Devin Alexander - The Biggest Loser Flavors of the World Cookbook: Take your taste buds on a global tour with more than 75 easy, healthy recipes for your favorite ethnic dishes

Production Development & Direction: Chad Bennett, Dave Broome, Joni Camacho, Steve Coulter, Todd Nelson, Kim Niemi, J. D. Roth, Neysa Siefert, and Ben Silverman

NBCU, Reveille, 25/7 Productions, and 3Ball Productions would like to thank the many people who gave their time and energy to this project: Stephen Andrade, Carole Angelo, Dana Arnett, Sebastian Attie, Nancy N. Bailey, The Biggest Loser contestants, Dave Bjerke, Maria Bohe, Jill Bowles, Jen Busch, Jill Carmen, Scot Chastain, Ben Cohen, Jason Cooper, Marie Crousillat, Dan Curran, Dr. Michael Dansinger, Camilla Dhanak, Devin Franchino, Kat Elmore, John Farrell, Cheryl Forberg, Jeff Friedman, Wendy Gable, Christina Gaugler, Marc Graboff, Jenny Groom, Bob Harper, Chris Harris, Robyn Hennessey, Shelli Hill, Dr. Robert Huizenga, Jill Jarosz, Helen Jorda, Adam Kaloustian, Edwin Karapetian, Alex Katz, Allison Kaz, Loretta Kraft, Laura Kuhn, Beth Lamb, Todd Lubin, Roni Lubliner, Alan Lundgren, Carole MacDonal, Rebecca Marks, Jillian Michaels, Gregg Michaelson, John Miller, Sarah Napier, Yelena Nesbit, Jessica Nubel, Julie Nugent, Trae Patton, Ed Prince, Scott Radloff, Lee Rierson, Karen Rinaldi, Melissa Roberson, Beth Roberts, Maria Rodale, Jessica Roth, Drew Rowley, Leslie Schwartz, Carrie Simons, Lee Straus, Kelia Tardiff, Paul Telegdy, Deborah Thomas, Julie True, Josie Ventura, Emily Weber, Liza Whitcraft, Julie Will, Audrey Wood, Yong Yam

G iven the fact that I've maintained a 70-pound weight loss for close to 20 years, I truly understand the importance of having options that satisfy all of my (and your!) cravings in a healthy way. And I love that in the 5 years that I've been a part of The Biggest Loser family, the producers, executives, trainers, and entire team haven't lost sight of what's truly important: inspiring fans and giving them the tools they need to succeed.

As I was developing the recipes in this book, I joked that I was on the receiving end of some Jillian-style discipline: I was being pushed to a new extreme of creating decadent flavors within some pretty strict nutritional guidelines. When you consider that a typical dish served in an Americanized Indian restaurant can have as much as 4,500 milligrams of sodium; that many Asian dishes (even chicken and fish dishes) contain more sugar than my own signature brownies (and probably more sugar than most of the desserts in The Biggest Loser Dessert Cookbook); and that Italian dishes can be so full of saturated fat that they're sometimes jokingly referred to as a heart attack on a plate, I had quite a challenge to tackle!

In my quest to re-create your favorite ethnic dishes in the healthiest possible ways, I searched far and wide for high-quality, all-natural ingredients that would fit the bill. Admittedly, all of that running around town was sometimes exhausting... but it was also fun and eye-opening. Who knew that almond cheese existed and would actually melt perfectly on pizza? And who would have guessed that there are tons of all-natural, salt-free seasoning blends that help create any ethnic dish imaginable, from a Thai seasoning blend to an Indian hot curry blend and even a garlic-herb blend for bread? Just as The Biggest Loser contestants are excited to show off what they've learned and gained from Bob and Jillian's workouts at finale time, I'm elated to share what popped out of my oven, off my grill, and even from my stovetop throughout this book.

The next time you have a craving for ethnic food, I hope you'll commit to flipping through these pages before you consider picking up the phone to order takeout. Your mouth is sure to start watering when you see the Sausage & Pepper Goat Cheese Pizza on page . With each bite, you'll see why eating healthy is not only easy, but insanely enjoyable and thus doable for life when you cook for yourself using the right recipes.

I believe that in order to live a healthy life, you have to cook for yourself. Most restaurants just plain don't offer dishes that allow us to indulge without consequence. And as I've worked with contestant after contestant, they always say, If I could order dishes like these [referring to all of the dishes we've worked on and shared], I'd have no problem making healthy choices! Well, now they don't have to order them and neither do you.

It's truly an honor to be a part of The Biggest Loser community, and I am looking forward to hearing from each and every one of youfrom your weight-loss successes, to your cooking challenges and woes, to the types of recipes you want to see in the next book!

Chopsticks, anyone?

Chef Devin Alexander

W hen I was asked to create healthy makeovers for America's favorite ethnic foods, I admit I was a little nervous. While I've always incorporated plenty of natural ingredients into my recipes, ethnic foods (at least Americanized versions) are typically full of salt, high-fructose corn syrup, and unhealthy fats. While I expected to run into these nutritional obstacles, I had no idea that many of the everyday foods I thought of as natural actually included tons of chemicals and preservatives. In my local grocery stores, only one common brand of canned tomato sauce was natural. All other brands contained chemicals. There was no bread whatsoever (not even the fresh baked stuff) without additives or sugar. And these are only a couple of examples! I was shocked many times over during the development of this book at the number of foods out there that contained processed sugars and synthetic ingredients.

During my grocery store field trips, I discovered many new (to me, at least) products that are tasty, all-natural substitutes for ingredients I previously used. However, I couldn't find a single all-natural hoisin sauce that tasted good enough for me to recommend, and my team and I tried multiple jars of low-sodium, low-fat, natural marinara sauces before finally finding one that was delicious enough for our recipes. Even though there might not be a natural substitute for every single commercial product out there, I've really done my research and hopefully taken some of the guesswork out of natural grocery shopping for you. I've outlined some of my favorite ingredients for you here, and I encourage you to check out your local natural foods store (or even the natural foods aisle at your grocery store) to acquire these items. Your body will thank you!

Almond mozzarella cheese. I was definitely surprised by how much I enjoyed this naturally low-fat alternative to the cow's milk mozzarella cheese I used to buy. While it doesn't taste like true Italian mozzarella when you eat it on its own, it is really delicious (and even melts like real mozzarella) when used in recipes such as Three Cheese Spinach Lasagna (page ). I like Lisanatti's almond mozzarella, which is only 50 calories and 1 gram of fat per ounce, making it 97 percent fat free. It also has 7 grams of protein per ounce and only 3 grams of carbohydrates.