Exactly

Eating Out - Fat Free Style!

I have researched all of my favorite restaurants. And I have been thoroughly disappointed that 99% of the time my only uber low fat option (anything less than 5 grams per serving) is a dry salad. It is because of this that I have opted out of going out to eat anymore.

However before GB-Day I promised my son that if he did not have any behavior issues at school (talking out of turn, being a pest, etc) for one whole month that I would take him to Cici's Pizza. They have more than just pizza on the buffet. They have salad and pasta as well...

Since pasta with red sauce is generally low-fat and since a dry salad with no animal products (cheese or egg) is non-fat I figured I would eat a big salad and a bowl or two of pasta. Once we got there though I remembered that they have a policy that if there isn't a pizza on the line that you want they will make it for you... and they are even willing to customize it. So I immediately got out my handy dandy white iPhone 4s in its protective CaseMate commuter case and pulled up the nutrition info for Cici's... I found out something fun.... They're Veggie pizza is only 2 grams of fat per slice... I did some quick calculations and by leaving off the cheese and the olives (all olives are super high in fat) I could probably cut that down to 1 gram or maybe even 0.5 grams... BOOYA!!!

So I went up to the manager who happened to be working the line and I asked... "can I order a veggie pizza but with no cheese and no olives?" He says, "How many slices would you like me to deliver to your table?"

I immediately did a little happy dance in my head (because a grown ass chubby girl doing the happy dance in public is a little weird). About 10 mins later I had 2 glorious slices of pizza delivered to my table. ahhhhhh

So a GREAT BIG shout out to Cici's Pizza for having some uber low-fat options and for being awesome enough to take weird requests from customers.

PS if you forget to pack your fat free dressing in your hand bag (or if you're a dude in your man-purse) the trick to making a dry salad tasty is pepperoncinis. One small slice with each bite of salad helps kick up the flavor. Add anything you want to your base of leaves but keep clear of the cheese, eggs, and olives... all of these are way too high in fat and you can tend to go over board when putting them on a salad. Oh and if you can get a bit of the pepperoncini juice to sprinkle over your salad its a huge bonus!

The Savior of Dry Salads everywhere

Friday Is Recipe Day!

First let me review a couple of recipes that I have tried this week... first the review of last week's Recipe 

Fat Free Pizza Dough

Stolen from Here
Ingredients: I already had everything except the yeast and even if you had to buy everything from the store you aren't going to spend much more than $10.00 for it all.
Toppings: I used leftovers.. I had some left over uber low-fat taco meat, half an onion and half a sweet red pepper... I gotta say it was FUCKING YUMM-O (yes I am sure that Rachel Ray says this at home). NO CHEESE!!! I did not put any cheese on at all and the pizza did not suffer because of it.
Materials used: I used store brand everything except the yeast. I find that Fleischmann's is the best yeast for everything... no need to get the special pizza dough yeast or bread dough yeast... plain ole active dry yeast works just fine! I used the store brand pizza sauce because surprisingly it had half the fat of the name brands.
Prep and cooking: I followed the directions exactly and it came out perfect! I only got this one shot of the pizza... It was so good that it went fast....

I estimate this slice of pizza at 2 grams of total fat its probably less though.

Baked Sweet Potato Chips

I don't want to talk about it.... let's just say that unless you have a really good mandolin so that you can cut the slices REALLY thin then you should not try this recipe....

And now... I present you with this week's recipe:

Crunchy Chickpeas

Stolen from Here - I am totally in love with this blogger because she has the yummiest snack recipes.. and being a fatty I LOVE SNACKS... now I can still snack and be kind to my gallbladder too!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• Seasonings of your choice
  

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well.
• Spray a baking sheet with canola oil and spread chickpeas out in a single layer. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until golden and crunchy, about 45-50 minutes.
•  Cool completely before serving.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s) | Cooking time: 45 minute(s)
Makes 6 servings. Per serving: 72 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (8% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 180mg Sodium; 3g Fiber. 

