Who doesn’t love quiches? I can’t think of a single person I know who would qualify for that dubious honor. But I can definitely think of plenty of people who stay the hell away from the stuff because they’re so high on the calories! Yup, that’s the simple truth about quiches, all that wheat (read carbs!), and cheese (read Fat) can definitely not be good for you! Plus, if you’re on a perpetual diet like me, then this is definitely something you should stay away from.

Or do you? Despite being a fitness freak, I’m a connoisseur of good food and so I have devoted considerable time to “making over” certain traditional foods and favorites so that they have a lower amount of calories than their conventional version. Yet, no compromise on taste is made.

Yup, you got that right – they taste great and are pretty low on the calories as well, so give my version of quiches (without the crust!) a try, you definitely won’t regret it!

Ingredients

Sliced Mushrooms – 8 ounces
Chicken or Turkey Sausages (breakfast), all crumbled up and removed for their casing -8 ounces
Swiss cheese, shredded – 1/4th cup
Scallions, sliced – 1/4th cup
Eggs – 5
Extra-virgin olive oil- 1 tsp
Egg whites – 3
Freshly ground pepper -1 tsp
1% milk – 1 cup

Method

• Prepare your oven, by positioning the rack right at the center and heating it to three hundred and twenty five degrees. Take a nonstick muffin tin or mould and generously grease it with non fat cooking spray.

• Heat an appropriately sized non stick skillet at medium high temperatures and then put the sausages into the skillet and cook them until they turn a shade of golden brown. This generally takes between six to eight min. After this is done, transfer them to a bowl and let them cool.

• Put oil into the pan, add the mushrooms and then cook them, do ensure to stir them. Keep doing this until they too turn golden brown. This takes anywhere between five to seven min. Then transfer the cooked mushrooms to the same bowl as the sausage pieces and cool the mixture for about five min. add the cheese, pepper and scallions and stir well.

• In the meanwhile, in an appropriately sized bowl, whisk in the egg whites as well as the eggs and milk. Thereafter, divide this prepared mixture equally among the muffin moulds and add a generous tablespoon of the sausage and mushroom mixture to each of the muffin cups.

• Then bake until the tops the quiches just begin to attain a brown shade. This generally takes about twenty-five minutes. Then cook the prepared quiches on a mushroom rack and then place a rack right above the pan and flip it, turning the prepared quiches over. Thereafter turn them the right side up and cool before digging in!

Combine chicken with beer and what do you get? An awesome recipe for bar be cued chicken which is sure to have you begging for more. The fact that each serving is less than 200 calories makes this an extremely attractive recipe for those looking to shed weight the healthy way! Yeah, beer and chicken AND weight loss! Master stroke, isn’t it?

Ingredients

Whole Chicken – 4 lb
Dried Organo – 2 tsp
Beer (pale ale) – 1 bottle, 12 ounces
Ground Cumin – 1 tsp
Paprika (smoked) – 1 tbsp
Onion powder- ½ tsp
Chipotle chile (ground) – ½ tsp
Dark brown sugar- 1 tsp, packed
Salt- 1 and ½ tsp
Grlic powder- ½ tsp
Pepper, preferable, freshly ground- ½ tsp

Method

• Prepare your gas grill, by preheating it to 400 degrees.

• In an appropriately sized bowl, put in all the spices and seasonings – paprika, pepper, salt, chipotle chile, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin as well as oregano and mix well so that they form a uniform mixture.

• Prepare the chicken by removing the giblets and trim it of any additional skin. Thereafter, loosen the skin in the thigh and breast region and rub the mixture of spices under the skin. Do so a little under the skin and make sure it is inside the cavity formed by loosening the skin. Proceed to tuck the wings under the body and then tie the two legs to one another with a piece of string.

• Turn off one of the burners in your gas grill and then carefully insert a drip pan underneath the grill rack towards the unheated side. Then, place the chicken breast, with its side facing downwards on the rack, right over the pan and follow it up by pouring half the beer into the cavity formed by loosening the skin.

• Thereafter, close and roast for at least 45 minutes, to tenderize the chicken.

• Turn the roasted chicken to the other side and then pour the remaining beer into the cavity and repeat the roasting process for a similar period of time. A good indication that the roasting is done, is when a thermometer inserted into the thickest portion of the thigh, registers a temperature of 165 degrees (without making contact with the bone).

• Then, transfer the cooked chicken onto a cutting board, cool for about ten minutes and then remove the string before you proceed to carve it! All done!

Shrimp and mango makes for an unlikely combination. In fact, every time I mention it to someone, their first reaction is to wrinkle their nose in distaste or something similar. But when I treat them to my special shrimp and Mango curry, their opinion changes almost instantaneously and I don’t mean to brag.

Shrimp and mango are two well loved ingredients. In fact, except for people who are allergic to prawns, I don’t know too many who don’t like them! And mango…it’s a delicacy in almost every country of the world! Combine the two and you get a perfect dish!

Ingredients

Chicken or vegetable stock – 1 cup
Peeled and Deveined prawns – 1 and ¼ lb
Peeled, diced and seeded tomato – 1
Lemon grass – 1 stalk (only the bottom four inches must be tendered)
White wine, dry – 2 tbsp
Diced Mango – ½ cup
Edmame, shelled – 1 cup
Coconut milk (light) – ½ cup
Cloves of garlic, minced – 3
Minced shallots – 1 and ½
Curry powder – 1 ½ tsp
Ground turmeric – 1 tsp
Fresh basil chiffonade – 2 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Olive oil – 2 tbsp
Fresh ginger, peeled and chopped – 2 tbsp
Ground coriander – ¼ tsp

Method

• Heat a tbsp of the oil in a saucepan at medium heat and then add ginger, shallots and the garlic. Sauté till it becomes fragrant, then add the curry powder, tomato and coriander and let it simmer for a minute.

