It seems like 90% of the people I know are on some sort of diet. Medical or cosmetic, losing or gaining, with or without exercise. Lots of diets, and lots of reasons to diet.

What I thought was, we could exchange tips and recipes and such. What works for you? How do you maintain your willpower in the face of temptation? What are some good recipes? What substitutes do you use for the "good" stuff?

-- Liz Brooks (lbrooks@3gi.com), July 21, 1999

Answers

Here's a good recipe

3 chicken tenders (small bits of chicken about the thickness of two fingers)
1/2 cup salsa
1 cup rice
1/4 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon no-fat sour cream

cut the chicken fingers into bite sized pieces and fry (use no-fat PAM cooking spray)
When chicken bits are mostly cooked, add 1/2 cup salsa... simmer for about 5 minutes on low-medium heat
top one cup cooked rice with the salsa/chicken mixture
top with cheese and sour cream...

for me, this counts as
2 very lean meats
2 starches
1 veggie
1 fat

I don't know how you mix that out to Weight Watcher points, but I'm sure Liz could tell you.

I find this to be an easy, filling dinner... and you can always add more salsa...

-- KT Hicks (kthx2@sybercom.net), July 21, 1999.

i am not contributing an answer but asking a question. does anyone know how to make a low fat white/cheese sauce (from scratch)? the one i currently make uses butter, etc. and is quite fatty (but yummy). thanks helen newman

-- helen newman (helen.newman@lib.monash.edu.au), November 11, 1999.

I think the only way to reduce calories in a white sauce is to use skim milk (instead of whole or cream). The butter is necessary to making the sauce. Depending on what you're using the sauce for, you could steal a leaf from a cream soup and use fat-free broth (chicken, or beef, or clam, or...) as half of the liquid base, instead of just milk-- that would go a long way towards reducing the overall calories, since broth tends to be a freebie on most diets. You can't eliminate fat from your diet (well, you CAN, but it's not healthy) ...concentrate instead on controlling the fat, and reducing calorie intake from other sources. And for the record, 3/4 T. of chocolate chips is one 50-60 calorie serving of fat (my diet allows me 3 fat servings a day). Yummy in yogurt. ^_^

-- Karen O. (lisl_1@yahoo.com), November 17, 1999.