Keep on Hand
There are several food staples I like to have on hand while dieting. It can save me from blowing my diet.
Chicken bouillon
Beef bouillon
Ham bouillon
For the powdered stuff I use MBT, and I also use Swansons broth. I use bouillon extensively in everything: I cook pasta and rice in part water/part bouillon, I love bean soup and when not dieting I use ham. If I make a bean soup I will throw a hambone in it, but I also defat the soup, and I use the ham bouillon. I don’t miss the meat.
Lots of herbs and spices. I like to experiment and see what tastes best. I’m a big fan of sage, and garlic (whether fresh or powdered) go in everything.
Cottage cheese, low fat/no fat. I use cottage cheese in combination with fruit most commonly, but I do get a craving for a pasta with ricotta cheese and I will fix pasta with tomato sauce and mix in some lowfat cottage cheese. I know it sounds sick, and it looks even sicker, but it’s good. And it rids you of that “manicotti feeling” without guilt.
I also like cottage cheese mixed with 100 percent bran cereal. You can see the box here: The cereal looks like little brown worms or turds (who said eating right had to be pretty??) and just a tad sweet. I’ll dump some of this on some cottage cheese with Sweet n Low and cinnamon, or if I’m really having a craving for sweet I’ll use low cal maple syrup. Heck, I’ll do this on plain cottage cheese.
Grapenuts: I love Grapenuts, but I have to heat it up. I put sweetnlow, cinnamon and milk to cover and stick it in the microwave for 2 minutes. For those gotta have some sugar days: I will use honey or syrup as well.
Egg Whites. I love egg whites. I’d rather eat an eggwhite over a normal egg any day of the week. I especially love omelettes, altho with my cooking skills the omelette turns out not looking like an omelette. Saute onion, bell pepper, mushrooms in some butter pam, throw the egg whites over it, add salt pepper and garlic to it and cook it well done. Yum. I also like turkey in my egg white omelettes. Cook the turkey first.
Turkey. The only turkey I really like and eat on a day to day basis is Boarshead Pastrami Seasoned turkey. Not turkey pastrami! (turkey [insert your meat preference here] anything is as high fat as any other meat and is a deception) It’s turkey with pastrami seasoning on it and is out of this world. I swear they put something in it to get you addicted.
Potatoes. Baking. Red. Any kind, really. Potatoes can be baked, cut up and nuked, cut into wedges for fries….I like to mix up non fat cottage cheese, onion and red bell pepper and put it on the baked potato for that “sour cream effect.”
Vinegar: My favorites are wine and balsamic.
Pam: I keep regular, butter flavored and olive oil at hand.
Ketchup
Mustard: Grey Poupon is a must for me. It’s an acquired taste, I think.
Pepperoncinis
Banana Pepper rings: Oh yea. I could eat the whole jar.
Yogurt. Prefer Dannon, with the fake flavoring. I also like Yummsters.
Jello. Fat free of course.
Chickpeas (I eat this right out of the can)
Butterbeans (I eat this right out of the can)