We’ve had the Miller 64 sea shanty stuck in our heads since the first time we saw the ad. And a very effective piece of marketing it is, too – the sea shanty sold us, and we had to run out and immediately sample some Miller 64. It’s been our favorite beer since. 64 calories per bottle is quite a bargain for such a full-bodied, tasty brew. In fact, we like it so much, we’re not content just drinking it – we’re making biscuits with it, too.

For some time now, we’ve been making our own healthier Bisquick-style mix using whole wheat flour and simple cooking oil, instead of processed white flour and trans-fats (gasp!), which is what Bisquick basically consists of. If you’re taking notes, trans-fats are oils which go through a chemical process called hydrogenation, which results in a cheap, tasty, and monumentally unhealthy processed food additive. Studies have shown that trans-fats cause comparatively more weight gain than non-trans-fats, lead to atherosclerosis, and are linked to bad moods and feelings of depression. It’s easy to see why nutritional experts, doctors and other presumably sane people recommend avoiding them at all costs.

And in all honesty, not only is Bisquick bad for you, it’s expensive and not that much more convenient. It takes all of a few cents’ worth of ingredients and a minute to whip up our healthier Bisquick alternative, which goes like this:

Eat Healthy’s Quick and Dirty Baking Mix

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Mix the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Use your hands to work the oil into the dry ingredients, then whisk everything together to make sure it’s well blended. Voila.

We were combining this mix with diet lemon-lime soda, which resulted in a pretty decent, if slightly heavy, whole wheat biscuit. Then one evening, we decided to get frisky and replace the soda with a bottle of Miller 64 instead. That evening changed our biscuit-making lives forever. Not only does the beer add a rich, malty flavor to the biscuits, but the yeast it contains makes the biscuits – these are whole wheat biscuits, mind you – fluffy, soft, and melt-in-your-mouth GOOD. Our minds are still blown by how good these biscuits taste.

If you’re trying to save on ingredients and calories, cut the recipe in half. This will result in nine tasty little 61 calorie biscuits, plus you’ll be able to drink the other half of the beer while they bake. However, if you feel like a splurge, make the recipe as shown below. This will yield nine whopping, giant 122 calorie biscuits. Also, you’ll notice we’re omitting the salt from our baking mix in this recipe. We’ve found that the flavor of the beer comes through loud and clear in the finished biscuits, and no additional salt is required. You will probably want to include the salt in most other things you make using the mix.

Eat Healthy’s Miller 64 Biscuits

2 cups whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 bottle Miller 64

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Lightly coat an 8″ x 8″ baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix the first three ingredients together in a medium bowl. Use your hands to work the oil into the dry ingredients, then whisk everything together to make sure it’s well blended. Stir in the beer until it’s just combined, taking care not to overmix. The batter will be moist and slightly lumpy.

Spread the batter in the pan. Give the top of the raw biscuits a very light spritz of cooking spray for optimal browning, if you like. Bake for 15-18 minutes. When cool enough to handle, cut into 9 large, square biscuits. These go very well with salads, soups, and chili, and are sturdy enough to be split and filled as hearty little sandwiches. Our favorite way to eat them is as a meal by themselves, topped with a low calorie spread.

Sometimes we get some help from our cat crew. Here, our little friskette Koshka is photobombing our attempt to snap the a pic of the biscuits indoors.

Broccoli and Pasta Skillet is a healthy, easy-to-make, and delicious recipe which provides the best of two very different worlds. It has a particularly light, elegant flavor, yet makes for a hearty and satisfying meal. And if you’re not a big fan of kitchen clean-up, this is the dish for you – you do everything, including cook the pasta, in one skillet! You can use any type of whole wheat or multigrain pasta you like – linguine, shells and spirals all work well – but our personal favorite is good, old-fashioned spaghetti. Getting a nice bite of broccoli wrapped in a thick twirl of thin pasta is surely one of life’s great pleasures.

This Italian specialty would typically be made by using a dry white wine in the cooking sauce, but we’ve found that this doesn’t add much to the finished dish except some extra calories, and may well involve making an extra trip to the store. A very satisfactory alternative to dry white wine in this type of recipe is roughly three parts water to one part apple cider vinegar, which is inexpensive, flavorful, and good for you, to boot.

