Dreaming of Frozen Yogurt

I'm on an ice cream making roll... well, not so much ice cream now, but frozen yogurt.  And maybe not a roll... maybe more like a.... umm... brioche? Can't think of baking now, I have frozen treats to tell you about!

First, some history-- last year, when I bought my Whynter Sno ice cream maker, I bought an ice cream recipe book.  Naturally, it was full of sugar, and almost every recipe called for creating a custard with the eggs and milk/cream. UGH.  So not me, ya know?

About the exact same time, a beloved friend came to visit, and brought an ice cream recipe book for me as a hostess gift! Coincidence? No such thing! The universe clearly wanted me to make ice cream! 

Now this book was no ordinary book.  Nay nay.  My friend lives in Ohio, and this book was from Jeni's Splendid Ice creams (book here, website for ice cream here).  Jeni's is currently only available in Ohio, 2 stores in Nashville, and if you are lucky enough to live in the US, there is overnight home delivery (swoon). 

I looked over the recipes, thought it was interesting that she didn't use eggs (my kinda ice cream), but still had lots of stuff I don't usually use: sugar, cornstarch, corn syrup.  Everything has a reason, mostly texture and mouth-feel.  But still, for the way I was eating at the time, too many carbs for sure.

This year, I decided to crack the books open again.  I'm focusing mostly on calories right now, so a bit higher carb count in a treat isn't going to rock my world.

And I remembered- Jeni's doesn't use eggs, and since I really am not a fan of the whole egg/milk tempering thing (soooo easy to make gross scrambled eggs), I got out my molecular gastronomy thinking cap, and am now working to convert her awesome recipes to lower calorie, lower sugar, but just as delicious versions.

That Said...

Here is the result of my first attempt.  Roasted Rhubarb Frozen Yogurt.

I'll admit, I think I could further adapt this recipe-- I could use guar/xanthan gums (maybe even konjac powder) in place of the corn starch.  I could also reduce calories further by tweaking the xylitol and isomalt ratios.  I'll keep working on that. 

But the current result is pretty good!

Note: this recipe involves advanced prep.  You'll want to make the roasted rhubarb and the drained yogurt the night before.

Ingredients:

    Rhubarb compote:
1 lb. fresh or frozen rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/3c Splenda or granular sweetener of your choice (nutritional info will vary based on what you use)

Frozen yogurt Base:
1 quart (I used the 650ml container) plain fat-free yogurt (could use low-fat, will change your nutritional values of course)-- drained 6-8hrs or overnight. More below.

1.5 c. whole milk

2 T. cornstarch

2 oz. (4T) fat free cream cheese, softened (could use regular, will change your nutritional values of course)

1/2 c. heavy cream

2/3 c. xylitol

1/4 c. isomalt syrup, or light corn syrup (nutritional values are for isomalt, using corn syrup will change these of course)

 

Advanced preparations:

 

1) roast the rhubarb: set the oven to 300 degrees, combine rhubarb and sweetener in a 8x11 glass plate or ceramic baking dish, stir to mix well.  Bake for about 40-45 minutes, stirring every 15 min or so, until the rhubarb is soft and falling apart a bit, but still nice and pink.

 

You will use 3/4 c. for the recipe.  Let all of it cool, covered, in the fridge until ready to use.  Leftovers are great with strawberries, or as a sauce on other ice cream, etc.

 

2) Drain the yogurt:  OK, I think you could just use 1.25c of fat free Greek yogurt, and not do the whole draining thing.  But the original recipe called for draining regular yogurt, so this is how to do that:  line a sieve with 2 layers of cheesecloth (or, frankly, paper towels) and fit over a bowl so that there's good space between the bottom of the sieve and the bottom of the bowl.  Pour in the yogurt (the whole container) and let it drain for 6-8 hrs, or over night, in the fridge (leaving it out won't do anything bad, but then you have a bit more of a "cheese" and that's not what we want here...).  Dump out the liquid- there will be a lot!

The start of draining the yogurt. There's a bit of liquid there at the bottom

You will have about 1.25 c. of thickened yogurt.  I used all of it in the recipe.  This is also really tasty for dips, but that's another post for another time...

 

3) Isomalt syrup:  if you don't want to use corn syrup (and I didn't), then make isomalt syrup.  Isomalt is a sugar substitute, used in sugar-free hard candies and other things all the time.  Lots of interesting properties, and it's a bit lower in calories than xylitol. 

