I love to cook! I have been a caterer and I am passionate about providing a comfortable atmosphere complete with excellent tasting food for those I love. The drawback: my yummy recipes are high in fat and don’t look good on me.

I want to try to compile great tasting food that is also healthy. Being accountable to you, the reader, will motivate me to continue my goals.

Here are my goals:

1. To be thin! OK, I am 56. Thin is out of my picture, but I want to be a comfortable size 10 or 12.

2. To enjoy the healthier recipes enough that they will remain a lifetime part of my cooking.

3. To reach out to others on a similar path.

Here is what I want to blog:
1. My road to a new and healthier body (weights and measurements).
2. Daily food and exercise along the way (pictures added).
3. The recipes and cost ($) of the food (calorie counts).

Beginning January 1, 2011, for one month I will try out a new low fat recipe everyday and blog my findings. Please share your thoughts. After 1 month, and I am successful, I would like to do a complete makeover on my yummy cook book.

Here I go!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Breakfast was good. 134 calories for the eggs, 69 calories for the bread and 20 calories for the grapefruit for a total of 223 calories for breakfast.

Actually, all this turned out to be was my normal glorified scrambled eggs. I just decided not to bake it in the oven as the recipe called for. I used 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg, 1/4 cup cubed ham, 1/2 cup broccoli. 1 2mall tomato and 1/4 cup diced red onion. I sauteed all of the vegetables except the tomato, added the ham after the veggies were almost done. About 5 minutes. after adding the ham, I poured the beaten eggs over the top and mixed together. When the eggs ere done, I sprinkled a little Weight Watchers cheese added diced tomatoes and enjoyed the feast! I added a slice of whole wheat bread and 1/2 of a grapefruit. It was a great breakfast.

This was lunch. It is hard to measure my veggies on the salad. As most of them don't really add many calories, I just counted the crab. It is imitation crab and 1/2 cup is 100 calories. The green olives are 25 calories each. I ate one and did not like it so gave the rest of them to Ron. The dressing was non fat. I don't remember what kind it was.


It was good, but I am not really in a salad mood yet so this did not 'fill the spot' for me today. I think maybe because it is so cold outside (snowy) and a cold salad was too cold.



Dinner was nothing special. Some of my grandchildren came over and so I ended up just throwing something together. Nothing that was low fat I fear. I did go to a baby shower and a birthday party today and I did not eat any of the goodies. So that is good.


Sunday's Menu will is up in the air right now. Church is at 9, and then my family is coming over for dinner and I will be cooking when I get home from church. Then we will have a baby blessing (my new grandson) and then I will be going to a choir practice for the temple choir. I don't know how I will have time to take care of my dietary needs tomorrow. This is really program to eat sensibly so I will have to see how I do in the 'real world' and 'real family' situation.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Drum Roll Please...............

OK, today is the big weigh in for me. As of this morning, I weigh 186. I have lost 5 pounds and 5 inches. Not bad. I can live with that.
In the last 2 days, I have had a lot of left overs to eat and with temple day yesterday, I did not have time to cook anything. So today, I will cook.
On the menu is:

Breakfast: Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Fritata
Lunch:Crab Salad
Dinner: Mexican Pork with Rice

I will be back with pictures tonight. Ü

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

On the Menu for Thursday-

Breakfast: Crepes (I made the extra batter into the crepes this morning and froze them. I wanted to test the 'leftovers' out and see how they taste.
Lunch: Taco Rice Casserole
Dinner: Left over Ham & Bean Soup

This Ham & Bean Soup was Sooooo Good! and only 208 calories per 1 1/2 cup serving.



This is some of the best soup that I have ever made. I soaked 16 ounces of Northern Great Beans this morning until noon and then put them in a pot with a ham bone that I had left over from Christmas Dinner. I cooked them all afternoon needing to add water about 3 times until about 4:00. When the beans were done, I removed the bone, and took off the ham and added about 2 cups more of the leftover ham. (I had it frozen since Christmas). Anyway, I added 1 cup of chopped green onions and 1 clove of crushed garlic. It was so good. I was going to add white onions, but I found some chopped green onions that Jennifer had chopped for me. I have never added green onions to soup before, but I will do it again and make it a permanent part of this recipe. Did I mention that it was good? Ron loved it too.!


The bread turned out good too. I just used my regular bread recipe exchanging whole wheat flour for the white flour and honey for the sugar.



Whole Wheat Bread - 120 calories per serving (each loaf sliced into 10 pieces)


2 cups warm water


4 1/2 -5 cups flour


2 TB instant yeast


1/4 cup honey


1/3 cup instant dry milk


1 egg


1 tsp salt


1. Mix warm water and 1 cup flour in mixing bowl.


2.Add egg, powdered milk, salt and honey. Mix well.


3. Add yeast and the rest of the flour. Mix until not sticky.


4. let rise until double in size


5. make into 2 loaves of bread, put into bread pans sprayed with Pam






The Enchilada Casserole was great for lunch.

Maybe I am more hungry this afternoon, but the microwaved Enchilada Casserole was GREAT! Let me know if you want the recipe. I think I will make it again.

3 Crepes at 42 calories each and Fresh Fruit Topping at 20 Calories per serving. Total Calories for a good filling breakfast....186. I can live with!

The Crepes were very good and easy to do. I will make this again.....very soon actually as I do have left over batter. With only 2 of us it is hard to eat all of the food in only 1 or 2 sittings. I tried to persuade a friend of mine to come this morning, but I asked to late. She was already eating. Ron said that he is not a Crepe fan and that it just tasted like a lot of fruit. But I thought mine tasted yummy!

Again, the recipe is from 'Recipe's to Lower Your Fat Thermostat'. That is one of the 2 recipe books that I took with me to Bear Lake to plan my meals for the week.
Here are the recipes for the crepes and fresh fruit sauce:
CREPES (page 332) I halved this recipe this morning.
4 egg whites
1 1/2 cup skim milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg yolk

1. Beat egg whites until they stand in stiff peaks. Set aside.
2. Whisk remaining ingredients together. Fold in egg whites.
3. If there is time, allow batter to sit in the refrigerator for 2 hours before cooking. (I did not have time to do this)
4. Heat a non-stick skillet. Spoon 2 tablespoons batter into the pan. Tilt to thinly coat pan.*
When cooked on one side, carefully peel the crepe from pan and turn over. Cook on second side and remove from pan.
5. Place squares of waxed paper between finished crepes to prevent sticking together. Cover to keep warm.
6. Fill these with yogurt, fresh fruit or other low fat fillings.
7. Hint: Crepes may be prepared a day ahead and frozen with waxed paper between each crepe. This will save time when you need to use them. Allow them to thaw at room temperature. Use as you would freshly made crepes.

Yield: 14 6" crepes 42 calories per crepe

*My batter was so thick that it did not thinly coat, I had to spread. I then added a little more milk so it would spread easier)

Fresh Fruit Topping
2 C Fresh Fruit
2 T cornstarch
1/2 C Water

1. Chop fruit into large pieces.
2. Whisk cornstarch into cool water and bring to boil.
3. Add 1 cup of fruit and bring to boil again.
4. Immediately remove from heat and add remaining fruit. Leave last cup of fruit uncooked. Serve hot or cold.

Yield: 2 1/2 cups = 10 servings 20 calories per serving




Tuesday, January 4, 2011

ENCHILADA CASSEROLE 218 Calories per serving

This Recipe was also from "Recipes to Lower Your Fat Thermostat". page 238

It was OK. I don't think kids would like it a lot and if people in your family have to have meat in their dinners, they will not like it for a main dish. It was very labor intensive, more time than I like to put in to such a simple just 'OK' dish. But, all in all, the taste was good, it is healthy, and fit in the calorie count that I am looking for.

When I asked Ron (my husband) if he liked it, the first thing he said was "somethings missing". I didn't tell him and after the next bite he said, "meat". We both thought it would taste better with meat. Maybe I can find a recipe that calls for meat that is low in calorie. I will start searching. Will I make this again? probably not. After saying that, I will not add the recipe (because it is so long) unless someone asks for it. So if you are interested, let me know.

Tomorrow's menu:
Breakfast:Crepes with fruit filling (I have never made crepes before)
Lunch: Left over Enchiladas
Dinner: Ham and Bean Soup with homemade whole wheat bread.