Dieter's Delight and Other Healthy Eats

We try to eat right.  But both Sally and I need to lose a few pounds.  So we've started a concerted effort to eat even healthier, with more portion control.  

Eating healthy does not mean eating bland flavor-less 'diet food'.  I'm a chef -- adding herbs and spices to good tasting ingredients is what I do. The healthy recipes I give you are gonna taste great and look great as well as be great for you. 

Balancing what you eat. One thing I believe about eating is that not every meal has to be 'balanced' between carbs, proteins etc. to have a balanced diet.  IMHO internally we are our many-time-removed hunter-gatherer ancestors.  Our digestive tract works best if given half a dozen or so "handfuls" of food rather than "three (large) square meals" a day.  That's how hunter-gatherers fed -- a handful of berries here, some legumes there, leftover lion kill a bit later, and dug up roots when you could find them.  

They also gorged to exclusivity on berries or roots or the result of a bison hunt when they were available.  Don't worry about trying to balance every meal, everyday.  It's OK to have an almost all protein meal, or day's worth of meals; as long as in the "medium run" (say a week) you average out your intake by having equivalent meals or days of meals of vegetables, starches, etc.  

The other thing to note is that our ancestors ate "close to the wild".  They didn't make exotically flavored rich sauces (well maybe).  They certainly didn't eat "artifically cheese-flavored food substitutes", or other "better living through chemistry" combinations of things they couldn't pronounce.  

Stay away from massively processed foods, folks.  Fresh veggies, or frozen -- not canned.  Whole meats and fish, not processed nuggets, patties, sticks or grain-filled sausage.  If you must eat sausage (and I love good sausage), make your own lower-fat versions with good ground beef or pork, without added fat, and spices.  The recipes are out there.

Bon appetite!

Dieter's Delight Chopped Salad

Had a revelation the other day. Sally asked me to make a batch of my signature Chopped Salad for her lunches this week. For diet purposes I decided to calculate the nutrition data using my favorite on-line recipe and ingredient nutrition program -- www.nutritiondata.self.com.   I've used it, and earlier iterations, for many years to create Nutrition Data Labels and calculate the values for a wide variety of recipes.

Then I used our Saladmastertm chopper on my standard ingredients and measured out a cup of each raw vegetable.

Zucchini -- one medium

Yellow Summer Squash -- one medium

Jicama -- one medium (Can't find jicama?  Use a turnip.)

Daikon -- about 4" of 3" diameter root (Can't find daikon?  Use regular red radishes)

Sugar Snap Peas -- two good handfuls

Carrot -- two 8" average carrots

Red Bell Pepper -- one each, diced

Apple -- one each, filleted and chopped

Turns out the amounts above come out to almost exactly two pounds of chopped salad. It has everything even 'manly men' could want in a salad -- crunch, sweet, tangy, and tart.

Then I used my old standby nutrition analysis program, www.NutritionData.Self.Com plugged in the ingredients and amounts, and pressed Analyze.

Here's the amazing bit. That two pounds of veggies has a whopping 300 calories in it!! Yeah, that's right, 300 total calories in two pounds of veggies. This is a dieter's delight! A cup of this salad is only 50 calories. And a cup of salad, plus a couple tablespoons of a favorite dressing, combined with a hunk of crusty bread (150 calories) or a chicken breast (250 calories) makes a pretty darn tasty -- and pretty darn filling lo-cal meal.

Speaking of dressings, our new favorites are the Bolthouse tm brand dressings found in the Produce chiller section of your local megamart. They feature yogurt instead of cream, and have many fewer calories than popular brands.  The Ranch is very nice, and I like the Mango-Chipotle for an interesting combination of slightly sweet and tangy.

Of course you can doctor this salad as you like. Three of my favorite tweaks are a cup of sliced Crimini mushrooms, a cup of whole cherry tomatoes, and a dozen large black olives chopped; which brings the total to about 400 calories for the batch (70 calories for a cup).

Panko Fish and Eggplant Stack

Here's another simple, healthy, pretty low cal dinner for you. We've been getting bags of 4-6 oz fillets of frozen Icelandic cod from Costco. Great value for the price. I dredge one fillet per person in masa flour or corn meal, then dip them in egg, and dredge them in Panko breadcrumbs before pan frying in a couple tablespoons of EVOO.  This also wsorks well with Tilapia, a great mild-tasting white fish.

An Eggplant Stack is a flavorful accompaniment to the fish. That's an eggplant sliced into 1" thick rounds. The rounds are sprinkled with a few drops of EVOO before being broiled for 3-5 minutes per side, until golden brown. I stack a couple rounds on each plate, with a spoonful or two of pasta sauce in each layer. In the picture the 'pink' sauce made from half red and half white Paul Newmantm sauces.

Chicken & Mushroom Alfredo

This one isn't bad in the healthy eats department either. This is my take on a Publix Apronstm recipe that called for Italian sausage. I used chicken instead. The Publix recipe nutrition data called this a 400 calorie meal, my chicken version may be a bit lighter -- just don't smother the pasta in the sauce.

4 oz fresh pre-sliced Baby Portabella (Crimini) mushrooms

1 large Leek, sliced into rounds

2 Chicken Breasts

2 oz Monterey Jack cheese

1/3 box Rigatoni pasta

1/2 jar (15-oz) roasted garlic Alfredo sauce

1/2 cup White Wine

Start the water for the pasta. While that's coming to a boil, cook the Chicken breasts with a bit of Cavender's seasoning or an Italian spice blend and a splash of olive oil. When done cooking, cool in your freezer for a few minutes so you can handle them easily.

Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces or slices. In the same skillet, cook the leek until it starts to soften, then return the chicken to the pan. Add the Alfredo sauce, cheese and wine and stir to combine. Heat everything through, then serve over the pasta.