Thursday, September 23, 2010

Can’t diet? Try recipes that turn comfort foods into healthy dishes

If Mandy Potter said you could lose weight and eat healthier without giving up the foods you love, would you believe her?

“Most people don’t, until they taste my food,” says the author of Cooking with Healthy Girl: Everyday Recipes Made Healthy. “Then they say, ‘Give me your recipe!’"

Potter’s full-color cookbook contains such family favorites as Green Bean Casserole, with fewer calories and less sugar, fats, carbs and cholesterol than even the Campbell’s Fat-Free or Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom Soup versions.

Or Peanut Butter Cookies, made by Potter with just 3 tablespoons’ butter and 1/2 cup of sugar, compared to the Jif Peanut Butter Press Cookies that are made with 1/4 cup of butter and 1 cup sugar.

“It’s amazing how, when you start taking away all the oil and butter, you can bring out more of the food’s flavor," Potter says.

She got started on her quest to find healthier ways to cook the food she loves when she struggled to lose weight following the birth of twins in 2003.

“Dieting didn’t work for me, and it doesn’t work for most people because we end up craving the foods we’re not supposed to eat,” Potter says. “And most cookbooks for eating healthier include ingredients I can’t find in my small-town grocery store.”

In exasperation, and to cook food her family wanted to eat, she began experimenting with ways to make the same dishes she’d always made, but with more nutritional value. Making them taste like the original dishes was paramount; without that, she knew her plan wouldn’t work. She averages three attempts to convert a recipe to a healthy version that tastes the same.

Besides the cookbook, Potter shares tips and videos at www.cookingwithhealthygirl.com. Each recipe has been painstakingly researched for its nutritional value. The back of the book lists staples available in any grocery store and a four-week menu.

Potter invites reviews. Simply try three recipes from the cookbook, then post your review at www.cookingwithhealthygirl.com.

About the author:
Mandy Potter lives in Farmington (near St. Louis), Mo., with her husband and twin children, who are “always underfoot in the kitchen.” Using her “everyday recipes for healthy cooking,” she lost 85 pounds and is teaching her children how and why to eat healthy.

Cooking with Healthy Girl: Everyday Recipes Made Healthy
By Mandy Potter
ISBN: 9781449073428
© Mandy Potter, July 2010
Published by AuthorHouse
Photos by Miesner Photography
Softcover: 8½ x 8½ color
Retail price: $29.99
Available at www.cookingwithhealthygirl.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com

1 comment:

Indian Restaurant Fan said...

Instead of dieting, it makes sense to make the food what we eat more healthier and nutritious with help of small tweaks or adjustments to our cooking style and the ingredients.