Navigating the Holiday Food Frenzy on the Cooking Light Diet

We assembled a task force of staff from our Birmingham offices, which include sister brands Southern Living, Coastal Living, MyRecipes, and Oxmoor House, to try the Cooking Light Diet for 3 months last fall (October-December 2015) and blog about it. Here’s what they had to say.

I am still dealing with the aftermath of Halloween and now another decadent holiday, Thanksgiving, is around the corner. Next comes the flurry of holiday parties and events that start December 1^st  and last until the New Year.

On the Cooking Light Diet, I have had to shore up strength to resist going overboard on regular days, but the best thing I did for this holiday season was to give myself permission to enjoy it by using the CLDiet as my first line of defense against going all the way off the rails. What that means is that when I choose to splurge, I want it to be well worth the diversion from my everyday path, and not so over-the-top that I feel guilty or boxed in a corner with nothing left to eat for the day but some lettuce and carrots.

Not an ideal dinner.

I’m going to make a list. I have actually written down the flavors and seasonal delights I am looking forward to, and I’m going to seek those out when I’m at a party or making plans with friends. My go-to favorite cocktails, salty snacks, sweets, and savory delights—things I wouldn’t normally get to enjoy the rest of the year. Things like pecan pie and Mexican wedding cookies  (my mom always called them roly-polys), shrimp cocktails, oysters, pâté, and champagne will make the list.

I’m also going to be mindful and limit both frequency and portions so that I get satisfaction without going completely over the top. And since the Cooking Light Diet has gives me a calorie goal to hit, I can keep track and aim to stay as close as possible to my daily target.

And still enjoy deliciously healthy options like these Braised Brussels Sprouts with Cider and Bacon. Bacon!!!

Let the holidays begin!

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If you’d like to know more about the Cooking Light Diet, visit CookingLightDiet.com, or email us at feedback@cookinglightdiet.com. We’d love to hear from you! Have a great week.

*Members following the Cooking Light Diet, on average, lose more than half a pound per week.

More Cooking Light Diet Success Stories:

• The Cooking Light Diet: New Jersey Mom Proves There’s Strength in Numbers
• World Champion BBQ Chef and Wife Start Cooking Light Diet, Lose 115 Pounds
• Cooking Light Diet, an Egg-cellent Investment

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We Tasted It: New Jif Flavored Spreads in Cinnamon and Maple

I remember the first time I ate peanut butter on toast for breakfast. It was a revolution. Filling, comforting, and so darn easy, PB toast has become one of my go-to breakfasts during the week. In fact, I find great pleasure in using my toast canvas to try out all sorts of new nut butter options I find in the bread aisle. That’s why spotting these two new additions from Jif was so exciting. Something new for my toast topping addiction!

Before I took these new Jif Flavored Spreads in Cinnamon and Maple home, however, I had to let the Cooking Light tasting team give them a try. They’re new enough to the supermarket (released earlier this month at a suggested retail price of $2.99) that no one had seen them or even tried them on their own yet. It’s hard to disappoint us when it comes to nut butter because we all know how versatile they can be for meals, snacks, smoothie stir-ins, and everything in between. But here’s what our staff had to say about these new flavored spreads:

Cinnamon
“Tastes very much like Cinnamon Toast Crunch–in a good way”
“Not bad at all. I agree with the CTC cereal flavor. I could see myself eating it with an apple.”
“Way too sweet–Yikes!” (This spread has 6g of sugar, double the traditional creamy Jif PB, and the second ingredient is sugar.)
“Would be great as an alternative to Nutella on toast, but definitely not with jelly.”

Maple
“Strong maple flavor, tastes like syrup and pancakes.”
“Maybe a little too sweet, but the flavor is delish!”
“I wouldn’t pick this up over plain peanut butter, but it could be fun in different recipes.”

Try them and let us know what you think! In the meantime, keep up your snacking game with some of our favorite options from our Taste Test Awards.

Nutrition
Cinnamon: 2 tbsp has 190 calories, 15g fat, 3g sat fat, 60mg sodium, 11g carb, 2g fiber, 6g sugar, and 7g protein
Maple: 2 tbsp has 190 calories, 15g fat, 3g sat fat, 60mg sodium, 11g carb, 2g fiber, 6g sugar, and 7g protein

More Taste Tests:

• We Tasted It: Van’s New Banana Nut Granola Clusters
• We Tasted It: R.W. Knudsen Just Blueberry
• We Tasted It: Tribe Ranch Hummus

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Report: Americans Want to Eat Less Meat and More Vegetables (But Just Aren’t Yet)

Last week, NPR released a study which revealed that while many Americans know they should eat less red meat, the average consumption has barely budged in the last three years. This, despite numerous proclamations and warnings about meat’s impact on our environment and your health.

