812-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 6, 2003 Cookbook Author Helps People Lose Weight One Carbohydrate At A Time BLOOMINGTON, Ind. Dana Carpender’s low-carb jour ney began eight years ago, but came dangerously close to failure when three weeks into her low carb diet, a frightening thing happened; she walked into her kitchen and didn’t have a clue what to serve for dinner. For a girl whose friends had nicknamed her The God of Food, it was a scary, disorienting and disheartening moment. After all, years of creative, low-fat/ high-carb cooking had left Dana with a repertoire of fabulous dishes. Unfortunately, all those low-fat/high-carb meals tasted great but had left Dana still a size 20, not to mention tired, and blood pressure pushing border line high. For Dana, those recipes had to go! By contrast, after just weeks of low-carb dieting, Dana had lost ten pounds, lowered her blood pressure and increased her ener gy dramatically. It was clear to her that this was the type of eat ing her body wanted and needed. Dana was a low-carb eater for life. But what to make for dinner every night! It is usually at this point the “I-can’t-take-one-more-day-of fried-eggs-for-breakfast-and- plain-steak-for-dinner” moment that many otherwise successful low-carb dieters give up. Not Dana! Instead she vowed that she would become at least as good at low-carbohydrate cooking as she had been at low-fat cooking. So, after seven years of trial and error in the kitchen, and three years of publishing her very pop ular low-carb newsletter, Dana published 500 Low-Carb Recipes in October 2002. It has quickly become the best-selling low-carb cookbook in America, selling more than 250,000 copies and counting. And she has no plans to stop! Dana Carpender is the author of How I Gave Up My Low-Fat Diet and Lost 40 Pound s... And How You Can Too!, and her follow-up book, 15-Minute Low Carb Recipes. Dana’s biweekly newsletter, Lowcarbezine! goes out to 16,000 subscribers. As a low-carb diet spokesperson, Dana has ap peared on radio, television and in print across the country. She and her husband live in Bloomington, Indiana. A recent New York Times Magazine (July 7, 2002) cover story said that Dr. Atkins was right all along, “it’s not fat that makes us fat but carbohydrates.” Though the government has spent hundreds of millions of dol lars in research trying to prove that fat is the cause of obesity. There has been a subtle shift in the scientific consensus over the past five years supporting what the low-carb diet doctors have been saying all along: if we eat less carbohydrates, we will lose weight and live longer. One of the toughest challenges of any diet is having enough vari ety and choices to keep the dieter from losing interest. The most common reason that people abandon their diet is boredom but “500 LOW GARB RECIPES: 500 Recipes, From Snacks to Dessert, That the Whole family Will Love” (Fair Winds Press/ October 2002/$ 19.95 trade paper back original) by Dana Carpend er has more than enough recipes to keep even the most finicky di eter on track. With recipes for everything in- “I feel like I’ve found my calling in life...to make it easy for people everywhere to eat what their bodies were meant to eat by developing delicious, easy-to-make low carb recipes,” said Dana Carpender. eluding hors d’oeuvres, snacks, breads, muffins, side dishes, en trees, cookies, cakes and much more, this is an endless supply for creating meals for the whole family night after night. Whether everyone in the family is on a diet or not, these recipes are proven winners with adults and kids alike. Also included: • Many one-dish meals for single people main dish salads, skillet suppers that include meat and vegetables, and hearty soups that are a full meal in a bowl. • Ideas for breaking out of old ways of looking at food with sug gestions that save time and money and change what is con sidered a normal meal for break fast, lunch, and dinner. • Information about where to find low-carbohydrate speciality products and descriptions of low carb specialty foods found in gro cery stores everywhere. • An entire chapter that lists and describes low-carb substitute ingredients such as fats and oils, flour substitutes, liquids, season ings, and sweeteners. Dieters will be pleased to know that they can eat foods like gua camole, omelets, pizza, steak, ham, and dessert without giving up great taste and still lose weight. Each of the 500 recipes includes a carbohydrate count to help calculate the total carb in take of each menu. Here are some recipes from the cookbook. CHILI LIME PORK STRIPS Cut the strips for a Chili Lime Pork Salad or a Chili Lime Pork Omelet, or just wrap them up in low-carb tor tillas with a little salsa and sour cream. 1 pound boneless pork loin (500 g) 1 to 2 tablespoons oil (15 to 30 ml) l‘/2 teaspoons chili powder (7 ml) 1 tablespoon lime juice (15 ml) Slice the pork as thinly as you can (this is easier if the pork is half-frozen). Heat the oil in a 5~ Minute ow~Carb Recipes ipender 'h f f t i large, heavy skillet over medium high heat, and add the pork. Stir fry the pork strips until they’re nearly done about 6 to 7 min utes then stire in the chili pow der and lime juice. Continue stirring and cooking for another 3 to 4 minutes. These strips keep well for a few days in a closed container in the fridge. Yield: ? 