I lamented a couple weeks ago about the trials of replacing my usual snack foods, cookies and chocolate, with rice cakes and rice cookies and rice chips – Oh, my!
But I have found a few things that actually taste good and aren’t that bad for you.
1. Special K Bars – I loathe the cereal, but their new cereal bars are tasty. I particularly like the Chocolatey Pretzel and the Bliss Mocha bars. These things are small, but they have enough chocolate in them to stop that afternoon candy bar craving. And at only 90 calories each, even if you do accidentally (Ahem) eat two, you’re still 30 calories, 11 fat grams and 9 carbs below a Hershey bar.
2. Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese Nips – You can get your cheezey, salty, crunchy fix with these. A serving only has 130 calories and 3.5 grams of fat. A suggestion – take the time to actually count out 31 crackers, and put them in a bowl or you’ll eat the whole box. Not that I’ve ever done that. (Smiling sheepishly.)
3. Consorzio Fat-free Dressing – I love this dressing. I have the Mango flavor, but there’s also Balsamic, Raspberry and Strawberry vinaigrette. It’s from Michael Chiarello who I guess is some kind of famous chef from Nappa Valley. Apparently I don’t watch the Food Network enough. Besides being fat-free, there’s only 10 calories in a tablespoon of this stuff. I mean, you’ve made yourself a healthy salad before only to smother it in 400 calories of blue cheese dressing, right? It can also be used as a marinade. If you want a slightly thicker, albeit it higher calorie dressing, the bottle suggests mixing it with some olive oil. Me? I just take mine straight.
4. Pico De Gallo – OK, so this isn’t like some kind of brand new find. But it’s good. If you’ve never had it, it’s like salsa, only fresh, not canned. It’s probably in your deli section somewhere. If you’re really ambitious — I am not — you can make it yourself. It would be delicious made with some fresh garden tomatoes this time of year. (Send me some if you are that ambitious.) The bright flavors — cilantro, onion, jalapeno, tomato — really satisfy. Pared with light tortilla chips, it’s a really healthy snack. Or you could just eat it by the spoonful, like a Pico De Gallo salad. It’s that good.
So I’ve been working on shedding the extra flab Wade left behind when he made his early arrival last Mother’s Day. I try to get in some kind of exercise every day. Usually walking. Sometimes riding bikes around the driveway with David and jumping on his trampoline with him.
A lot came off quickly, but there’s a stubborn 11 1/2 lbs (Yes my scale measures in half pounds. Just to make it that much more depressing.) that’s hanging on. Then there’s the 14 lbs I gained with David that decided to stick around. And I could go on and on listing the pounds here and there over the years gained from this and that.
Well, I came to an earth-shattering, mind-bending, life-altering revelation the other day. I now know the secret to loosing that extra 25 and a 1/2 pounds. (See how annoying that extra half pound is? Just makes it sound so much worse.) Are you ready?
Get ready because you will never believe this.
People pay Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig all kinds of money for this kind of information.
I’m giving this to you free of charge.
Sit down. Are you sitting down?
O.K. Here it is.
Eat better and eat less.
Huh? I know, right? Who would have thought?
I generally eat reasonable portions at meal time and it’s usually pretty healthy food. The biggest obstacle between me and my old jeans? Snacking. I like to snack while I do just about anything. Read, watch TV, clean the house, blog.
Why? I don’t know. Um, maybe because food, especially chocolate and cookies, tastes good?
So since giving up snaking cold turkey was just not a reasonable goal for me, I decided to get some healthier stuff to snack on.
I bought some cheddar rice chips and chocolate rice cookies and caramel rice cakes.
Are you catching on to the pattern here?
Rice, rice and more rice.
Here’s the thing. Snack food that’s healthy is sort of not very tasty.
I think I could get a case of packing peanuts, salt them, and they would taste just as good.
It’s been pretty effective.
Since I stuffed my cupboards with dog food healthy treats I’ve lost 2 more pounds.
Now faced with the choice of snacking on cardboard or not snacking at all, I usually choose the latter.
See how that works?
Who needs Nutrisystem?
Buy crap you don’t like and you won’t eat it.
A little wasteful? Maybe.
Anybody want a bag of stale rice cakes?
I enter contests all the time and I never win anything. So I was thrilled to discover that I actually won something from the Bloggy Giveaways this time around. The Cooking Light Complete Cookbook is on on its way to me from Karen over at A Healthy Balance . I can’t wait to try the new recipes! Thanks Karen.
I found this recipe in Taste of Home’s Light and Tasty magazine. It’s a classic comfort food dish made over to be healthy using ingredients low in fat, calories and sodium.