Speaking of flavor, this recipe is excellent when made using frozen broccoli, but if you really feel like pulling out the stops, use fresh broccoli. Fresh broccoli usually costs slightly more than frozen broccoli, but only slightly. Frozen broccoli has the advantage of being pre-cut, so if you’re short on time, or the inclination to chop vegetables (no worries, it happens to the best of us), frozen is the obvious choice. But if you feel like treating yourself to the earthy, slightly nutty flavor and incomparable crunch of fresh broccoli, go ahead with your bad self.

Broccoli and Pasta Skillet For Three (or two if you’re really hungry)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound broccoli florets, either fresh or frozen
2 teaspoons garlic powder (three if you’re a flavor adventurer)
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (two if you crave some heat)
1/2 a box of your favorite whole wheat or multigrain pasta
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup water plus 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
salt to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, lidded skillet. Don’t put the lid on yet, but keep it handy. Stir in the broccoli and the spices, sauteing them together for about five minutes.

Add the water and pasta to the pan. Don’t worry if it all seems very hard to combine – the past with soften shortly, and you’ll be able to stir everything together thoroughly. Bring the liquid to a simmering boil while pushing the pasta around in the pan to keep it from sticking.

Once you’ve got a good simmer going, cover the skillet and let the pasta absorb the liquid. This will happen rather quickly, so stir the pasta often and test it frequently for doneness. When the pasta is nearly cooked, stir in the water/apple cider vinegar mixture. Continue to simmer without the lid. When the pasta is cooked through and most of the liquid has been absorbed, take the skillet off of the heat. Toss the finished pasta with a little salt and the Parmesan cheese before grabbing a fork and digging in. For a more formal dining experience, serve on plates.

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It’s any night of the week, and you want to make something healthy, easy, and absolutely delicious for dinner. That might strike you as a tall order – but believe us, it’s not! Here’s the lowdown on how to make healthy, easy recipes your second-nature way of cooking, so you’ll always have the keys to the taste-good, feel-good kingdom right in the palm of your hand.

Good Stuff Cheap
The first step is to keep your pantry stocked with a short list of healthy, flavorful ingredients. As faithful readers will recall (check out our Diet Food Recipes article for a refresher), healthy go-to ingredients are high-fiber veggies and carbs, low-fat dairy and proteins, and olive oil to grease the wheels, so to speak. These don’t have to be expensive or fancy – far from it! Things like frozen veggies, whole wheat pasta, canned beans, fat-free sour cream and cottage cheese, a soy-based meat substitute like Morningstar Meal Starter Crumbles and the cheapest olive oil and tomato sauce available are all ideal items to include on your healthy shopping list. You can use them in endless combinations to make healthy meals that taste fresh and delicious, leave you feeling satisfied and energized, and are a cinch to whip up. Remember, expensive ingredients are not what makes a dish delicious – it’s what you do with your ingredients that makes the difference.

Easy Does It
What can you do with these healthy ingredients to make them into easy recipes? Just as you have a list of easy go-to ingredients, have some quick, simple go-to cooking methods. And when it comes to quick and simple cooking, we really can’t say enough for the one-pot meal. The more separate dishes you get into making for a meal, the more time and effort it’ll take to get dinner on the table, and who has time and effort to spare on a weeknight? We certainly don’t. This is the basic equation for a one pot meal: starchy stuff (whole what pasta, brown rice, beans, etc) plus pan-seared chewy stuff (veggies, soy protein, etc) mixed with saucy stuff (tomato sauce, fat-free cottage cheese, yogurt, creamed soup, etc) equals one pot deliciousness. Using this basic cooking method, you can come up with a wide variety of healthy, easy recipes which suit your tastes and make cooking a breeze. Fun, even. Italian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, whatever dishes you fancy, you can make happen using a wee bit of creativity (or a whole lot of creativity, if you’re so inclined) and this basic method.

Of course, you don’t need to limit yourself to the one-pot meal, but it sure is a nice trick to have stashed up your quick and easy culinary sleeve. Other easy recipe ideas include using baked potatoes, toasted whole-wheat bread or tortillas as a starchy meal base, resulting in mouth-watering loaded baked potatoes, comforting open-faced sandwiches, and hip, snappy burritos and wraps. You can also stop short of mixing the one pot components together, serving your pan-seared and saucy stuff on a bed of starchy stuff (classic stir fry is a good example), but this isn’t always the easiest way to go, and in our humble opinion doesn’t contribute much except fancy looks to your finished dish. Save that sort of lark for the weekend, or other occasions when you have spare time to blow in the kitchen.

