1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups chicken stock or bouillon

1/2 pound fresh broccoli

1 cup matchstick carrots

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup grated sharp cheddar

Drop your butter in the skillet with the onions, and set the onions aside once golden. Whisk your butter and flour together over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in the cream and chicken stock, and let it sit for about 20 minutes over low-medium heat (on a scale of 1-10, on 5.)

Toss in your carrots, onions and broccoli. Cook until the carrots are tender, and add the salt and pepper. Add the cheese and nutmeg, and ta da! Soup!

If you said my soup didn’t taste equal to or better than Panera’s, you’d be a hot blooded lie!

Broccoli Cheese Soup is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: The Supa Dupa Fly Ho With Cheese
2. Now That I’m Clean Eating, What Can I Cook?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating, Recipes, vegetarian

1 diced roma tomato

1 cup ground turkey

1/2 cup basmati rice (cooked)

1/4 diced onion

1 taco shell

1/2 cup salsa

1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cilantro

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon coriander

a pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven at 300 degrees. Cook your rice (1 cup water, 1/2 cup rice.) Brown your ground turkey. Once no longer pink, mix in lemon pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, onions and coriander. Put taco shell in oven for 5 minutes. Once rice is finished, take an ice cream scoop and make two scoops of rice in the center of your plate. Take diced lettuce, and put it on top of the rice. Next, add turkey, tomatoes and cilantro to top it off. Break taco shell into triangular pieces, and stick in the side of the rice. Add your salsa to the top of the pile. Sprinkle the pinch of salt across the top of the dish. Ta da!

This way, I get my little bit of meat, my “full” feeling, and my full taco salad enjoyment without all the extra calories from the big giant taco shell, the creamy dressings or the heavy oils. Give it a shot!

Taco Salad Remix is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: No Meat In Your Taco Bell Taco
2. Taco Bell Thinks You’re Stupid: Try The Drive-Thru Diet!
3. Weekend WTF: The 98,824 Calorie Taco Night & The 71,000 Calorie Lasagna

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes

Mmmm... veggies.

2 Chicken Breasts

3 cups carrot, cauliflower, green bean blend (in other words, a bag of frozen veggies with carrots and cauliflower in it)

1/4 cup red pepper, yellow pepper, onion mix (it’s ok if it has green peppers.)

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1 tsp Basil

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp garlic

a pinch of tarragon

Extra Virgin Olive Oil spray (regular oil will suffice… just use maybe an eighth of a teaspoon – literally only enough to keep your chicken from sticking to the bottom of your pan)

Get yourself a nice sized skillet, and oil the base of it. Drop your peppers in, then drop your chicken in on top. Stir around until the outsides of the chicken are nice and brown. Toss in your veggies, stirring until thawed or at least a little tender (if going fresh).Look for the oil from the chicken – once it appears, stir it up a little more.

Pour in half of your balsamic vinegar, and do more stirring. Toss in your seasonings, one by one. (Notice – there’s no salt in this recipe? There’s enough of it in the balsamic vinegar.) Stir it up a little more, then gently pour in the rest of the vinegar down the side of the pot, not on top of any food. Stir it up a little bit more, and once your chicken is done, you’re good!

You can eat it just like this, or use some jasmine or brown rice with it. The carrots come out super sweet, the cauliflower carries the nice taste of the oregano and basil, and the chicken is super yummy. Yes. Yummy. Enjoy!

Balsamic Chicken and Carrots is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: He EATS The Chicken In A Can!
2. Weekend WTF: Chicken In A Can?
3. KFC Tests Sandwich That Uses… Chicken.. In Place Of Bread

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating, pollotarian, Recipes

4 slices of chicken breast

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp basil

1 tbsp oregano

1 tbsp parsley

1 tbsp tarragon

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp coriander

half a pinch of salt (and I mean half a pinch)

two plates

Mix your seasonings up in a separate bowl. Lay your pieces of chicken flat on a plate. Rub one side of your chicken with the olive oil first – only use half of it. Use your oily fingers, stick them in the seasoning, and rub the side of your chicken. Take the second plate, put it on top of the chicken, and flip both plates over so that the bare side of the chicken is now facing up. Rub the chicken with the olive oil, then seasonings just like before. Try to use all of your seasonings. Let it sit for an hour.

