Low Fat Cooking Methods

After my Gadgets post I thought I would expand on Low Fat Cooking Methods and how it can make a big difference to your foods fat content.

Use Heavy-based or good quality cookware you will find that the amount of fat needed for cooking foods can be kept lower than normal.

Use Good Quality Bakeware which doesn't need greasing before use to make low fat cakes.

Don't Add Fat When Grilling If you absolutely must spray use a product like frylight, they do olive and vegatable oil and now a butter substitute.

Use Your Microwave Microwaved foods rarely need the addition of fat, so add herbs or spices for extra flavour and colour.

Steam Food Steaming is a great way to cook vegetables without fat and keeps more of the essential vitamins and minerals that are lost in boiling.

Braise or Saute Vegetables in the oven in wine or just water with added herbs.

Don't Add Butter to Cooked Vegetables Instead sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs or a low fat spread, experiment and see what you like.

Low Fat Gadgets

The way you cook your food can make a massive difference to it's fat content. These items could be used in your new life style , get them maybe this xmas or wait till the new year and pick one up in the January sales.

Get a George Foreman 'Lean Mean Fat Reducing Machine'
This gadget grills your food and, because it's set at a slight slant, the fat dribbles off and into a little collecting tray that you can empty into the bin and rinse out ready for using again. Suitable for cooking fish, meat and vegetables too.

Get good quality cookware.
They wont need as much fat as cheap cookware.

Get a Microwave.
Microwaved foods rarely need the addition of fat, so add some herbs or spices for more flavour and colour.

Get A Good Steamer.
Steaming is a great way to cook vegetables without fat and keeps more of the essential vitamins and minerals than boiling.

Low Fat Roast Potatoes

This is a great way to reduce fat intake.

First peel some potatoes.

Cut into a smaller size than your normal roast potatoes.

Boil in salted water for about 5 mins.

Rough them up a bit by shaking them around in the pan.

Here's the trick, spray some frylight, about 6 sprays around the potatoes and make
sure they are covered in the spray.

Place in a hot oven 220C and cook for about 45 mins depending on the size and
what else you have in the oven.

After a few times practicing they will be great and you will not miss ones cooked
in a lot of fat.

Low Fat Spreads

Lets face it if you have bread/toast you are going to want to put some spread on it.

The good news is there are loads of low fat alternatives instead of using full fat butter, and the ones I’ve tried taste quite good.

Anchor half fat, 40% fat, 500g, , widely available. Perfectly all right. It melts and disappears in the mouth like butter.****

Diet Flora, 500g, widely available. Would be best of the lot if you want to lose weight because it has 50% less calories than the Anchor. ****

Sainsbury's Be Good To Yourself, sunflower spread, 500g,. ok, but has significantly less calories.***

Tesco Healthy Eating, sunflower light 500g, (half the fat of butter and margarine). Ok again. ***

Christmas Food Swops

Xmas is a difficult time if you are trying to watch what you eat.

Here is a list of xmas food with their lower fat alternatives.

A handful Of peanuts (170 Cals) ------ 5 Roasted Chestnuts (85 Cals)
mini sausage roll (85 Cals) ------ Korn mini rolls less than 5% fat
Roast Turkey with Skin (171 Cals) ------ Lean roast Turkey no skin (132 cals)
Roast Potatoes 100g (150 Cals) ------ Fat Free Roast potatoes ( 85 cals)
100g Of xmas pudding (368 Cals) -------100G of sherry Trifle (180 cals)
1 tbs of brandy butter (124 Cals) -------1 tbsof sigle cream (30 cals)
mince pie (235 Cals) ---------- Open top Mince Pie (175 Cals)
One alcopop (200 Cals) ---------- Gin and Diet tonic (55 Cals)
Mulled Wine (250 Cals) ---------- Glass of dry cava (70 Cals)

Hope this helps.

How To Survive the Xmas Party

It’s the time of the year when parties seem to be happening all around you and hopefully you get invited to some of them.

Here are 10 tips to help you stay fit during the holiday season.

1) Don’t eat nuts and crisps, they will make you drink more.
2) At the meal eat Slowly and enjoy each mouthful. This will fill you up more then quickly swallowing your food
3) Choose a salad or soup as a Starter, this will cut what you eat for your main course
4) Intersperse every Alcoholic drink with water. It will slow down the rate you absorb alcohol and help digest your food.
5) Avoid pastry food at buffets
6) Avoid food in a breadcrumb coating or that looks crispy. It will usual be high in fat.
7) Shiny food like peanuts should be avoided as they probably contain oil
8) Just because the company is paying don’t get your money’s worth remember the big picture.
9) If having wine finish your glass before filling it up again. Don’t let people keep on topping you up. So you know how much you have drank. Remember Calories are in every glass.
10) Dance a lot. Dancing Burns 420 Cals per hour, also if you are dancing you are not eating or drinking.

A Christmas Thought for Turkeys

As it’s the Christmas season and we get ready to celebrate with friends and families on the big day. Don’t’ forget Christmas is for Turkeys too, so why not try a free-range bird this year?

This blog is about food, but sometimes we forget about how that food arrives on out plate in the first place.

Like most people in the world I too have to budget, but why can’t you save money in other ways and stop buying mass-produced food from animals that have been treated inhumanly. We all know about battery hens, ducks that have never been for a swim and pigs kept indoors in confined spaces. I Think we juist chose to ignore it when we buy meat.

I'm a meat eater, I'm not proud of the fact, but its true. As I have pets, I treat them with respect and I want my food to have had as good a life as possible.

The question is what can we do to make this happen?

Well for a start, buy more organic and free range produce. Look out for free range pork, chicken, and turkeys. Find that extra money you spend somewhere else in your budget. Only when we buy free range goods will supermarkets demand that their producers to do it that way.

