3rd Mar 2010
I can’t believe the new year is here and I didn’t even post a blog the whole entire month of February! YIKES! I’m behind!
A lot is going on - but that’s no excuse. I’ve been finishing my book and creating new recipes and I have a few more irons in the fire for TV appearances so who knows what will be up in 2010.
My friend and confidant (and fellow RFP) Carol T from Biloxi, MS sent me an email a couple of days ago about Mississippi and how overweight the state is. I then turned on the TV show RUBY that I recorded from last week and Ruby is going to Biloxi, MS to see if she can remember her childhood and maybe connect why she is so overweight. As Ruby travels through Mississippi she stops at various places to eat and at each stop she is hit with Southern Fried Comfort Food like no body’s business. I know all the dishes and how they smell and taste. BUT I now know how to cook them in a way that doesn’t make me gain all my weight back. Carol’s email was about how she and her husband had gone out to eat at one of the Casinos and she was the only normal weight person in the restaurant. Not surprising…
I don’t know how I can show people the way I cook but I’m determined to do it. I could cook for Ruby and she wouldn’t have had to say NO to everything on her trip to Mississippi. The South is so notorious for cooking with butter, sugar and for frying everything - and I mean if we could figure out a way to fry tap water I think we’d do it. I mean, back in the day I even fried my own potato chips.
There is a way to prepare food so you don’t have to live a life of NO. Let’s face it we can say no when people are around, but something takes over when it’s just me alone in my kitchen with my friend the refrigerator. Fat Kitty knows all my buttons to push.
Make sure, if this is you, that you have good choices around when that voice comes calling for you. Mississippi is number one in obesity, but it doesn’t have to be that way forever. I’m sorry we even have that as a statistic but every year that goes by, as the country gets fatter, we have more fat statistics. I was reading the other day about when portions started getting larger and it was 1970, when they first started to increase. No secret that was the same year we had an explosion of fast food joints. By 1976 obesity was on the rise. So, it’s not hard to put 2 and 2 together here. I was plump in 1970, but not fat until the late 1970’s so I fit right into this trend. I’m just another test rat the fast food industry is playing with. I got super sized portions and my body super sized along with it.
So, Carol if you’re reading this, I understand your concern, but as we both know you have to be ready to hear information before you can act on it. For years I turned a blind eye (and fork) to my weight and food issues. As I watch Rudy on her TV show try to find the answer to why she overeats I wonder if she’s ever considered this. Maybe she does, just because she does. Maybe there isn’t a dark horrible answer to why each of us stuffs our mouths full of food that is bad for us. Maybe we just do this like someone else who likes to paint with water colors. Maybe we just do because we just do. I have quit trying to find the answer because in all my searching it never helped me lose weight and keep it off. Accepting that maybe this is just a part of me (meaning my desire to overeat) that will never change has helped me more than any other single thing. It allowed me to create my recipes and enjoy them without guilt. NO guilt, that’s what I want. And I wish you the same happy life. If you never lose weight, you are beautiful - remember that. Simply beautiful.
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14th Jan 2010
What a great experience this radio show is turning out to be. I set out to help people change their lives if they have food or weight issues - but this show helps me just as much. This morning right before we started Seth said he forgot to play a request for a lady and could we play it during the show. Of course I was fine with that but I had no idea what the song was - It was “Lord I Hope This Day Is Good” by Don Williams, which is just about one of the greatest all time country songs EVER! As I listened to it play I thought this is what we all struggle for and hope for - a good day. Lord just let this day be good and let me be good and eat well and nourish my body in a non-destructive way. My whole day started at that moment. It was already a good day but that song sent it through the roof.
And I hope if you’re reading this that you’re having a good day too. I wish that for you everyday.
