We hope you will be intrigued by, and excited about trying, all the delicious recipes in the following chapters. Our recipe developers have used many creative techniques to deliver the most flavorful food without using unhealthful ingredients or cooking methods. To take advantage of all this cookbook offers, spend a moment familiarizing yourself with the information that accompanies the recipes.
With each recipe, you’ll find a nutritional breakdown of the calorie count and the amounts of different nutrients. New to this edition, we’ve included trans fat values on all our recipes. By using this information carefully, you can choose the recipes that best meet your needs. Keep the following information in mind as you review the nutrition analyses:
• Each analysis is based on a single serving unless otherwise indicated.
• Optional ingredients and garnishes are not included in the nutrition analysis unless noted. We encourage you to be creative with garnishes, especially fruits and vegetables. If you eat them, however, you need to count them.
• Ingredients with a weight range (a 2- to 3-pound chicken, for example) are analyzed at the average weight.
• When a recipe lists two or more ingredient options, the first is used in the nutrition analysis.
• The specific amount of an ingredient listed, not the amount sometimes shown in parentheses, is analyzed. The amounts in parentheses are guidelines to help you decide how much of an ingredient to purchase to prepare that recipe. (For more information, see “Finding Ingredient Equivalents,”.)
• Meats are analyzed as cooked and lean, with all visible fat removed. For lean ground beef, we use 95 percent fat-free meat.
• Products in the marketplace come and go quickly, and the labeling changes as well. To avoid confusion, we use the generic terms “fat-free” for products that may be labeled either “fat-free” or “nonfat” and “low-fat” for products that may be labeled “low-fat” or “reduced-fat.” The important thing is to read labels and purchase the lowest-fat, lowest-sodium products available that will provide pleasing results.
• We use olive and canola oils for the analyses as specified in each recipe, but other unsaturated oils, such as corn, safflower, soybean, and sunflower, also are acceptable.
• Values for saturated, trans, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats are rounded and may not add up to the amount listed for total fat.
• Processed foods can be very high in sodium. To keep the level of sodium in our recipes low, we call for unprocessed foods or low-sodium products when possible and add table salt sparingly for flavor. For instance, a recipe may use a can of no-salt-added tomatoes and ¼ teaspoon of table salt. The amount of sodium in the finished dish will be less than if we called for a regular can of tomatoes and no table salt.
• If meat, poultry, or seafood is marinated and the marinade is discarded, we calculate only the amount of marinade absorbed. For marinated vegetables and basting liquids, we include the total amount of the marinade in the analysis.
• If a recipe includes alcohol and is cooked, we estimate that most of the alcohol calories evaporate during the cooking time.
• The abbreviation for gram is “g”; the abbreviation for milligram is “mg.”
We analyzed these recipes using the ingredients exactly as written. Many ingredients, such as herbs, spices, and vinegars, can be interchanged for greater variety without substantially changing the nutritional value of the dish. We encourage you to experiment by substituting ingredients, as long as your choices do not add saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, or sodium.
Likewise, the nutrition analysis won’t change if you use bottled or frozen lemon, lime, or orange juice instead of fresh juice or dried instead of fresh herbs. Fresh ingredients almost always give you more flavor, however, so we have called for those in most cases.
To make shopping easier, we have listed commonly used ingredients and their weight and volume equivalents.
| Ingredient | Measurement |
| Almonds | 1 ounce = ¼ cup slivers |
| Apple | 1 medium = ¾ cup chopped or 1 cup sliced |
| Basil leaves, fresh | ⅔ ounce = ½ cup, chopped, stems removed |
| Bell pepper, any color | 1 medium = 1 cup chopped or sliced |
| Carrot | 1 medium = ⅓ to ½ cup chopped or |
| sliced or ½ cup shredded | |
| Celery | 1 medium rib = ½ cup chopped or sliced |
| Cheese, hard, such as Parmesan | 4 ounces = 1 cup grated |
| 3½ ounces = 1 cup shredded | |
| Cheese, semi-hard, such as Cheddar, mozzarella, or Swiss | 4 ounces = 1 cup grated |
| Cheese, soft, such as blue, feta, or goat | 1 ounce, crumbled = ¼ cup |
| Cucumber | 1 medium = 1 cup sliced |
| Lemon juice | 1 medium = 3 tablespoons |
| Lemon zest | 1 medium = 2 to 3 teaspoons |
| Lime juice | 1 medium = 1½ to 2 tablespoons |
| Lime zest | 1 medium = 1 teaspoon |
| Mushrooms (button) | 1 pound = 5 cups sliced or 6 cups chopped |
| Onions, green | 8 to 9 medium = 1 cup sliced (green and white parts) |
| Onions, white or yellow | 1 large = 1 cup chopped 1 medium = ⅔ cup chopped 1 small = ⅓ cup chopped |
| Orange juice | 1 medium = ⅓ to ½ cup |
| Orange zest | 1 medium = 1½ to 2 tablespoons |
| Strawberries | 1 pint = 2 cups sliced or chopped |
| Tomatoes | 2 large, 3 medium, or 4 small = 1½ to 2 cups chopped |
| Walnuts | 1 ounce = ¼ cup chopped |