 90 cals) and bake them in the oven until brown and crisp, then break them into chips and eat them with (homemade, so no sugar) salsa. I have no idea why people fry corn chips - these are just as crisp and have a really pronounced corn flavor.

Slices of apple, pear, tomato, and avocado are good dipped in salt, a salt/cayenne mix, or lime juice and then salt.


Something I've been experimenting with lately are variants of an Egyptian(?) dish called Dukkah. It's a bowl of chopped nuts, legumes, and spices and eaten with a flatbread slice dipped in olive oil to pick up the mixture.

My mix is ad-hoc but I put in:
toasted sesame seeds
hazelnuts
peanuts or cashews
chickpeas
dates or whole currants

About half the mix is sesame seed in my ratios, adjust to taste. Chop all of those into small pieces (it's a dry dip, not a paste) and them mix in:

cumin
coriander
cardamom seed
peppper
salt
dried tarragon (although I've started leaving it out; I can't decide if it clashes)


Dip a flatbread slice (pita, pide, what-have-you) in some good olive oil and then dip it in the dukkah mix. eat eat eat.

I was coming in to recommend edamame, too. I actually dump a ton of salt in the boiling water, and the salt + crunch is perfect. (I'll have to try them with peppers, like Miko recommends.)

Hummus for some reason often satisfies my need for salty food.

One of my favorite cocktail party recipes is: Take a bunch of cherry tomatoes and poke each of them with a toothpick (or the tines of a fork) 10 times or so. Put them in a bowl, cover them with vodka, and let them soak for 3-4 hours (not longer, they start to disintegrate). Drain the tomatoes (save the vodka for bloody marys). Mix equal parts salt, cumin, and chopped cilantro (probably could be left out if you're one of those people, or if you can't get it in Korea), and serve the salt dip alongside the tomatoes.

I'm guessing, if you absolutely had to, you could probably skip the vodka step on that one if vodka doesn't qualify as "healthy" in your mind. :)

Black olive tapenade is also great, but I think I've lost my recipe.

Thanks bunnies, this is fab! In two years here I have never found edamame, but I can get chick peas and I'll curse to my grave anyone who disses cilantro (though it's hard to find here). I forgot about tapenade, I love that too, and I often make my own salsa but have never come up with anything better than veggies to dip it in, so I'll try making my own chips next time.

I eat mushroom soup a lot. Next time I'll try taz's recipe. Mushrooms of all varieties are really cheap and in abundance here. I also can't wait to try the vodka tomaters.

You guys rock!