What are those warnings, you ask? Last year, the cancer agency of the World Health Organization affirmed that consuming processed meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer. While red meat showed a lower risk, based on limited evidence, it still showed that it was “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Additionally, reports link meat consumption, specifically red meat, to significant environmental impacts (livestock guzzle millions of gallons of water and release a vast amount of greenhouse gases).

Couple that with the fact that beef prices are at an all-time high, thanks to droughts in the Midwest, a record shortage of cattle, and an increase in demand, and it seems the time has never been more right for Americans to kick meat off their plate.

Unfortunately, while many people read this news and reacted verbally, little change has actually been made. As the study showed, Americans say they want to eat less meat and more vegetables but aren’t. Could it be that patterns are hard to break, or that people are just unaware of the different protein sources that are available other than meat?

Good news! We can help.

When it comes to eating less meat and more veggies, getting the daily recommended amount of protein sans meat, or creating a balanced meal plan throughout the week, we’ve got you covered. In fact, we’re quite good at all of those things. Here are some of our favorite meals that give you a hearty dose of protein and veggies in one plate.

Fist up, we have a vegan dish that packs in a whopping 21.4g of protein in one serving. Lentils are a great source of protein and happen to taste incredible when prepared properly. Here, they’re paired with roasted carrots, then topped with a bright and tangy green harissa.

Whole Roasted Carrots with Black Lentils and Green Harissa

Next, we have a delicious twist on the Classic Chicken Marsala, which typically has a much higher meat-to-veg ratio. We place the creamy mixture on a bed of whole-grain and protein-rich quinoa, then top with a generous dose of mushrooms and spinach.

Mushroom and Chicken Marsala Bowls

Instead of serving up a large portion of ground beef in pasta sauce like many traditional versions, we topped our whole-grain pasta with a veggie-packed sauce made from unsalted diced tomatoes, extra-lean ground beef, mushrooms, and zucchini. It keeps all of the comforting goodness, yet packs in a delicious dose of veggies in every bite.

Whole-Grain Spaghetti with Veggi-fied Meat Sauce

Switch up your average steak and potatoes for this leaner, greener salad. You still get a satisfying serving of steak and potatoes while you fill your plate with healthy veggies as well.

Steak Salad Niçoise

Easy, fast, and incredibly satisfying—burgers are just so perfect sometimes. This veggie burger brings you all three of those qualities sans the beef. Make the patties ahead of time, freeze them, then pop ’em in the oven when you’re ready for a delicious burger in flash. If you find yourself eating burgers more than once a week, you definitely want to save this recipe and put it in on repeat.

“New” New Mexican Green Chile Cheeseburgers

See More:

• More Plants, Less Meat Recipe Makeovers
• The Healthy Cook’s Guide to Bacon
• The Healthy Cook’s Guide to Ground Beef

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Rightsize Your Plate to Lose Weight Faster

Research shows that using smaller plates makes people serve themselves less, but still feel content after eating. In fact, switch from a 12-inch plate to a 10-inch plate, and studies show you’ll eat about 20-22% less calories per meal. The effect has to do with seeing a full plate; similarly a sparsely-filled plate can make you feel hungry.

Here’s the problem with that recommendation we often fail to mention: small plates are hard to find. You can find lunch plates or salad, which are about 8 inches. (I actually prefer these.) You can find cocktail plates meant for parties and entertaining. These are often 6 to 8 inches, too. “Dinner” plates hover around 12 inches, though I’ve seen some that are upwards of 14. But the 10-inch plate eludes many.

While it may all be mind games, play the plate size trick it to your advantage by using smaller plates and bowls so servings appear larger. To help you downsize your plates and your waist, we gathered our favorite rightsized plates you can buy today:

10 Strawberry Street Royal White 10-inch Dinner Plates, set of 6 ($50, overstock.com)

Fiesta Dinner Plate, 10 1/2 inches ($13 each, fiestafactorydirect.com)

Court Dinner Plates ($6 each, crateandbarrel.com)

Elsa Medallion Melamine Salad Plate, Mixed Set of 4, 9 inches ($40, potterybarn.com)

Mikasa Antique White Dinner Plate, 10.5 inches ($18 each, mikasa.com)

Palette Dinnerware Set – Slate, 10.5″, set of 4 ($32, westelm.com)

Abbesses Large Plates in Red, 10.5″ ($21 each, canvashomestore.com)

Keep Reading:

• The Absolute Best Diet Tips Anyone Can Follow
• 100 Ways to Start Your Year Off Light
• 10 Top Secrets of Portion Control

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Cooking Light Diet, an Egg-cellent Investment

We assembled a task force of staff from our Birmingham offices, which include sister brands Southern Living, Coastal Living, MyRecipes, and Oxmoor House, to try the Cooking Light Diet for 3 months last fall (October-December 2015) and blog about it. Here’s what they had to say.

