Food for Thought:
Don’t listen to your mother, your grandmother or your friends when they say “Oh, a little bit won’t hurt you.” So innocent and well-meaning are they. Remember EVERY little bit DOES count. It ALL adds up! Be selective with your ingredients. You can get the same delicious results from your recipes by making wise adjustments. Start little by little by simply cutting down and trimming off fats, sugars and the unnecessary stuff. Surprise yourself! Our plan was super effective for us and we each trimmed off about 12-14 lbs. This is an easy enough plan for anyone who is truly determined to lose those pesky extra pounds that seem cemented to your body. No secret formulas, counting calories or impossible diet schedules to follow. Here's Skinny Gourmet's Skinny A** fit & fab plan. In order for this to plan to be successful, the key is moderation, exercise consistently and have a positive attitude. And remember...mind over mouth! Follow this plan Monday - Friday. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=hpc&field-keywords=bonkers+tea&x=22&y=14 Monday - Friday Menu Breakfast & Lunch: Eat a healthy breakfast--you know what that means. Eat a healthy lunch--you know how to do that too. Eat your last healthy, low-fat and low-sugar, snack by 4:30. Maybe Greek (love, Chobani) yogurt with Tammy's Granola, yum! Here's the trick-- Dinner: Drink a protein smoothie/shake. We now add 1 packet of CocoaVia (Buy at www.CocoaVia.com) for an added kick of nutrition and its chocolate! It's the healthy cocoa extract that is so, so healthy. Note: Remember fruits such as berries, peaches and apricots are lower in sugar than fruits such as pineapple, bananas and mangos. It's good to add a variety, but be mindful. You can buy a variety of frozen fruits and mixed fruits for smoothies to make it easy at most grocery stores. I find that a 1/2 banana makes the shake creamier. Recipe for 1 shake: 1-2 scoops protein powder (can be vegetable protein) Read serving size Blend in blender until it is the consistency you want. Now, that we have lost our targeted weight, we continue to adhere to the Skinny My A** fit & fab plan, because frankly, we got used to it and eating dinner every night was too filling. Now to spice it up a bit, two nights during the week, we eat a healthy, light soup with a low-fat roll, like Sweet Potato, Corn & Kale Chowder. No cream based soups though. Now, go for it! Make your hangover history! Trick of the Week~ Note: I use romaine hearts for a crunchier salad. Bell peppers tend to go bad fairly quickly. I buy all the colors, especially the red, orange and yellow to add extra color to dishes. I wash and seed them. Then I slice them up and put them in a freezer bag. Just take out what you need and cook away. No need to defrost. No fuss, no muss... "Skinny" never tasted so sweet! Another good alternative for baking and cooking is to use Enova oil and Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend in place of regular oil and butter. According to clinical studies, less of Enova oil is stored in the body as fat. Enova oil is metabolized in a slightly different way. Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend with Omega 3 is great for cooking and baking, plus it is healthier than straight butter. It is easy to use in the stick form. It softens quickly to room temperature. It has 28% less saturated fat than pure butter. Plus with the Omega-3 from flax and fish oil, you get the added health benefits. It is non-hydrogenated and free of trans-fatty acids, plus half the cholesterol of butter. Whoo hoo! Nutrition Tip of the Week~ What is brown rice? Well, simply put it is white rice that has the bran intact. It is considered a whole grain. It has about four times more fiber than white rice. Brown rice contains not only fiber but important nutrients such as Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, Folacin, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese Potassium, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Zinc and more. And you guessed it, unless you are eating fortified white rice, these nutrients are for the most part, stripped away during processing. It’s like eating whole grain bread versus white. Confucius say: Rice person eat brown. In a study, women who ate olive oil more than once a day had a 25% lower risk of breast cancer. Another study revealed that women that consumed the most olive oil were 40% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate less. Olive oil is rich in a group of antioxidants called polyphenols, which help guard against heart disease and cancer. In animal studies, it showed that the growth of colon, lung and skin cancers were slowed down. Japanese physicians are using a substance derived from olive oil to boost the tumor killing abilities of chemotherapy. Olive oil is said to be the only significant source of this substance.