 I followed this recipe exactly. I used Creole Seasoning and Lawry's seasoned salt (mmmmm spicy). I checked the doneness of the chickpeas at each stirring... they were still a bit "not crunchy" after 30 mins.... at the 45 min mark I took them out of the oven and let them cool on the pan on the counter. Some of them came out a little extra crispy and some came out not quite crunchy but most of them came out perfect. I blame this on my possessed oven. It changes its own temp randomly and without warning... I think next time I will lower the temp to 350 and still do the 15min intervals. 

You might think that this takes a LONG time to get a snack, and I thought so too... but when you break it up in 15min segments its not so bad. Next time I try this recipe I am going buy an industrial sized can of chickpeas and try a couple of batches and a couple of flavors. I really wanna try Cinnamon Sugar and Chipotle Lime.

Trying to Explain it to People Part 1 - Social Gatherings

I hate walking around and talking about my medical problems... Mostly only my close friends (and now YOU) really know what is going on...

I have been avoiding social gatherings for this reason. You see you can't just show up to a party and expect the food being served to be appropriate for your diet. So if you are going to a party you have to bring your own food. Have you ever walked into a party carrying a lunch bag? its embarassing... and maybe the friend who invited me knows whats going on but all the other guests don't.

Strangely people get weirded out when you pull a bottle of fat free dressing out of your purse. They totally freak when you also pull out a snack pouch of tuna, a bag of salad, pretzels and a bottle of water. The questions begin hurling at you at lightening speed...

how I answer in my head

"Are you on a diet?"
"Don't you like my mom's cooking?"
"Are you some sort of health nut?"

I could answer all of these with  a simple "Yes" except that isn't true and I hate lying.

So I have tried to simplify it. "No, I have gallbladder disease and it restricts my diet"

The inevitable follow up is "oh.. Why don't you just have it removed?"

I take a deep breath and say "Unfortunately I do not have health insurance and I do not qualify for Medicaid. I have not yet found a surgeon or surgery center who will make payment arrangements with me so that I can have it done."

This inevitably leads to an hour long conversation about my disease and how I manage it and how much the health care system in America sucks great big hairy gallstones. I hate it. I love going to parties and I love having parties, but I hate that my gallbladder always becomes a topic of conversation.

I have tried to just avoid these social things but my friends keep dragging me out of my house by the hair on my head and threatening bodily harm if I don't show up. Also since most of these friends have kids usually these gatherings mean playtime for The Boy (my son). sigh... I can't really deny him anything.

I'm not sure if I am going to change my approach to it. I think the more I talk about it the more people will think about it. Maybe someone will talk to someone who will talk to someone who is a doctor. Then maybe that doctor will take pity on my chubby butt and offer to cover the cost of the surgery.

And maybe a unicorn will show up at my front door and fart rainbows.

Yep

Recipe of the Week!

OK... so from now on Friday is going to be recipe of the week day. I will post a recipe that I have either already tried or am planning on trying.

This week I am posting the recipe for a fat free pizza dough... I totally stole it from here. I am a HUGE pizza junky and the big thing I have been missing is a yummy pizza.... Most of the fat in a pizza is in the crust and cheese. I have not yet tried this recipe but its got a ton of great reviews. I am going to make it as listed in this recipe. you can make any substitutions you want... I'll give you my own review on it on Monday.

ok here goes:

Ingredients:

• 1/2-1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 cups white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• In a small bowl mix 1/4 cup of the warm water with the yeast and the sugar. Stir it well to try to dissolve the yeast and sugar. Let it sit for about 5 minutes or until it gets foamy.
• Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the flour and salt. Pulse for about 5 seconds.
• When the yeast mixture is foamy add it to the flour and pulse for about 10 seconds.
• Turn the machine on. Start adding the remaining water a little at a time until the dough forms a ball.
• Once it forms a ball let it spin 25 times.
• Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Put the ball of dough on top and cover it with a metal bowl you have sprayed with cooking spray. Let it sit there between 15 and 30 minutes depending on how much you want it to rise.
• Heat the oven to 425. When the dough is done rising, pat it out on your cookie sheet into the shape you want for your pizza.
• Take it out of the oven. You can top it immediately or let it sit depending on your need.
• Once you have topped it, the pizza will need about 15-20 minutes to cook, or until brown.