Tip: Yesterday I made dip for a party. Instead of buying a large container of plain yogurt of which I only wanted to use 8 oz I opted for Greek yogurt. I found a brand at Target called Fage which is a strained Greek yogurt and cost less overall (of course, per ounce was a lot more) than the larger container of regular yogurt. Into the 6 oz, I mixed 1 Tbs (about 1/2 pkt) of the Harvest Dill and OH. MY! It was creamy and delicious! You will NOT miss your sour cream! I will actually splurge on the Greek yogurt for this dip from now on. Definitely worth it.

Recipe
Somewhat Authentic Shepard's Pie

1 lb lean beef
2 cups free veggies (recommended: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery)
1 pkt mushroom gravy
garlic powder
lemon pepper
Cavendar's Greek seasoning
Worcestershire sauce
1 pkg Four Cheese mashed potato mix

Slow cook beef in water until tender. Remove lingering fat and drain. Mash a little or shred. Prepare mashed potatoes with hot tap water and set aside. Gather six 2 cup baking containers (such as a ramekin) and put 2-3 oz of beef on the bottom of each container. Spread 1/4 veggies on top of the beef. Dash garlic powder, lemon pepper, and Greek seasoning over the top of each. Mix together the water and gravy packet without cooking into a small bowl. Use about 2 Tbs over each serving, then dribble 1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce over the top (depending on how much bite you like). Dollop with mashed potatoes (do not smooth out on top) and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes until top is dark brown.

Depending on how lean the meat is, these are around 170 calories per serving.

Start Simple (snack)

Aside: I often get asked "Don't you feel better?" I know I'm supposed to answer "yes!" but... I don't. I didn't feel -not good- before. This is one of those things people say with a certain expectation; that you either had failing health or failing self-worth which led you to begin a change of life. Every commercial on TV has people saying "I lost ___ lbs and I feel great!" or similar platitudes. The rebel in me wonders if I didn't want to lose weight because it's just pandering to "their" campaign to make us feel bad about ourselves. "They", as far as I'm concerned, are trying to brainwash "us" into thinking that if we are obese, we have to feel bad about ourselves; that it's our social responsibility to lose weight. Neither is true.

Meanwhile, I do think the person who asked me if I feel better last night would benefit from some sort of weight management program. I am quite certain he would feel better.

After snacks comes nap time, right? Oh great. I have to be a grown up?

Veggies – Try crunching on fresh carrots or celery. Pick up cucumbers or bell peppers. Yeah, I’m not a big fan of carrot or celery either, but try eating them with the following dip:

Dip – Go to the dressing aisle where they sell the dip mixes. We like to mix it up with either the Harvest Dill or classic Ranch, but occasionally it’s nice to use the Italian dressing mix. Now head over to the dairy products. Pick up that low-fat sour cream, but before you put it in your basket, pick up a container of light or greek yogurt in a plain flavor. Compare calories. Hmm, interesting, right? Now look at serving size. You get one whole cup of yogurt for about the same calories as just 2 tablespoons of sour cream! This varies, of course, but you will never get to enjoy as much sour cream dip as you can if you just make it with plain yogurt. You could easily eat 2 tablespoons of dip and want more, but by the time you’ve eaten ¼ cup you would be done so divide the calories in the yogurt by 25% and that’s all you would likely want. Mix the packet into the yogurt and keep it in the fridge. Yeah, it’s not as creamy, but I assure you if you give it a chance you will find that it really satisfies!

Pickles

Nalley Kosher Dill is one of our favorite foods in this house. We could eat them all day and night! The sodium count keeps us from doing so, but remember that pickles are a free food. Even bread and butter pickles are low in calorie. If you like sweet pickles, it might be a problem, but consider the mini ones as a treat because you will be happier if you let yourself have your favorites from time to time. Theaters used to sell pickles and the ones that still do are a great alternative to candy.

Crave potato chips and other crunchies a lot? Have a healthy 9 year old in your house who doesn’t need to diet and can be a little finicky? These are foods that have worked great in our house. Not only do we dieters enjoy them, the young one here has no (or few) complaints.

Baked Lays – lower in calories than their counterparts, they actually taste delicious. In fact, at the last family dinner where a bag of regular chips were open, I ate two, realized they tasted oily, and didn’t want any more.

Quaker Rice Cakes – Like Cheetos? Get the Cheddar Cheese. Like sweets? The Caramel cakes hit the spot. We tried Ranch, Wild Blueberry, and Crème Brulee. While the blueberry may curve a craving for blueberry muffins (those delicious ones from Costco are over 600 calories! I was bummed!) I would recommend the former two. They tasted best and are the only ones I wanted to repeat. If you like Ranch, go for the Baked Lays and dip (above).

Special K - These crackers are 70 calories for 17 crackers. We tried Multi-grain and Savory Herb. I don’t typically like wheat or multi-grain so I fully expected herb to be my choice. No! The multi-grain crackers are delicious! I don’t really like the herb ones at all – though they’d be nice to put out at a party.

Sweets

From time to time, I would crave candy bars. During these times, I would go crazy! When I started this healthy campaign, I knew I had some sugar addictions to cut because the last couple years it had become a daily desire. Instead I bought Quaker granola bars and had them as a snack. It weened me off nicely and now I don’t crave them at all.

Alternate treat – I had a package of lemon pirouettes from World Market when we made this change. I found I could eat just one at around 35 calories as a sweet snack, too, but when they were gone, I didn’t care to buy more.