Nancy S. Hughes - The 1,500-calorie-a-day cookbook

THE 1,500-Calorie-a-Day Cookbook

NANCY S. HUGHES

Copyright 2009 by Nancy Hughes. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-154386-6

MHID: 0-07-154386-4

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To my husband, Greg, who understands the real me, pulls me in
when I get carried away, puts things into perspective, and then
helps me flyto get carried away again, but with direction.

And to my children,

Will and Kelly and now Miss Molly Catherine, who pop in
for random tastings, total chaos, and tons of opinions
welcomed opinions.

Annie, who finds the pure joy in good food and the "coziness"
of a good conversationover that good food.

Taft, who still patiently comes by to "unblink" the flashing
clock and other such technology adjustments I don't have
timenor botherto deal with.

You've all found the deep passion that steers your heart in
each of your lives and in each of your professionswhat true
accomplishments. (Of course, I take sole credit for showing
you the way.) I love you!

Contents

Acknowledgments

To Monica Davis, Robin Brinker, Liz Dixon, and Melanie Crane for all the long hours helping to "get it just right"; having mind-swirling conversations; and caring so much for the sake of the book, the sake of the recipe, and the sake of not having to test it one more time!

To Judy Wilcox, for letting me pick her "nutritionally genius" brain and helping me make simple sense out of it all!

To my editor, Sarah Pelz, for having a great thought, digging deep and popping up with an even greater idea, and working with me to make this book happen. Thanks, Sarah, for your collected, calm personality to match my collected but over-the-top, excitable personality. Teamwork at its best!

Thanks for helping to bring it together!

Introduction

Our schedules are so crazy, and eating healthy is not always at the top of the priority list. We tend to let the healthy aspect slide a little, along with our quality of food. So our good intentions tend to slip through the cracks, along with our health. It can get away from us one bite at a time. By the same token, we can improve our quality of health one bite at a time!

With this book, it's actually enjoyable to stick to a healthy, low-calorie meal plan. Just because you're trying to lose weight or watch your calorie intake, it doesn't mean you have to sacrifice flavor, taste, variety, or the simple pleasures food can bring. Remember "snack time" growing up? It not only helped refuel us between meals but also was fun! But what we didn't realize was that it was also portion controlleda couple of graham crackers and milk, an apple, or a handful of nuts, for example. And so it is with this book: grab a fast-fix snack in the middle of the morning and then again in the afternoon, just like you used to do. It's a fun and easy way to stay on track, as is the entire book.

How to Use This Book

The recipes in this book are designed to make it easy for you to eat healthy, satisfying food all day long and keep to 1,500 calories a daywithout having to count calories or prepare complicated meals. In these pages, you'll find 150 recipes for filling breakfasts; stick-to-the-ribs lunches and dinners; tasty snacks; and delicious, guilt-free desserts. Every day you get to choose three meals, two snacks, and one dessert. Breakfast, plus one snack, plus lunch, plus another snack, plus dinner, plus dessertall for just 1,500 calories!

All breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are approximately 350 calories each. All snacks and desserts are approximately 150 calories each. So no matter what combination you choose from the various chapters, you'll come up with about 1,500 calories a day. If you cut out the dessert, it can be a 1,350-calorie day, but who wants to give up dessert? There's no need. This is not a diet plan, but rather a delicious way to take you through the day in a healthy way.

This book contains a month's worth of breakfasts, snacks and appetizers, lunches, dinners, and desserts that are calorie controlled to help you stay within weight-loss parameters while getting tons of flavor and nutritional benefits. And they're fast, really fast. Each recipe takes 30 minutes or less to makeand that's not just for one part of the meal, but for the entire meal. There's one main recipe for each meal and purposely simple sides to go along with it.

As in all of my books, all of the recipes are family-friendly but will also satisfy the savvy eaters in your life. You can find all of the ingredients in traditional supermarkets, so no extra grocery runs to specialty food shops are necessary. The ingredient lists are short to keep the shopping, prep, and cleanup time to a minimum. Using high-flavor ingredients, a variety of easy cooking techniques, and multi-ingredient items such as seasoning blends or salsa are just some of the secrets to these great-tasting quick-fixers.