Take a skillet, spray it with olive oil, and start cooking your chicken.

In the picture, you’ll see wheat pasta with parmesan and literally a teaspoon of cream, fresh tomato slices and french bread baked and rubbed with the exact same seasoning combination as on the chicken.

It’s Italian night! Enjoy!

Basil Rubbed Chicken A La Erika is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Erika’s Thanksgiving Swindle
2. Weekend WTF: He EATS The Chicken In A Can!
3. Weekend WTF: Chicken In A Can?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating, pollotarian, Recipes

I always advise that you read through the recipe before you dive in. If you’re new to these spices, give them each a taste before you stick them in. I tried to organize the spices in a fashion that would allow you to experience the addition of different types of flavors – first the spices, then the sweets, then the tangy – and see what they do to a fairly common flavor, tomato.

I hope you like it!

• 6oz (or 3/4cup) of Tomato Paste
• 6oz (or 3/4cup) of water
• 3tbsp parmesan
• 1tsp minced garlic
• 1tbsp brown sugar (like it sweet? add in more brown sugar teaspoon by teaspoon!)
• 1tsp minced onion
• 1/4tsp coriander
• 1/4tsp basil
• 1/4tsp black pepper
• pinch of red pepper flakes (and I do mean pinch)
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of sea salt

Mix the tomato paste in with the water, then add your parmesan and garlic. Next, go for your onion, coriander, basil and black pepper. At this point, taste your sauce and see how it’s coming along. If it’s a little too earthy, keep that in mind. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar. If you’d like it sweeter, add your brown sugar in a teaspoon at a time. At this point, adding in a pinch of sea salt should make things much brighter flavor-wise… at least, it does for me. I add a pinch (not a shake, but a PINCH) of cayenne pepper and a pinch (shoot, maybe even a half pinch!) of crushed red pepper flakes last, because sometimes I may not even feel like using it at all.

I usually pour my sauce inside of a cleaned out jar, and store it in the fridge. I can enjoy the fact that my entire jar is probably no more than 300 calories altogether (90cals for the tomato paste, 60 cals for the parmesan cheese, maybe 60 cals for the brown sugar, no more than 50 cals for those spices?) and not feel guilty about using it.

Happy eating!

The Best Pizza Sauce Ever is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Pizza Gallery: Who Says You Can’t Have Pizza?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: condiment, homemade, Recipes, tomato sauce

Pasta has always been my achilles heel. I don’t deny it. I had these shells in the pantry, decided I was going to get ALL of my $1.19 worth, and tossed together this quick little recipe to make myself and the little one happy. Enjoy!

• 5 shells
• 2 cups of spinach
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tsp basil
• a pinch of sea salt (a pinch, as in whatever you think a pinch might be, divide that in half!)
• 1/3 cup parmesan (I don’t recommend anything “grated” or anything by Kraft; if you’re vegan, Parma! gets great reviews.)
• 1 tsp milk (I actually used almond milk, though I suspect it doesn’t matter.)

First things first – get your shells going on the stove according to their instructions. Once they’re done, drain your pasta and lay ‘em down in a row in your casserole dish or comparable baking pan.

Next, in a low-heated skillet, drop half of a tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet, stir it around, and let it heat up just a little. Start stirring your spinach in the skillet cup by cup. Mix in your basil and oregano little by little, testing it by taste and smell. Pinch in your sea salt and pour in your milk. Once you’ve got your spinach all good and cooked, put in half of your parmesan. If you think something else should be added, you’d add it at this point. Stir it up as best as you can (it should be pretty sticky at this point), and start stuffing your shells. You can go for beauty, but you don’t really have to.

Take your last half-tablespoon of olive oil, and sprinkle it over your shells. Sprinkle, as in light drops, not pouring it all over. Take the remaining parmesan, and sprinkle it all over your shells. Let them bake in the oven for a few moments, until the cheese has melted. Ta da!

Can you freak this recipe? Of course. You can make a little cream sauce to put over the shells – parmesan and vegetable broth. You can add a little more olive oil. Different spices. It’s your recipe — play with it!

