Posts Tagged fat-free
Be My Fat-Free Valentine 2017!
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat-free, fat-free recipe, heart-healthy, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe, Uncategorized on February 4, 2017
Did you know that over one million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year? That amount of cards is only second to those sent at Christmastime! Wow that’s a whole bunch of love being passed around!
You can also pass around this heart-healthy nosh, and it is the perfect recipe for a romantic fireside picnic with your special someone. Check this out, get some inspiration from Sue at “a purdy little house”. Doesn’t that look cozy and inviting? Great job, Sue, we love this!
Solo this Valentine’s Day? Treat yourself right, be your own Valentine and get some “me time”. Invite a solo friend or two for cocktails and appetizers. Valentine’s Day is not just for couples, it can be a celebration of all kinds of love! Find some more ideas for Valentine’s picnics by just doing a Google search which produced ideas like this one below. Lots of ideas on the web for inspiration!
Valentine’s Day Indoor Family Picnic Ideas
Cranberries are the perfect color for Valentine’s Day, and are also an excellent source of nutrition. Cranberries contain Vitamin C and an array of phytonutrients which include anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer properties. All good reasons to include cranberries in your diet.
My favorite low-fat pretzel to use for this easy recipe is by The Snack Factory, check out all of their delicious flavor options. Crisp cucumber slices are perfect too, so refreshing and light! Pick you favorite cracker, or perhaps some melba toast. Have fun, use your imagination, and comment below to let us know what accompanied your caviar!
The Fat Free Gourmet’s Cranberry Feta Caviar
- Fresh or canned whole berry cranberry sauce (not jellied)
- Fat-Free Feta Cheese, crumbled
- Freshly ground black pepper (not pre-ground)
- One of the following of your choice, chopped fresh or dried: Thyme, Oregano, or Cilantro
Layer in the order listed above, as shown in photos, in amounts according to your liking, onto a serving dish or onto individual crackers, pretzels, or sliced cucumbers. Now enjoy!
That’s all there is to it! My favorite choice for herb is dried thyme, and I like lots of ground pepper too…so yum!
Remember to celebrate love and life to the fullest, be kind to your heart with healthy food and lifestyle choices!
Make it a Beautiful Day!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
What is ApoE4? Why You Should Be Tested – A Quick Primer on Paleo for the Confused Fat Consumer
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free cookbook, fat free recipes, fat-free recipe, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, heart attack, heart health, heart-healthy, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cooking, low fat recipes, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe, Paleo on January 10, 2017
To Paleo or not to Paleo? That is the question.
If you are ApoE 3/4 or 4/4 that is not a question at all, you do not process lipids well – lipids are fats.
Approximately 25-30% of the population have the ApoE4 variant. If you do, you are at a higher risk for Cardio Vascular Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and more. Find out if you have this gene though lab testing…do it! You CAN fight your genes and win if you start the fight before it is too late. Get tested. Don’t know where to start? Talk to a health professional familiar with genetic testing and get it done. Here is a link to one lab that performs the tests required to get the ApoE4 answer. There are other labs out there, this is just a sample to help you get on the info track.
The diet data studies are in for us 4’s; low-fat, good-carb, is the only way for us to control our lipid profile. The Journal of Nutrition study looks at the ApoE genotype interaction with quantity and quality of dietary fat consumed. The Journal of Lipid Research study looks at how the ApoE genotype modulates the LDL cholesterol-lowering response to a diet. Both determine lower fat intake in ApoE4 affected people is paramount in optimizing lipid profiles. More data is out there, please do some Googling!
Paleoists, I am not trying to “harsh your mello”, but I would like you to stop trying to convince EVERYONE that eating saturated fats as a method of weight reduction is safe. I don’t want my fellow 4’s, which could potentially include you, the Paleoista, to be killing themselves slowly.
“If we view the population as a statistical whole, switching from an unhealthy diet to a clean Paleo diet even if it is high in SFAs in average lowers the risk for CVD. Unfortunately, if we break down the numbers according to APOE status, this remains only true for those of us that don’t carry the APOE4 gene.
