1. Egg Math
“When you make scrambled eggs or omelets, instead of two eggs, use one whole egg and one or two egg whites. I can hardly tell the difference between a two-egg omelet and a 1 1/2-egg one. The only downside was the dog started to get fat from all the yolks!”
2. Carrot Trick
“I buy the bags of shredded carrots from the produce aisle and put them in just about everything I cook for dinner: soups, casseroles, green salads, pasta salad, Chinese food, Indian food, Thai food, meatloaf, spaghetti sauce…. They don’t have a strong carrot flavor, so they blend right in to whatever I’m cooking.”
3. Be a Mixologist
“I hate soda pop due to its extremely high corn syrup taste, but I make my own fun fizzy drink by mixing fruit juice with soda water.”
4. Mashup
“When making mashed potatoes, mix them with mashed cauliflower to reduce the quantity of carbohydrates. On the plate it almost looks as though it’s all potato. “Bread chicken breasts, veal or pork escalopes and fish with a mixture of half oat bran and half ground almond meal instead of bread crumbs. It makes a lovely, crispy, healthy coating.”
5. Add a Course
“I have found that serving a first course with dinner helps us eat more reasonably. We have a bowl of soup or a salad, after which I put the last-minute touches on our main meal. During the time it takes me to quickly saute some veggies or carve meat, transfer dishes to the table, etc., the first course ‘sinks in’ and we aren’t so hungry that we eat more than we should before we realize how much we’ve eaten.”
6. Better Baking
“I reduce the sugar in baking by a quarter to a half, depending on the item. I add ground almonds and oat or barley flour to my chocolate chip cookies.”
7. Almond Joy
“Instead of peanut butter, we use almond butter with no sugar added and add in a tiny bit of honey for sweetness. It’s less processed sugar and still tasty and filling. For one English muffin, I use two teaspoons almond butter and one to two teaspoons honey, depending on how sweet I want it.
“Sometimes I find the low-fat salad dressings don’t have much flavor, so I often add a little full fat (just a drizzle) to otherwise fat-free salad dressing. Alternatively, I add a little balsamic vinegar for flavor—it depends on my mood.
“I pre-portion light Chex mix or Wheat Thins into my own 100-calorie snack packs and never eat out of the box—this way I always know what I am eating.”
In the Raw
“My trick is to eat as much raw food as I can. I limit my cooked food to things I really like.”
