English Pea Salad

I HEART the Food Network and the Food Network chefs!  All of em--Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, Sunny Anderson, Guy Fieri, Giada, Sandra, The Neelys, Anne Burrell, Bobby Flay etc, etc, etc.  I love to watch their shows and see all of the amazing things they do with food and then see how I can flip their ideas to be more bariatric friendly!  WIN! I even like to watch Food Network at the gym when I am feverishly trying to sweat my A*S off, as twisted as that may seem....it works for me.  :-)

This one, I got from Ms. Paula Deen (thank you, Ms. Paula!).  I was kinda unsure about it, but it was an easy one to make bariatric friendly, so I thought eh, what the heck, and I gave it a shot...all I had to do was make one minor change from her version and it's a win!  We all know (well if you don't know, you will now) that Paula LOVES her some full fat Mayo and as much butter as she can humanly possible use in any given dish...that might work for her, but not so much for us...<<<sigh>>>.

So of course in this recipe, she used the full fat mayo.  I, however, did not.  I used fat free mayo.  Works just same, tastes great, and is fine to have as part of any weight loss plan (especially in comparison).  You would be surprised (or, like me, disgusted) to see how quick the calories and fat can add up when you use regular mayo.  It ain't perty, ya'll.  It's just gross.  Ewe.

Moving on...so like I mentioned before, I was a wee bit hesitant about this one, but I went with it.  I am glad I did. It's fresh and crisp and lite and good.  :-)  It would be an EXCELLENT dish to take to gatherings!!!  No one would ever know it is WLS friendly, ever! Score!!!

Ingredients:
16 oz bag of fresh frozen peas, thawed
4 tbsps fat free mayo
3 tbsps lemon juice
3/4 cup shredded cheese
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped  (this is the part that kinda weirded me out, but it works well in the dish adds a bit of protein to the dish--cant go wrong there!)
1/2 cup bacon bits (I used 1/4 cup real bacon bits and 1/4 cup imitation bacon bits for the crunch)
S & P to taste

Okay, so the imitation bacon bits didnt make the picture, but they are in the dish, I promise!

You can't mess this one up...if you do, you should probly just stay out of the kitchen!  Mmm-kay, pumpkin?!?!?  ;-)  Luv ya much, muah!

Put the thawed peas into a bowl.  Add remaining ingredients....it'll look a lil sumthin like this.... 

Stir it all together and wha-la.   It's done.  Your final dish should look kinda sorta like this here...

Chill in the fridge for about an hour (minimum) before serving.

I used the imitation bacon bits thinking the dish would need some crunch.  While that did work, I was surprised to find that the fresh frozen peas have a nice crisp snap to them that offer a "crunch" like effect. WIN!

Give it a shot, I bet you'll be surprised. It's good.  I am definitely taking this dish to my next family and/or friend and/or work pitch-in/gathering!!!  :-)

Enjoy.

Till next time.

Lots of Love,
Autumn