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.
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.
If a have good quality salmon, my prefered method of cooking is baking it with a little butter (or buttery spray) and lemon juice. I don’t like adding much that will cover/change the salmon taste. But I while back I bought a bag of frozen salmon filets that just weren’t as good as fresh salmon. So I would use them with other recipes. This is one of the recipes I liked:
Sour Cream Dill Sauce:
1/2 Cup fat-free sour cream
1 tsp. dried dill
1 Ttsp. lemon juice
1/4 shallot, minced
dash cayenne pepper
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.
Pan Seared Salmon:
1/2 lb. salmon filet or steak per person
Extra virgin olive oil spray
Spray not-stick skillet with olive oil. Heat skillet over medium heat. Cook salmon steaks, skin side down, in pan for 5 minutes. Using spatula, turn steaks over and cook for another 3 minutes. If salmon not cooked through, turn again, and cook till done. Place cooked salmon on a plate. Top with Sour Cream Dill Sauce.
I was in the mood for a Big Mac, but I didn’t want all the fat. Then it flashed through my head to try to make a low fat version. While it didn’t taste EXACTLY like a real Big Mac, it was still very good.
Ingredients:
4-6 oz 95% lean ground beef (real Bag Mac used 4oz)
2 tsp Fat free Thousand Island Dressing
Shredded lettuce
1 slice fat free american cheese
3 pickle slices
Chopped onion
1 1/2 Seasame seed buns (middle bun is was the bottom, or part of the top of another bun)
Directions:
Divide the ground beef into two equal parts. Form them into balls, and make into patties preferably using hamburger patty press. Throw them on the grill.
Build the burger in the following order:
Bottom bun
1 tsp fat free thousand island dressing
Half of onion
Half of luttuce
Fat free american cheese
Burger patty
Middle bun
1 tsp fat free thousand island dressing
Half of onion
Half of luttuce
Pickle chips
Burger patty
Top bun
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.