Plain Advice

Over the past week, I have had guests for dinner twice. I must admit, the food I made was GOOD. I know because I tasted it, and also because my guests raved. Regarding one of the meals, my husband said it was the best food he has eaten in years (not sure how to take that). But even more than that, the meals were friendly to my weight loss plan! Check out both menus (numbers represent Weight Watcher point values per serving):

Meal #1

Chicken Enchiladas (6)

Spanish Rice (2)

Corn on the Cob (1)

Steamed Zucchini (0)

Peach Cobbler and Lite Vanilla Ice Cream (5)

Meal #2

Chicken Cordon Bleu (6)

Smashed sweet potatoes (2)

Asparagus (0)

Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake (5)

People are surprised when they find out my cooking is diet friendly. I am often asked how I come up with my recipes. One of my guests (who happens to be my mother) made the following comment after meal #1: “Everything tasted like it was super fattening!” (Translation : everything was delicious! Nothing like diet food)   :)

Well, I am about to share with you a few of my secrets to good cooking while losing weight:

1. Almost any recipe can be adjusted to be diet friendly. There really isn’t a food that is truly off limits (even chocolate!). For example, take the Chicken Cordon Bleu. This dish is normally very high in fat (and very tasty!) But for my recipe, I used reduced fat swiss cheese, lean ham, and baked the chicken in a breadcrumb coating instead of frying.

2. There are lots of free recipes online. My favorite site for finding healthy meals is 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet. Click on the recipe section and explore the possibilities! All recipes are complete with nutritional information and Weight Watcher point values. Another good resource is Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone (although, the best thing about Dottie’s site is that she has points calculated for foods at just about any restaurant you can think of).

3. Enjoy lots of veggies! Vegetables add color and bulk to your meal. When cooking them, I usually season with a bit of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray, salt and pepper.

4. Watch your portions. As I said in #1, no food is truly off limits. Portion size is the key ingredient to this principle. Not so important with vegetables, but crucial when it comes to dessert (why can’t it be the other way around?) The serving size for the cheesecake in meal #2 is 1/12 of a 9 inch pie pan. That is not a very big piece, however it is rich enough to be satisfying. Eating more than one serving in a sitting would defeat the purpose of making a “diet friendly” dessert.

5. Take advantage of all the foods that are out there. Reduced fat cheeses are widely available, and they taste much better than the fat free versions. Sugar substitutes have come a long way in the past few years; Splenda (sucralose) will maintain it’s sweetness even when it is exposed to high temperatures (meaning, it can be baked); I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray is a staple at my house. It adds the taste of butter without the fat and calories

Stop thinking of your diet as being restrictive and depriving. Make good food, try new things, and enjoy the journey!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Weight Loss and Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.