A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.
~Elsa Schiaparelli (1907-1973)
Italian Clothing Designer
Instant Replay Skinny Message of the Year~
Trick or Treat of the Year~
The Skinny A** Fit & Fab Plan
After years of saying that I just needed to lose that extra 5 or 10 lbs, my husband and I finally devised a plan that worked for us. We decided that our weight-loss strategy had to be both simple and doable, but enough to get our bodies to lose those few extra pounds. After all, I am always Cooking the Skinny Gourmet Way.
Weekends eat sensibly for all three meals.
Try to avoid eating anything within 3 hours before bedtime on all days. If you must eat something near bedtime try a slice of turkey (about 50 calories). Protein will help you sleep better and so will the triptophan in the turkey. Drink plenty of water, eliminate alcoholic drinks Monday thru Friday.
If possible, add at least one cup of green tea a day--try the very best smooth tasting Bonkers Extreme Green available on Amazon at:
Free shipping is available, just make sure to click on the teas that specify it.
Tip: To avoid blood sugar spikes, low blood sugar and cravings, eat a snack every 2-3 hours. Keep them nutritious and eat some protein with your snack to help balance blood sugar levels. If you suffer from anxiety or blood sugar drops, add protein. This will keep your brown fat burning, which in turn gets rid of the bad stuff. It will also prevent you from overeating.
1 dollop Greek non-fat plain yogurt
1/3 - 1/2 cup fresh or frozen fruit, plus 1/2 banana-optional
Crushed ice and water, to your liking
Splenda, to taste
1 packet CocoaVia
Note: If you find that you need a little something more with your shake for dinner, after a month or so of doing the plan, we added a small low-fat/low-sugar muffin. Try my Best Bran Muffins to help curb your appetite.
Trick #1: I for one, do not buy any of the prepackaged rice mixes, as they are usually full of additives that just make it high in fat and calories. Who needs that in their rice when it is such a healthy, wholesome whole grain? So I make my own additives and add them myself. Brown rice is my favorite for everyday cooking and it is one of the good carbs.
So you like the idea of brown rice, but you can't get the texture right. The comment I have heard from many is that it just doesn't come out fluffy like white rice. Brown rice does have a chewier texture, but you certainly don't want it mushy.
I found the trick to cooking brown rice is to use less water. Use 1 part rice to 2 parts water. Bring water to boil, stir in rice. Bring it back to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes covered. It turns out perfect every time.
Scroll down to Nutrition Tip of the Week for the Brown Rice vs White Rice Dilemma.
Make Your Rice Come Alive~
1. Instead of cooking it in water, use beef, chicken or vegetable broth or stock. I use fat free, low-sodium. Add salt and pepper to taste, if needed.
2. Add some goodies. In a nonstick skillet, add extra virgin olive oil. On medium low heat, saute fresh chopped bell peppers, preferably red, orange and/or yellow with some chopped sweet onion until almost caramelized. This takes about 15 minutes. You don't want to rush it. They become golden and sweet. When your rice is finished, add the mixture and toss. Throw in a little fresh chopped parsley and you have a colorful and flavor rice dish.
I also like roasted asparagus. It takes only minutes to roast asparagus especially if they are thin stalks. Spray asparagus with some extra virgin olive oil and broil a couple minutes until softened but not mushy. Cut up and toss into rice.
3. Add some wild rice or another grain. You want to cook your grains separately because most of the them cook at different rates. Also, some grains you don't cook all the water off and they need to be drained. Wild rice adds a wonderful nutty flavor, but requires a little extra care. It is If you have leftover grains, try combining them for interesting texture.
Tricks Not to Miss~
Trick #2: I must have literally washed more than a ton of lettuce in the ten years I owned my restaurant. I always thought if I die now, I, like Sisyphus from Greek mythology, would end up washing lettuce for all eternity. One thing it taught me though, was how to do it quickly and how to make the lettuce crunchy.
I do not recommend washing lettuce or veggies of any kind until you are ready to use them. Hours ahead is fine, but more than a day ahead, you risk discoloration and loss of nutrients.