For carriers of the APOE4 gene consuming saturated fatty acids can substantially raise the risk of CVD
Unfortunately, the wider Paleo community has not yet realized this important fact and still promotes the consumption of SFAs to everyone, potentially putting people in harm’s way.”
Everyone should monitor their lipids. A full cholesterol profile is a must to determine if your food consumption is producing positive health results. Optimal eating habits should be the goal. So many factors are involved and cannot be addressed in one short blog post, but to sum up, genetic testing, lipid testing, and macro balancing are key:
“With all general guidelines and medical research on APOE4 and nutrition, we should keep in mind that the reaction of our metabolism to dietary changes is highly individual. Determining the right balance of macro nutrients, especially balancing MUFAs and carbohydrates for an optimal cholesterol profile requires individual experimentation and frequent retesting”
Please note that losing weight on a Paleo diet, low blood pressure, low BMI, and or being “buff”, is NOT an indicator you are non-ApoE4, or that your vascular system is healthy. FYI -“Grass fed” is not a blanket insurance policy for clean arteries.
I am thrilled if Paleo works for you non-4’s, but please have your lipid profile done anyway. Sometimes even good genes cannot combat a bad lipid profile.
Confusion now cleared, we low-fatters can get down to the serious business of modulating our intake of fats and cholesterol.
No diet is “one-size-fits-all”. Food can be medicine or it can hasten an untimely demise. Choose your menu carefully: do your research – read, read, read, employ balance, stay away from fad diets, make healthy eating choices a lifestyle you can live with while on this earth. Do 20 minutes of exercise at least 3 days a week, more is better.
All the best for a Happy New Year, my peeps! Make 2017 your healthiest year ever!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
The Fat Free Gourmet
The Fat Free Gourmet’s Zucchini and Corn Flakes — or How big is too big?
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free cookbook, fat free recipes, fat-free, fat-free recipe, fat_free cookbook, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, heart attack, heart health, heart-healthy, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cookbook, low fat cooking, low fat recipes, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe, Thyroid, Uncategorized on November 8, 2015
Fat Free Zucchini and Corn Flakes with Fat-Free Ranch Dressing
A fat-free recipe for medium garden grown zucchini,
or other vegetable of your heart’s desire!
Ahhh zucchini.
You can stuff them, steam them, sauté them, even eat them raw! They are a low-calorie vegetable that will take on the flavor, be it sweet or savory, of whatever you choose to mix with them.
Garden grown zucchini present a special challenge…size – it really does matter.
Young tender 6 to 7-inch zucchini squash are perfect for steaming or sauté, 8 to 10-inch are great for stuffing. If you allow them to grow larger, they become a problem: the skin is tough, the flavor is strong, and they tend to be a little bitter. Typically, zucchini larger than 10 inches go to what I call, “grated recipe” status; I use them in breads, fritters, cookies, salads. But, oh those seeds, what to do with them, they definitely must go!
This year’s garden provided an overabundance of larger zucchini nearing the end of the growing season due to my waning attention. With a glass of Moscato wine in one hand, and a 14-inch long zucchini in the other, I decided to do something daring…
I laid it on the counter. There it was, in front me, about 2 inches in diameter. What to do with it? I grabbed my knife and hesitantly sliced it in half. (Now, here is where it gets tricky: how big are the darn seeds?!) Hmmm, I inspected. This one had smallish seeds, and so I finished the slicing of it. I continued into ½ inch thick round slices. Not holding anything back, I spontaneously moved forward with a recipe I had been flirting with for quite some time!
You don’t really need a certain sized zucchini for this recipe, not a giant, smaller is better. Suffice it to say, my 14-incher turned out cravingly well even though it was a slightly larger sized zucchini than I would have normally chosen to use.
Here comes the fun part of this recipe: the tweaks! Those fun creative touches that will make this recipe your own. I am all about experimenting and trying new things! Looking forward to hearing what tweaks you did and the results. Try some of these and create a cravable new favorite!
- Use any sized zucchini except a giant, and cut it into any shape you like, you may have to adjust cooking time for smaller or larger sized pieces.
- Use any vegetable you like, simply adjust the cooking time for the density of the vegetable. For instance, potatoes and cauliflower may take a little longer cooking time to achieve the desired tenderness.
