Is salsa the perfect RightSize food?

I love salsa. Ever since I lived in California in the 70s, I have enjoyed salsa. Now that I'm watching portion sizes, I realize that salsa may be the perfect food.

Why? Well, first, when you take down your calorie count, you still want lots of emotion surrounding your food. You may be saying, what? lots of emotion. I mean, you want to still enjoy your meal as always; as my wife says, the meal should be a celebration.

That's very difficult to do for every meal, but, one way to try to celebrate each meal, is with a little extra kick of spices, or heat or something that makes it a little special. And of course, if that little extra is the RightSize, then it's twice as nice.

Salsa seems to fit the bill perfectly. Good salsa adds spice, tons of flavor, heat and little fiesta in every bite. I use La Mexicana salsa on my egg whites in the morning, on my salad at lunch and sometimes on my chicken or baked potato at dinner.

How perfect is it? It's only 10 calories for 2 tablespoons, which is just the RightSize for eggs. It transforms bland egg whites into a spicy mixture of cold and hot flavors for the tongue. I could eat the entire pound in the container and it would only be 160 calories. (Or the same calories as one breadstick from Papa John's.)

For a salad it is the ultimate replacement for dressing: as even the "lite" salad dressings have between 50 and 90 calories in 2 tablespoons. And the salsa becomes both a dressing and part of the salad with pieces of tomatoes and onions.

I've tried hundreds of salsas over the past 30 years. Homemade cooked salsas by my sports editor's wife in Ventura. Gallons and gallons of free salsa and chips at the Red Onion Restaurant, after working late. With my dad, I've eaten good salsa at South of the Border in Columbus, Ohio (not exactly a hotbed of Mexican food.) It was in San Antonio on a consulting assignment, that I had cilantro, spicing up the salsa at Taco Cabana. And at home, I've tried the commercially bottled picanta sauce and pico de gallo sauces. I may not be an expert, but I am a well informed amateur salsa taster.

The best part of La Mexicana salsa is it's freshness. Even here in Connecticut you can find it in the refrigerated section of the produce department. The salsa company calls it the healthiest food around.

La Mexicana Fresh Salsa is among the healthiest foods around. We use only fresh tomatoes, fresh onions, fresh peppers, and fresh cilantro. And unlike other salsas sealed in cans or jars, La Mexicana Salsa is never cooked, torted or heated. This means that each fresh ingredient can be individually savored.

I call it the perfect RightSize food.

The only problem now, is how to bring it to the restaurant. I'd love to scatter it on my salad there. Or put it on my fish, instead of a butter sauce. Maybe we can get La Mexicana to sell it in "to-go" packets. For now, I'm eating at home all the time.