How to wash and store romaine that will make a crunchy, cold Caesar salad.
1. To wash romaine, take whole head of romaine hearts and grab any top leaves that are raggedy, brown or too limp and tear those off.
2. Grab core of romaine and break that off by gently twisting. Under a stream of cold water, carefully rinse all the leaves making sure to get between for hidden dirt. Gently shake excess water off.
3. On clean light weight cotton towel or paper towels, lay each leaf single layer across towel. Add another clean towel on top and roll up.
4. Put roll of romaine in plastic bag and chill for at least 1-2 hours before ready to make salad.
Trick #3: Make it easy. I love to add bell peppers to a lot of my dishes, so I like to have them on hand at all times. They are colorful and high in vitamin C, plus they add a lot of flavor.
Skinny Baking Tips:
Tip: #1: I have been cooking with sugar substitutes for almost 20 years. I have found Splenda to work the best. I know there is a lot of controversy about using Splenda. But there is a lot of controversy about obesity too and all the diseases associated with it. So for now, I am all about using Splenda for my skinny sweet treats.
Scroll down to Tip #2 under "Nutrition Tip of the Week" for more about sugar.
Many of you may say, "Well, there are only 16 calories a teaspoon in regular sugar. I am only adding a little bit and it doesn't sound all that bad."
But... there are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon and 16 tablespoons in a cup. Now, you're talking about:
Granulated White Sugar: 768 calories per cup
Brown sugar: 829 calories per cup
Turbinado/Raw Sugar: 528 calories per cup
Agave Nectar/Syrup: 960 calories per cup
Honey: 1030 calories per cup
So how many calories will you save when using Splenda instead of sugar?
Splenda or Splenda Blend works great in place of sugar. Splenda has 2 calories a teaspoon, about 96 calories a cup. Splenda Blend has about half the calories of both brown and granulated sugar.
Splenda works well as a cup for cup substitute, but sometimes in baking you will lose volume and the texture will be denser.
Splenda Blend is a mixture of regular sugar and Splenda, so tends to preserve the integrity of what you are making. When a recipe calls for sugar and you substitute Splenda Blend, you use half as much. In other words, if the recipe calls for a cup of sugar, you will use 1/2 a cup of the Blend.
If you want to control how much Splenda you use and how much sugar, like I do, I sometimes use a small amount of sugar, like ¼ cup and the rest Splenda. This usually results in good volume and texture.
If you want to eliminate all sugar and use Splenda, there are a couple things that have worked for me that will produce optimal results.
Tips Not to Miss~
Tip #2: Time to utilize the good fats and take advantage of them. A lot of us try so hard not to eat high fat foods, but there are good fats. Your body and brain need them, so here is another way to get a head start.
This may surprise you, but Extra Virgin Olive Oil is not only for sauteing and dipping your bread in. You can also use extra virgin olive oil in baking. It works in most anything you would use regular vegetable oil in, like most breads or cakes. I even used it in a cookie recipe with great success. I use a lightly flavored oil, so the taste of the oil is not overwhelming. Depending on where the olive oil comes from, the taste will differ. I use one from Costco for my regular cooking.
Tip #3: You can cut oil and butter in many cake type recipes by using unsweetened smooth applesauce. Depending on the recipe you can substitute all the oil, but usually it is best to start with half, then if you want cut it down further, do it in increments. If you get the desired texture the first time, then you can increase the applesauce next time to 2/3rds then to ¾’s and the rest oil.
Oil is about 120 calories a tablespoon or 1,920 calories a cup. There are 16 tablespoons per cup. So when a recipe calls for oil, it can add a lot of fat and calories to your favorite recipes. Applesauce adds vitamins and fiber and no fat.
The Brown Rice vs White Rice Dilemma
So why eat brown rice instead of white rice? Don’t you hate it when someone says because it is good for you? I will tell you why. It is not only much better for you, but is more flavorful with it’s wonderful nuttiness that you just don’t get from white rice. To me, eating white rice is like eating an empty carb, why bother?