- Serve as an appetizer, a side to your favorite main dish, or as a main dish if you are doing vegetarian.
- Change up the ethnicity! Add different spices to the egg or the breading mix, your choice, let you imagination go wild! (I like to season both mixtures to give ‘two layers of flavor”.)
- Serve with a sauce and garnish! Fat-Free Ginger Sesame Dressing (Lighthouse Sesame Ginger Dressing is one of my favorite!) or a few dashes of soy sauce for Asian; with fat-free pasta sauce for Italian, with traditional fat-free Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing for game day festivities, or make up your own low-fat or fat-free sauce! You can even top them with a few sprinkles of fat-free cheese for the last minute of baking in the oven. Pictured are Mae Ploy Sweet Chilli Sauce, a dollop of spicy mustard, and sprinkle of cilantro; also pictured with fat-free ranch or blue cheese dressing.
- Marinate the zucchini before you bread them for another layer of flavor. A 20 minute soak in your favorite marinade would do the trick. How about soy sauce mixed with seasoned rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, or perhaps balsamic vinegar with a dash of garlic. Dill pickle juice for that “fried pickle” flavor!
Here’s the basic recipe:
1 14-inch long by 2 inch in diameter zucchini, cut ½ inch in thickness, or equivalent vegetable, cut accordingly
1 ½ cups fat-free egg substitute
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 ½ cups Kellogg’s Corn Flake Crumbs or finely crushed (see photos) corn flakes
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
Salt to taste
(add 1 tablespoon of grated low-fat parmesan topping to this mixture if desired)
Pre-heat oven to 350°. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, then spray with a light coating of fat-free cooking spray. Set aside.
Cut vegetables, set aside.
In a shallow bowl mix together egg substitute and onion powder, set aside.
Beaten egg and onion powder. Add other spices to the wash for an extra layer of flavor!
In another shallow bowl mix together the last four ingredients, set aside.
Corn flake breading mixture…yum!
Set up your breading prep area; from right to left or left to right whichever is most comfortable for you. Set up in a line with vegetables first, egg mixture second, corn flake crumb mixture, then baking pan. First dip vegetables into the egg mix using only your left or right hand, next into the corn flakes using the opposite hand, then place onto baking sheet. This method is the best way to keep your hands from getting “breaded”!
Set up for prep area, start from the side most comfortable for you.
Ready to bake!
Bake for 30 minutes or until desired color is reached, and vegetables are fork tender. Serve warm. Serves 6.
Fresh out of the oven!
Can be made ahead and reheated in the microwave.
(Yum, I just devoured some of the photo shoot left-overs from yesterday!)
Serve with the sauce and garnish of your choice.
Nutritional Data
6 servings, zucchini only, no garnish or sauce
Amount per serving:
Calories 127.8
Total Fat 0.0 g
Saturated Fat 0.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 282.9 mg
Potassium 321.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate 24.1 g
Dietary Fiber 1.9 g
Sugars 3.5 g
Protein 8.6 g
Enjoy!
Fat-free baked corn flake encrusted zucchini with Mae Ploy Sweet Chili sauce and spicy mustard.
Let me know how your “tweaks” turned out! Leave your comments below or on any of my social media haunts! I welcome everyone to share their ideas and results!
Hope you and yours are looking forward to a loving holiday season! I will be publishing the “Pumpkin Spice Latte Gelato” recipe soon, so be on the lookout!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
Eliminate the excess – eat to live! ❤
Fat-Free Cheddar Thyme Irish Soda Bread
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe on February 14, 2015
Fat-Free Cheddar Thyme Irish Soda Bread
“Wow, baby, this is a winner!”
“Is there more?”
“When are you making more?”
Need I say more? It is a very yummy quick bread that will satisfy any hearty appetite! You can rewarm this savory bread in the microwave or in the toaster. Breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, tea, or snack, it won’t disappoint. Serve as a side with a steaming bowl of your favorite soup or a fresh salad. It would be awesome toasted with scrambled Egg Beaters or an egg white omelet!
…always seems so cozy to have a glass of wine in the middle of your ingredients!