Years ago when organic produce first hit the shops the supermarkets only stocked a few items. Only ‘buyer power’ can change the way we eat. Its starting to happen but there is a long way to go.

Spend a little more on the quality of animal produce and a little less on other goods.

Everyone including animals deserve respect in life as well as death.

J

The GI Diet

The Glycemic Index (also glycaemic index, GI) is a ranking system for carbohydrates based on their immediate effect on blood glucose levels. It compares carbohydrates gram for gram in individual foods, providing a numerical, evidence-based index of post-meal glycemia.

The theory behind diets based on the Glycaemic Index is that foods with a low GI value slowly release sugar into the blood, providing you with a steady supply of energy, leaving you feeling satisfied longer so that you're less likely to snack. In contrast, foods with a high GI value cause a rapid - but short-lived - rise in blood sugar. This leaves you lacking in energy and feeling hungry within a short time, with the result that you end up reaching for a snack. If this pattern is frequently repeated, you're likely to gain weight as a result of constantly overeating.

Diets based on GI index simply encourage you to eat plenty of foods with a low GI value and avoid those with a high GI value. This helps to prevent swings in blood sugar, helping you feel fuller for longer. However, most GI diets also recommend cutting down on fat, especially saturates. This means many of the foods which have a low GI value but are high in fat - whole milk, crisps and chocolate, for example - are still limited.

What are the benefits of a GI Diet?

Feel fuller for longer.
Reduce food cravings.
Reduce snacking.
Help control your weight.

AlsoTesco is now starting to label selected foods with their GI rating. Look out for the big blue circles in store on selected low and medium GI foods.

Here are some useful links so you can read up more on the GI diet the weightlossresources is very good and the Times one shows some great recipes and gives a good review.

Like with all diets, see your GP to find out if this kind of diet is right for you.

How to survive all you can eat restaurants

Last week I went with my partner to a Chinese all you can eat restaurant

I was shocked by the size of portions some of the people were eating there.

They just went back and back for more because it was free and they wanted
to get their moneys worth, not because they were hungry any more.

So I thought it might be a good idea to give a few tips on how to handle these places.
Especially the Chinese ones. So here are some tips:

Eat with chopsticks; they will slow you down, give you more time to feel full and ultimately keep you from overeating.

For your first course have soup (hot and sour is good), you will try something new and it will fill you up for little calories.

Then give the prawn toasts a miss and go for your main course. Only have one plate, so fill it up with different dishes, have a large amount of boiled steamed rice not fried (It will fill you up) then concentrate on the meat/fish dishes, beef in blackbean and oyster dishes are good.

Plum, hoisin and duck sauces are also excellent choices since they're fat-free. Just don't go overboard on the amount you use because these sauces are quite high in sugar.

If you do go for a sweet and sour dish make sure the chicken is plain and not covered in batter.

If you want treat yourself to a dessert; again just remember one portion. Try and have fruit instead of banana fritters. I know how difficult that sounds!

The secret is self-control, savour the food, not try and just get you money’s worth. Sometimes it’s better to have quality then quantity.

Low-fat crisps

This week I'm trying low fat crisps, here are the ones tried. If you like some others then post a comment.

Sainsbury's lower fat crisps, 30% less fat. Nice Crisp.***

Aldi Balanced Lifestyle, 25% less fat. Not tried myself but heard they are pretty good ****

Walkers Lites! 33% less fat. Very good. ****

Tesco Select reduced fat crisps, 30% less fat. OK, but not as good as Walkers. ***

Sainsbury's Be Good To Yourself, baked potato and butter bakes, less than 3% fat. Not tasty and way to many I got really bored of them quickly. * (because of the low fat content not because of taste)

Of course the best way would be to give up crisps entirely and have some fruit instead.

Parma Chicken Kiev’s

Parma Chicken Kiev’s (serves 4)

Ingredients:

4 oz quark
2 garlic cloves
3 tbsp. of finely chopped parsley
½ finely chopped basil
Black pepper
4 chicken breasts (no skin)
4 slices of Parma ham
Fry light

How to do it:

Mix the quark, garlic basil and parsley, make a pocket in each breast with a slit and fill with the quark mixture wrap with Parma ham, spray with frylight and cook from 20 mins at gas 7 or 220 C Or until the chicken is cooked.

The secret here is using quark, a really great low fat cream cheese, fantastic stuff and very versatile in deserts as well as main meals.

Thought for December

Support is the key

Why is it that some people are supported by friends and partners when they embark on a diet and others aren’t?

I think it’s difficult enough to go on a diet, but to not get the support of your nearest and dearest makes it twice as hard.The question is why do they not support you?

Maybe they love you the way you are you might not need to lose weight. Or maybe they see it as a change to the way they will have too eat. Maybe they think you are trying to make yourself more attractive to the opposite sex and that doesn’t include themselves. You are not happy with your life whilst they are.You need to ask them why?

A lot of people join a slimming group and that’s all the support they need, but if you are giving up smoking and your partner keeps on blowing smoke on your face it wont help and its just the same if they are stuffing their faces infront of you. I know someone who when trying to diet, their partner decided to go to a well-known fried chicken fast food joint for dinner. They knew they would give in.

Now before you think I'm only coming form one side. I want you, the dieter, to know that you should remember that your partner my like full fat food, where as they can have it and you cant. Both parties need to work together; after all sharing a meal together is one of the great couple things to do.

I hate being the only one eating a burger so check out a recipe for low fat burgers. Just because you are dieting does not mean you too can't enjoy fast food, check out Chinese and Indian low fat dishes. If you find a great lowfat dish, involve them ask then to try it. Support works in two directions, give and take.