I do admit to loving the taste of jasmine and basmati rice, but I eat those sparingly—as a treat. I am all for treats. But for everyday cooking and eating, I turn to brown rice. I think you will think twice after reading this because it isn’t such a small thing.
Tips Not to Miss~
Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil liberally--it's the good fat. There is no cholesterol in the olive fruit juice. Olive oil is mainly unsaturated fat and is rich in monounsaturated (monos) fatty acids or good fat. These are the healthiest fats. The great thing about these good fats is that they lower total cholesterol, including the artery clogging type, leaving the good cholesterol alone.
Make sure you are using the "extra virgin" instead of "extra light" or "pure". Extra virgin comes from the first pressing of the olives and contains all the nutrients. The extra light is refined oil and the pure is refined oil and some extra virgin.
There are other oils that are also good fats, but they do not possess some of the important benefits that olive oil has. They include almond, avocado, canola, flaxseed, grapeseed, peanut, safflower, sunflower and walnut oil.
Down the hatch! Olive oil is drinkable. A 120 year old woman attributed her longevity to drinking a glass of extra virgin olive oil a day. Maybe we have found the fountain of youth...
Important Storage Info: Make sure you store your extra virgin olive oil in a cool, dark place. Never have it near a heat source, like your stove. Oils do go rancid, which means they can go bad. In addition, buying your oils in dark, glass jars or bottles also helps preserve your oil at its optimal flavor and freshness.
Tip #2: Sugar is sugar, whether it is fructose, sucrose, honey, agave, molasses, granulated white sugar or brown sugar. These are all considered carbohydrates, including fruits, vegetables, candy, pastas, cereals, and ice cream. ALL are broken down into glucose, ALL, ALL, ALL. Let me say it one more time. ALL sugar becomes glucose in our bodies no matter what it was originally.
However, it is important to take note that of all the different sugars we use to sweeten foods, molasses does have additional nutrients, especially black strap molasses. In addition, there are some honeys found in certain regions of the world that also contain extraordinary nutritional benefits. Still, use these sweet jewels in moderation.
And don't get fooled by fancy names for sugar, like Turbinado or raw sugar. That is just sugar that hasn't been processed like white sugar. It is a little coarser and is somewhere between white and brown with a slight maple flavor. It has a few less calories, about 11 calories a teaspoon, so about 528 a cup. It is still sugar.
The new craze for agave nectar/syrup is another misconception. It is just sugar that comes from a different plant. Remember granulated and brown sugar come from sugar cane. Agave syrup has 60 calories a tablespoon and about 960 a cup. This is no low calorie sweetener and in addition, you guessed it, your body processes it just like the rest of the sugars.
Generally speaking, all sugars affect the body the same. It is used for energy, which we need to function every day. Fructose is the exception though. Our bodies process it in a different way. There has been a lot of controversy about our consumption of fructose. Don't worry eating fruit is still very good for you. It is the fructose that is added to so many of the foods we eat everyday. If you read labels, you will see it is used as a sweetner in a lot of foods we consume on a regular basis. This is where the problem lies. You can research this on your own if you want to know more about it. For me, this is one additive I consciously look for and consume in moderation.
It's definitely an apples to oranges thing or should I say, apples to candy bars…Choose your sugars carefully. For instance, apples have lots of fiber, along with other fruits and vegetables. The fiber in these healthier choices help the sugar go into your system more slowly, so your body can use the sugar more effectively. Like a time release capsule. In addition, fruits and veggies contain important nutrients--vitamins and minerals that you aren't going to get in a typical candy bar. Moreover, candy bars and junk foods usually contain little or no fiber. When you eat a high sugar item, chances are you will get that sugar rush you crave, but there is a possibility that your body won't be able to utilize all the sugar at once, so the excess can be evenually stored as fat. And don’t be fooled by granola bars, protein type bars and other snack foods that claim to be healthy for you. There is a lot of marketing hype in these "healthy" versions of a candy bar. Sugar is a necessary nutrient for your body, so choose wisely.
Think Smart, Think Simple, Think Skinny.
...Be Sensational.
