A friend of mine was telling me how she loves yogurt. I’ve tried yogurt before, and have not been excited enough to buy anymore. But I decided to go ahead and give it another shot. So I asked her some various types of yogurt that she liked. One that she really liked was Yoplait Whips chocolate mousse but she said it wasn’t very low fat. Some other ones that she liked that sounded interesting were Lucerne or Kroger brand in the flavors of black cherry, peach, cherry cheesecake. So when I was at the store last night I picked up some different flavors of yogurt. I just ate the first of the ones I bought which was Yoplait light fat-free banana cream pie. The flavor was okay. I really didn’t think it tasted too much like banana cream pie. It was only $.60. And it has 0 calories from fat which is pretty cool and 110 calories total. It has 6 g of protein which is really good. Maybe I will try some of the other flavors to see if there is one that really jumps out at me. These would make great snacks to have it work or home if I can find one that tastes good and is reasonably healthy for me and low-fat.
Top Secret Recipes Treasury II by Todd Wilbur
SUMMARY: I love Top Secret Recipes! And this book has some great low fat versions of restaurant meals!
This book actually contains recipes from several other of Todd Wilber’s Top Secret Recipe books: Top Secret Recipes Lite, Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes, and Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes.
This book has lite and low fat versions of recipes from restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King, Applebees, Arbys, Red Lobster, Chi Chis and many others.
While some of the recipes are only lightly modified to make them lite, or low fat. For instance, the Whopper recipe has you using super lean ground beef (93% lean) and fat free mayonnaise. I usually add a slice of Fat Free american cheese to it, though the book doesn’t mention it.
I really like this cookbook and plan to make many more of the recipes from it.
If you like restaurant type food but want to eat lite & low fat, I highly recommend this book!
Read more…
After trying and not liking Hidden Valley’s fat-free ranch dressing, I did a post about it. But a close friend of mine recommended trying Kraft Free Ranch Dressing.
So last night when I was at the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner, I decided to try the Kraft fat-free ranch dressing. I picked up a bottle, and also picked up some salad mix as well.
When I got home, I placed the salad in a bowl. I sniffed the ranch dressing, and there was a touch of bitterness to it, but not as bad as the the Hidden Valley brand stuff. I poured some of the dressing on, tossed the salad a bit, and took a bite. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. It was not nearly as bitter as the Hidden Valley fat-free stuff.
So the Kraft Free ranch dressing shows some promise. I will have to try it in some other contexts such as in a chicken sandwich, and with oven baked french fries.
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.
Along our driving trip to New England, we stopped at a gas station hoping to pick up some snacks. There were tons of junk food. But I was hoping to find something at least moderately low-fat and healthy. I searched the shelves, and amongst all the fat-filled stuff, I found some fat free Pringles! SCORE!!! I didn’t even know they made fat-free Pringles! They had two different flavors: Original and Sour Cream & Onion. I bought a can of each flavor. I have always liked Pringles, but haven’t had any for quite a while. Back in the car, we tried to decide which can to open. We settled on the Sour Cream & Onion. My wife popped the can open, and we tried the chips. They were pretty good. Not as good as normal fatty Pringles, but considering they were fat free, they were very good. We finished off the can over the next hour or so. Later that day, we opened the can of Original flavored Fat-Free Pringles. They were also very good. The store only had the two flavors, but it is possible Pringles makes other fat-free flavors. I will have to check a larger grocery store.