Secrets of Success

Homemade Bread Crumbs

Freeze a slice of whole wheat bread, then grate the frozen piece to make your own breading for meats. Cheaper and healthier than store-bought bread crumbs.

Don't throw out those veggies yet!

I buy lot's of produce and sometimes I can't always finish it. Instead of wasting it. I now take veggies that are near expiring and toss them into a food processor. I use the mixture to pep up boring foods. Use in your meatloaf mixture, hide in meatballs and pasta sauces. I even toss with mayo and tuna for a tasty sandwich. My kids haven't even noticed!
Also close to expiring Fruit goes into smoothies, or homemade ice cream.
Anything that's not fit to eat goes into the compost pile!

The Trick to Cleaning Non-stick

When you switch to a lower calorie lifestyle, invariably you end up cooking differently. No doubt non-stick skillets and grill pans figure prominently as well as enamel coated cookware like Le Creuset). Cleaning these pans can be very difficult as things tend to stick the less fat you use in cooking.

To make clean up easy, use your old nail brushes; baby nail brushes work best. The bristles are soft enough that you will not damage your pans but strong enough to clean any debris.

Brown Rice - Shorten the cooking time

Did you know you can pre-soak your brown rice and thereby shorten the cooking time? Just 1 hour of pre-soaking will cut as much as 10 minutes of cooking time and your rice will be fluffier too.

Put a Lid on the Salt

Cooking w/o salt means softer beans and more flavorful seasonings. Using canned foods means you'll be getting plenty of salt without adding your own. Let your spices be your friend.

Cutting back on Cooking Oil

About 98% of the times that I use oil I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil and many applications only require a tiny bit. So I invested in a Misto spray pump. You put whatever oil you like in it, pump it until you can't pump any more, and spray. 1 full spray, spraying it until it fizzles out, is about 1/2 tsp. When I cook something like fish I spray the pan (1/2 a spray) place the fish and use the rest of the spray for the other side. (Not recommended for baking.) I got mine at Sur La Table for about $10.

Grow Fresh Herbs on Your Kitchen Windowsill

For the same price as a bunch of cut fresh herbs at the supermarket, you can buy a small potted herb plant at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Keep it on your kitchen windowsill and use when you're cooking. Fresh herbs add so much flavor that you won't even miss the salt and fat you cut out of the recipe!

Use water

I read this in a book on weight loss. Instead of using a oil or spray to sauté vegetables with I use a small bit of water. The water makes sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pan and they still have a lot of flavor to them.

Cook one soup- eat six different ones

An easy way to dress up a soup differently for lunch.

Base: leftover cooked potatoes and vegetable broth mixed in a Blender

Day 1: 2 eggs cut up small, parsil and 1 t low fat cream cheese
Day 2: chopped spinach and half a low fat feta
Day 3: chopped dried tomatoes, olives and seitan stripes

Steaming,great for quick and easy cooking.

I got a steamer,its the only kitchen appliance I use every day.I cook everything in my steamer,fish,chicken and vegetables are great done in the steamer,20 minutes or less with the turn of the 'on' button and I have a lovely dinner ready.best of all its one of the healthiest ways to cook,no oil!