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20th Dec 2009
72 calories each! AND HERE’S THE RECIPE! You’ll need:
1 Cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 Cup Self-rising flour
1/2 Cup Whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1 T Splenda for baking
1 egg
1 1/2 Cup skim milk
1/2 Cup chopped onion
4 Chopped green onions
4 chopped Jalapenos
Butter flavored cooking spray
Large skillet and spatula
Mix all dry ingredients together well. Add egg and milk and mix thoroughly. Add onions and Jalapenos and mix (and this is optional if you don’t want them spicy, plain they’re very delicious too). Spray skillet with butter flavored cooking spray (you’ll do this in between each batch you cook) Turn your heat to medium and allow the skillet to heat up. Drop by spoonful a portion of the mix onto the cooking surface, like pancakes, and I used a large skillet so cooked four of these at a time. Once the cake bubbles through, again like a pancake, flip and cook until golden brown on each side. The diameter of each should be between 3-4 inches each. This recipe will give you at least 17 cakes each - so once prepared you can store in a baggie what you don’t eat for the next day. And these will freeze too.
I ate mine plain, but my son used the sugar free Smucker’s Apricot jelly and made sugar free syrup. (To make this all you have to do is place about 1/4 cup of any sugar free jelly in a microwave bowl and pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds on high and it becomes instant syrup)
So enjoy!!! REALLY delicious and can you believe 72 calories each.
Here’s the total breakdown..
Calories 72, Fat 0g, Fiber 1g, carbs 14g
Now go enjoy!!!
Happy Holidays,
Kitty
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17th Dec 2009
Last week during my radio show, “Seth and Kitty Weighing In” (which is every Thursday morning at 8:00 am on WONA in Winona, MS with Seth Kent) I had a listener call in to see if I could convert a family peanut butter cookie recipe to a lower calorie version of the same thing. The original recipe was 118 calories per cookie so it was pretty high. These are 90 per cookie so almost saved 30 calories per cookie. And HERE IT IS! I call them CashNut Brown Sugar Cookies! Check out the pic above!
They have, per each cookie - 90 calories - 10.4 grams of fat (but that’s only 2g Saturated Fat) - 1.3g of fiber and 8.5 carbs. And this is how you make them:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees - then mix together -
1 Cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 Cup Splenda brown sugar blend
2 Medium eggs whites
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tesp baking soda
And you’ll need 12 whole cashews to top them for baking. 1/2 for each cookie..
Once everything is mixed well drop by spoon onto a nonstick baking sheet (Don’t use any cooking spray. I tried it on a few and they burnt on the bottom.) I got 24 cookies out of the recipe. After they are all on the sheet take a cashew half and press it down in the cookie. The original recipe for these cookies says they will melt down and become more cookie shaped but this recipe they didn’t do that so you’ll need to press them down slightly. Bake for 25 minutes but check after 20 to make sure they are not too done.
Then enjoy. In my mind 28 calories saved on a cookie means I can have 4 cookies instead of 3. I mean who in the heck eats one cookie?! They probably aren’t reading this blog because they more than likely don’t have food or weight issues…like I do.
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7th Dec 2009
This is the subject we talked about on the radioshow, “Seth and Kitty Weighing In” on WONA last Thursday and I felt it deserved a blog.
Should you or shouldn’t you even attempt this? I mean there are so many temptations around this time of year and a feeling of deprivation could take over easily if you start saying NO to everything. I know that I was always afraid of the Holidays. I knew what I was capable of regarding food, so as Halloween ended and I saw Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching - I would almost panic wondering what kind of mischief Fat Kitty would get me in to this year. She rarely let me down. So I’d come out on the other end of January ALWAYS heavier.
So is it a good idea to actually diet as the Holidays approach? That’s a question only you can answer but I do have some thoughts on what you can do.
I was always afraid of failure, so rather than all out diet during this time of year, maybe pick a few days each week that you know you’ll be strong on. I have already done that and mine are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. If you wonder why I didn’t put Wednesday in there, well this is because I know myself so well now - and I know that if I put too many days together in a row I might feel trapped and do something I shouldn’t. Now this doesn’t mean I plan to overeat on Wednesday - it just means I am giving myself that day to think about it. And I don’t even plan to overeat on the other remaining days, but what I have discovered is that if I give myself the chance to stay focused and not put too much pressure on myself, I’m more likely to not eat wrong any day of the week.