4 servings, each with 1 gram of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and 23 grams of protein. STRAWBERRY CRUNCH PARFAIT In their book The GO-Diet, Drs. Goldberg and O’Mara ex plain that plain yogurt has far fewer carbs than the label would indicate because most of the lactose in the milk has been converted to lactic acid by the yogurt bacteria. Accordingly, they say that we can count just 4 grams of carbohydrates per cup of plain yogurt. Reading this, I added yogurt back to my low-carb diet, and it’s never caused weight gain or rebound hunger for me, so I think Gold berg and O’Mara are right! This recipe is so versatile it makes a great dessert, a phe nomenal quick breakfast, or a delicious and nutritious snack. Enjoy! 3 ripe strawberries 1 tablespoon plus l A teaspoon Splenda 'A cup plain yogurt Vi teaspoon vanilla extract 2 tablespoons Cinnamon Splenda Nuts, chopped a bit or 2 tablespoons Gram’s Gourmet Flax ‘n’ Nut Crunchies (vanilla almond or cinnamon toast flavor) or other low-carb commer cial granola-like product. Cut the green hulls off your strawberries, and slice them thin ly into a dish. Sprinkle them with V* teaspoon of the Splenda, and stir. Combine the yogurt with the vanilla extract and the remaining tablespoon of Splenda, stirring well. Spoon over the strawberries. Top with the nuts or Flax ‘n’ Nut y* V Crunchies, and devour! Yield; 1 serving. Using the GO- Diet’s carb count of 4 grams of carbohydrates per cup of plain yogurt, this has 12 grams of car bohydrates and 3 grams of fiber, for a total of 9 grams of usable carbs and 10 grams of protein. Note: Feel free to substitute 'A cup blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries, or even diced peaches. Make this in a clear glass dish, or even layer it in a parfait glass, and it’ll look pretty enough for company. CAULIFLOWER PUREE A.K.A. FAUXTATOES This is a wonderful substi tute for mashed potatoes with any dish that has a gravy or sauce. Feel free, by the way, to use frozen cauliflower instead it works quite well here. 1 head cauliflower or 11/:I 1 /: pounds frozen cauliflower (750 g) 4 tablespoons butter Salt and pepper Put the cauliflower in a micro waveable casserole with a lid, add a couple of tablespoons of water, and cover. Nuke it on high for 10 to 12 minutes, or until quite ten der but not sulfury smelling. (You may steam or boil the cauli flower, if you prefer.) Drain it thoroughly, and put it through the blender or food processor until it’s well pureed. Add butter, salt, and pepper to taste. Yield: At least 6 generous serv ings, each with 5 grams of carbo hydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 3 grams of usable carbs and 2 grams of protein. SPANISH ‘RICE’ Okay, this isn’t really Span ish. It’s not even authentically Mexican. And of course it’s not rice. But it is passingly like the (Continued from Page B 11) The seed box is round and appears to be cast iron. QUESTION - S. Beiler wants to know where to buy either a new or used alarm clock by Westclox Model 47544 called the Power Napper. ANSWER - Barbara Hess, Shoemakersville, wanted to know where to buy replacement parts for a Squeezo strainer used to make juice. The strainer was manufactured by B&B Manufacturing Co., McKeesport. Thanks to E. Wise for sending the fol lowing address and phone number: Lemra Products, P.O. Box 186, Danielson, CT 06239. Phone (203) 774-7024. ANSWER - Fred Lappe, Southold, N.Y., wanted to know if anyone has a good picture or painting of a young man plowing with seven mules or seven horses. Thanks to A.K. “Spanish Rice” my mom used to throw together to make a quick, one-dish meal out of hamburger! Feel free to use canned, diced tomatoes without the chilies if you don’t like spicy food, although this is re ally quite mild. 1 pound ground round or other very lean ground beef 1 to 2 tablespoons oil Vi head cauliflower Vi green pepper, chopped Vi medium onion, chopped 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 14.5-ounce can diced toma toes with green chilies Vi teaspoon ground cumin I teaspoon Worcestershire sauce ‘A cup water Salt and pepper Start browning the beef in the oil over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, run the cauliflower through the shredding blade of your food processor. Put the cau liflower in a microwavable casse role, add a tablespoon or two of water, cover, and microwave on high for just 5 minutes. Go back to the beef and start breaking it up. When you’ve got just a little fat in the pan, add the pepper and onion, and saute them, too. When all the pink is gone from the meat, add the gar lic, tomatoes, cumin, Worces tershire sauce, and water, and bring the whole thing to a sim mer. Stir in the cauliflower “rice,” cover, and let the whole thing simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve. Yield: 4 or 5 servings. Assum ing 4 servings, each will have 7 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 6 grams of usable carbs and 23 grams of protein./ King, Christiana, who writes that he has a post card with seven mules fac ing forward and a farmer in back working the field. If Lappe wants it write to King at 391 Christiana Pike, Christiana, PA 17509. ANSWER - George Rou sis Sr., Bally, wanted to know where to buy 4,000-5,000 staples to use in a Swingline staple gun. Thanks to a reader who writes that Swingline is still the premier stapler/staple manufacture in this coun try. It’s products may be purchased at most office supply stores or from Acco Brands Inc., 300 Tower Parkway, Lincolnshire, IL 60069. Phone (800) 820-6220. ANSWER In answer to Leßoy Serventi’s inquiry about where to purchase W.T. Rawleigh products, a reader sent the following phone number: (902) 543-5222.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers