I want to diet but.... but.... FLAVOR!?!

One of my biggest fears as I started thinking about my weight loss journey was that I would be loosing a lot of flavor in my food. Growing up and watching TV it was always said that healthy food is bland food. Come on! Who wouldn't want as much flavor as possible?

Wrong type of flavor.... we should still get a lot of this flavor as well!

I have found that this is mostly false. I am not going to lie to you all. Some of the best tasting food is some  of the worst for you in the world. Chocolate, creme brulee, deep fried corn dogs, and more are TERRIBLE when you look at tracking them but taste so damn good. I will talk in a future post on how you can still enjoy those things (in moderation) when on a diet and exercise plan. Now, I want to look at how you can get the most flavor bang for your buck.

I'm going to take the time now to tell you a few of the big, helpful, and simple tricks I found to help boost the flavor for little or no calories of fats. Many of these things won't be mind blowing to most of you, but I still want to put them all out here because they are worth mentioning. So lets get going!

1. Make it HOT

Steak on fire seems likes it is not nearly as medically frightening as sex on fire.

I will admit, I had a question that I was a bit embarrassed to ask. I wondered if cooking food would change its overall caloric value. That is, if I have an onion and I dry sauteed it, is the now caramelized onion better or worse for me then if they were raw? After a bit of research online  (honestly, about 20 minuets of goggling and checking various sources) there is no increase in the calories of cooked food (you do need to take into consideration anything you cook with like oil or butter). There are even some people who say that cooking foods (including vegetables) can actually INCREASE their health benefits.

With that in mind, up the flavor ante of many of your favorite foods! Starting incredibly simply, think about toast! The dry heat on the bread changes the texture to a great crunch, as well as normalizing the sugars to add sweetness. That is one of the best parts about heat! I (like most Americans) am overrun with sweet things. Having some extra guilt free sweetness in my life makes my everyday avoidance of sugary foods like candy and ice cream a lot easier. Here are a list of some of my favorite foods to make better with dry heat:

• Bread (duh!)
• Many vegetables including
• Onion
• Peppers
• Corn
• Broccoli (Steaming)
• Asparagus (Grilling)
• Nuts (roasted almonds are AMAZING especially for almond butter)
• Mushrooms
• Grains like rice and oats

2. Get Saucy!

Note to self... don't do a Google image search for "saucy" at work...

One of the best ways to get a lot of flavor into a meal for a little or no calories is finding a good sauce. As I was looking through things some of the items already in my fridge to find ways to infuse flavor I got VERY surprised at some of the calorie free sauces I had! Many of these added HUGE flavor for free! (Note: most of these are free/low calorie when used in moderation... I would not recommend drinking a glass of any of the following, but feel free to add some nice flavor for nothing!)

• Most Mustard (I was SHOCKED when I saw Frenches Yellow was calorie free! A great substitute for the mustard of many of the X-salad recipes I used love)
• I can't believe it's not butter spray (specifically, this is amazing on air popped popcorn for a cheap calorie and crunchy snack)
• Taco bell sauce packets (I felt bad not including this since I used the picture)
• Franks red hot (LOVE THIS SAUCE)
• Most Tabascos/pepper sauces
• Soy sauce (though this has a LOT of salt FYI)
• Lemon and Lime juices
• Worcestershire sauce (An ancestor of a Greek sauce made from fermented fish guts! YUM!)

3. Hey man... you got any herb?

WRONG TYPE OF HERB!

I can not put enough stress into how great and important the use of herbs and spices in healthy cooking is. The vast majority or things in the spice isle are full of flavor and have almost NO impact on your daily counting whether you are are counting calories or weight watchers points. Here is a list of foods that are made exponentially more awesome with a little seasoning.

• Popcorn (Seriously! Add almost anything to your next bowl!)
• Chicken (turns bland breast into a whole world of flavor! Pick a place on the globe and season your chicken with those local spices!)
• Frozen veggie mix
• Cheeses (especially cream cheese!)
• Dips 

Those are my couple of tips and trick. Have any of you used these tricks to spice up your meals? What are some of your favorite tricks? Anything I missed? Don't forget to follow the blog and find Guppy Back on Track on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!

Always full of flavor,

~Guppy

As always, thanks to HK and ED for making this blog not look like it was written by a 7th grader!