A low-calorie adaptation for this traditional Indian dish. This is a big, very filling vegetarian dish, amazingly at just 150 calories! This recipe is also South Beach Phase-II compliant.

Ingredients (for 1)
* 1 small eggplant (about 200 grams, 50 cals)
* 60 grams of canned diced tomatoes (15 cals)
* 90 grams of frozen ‘peas & carrots’ (50 cals)
* 1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (5 cals)
* 1/2 cup of fat free vegetable or chicken broth (10 cals)
* 1 tbspoon of light soy milk (3 cals, found at the Target SuperStore)
* 1 tspoon of fresh ginger root (5 cals)
* 1/3 of the big kind of onions (10 cals)
* 0 calorie non-stick spray
* 1 tspoon curry powder (2 cals)
* 1/2 tspoon ground cumin
* 1 tbspoon cilantro
* 1 clove of garlic

Execution
1. Preheat the oven at 400F (205C). Fork the eggplant a few times and then cover with aluminum foil. Place it in the oven to bake for 35-40 minutes until soft.
2. Seed and mince the jalapeno. Mince the cilantro, garlic and ginger root. Cut the onion in bite-sizes, about 1.5″x1.5″ each. Set all aside.
3. When the eggplant is done, remove it from the foil, and very carefully peel it away and discard the skin. Place the remaining eggplant in an open plastic dish and add the milk on top of it. Using a mash-potato tool, mash it away.
4. Spray twice in a pan with the non-stick spray, and place it under high heat. Add and saute the onions for a minute. Add the jalapeno, garlic, ginger, cilantro, peas & carrots and tomatoes. Stir a few times and then add the eggplant-mash in it.
5. Add the cumin, powder and broth. Stir well. Lower the heat to medium and let it cook for a few minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated (stir a few times during that time). Serve hot.

Tip: Safeway sells a small can of diced tomatoes that has jalapenos in it. If you have access to Safeway, use that because it’s more convenient, cheaper, and the japapenos will be softer. It can be found in their tomato sauce aisle.

Most original Chinese recipes come with a prohibiting amount of calories. And so you constantly need to improvise in the way you cook or the ingredients you use. This is my adaptation of sweet-n-sour chicken — the diet way. What I like from this recipe is that if you look close to the ingredients, it’s a multi-national dish: peach with chicken as served in Morocco, pineapple/mango with chicken as it’s used in the tropical islands, asparagus as it’s used in Europe, salsa as it’s used in Mexico. And if you put all these elements together, you end up with the well-known Chinese flavor! The taste to the original recipe sweet-n-sour chicken is remarkably close. And at only 200 calories per serving, while this full plate will fill up your stomach! It’s very South Beach Phase-II compliant too, much more than the original recipe which requires the very-sugary traditional sauce and rice.

Ingredients (for 1)
* 90 gr fat-free chicken breast, cut in cubes (100 cals)
* 1 red bell pepper (20 cals)
* 1/4 of the big kind of onions (10 cals)
* 4 tbspoons of Archer Farm’s “Mango & Peach” or “Pineapple & Peach” salsa (found at Target stores, 20 cals)
* 4 asparagus (~50 cals)

Execution
1. Boil the chicken and asparagus in some boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain, and place the asparagus to your plate.
2. Cut the onion and bell pepper into a bite size, about 2×2 inch each.
3. In the pan that has the chicken in it, add the pepper, onion and salsa. Add 1/4 cup of water.
4. Cook for a few minutes under medium heat until most of the water has evaporated. Serve hot, do not add salt and pepper.

Tip: If you don’t have access to Archer Farm’s salsas, you can always make them yourself by cutting down and using just a bit of peach, mango or pineapple and a small tomato.

One thing that’s really pissing me off when I am on a low-calorie diet is that because I am forced to eat more vegetables without fatty sauces or oils, it takes away a lot of the pleasure of taste. Many diet foods are as tasteless as eating grass. But I think I just solved the problem! Yesterday we went shopping at WholeFoods and there I found these TastyBite packages. I noticed that while their recipes used quite some oil, their calorie count for some of their products was not prohibiting (ranges from 105 to 140 calories per serving). So, I bought 4 of their products to try them (picture below).

Now, instead of doing what it’s suggested in these packages (2 meals per package), you divide their meals by 4. And instead of actually eating these foods stand-alone or as side-dishes, you use them as sauce. For example, by adding 1/4 cup of water, 270 grams or already cooked cauliflower, broccoli & carrots (~100 cals), half of a low-calorie sausage (60 cals) and 1/4 of these TastyBites meals (~55 cals), you create an entree that’s about 400+ grams (enough to fill you up real good — compare that to the 255gr frozen diet foods), it’s really tasty because of the strong sauce used and it’s still very low calorie (200 cals).