As I am writing this blog post my husband is on the phone with me. I am trying to decide if I need more photos for the post, he is assuring me that I do, whilst begging me to make a double recipe…hee, hee, I love it when a recipe creation turns out so well that my husband, Frankie-the-Fat-Lover, wants more!
So without further adieu…
Fat-Free Cheddar Thyme Irish Soda Bread
Fat-Free Cheddar Thyme Irish Soda Bread Recipe
- 3/4 cup non-fat milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (organic with mother or regular)
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup fat-free grated cheddar cheese
- 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Preheat your oven to 350.
Spray one 4 x 8 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.
Mix together milk and vinegar, set aside.
By hand, no mixer:
In a large bowl combine dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Add milk and vinegar mixture. Mix with hands until dough is formed and turn out onto floured board. Knead just until dough is soft and well blended. Do not over knead or dough will become tough.
Mixer method:
Place all dry ingredients into bowl of electric mixer. With paddle or dough hook attachment, turn on low to blend dry ingredients. Add milk and vinegar mixture and process just until dough pulls away from the sides of mixing bowl. Do not over mix as dough will become tough. Turn out onto floured board.
Add all dry ingredients to mixing bowl…
…give the beater a couple of turns to blend dry ingredients…
…add milk and vinegar, blend until dough pulls cleanly away from side of the mixing bowl.
Shape into one 8-inch long loaf. Slice diagonal vents on top of loaf.
Ready to place in the pan!
Place into pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Serve warm from the oven or cool on baking rack until ready to serve.
Recipe above is for a single loaf. Pictured here is a double recipe!
Nutritional Data
Servings per recipe 10
Per Slice: Calories 116
Total Fat 0.2g
Saturated Fat 0.0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 0.4mg
Sodium 127mg
Carbohydrate 21g
Dietary Fiber 0.7
Sugars 1.0g
Protein 7g
If you are interested in cooking history, here is a Wikipedia article on the Origins of Soda Bread.
Hope you enjoy! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda ❤
The Fat-Free Gourmet
Be My Fat-Free Valentine with Cranberry Feta Caviar!
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat-free, fat-free recipe, heart-healthy, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-fat recipe, Uncategorized on February 6, 2015
Fat-Free Cranberry Feta Caviar
Valentine’s Day is another reason to stay healthy for your loved ones – they need you!
Another holiday that centers around calories, but then what holiday doesn’t? Go for the right kind of calories and start out your special feast with a tasty, fat-free appetizer that is so very easy to make, it will be ready to serve in minutes! This heart-healthy nosh is perfect for a Valentine’s Day picnic anywhere: floor, snow cave, or bedroom! (wink-wink!)
Cranberries can be served year-round, and they are the perfect color for this holiday! If no one is available with whom you can celebrate this year, please treat yourself right, be your own Valentine and make this just for you! The health benefits of Cranberries are substantial, so go for it!
Serve this easy starter on low-fat pretzel crisps; pictured are the Snack Factory’s, Honey Mustard & Onion flavored pretzel crisps. Crisp cucumber slices are perfect too, so refreshing and light! Pick you favorite cracker, or perhaps some melba toast. Have fun, use your imagination, and comment below to let us know what accompanied your caviar!
Perfect for a picnic in the forest or an afternoon tea, Fat-Free Cranberry Feta Caviar is a quick prep for unexpected guests!
FFG’s Cranberry Feta Caviar
- Fresh or canned whole berry cranberry sauce (not jellied)
- Fat-free feta cheese crumbles
- Freshly ground black pepper (not pre-ground)
- One of the following of your choice, chopped fresh or dried: Thyme, Oregano, or Cilantro
Layer in the order listed above, as shown in photos, in amounts according to your liking, onto a serving dish or onto individual crackers, pretzels, or sliced cucumbers. Now enjoy!
The Fat Free Gourmet’s Cranberry Feta Caviar
That’s all there is to it! My favorite choice for herb is dried thyme, and I like lots of ground pepper…so yum!
Remember to celebrate love and life to the fullest, and be kind to your heart with healthy food and lifestyle!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda ❤
Your Health Cocktail – What Are You Drinking?
