Artichokes

by Alida
(Seattle, USA)

I began my love affair with artichokes when I was about 10 years old and my mother decided to make them for our dinner one night. I was intrigued by the fact that you can eat them with your hands, scraping the unusual vegetable leaves with your teeth and tossing the rest aside. Although they had a unique flavor, I actually liked artichokes at that young age even though no amount of claiming the “heart of the artichoke is the best part” was going to convince me to eat the middle!

Now that I am in my 30s and am constantly watching my weight and searching for that perfect food that will leave me satisfied as well as feeling like I am not missing out on anything. I discovered that not only are artichokes my all time favorite vegetable, but they are also so low in calories that I could practically eat 3 of them and barely consume 200 calories. That however took a bit of creativity on my end. You see, I was raised eating the artichoke leaves by dipping them into melted butter or fatty mayonnaise. While I love artichokes, I don’t love them so much that I am going to eat them plain; however, dipping them into butter and mayo is not an option.

That is when I stumbled upon a popular butter spray that I love. Instead of melting butter, I pour out an amount of this butter spray and mix garlic and basil into it. I boil my artichokes for 40 minutes and thats it. I am ready to dip my low calorie, favorite healthy vegetables into a low calorie butter substitute and I am happy and on my way to being thin. Oh, and I now consider the heart of the artichoke to be the best part as well.