Cook Yourself Thin Hosts Cut Calorie Counts

Favorite Foods Made More Waistline Friendly on Lifetime TV

May 21, 2009

The hosts of Cook Yourself Thin taught a guest to cut the calories in favorite foods, including chocolate chip muffins, chicken caesar salad and spaghetti and meatballs.

The hottest new Lifetime TV is a cooking show that teaches guests and viewers how to lower the fat and calories in favorite foods, how they can eat foods they enjoy while whittling the waistline. Very often some adjustments in the ingredients and cooking techniques can make a big difference in nutrition and calorie count.

Cook Yourself Thin

The guest on the fifth episode, Katie, was shocked when the cooking mavens pronounced her favorite foods: chocolate chip muffin, Caesar salad and spaghetti and meatballs served up a whopping 3,000 calories. The hosts of Cook Yourself Thin were able to cut the calories county of this high calorie assortment of favorite foods down to 1,260 calories.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Muffins were modified by adding oats to the muffin batter. The oats served to make the muffins more filling and satisfying. A mashed up banana was used instead of the oil in the recipe. A little bit of vegetable oil was added for moisture. Buttermilk, low in fat, was used instead of milk. The batter also included eggs and sugar. Chocolate chips were added on top, reducing the number of chocolate chips from the usual recipe. The original muffin was 900 calories and the modified muffin was 200 calories.

Chicken Caesar Salad

The chefs pointed out that the chicken Caesar salad is a meal that sounds virtuous, but that the typical Caesar dressing in high in fat. They coated chicken breasts ith a light coating of olive oil and put them in the oven to back.

They made croutons out of wheat bread, because the whole wheat is healthier than white bread. The bread was sliced and put into the oven with the chicken. When they took the bread out of the oven it was rubbed with a fresh slice of garlic clove.The next step was to boil the egg, which they said needed to be exactly six minutes.

The dressing was made by putting the Olive oil in the bottom of the bowl, which was the key in order to keep control of the amount of oil. The dressing consisted of Greek yoghurt, Olive oil and

)They cut up the arugula lettuce (more flavorful than mild lettuce).. The components of the meal were placed in an attractive arrangement, with a chicken breast, lettuce with dressing and croutons and a half boiled egg on the plate.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

The cooks cut the caloric count of this popular dish by cutting the amount of pasta, using low fat meats and cooking the meatballs in the sauce instead of frying them.

The cooks started the meatballs by soaking day old breadcrumbs in water. The meatballs were made of turkey, veal and pork. The experts stated that most people cut calories by going right to turkey, but that loses flavor. They added an egg, onion and a half cup of Parmesan cheese, the bread crumbs and mixed. Small meatballs were formed and dropped into the simmering tomato sauce. The balls were tiny, so they only needed to be cooked for a half hour. The sauce was made from scratch with tomatoes, garlic and basil.

The cooks’ modifications dropped the calorie count from 1,110 calories to 560 calories.

Six Weeks Later With Katie

Six weeks later the show hosts visited Katie and found she had lost ten pounds and at least a dress size just by making the adjustments in the recipes. Katie said that they loved the new recipes and the food made the low fat way tasted better than the original recipes.

Cast of Cook Yourself Thin

The copyright of the article Cook Yourself Thin Hosts Cut Calorie Counts in Food TV is owned by Christine Nyholm. Permission to republish Cook Yourself Thin Hosts Cut Calorie Counts in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.