Bold Spices, Big Flavors
Seasonings can turn good dishes into great dishes, and are especially important to use when you’re cooking low-fat, high-fiber foods. If you’re not familiar with using a lot of seasoning, don’t worry, it’s totally easy. The ideal time to add seasonings is in with the pan-seared stuff once it’s nearly cooked through for a lighter flavor, and earlier in the pan-searing process for bolder flavors. When you pan-sear seasonings, they add a stronger and more complex flavor to your dishes – eliminating the need for unhealthy flavor enhancers like bacon, fatty ground beef, and excessive cheese in your recipes. Are you having an a-ha! moment? By George, we think you’ve got it! And don’t worry about using too much spice, because it’s easily avoidable. Remember, you can always add more seasoning to a recipe, so err on the side of conservatism as you spice things up. We’re big fans of the cheapie shake-’em-in seasonings you don’t have to measure – this is supposed to be easy, right? Just shake a little into your pan-seared stuff, stir it around so it cooks a bit and gets nice and flavorful, take a big whiff (your nose will tell you a lot about how something tastes), take a little taste, and then add more if you’d like. Brilliantly fool-proof, and we’re the fools who’ve proven it.

Around the World In 13 Spices
If you don’t own a good supply of seasonings, no worries. You can get a good, basic stash going for very little money. We recommend gathering small collections of Italian, Mexican, Chinese and possibly Indian flavors to start with, as these are the most versatile and will give you the most bang for your buck. For your Italian spices, we suggest having an Italian seasoning blend, a pizza seasoning blend, oregano, garlic powder and red pepper flakes on hand. When you’re in the mood for Mexican, you’ll want to have chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and red pepper flakes available. If you crave Chinese, you’ll need some Chinese Five-Spice powder, ground ginger, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and some low-sodium soy sauce, which should be used sparingly because even low sodium soy sauce is fairly high in sodium. When you want something spicy and exotic, reach for the Indian spices. You’ll need curry powder, cinnamon, clove, cumin, and once again, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. One thing is pretty clear from all this: garlic powder and red pepper flakes are extremely versatile, so always keep them in your pantry.

So now you have the basics on cooking quick, healthy, delicious dishes. Here are some recipes to give you ideas and get you started in the right direction.

• Miller 64 Biscuits - Healthy, Hearty, Whole Wheat Fun!
• Healthy, Easy Recipes - Broccoli and Pasta Skillet
• Healthy, Easy Recipes - Fresh and Savory French Fry Salad
• Healthy, Easy Recipes - Feista Perfect Pico de Gallo
• Bold And Savory Tortellini Salad
• Pasta and Peas With Creamy Garlic Sauce
• Fast & Filling Instant Rice Casseroles
• Boston Baked Beans: Classic, Slow-Cooker Version, or Short Cut Style
• Southern Indian Curried Mushrooms

Fresh and Savory French Fry Salad is one of our favorite healthy, easy recipes. Picture a fresh, crisp, tossed salad, sparkling with all your favorite veggies and topped with warm, golden, oven-baked French fries. It’s truly heaven in your mouth. And there’s not one, but two best things about this dish. The first best thing is that it’s unbelievably quick and easy to make. The other best thing is that it’s totally healthy – low calorie, packed with fiber, and absolutely brimming with vitamins and minerals. Your body will thank you for making this salad, and your tastebuds will, too.

What makes this salad special is the oven baked fries, and knowing how to make them is a wonderful trick to have stashed up your culinary sleeve. Not only are they far healthier AND more delicious than their deep-fried counterparts, they’re also quicker, easier, and a great deal cleaner to make. You can bust these babies out in a flash any time you’re craving French fry deliciousness, and they make a wonderful accompaniment to any sort of burger or sandwich you’re serving.

Nothing is more disappointing than a partially raw French fry, but don’t worry – your microwave oven gives these fries a head start on cooking through to tender deliciousness. Once they’ve cooled enough to handle, you’ll simply slice them into the shape and size you like, toss them in a bit of olive oil and your favorite seasonings (which is what’s happening in the picture there), and then bake them for about 10 minutes. Viola!

