Cheap Add-Ons - #2

Sometimes I get a hankering for dill pickle. I guess it's a taste you have to appreciate. I don't understand how you can't enjoy that biting, sour tone - it makes me pucker up and hum in happiness. Or maybe it's just me.

Dill pickles pack a punch for the price. Add them to a salad or sandwich for an extra zing and crunch, and cut back on the croutons and chips (carbs and calories!). The tang of the pickle plays off nicely against the slight sweetness of mayo (light!). Am I the only one who enjoys the combination of sweet and sour together? The Chinese food industry certainly profits off of it.

The best part about the dill pickles, if the nutrition label is to believed, is that it's 0 calories. All that flavor and no calories sounds like an amazing deal to me. The only number that isn't 0 is the amount of sodium, which is to be expected as it is a pickle.

Cheap Add-Ons - #1

Salad Olives are a great condiment to keep in your fridge. They're fantastic in salads of course (salads with leafy greens, pasta salads, potato salad, etc.). They're also wonderful in sandwiches, soups, on your baked potato, in your lasagna, etc.

You have to watch out for the salt content in your recipes. Bottled olives are preserved in a salty solution and retain that saltiness. You can rinse off the salt a bit by running it under some cool water. However, there is still plenty of salt in the olives. Adjust the amount of table salt you put into your recipe based on the amount of olives you add to your recipe.