To make a mock-light-corn syrup, simply heat 3 parts isomalt to 1 part water.  Just heat until everything is melted.
You can refrigerate whatever you don't use, but don't freak out, it will fully crystallize again in the fridge.  It will melt again when heated.  It's ok. I promise.  Use 1/4c of syrup for this recipe.

 

To make the frozen yogurt once the prep is done:

Measure out the 1.5 c. of whole milk.  In a small bowl, measure out about 3T of the milk, and the 2T of cornstarch, and mix into a slurry.  Set aside.

 

Mix the rest of the milk, and the cream, xylitol, and isomalt (or corn) syrup in a 4 quart pot.  This is critical, because this will bubble quite a bit and you don't want it boiling over.

The milk/cream/sweetener boiling. It puffed up even more when I stirred it.

Bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and cook for 4 minutes.

Remove from heat, and whisk in the milk/cornstarch slurry.

Bring back to the heat, stirring, for 1 more minute.  It will be quite thick, like sweetened evaporated milk.

After adding the cornstarch/milk slurry and boiling for 1 minute more. Very thick.

Remove from heat.

In a big bowl, measure out the fat-free cream cheese, and whisk a bit to make sure it's soft. 
Slowly, in small additions, mix in the hot milk mixture and ensure it's all smooth, until it's all incorporated and smooth.

Next, add the 1.25 c. of drained yogurt and the 3/4 c. of cold roasted rhubarb.
Chill the bowl inside another bowl with ice and water, or cover and put in the fridge until cooled.  Ice water will work a bit faster, if that's what you want.

Cooled mixture ready to go into the ice cream maker

Once the mixture is cool, it will be VERY thick.  Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's direction, but keep an eye on it. 
Mine finished waaaay early, b/c the rhubarb froze and the whole thing got thick and hard to stir.

Transfer to a container for the freezer, and let it set up for a couple of hours at least.

Finished product. Tart and sweet and made with my very own rhubarb from the garden!

 

So there you have it.  The base is still a work in progress for me, but as it is, it's very, very good.  Not too hard, no eggs to deal with, scientifically sound (the reason you boil the milk with sweeteners it to evaporate some of the liquid, so your ice crystals will be fewer, and smaller. And you also create a sweetener syrup, which is better than dry crystals mingling about).  You could use this base for other things, instead of the full heavy cream/milk base. Tangier.

 

Excellent taste and texture (that scoop there in that picture? I ate that!).

 

Oh, and no math! Just chemistry ;-)

 

Nutrition info:

For the recipe, as posted (i.e if you make changes, you have to figure your own stuff out)

 

8 healthy servings (I bet you can get 10 smaller ones... but let's say 8):

 

215 calories

7g fat

31g carbs total (19g are fiber, incl some of the sweeteners. 12g net carbs, if you count that way)

3g protein

23% of your day's calcium

6% of vitamin A

6% of Ribovlavin (B2)

Product Corner: Ice cream makers

It's ice cream season in my house (betcha couldn't tell!) and I wanted to talk about ice cream makers, since I think the topic can seem a little daunting if you've not delved into making ice cream before.

The long and short of it is, there are 2 basic kinds of ice cream makers (not counting the old-fashioned kind that required rock salt and a front porch to churn on...): the kind with the cooler-lined cannister that you freeze, and the kind that has it's own cooling unit (condenser...sort of like your air conditioner) built right in.

Most ice cream recipe books will say that either is fine, and they're not wrong... mostly.

Here's the real scoop (ha ha! see what I did there?):

Cannister-type ice cream makers require you to freeze an inner liner, that looks like an ice bucket, until it's good and solid-- usually 24-48hrs before you use it.  Then, the other part of the machine will turn the frozen cannister, and there will be a paddle-like scraper/agitator attachment that will turn, churn, and aerate the mix as it freezes.  You usually can only use the cannister once, before you need to re-freeze it (I've tried making 2 batches in a row, and it didn't work in mine). 
Some of these are stand alone models (Cuisinart makes a very trusty one) and some are sold as an attachment for your stand mixer (samples of each below).

I used a Cuisinart version for years, and it was ok.  Good.  Definitely better than trying to, say, freeze ice cube trays of cream and then blend them-- that's just nuts.

This is the newest model of the trusty Cuisinart ice cream/yogurt maker. Mine's a bit older but basically the same.

The issue at hand is, how quickly the mixture freezes, which controls the size of the ice crystals, and the amount of air that gets mixed in.  Smaller crystals means a smoother ice cream, and some air, but not too much, will make the ice cream seem dense and lush, whereas too much air will make the ice cream seem fluffy and weird (the amount of air is call overrun, and is the difference between premium and non-premium ice cream you buy at the grocery store).  You want some air, but not a foamy mess.

