Hungry Girl diet's got good taste

By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Monday, May 12, 2008

Lisa Lillien isn't a nutritionist, a dietitian or a weight-loss guru.

She's just hungry.

And like most of us, Lillien wants to eat guilt-free, which is way easier said than done. But about five years ago, she decided to help herself do exactly that - and help the weight-watching world in the process.

The inspiration hit Lillien while she was toodling down the freeway in California, hauling a carload of supposedly diet-friendly pastry to a lab for tests.

"I was obsessed with them because they were fantastic and supposedly very low-calorie," she recalls. "I have since learned that if it tastes too good to be true, it probably is."

En route, it occurred to Lillien that others might benefit from her extreme passion for goodies minus the guilt. So she quit her day job and started a daily e-mail subscription service called Hungry Girl (hungry-girl.com), dedicated to making eating easier and more enjoyable for the diet-addicted masses through tips, recipes, recommendations and chat.

What began with 100 friends and family has grown to more than 400,000 subscribers and has resulted in a book in stores now, Hungry Girl Recipes & Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World.

Quite a mouthful.

"I grew up in a dieting household," Lillien says. "My mom was a yo-yo dieter, always trying the latest fad diets. I was never extremely overweight, but for a large part of my adult life, I was losing and gaining the same 10 to 15 pounds."

Lillien lost 30 pounds by cutting out the foods that made her hungriest - bread, pasta, potatoes and the like. But she also realized that every now and then, she'd need something that resembled a piece of bread or a brownie, with all the satisfaction and very few of the calories. So she made them up.

Lillien isn't a chef, or even a cook. She considers herself a "food assembler."

"It's not about complicated recipes. There are no fancy cookbook terms - I don't know what those mean," she says. "All I know is: I need onion rings. So what am I going to do?"

Lillien's answer: coat the onions with fat-free egg substitute and Fiber One bran cereal that's been pulverized in a blender. Voila - "Lord of the Onion Rings," a mere 153 calories and 1 gram of fat, compared with the typical fast-food tally of 450 calories and 25 grams of fat.

"I was screaming the first time I tried them, they were so good," Lillien says. "Putting Fiber One in a blender changed my life. I make faux-fried everything with it."

The rings are one of her personal faves, but there's lots to love in Lillien's book, a collection of 165 lo-cal creations that address the basic human need for chocolate, crunch, ease of prep and avoidance of grocery shopping. While many of the recipes are for one, they're easily expandable.

"But a lot of people, if they make the recipe for four, they'll eat the whole thing," says Lillien, who totally understands. "That's the way my brain works. What if I eat the whole cobbler? What happens then?"

In the case of her "Cheery Cherry Cobbler," eating the whole thing - intended for four - would mean about 600 calories and 4 grams of fat. Still not too bad.

When she's not obsessing about food, Lillien stays fit by hitting the treadmill for about an hour five times a week along with twice-weekly, 30-minute weight-training sessions. During workouts, she watches her favorite reality television for distraction.

"I don't love exercise," Lillien says. "I do love eating."

Ryckmanl@RockyMountainNews.com

Easy-on-the-thighs recipes

Death by Chocolate Cupcakes

Serves 12

2 cups moist-style chocolate cake mix

2 packets of diet hot cocoa mix, 25 calories each

1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute

2 tablespoon semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

1 teaspoon Splenda (granulated)

1/8 teaspoon salt

11/2 cup boiling water

* Place chips and both cocoa packets in a Pyrex measuring glass.

* Add 12 ounces of boiling water and stir until chips and mix dissolve. Place glass in the freezer to chill for 25 minutes.

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

* After the cocoa has chilled, give it a stir and mix with all remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl.

* Whip batter with a whisk or fork for 2 minutes.

* The batter will be thin.

* Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with baking cups.

* Evenly spoon batter into the pan.

* Bake 15 minutes. Cupcakes will look shiny when done.

Nutritional information per serving: 108 cal., 2 g fat (0 g sat), 0 mg chol., 19 g carb., 2 g pro., 1 g fiber, 0mg sodium.