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free cookbook, fat free recipes, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, heart attack, heart health, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cookbook, low fat cooking, low fat recipes, Thyroid on October 30, 2014
We all have a mix, a cocktail if you will, that got us to where we are, our own personal brew that makes up our health profile. “Yeah, right, life is like a cocktail!” you’re saying to yourself. Just stay with me here. ..compare your life to a Tequila Sunrise, a mixed drink made of orange juice and tequila with just a touch of grenadine syrup to make that beautiful red-orange sunset in a glass. Imagine that is your current life situation contained in that glass. The orange juice is good for you, you could conservatively drink it every day and no real harm would come to you, given that you have no physiological adversities to it. Now, the tequila, well that’s an entirely different story – just a non-essential shot of alcohol to give the drink a kick. The Tequila Sunrise tastes wonderful while you drink it but you probably would not want to make a constant habit of consuming it because the tequila will eventually cause some type of problem. The good and bad mixed together may be palatable and even make you happy for a while, but it might take a toll on your health.
Your personal life cocktail is made up of many ingredients, some positive some negative. For instance; being sedentary is negative (tequila), daily exercise is positive (orange juice). Some ingredients may be temporarily or permanently out of your control and unchangeable, so we are forced to include them in our mix at present or for the rest of our time here on this planet. These unchangeable bitter ingredients might include an illness, stress related to our employment or lack of, our relationships, our financial state – these things can be fluid and may change quickly or over time. If you have too much tequila, try adding more orange juice!
I thought I was the hostess with the perfect cocktail, ha ha, silly me! It took awhile to figure out just what was in the bottom of my cocktail shaker! I came from a family where my brother was my abuser, not physically, just a narcissistic bully who never grew up. I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism at age seven. My father, had hypothyroidism, cardiovascular disease, age onset diabetes, and died from his second massive stroke at age 64. I met and married a man just like my brother (just felt like home I guess!). I was married to him for 23 years and had two children with him. I ran a small corporation with my ex-husband and homeschooled my children. Eventually my mother developed Alzheimer’s disease and came to live with us. Stress was a major factor in my life! Over several years, three different medical doctors told me that if I did not change my current situation I would probably end up very ill. My mother passed and after that time I decided to listen to the doctors and left my husband – my kids and I moved 400 miles away. That’s my tequila.
Here’s my orange juice! My father had what the doctor called, “familial high cholesteremia”. No matter how little fat he ate his lipid levels would remain high. He was a chef, owned a restaurant, and had a difficult time staying away from fats. I started to create low and fat-free recipes for him…I was ten years old at that time. His condition made a huge impact on my personal choices. I stopped drinking milk. I stopped eating butter, margarine, and mayonnaise. I ate smaller portions of red meat. By the time I was 19 years old I was on a very low-fat eating regime. I joined a gym. I snow skied, water skied, hiked, played tennis, lifted weights, and took aerobics classes. I took up meditation and yoga. My weight always fluctuated due to my out of control hypothyroidism and pregnancies, but I remained active and didn’t eat much fat.
I was 52 when I finally left my husband. At age 54 I had a major heart attack and subsequent bypass surgery…more tequila to my mix. What a shock that was. Before the heart attack I could do 30 minutes straight, full-out on a ski machine without stopping, lift weights, and play tennis. I did yoga and meditation, and wore a size 3! My cocktail was palatable but it took its toll. Stress and my adrenals had given out. I didn’t realize how bad the stress was until after I left the marriage and moved far away from the situation. Reality set in, I had way too much tequila in my daily Tequila Sunrise for far too many years.
There are ingredients in your life cocktail of which you are in control, don’t wait, take control as soon as you are aware of them. My cardiologist told me that I probably put off my heart attack by a good ten to fifteen years because of my eating habits and exercise. Too bad I couldn’t have avoided it completely and taken care of myself. I just didn’t get out of my bad situation soon enough and my thyroid and adrenal system was about to fail due to the stress. Out of control thyroid disease causes heart problems.
