Free Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too: Eating to Be Sexy, Fit, and Fabulous! by Melissa Kelly

from the menu at Primo. Yet it is among our most changeable items because it consists of whatever is very fresh, right now, today. Lucy is our gardener, and she knows what is exactly ready on any given day, so this salad always has a different character. You can do this, too. Use what comes right out of your garden or what you’ve just bought at the farmers’ market.
    8 cups fresh greens, types depending on
    Fall/Winter: baby kale, wild
    the season:
    mustard greens, lollo rosso,
    Spring: spinach, sorrel, chives,
    chicory, radicchio
    chive blossoms, baby red oak
    1 cup endive leaves
    leaf, wild dandelion, lovage
    1 cup cherry tomatoes
    Summer: baby romaine,
    nasturtium leaves and flowers,
    basil, amaranth, beet greens,
    arugula
    Combine all the ingredients in a large salad bowl and toss thoroughly with your favorite dressing, such as a good red wine vinaigrette or a little olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
    Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too
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    Meal 3: Vegetable Bounty
    For good health, sometimes vegetables should be the star of a woman’s meal. This simple menu combines vegetable-rich caponata with a salad of field greens and beets. Some high-flavor sheep’s or goat’s cheese adds protein, but the mosaic of colorful vegetables of different textures is what really makes the meal.
    Abundant Variety
    ~ 69 ~
    Caponata
    S e r v e s 4
    √This traditional Italian dish is a deliciously thick melding of eggplant and other summer vegetables with olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, and tomato puree. The brown sugar gives it that characteristic jamlike consistency. Caponata is delicious smeared on thin slices of bread or crackers as part of an antipasti plate, or as a sandwich filling. You can scoop up the caponata with delicious crunchy endive leaves, which seem to be made for dipping, or spread it on the pita wedges or crusty bread you serve with the salad.
    1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
    1⁄2 cup chopped fresh basil
    2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
    1⁄2 cup balsamic vinegar
    1 medium onion, peeled and diced small
    3 tablespoons brown sugar
    1 large eggplant, peeled and diced small
    2 tablespoons tomato puree
    1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and
    1⁄2 cup golden raisins, plumped in
    diced small
    2 tablespoons water or brandy for
    1 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and
    20 minutes
    diced small
    1⁄2 cup diced celery, blanched in boiling
    1 medium zucchini, peeled and diced
    water for 5 minutes
    small
    Salt and pepper to taste
    1. In a medium sauté pan, heat the olive oil over high heat.
    Sauté the garlic and onions until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
    2. Add the eggplant, red peppers, and yellow peppers, and sauté until soft, about 5 more minutes. Add the zucchini and cook 2
    more minutes.
    3. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until the caponata thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
    Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too
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    Field Greens with Roasted Beets
    and Fresh Sheep’s Cheese
    S e r v e s 4
    √This is a lovely salad to make in the spring when beets are at their peak and you can find really fresh field greens in the store, at the farmers’ market, or from your own garden. If you can’t find sheep’s cheese, goat cheese works, too. Both kinds of cheese have a sharp note that plays nicely off the sweetness of the beets.
    2 shallots, peeled and minced
    2 sprigs fresh Italian parsley (pick
    1⁄4 cup red wine vinegar
    the leaves from the stems)
    1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
    1⁄2 bunch fresh chives, snipped into
    Salt and pepper to taste
    1-inch lengths
    3⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
    2 heads Belgian endive
    4 fresh beets, any type
    1⁄4 pound fresh sheep’s cheese (or goat
    4 cups mesclun greens (field mix)
    cheese)
    2 sprigs fresh basil (torn into bite-
    sized pieces)
    1. First, make the vinaigrette. Place the shallots in a bowl and add the vinegars. Season with salt and pepper and let sit 15–20
    minutes.