Dec 222011
 

The extra calories in most baked potatoes we eat comes from the sour cream and butter we slather on. Try this recipe instead. Photo courtesy Simon Howden, Free Digital Photos.

 

 

 

 

 

This recipe adds a hot, satisfying 6 to 7 ounces to your meal at only about 200 calories. Try it with two eggs for a 380-calorie breakfast.

 

 

 

 

Baked potatoes don’t always have to be the Idaho variety, try the red and golden ones too.

Ingredients

1 Medium (6 oz) baked potato (about 2¼” to 3¼” in diameter)      161 calories

2 Tbls Nonfat sour cream      20 calories

2 Tbls chopped chives or chopped onion     2 calories

1 Tbls Bacon bits      25 calories

Directions

Poke holes in the potato so you don’t coat the inside of your microwave with potato.

Microwave the potato on high for 6 minutes.

Slice open the top and push in on the ends to make a white fluffy pillow.

Spoon the nonfat sour cream on top.

Add as much chopped chives or onion as you want. You don’t have to stay with 2 tablespoons, chives and onions are on the Sexy Beast Diet eat-all-you-want list.

Sprinkle with the bacon bits and chow down.

Approximately 200 calories

 

Dec 152011
 

Store-bought cucumbers often are waxed. Scrub off this wax before grating. Photo by Anankkml.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This cool, tasty concoction works great when served with raw veggies as a hors d’ oeuvre or try it as a salad dressing. Don’t even think of using it with potato chips.

 1 8-inch cucumber      45

1 cup plain nonfat yogurt       110

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 5

Grate the unpeeled cucumber and drain until nearly dry. Combine the ingredients, folding the cucumber into the yogurt.

As a dip, a half-cup serving is 75 calories Used as salad dressing, a quarter-cup is 38 calories

Dec 032011
 

This image is from a 16th century Florentine codex. Common lore says it portrays an Aztec woman blowing on maize as she pours it into a cooking pot so the maize won’t fear the heat. This is very pleasant and I do so love myths, but she is obviously spitting on the maize because her Sexy Beast is late coming back from the daily hunt.

 

 

 

 

 

Maize and Soy Chorizo

Maize, a large, colorful corn is finding quite a following on trendy dinner tables. Developed by prehistoric people from a wild grain native to Southern Mexico, Maize was known by the ancients as a “gift from the gods.” While it may be faddish today, the Aztecs and Mayans friended maize thousands of years before anyone thought to dedicate a Facebook page to it: on.fb.me/oECavw.

I particularly like Teasdale’s (bit.ly/oBP2vO)  Maiz Morado brand, which you can buy in big 29-ounce cans. If you can’t find Maize on your grocer’s shelf, hominy is an acceptable substitute.

Soy chorizo, with 60 percent less fat and less than half the calories, is an outstanding substitute for regular chorizo.

Ingredients:

Maize or hominy (canned): 9 ounces (1 cup)  —180 calories

Soy chorizo:  2 ounces  —90 calories

Part skim milk mozzarella cheese: 1 ounce  —72 calories

 Total: 12 ounces  —342 calories

 Instructions:

Crumble soy chorizo into a non-stick frying pan. Add the drained Maize or hominy. Cook over high heat until the chorizo is brown and slightly crisp. Dump the chorizo and maize on a plate and sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.

 Wine:

Syrah or another big red wine.