So, the cannister style ice cream maker takes longer to freeze the ice cream (and you really need to start with VERY cold mix, so that you don't waste precious time of the cannister melting), and I found there to be a lot of inconsistency-- as you poured out a rather soupy soft-serve consistency ice cream, you would still have to really scrape the sides (risking scratching the "non-stick coating" on the surface) and there, the ice cream was rock hard.  Mixing everything quickly in a container and throwing it in the freezer for several hours, you would get a pretty good product in the end.  But I was stressed out and wanted the process to be easier and better.

After about 6 years of using my cannister-style, I invested last year in a not-too-expensive-if-you're-really-going-to-use-it-a-lot model of self-cooling ice cream maker.  It got good reviews all over, and I'm really happy with it (it's does beep weirdly, but maybe mine just got bumped in transit... works fine though).

This is my current model. Whynter (and others) make bigger, more expensive models, but this one works just great.

The difference for me is: I don't have to perfectly chill my ingredients first (I'm not putting hot liquid in it, but from-the-fridge-to-the-blender-to-the-machine works just fine); it also creates firmer ice cream right off the bat.  I can stop it early, get the soupy soft-serve (which my husband actually likes...) or I can let it run longer, because there's no cannister that will melt and stop my progress.  And, I can make as many batches as I want in a day, or day after day.  Lastly, I don't have to give up precious room in my freezer for the cannister-- that room is MUCH better used by additional flavors of homemade ice cream!

So-- if you're just dabbing your toe in the ice cream pool (ooooooh... a pool of ice cream... with ice cream sandwiches as the floaties in the pool... yummmm), then by all means, pick up the cannister type, and see if you like making ice cream, if your family eats enough of it, and if it winds up on the yard sale table within a year or two.

If you're really committed, then I can definitely recommend you find yourself a model with a built in cooler (Whynter makes the above model and a bigger one, and Cuisinart makes a similarly priced model as well).

Happy Freezing!

By Request: Sugar-free Salted Caramel Ice Cream

My first request!

My friend F. asked if I could figure out a lower carb, lower calorie (because that's how I roll) salted caramel ice cream.  Since I love taking on a challenge, I of course immediately set about researching how to create this for her.

Problem # 1: not all sugar substitutes will caramelize. I can now list all the ones that won't, and there are some sugar substitutes that I didn't want to use in this recipe: maltitol, because it is one of the worst offenders in terms of "gastric distress" that can be caused by sugar substitutes, and erythritol, because I find even a small amount makes ice cream crumbly.

I *did* find that you can caramelize xylitol, which is great, because I use it to help with the texture of my sugar-free ice creams anyway.  The trick, it seems, is to add a tiny bit of an interfering agent, via an invert sugar, like corn syrup (you could use honey, though this isn't truly an invert sugar, but does contain it. It might make it taste a bit like honey though).
This is to prevent the creation of crystals in the caramel (an issue with caramel based on sugar, and I didn't want to chance it with the xylitol experiment). One teaspoon of corn syrup (which is not quite the same as "high-fructose corn syrup," which is much more processed) in the entire recipe will be quite distributed and the nutritional and blood sugar effects should not be pronounced, but will ensure that the caramel comes out properly.

Xylitol caramelization test (with a bit of cream)

So I ran a test with a small amount of xylitol and a drop of syrup (and some cream), and came out with perfect caramel. JOY!
We can proceed

Problem #2: finding a good salted caramel ice cream base recipe. 
I scoured the internet, and found a highly rated recipe that would be a good base for my changes.
The reviewers suggested the recipe could benefit from a couple of tweaks: a bit more salt, and some found it very rich.
I'm incorporating changes into my version to address these comments: decreasing the cream a bit, increasing the sea salt amount, and using liquid sucralose (aka Splenda) to replace some of the extra sugar, if its needed (note: I don't think it is).  The bulk of the sweetness will come from xylitol, which will be caramelized.  The rest would just be to taste.

Warning: making caramel is like making napalm in your kitchen. 
This stuff will cause permanent skin damage if it gets on you. TAKE PRECAUTIONS.
Wear long sleeves and long pants and good, closed-toe shoes. 
Baby-gate the animals and children OUT of the kitchen area. 
Have baking soda and a big pot lid, and an empty sink available.
Also-- it smokes. A LOT.  So open some windows and turn on the vent in advance.