Spinach Stuffed Shells is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes

2 cups frozen broccoli

2 cups whole wheat penne pasta

1/2 lime

1 tbsp tarragon

1 tsp cilantro

1tsp olive oil

a pinch of salt

half a pinch of pepper

Put half a teaspoon of olive oil in the skillet, and the chicken goes right on top of it. As the chicken heats up, put your pasta on. Wheat pasta takes much longer to cook, so give it time. Chop your chicken up into medium sized chunks, and then get the broccoli in there with it. Stir everything up, making sure to thaw out the broccoli. Once your pasta is cooked, drain it and put it in the skillet with the chicken and broccoli.

Take the rest of the olive oil, and drizzle it on top of the mixture. Put your tarragon, olive oil and salt in there, and stir everything up. The herbs should stick to the pasta and chicken very well. Take your lime, and squeeze it over the skillet. Put your pepper on last, and stir it all up one last time. Ta da!

I’m a big fan of herbs and natural flavors, and the cilantro and the lime both compliment each other with the chicken. Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Lime Broccoli Chicken Pasta is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Q&A Wednesday: Does Enjoyable Whole Wheat Pasta Exist?
2. Should A 2,500 Calorie Plate of Pasta Be Illegal?
3. Weekend WTF: He EATS The Chicken In A Can!

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating, pollotarian, Recipes

I don’t eat wheat grass and cattails all day, darn it. I like my edible hedonism to come in the form of nice gooey cheesy things. Like Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

I’ll talk about my philosophy on “treating” yourself or “cheating your diet” another day… ’cause all you want is the recipe, anyway!

• 1 cup flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3/4th cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp garlic
• your choice: either 1/4-13rd cup of parmesan, or 1/3rd cup of sharp cheddar

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine everything except the cheese in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don’t want to mix too thoroughly.  Add cheese, milk, and garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don’t over mix. I take parsley and shake it over the top of the dough, and mix it in a little more. Just makes it more attractive to the eye, to me.

3. Drop approximately ¼-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

5. When you take the biscuits out of the oven, you can also mmix a little olive oil with garlic powder and some dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic spread over the tops of all the biscuits.

I will tell you, the parmesan version is MUCH lighter on the calories, and thanks to the combination of flavors, you can get away with using less of it and still getting great flavor. I make these literally maybe every two months. I’m not one for “treating myself” with food anymore. I treat with shoes. Mmm… shoes.

Cheddar Bay Biscuit Recipe is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Have You Voted In The BGG2WL Recipe Contest Yet?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes

Having said that, I set out to buy my own berries and make my own jam. Is it pricier? It depends on your options. I was already buying jelly AND fresh blueberries (my daughter likes them in her cheerios) so for me, I saved money. Make the jam with my blueberries, and give her a small dollop of it in the center of her cereal. Not only that, but because my jam is made of actual food, my body doesn’t hunger for as much of it as I can slather onto the bread like it would with some commercial jams. Win on both counts.

Oh, and to the question of can you use frozen blueberries? This should answer that:

Not only do I use frozen, but I use generic. They were $3 on sale. Total win.

What will you need? Lemon juice, berries of choice, and sugar (). I’ve made blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, cherry, apples… you name it, you can probably jam it. If you’re like me, you keep lemon juice in the house anyhow as a base for cooking (hint, hint). A $2 bottle goes a long way. As far as the sugar goes, the more organic, the better – not “sugar-in-the-raw”-organic, but organic as in organic cane sugar. I’m not going to even do this like most recipes, because it’s that simple.

Get yourself a nice saucepan. Not too much larger than your berries – you can see how much/how many I had in my pan. Pour about 1/4th of a cup of lemon juice into your skillet, and let it simmer on moderate heat. Dump your berries – assuming you have about 3-4 cups of berries – into your pot, and let it cook for about a half an hour. Keep checking on it to make sure you’re not frying your berries. Trust me, it’ll taste foul if you do.

You should see the berries juicing themselves – lots of gooey goodness oozing out and creating their own little sauce. Give it a good stir to make sure you’re not burning anything, and start mashing. You can use the back of a wooden spoon, a potato masher, the bottom of a glass, whatever – just start mashing.

