Healthy Oil

  • Since I started doing core, I've been using olive oil for everything. I have sesame oil for recipes, but outside of that, olive has always been the answer.

    I was reviewing my WW book this morning and saw that lots of different kinds of oils were core.

    I don't know a lot about different oils -- or when you would use one over the other.

    Does anyone use different types of core oils? What's good and when do you use it?
  • I keep canola oil around for times when I don't want the flavor of olive oil, like in a mildly-spiced stir fry. Most of the time I use olive oil, too, though.

    I have some flaxseed oil, but that's more of a supplement than a food. I occasionally use some in a salad (it has a mildly bitter, grassy sort of flavor), but you can't cook with it.
  • I'm with Cher. I use Canola when I don't want the flavor of olive oil in my dish.

    I haven't tried any of the others.
  • I have canola for baking, but use olive oil mostly now for cooking and salad dressings.....I made a stir fry of broccoli and cauli last night and used olive oil and it had the most amazing flavor!
  • Cindy, you're making veggies sound yummy!
  • Has anyone tried the new Enova oil. Not sure if it's core or not, but it's suppose to be the healthiest oil out there. I looked at the website earlier. I believe its. www.enovaoil.com
  • I saw it in the store the other day and thought about getting some. It's pretty expensive, even at Walmart, so I passed since I didn't really need any oil. The label sounds very convincing though.
  • I use olive oil for absolutely everything. Though I probably shouldn't! I don't know much about oils, but maybe I'll experiment with some of these that you all have mentioned. I love olive oil though, especially for veggies.
  • I've recently discovered the flavored olive oils ... mostly at Target, clearanced on their end-caps. They have some pretty good ones!

    If you want to spend a few points, dipping bread in olive oil and cracked pepper -- like they do at Macaroni Grill -- is the best food on earth IMO. I could go there and make a meal of bread and oil! Too bad oil is Core and bread isn't!
  • We love going to italian restaurants and dipping good bread into olive oil and balsamic vinegar.....mmmmm Dh sometimes does this at home, (or overdoes it should I say?). You do need to use both good quality olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar.

    I also love the flavored olive oils - currently I have a roasted garlic one and a basil one which I use for most of my cooking.

    Frouf
  • Here's a little balsamic vinegar trivia. Last week there was a gourmet Italian cheese shop at one of the festivals. We were told that balsamic vinegars vary in their sweetness based on aging. There are balsamic vinegars that are aged 50 to 100 years! The older ones are so sweet they are used in Italy as gourmet ice cream topping, and are so expensive that they are sold by the ounce.
  • If you have ever tasted a good aged balsamic vinegar then you will know they are so good and yummy. While we can't afford the very best, we do get ours from an italian gourmet speciality shop - small bottle is around $20. Our newspaper had done a taste test/comparison of different brands so we were able to pick up something good - of course there are more expensive brands!!$$$$
  • Frouf - do tell, what is the balsamic that you buy? I haven't done any research but would love to try a better vinegar than those sold in grocery stores.
  • Terry, I've purchased a really nice balsamic vinegar at Trader Joe's. It's aged 15 years and I'm sure it was around $7.00 for 8 and 1/2 ounces. They had a 5 and a 10. The 15 was very, very good. I recommend it. It is from Modena and it is Trader Joe's brand name. One of the woman from the Barbo's site recommended balsamic from Modena as being the best.