This is what I prepared for Sunday lunch, and I can tell you, I could not finish it all, it was that much! This sort of food is good for the South Beach Diet too btw, not just low-calorie/low-fat diets and they usually provide lots of fiber. You can experiment yourself with other vegetables and kinds of meat to accompany these sauces (I am thinking of trying again tonight by adding beans and smoked fat-free pork to the remaining sauce I have refrigerated). I wish that TastyBite would provide some low-fat/calorie options too, but even as it is right now, the solution is acceptable calorie-wise.

We went shopping in a Mediterranean-focused grocery store today. And my JBQ spotted a product that I was trying to find for years abroad: Greek mountain tea. Its scientific name is “sideritis syriaca L.“, it has medicinal properties and as it’s a herbal tea it has no caffeine in it. Amazon’s third party stores have some, but with shipping it gets too expensive. When JBQ showed me the package he found, I started crying. And if I was not among strangers, I would have cried really loud. That much I missed that tea and that’s how much it reminds me of home. So tonight I made me a cup. Here’s how:

Step 1: Remove the packaging. Greek tea looks like this:

Step 2: Add 1 1/2 cups of water in a pan (for 1 cup of tea) and place as much tea as in the picture below (includes the stems, flowers and leaves).

Step 3: Boil it in high heat for 4-5 minutes until the color of the water changes to deep brown.

Step 4: Using a strainer, pour the tea into a cup.

Step 5: Have the tea with honey and roasted bread-crackers (picture of what I mean). You can use sugar instead, but honey is what makes this tea stand out from the rest.

Do not throw away the tea in the pan. It is good for one more cup of tea! You can keep it around in the pan for 24 hours.

If you live in the Bay Area, visit the Mediterranean grocery shop here and get some of that herbal tea too.

I found that muffins is the most low-calorie dessert/breakfast that one can have when on a diet that is actually satisfying without taking away much of your calorie allowance. This version has only 65 calories per serving (lower than WeightWatcher’s recipe which has 95 cals). To bring some variety into your diet if you are planning to use muffins daily, buy different low-calorie fruit jams so you can change the taste from week to week.

Ingredients (for 5)
* 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour (220 cals)
* 1/3 cup of fat-free milk (30 cals)
* 1 egg (half is used, 40 cals)
* 2 teaspoons of low-calorie jam (20 cals)
* 4 teaspoons of Splenda 0 calorie sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder (0 cals)
* 0 calorie non-stick spray

Execution
1. Preheat oven at 400 F (205C) .
2. In a bowl start beating with a whisk the egg. Then, throw half of the egg away.
3. Add all the rest of the ingredients and whisk them for 2 minutes until the batter becomes smooth.
4. Get 5 non-stick muffin cup holders, spray some non-stick spray on them, and then using a spoon equally distribute the batter in them.
5. Place muffins cups in a muffin baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This recipe comes from Turkey originally but it’s very popular in Greece. The following version has 200 calories (it’s only missing olive oil which is substituted by non-stick spray).

Ingredients: (for 1)
* 75 gr fat-free veal ground meat (75 cals)
* 20 gr of rice (70 cals)
* 1 egg (half is used, 40 cals)
* 1/2 lemon (10 cals)
* 1 small onion or shallot (5 cals)
* 2 sprays of 0 calorie non-stick spray (0 cals)
* black pepper to taste (0 cals)

Execution:
1. In a bowl mix well the rice and the meat with your hands for at least 1 minute. Then shape 8 meatballs.
2. Finely chop the onion. In a stove pan spray twice with the non-stick spray and stir-fry the onion for a few seconds. Add the meatballs and stir fry them for about 3-4 minutes until brown.
3. Add two cups of warm water and replace the pan’s cover. Cook in medium heat for about 15 minutes or until the rice is visibly cooked.
4. Bring the heat to low and squeeze half of the lemon (do not use bottled lemon juice). If the lemon doesn’t have much juice, squeeze the rest of it too. Stir.
5. Cut the egg in a way that you can easily remove the white part and put it in a semi-deep plate. Using a whisk start beating the egg for at least 3-4 minutes, until the white has become like a “cream”. Then, add the yolk and beat together for another minute. Turn off the heat. Throw away half of the egg mixture.
6. Take a ladle and with one hand remove juice from the pan and slowly pour it in the egg plate, while with the other hand keep stirring with the whisk the egg mixture (the point is to not have the egg “cook”, this is why we are slowly introducing it to the pan’s contents). Do that 2-3 times more.
7. Now move all the plate’s contents into the pan and keep stirring so the egg doesn’t cook. Sprinkle a gracious amount of black pepper to the mix. Serve hot.