Chicken Noodle Delight Recipe
4 cups uncooked yolk-free noodles
1 can reduced-fat, reduced sodium condensed cream of chicken soup
4 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, cubed
1 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup fat-free milk
3 tbs of minced fresh parsley or 1 tsp of dried parsley
1 tsp of onion powder
1/4 tsp of salt
2 cups cooked, cubed chicken breast
1 cup reduced-fat butter, melted
Cook noodles according to package directions. In a large bowl mix together soup, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, milk, parsley, onion powder and salt. Stir in chicken. Drain noodles, toss with chicken mixture. Transfer to a 2 quart baking dish coated with non-stick cooking spray. Combine cracker crumbs with melted butter. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake at 35o degrees for 4o minutes of until heated through.
I liked this dish a lot. I did think it needed more salt to really bring out the flavors. Next time I’ll either add more salt or not use reduced sodium soup. The magazine claims that this has 432 calories per 1 cup serving. That’s not bad when you consider it’s loaded with both cream cheese and sour cream.
02/01/08
I wanted to make some kind of light and healthy chicken sandwich. I’ve had a few different versions of Chicken Cesars at restaurants and delis and loved them, so I decided to try and make my own.
I started out with a recipe for Cesar dressing from my Fanny Farmer cook book. I chose it because it didn’t call for raw eggs like a lot of others that I found. I added a few more ingredients to ratchet up the flavor.
Chicken Cesar Pita Recipe
1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tbs of sugar
1 tsp to 1 tbs of Lemon Juice (to taste)
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 deli slices of Honey Smoked Ham or 6 strips of cooked Bacon
4 to 6 Chicken Breasts cooked and cubed
5 to 10 leaves of Iceberg Lettuce chopped or shredded
Pita Pockets or Large Tortillas
Blend garlic cloves and EVOO in a blender or food processor until well combined. Add the Parmesan cheese and sugar and continue blending. Add the lemon juice to taste. (I almost forgot the lemon juice. The tartness of the lemon really made a difference in the flavor.) I also added a few dashes of salt and pepper to taste to the dressing. After blending in the lemon juice, salt and pepper, pour dressing into a medium size mixing bowl. Stir in the ham, chicken and lettuce. (I used deli sliced ham because it was low in fat, but I think bacon might taste even better. ) Stuff pita pockets with mixture or roll-up in tortilla shells. I added tomatoes to my sandwich. You could also add some sweet onions.
This makes enough to stuff about 10 pita pockets. The EVOO in the dressing is a good way to incorporate some healthy oil into your diet. The Parmesan cheese and deli ham are low in fat. I used whole wheat pitas to get some whole grains on the menu. My husband who won’t go with me to Panera Bread, because he doesn’t like these kinds of sandwiches, ate two, so I think it was a success.
I’m on this 10 Pounds in 5 Weeks diet, (I’ve lost a pound so far. Wanted to loose two, but I’ll take it.) and I’ve been on the look out for good products to ease the deprivation from all things tasty and delightful. I found three wonderful items I just have to share with you.
The first, Wishbone Salad Spritzers.
I like salad, but I must have dressing on it. Of course dressing, even the low fat or light versions, are loaded with fat and calories. I’d seen this stuff on the shelf, but was skeptical. I finally gave in and bought a bottle to try. It’s delicious! There’s only 1 calorie per spray. Even someone like me who prefers their lettuce dripping with dressing can do it with 20 sprays, which equals just 20 calories. I like the Raspberry Bliss Vinaigrette, but it comes in six other flavors, one of which is sure to suit your taste. Visit Wishbone to find out more.
My next new love is the Three Musketeers Mint Dark Chocolate Bar.
It’s only 150 calories and has 5 grams of fat. It’s perfect for a little chocolate indulgence without a lot of guilt.
My final new favorite is the Skinny Latte from Starbucks.
A tall made with non-fat milk and no whip cream is only 90 calories and fat-free! They use sugar-free syrup for the flavors. I discovered this today while shopping at the mall. It really was quite good. I had the Mocha, but it comes in Cinnamon, Vanilla, Hazelnut and Carmel also. Coffee heaven available even to those of us on a diet. Thank you Starbucks!
Hope you enjoy these products. Do you have a favorite low-cal or low-fat treat? Leave a comment and share it.
01/27/08
In an effort to make to lower fat chili I substituted ground turkey for ground beef. I couldn’t tell the difference in the taste.
Ground Turkey Chili Recipe
1 lb. Ground Turkey
15 oz. Can of Tomato Sauce
15 oz. can of Chili beans
1 packet of Chili Seasoning
1 TBS of Brown Sugar
1 oz. of Velveeta
In a large skillet brown the turkey. The turkey is so low in fat there’s no need to drain. Stir in the tomato sauce, drained chili beans, and seasoning. Simmer over low heat until heated through. Stir in brown sugar. Cut Velveeta into small chunks. Stir until melted. Serve with tortilla chips.