Fresh and Savory French Fry Salad For Four (or two or three if you’re really hungry)

6 medium baking potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
a smattering of your favorite herbs, spices and seasonings (no need to get scientific here – we use a sprinkling of oregano and a few solid dashes of a McCormick’s Grillmates Montreal Steak Seasoning Blend and Roasted Garlic and Herb Seasoning)
Enough of your favorite tossed salad ingredients to make four tossed salads (fresh spinach, lettuce, tomato, onion, green pepper, carrot curls, and celery usually go in ours)
Fat-free dressings, Parmesan cheese, bacon bits (imitation are fine) and fat free croutons to top it all off

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Wash off the potatoes and place them in a microwave-safe bowl. Add a few tablespoons of water to the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and microwave for 4 minutes. When they’re done, remove the plastic and let the potatoes stand for a few minutes to let them cool enough to handle. While the potatoes cool, get a head start on chopping your salad ingredients.

In a large bowl, combine the olive oil and spices. Slice the potatoes into fry-sized pieces, then add them to the bowl and stir them together with the oil and spices. Arrange the fries in a single layer on a baking sheet, and bake for about 10 minutes, removing from the oven to turn about halfway through.

Divide the tossed salad among serving bowls, top with fries fresh out of the oven, and adorn with modest amounts of your favorite dressings and salad fixins. No need to overdo the toppings – you want the flavors of the fries to shine through. Devour your salad happily, relishing the fact that something so utterly delicious is also healthy, and will leave you feeling better on all levels after you’ve eaten it.

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If you crave the creamy decadence of cheesecake, but don’t have the time to make a healthy one from scratch, whip up a batch of this quick and deliciously diet-friendly Pistachio Cream Cheesecake instead. It’s very easy to make, uses few ingredients, and will be ready to enjoy in a flash. Best of all, it’s sugar free, virtually fat free, and shockingly low calorie for such a rich-tasting treat.

Not only is this recipe is an outstanding choice for anyone eating sensibly, it also makes our list of excellent sugar free desserts for diabetics. The ingredients all have a reasonably low glycemic index, and each 1/2 cup serving weighs in at approximately 100 modest calories.

Sugar Free, Diet Friendly Pistachio Cream Cheesecake

1 package Jello Sugar Free Pistachio Pudding mix
1 cup skim milk
1 cup sucralose (brand name Splenda)
1 8 oz. package fat free cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz. container lite whipped topping
18 sugar free vanilla cookies, crushed into fine crumbs and mixed with
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, stir to combine the pudding mix and the milk. Stir in the sucralose. Add the cream cheese to the bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about two minutes. Fold in the lite whipped topping.

Sprinkle a dusting of the cinnamoned cookie crumbs on the bottom of an 8″ x 8″ pan. Spread half the cream cheese mixture over the crumbs, then sprinkle another dusting of crumbs over the cream cheese mixture. Spread on the second half of the cream cheese mixture, and top with any remaining crumbs. Refrigerate 1-2 hours to let the dessert set. For a pretty touch, serve each portion topped with a strawberry half.

Check out some more choice sugar free desserts for diabetics!

Looking for healthy, easy recipes for feel-good food? Nothing beats the fresh flavors, excellent nutrition, or easy preperation of pico de gallo. Get ready to transport your tastebuds to the warm shores of Mexico, and make a zesty, festive dish that will leave you feeling as healthy and refreshed as spending a week’s vacation relaxing in the sun.

Also called salsa fresca, this spicy, tangy Latin American condiment is incredibly easy and inexpensive to make. Tomatoes and cilantro add gloriously bright color, and onion, fresh garlic and a hint of jalepeno give it kick and crunch. The tangy mellowness of lime juice marries the flavors together perfectly in every bite.

Pico de gallo is one of those foods you just feel better after eating. It’s fat free, only has about 20 calories per hefty 1/4 cup serving, and is loaded with fiber and vitamin C. Pico is ideal to keep on hand if you’re watching your weight; because it’s so high in fiber, it helps you feel full and satisfied, and its fresh flavors make you feel as if a fiesta’s happening in your mouth. What’s more, it’s incredibly versatile. You can serve it atop most any side dish, salad or entree to instantly give your meal some fun and healthy Latin flair. And when you’re in the mood for a healthy snack which tastes absolutely decadent, use it as a dip for homemade tortilla chips, cuts of celery, or green pepper wedges. Muy delicioso!