You won’t get an even consistency like you might with a jar of jelly bought from the grocery because – remember – there’s no actual fruit in there. It’ll be lumpy. It might even taste tart at first because of the lemon juice, but that’s ok. You still have to add the sugar. Once your berries are good and mashed to your liking, grab your sugar and get to work.

Add the sugar 1/4th of a cup at a time, stirring and tasting after every addition. I don’t like mine too sweet, because it reminds me of “grape” jelly and makes me nauseous, so I never need more than a third of a cup of sugar. Not only that, but knowing what I’m putting in my jelly, I don’t want to have to eat those calories and then be responsible for burning those calories. (This is why picking nice flavorful berries is important. Enjoy the flavor of the fruit – don’t overdo it on the sugar.)

If you’re feeling jazzy, there are a few finishing touches you can add. I dropped a scoop of flaxseed in my raspberry jelly. I took my blackberry jam and made a nice vinaigrette with it. With my apple jam, I added cloves and nutmeg to it. Get yourself a nice jar, and pour your finished jam into it. Give it some time to cool down, then refridgerate it.. and you’re done!

Save Calories AND Money: Make Your Own Jams and Jellies is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Save Money On Groceries: Buy It In Bulk
2. Save Money On Groceries: Go Frozen!
3. Save Money On Groceries: Go… Smaller?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: high fructose corn syrup, Recipes, saving money

“Oooooh, what are you putting on yours?”

“Oh, it’s just the purple stuff, carrots and lettuce in the bag I buy with some dressing.”

“Oh, um… what kind of dressing?”

“Ranch, girl! Duh! Do you even eat salads, or you just eating carrots over there?”

Aside from the stank face I was wearing.. I kind of pitied her little lunch salad container… because it clearly wasn’t about to be holding any food.

About a week later, I met up with one of my girls during her lunch break so that we could catch up. Out comes her lunch container with her salad inside. What, prey tell, do you think was in this container?

Lettuce. Cheese. Bacon. Onions. Tomatoes. Fried onions. (Yes, regular onions and fried onions.) Croutons. Looooots of croutons. Boiled egg. Chow mein noodles… and a third of a cup’s worth of blue cheese dressing. (No, I didn’t measure it, but I’m a cook – I know what a third of a cup of a creamy substance looks like.)

What is going on, here? Not that I’m judging, but I’m judging – if we’re going to use a salad as a meal replacement, shouldn’t it address the same issues as a meal? Or is that the issue? We’re trying to cut out meal-sized calories by eating a few lettuce leaves and a creamy dressing?

That ain’t gon’ cut it. No wonder The Facebook Crew (I love y’all, I do) swore up and down a salad couldn’t be worth more than $18. I may not be able to make it all the way to $36, but I can get you awfully close.

First of all, a meal is supposed to stave off hunger as well as nourish you and keep you lively throughout your day (at least until your next meal.) They’re supposed to be larger than a snack, but not be so large that you leave your table feeling like you just went up a pants size. While my friend with the purple stuff (which was red lettuce), carrots and iceberg lettuce was trying to make a snack turn into a meal… my other friend with the confusion salad was trying to do everything she could to avoid being hungry because she “just ate leaves” for lunch.

I’m not going to lie… I am an epic salad maker. EPIC. My salads are beautiful, flavorful, enjoyable, and leave me happy.. not hungry. My salads have just the right amount of sweet and saltiness… without either sugar OR salt. Some days I get creative, and some days I just make use of my typical staple ingredients. Either way… I’m full and fulfilled for under 400 calories, and I’m happy about it.

So… how do I do it?

It’s easier than you think. I’m not a fan of thinking in terms of nutrition, because it is my personal belief that if one is truly eating clean – no processed foods, all from the Earth – then they will undoubtedly get the nutrition they need. It’s as simple as that. However… if you’re going to build a salad meant to replace a meal, you want it to have the same components as a good meal, right? So let’s talk about that.

A “good meal” is going to provide you with veggies, carbs and protein. And yes, let’s squash this myth right now: meat is not your only source for protein. It is one of many, but since there’s an industry with an image to protect… you might be led to believe that. Don’t, though.

