Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade

I've been trying to lose a bit of weight (well, 20 pounds but it's easier to think about it as a bit of weight).  With summer's fresh produce and perfect conditions for some extra exercise, it seemed like a good plan.  So I started doing a pseudo-Weight Watchers sort of thing.  There is a lot of information online and so many great sites with recipes.

So far I've lost 7 pounds.  I know,....thrilled!!  It isn't easy but I've been trying a lot of new things to get flavour without fat and calories.  This tapenade has great zing and no oil, perfect to trim back calories but add big taste.

Start with a half a jar of roasted red peppers (I used the sliced kind which holds a lot more than the one with the whole pieces and drained it), add 5 cloves of garlic (you can pare this back if you're not as big a garlic fan as I am) and lots of black pepper.

Throw in 20 green olives and 2 Tablespoons of capers.

At this point you can add fresh herbs (parsley, dill, chives, basil would all work well), some lemon zest, maybe some dried chillies.  I wouldn't add salt to it though as the rest of the ingredients are all pretty salty on their own.  Give it a whirl (I used the attachment on my immersion blender).

And that's it.  Makes about 12 tablespoons and if you're a weight watchers point fan, about 0.25 points per Tablespoon (old points).  I added this to my egg white omelette this morning, to a baby potato/artichoke saute last night and to sardine pasta for lunch today.  Can you say addicted?  :)

(By the way, the battery on my camera pooped out right as I was making this so I used my iphone camera.  I think I need to buy a new camera because I can't tell the difference in photo quality.  Any suggestions by people who love their cameras?)

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