Some of the best information out there on cutting edge therapies, tests, and strategies for preventing or reversing arteriosclerosis and heart disease are contained in this book, Beat the Heart Attack Gene: http://www.amazon.com/Beat-Heart-Attack-Gene-Revolutionary/dp/1118454294/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414623249&sr=1-1&keywords=beat+the+heart+attack+gene
Exercise, eating correctly for your genotype (genetic testing to choose the proper diet for the way your body metabolizes lipids), and maintaining well-being are important ingredients that should be generously mixed into your life cocktail, don’t skimp on any of those. Make time for yourself and always make sure you have a good balance to the mix. Get a complete cardiac blood panel with genetic marker testing from a reputable lab that does a full cardiovascular analysis. Here is a link to the lab I use, Health Diagnostic Laboratories, which is also recommended by the above referenced book: http://www.hdlabinc.com
One more thing that helped me to get on track after my heart attack, I found a brilliant thyroid doctor. My thyroid went completely bonkers after the bypass surgery and I needed individualized thyroid treatment to regulate my endocrine system. I do not take heart medications or cholesterol lowering drugs, just thyroid meds, minimal hormone replacement, and lots of good vitamins, but that is a whole other blog post!
Mix your life cocktail with as many good ingredients as possible, heal and stay healthy. Shaken or stirred, I wish you a long, happy, and delicious life!
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
Please come visit me at any of my web haunts for more ideas, inspirations, and fantastic fat-free recipes!
My website: www.thefatfreegourmet.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefatfreegourmet?ref=tn_tnmn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fatfreegourmet
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The Fat Free Gourmet – Who Is She?
Posted by The Fat Free Gourmet in fat free, fat free cookbook, fat free recipes, fat_free cookbook, fat_free cooking, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, low cholesterol recipes, low fat cookbook, low fat cooking, low fat recipes on May 17, 2012
What is a gourmet? Webster’s dictionary defines the noun gourmet as someone who enjoys fine food and drink, an epicure; the adjective gourmet as characteristic of high quality or skilled preparation…okay, I’ll take that! Now let us add in parameters: low-fat or fat-free, incredible tastes and flavors. Throw in a 100% Italian family background of chefs and bakers, and there you have it: The Fat Free Gourmet and that would be me, Melinda!
Now that you know who I am, you should know why. it might be good to throw in some personal passion for this endeavor, to, as Emeril L. would say, “take it up a notch”. High-cholesterol, high blood pressure and two strokes killed my father at the age of 64. He wouldn’t change his eating habits. I was 20, changed mine, and have always eaten a low-fat diet ever since. I suffered a heart attack and subsequent quadruple by-pass surgery at the age of 55, that was eight months ago.. My Cardiologist said that nasty ol’ heart attack would have visited me 10 to 15 years earlier and the outcome may have been completely different had I not practiced a healthy lifestyle. I’ll take that too!
Why the heart attack if I was eating healthy and exercising? Well, genetics played a part in it too. I was exercising and had cut the fat but forgot to cut something else: stress. I re-wrote that recipe, and cut more stress out of my life. I’m all good now, no heart damage by the way, my healthy habits got me through the ordeal with flying colors! As an added bonus, I did not have to re-learn eating or exercise habits, I was on the correct road with that, and I am almost as good as new again – a happy-ending to a probable sad story!
Do I eat absolutely zero fat? Not quite, but I do keep it very low. Do I use my recipes to control the amount of fat that I consume? Absolutely. Do I crave fat? No, the food is fabulous! I can cook anything from fat filled to fat-free, but why should I when both recipes turn out just as epicuriously delicious?! That my friends, is a rhetorical statement of fact.
Give me two hours in the kitchen with you and I will show you how to prepare reduced fat gourmet dishes that will have even your children asking for seconds! Understand that cooking is an art and a science – cooking with little or no fat is learned. It is not solely a matter of switching out ingredients, that is where the disillusionment of low-fat and fat-free comes into play. You need the right recipes, some new cooking techniques and you will be good to go! Trust me on this one – would an Italian girl lead you astray when it comes to good food? Not likely!!
So grab a glass of good red wine, Cabernet is my favorite, and a serving of dark chocolate, then let’s visit on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or check out some of my recipes at: www.thefatfreegourmet.com
Epicuriously yours,
Melinda
