I always do my main weigh-in in the morning. That seems to be when I weigh the least through the day. I do weigh myself at other times of the day, but the morning weigh in is the one I really go by. I ate pretty healthy yesterday. I ate 3 or 4 Healthy Choice/Lean Cuisine meals, and then had chili dogs (with fat-free hot dogs and low fat chili) last night for dinner, and a fat free pudding. I also ran 8 miles last night. I weighed in at 168.4 before going to bed. I knew I would lose weight overnight. After going to the bathroom (losing just a little more weight), I weighed in at 167.2. I think this is about the lightest I have weighed in years. I brought several Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice meals to work. There is a birthday today, and a girl has food at her desk. I have already eaten one hot dog with cheese wrapped in a crescent. An they are undoubtedly NOT low fat! And there is more over there. I may gain a little weight today. That’s okay. I would prefer to weigh in the 170s anyway, just a lean 170s.
I love fettuccine alfredo! I love a good alfredo sauce. The problem, is that a regular alfredo sauce is very high in fat. Probably my favorite fettuccine alfredo is the Marie Callendar’s microwave fettuccine alfredo. It has like 33 grams of fat! Ouch! I have tried many low fat alfredo sauce type microwave meals, but they mostly suck. I wanted to see if I could do better. I found a reciped for a low fat alfredo sauce, but it was missing something. I went back and looked at a recipe for a regular version of an alferdo sauce that I had made, and like. I compared the two, and crossed them. This is the sauce I came up with. It it very good, and very low fat, and very easy to make! Give it a shot.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup fat-free cottage cheese
1/3 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup reduced fat parmesan cheese
1/8 cup Egg Beaters or similar
1/8 cup Molly McButter
dash garlic powder
dash salt
dash black pepper
Directions:
Make the alfredo sauce by pouring cottage cheese, milk, parmesan cheese, egg substitue, garlic powder, salt and pepper into a blender or food processer. Process until smooth.
Just heat it over low heat with whatever dish you are making. Serve.
*recipe can be easily doubled.
Last night I wanted to make something different. I found a recipe for Tuna Pasta Premavera, but it had asparagus. My wife hates asparagus. So I substituted green beans. Also they had you steaming fresh vegetables. Too much work. So I used canned veggies. I didn’t have any Albacore tuna, so I used regular tuna. It was good, but I think it would have been much better with the Albacore tuna.
Ingredients:
8 oz Farfalle pasta
1 can cut green beans
1 can sweet peas
1/4 cup coarse chopped green onions
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 chopped beefsteak tomato
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 (6oz) cans drain Albacore tuna, coarsely flaked
Directions:
Heat large pot of water to boiling. Once boiling, add pasta and cook for 12 minutes. Drain, reserving 3 tablespoons of pasta water.
Dump cans of beans and peas with liquids they were canned with, into a smaller pot. Heat beans and peas over a medium high burner till water begins begin to boil. Remove from heat. Drain the liquid.
In a larger bowl, mix beans, peas, green onions, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add pasta, chopped tomato, lemon juice, reserved pasta water, and tuna. Toss well. Serve.
I keep a can of Molly McButter in my overhead cabinet at work. I also have a can of it at home. These butter flavor sprinkles are great for puting on potatoes, rice, vegetables, etc. I use it at work to add a little butter flavor to the often bland tasting vergitables that come in the Healthy Choice meals.
I originally learned about Molly McButter from Health & Fitness magazine having read that a lot of body builders used it on their food.
Well my Molly McButter can was empty, and it was time to buy some more. Right next to the Molly McButter on the spice shelf was Butter Buds. A good friend of mine said she used Butter Buds. The price was about the same. Actually the Butter Buds might be a few cents cheaper, the can cost a little more, but the can was 2.5oz as opposed to the 2.0oz can of Molly McButter.
The stuff looks the same, they both have 5 calories per 1 tsp serving. Even the ingredients are similar on the can. I decided to try the Butter Buds.
I brought the can to work today. For lunch I heated up a Healthy Choice meal in the microwave. It included peas and carrots. I opened the can and smelled it. It didn’t smell like butter at all. I sprinkled a little of the Butter Buds (about the smae amount I usually use of the Molly McButter) of the veggies and let it sit while I ate the Chicken Broccoli Alfredo. Then I went to try my vegetables. They were still bland. They didn’t taste like butter at all. I sprinkled some more on. I tried another bite of the veggies. There was a little more taste, but it didn’t taste much like butter.
Out of curiousity I smelled the empty can of Molly McButter, and the can of Butter Buds back to back. They don’t smell alike. The Molly McButter has a slight butter smell. The Butter Buds doesn’t even have that. I am not sure what it smells like.
The Molly McButter beat Butter Buds hands down! If you have a choice between the two, go for the Molly McButter!
I was in the mood the cook something last night. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to make. I thought about making Tetrazzini, but I still want to find more recipes for it. I think what I ate in Canada was more of a Fettuccine Alfredo than a tetrazzini. So I decided to make a low fat fetuccine alfredo. I found one recipe that looked easy. I tweaked it around a little. It was good, but just not great. Something is missing. I will make it again, but trying adding something. Maybe a little Molly McButter? I will look through some non-low-fat recipes and see what I can find. Maybe it is just the lack of heavy cream which I can’t add without making it high-fat. 
4/21-I tweaked the recipe by adding Molly McButter and a dash of garlic power. NOW it tastes great! Give it a try!
Ingredients:
1 chicken breast.
2/3 cup fat-free cottage cheese
1/3 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup reduced fat parmesan cheese
1/8 cup Egg Beaters or similar
1/8 cup Molly McButter
dash garlic powder
dash salt
dash black pepper
8 ounces dry fettuccine noodles
Directions:
Grill the chicken breast until cooked through. Dice, and set aside.
Heat a large pot of water to boiling over high heat. Add fettuccine, and cook for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the alfedo sauce by pouring cottage cheese, milk, parmesan cheese, egg substitue, garlic powder, salt and pepper into a blender or food processer. Process until smooth.
When fettuccine is done cooking, drain off all the water. Add alfredo sauce and chicken to the cooked noodles. Mix well, and heat over low heat until cooked through. Serve.
*recipe can be easily doubled.