So, with all that out of the way, here we go!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. heavy whipping cream.

3/4 cup xylitol

1 teaspoon corn syrup or very mild flavored honey, or agave syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon sea salt (could add another 1/4 tsp if you like it very salty)
1/4 c. additional heavy whipping cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons glycerine

2 tablespoons vodka

(I thought it was sweet enough with just the xylitol called for, but if you think you need more sweetness, have 1/4 cup splenda (bulk, or the equivalent in liquid sweetener) standing by)

Directions:

First-- prepare for the hot caramel situation.  Block off the kitchen, get your safety gear, open the windows, turn on the vent.  Prepare mentally.  Don't answer the phone.  And you CAN take the pot off the heat now and then to check on it.  Go slow.
Have your 1.25 c. of heavy cream ready and standing by.

Next, in a very clean, very large pot, place the xylitol and the teaspoon of syrup (or honey or agave, whatever you are using).  Heat over medium until everything melts-- you can stir it with a very clean fork or spatula to get everything melted.

Once melted, you'll just swirl.  You'll start to see the color change slowly.  There will be some smoke.  It will smell like it's burning, because it is, that's the point.

Sometimes it might bubble a little bit, sometimes not. 

IT IS FREAKY HOT so be VERY CAREFUL.

Here is everything for the caramel, prepared:

 

Xylitol and syrup are melted.  Now the swirling starts

Very faint color change, to a very very pale yellow

Now a pale gold, and the smoking has started

More like a light honey color

Getting deeper, like an amber, and a lot more smoke

Darker amber - this is where I decided to stop and pulled it off the heat.  This took about 10 minutes or so, but depends on your stove, so just stand there and keep an eye on it and swirl.

Next, off the heat but still very very very hot, I add the cream 1 1/4c. cream

This is why you have to use a much bigger pot than you would think-- LOOK at the bubbles!

Once it calms down, you can stir in the vanilla and sea salt, and let it cool to room temperature, and go on with the recipe.

Once you've calmed down, you should make the custard.  Yes, I'm going to do the whole custard thing for this recipe, maybe it'll become a regular occurrence (or not).

So-- bring the milk and the remaining cream just to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally.

In a medium bowl on the side, lightly beat the eggs, then add half of hot milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Pour back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (a heat-proof spatula will be fine too), until custard coats back of spoon and registers 170°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil or stop stirring- yuckiest scrambled eggs ever).

Remove from heat and pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, then stir in cooled caramel mixture. Add in the glycerine and vodka (these help with texture and scoopability in sugar-free ice creams). Taste the mixture (the eggs are cooked at this point) and sweeten if needed,using extra Splenda or liquid sweetener, to taste.  Keep in mind cold foods taste less sweet than warm ones, so err on the side of a bit sweeter. I didn't think it needed any extra, and after it froze, I thought it was  perfect. 

Chill custard, stirring occasionally, until very cold (especially if you are using a canister-style ice cream maker).
Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to maker's directions (it will still be quite soft), then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to firm up, 2 hours at least, more if you can keep your hands off it.

Here it is, quite soft after not-quite 2hrs in the freezer- I actually added another 1/2 scoop to the serving.

Verdict:
Since I don't eat this flavor often, or really, at all, this was new for me.  I thought it was  A-MAZING!!!  I might try to get the caramel a bit deeper in color (but given the smoke, maybe not) and maybe a pinch more salt.  But overall, YUM!
 


Nutritional Info:
Assuming 8 nice size servings:
304 calories
20g of fat (12 saturated, 6 monounsaturated, 1 polyunsaturated)
147mg cholesterol
302mg sodium
128mg potassium
23g carbohydrate
18g fiber (counting the xylitol here as well)  So 5g net carbs for people who count those.
5g protein
9% of your day's calcium
16% of your vitamin A
12% of your B2 (riboflavin)

Full props for the sites I used for my research:
http://www.foodiefiasco.com/almost-calorie-free-caramel/
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/01/why-and-when-to-use-or-not-use-c/
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Salted-Caramel-Ice-Cream-354517

Dreaming of Ice cream

In my quest to make the perfect sugar free ice cream (because really, I just want to enjoy it, and if I can save some calories and even one gray hair from worrying about that, then I will). 

I've found several references about how to make one of my favorite flavors, Cherry Garcia (mad props to Ben & Jerry for creating this masterpiece years ago) (is there really any *bad* flavor of ice cream? Isn't it like pizza and sex? I digress...) and I'm going to attempt it today.