Eggs sustained me through my senior year of college. Time was not something I had very much of…or sleep, for that matter. Eggs were the cheap, sometimes healthy, and always quick option for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

They’re basically the perfect food.

Nowadays, I have more time, but I have not stopped eating eggs yet. Instead, I’ve looked to the Cooking Light Diet to reinvent my standard. Check out how I’m using a dozen eggs with six Cooking Light Diet recipes:

Spinach Feta Omelet (2 eggs)
Squash Egg-in-the-Hole (4)
Smoky Egg and Cheese Tostada (1)
Scrambled Eggs with Avocado and Tomato (2)
Soft-Boiled Eggs with Toast Strips (2)
Smoked Salmon with Poached Egg and English Muffin (1)

So even though I’m still sustaining myself with eggs to an extent, the Cooking Light Diet has given me all sorts of new ways to utilize them. It’s made my menus egg-straordinary!

Squash Egg-in-Hole, one of the many recipes Mallory is incorporating her days with the Cooking Light Diet.

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If you’d like to know more about the Cooking Light Diet, visit CookingLightDiet.com, or email us at feedback@cookinglightdiet.com. We’d love to hear from you! Have a great week.

*Members following the Cooking Light Diet, on average, lose more than half a pound per week.

More Cooking Light Diet Success Stories:

• Former Stay-At-Home Mom Balances Work and Empty Nest with the Cooking Light Diet
• The Cooking Light Diet: New Jersey Mom Proves There’s Strength in Numbers
• World Champion BBQ Chef and Wife Start Cooking Light Diet, Lose 115 Pounds

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7 Delicious Things You Need to Cook in March

We’ve reached that glorious time of year when spring’s produce is starting to pop up in grocery stores and farmers’ market–but we also have fantastic winter produce hanging around just a bit longer. With that in mind, here are the seven recipes you just have to make this month to enjoy what’s coming and what’s going.

Balsamic Hanger Steak with Greens and Parmesan: Balsamic vinegar does double duty, both tenderizing the steak and imparting robust flavor.

Bucatini Puttanesca: Tomatoes simmer with anchovies, olives, and capers for a tangy, rustic meal sure to please all tastebuds.

Egg Ravioli: These gorgeous ravioli come together easily thanks to pot sticker wrappers, which are made with the same ingredients as pasta dough. Just wait till you cut in and taste how good this appetizer is.

Fish Nuggets with Crispy Asparagus “Fries”: Let the kids help, and they’ll love eating their own kitchen masterpiece. Serve this kid classic with simply steamed carrots, if you like.

Vegetable Lasagna with Butternut Béchamel: Our saucy lasagna packs more than 2 cups of vegetables into each slice, is overflowing with melty cheese, and has half the calories of the original.

Pistachio-Chai Muffins: For your St. Patrick’s Day treat, a simple sugar glaze anchors crunchy pistachios, while aromatic spices and black tea speckle the dough.

Roasted Salmon with Thyme and Honey-Mustard Glaze: Every Easter celebration needs a spectacular centerpiece. A bed of fragrant fresh thyme lends wonderful flavor to the fish. Have your fishmonger remove the pin bones from the fillet, and choose one cut toward the head end of the fish.

Keep Reading:

• March 2016 Magazine Recipe Index
• St. Patrick’s Day Feast
• Our Best Easter Desserts

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The Apron America’s Hottest Chefs Are Wearing

An apron might be the most overlooked kitchen utensil. More trusty steed than shiny gadget, an apron can be the home cook’s (and the professional chef’s) saving grace when sauces splatter and grills pop. But aprons are overlooked by most folks. Most of us forget to even pull ours out of the closet until our nice shirt is covered in spaghetti sauce or red wine.

We all have at least one, right? We just might not all have one we really, really love. For example, my pantry is filled with four right now: one has black cats (a gift from a former roommate), one says “Grill Queen” (I rarely crank up my grill, but on the occasions I do, you can guarantee I’m wearing it), one frilly one that’s really just for showing off when guests are over, and one prized Hedley & Bennett apron.

The latter apron is my go-to apron, the one I tie on the moment I get into the kitchen. Whether I’m making hamburgers on a grill pan or rolling dough for cinnamon rolls, it’s on. The thick, sturdy cotton means business. It absorbs spills and splatters while keeping my clothes protected and clean. But the best part? The best part is that it’s just plain gorgeous. So many industrial kitchen aprons are ho-hum, but Hedley & Bennett founder Ellen Bennett knew aprons had the potential to be so much more. While working in professional kitchens in Los Angeles, Bennett noticed how sad and dreary aprons can be, and she vowed to stop it. What was born–a start-up apron company–has flourished into one of the most popular and trendy apron companies in the country with a ravenous following of home cooks, professional chefs, and the food obsessed alike.