This is a traditional southern France vegetarian dish that I first had at JBQ’s grandmother place. This version is without any olive oil and it only has 100 calories (add olive oil instead of cooking spray if you are not dieting). I would suggest you shape a burger out of 100 gr of fat-free veal ground meat and either grill it or fry it using non-stick spray. The two go well together.

Ingredients: (for 1)
* 1/3 of a small eggplant (25 cals)
* 1/3 of a small zucchini (20 cals)
* 1/5 of a green bell pepper (5 cals)
* 1/5 of a yellow bell pepper (5 cals)
* 1/2 cup of vegetable broth (5 cals)
* herbes de Provence (0 cals)
* 1 big tomato (30 cals)
* 2 onions or shallots (8 cals)
* 1 garlic clove (2 cals)
* black pepper to taste (0 cals)
* 2 sprays of 0 calorie non-stick spray (0 cals)

Execution:
1. Cut in small cubes the eggplant, zucchini, ball peppers and tomato and set aside.
2. Finely chop the onions and garlic. Under medium heat spray on a pan with the non-stick spray and saute the onions and garlic. Preheat oven at 350 F (180 C).
3. Add the cube’d vegetables in the pan and stir. Sprinkle a bit of black pepper and herbes de Provence.
4. Continue stir-frying in the pan for 3 more minutes and then add the vegetable broth juice.
5. Take a small, shallow baking dish and pour the ingredients into it. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

JBQ is on a diet (he is now thinking of following the South Beach Diet after buying the book yesterday) and so I decided to start over again too. I think I will follow a combination of South Beach’s suggestions regarding carbs (e.g. whole grain bread/pasta, brown rice) and my previous low-calorie/fat-free kind of diet. So, I started my diet today by cooking the following for lunch, a vegetarian dish which weighs only 200 calories although it fills you up as it has quite some quantity.

Ingredients: (for 1)
* 42 gr orzo or other pasta (150 cals)
* 1 cup of chopped veggies: button mushrooms, shallot, zucchini, eggplant, ball peppers, asparagus, carrots etc. (35 cals)
* 1 cup of fat free chicken or vegetable broth (5 cals)
* 1 tbspoon of parmesan cheese (10 cals)

Execution:
1. Cook pasta according to package’s direction. Drain.
2. Cook the veggies with the broth in high heat.
3. When there is very little broth left in the pan, add the pasta and mix all ingredients well.
4. Serve hot and sprinkle the parmesan on top.

This is a great snack, especially if you are… poor (although it’s good for everybody). Lots of energy, cheap ingredients. At least once a week we would have tiganites at my home in Greece when I was a kid. Love them! You can also listen on how they are pronounced here.

Ingredients (for 2)
* half a cup of warm water
* 1/3 cup of white flour
* some feta cheese
* olive oil
* salt

Execution
1. In a bowl pour the water and a bit of salt.
2. Add the flour and using a whisk keep beating it until the batter becomes smooth. The batter must not be too soft, neither too concentrated, so add either water or flour until you get the ideal balance.
3. Crumble the feta cheese in small-ish pieces and add it to the batter.

4. In a frying pan, add quite some olive oil. Let it be real hot before you fry anything.
5. Using a table spoon get some of the batter and pour it into the frying pan. Do the same until the frying pan doesn’t fit any more of these butter drops, although the drops are far apart enough so each one holds its own.
6. Turn the tiganites once or twice, and remove from the pan until both sides are golden brown and cooked through (there is a major difference in taste if they are not well-cooked).
7. Place the tiganites in a plate and if you still have some batter left, add some olive oil again and fry the rest.
8. When all done, you can eat them hot or cold. Some people add sugar on top of the tiganites while hot, they indeed taste very good with sugar too.

Note: A more complicated and less-traditional recipe version is here.

After my initial post on how different cultures consume food, here is one more interesting one. French (on days that they don’t work that is) won’t eat the same food for lunch and dinner. In Greece, when we cook, we cook for the whole day. E.g. if the dish of the day is lentils, then we usually cook enough food for both lunch and dinner. In France (and on many other countries), this would be considered “leftovers”. Possibly, one of the reasons is that many of the French dishes must be eaten freshly cooked, while the Greek cousine which consists mostly of baked dishes and beans, it is easier to reheat, hense it has resulted in this cultural difference over the years.

Other differences:
- In Greek salads people are eating from the same plate that sits in the middle of the table, while in French salads you move the bowl around and each person is taking a piece of the salad on their own plate and eats it from there.
- If a food is difficult to eat with fork and knife, we are not afraid to use our hands to break bones and “free” the meat from these difficult to reach places. The French will simply not eat that part of the meat instead of using their hands. French only use their hands for meat from small birds and crab legs.
- We eat the fat out of let’s say, a lamb chop. Many French people will cut the fat out and only eat the actual meat.