Here are my tweaks to make this slightly lighter in calories, by cutting some sugar out, and reversing the proportion of milk and cream.  Also, I never make an actual cooked custard first, because I'm really impatient. Sigh.

Ingredients:

1/4c, rounded, dark chocolate chips or shavings. 
(You can make your own sugar-free dark chocolate by melting some unsweet chocolate with a bit of heavy cream, adding some sweetener, and pouring onto a piece of aluminum foil on a tray. Let that freeze up, and break into chips.  It will work in ice cream, but will melt a bit at room temp.)

1/4c, rounded, cherries.  The references I've seen say to use fresh Bing, but I'm going to try some canned (in syrup) ones.  Easier to get year-round.  Ensure they are pitted and chopped a bit.

 

pinch of salt

 

1tsp vanilla

Soren's lower cal, lower carb ice cream base (2c whole milk, 1c heavy whipping cream, 2 large eggs (or powdered lecithin), 2T glycerin, 2T vodka, 1/4 xylitol, extra sweetener to taste)

Directions:
Chill the chocolate and cherries. You'll add these almost at the end.
You *can* make a custard from the dairy and eggs and sweetener, and then chill that.  I don't bother, but maybe I'll try this again some time.
Anyway, combine the ice cream base, vanilla, and salt in a blender and get it good and blended.
Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to maker's directions, 20-30 minutes or so.

Just before it's done, mix in the chocolate and cherries and let it mix for another few minutes. Or, if you always miss the end, like I do, scoop out the ice cream into it's final container, mix in the chocolate and cherries by hand, and jam it in the freezer super quick!

Let it freeze for a while (like 2hrs or overnight) before serving, to let the flavors blend and everything set up a bit.

Finished product, though it needs to set. But I'm impatient. I did add extra cherries and chocolate, partly because hubby shredded a lot of chocolate, and because I thought it needed more cherries!

Tasting note: I think I'll try this with fresh cherries, but first, I'll taste it after it sets up for a day... I'm not getting a lot of cherry flavor right now, 1hr out of the churn. 

Hey! No math this time!

ETA: Nutritional Info

My lower-cal lower-sugar ice cream base makes 8 servings, and has this info:

205 cals per serving (not counting mix-ins) (1640 calories for the whole base recipe)
14g fat (9g saturated, 4g monounsaturate, 1g polyunsaturated)
102mg cholesterol
59mg sodium
132mg potassium
10g total carbohydrates
6g fiber (so that's 4g net grams, if you count those-- we are subtracting fiber and the polyol as well here)
4g protein
10% of your daily calcium
12% of your vitamin A
11% of your B2 (riboflavin).

Add to this, your values from the chocolate and cherries, depending how much you used

the brand of 85% chocolate I used:
1.4oz = 230 calories, 15 g carb (6g fiber)
1c of cherries (recipe calls for less): 135 calories, 34.5g carbs, 3.8g fiber




 

Awesomesauce, aka pure maple syrup

In enjoying my sometimes-treat of pancakes this morning, I wanted to share my appreciation for pure maple syrup with you. 

Yes, it has a bunch of calories (220 per 1/4 cup) and that is pretty much all coming from carbs... But it also has 25% of your day's riboflavin, 15% of your manganese (and really, where else do you get such tasty manganese?), and some calcium, magnesium, and zinc. 

But, you probably won't use a full quarter cup, and as a special treat, nothing beats the real stuff. Yes, I do keep sugar free "pancake" syrup in the house, and it doesn't totally suck... Modern chemistry can closely mimic the viscosity and the overall "maple" flavor, enough to wet a weekday waffle. 

But it does NOT truly compare to the fresh amber nectar we picked up at a local maple farm this spring. We went for a few hours over the Easter holiday weekend, and enjoyed all the typical events: giant pancake-pork-product-baked-goods-and-beans breakfast, demonstration of how syrup is made now and tasting, and a self-guided tour through the woods, showing the history of maple syrup. We learned a bit about how the settlers learned about maple sap from the indigenous folk, how they would set up special camps away from their farms, just for the few weeks the sap flowed (once the trees bud, the sap isn't as sweet and we don't use it at that point). 

Old-school pioneer way of reducing sap to syrup. It's a 40:1 ratio to go from watery to delicious

We had the super-special treat of maple taffy  on snow, and learned about modern sap collection. 

Boiling syrup until thicker is what makes it taffy, then rolling it yourself makes you feel like you did something

A totally worth-it experience, and I recommend it highly for both families and, well, everyone. 

