Celebrity Cooks Top 19 Low Recipes

OK, OK I am not a celebrity chef, but I am a celebrity and I can cook up a storm so read on...  

Most people who will be interested in these low recipes ideas will be those on a diet. I will step in here to say that any of these diets will have a difficult job working over the long haul, unlike my lose fat forever outline, which is more of a sustainable lifestyle change where you won't go hungry.

Diets do work temporarily, as long as you stay on them, the big difficulty you will face is not having that "rebound" effect and getting just as fat, or fatter after you stop the diet. To do this I would run one diet for 3 months or more, then change to a new diet type (ie low carbs to a low fat diet, or low fat to low carb diet) which you slowly wean off, making sure that you do not up your calorie intake at all over the weaning off time AND you do not start eating/drinking sugars (cake, soda pop, donuts, etc) (See my cure for obesity)

Say you have been on a low carb diet, coming off the diet you are going to feel hungry for carbs, by going onto a low fat / high carb diet you can allow your body to have the carbs it wants but you reduce or maintain your calorie intake because you are now on a low fat diet. Slowly over 4-8 weeks come off this - then go on a one week watermelon (or fruit/vege) diet to cleanse your body at the end of the diet and to shrink your stomach.

So who am I and what qualifications do I have to be telling you how to diet with these "low recipes", well as I say time and again, before you take the advice of anyone on diet or training look at their body. Do they really know what they are talking about - here let me show you my diet and training references:-

7 feet tall and low fat - I practise what I preach

So without further advice for the time being here are the recipes:

Low Fat Recipes

The idea of these low recipes is that fats are concentrated calories and cutting them down will lower your calories. Low fat recipes are favourites with bodybuilders and athletes looking to get into top form, the biggest side benefit from eating a low fat diet is that your energy levels are raised, if you eat regularly, say every 2 - 3 hours and your metabolism speeds up, meaning you feel better, feel more energetic and you can eat more volume of foods (not more calories).

If you have been on a high fat / junk food diet for a while you will be amazed at how good you can feel just by changing your diet. You honestly feel like you are on drugs for the first few weeks.

And in that is the 2nd benefit from a low fat diet. It removes most of the fast / junk foods from your diet. No fried chicken, no pizza, no hamburgers, no french fries, nothing deep fried at all and that is a good start in any weight loss program. 

Here are a bunch of examples of low recipes: low fat that I personally consume on a regular basis:

Chicken And Vegies 

Skinless Chicken Breast
1/2 Cup Rice OR Several Potatoes
3 Vegies (carrot, brocolli, cauliflower, pumpkin, sweet potato, etc)

Grill or BBQ the chicken breast with no sauce until cooked through. Steam the rice in a rice cooker and steam the vegies over the rice (most rice cookers have a vegie steamer attachment) or boil your vegetables until just cooked.

Egg White Recipes

Just follow the link to my top 10 Egg White Recipes or in more detail my high protein low fat (mainly egg) recipes.

Turkey Breast Sandwiches

Skinless Turkey Breast
Cranberry Sauce
Rye Bread
Tomato
Lettuce
(Optional) Low Fat Cheese

Cut the turkey breast and tomato into slices, place on the bread, spread the cranberry sauce over the top, add lettuce, put another slice of bread on top. Easy. Do not use margarine or butter.

Ceasar Salad 

Cooked Skinless Chicken Breast
Lettuce
Specialty lettuce (fancy ones the supermarkets carry these days)
Cherry Tomato
Salad Onion, the red one
Celery
Croutons (the dired bread cubes)
Low Fat Cheese
Vinegar Based Salad Dressing

Make your salad by cutting the onions, tomotoes, celery and lettuce to size add your salad dressing (make sure it is not oil based by putting a little on your finger tips and rubbing, if it is oil it will be slippery) and toss the salad. Slice the chicken breast and put it on top, lightly grate some of the low fat cheese over the salad. 

Steak And Mash

Beef or Pork Steak
Several Large Potatoes
Pumpkin
2 Carrots
Peas or Beans
Dash Low Fat Milk

Place the vegetables in a pot and boil all together. When the vegies are done fry the steak in a non-stick pan with a LIGHT coating of oil. As your steak(s) cook, pour out the hot water, and mash the potato, pumpkin and other vegies all together, adding a dash of low fat milk until you get the right consistency - do not use butter. To be fancy you can even peel the vegetables before you cook them, but I just cook and eat the skins too as that is where most of the nutrients are.

Tuna Hash Browns 

Large Tin Of Tuna
Several Large Potatoes
Chives
Dash Milk
(Optional) Garlic

Boil the potatoes. Cut into small pieces and lightly fry the chives (and garlic). Pour out the water once the potatoes are cooked, add the chives and tuna (and garlic) and mash it all together adding low fat milk until you get a fairly solid mash potato (not too creamy). Get a large spoonful and place in a lightly (there's that important word again - use a oil spray for the best results) oiled pan and fry the mash potato/tuna until it goes golden brown and crispy on the outside (or do your best with minimum oil). Can be kept and reheated for a snack later.

Fruit And Low Fat Yoghurt

5 or more Different Fruit Types
Low Fat Natural Yoghurt

Cut the fruit into squares, toss into a fruit salad and top with the low fat natural yoghurt. OR just eat a couple pieces of fruit and a tub of low fat natural yoghurt.