• Put in Lemon grass, stick and the coconut milk and boil the mixture at high heat, following this lower heat and let it simmer for three minutes. Then remove from the heat.

• In a nonstick pan proceed to add the remaining olive oil at medium-high temperature. Then put in the shrimp and top with turmeric and cook for about three minutes. Thereafter, turn it and cook till it is cooked right through and not pale. Then transfer to a bowl.

• Follow this up by deglazing the pan with the white wine, scrape carefully to remove any brownish parts. Thereafter add the curry sauce and then raise temperatures to boil.

• Thereafter add edmame and cook till they attain a crisp texture, for about three minutes. Thereafter add shrimp to the pan and cook to allow flavor penetration. Then remove from heat and add the salt and mango. Stir well and then discard the lemon grass. Serve up, it’s yummy!

Chocolate cupcakes have always been a favorite of mine, ever since I was a little girl! I could never get enough of them and that’s probably the reason why I got into trouble in High School! Many crash diets and manic workout sessions later, I’ve managed to shed the pounds, but not my innate love for chocolate cup cakes! YUM!

Plus, it seems as though I’ve passed those greedy genes on to my kids as well, because they too cannot seem to get enough of the cupcakes which I make for them every Sunday, for breakfast! Try it with your kids, they’ll love it!

Ingredients

For The Cup Cakes
Cake Flour – ¾ Cup
Granulated Sugar – ¾ cup
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – ¾ Cup
Egg, Large – 1
Nonfat buttermilk – ½ cup
Chopped or Pitted Fresh Cherries- 1 and ½ cups
Cocoa Powder, unsweetened – ½ cup
Canola Oil – ¼ cup
Baking Soda – ½ tsp
Baking Powder – 1 and ½ tsp
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp

For Frosting

Reduced Fat, Cream Cheese – 6 ounces
Confectioner’s Sugar – ½ cup, packed
Reduced fat, Sour Cream – ½ cup

Method

• Prepare your oven by preheating it to 350 degrees and also line twelve cupcake moulds with paper liners.

• Sieve and mix the cocoa powder, the pastry and whole wheat flours and the baking powder, together with salt, in an appropriately sized bowl.

• In an appropriately sized mixing bowl, add the granulated sugar and the oil and beat using an electric mixer until the two ingredients are thoroughly combined. Add the egg and the vanilla extract until a homogenous mixture is formed and then, change the setting so that the mixer runs at low speed and gradually add the previously mixed dry ingredients, alternately, with the buttermilk. Do ensure that the process begins and ends with the dry ingredients. Mix until the ingredients are just combined. Then fold in the chopped cherries.

• Then divide the prepared batter among the muffin moulds till they’re full.

• Bake the cup cakes for a period of twenty-five minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Then transfer the cakes to a wire rack and cool completely.

• In order to make the frosting, use an electric mixer to beat the sour cream, the cream cheese and the sugar until a smooth, homogenous mixture is formed and then refrigerate until the frosting is chilled. Then spread it over the prepared cupcakes. Add a cherry or two for garnishing!

So you’re trying to lose weight. Trying to incorporate more veggies into your diet and motivating yourself to go through the entire ordeal by thinking about all the beautiful clothes you can buy after you’ve lost the requisite weight. Been there, done that, so I know exactly what you’re thinking and trust me, I’ve been miserable.

The initial optimism fizzles out after a couple of days and after that all that you end up feeling is deprives and not just deprived, but SUPER deprived! So what exactly is it that you have to do? Chucking the veggies and switching to beef once again is definitely not an option.

But making the veggies a bit interesting and great to taste is definitely on the cards! So get ready for this amazing vegetable stew recipe. Combine it with eggs (they’re allowed!) and be surprised at how great they taste.

Ingredients

Frozen stir fry veggies, seasoned with pepper – 3 cups
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil – 2 tsp
Paprika – according to taste
Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
Caraway seeds – ½ tsp
Diced tomatoes – 28 ounces
Can of Chickpeas – 1, 19 ounce (rinse them thoroughly before use)
Eggs – 4
Cayenne pepper – 1/8th tsp
Salt – According to taste
Minced Cloves of garlic – 4
Freshly ground pepper – according to taste

Method:

• In an appropriately sized non stick skillet, heat oil at medium high heat and then add the stir fried veggies. Cook and stir occasionally, until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Continue for five to seven minutes.

• Grind the coriander seeds in the mean time along with the salt, and caraway seeds in a spice mill. Don’t grind them too fine though. Thereafter, transfer the ground spices to a small sized bowl and add the paprika plus cayenne.

• Add the spice mixture in to the skillet containing the veggies and then add the garlic. Cook, stirring all the while for thirty seconds. Then add the tomatoes, keep stirring. Thereafter add all the chickpeas and bring the mixture to a simmer. Then reduce the heat to medium and cook, keeping the mixture simmering all the while until it has become viscous. Then add the pepper as seasoning.

• Finally, break eggs on to separate quadrants of the stew and do take care that you keep the yolks intact. Reduce the heat further, to medium low and then cover the skillet and cook the mixture until the eggs set totally. Do this for about five minutes. Then top the eggs with some paprika. All done!