Lord of the Onion Rings

Serves 1

1 large onion

1/2 cup Fiber One bran cereal (original)

1/4 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute

Dash of salt

Optional: black pepper, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder

* Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

* Cut off the ends of the onion and remove the outer layer.

* Cut onion into 1/2-inch wide slices and separate into rings.

* Using a blender or food processor, grind Fiber One to a breadcrumb-like consistency.

* Pour Fiber One crumbs into a small dish and mix in salt and any optional spices you'd like.

* Fill a small bowl with egg substitute.

* One by one, coat each ring, first in egg (shake off excess) and then in the crumb mixture.

* Evenly place rings on a baking dish sprayed with nonstick spray.

* Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, flipping rings over halfway through.

Nutritional information per serving: 153 cal.,1 g fat (0 g sat), 0 mg chol., 41 g carb., 9 g pro., 16 g fiber, 380 mg sodium.

Creamy Banana Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

Serves 1

1/3 cup regular oats (not instant)

1 tablespoon dry pancake mix

1/3 medium banana, mashed well with a fork

2 tablespoons canned pumpkin (pure)

1/3 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute

1 tablespoon fat-free cottage cheese

2 packets no-cal sweetener

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons water

Dash of salt

* Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Stir until thoroughly mixed.

* Spray a frying pan with nonstick spray and heat over medium heat.

* Drop batter into pan to form three pancakes.

* Once pancakes begin to look solid (about 3 minutes), gently flip. Cook for about 3 more minutes or until both sides are lightly browned and insides are cooked through.

Nutritional information per serving: 243 cal., 2 g fat (0 g sat), 0 mg chol., 39 g carb., 16 g pro., 5 g fiber, 450 mg sodium.

TOP ATE Calorie-Saving Cooking Swaps

* 1. Nonstick cooking spray instead of oil (for stovetop cooking)

* 2. Canned pumpkin instead of eggs and oil (for baking)

* 3. Light vanilla soy milk instead of milk or cream

* 4. Fat-free liquid egg substitute instead of eggs

* 5. No-sugar-added applesauce instead of butter

* 6. Ground-beef-style soy crumbles instead of ground beef

* 7. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granular) instead of sugar

* 8. Butternut squash instead of potatoes

Cut the calories

Here are Hungry Girl's survival tips for your favorite sushi bar and corner Starbucks.

AT THE SUSHI BAR

* Order cucumber rolls (130 calories each), spicy tuna roll (250 calories) or California rolls without mayo (270 to 300 calories).

* Go for soy sauce, rice vinegar, wasabi, ginger, seaweed, miso or clear soup, edamame, steamed dumplings.

* Skip oily or cream-based sauces, cream cheese, mayo, noodle or dumpling soup, tempura, fried dumplings.

* Start with an appetizer that takes a while to eat, like edamame or seaweed salad.

* Slow down your eating by mixing hot wasabi into your soy sauce.

AT STARBUCKS

* Always order nonfat and no whip.

* Remember that "reduced fat" pastries aren't necessarily low in calories or fat. Avoid cake-y items.

* Opt for sugar-free syrups, fat-free milk and no-calorie sweetener.

* Tea isn't always diet-friendly. Order it plain and unsweetened, add a shot of sugar-free syrup and use no-cal sweetener.

* Order a "short" drink if you want to indulge without going overboard.

Diet-conscious favorites

Hungry Girl isn't shy when it comes to naming names. Here are just a few of her favorite weight-conscious products:

* Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges

* Smart Balance 37 percent Light Buttery Spread

* Better 'n Eggs

* Breyers Double Churn (Fat) FREE Ice Cream

* Weight Watchers, Arnold Bakery or Sara Lee Delightful bread

* Thomas' 100 Calorie Original English Muffins

* Yoplait Light

* Dannon Light & Fit yogurt

* Gardenburger Veggie Burgers

* Jennie-O Extra Lean Turkey Bacon and Ground Turkey Breast

* Fiber One bran cereal

* Cary's Sugar Free Syrup

* Splenda

* Wish-Bone Salad Spritzers