Ode to olives and a question

[Alexa]

Hey everyone

I just wanted to share that I used to REALLY HATE olives but have suddenly got really into them. I am re-doing induction and they are making it a whole lot easier to avoid too much cheese.

I still only like green ones, but I can't believe it took me until age 27 to finally acquire the taste! Yay!

The queston is - have people noticed a difference with olives in brine and those in olive oil? I thought the brine ones might = water retention.

NB 10-20 olives are allowed on induction but are a special catgory food, so need to be treated cautiously. Also avoid ones stuffed with stuff not allowed on induction - like almonds or stuff with sugars in.

[imagood1]

I'm almost 51 and still don't live olives -- I've tried to eat them but they just don't agree with me. Good for you learning to eat a new food!!

[Georgiana]

Originally Posted by Alexa

The queston is - have people noticed a difference with olives in brine and those in olive oil? I thought the brine ones might = water retention.

No difference for me, but then I eat relatively low sodium in general, so even if I eat olives, my sodium intake is not high (I also only weigh once a week).

I don't like "snacking" on olives though. But used as garnish on deviled eggs or in something like a Salade Olivier (I substitute potatoes with cauliflower and skip the other non-Induction root vegetables) they give the recipe a nice flavor. Oh, and there are some brands of olives in brine that just smell of..... sorry... urine. Very gross!

The ones I like the most, although they are crazily expensive here compared to other olives, are red Cerignola olives in olive oil. They are awesome with some feta cheese and roasted red peppers or tomatoes, and if you want to make them look fancy, you can use toothpicks to make appetizers with feta cheese cube - piece roasted pepper/tomato - feta cheese cube - olive. Awesome if you marinate them (before arranging everything on toothpicks, of course) in olive oil, garlic, oregano, thyme, black/white pepper...

[krispysky]

I LOVE olives. I could eat a whole jar of green olives in one setting. I love black too, but green are best. My 4 year old will eat a whole can of black olives!

I love adding 5-10 sliced olives to a salad--YUMMMMM. I retain water very easily so I don't have them every day--just 2-3 times a week or so.

[mizski]

I recently started getting different olives from the olive bar in our local grocery store. Wow...huge difference from the black ones in the can and the green ones in a jar. Still like those too but with the olive bar I can try a few of the different kinds instead of having a ton of olives hanging around.

I only have olives once or twice a week at most. They are just too darn convenient to pop in my mouth and I do not want to get into THAT habit again.

[Alexa]

Thanks to you all for the thoughts.

I am so loving olives that I will have to be careful but I think it'll be ok because they are quite a strong flavour.

I'll have to try some new kinds and put them in recipes too.