If you are looking for excellent and healthy side dish to your main dish, stop right here. The following is a recipe for a flavorful and filling side dish:

Sauté Greens and Roasted Beets

Serving size: Four

Ingredients
Five to Six (One bunch) medium colored red, orange, and gold beets with tops
Four Garlic Cloves
Four thyme or lemon sprigs
One Tbsp Olive Oil
One Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar (to taste)
Olive oil (to sprinkle)
Pepper and Salt (to taste)

Directions
Before Cooking Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Trim beets at both ends
Soak greens in a bowl of cold water until clean of any dirt (change water often until clean)
Scrub beets clean of dirt
Separate beets according to color

Cooking
Make four one foot foil sheets. Stack two sheets atop of one another creating a packet. In one packet place the red beets, place the gold and orange beets in the other. To each packet add two sprigs of thyme or lemon and two garlic cloves, then sprinkle each with pepper, salt, and oil. Encase the beets by folding the sides of the foil around the beets.

Place your packets onto a baking sheet (rimmed).

Place the baking sheet into the oven and roast for one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes. Test the beets for tenderness by using a skewer, set aside for five minutes.

Using a large skillet, heat one tbsp of olive oil until hot. Then add your wet beet greens into the skillet. Use caution, as they may splatter the olive oil. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, then tossing constantly, cook for one to two minutes. Greens should be a bright colored green.

Add red wine vinegar to your green, tossing once more.

Slice the cooked beets thin and arrange them nicely onto plates. Use tongs and take the greens out of the pan (be sure leave liquid in the skillet) and add the greens to every plate. Sprinkle salt on each to taste.

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Marinated Cucumber Salad

The following recipe is for a terrific and healthy combination of marinated tomato with cucumber salad. Preparation time is fifteen minutes. Marinating time is at least four full hours. Serves up to eight servings.

Half cup vinegar (white-wine variety)
Three Tbsp sugar
One Tbsp Olive Oil
One Tsp Basil (dried)
Fourth Tsp Salt
Eighth Tsp Pepper
Two cups chopped tomatoes (equals three to four medium tomatoes)
Two cups chopped cucumber (Two large cucumbers)
Half cup finely chopped purple onion

Using a small jar, make the salad dressing. Combine the sugar, olive oil, vinegar, basil, pepper, and salt together. Cover the jar with lid and shake thoroughly. Set aside for later use.

Using a medium size bowl, combine chopped tomatoes, with juice, with chopped cucumbers and chopped onion.

Drizzle the dressing you created over the cucumber, tomatoes, and onion and toss until well coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap tightly and place in the refrigerator to marinate for a minimum of 4 to 24 hours prior to serving. This mixture can be kept covered and refrigerated for a maximum of three days.
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Healthy Vinegar in your cooking. Looking for something healthy and versatile? Add Vinegar to your diet. Vinegar is something that should be found in every single household. Vinegar is one of the oldest and most versatile staple there is in the household.

Some people have a great appreciation of vinegar that derives from the influences of African cooking, Asian cooking, Spanish cooking, and Italian cooking. If your looking to further the taste of your dishes by adding a dimension that is both sharp and clean, vinegar should be your choice. It has an aroma that works well with a variety of spices and herbs.

Vinegar comes from the word sour wine, which is a French word. This means that vinegar is an aged wine that has been fermented from alcoholic liquids. Vinegar is sometimes made from a variety of liquids such as red wine, white wine, champagne, or sherry. Vinegar is also considered healthy to those who count calories for use as a salt or a sauce.

If you are new to vinegar and looking for some tips in cooking with vinegar read further.

For tomato sauce and soups you can add a tablespoon or tow of vinegar while cooking, during the final five minutes.

When a recipe is calling for wine, considering substituting the wine with vinegar. You can do so by taking one pint of vinegar and diluting it with three parts water.

When your mayo jar is running low and down to its last bits, if you add just a small amount of vinegar and shake, you will have an easier time of getting the last bit of mayo out.

When cooking desserts and pies, if you add one teaspoon of vinegar, you will decrease the sweetness and increase the flavor.

Lastly, for a great marinade, consider mixing your favorite herbs with vinegar. Not only will you cook out the sourness of the vinegar, leaving you with the excellent flavors of a mixture of wine and herbs, you will also have very tender meat. Remember in choosing cooking vinegars, a balsamic vinegar is used for flavoring… normally you would not cook with balsamic vinegar.

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Oil and Vinegar is a staple in every kitchen. Even the simplest salads can be turned into a delicacy that is packed with loads of real flavor and nutrition. By using balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, you can do just that. When you are eating fresh and organic vegetables, it is well known that they are among the healthiest foods you can eat. The minute you pour those popular sauces and dressings upon them, the healthy eating stops there. These dressings are packed with chemical preservatives and trans-fat, that you are no longer eating as healthy as you thought.

That is the bad news, the good news is this, you do not have to eat unhealthy dressings any longer because the answer is some of the best and healthy alternatives to those dressings. Balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. We use vinegar for a variety of cooking and cleaning purposes and extra virgin olive oil is called for in many different recipes.

What is great about these alternatives is that either one can be used for a variety of way in cooking, combined or alone they are both perfect for many foods. The problem with both balsamic vinegar and olive oil, are not readily available in the local store. The reason for this is that because many manufacturers use a variety of processing methods that have no benefit to your health. Even if you find something in the grocery store that states Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the name likely means nothing. The pureness of the olive oil depends upon the amount of processing it goes through. Therefore, because anything sold in grocery store has to go through specific processes it can be safely assumed it is not the real thing.

It is for this reason, among many others that both extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar are two of the most highly sought after ingredients all over the world. Some of the other reasons include:

Both are made from organic fruits derived from Mother Nature
Each enjoys the purity of being unprocessed and unrefined with no additives
Both are made using traditional and natural methods to ensure no nutrition value is lost
You can enjoy authentic flavor thanks to the aging processes
They have been awarded a seal of approval through a rigorous testing process to make sure you receive high quality.

It is easy to see why so many people are spending a good deal of time looking for balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil made from the finest organics. When used together these two ingredients create a combination that is flavorful, adds perfect texture, and works to improve your health, on almost any dish you can imagine.

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