Let’s take a look at some of my salads (that I actually bothered to remember to photograph) to help identify the three components of a good salad:

What’s in there? Mushrooms, cucumbers, poppy seeds, spinach leaves, lentils, raspberries, a couple of slices of a baguette, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar as dressing. The oil serves as the fat, the vinegar gives me my saltiness, my raspberries give me sweet, bread for carbs and lentils for protein? Win.

In there, you’ll find red russian kale (thank you, farmer’s market), tomatoes, cucumbers, lentils, sunflower seeds, dried onion, and olive oil for dressing. Sunflower seeds and lentils for protein (and fiber), olive oil for fat, tomatoes (lots of tomatoes in there) for carbs, and all those other veggies in there? Again, win.

Pepper lettuce (some awesome hybrid a farmer came up with, perhaps? I don’t know, but it’s dope.), tomatoes, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, paprika sprinkled over the top and toasted slices of a whole wheat tortilla over the top. Got a little apple cider vinegar and sunflower oil blended together as a dressing, and pow – got a good salad.

Red fire lettuce, oven-roasted tomatoes (give me a sec, I’ll post the recipe), lentils, sunflower seeds, bread crumbs, and basil and olive oil as a dressing? Stay winning.

Here, we have spinach leaves, strawberries, sesame seeds, turkey bacon (gasp!), bread crumbs, oregano and tarragon, and olive oil for dressing. Yum.

Last but not least, the beauty I just ate last night:

“What the hell is that?” you ask? That’s my taco salad, complete with a homemade tortilla baked into the shape of a salad bowl. My first time baking a tortilla, and though it looks like something out of a horror flick… trust me when I tell you that it was delicious! Inside the tortilla shell, you’ll find iceberg lettuce, black beans, a tomato cucumber relish, and freshly shredded cheese. Black beans for protein, the tortilla shell for carbs? These are total wins, here.

If you notice, some of these things I only use occasionally (pumpkin seeds, raspberries, mushrooms, ) while others, I use regularly (olive oil, sunflower seeds, cucumbers, tomatoes.) It’s all about whatever’s available at that time in my house, as well as whatever’s available and cheapest at the market. If radishes are only $0.75 a bushel, please believe there will be plenty radishes had during meal time… salads or not. If black beans are on sale for $1 a pound, I’ll be “making it do what it do.” It’s that simple. The more pricey ingredients – balsamic vinegar, for example – I use sparingly. No, really- I’ve had the same bottle for approximately 7 months sitting in my fridge.

Build an arsenal of staple ingredients that you can use in any salad, that way you can throw together something yummy if you’re in a hurry. Branch out if you’ve got time. But don’t limit yourself to the crap in the bag… and don’t throw the whole kitchen sink in your bowl just to stave off hunger. If anything, use your ten minutes to build a better lunch salad… and I promise you’ll appreciate it!

Creating A $36 Salad At Home is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Q&A Wednesday: Creating Your Weight Training Routine
2. Understanding Calorie Counting: Creating Your Calorie Goal and Being Honest About It
3. The $36 Salad: An Exercise In Elitism?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: recipe, Recipes, salad

My new-found love of mustard... yum.

For me, the hardest thing to do was giving up some of my favorite vices. I loved mayo. Looooved fruit punch. Loooooooved ice cream floats. I’m just not someone who likes the idea of giving up what I’d considered staples in my diet – yes, mayo was a staple… I even enjoyed a little turkey with my mayo sandwich – for any reason, until… I found something better.

I think that’s a key aspect of giving up bad habits – finding something delicious to replace it with, that has the added bonus of being good for us, as well. Granted, not everyone will face the task of full on giving something up… but I know my strengths, and I pay attention to my weaknesses. I know that some things compel me to ignore the concept of “moderation” either out of habit or simply because it may be what my tongue wants at that time. Sometimes, I’d rather skip them altogether than risk overdoing it in the name of “learning moderation.”

So having said that, here are a few of my swaps that make life that much easier for me, and prevent me from running back to my own bad habits:

Mayonnaise/”Salad Dressing”: Depending on your brand, it might be that sweet stuff that is something like a billion calories of nothing but oil and egg and cream and high fructose corn syrup. I gave up my mayo, and replaced it with different variations of mustard. Yes, mustard! Honey mustard, dijon mustard, regular mustard… you name it, I’ve got it. I use it on salads, on sandwiches, even in my marinades. The average tablespoon of mustard is about 10 calories anyhow and with such a kick to it, a little goes a long way.