There are many other low recipes: low fat ideas you can utilise. For example many stir fry recipes that can be made with little oil. Cottage cheese and low sugar jam on puffed rice biscuits, many protein powders and protein bars are low fat and ideal for a quick snack if you are on the run or at work.

Low Carbohydrates Recipes

The idea behind low carbohydrate recipes is many fold. First up simple carbohydrates (sugars in various forms) are I believe the main cause of todays obesity epidemic (as if it was a disease...). A low carbohydrate diet, more commonly known by the popular name a high fat or Zone diet cuts out all these sugars so if you are prone to eating/drinking excess empty calories in the form of sugar then the low carb/high fat diet will work well for you.

Once you rid yourself of ALL carbohydrates in your diet (under 30 grams a day I believe) your body goes through a phase when you feel sick and light headed for a day or so then pass into what is known as ketosis - this is where your body is now buring fat for energy instead of carbohydrates.

If you eat smaller amounts, and you will, your body in theory turns to its own fat stores for energy, thus making you lose fat.

Because your body is satisfied, and not hungry because of all the fats you are going to eat in these recipes you will find yourself eating less and feeling more full. When I did this diet I found that I got to the point when I just could not eat any more greasy food and went to cleaner proteins with fibrous vegetables (lean steak and broccoli for example).

This diet is pretty easy to stick with and you will find unlike the low fat recipes diet wherein you have to eat every 2 - 3 hours on the low carb / high fat diet you will find it impossible to eat so much as the fat slows down digestion and you will still be full after your last meal.

And now for some of my personal Low recipes: Low carbs recipe ideas:

Bacon And Eggs

Bacon
Free Range Eggs
Butter

Fry your bacon in butter then use the resultant oils to fry your eggs, delicious.

BBQ Chicken

Go to your favourite take away store, preferrably one that sells free range, and buy a barbeque chicken. Eat it skin and all OR you can put one in the oven at home.

Roast Pork Dinner

Side Of Pork (or Lamb)
Olive Oil
Garlic Cloves
Salt
Brocolli
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Carrots

Baste the side of pork in oil (paint oil over it) place it in the baking tray fatty side down, cook for about 45 minutes on 350 degrees celcius (I always just look at the pork and turn it when it is cooked this side), then turn it. Cut the garlic into slices, poke small but deep holes in the pork with a sharp knife and push the garlic into the holes. Again baste the top of the pork with the pan juices this time and lightly sprinkle with salt. Cook for another hour or so. Check if it is cooked by stabbing a knife deep into the meat, if red juices come out it needs more cooking. I like to cook the pork until the fatty layer on top becomes crunchy. Boil you vegetables all together and serve with the pork.

Chicken Wing Drumsticks

Chicken Wing Drumsticks
Garlic
Salt
Olice Oil
Fibrous Vegetables (Cabbage, brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, etc)

Cut the garlic into small pieces, fry quickly in olive oil, tip the chicken into the hot pan and fry, stirring regularly until brown on the outside. Tip in 1/2 a glass of water and place a lid on the pan, let the chicken finish cooking right through by steaming (I like to make sure it is fully cooked) then when most of the water has boiled off take the lid off, and add salt. You can use the pan juices later to pour over the vegetables for additional flavour.

You can also do lean cuts of meat rather than fatty pork or adding oil and using the oil as a sauce. It is up to you, how hungry you are and how much you need to eat. 

For vegetables you want to stay away from the starchy vegetables like pumpkin, potato, yams, etc and go for the vegetables that are called fibrous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. These fibrous vegetables have a lot of fibre (surprising) which is necessary on a high meat and fat diet, plus it will help fill you up and give you some variety, but they have little in the way of carbohydrates, and little energy value - but they are full of other essential nutrients.

Always eat fresh vegetables, try to avoid canned or frozen vegies as a lot of the goodness is destroyed in the packaging process.

Also on this diet you will notice that fruits are right out, none at all... sorry.

Low Protein 

Why? There is no reason to go on a low protein diet. Many vegetarians and vegans do but that is a byproduct of their chosen lifestyle. Personally I cannot see why anyone would do this, maybe as a part of a detoxification diet but again the low protein is a byproduct of the detox, not the aim of it.

*UPDATE: Apparently there is a rare condition called Homocystinuria whereby your body cannot process  certain amino acids (the building blocks of protein), which requires you to have a low protein diet.

Also people with kidney or liver problems can be prescribed a low protein diet to alleviate the stress on these organs. (I am not right all the time) 

IF you do need to go on a low protein diet for any reason, it is pretty easy. Stop eating animal products. No meat, milk, cheese or eggs. That about covers it.

Many nuts, beans and legumes also contain protein but I have never heard of anyone avoiding these good sources of protein before and cannot imagine anyone avoiding them for any reason.

Low Sugar 

Now we get to my pet hate and the modern industrial food industries pet love - sugar.

In all its manufactured forms sugar is bad for you. There is no reasoning, no excuses, nothing that can say otherwise. Yes, in moderation it is ok, but moderation according to the foodstuffs industries is a huge amount, I consider a naturally occurring amount of sugar to be the acceptable level. 

First up lets look at some of the names manufactured sugar hides behind:

• Table Sugar (sucrose)
• Glucose (often in sports drinks)
• Fructose (also naturally found in fruit juice)
• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Dextrose
• Maltose
• Lactose
• Maltodextrins
• Other variations on these names