So this works for me and I thought I should share it because it might not be something you thought about. In the days to come, heading up to Christmas, I’ll share more tips of what I do during the Holidays, to stay on track. My recipes have made my life so doable - but I don’t kid myself that the grocery stores full of candy canes don’t have a pull on me. They do and I still have to enter them to buy the food I do eat.
If you are struggling - write me with your struggle and I’ll try to figure a way to help you too. Losing weight is not easy and keeping it off is even harder - but it IS something you can do. I failed my whole life till now - so if you feel like one more try is more than you want to attempt during the Holidays, why not try just one day a week - then add another day you feel you’ll be strong - a month might go by and you’ll wake up and you’re strong more days than you’re not. We have been programmed to think that dieting and losing weight is all or nothing. Well, how well is that working out for our nation that is 66% overweight or obese? Not so good I fear.
My way is certainly food for thought - pun intended.
Happy Holidays!
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20th Nov 2009
In an effort to help you through the holidays in a low cal way - I have a gravy that I make that I totally forgot to share…and it’s so close to the real thing you simply won’t believe it!
1. Pour 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and turn your heat on high.
2. Add 1 cup chopped onion
3. Add 1 T powdered Chicken Bouillon (I use Maggi brand) 1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning and dust with ground black pepper and stir and bring to a boil.
4. When the onion is slightly clear add 1 1/2 T whole wheat flour.
(I’ve tried this with all purpose white and whole wheat and there is no difference in taste and the whole wheat is darker so more the look of real gravy.)
This will become a thick paste and let it cook a minute or two.
5. Slowly add water till it becomes the consistency you desire for gravy. I like mine thick but I know many who like it thin…so that’s a matter of your own taste. (if you like it salty add more chicken bouillon but be careful not to add too much. Taste as you go - it’s low in calories so no such things as too many taste tests)
At this point the entire recipe has roughly 55 calories if you ate all of it.
BUT - in order to make this as much like real gravy as possible I add 1 boiled chopped egg and 1/2 cup chopped chicken (or in this case for Thanksgiving some chopped turkey)
And good cooks have their own touches they’ll add to this and I’d LOVE to know some of them and if this works for you!! (I’ve know people to add celery, green onion - all kinds of things)
The ONLY drawback is there might be some tiny lumps. Both kinds of flour make some so the white does it too. My guess is that the grease helps break that down in real gravy. But once you add all the ingredients you won’t notice and I have a hard time telling the difference.
This recipe allows you to eat the entire bowl of gravy! NO GUILT!!!
And tomorrow I’ll post DIET CRANBERRY SAUCE!!! ENJOY!
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1st Nov 2009
Only 50 calories, 3g fat, 11g fiber and 3 carbs per 1/2 cup! And this is a photo!
And this is how you make it!
Add one tablespoon of powdered chicken bouillon to a large pot of water and turn it on high. Boil the heck out of one medium to large head of cauliflower (of course, wash it and cut off the stem and break it apart into 5-6 hunks).
At the same time boil 4 eggs, peal and chop.
Once the cauliflower is VERY tender (that’s how I like it anyway - but once you make this a few times you will make it your own) drain it and put it in a large bowl - add the eggs and then add 1/4 cup fat free mayonnaise, 2 tsp regular yellow mustard, 2 T sweet pickle relish, 2 green onions chopped finely and then season with Lawry’s seasoned salt, garlic salt and pepper to taste. (I am going to add a few pieces of crispy turkey bacon the next time I make this and some celery too. The turkey bacon will add only a few calories when split into servings.)
As you stir this the cauliflower breaks apart and you’d swear you’re working with real potatoes - and you will not believe how much like REAL potato salad this is.
One note! I made this yesterday and I just ate what you see in the photo above (which is 1 cup) and it was much tastier the second day so make this in advance and that was the secret thing that made it an exact match to real potato salad. All the ingredients had a night to flavor each other and WOW! Simply delicious.
Imagine having a cup of potato salad for lunch - I just did - and it’s full of fiber, protein and only 100 calories. I may have more!
This recipe made seven 1/2 cup servings. That will depend on the size of the head of cauliflower - but should be close everytime.