Croutons: I always laugh a little bit when I look at the serving sizes for croutons, because they’re so impractical. The serving size is always something awkward like, “2 tablespoons or 3 grams.” Who measures croutons in tablespoons? And what’s more, croutons peek out from above the top of the tablespoon.. so does the calorie count only include the parts of the croutons that’s actually within the spoon or does it also include the bread that’s peeking out of the top? I don’t like things that are difficult to measure – that makes it more difficult to understand and gauge what it’s doing to my body – so I gave up the croutons, and replaced them with panko bread crumbs. Their size allows for you to measure them properly, a half of a cup is 100 calories (so two tablespoons is closer to 25 calories), and they’re crunchy enough to provide nice texture to your salads. Win.

Fruit juice: I can admit it. Three years of dorm life left me with a sad love of, um, “fruit punch.” It’s not “fruit juice,” because it’s not the “juice of a fruit.” It’s “fruit punch” because… well, no one knows why. There’s no nutritional value to this stuff because it’s little more than chemical flavorings, sugar and water. But how can you make your own fruit punch? Grab some tea bags, squeeze in some orange juice, throw in some raspberries and peaches and mangoes (I sometimes use frozen when I need to be cheap), and then drop in your orange and lemon halves! Ta-da – not only is it beautiful to look at, but once you get the flavor perfect for your tongue, you will be much happier with your choice.

Root beer floats: I didn’t even like root beer like that, but paired up with ice cream? Aw, snap. What I do now is actually pretty extensive, but ice cream is not a regularity at all for me – maybe once every few months – so I treat it like it’s special. I dice up a few apples, toss ‘em in a pot. Pour in some cranberries, a tablespoon of sugar, and about a half cup of red wine (I always keep a cheap bottle of wine handy to use while cooking, anyhow.) Let it cook on moderate heat (maybe a 7 out of ten), and then mash it up with a potato masher (or chop it up with a knife, same point). It doesn’t have to look like mashed potatoes, but it shouldn’t look like fresh apples, either. Once I’ve finished dinner, I’ll pour my ice cream in a glass, top it with my apples and cranberries and maybe pour a little sparkling water over the top. Yes, I treat it like real dessert – I cook it while I cook dinner.

I know, I know… no one wants to go through all of that work. Cooking fruits, squeezing oranges, but the point of all this is two-fold: 1) become so excited by the good stuff (that you can make for cheap), that you no longer want the cheap and unhealthy stuff as much, and 2) know that because it’s so much work, you can’t eat it as much, therefore you don’t eat it as much. Besides, even if you don’t need to give up these things, you’ll at least see how to flip something into an opportunity to experiment and create something new. See how that works?

What swaps have you made to live healthier and happier? What swaps would you like to make? Who knows? Maybe we can make a new “day” – “Friday Swap?” Let’s hear ‘em!

Four Easy Swaps To Cut Calories is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. How Many Calories Are You Drinking?
2. Where Do Americans Get Their Calories?
3. Q&A Wednesday: I’m Not Getting Enough Calories!

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: apples, clean eating, cranberries, croutons, fruit punch, Healthy Eating, high fructose corn syrup, ice cream, ice cream floats, mayonnaise, mustard, oranges, panko bread crumbs, peaches, Recipes, root beer floats, saving money

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
• 3/4 cup of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
• 2 teaspoons of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of warm water
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil
• for kneading, another 1/4th of flour

I put the ingredients into the bowl – in that order, but mixing up the dry ingredients up before pouring in the water and oil. Let this sit for about an hour.

At this point, I pre-heat my oven for 250 degrees. On whatever surface I’m letting my pizza bake, I use about a half teaspoon (no more than a whole teaspoon, though) of extra virgin olive oil, and smear it all over the pan/aluminum foil. Just to make sure my pizza doesn’t stick. I then sit the pan inside of the oven, so that the heat can help the oil spread more.

