Track Those Points
January 31, 2008I’m back on the healthy eating wagon and following Weight Watchers again. But, one of my key goals is to still enjoy great food and to learn some flavor-filled, low-fat cooking techniques along the way. To that end, I expect at least half of my posts for the next several months will have a healthy focus and for most of my posts I’ll include Weight Watchers point values because, well, I’m calculating them already and why horde information?
In the last couple of weeks I’ve discovered My Recipes is a great source for healthy cooking for a couple of reasons:
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Their database includes recipes from both Cooking Light and Health magazines. While I consistently have to up the spice levels on any recipe I use from either of these magazines, both do a good job of producing interesting, varied recipes that I can use as a platform.
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They include nutrition information for a large majority of their recipes. This helps me identify “point-friendly” recipes when I’m shopping for new recipe ideas, and makes calculating point values very easy. If a recipe doesn’t have nutrition information I can always use the recipe builder on the Weight Watcher’s site, but hey, why do the extra work if I don’t have to?
I’m also on the hunt for cook books, blogs, and other sources of point-friendly recipes, which I will share as I come across them. One of my current favorite cookbooks is Fresh: Healthy Cooking and Living from Lake Austin Spa Resort
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Love and use frequently high-taste, low calorie flavors like herbs, spices, and vinegars in place of a lot of fat to create flavor.
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Use fat wisely and only when necessary. I’m a big, big, big fan of olive oil, and can (and have) slathered it on everything. But, the sheer act of paying closer attention to how much I’m actually using has shown me how many unnecessary calories I’ve taken in without huge flavor benefit. I try to make sure now when I do use fat I use it for maximum flavor impact and not just because.
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Think outside the box. Make grilled pizza on low-fat pitas, mix noodles into a salad to get a carb fix but let the greens provide the bulk of the meal, and put more things in soup are just a few examples.
Here’s to happy and healthy eating!
You might have come across these already, and I mainly use them for general healthy-ness not actual point totals, but they do have nutrtional info. DrWeil.com has recipes that are focused on lower-fat, lower-glycemic index type eating. EatingWell.com is an excellent resource as well. Epicurious has an RSS feed of Healthy Recipes. I haven’t cooked a ton of them and one time they had this white bean stew that was like 600+ calories a serving (?!?!?!?) but it might also be a start. http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/healthy
Mexican Light by Martha Rose Shulman has a lot of very flavorful recipes and also some interesting techniques for lightening up Mexican food. I’ve had it for years and return to it over and over (Chipotle Mushroom Quesadillas – best thing I’ve ever made).
[...] everydayfoodie wrote an interesting post today on Track Those PointsHere’s a quick excerptI’m back on the healthy eating wagon and following Weight Watchers again. But, one of my key goals is to still enjoy great food and to learn some flavor-filled, low-fat cooking techniques along the way. To that end, I expect at least … [...]
hey, I read some of your comments re: Steiner food, etc, etc, etc…having eaten, travelled and lived around this country — my thought is…you cannot “expect” such from a “Master Planned Community” – much to ALL of our chagrin…it shall never be ( for example) “La Dolce Vita” in Carmel…unfortunate as it is…. :>