Eat Healthy’s Super-Bomb Pico de Gallo:

3 large, ripe tomatoes
Half a large red onion
About 1/3 of a bunch of fresh cilantro (feel free to add more if you love the flavor)
1 clove of garlic
1/2 a jalapeno (use the whole pepper if you like things hot and spicy)
1 teaspoon salt
Half a lime

Dice the tomatoes and onion into a medium-sized bowl. Chop the cilantro, stems and all, and add it to the bowl. Peel the garlic clove, smash it with the heel of your palm to release its flavor, mince it fine and stir it in with the other veggies. Clean the jalepeno, taking care to remove all the seeds, chop it fine, and stir it in as well.

Sprinkle the salt over the veggies, then squeeze the lime over them, being careful not to get seeds in your pico. Give everything a good stir, and taste. Add a little more cilantro of jalepeno at this point if you’d like. Transfer your pico to an airtight container, and let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving to let all the flavors come through brilliantly.

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The good news is that spring is the perfect time for a menu shape-up, and one of the best places to start is with salads. In terms of bang for your diet buck, salads really deliver the max: low in fat and calories but sky high in terms of flavor, texture, and nutrition, salads are infinitely versatile and can be adapted to any taste, budget, or schedule.

Every great salad needs a strong foundation
The classic green salad is typically built on lettuce, and no wonder; not only is it inexpensive and available everywhere, it delivers a delightful crispy crunch along with vitamins A and C, in a pretty-close-to-zero-calorie package. Iceberg lettuce is most common in the US, but don’t stop there – try using a mixture of several lettuce types tossed together. The contrasting colors and textures add interest, variety, and flavor.

Different types of lettuce are available at different times throughout the growing season, so keep a close eye on the produce department of your grocery store. Experiment with additions like Boston or Bibb lettuce, which has soft, smooth leaves with a tender texture and mild flavor. For visual appeal try loose leaf lettuce, which has soft ruffled leaves that are sometimes tinged with deep red at the edges. Or look for Romaine lettuce, which has stiff leaves with a hearty texture and slightly bitter flavor.

But there’s more to a good foundation than just lettuce! The endless varieties of small greens can add to both the taste and visual appeal of salads. Try tossing in some chickory or curly endive, which has narrow, curling greenish-yellow leaves with a slightly bitter taste, or some slender green leaves of rocket or arugula for a bright peppery taste.

Baby spinach leaves have a fresh, lite bite – whole or chopped, they add interest to any lettuce mix. Or chop or shred some radicchio or red chickory into your salad mix to add a hearty texture and highlights of a strong bitter taste.

Toss-Ins Make It Flavorful And Filling
The sky’s the limit when it comes to what vegetables to add to a salad. The perennial favorites like tomato, onion, green pepper rings and carrot curls are great, but they’re just the beginning. Sliced mushrooms, thawed frozen green peas, broccoli and cauliflower florets, sliced olives, zucchini cubes, cucumber rounds, celery slices, radishes, and sprouts are all excellent in salads.

Try thinking beyond the vegetable counter. Orange or grapefruit segments, halved grapes, walnuts, toasted almond slivers, and even golden raisins mix very well with all sorts of greens.

Branch out with beans, bulgar, macaroni and more
The tossed mixed-green salad is a classic, but it’s by no means the only type of salad to consider for your pre-summer shape-up. Just about any fruit or vegetable is a great salad candidate!

Bean-based salads are nutritional powerhouses. Low in calories but high in flavor, they’re economical, fast and simple to make, and travel very well. Slaws of all description, from classic cabbage cole slaw to sweet, crunchy carrot slaw with pineapple and raisins, are an excellent choice that fills you up while you trim down. Salads based on grains (such as bulgar wheat or couscous) are a hearty, satisfying, and interesting addition to any meal.

Macaroni of all kinds, from simple elbows to elegant tortellini, are ideal as the base of a salad when they’re paired with crispy veggies and topped with light and tasty dressing that compliments the flavors without piling on calories. And of course, there’s the wonderful world of gelatin salads that blur the line between salad and dessert.

