Jones Kate Randle - 400 calories or less with our best bites

Photo inset on page iii, left to right: Steak and Green Bean Stir-Fry (p. 96), Angel Food Stacks with Lemon Cream and Fresh Berries (p. 126), Thai Chicken Salad (p. 12)
All food styling and food photography by Sara Wells and Kate Jones
Art direction by Richard Erickson
Book and cover design by Sheryl Dickert Smith
Typography by Rachael Ward
Production design by Kayla Hackett
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wells, Sara (Sara Smith), author.
400 calories or less with our best bites / Sara Wells and Kate Jones.
pages cm
Other title: Four hundred calories or less with our best bites
Includes index.
Summary: A cookbook with recipes for dishes with less than 400 calories from the blog OurBestBites.com.
ISBN 978-1-60907-991-8 (paperbound)
1. 12)
All food styling and food photography by Sara Wells and Kate Jones
Art direction by Richard Erickson
Book and cover design by Sheryl Dickert Smith
Typography by Rachael Ward
Production design by Kayla Hackett
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wells, Sara (Sara Smith), author.
400 calories or less with our best bites / Sara Wells and Kate Jones.
pages cm
Other title: Four hundred calories or less with our best bites
Includes index.
Summary: A cookbook with recipes for dishes with less than 400 calories from the blog OurBestBites.com.
ISBN 978-1-60907-991-8 (paperbound)
1.

Cooking, American. 2. Low-calorie dietRecipes. I. Jones, Kate (Kate Randle), author. Title. III. III.

Title: Four hundred calories or less with our best bites.
TX715.W4639 2015
641.5973dc232014039231
Printed in China
R. R. Donnelley, Shenzhen, China
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments First of all, we have to give a huge thank you to our readers, both those who have been with us from the very beginning and those who have just started reading Our Best Bites (and everyone in between). Thank you for your continued support, kindness, and friendshipwithout you, there would be no one to share our recipes and stories with. Many thanks to our friends at Shadow Mountain for always supporting us as well as our creative vision. When we say we want a picture for every recipe, they find a way to make it happen.

Finally, thank you to our friends and families who have offered their endless support, advice, and taste-testing skills. Our husbandsSam and Ericand our kidsClark, Meredith, and Will Jones, and Tyler, Owen, Jack, and Gavin Wellshave given us their unwavering patience (okay, mostly unwavering) and love. If we didnt have you behind us, following this particular dream would be impossible. From our hearts and homes to yours, How to Use This Book At Our Best Bites, we wholeheartedly believe in eating delicious food. And when were making a conscious effort to make better food choices, we still want our food to be tasty. Weve thought about writing a book of lightened-up recipes for a long time, but our biggest hesitation was that there are a lot of different interpretations of what it means to eat healthy.

There are people who believe low-fat is the only way to go, and others who subscribe to a low-carb way of life. There are paleo and low-calorie and gluten-free eaters. There are people who only make things from scratch and people who order frozen and dehydrated pre-cooked, pre-measured meals. Hop on the Internet and in about five minutes, youll find twenty-five conflicting opinions on what healthy means. Were not medical professionals or dietitians. Were just two girls who love good food and strongly believe in moderation.

Weve used these recipes to lose weight and to maintain healthy, balanced lifestyles ourselves. Youll find recipes in this book that fit into just about every category, but we do have a few important notes: Gluten Weve labeled several recipes as gluten-free. Gluten is a combination of proteins found in certain foods, and while some people eat gluten-free because they just feel better not eating it, for others, their bodies cant process it and they become very sick when they eat even trace amounts of it. Sometimes gluten can show up in strange places, like some types of rice cereals but not in others, or in some brands of soy sauce but not others. If you are eating gluten-free or preparing a meal for someone who does not eat gluten, please be sure to check the labels on your ingredients, particularly for anything that is grain-based or may have some kind of grain-based flavor or coloring. Sodium Due to the wide variances in sodium among different brands, we have not included a sodium calculation in the nutrition information, but its easy to do by checking the nutritional information on the products you buy.

Regardless of your sodium preferences, we recommend using low-sodium products and then seasoning to taste as necessary. Low Carb Even in the low-carb world, there is some disagreement about what constitutes a low-carb recipe. If you are following a particular plan, youve probably been given numbers on what constitutes low carb, so feel free to use our numbers as a tool to help you determine whether or not the recipe will fit into your plan. Otherwise, any recipe with 20 grams of carbs or fewer per serving has been categorized as being low in carbs in this book. White versus Wheat When it comes to calories, white and whole-grain breads, rice, and pastas are usually pretty comparable. Thats not to say white is betterwhole-grain breads, rice, and pastas are pretty much better in every way nutritionallybut lets face it, sometimes white just tastes better.

In pretty much every recipe, white and whole-grain products can be used interchangeably, depending on your preference. Our Weight Loss Philosophy As a general rule, we dont believe in cutting out entire food groups. We do believe that by maintaining an active lifestyle and eating lots of vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins, theres always room for a splurge, whether its in the form of something sweet or a special occasion dinner. Weve got calorie counts on every recipeincluding delicious snacks and dessertsto help keep you where you want to be. We hope youll use this book to find a healthy balance, whether youre trying to lose weight or stay balanced. Introduction When we started the Our Best Bites blog in 2008, we didnt anticipate it becoming what it is.

We simply started out sharing our favorite recipes with our friends, sisters, aunts, and former roommates. And when we said, our best bites, we meant our best bites. You knowthe recipes you make when your in-laws come for the weekend, when you really want to impress someone, when youre pulling out all the stops. Things like deep-fried French toast and stuffed pizza rolls and cheesy garlic bread rolls. The funny thing is that those indulgences arent all our best bitesthey are special treats that we balance with fantastic-tasting lighter fare. We didnt realize there was some disconnect among our readers until people started telling us that they loved to read our blog and look at our pictures, but they couldnt eat what we were making because they were trying to eat healthy.