I love ranch dressing. It is great on salads, and also for dipping veggies, and even french fries. And Hidden Valley makes the best ranch dressing. I think they may have invented it, but I am not sure on that.
But ranch dressing is not low fat. They also make a light version, and a fat-free version. I decided to try the fat-free version as a sandwich spread. I tried it with a ham sandwich, and the fat-free ranch dressing was strong and bitter. Too bitter. I didn’t totally dismiss it yet.
I made some low-fat KFC chicken (from my recipe), and my wife wanted to use it as a dip. So we tried it. My wife said it was “okay”, but I thought it was still too bitter.
I will try the light version, and see if it is better. I did a search for nutritional info on the Original version of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, and saw that a serving has 30 calories, with only 8 calories coming from fat. That works out to fat calories being about 27%. That is nowhere near as bad as I thought. But a serving is only 7 grams. 1 gram is protein, 5 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of fat. I will have to see how much dressing makes up 7 grams.
I picked up a new cook book last week title The Busy People’s Low-Fat Cookbook. The recipes look pretty simple. I decided to try one of the simplest of the recipes in the book. I bought four 1/4 inch thick slices of 97% fat-free ham at the grocery store last night, and also some apple butter. I figured the apple butter would be in the section with the jellies and jams. I was right, but it still took a while to find.
I laid three of the ham steaks on my Jennair grill, and while they were grilling, I slathered to top of the steaks with a teaspoon apple buter each. After they had grilled for a bit, I flipped the steaks, and then coated the other side with the apple butter. After they had grilled on then side for a bit, I flipped them again to carmelize the apple butter that I had just put on. Then I served them.
They were pretty good, and easy to make. They didn’t take hardly anytime at all, and they were pretty low fat. One drawback is that the apple butter left my Jennair grill and total mess. They can also be grilled in a skillet with some non-stick spray.
I will have to try some of the other reciped in the book. Most of them are more involved than this one, but still only take 10-15 mintues.
Jared lost over 200 pounds by simply eating Subway sandwiches. Is this possible? Sure it is. Of all the big chain fast food restaurants, the best one for low fat food is Subway! Subway has 7 sandwiches with 5 grams of fat or less! McDonalds and Burger King’s lowest fat sandwiches are like 10 grams of fat!
My favorite Subway sandwich is the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich which has 370 calories and only 5 grams of fat! I usually get it loaded with veggies. You can get whatever you want, but I get mine with lettuce, tomato, green pepper, onions, and black olives. Oh yeah, and sweet onion sauce.
Other low fat sandwiches are the Veggie Delight, Ham, Turkey Breast, Roast Beef, Subway Club, Turkey Breast & Ham, and the Roasted Chicken Breast. Just be sure to use a low fat dressing. If you glop a bunch of mayonaise on it, they will no longer be low fat.
I stopped at the library today, and as I always do, I scanned the cookbook section of their used book sale. They get some turnover, but I often see the same books. But once in a while a low-fat cookbook shows up. Often they are older, not very interesting ones. Today I scored big, and they had three interesting looking low-fat cookbooks.
The first one was titled Busy People’s Low Fat Cookbook. This one looks pretty cool. It has recipes that are fast, and use a limited number of ingredients. They even flag the recipes as to whether budget friendly or not.
The next cookbook was titled Skinny Pasta. I love good pasta, so I was excited to find a low-fat pasta cookbook!
The third cookbook was Low-Fat Cooking On The Grill. This one has some delicious looking pictures. I hope they taste half as good as they look.
My wife and I both love good clam chowder. On our vacation driving through New England, and then back to Seattle, we had many different clam chowders. Some were great, and some were just okay. But I decided to see if I could make a low fat clam chowder. I didn’t even know if it was possible since generally clam chowder has a lot of cream, and butter and stuff. But when I searched, I found a recipe that sounded promising. It was okay as is, but I thought it could be better. So I began tweaking it. I actually combined it with another recipe I had for clam chowder. The result was a very good clam chowder while retaining it’s low fat quality. Give it a shot. If you like clam chowder, I think you will like it.
Ingredients:
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup onions, finely diced
1 cup celery, finely diced
1/2 cup flour
4 cans chopped clams (6 1/2 oz)
2 (8-oz) bottles clam juice
1 oz turkey bacon, diced
1 cup of 2% milk
1 tsp salt
1 dash pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp lemon juice
Directions:
Place diced potatoes in large sauce pan and cover with cold water. Bring potatoes to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and let cook for 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Once the potatoes are simmering, place butter in another saucepan, and heat over medium heat. Add the celery and onions, and stir; sauté until tender, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Stir in the flour. Reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
In the large saucepan that had the potatoes, add the bottled calm juice, and the clam juice from the canned clams. Add in the diced bacon, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute. Gradually whisk the clam juice/bacon into the vegetable/flour mixture until smooth. Heat over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes, milk, and salt, pepper, thyme, sugar, lemon juice. Stir often, until heated through. Stir in clams and heat for about 1 minute.
Serve.