I would never eat cottage cheese for fear of being labled, "A Dieter". I've over heard the catty comments about cottage cheese eaters.
"I think she's on a diet, well it's about time."
or
"SHE really thinks she needs to loss weight...she's practically anorexic."
We are really extremist in the US about diets... I mean look what is popular right now, on one end you have the folks who are wrapping everything in bacon and then on the other side you have people completely avoiding meat, dairy, gluten etc...
I think we tend to decide that we are either on or off a diet, so we are over eating or watching and counting the calories of every morsel that goes into our mouth.
The Italians I grew up with never deprived themselves of any food. Nothing was off limits, but the ones who wanted to "keep their figure" as they would say would just eat a slice of a cannoli, a half a plate of pasta... and fill up on salad or the other wonderful vegetables that were at the table.
I have always embraced this way of eating because I find that as soon as I say I am not going to eat a certain food; I begin to crave it. Instead, now if I feel I ate a little more than I should have, I go for a walk to burn it off.
Say for instance you are going out for a big meal in the evening, a French person would eat a lunch like this Dieter's Tartine. I couldn't find Fromage Blanc so I mixed some low-fat cottage cheese and sour cream together, and put it over toasted multi-grain bread. I topped it with Dorie's flavorful cucumber and tomato salad. This lunch was completely satisfying and tasty. And it was low calorie. I didn't even eat a serving of low-fat cottage cheese which is 1/2 cup and is only 100 CALORIES.
I often find that for some reason when people make "diet food" they make it bland. Herbs don't add calories, cheese and butter add calories. You can make something flavorful by seasoning it well, instead of adding fat to it. This Dieter's Tartine has the wonderfully tasty Herbes de Provence herb blend along with fresh chives to kick up the tomatos and cucumber. I didn't even notice that the salad doesn't contain any oil!
Both my husband and I really enjoyed this sandwich. My husband couldn't have cared less that it was low calorie, what he liked about it was that it was bright and light for a summer day...
So Bon Appetit without guilt on this one!
Note: As a member of French Friday's with Dorie I am not allowed to print the recipe. I invite you to take a look at this wonderful cookbook "Around My French Table" if you are interested in this or any other recipe I review.
 |
| Click here to see how the other Dorista's did. |
This post is being shared on the following food/craft parties. Please check them out:
Tuesday Food:
Wednesday Food:
Thursday Food:
Friday Food:
Related articles