I then spread a little big of the extra flour on the counter area where I’ll be kneading the dough, making sure the surface is covered pretty well. Some parts of the dough might be sticky, and the flour just helps to prevent that. I dump the dough out on top of all that, and basically knead it around the same way you see on TV. I use my hands, though. I’m old school.

After I knead it into a long roll, I ball it up into a ball and work the dough over one last time, with the final result being one big ball. I grab the oiled pan, and lift the temperature to 350. I take my pizza dough, drop it in the center of the pan and while working from the center, I start to spread it out into pizza formation. (Sorry, I’ve got girly manicured nails – no way I could successfully toss dough!)

Grab your sauce, your toppings, and voilà! Throw it in the oven, give it about a half an hour or so. I’m impatient, I check on mine like every ten minutes like I’ve never had pizza or cooked before. How crunchy or soft the crust is depends upon you. You’ll have to play with your options.

That’s my two slices of green pepper and onion pizza that my daughter left me, because she definitely debo’d me for the first half. I couldn’t even get a picture of the pizza before she stuck me for my slices. Hopefully, you won’t have a greedy toddler robbing your for yours.

Best of luck, and bon appetit!

My Pizza Dough is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Pizza Gallery: Who Says You Can’t Have Pizza?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes

Corn and Chickpea Salsa

3 cups corn

1 cup chickpeas (already cooked)

3/4 cups red, green and yellow pepper

1 cups onions

2 tbsp cilantro

1/4 cups lemon juice,

1/4 tsp salt

Throw ingredients in a hot skillet together, in the order listed. Go read a book… or… this little site.

Corn and Chickpea Salsa is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Q&A Wednesday: What Is High Maltose Corn Syrup?
2. Saturday Night Live Pokes Fun At High Fructose Corn Syrup
3. High Fructose Corn Syrup Wants New Name: Why You Shouldn’t Care

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating, Recipes, vegan, vegetarian

While I was working toward making my mashed sweet potatoes (one of MANY dishes I was about to enjoy from my phenomenal amount of sweet potatoes I got), I opted to cut my recipe short and veer off into another direction – sweet potato spread! If I can do it with apples and blueberries, why not sweet potatoes? It’s uncommon, but on the right crackers and breads (or pancakes… or waffles… or even ice cream…), it’s a wonderful little addition. My daughter adores this, so I figured you might find a use for it.

First, let me laugh a little – I’m not a photographer at all. I have an awesome camera, but I have no idea how to work it.. so I snap these shots with my cell phone. Stop laughing.

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1/8th teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8th teaspoon cloves
• 1/8th teaspoon allspice
• 1/4th cup brown sugar

Chop up your sweet potatoes into nice big chunks. Don’t worry about skinning it. Also, don’t use a bread knife. Knife almost took some of my fingers.

Toss your chunks into a nice sized pot full of water. Just enough water to cover your potato chunks.

After about 20 minutes, start checking your potatoes. Some people microwave ‘em instead of boiling. I can’t vouch for that method because I avoid my microwave, but I’m not against it.

Drain your pot, let the sweet potatoes cool, then take your chunks one by one to pinch off the skin. A simple pinching motion should do well to get rid of it.

All of your skinned chunks should be soft and in a bowl together, now. Take a potato masher, and get to work!

After enough work, drop in your spices – feel free to add a little cinnamon if you choose – and stir it up with a good wooden spoon. Then, grab your brown sugar and slowly start pouring it in. After about a quarter of your brown sugar, taste it a little.. gauge what you’re going for, here. At this point, you can go where you want with it. Make it taste more like sweet potato pie, add more cloves, whatever you desire. I made mine a little tangy by adding some molasses to it (just a tablespoon), and my little one adores it.

I keep extra jars in the house, so I just tossed this in a jar and ta-da!

Spread it on some water crackers for a nice snack! I don’t like it spread on wheat bread too well (at least with the kind I buy.. tastes like true-to-life cardboard to me) so the water crackers is my favorite bet. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Butter is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!
2. Another Peanut Butter Recall: Why Does This Keep Happening?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes, saving money

1 cup julienned (matchstick) carrots

1 cup string beans

2 chicken breasts

1/3 cup honey mustard

1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp olive oil

Get your rice cooking, and toss your olive oil and chicken in the skillet. Immediately chop your chicken up into long fat chunks. Put your green beans in the skillet with your chicken, and put your coriander over the top. Once the green beans are tender, put your carrots in, and pour your honey mustard over the top.