Here are some of our favorite salad recipes (and we’re adding more all the time – it’s shape-up season for us too). But as always, consider a recipe as a starting point

• Healthy, Easy Recipes - Fresh and Savory French Fry Salad
• Refreshed Sunshine Salad
• Light, Delicious Fiesta Salad Bowls
• Bold And Savory Tortellini Salad
• Creamy, Dreamy Yogurt Based Salad Dressings
• Pink Perfection Salad
• Green Bean and Sprout Marinade – A Low-Cal Salad Favorite
• Spicy Mixed Bean Salad
• Calico Bean Salad
• Sauteed Spinach and Herbed Tomato Salad
• Dress Up Fruit Salad With Delicious, Healthy Dressings
• Liven Up Fruit Salad With Creamy Tofu Dressings
• Carrot Cole Slaw - Two Delicious Versions
• Vegetarian (No-Bacon!) Wilted Lettuce Salad
• Low Calorie Salad Dressings: Buttermilk Basic Plus
• Spicy Asian Carrot and Green Bean Salad
• Low Calorie Salad Dressing: Green Goddess Salad Dressing
• Low Calorie Salad Dressing: Favorite Creamy Italian

High fiber = high five! Recipes with high fiber ingredients are a great bet for sustainable weight loss. It’s no joke that high fiber foods keep you feeling fuller, longer – and there’s real science behind that. Fiber is, by definition, a virtually indigestible carbohydrate found almost exclusively in plants. It passes through our digestive system pretty much as-is, without being broken down into nutrients, fat, or anything else. Choosing recipes with high fiber ingredients makes losing weight and keeping it off easier, and here’s why:

High fiber foods take a long time to chew. Picture a milkshake, in all its slurpable glory. If you need to chew that milkshake, it’s been made horribly wrong. Now picture a carrot. If you swallow that carrot whole, you’re going to be sorry. Guess which one is a high fiber food. High fiber foods take a very long time to chew, and lots of chewing slows down the eating process in general. Taking more time to enjoy your food makes you less likely to overeat, and greatly contributes to feeling full and satisfied. Fun fact – you’d have to grind your chops through 14 large carrots to consume the same 420 calories found in a small vanilla McDonalds milkshake. That would be about two hours straight of nothing but carrot gnashing.

Another reason high fiber ingredients are common in diet food recipes is that once eaten, they leave you feeling full for a long time. If you thought that carrot was difficult to mow through, just wait ’till it hits your stomach. High fiber foods are bulky to begin with, and because the fiber is indigestible, they pretty much stay bulky throughout the digestive process. And because they’re hard to break down, your body takes its sweet time digesting them. The end result is a happy eater, feeling nice and full for a long time. Beans, vegetables, fruits, and whole grain products contribute the most fiber to healthy, pro weight loss recipes.

Empty calories = bad news. You’ll notice that recipes geared towards fitness and weight loss tend to go extremely light on fats and sugar. There’s a good reason for that – sugar and most fats are nothing but empty calories. Sure, they taste good, but they provide nothing, or almost nothing, in terms of nutrients, fiber, or anything else your body might find remotely useful. If your objective is to store a lot of fat, they’re the bomb, but if that’s your objective, why are you reading this? So unless you want to store more fat, use butter, full calorie margarine, sugar, mayonnaise and oil VERY sparingly – and if you’re trying to lose weight, it’s a good idea to take all of them but oil off the menu entirely.

A word about oil: you’ll never find a healthy, pro-weight loss recipe which features deep frying or frying anything in more than a tablespoon or two of oil. Quite simply, frying can turn a healthy dish into a fat and calorie festival of astronomical proportions. For example, a large baked potato provides about 220 calories and less than a gram of fat. That same baked potato, deep fried as French fries, provides about 700 calories and a staggering 34 grams of fat. The moral of this story – don’t deep fry stuff, and if you pan fry, use as little oil as possible. Look for healthy recipes which involve baking, broiling, or pan frying ingredients in less than a tablespoon of oil. You’ll get the best flavor and most nutritional value from olive oil, but like all oils it’s no calorie saver – one tablespoon contains about 119 calories. The good news is, it takes a lot less oil than you might think to make something tasty, and one tablespoon will almost always be more than enough.

