Healthy Vinegar Recipes
to Stay Strong and Lean

Healthy Vinegar? Research shows that vinegar can keep your body lean!

Ordinary vinegar – acetic acid – may prevent the build up of fat, and therefore weight gain, according to results of a study with mice from Japan.

Animals fed a high-fat diet and supplemented with acetic acid developed about 10 per cent less body fat than mice just eating the diet, according to recent findings published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

But how many people want to drink a mixture of vinegar and water every day? I won’t even try selling that to my healthy family.

Thankfully, vinegar is delicious in healthy salad dressings and marinades. Try this “Vinegar Dinner” of steak and salad for an easy and tasty meal with vinegar.

In general, when making a healthy vinegar marinade, use 1/4 cup of oil, 1/4 cup of vinegar and 1 tbsp of seasoning to give you enough marinade for about a pound of meat.

Balsamic vinegar works great with meat, apple cider vinegar works well with chicken.

Easy Steak Marinade

Note: makes enough marinade for one pound of meat
¼ cup of olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt

Whisk together ingredients. Put one pound of steak (we prefer flank or tri-tip) in a zip lock bag, cover with marinade, close bag and refrigerate for 20 minutes to 4 hours. Grill from 7-10 minutes per side or bake in oven at 350 degrees until 140 degrees for med rare/155 for medium until done, about 25 to 35 minutes.

Simple Orange Vinaigrette

¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or orange champagne vinegar (found at Trader Joe’s)

For the best flavor, whisk the vinegar and orange juice together. Whisk in the olive oil in a slow stream. You can always shake the ingredients in a small jar, but I can never seem to do this without spraying salad dressing all over the kitchen.

If you are not using the dressing immediately, whisk or shake again before tossing with salad.

Note: In general, you only need one tablespoon of dressing for each 2 cups of salad. Your salad dressing should complement the salad, not saturate the crisp flavors of the salad.

Feta Strawberry Salad

4 cups washed and dried spinach leaves (one 10 ounce bag)
1 large chopped red, yellow, OR orange bell pepper
1 cup chopped strawberries
3 ounces feta cheese (about ½ cup crumbled)
¼ cup pecans, broken in small pieces, toasted if desired.

Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl. Toss with Simple Orange Vinaigrette.

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