But don’t take my word for it. Just look at all these Hedley & Bennett fans, including our own Test Kitchen professionals.

Time Inc. Food Studios Chefs and Test Kitchen Professionals in PHO Apron

David Chang of Momofuku with Emily Bennett

Cameron Slaugh of LA’s Osteria La Buca

David LeFevre, Chef and Owner of Arthur J

Here’s the deal with these aprons–they’re not your average mass-market linens. Each style is carefully designed and constructed so it’s beneficial to cooks of all stripes. But that comes at a price–most aprons are around $80. (You can always scout the site’s Sale section for greatly reduced aprons.) This is an investment piece for your kitchen–or your spouse, best friend, neighbor, boss, or whoever you gift it to. This apron will last you years, even with all the washes it will require. That’s precisely why our Test Kitchen professionals chose it. Aprons are washed daily, so we need something that holds up beautifully–but also looks super luxurious when we host events in the Food Studios and need to look our sharpest. Here, some of my favorite apron options:

WELLFLEET APRON

RHUBARB 2.0 APRON

STRIPED BASS APRON

Keep Reading:

• Just Wait Until You See Le Creuset’s Newest Color!
• Most Wanted: Technicolor Kitchens
• The Newest Gadgets You Need to Whip Up Spectacular Soups and Stews

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Sunday Strategist: A Week of Healthy Menus–February 29-March 4

Every Sunday, we publish a week of Cooking Light dinner plans filled with our favorite recipes—both from current issues and classics. Each meal is designed to be ready and on the table in about an hour so that you have more time to enjoy the food you’ve prepared and the company of those you’ve prepared it for. Our March 2016 issue just hit stands this past Friday, so each main this week features a gorgeous and nutritious dish from the issue. Enjoy!

If you like having a healthy meal plan but want something customized to your dietary or caloric needs, check out The Cooking Light Diet. It’s a calorie-driven weekly meal plan—breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner—based on your dieting goals and food preferences.

The Plan
Monday: Tomato and Mozzarella Risotto and Arugula Salad with Caesar Vinaigrette
Tuesday: Fast Chicken Chili with Butternut Squash and Herbed Corn Muffins
Wednesday: Crispy Fish Tacos and Black Bean Salad
Thursday: Chicken Breasts with Pancetta Cream and Peas and Orzo with Pecorino and Mushrooms
Friday: Broccoli Bacon Skillet Pizza with Blistered Green Beans and Tomatoes
Dessert Bonus: Chocolate-Hazelnut-Banana Finger Sandwiches

Monday: Risotto on a weeknight? Of course! Tomato and Mozzarella Risotto is a stepped up version of pasta pomodoro with a spinach boost and a handful of fresh basil. Keep the Italian theme going with a simple Arugula Salad with Caesar Vinaigrette.

Tomato and Mozzarella Risotto
Arugula Salad with Caesar Vinaigrette

Tuesday: It’s definitely still cold enough for chili, but that doesn’t mean you have the time for a slow simmer. Fast Chicken Chili with Butternut Squash satisfies every comfort craving and is weeknight fast. Herbed Corn Muffins make a perfect side, and you’ll have plenty left over for the week ahead.

Fast Chicken Chili with Butternut SquashHerbed Corn Muffins

Wednesday: We love the shatteringly crisp crust on the tilapia in these Crispy Fish Tacos. If you prefer not to heat up the oil, you can sear the fish in a skillet with 1 tablespoon canola oil, or skip the breading and grill the fish instead. A colorful Black Bean Salad rounds out the menu.

Crispy Fish TacosBlack Bean Salad

Thursday: One-pan Chicken Breasts with Pancetta Cream and Peas keeps clean up a breeze. Easy and impressive, it’s the kind of back pocket dish you’ll want to remember for unexpected company. Serve with Orzo with Pecorino and Mushrooms.

Chicken Breasts with Pancetta Cream and PeasOrzo with Pecorino and Mushrooms

Friday: TGIF everyone! We love this easier-than-ever twist on pizza night—you don’t even need to roll out the dough for this Broccoli Bacon Skillet Pizza. While the pizza bakes, fire up the skillet for Blistered Green Beans and Tomatoes.

Broccoli Bacon Skillet PizzaBlistered Green Beans and Tomatoes

Dessert Bonus: Forget cucumber and cream cheese, Chocolate-Hazelnut-Banana Finger Sandwiches are the way to go. It really is the perfect bite.

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Banana Finger Sandwiches

 

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