Bruschetta

A favorite appetizer of mine has always been Bruschetta. I've made this dish for parties and get togethers, and it always seems to be pretty popular. There are several variations of how you can make bruschetta, ranging from low fat and healthy, to a delicious every-once-in-a-while higher fat dish. I was excited to get this appetizer at Carrabba's last Friday, and they definitely did a good job making it.

To describe it: warm buttery toast topped with a mixture of tomato, purple onion, basil, olive oil and sliced mozzarella cheese.
Delicious! But not low fat. I am convinced that this dish can be made low fat and still taste good, and here's how:
On toast, place the mixture of basil, onion and sliced tomatoes that is mixed with olive oil and top with low fat mozzarella. Basically this would be leaving out the butter & full fat cheese, which has a lot of saturated fat that raises bad cholesterol levels, and would still have some of the healthy fat from olive oil, which contains monounsaturated fat. This type of fat lowers the bad cholesterol and raises the good cholesterol.
This reduced fat bruschetta is a great snack or appetizer idea for any event or occasion, providing a nice mix of carbohydrate (toast, tomatoes), fat (low fat cheese, olive oil) and protein (low fat cheese).