Now go enjoy the once forbidden and now welcome - FAUX POTATO SALAD!!!
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26th Oct 2009
I just made DIET Fried Catfish and if you love fried catfish like I do - YOU HAVE TO MAKE THIS AS SOON AS POBBILE!!!
Look at this! And it tastes as great as it looks!
in a gallon baggie put …
1 - cup cornmeal
1 - cup whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons Lawry’s seasoned salt
2 Tablespoons Garlic salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground thyme
…and shake this a lot so that it is well mixed.
Take your catfish filets and if they are big or long cut them into medium sized pieces.
Dip the pieces in skim milk.
Then drop about four pieces at a time into the gallon baggie and shake until the dry batter mix covers them completely.
Lay the pieces on a paper plate and spray generously with butter flavored cooking spray.
Take those same pieces and lay them on a raised grill that you make on a baking pan, butter flavor sprayed side down. In the photo above you’ll see that I used skewers at the top of the photo and they lay across the pan perpendicular. Once the fish is on the raised grill (butter side down) spray the remaining side with butter flavored cooking spray so that the fish is sprayed on both sides equally.
I also used a grill that came with my toaster oven to raise the fish above the pan too. You can see it in the photo as well.
The secret to making this just like real fried catfish is raising it above the surface of the pan. If it lays on the flat surface - the fish juices up.
I baked mine 25 minutes on 350 and then my husband made a low cal (40 calories for the whole recipe) tartar sauce:
4 T fat free mayo
1 T dill pickle juice
dash of Kosher salt
dash of Worcestershire
1/2 tesp horseradish
and the totals on 1/4 of the whole batch of fish in the photo - and that’s a lot of fish-
217 calories
3g fat
1g fiber
18 carbs
I looked up Popeyes Fried Catfish and the same amount of their fried fish is 410 calories..
Neil, my husband, with eyes about to fall out of his head - said I can’t tell that this is not FRIED catfish. I couldn’t either…it was wonderful, so if you cook this is a real winner and VERY healthy!
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17th Oct 2009
You can make them yourself now for only 70 calories each! (and NO fat!)
You don’t have to look for the low cal whole wheat tortillas anymore. Neil and I made some this morning. I took a photo of mine and the kind from the grocery that has 120 calories side by side and there’s not much difference. can you tell which is which? See photos below
Here’s how you make them.
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup skim milk
Spray your skillet with butter flavored cooking spray and mix all items in a medium sized mixing bowl (I used a fork to whip it till smooth) Get your skillet hot but you don’t turn it to high - that’s too hot - and pour your batter on the skillet till you have about 4 inches (diameter circle) of batter - then and this is key - lift up your skillet and tilt it in a circular fashion until the batter spreads out and covers a greater space and it will expand to about 7 inches. Once it is firm flip it and cook till desired brownness. I turned off the stove in between each one and resprayed with cooking spray. This recipe makes 8. I also made a dessert crepe using this same recipe except instead of salt I added 3 Tablespoons of Splenda. I spread 2 T FF Cream cheese and 1 T sugar free Smuckers strawberry jam and rolled it up and wow was that good.
And here’s the comparison in a photo. Mine has 50 less calories and ZERO fat!
Love,
Kitty
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12th Oct 2009
I made a magnificent discovery this weekend!!! I made a southwest dressing that knocked my own socks off! And it’s so low in calories I had 1/4 cup on my salad with NO guilt!
It might be a while before I post the recipe so here it is.
1 cup fat free mayonnaise (10 calories per T)
1 cup skim milk
3 T dry taco seasoning (the kind of dry seasoning you add to beef when you make Tacos.
And mix well. This was absolutely delicious and I think it’s my new favorite thing! I made a Chipotle Fried Chicken Salad (using my faux Fried Chicken - 4 ounces of it ) and had 7 Sun Chips for some crunch. I felt I was at Out Back Steak House have a really decadent salad with all the trimmings.
And can you imagine this as a dipping sauce for shrimp! WOW!
So - go make yourself some. It’s easy, delicious and LIGHT!
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