Flour and dairy = proceed with caution. Healthy recipes tend to steer clear of white flour and excessive dairy products. And this basically boils down to one thing – calories. Did you know a cup of white flour contains an astonishing 455 calories? You’d have to run – not walk – for about an hour and a half to burn that off. White flour is also very low in fiber, which means our bodies make quick work of extracting all those calories and turning them into fat. Recipes and foods which are composed largely of white flour are not a good bet for weight loss.

Dairy products are used very carefully and sparingly in most diet food recipes, if at all. Milk, cheese, and sour cream are all fine sources of protein, but they can also be very rich in fat and calories. If a recipe calls for a cup of shredded mozzarella, for example, that’s adding a whopping 340 calories to the finished dish – it’s a much better idea to limit the mozzarella to 1/4 cup, which only adds 85 calories. If you do decide to use some dairy in your healthy cooking, look for reduced fat and calorie versions. There are 31 calories in a tablespoon of full-fat sour cream, compared with 12 calories in the fat free variety – and you’ll find that they taste very much the same.

Now that you have the basics about what makes a good, healthy recipe which fits into your weight loss plan, you’re set to get slim and stay that way – for good. If you’re looking for some healthy, light recipes to get started with, check out some of our favorites:

• Cabbage Soup – Two Variations On A Classic
• Light, Delicious Fiesta Salad Bowls
• Mexicali Mushroom Enchiladas
• Creamy, Dreamy Yogurt-Based Salad Dressings
• Spicy Mixed Bean Salad
• Vegetarian (No Bacon!) Wilted Lettuce Salad
• Roasted Vegetable Medley
• Green Beans a’la Thai
• Southern Indian Curried Mushrooms
• Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Colorful, fanciful, and almost invariably bursting with eyebrow-raising flavor, nothing says retro time travel like molded salads. I want you to experience the author’s description of “Carrot-’n-Cabbage Tower,” featured in the 1958 Better Homes and Gardens Salad Book: “Fresh flavor of lemony orange gelatin, crunch of garden vegetables, tang of sweet pickle – that’s what Carrot-’n Cabbage Tower is made of. Here, plump pear halves make a pretty trim.”

What a bait and switch. No, I’m not going to share the Carrot-’n-Cabbage Tower recipe this time. I just wanted to tell you about it. Instead, I’m sharing a refreshed version of the classic Sunshine Salad, refreshed because I use sugar-free gelatin and pineapple packed in juice with no sugar added. Back in the day, cooks didn’t have the magnificent array of reduced calorie and sugar options which we take for granted. Since we have ‘em, might as well use ‘em, and transform this dish from a sugar festival into a light, low calorie treat. You should also know that in this time before frozen whipped topping was king, mayonnaise was typically served atop these salads. Yes, mayonnaise. Feel free to not try that, if the idea frightens you a little.

If my old cookbooks are to be believed, fanciful garnishes played an important role in the success of most dishes, molded salads especially. In the case of Sunshine Salad, the recommended adornment for your shimmering carrot-orange loaf is a large daisy with pineapple chunk petals, a green pepper stem and leaves, and a walnut flower center. Never mind that walnuts are nowhere in the salad. You’d better have a walnut on hand, you, or go get one. The salad does contain pecans, so I’ll let you off for fashioning a flower center from stray pecan pieces, but I don’t think the ladies who originally used this book would. I think they would label you an insurrectionist.

So here’s my recipe for Refreshed Sunshine Salad. It has a bright flavor, a striking appearance, and makes a pleasantly retro addition to your light spring and summer menu.

Refreshed Sunshine Salad
2 small packages sugar free lemon gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 No. 2 cans crushed pineapple, packed in light juice
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated carrot
2/3 cup chopped pecans

Boil the water in a medium saucepan. Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water and remove it from heat. Drain the pineapple, reserving the juice. Add enough water to the juice to make 2 cups, and stir this into the gelatin along with the vinegar and salt. Refrigerate the whole mess for about 30-45 minutes, or until it’s partially set.

Fold the rest of the ingredients into the partially set gelatin and transfer the mixture into a 9x5x3″ load pan. Chill until firm, and then unmold, preferably onto a bed of greens.

Return to Diet Food Recipes – Shape Up For Summer With Salad! Or get more healthy eating info here – Take The Mystery Out Of Diet Food Recipes