Ok, back to the sticky matter at hand. There are (basically) 3 grades of syrup: light, amber, and dark. These do not relate to cooking or processing, but actually have to do with when in the season the sap is collected. Earlier is watery-er, hence, lighter.   I like amber and dark, though they suggest dark is good for cooking with, I like it as a condiment. 

We found the light to be too light, but your mileage may vary, as they say. 

So, next time you whip up a batch of your Aunt Jemima's best pancakes or waffles (#noshame), do yourself a flavor favor and bust out the good stuff. You're worth it. 

Math: did you catch the 40:1 ratio?  

My favorite salad

I'll be honest: I don't like salads.

I sort of like them when someone else makes them, but when given a choice, I generally choose *not* to have a salad.

There's some emotional baggage here, of course.  Weight loss plans generally involve copious salads.
My mother blames herself; she says that she focused her "new food" energy when I was a baby, on cooked veggies. Her logic was that most kids didn't like cooked veggies, but *everyone* eats salad.
Let that be a lesson to you moms out there!

Regardless, I'm an adult now, and I know that leafy greens are good for me, and that there are many tasty choice now (as opposed to iceberg or romaine, our only choices in the 70's), and my darling husband DOES like salad (weirdo), so I try to compromise and keep some fixin's in the house.

I've found that there is an arugula/spinach blend that I like, and it doesn't rot immediately after getting it home (my main issue with other lettuce blends).

I also learned about a FANTASTIC flavor combination from my friend Nic (@NicCanCook) from years ago at his restaurant (this isn't on the menu anymore though).  So without further ado, here's my one favorite salad that I make for myself.

Roasted pepper and goat cheese (and other stuff) salad

Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper (and pork chop) salad

Ingredients:

1 roasted red pepper (from a jar, or fresh if happen to have them lying around)

2-3oz of soft unripe goat cheese, the kind that doesn't have a rind, that just looks like creamcheese

a few T of leftover onion (red, white, green, whatever you have)

3-4c salad greens (big single salad) (I like arugula/spinach, but this works on romaine, or whatever you have)

italian dressing (seriously)

Method:

Place the clean salad greens in a big bowl
Cut the roasted red pepper into small pieces, or slices, whatever you like, add to the bowl
Do the same with the onion
Crumble the goat cheeese over everything
Add in some protein if you like-- this works great with chicken or pork leftovers. Beef would be fine too.  Pretty much anything other than fish, I think.
Top with a couple T of italian dressing, or balsamic/oil and some herbs.
Toss to combine.

YUM! and? no math...

ETA: nutritional information
This of course depends on the actual products you use, and the amounts.  I'll give you a rough estimate, you'll need to multiply it out:
1oz soft goat cheese = 76 cal, 6g fat, 0.3g carb, 0 fiber, 5.3g protein
1 roasted red pepper = 10 cal, 0 fat, 3g carb, 1g fiber, 0g protein
1 T chopped onion, raw = 4 calories, 1g carb, negligible everything else
1c arugula = 5 calories, 0.7g carb, 0.3g fiber, negligible everything else
salad dressing - your choice of brand

Product Corner - Low Sugar jam vs. Double Fruit

Lately, I've been eating a LOT of 0% greek yogurt with some SF (sugar free) jam, and needed to replenish.

I usually buy Smuckers brand No Sugar added jams.

I know they are made with concentrated grape juice as the sweetener (so, sugar, but let's not get hung up on *words*), and depending on the flavor (and where I buy it, i.e. Canada or the US) it's about 20 calories per Tablespoon.

It costs 4.99 for a 310ml jar. (that's $0.0161 per mL)

So I finally decided to check out OTHER jam. I wound up sticking to the double/triple fruit kind, because as I looked through the labels, I saw right away, regular jam, OMG, high calories! That stuff is pure sugar (or high fructose corn syrup... don't get me started).

Back to the comparison.

The Smuckers brand Double Fruit ALSO has 20 calories for 1 Tablespoon, has sugar in place of the grape juice, and that's about it for differences.

However, it costs 4.29 for a 390ml jar. ( that's $0.011 per mL)

And my store's own "healthy" line (the labels are blue, and are always less fat, less sugar, less sodium, than the competing brand)-- a 500ml jar of "twice the fruit" strawberry for 3.99.
And it's 25cal per tablespoon. 

So, for less money, a much bigger jar, and basically the SAME product, I'll be going with store brand double fruit from now on.

It pays to read the labels, folks.  And as always, MATH!