Once the rice is finished, put a couple of scoops in the bowl, with your veggies on top. You can be corny and try to be creative (like me), or you can toss your ric ein the pot and mix it all together. It’s all going to the same place, right? Ha!

The sweet that comes out in the cooked carrots blends with the honey mustard, for a nice taste. You can also drop the chicken for a nice vegan treat!

Honey Mustard Rice is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Supermarket Swindle: Is Your Honey Really Honey?
2. What’s Wrong With White Rice?
3. Now That I’m Clean Eating, What Can I Cook?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating, Recipes, vegan, vegetarian

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Tarragon leave

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon flax seed (optional, but flax seed is awesome)

1 teaspoon poppy seed (also optional)

Chop up all your strawberries as thinly as you can. You want tiny bits for this one.

Mix up all of your oil and your vinegar. Toss in your tarragon, poppy seed and your flax seed.

Add your strawberries, and stir everything up really well. Give it a taste. If it’s too bitter, slowly add your honey bit by bit.

I add the honey last, because sometimes, depending on how much vinegar I put in my own mixtures, I may not want the sweet taste.

Vinaigrettes are fun. Play with this one, and see where it takes you!

Strawberry Vinaigrette is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. What’s In My Clean Eating Healthy Kitchen?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes, salad dressing, vinaigrettes

• 1/3 cup basmati rice, uncooked
• 1/2 cup broccoli, chopped
• 2 tbsp onions
• 2 tbsp mushrooms, diced
• 4 brussel sprouts (haha yes, just four), chopped
• 2tbsp sesame oil
• 1/3 cup bean sprouts
• 2tbsp yellow peppers, chopped
• 1/2tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4tsp black pepper
• pinch of sea salt

In one pot, get the rice going as according to the package. In a skillet, pour 1tbsp of your sesame oil in, let it heat up a bit, then start tossing in your veggies one by one. Hopefully by the time all of your veggies are in the skillet and heated up (you don’t want the veggies to lose their color or crunch, but you want them to be heated well), your rice is done. Once it’s finished, go ahead and toss it in the skillet. Shake your seasonings over the skillet, and pour in the last of your sesame oil. Stir it very well a few times, and you’re good!

I’m not even going to tell you how few calories this skillet is. Just know that it’s a great dinner for those who are learning to indulge less. Because not only do I promise you won’t be able to eat as much as you usually do, but it’s maybe a third of the amount of calories that you’re used to eating.

Basmati Stir Fry is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes, vegetarian

Since my game plan was to begin cooking everything myself, I decided to start stocking up on the spices. I couldn’t tell you how many are there, only that there are quite a few and I’ve used them all. They all look like one brand – many of them are Badia spices that I’ve collected from various trips to the grocery store. That’s a local Miami brand, so I try to support.

Buying them all happened over time – I opted to get 3 during one visit to the grocery, another 3 the next time. I always set aside at least $5 for some new spices. If I had the same 3 ingredients, I could probably make 6 different dishes with my spice rack on hand.

Since I’ve been harassed enough about adding recipes to the site, I figured it’d be appropriate to alert you to what spices I have in my kitchen. I’ll probably also be doing a “What’s in my fridge?” post as well, just so that people can see that eating healthier isn’t about eating carrots and seaweed (although, under the right circumstances, both can be pretty yummy.)

• Basil
• Oregano
• Cayenne Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Garlie Salt
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Turmeric
• Old Bay
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Sea Salt (in the ziploc bag above… it usually comes in a box, but I didn’t like that idea too much.)
• Coriander
• Tarragon
• Ginger
• Clove (ground)
• Clove
• Marjoram
• Cilantro
• Black Pepper
• White Pepper
• Lemon Pepper
• Crushed Red Pepper
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Curry Seasoning
• Orange Peels
• Parsley
• Ground Bay Leaves
• Bay Leaves
• Sesame Seeds
• Almonds
• Chili Powder
• Allspice
• Dill Weed
• Sage

That’s what’s in my cabinet. What’s in yours?

What’s In My Spice Cabinet? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes