SUBSTITUTE YOURSELF SKINNY: REVIEW, AUTHOR ARTICLE, AND BONUS ENTRIES

THE SUBSTITUTE YOURSELF
SKINNY COOKBOOK:
Cut the Calories, Keep the Flavor
with Hundreds of Simple Solutions
BY CHEF SUSAN IRBY

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Secret is in the Substitutions!

Diet cookbooks should be about dropping weight, not depriving yourself. By swapping this for that, you can turn your favorite foods into low-calorie creations -- proving once and for all that you can have your chocolate molten cake, and eat it too!

In this calorie-slashing collection, Bikini Chef-to-the-stars Susan Irby offers 175 inventive recipes for switching up ingredients that keep calories to a minimum. Complete with serving-size suggestions and "Skinny Secret" shortcuts to trim calories in little ways, here you'll get expertly crafted recipes that include offerings for every meal of the day, such as:

• Flat-Belly Eggs Benedict (with turkey ham instead of deli ham) -- save 411 calories!
• Gouda Burger (with lean ground turkey and portobello mushrooms) -- save 271 calories!
• Smitten for Molten Chocolate Cake (with less cream and fewer eggs) -- save 260 calories!

Get all the flavor -- minus the guilt!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Chef Susan Irby has worked with multiple Master Chefs including George McNeill, Todd English, and Ming Tsai. Known as the Bikini Chef, specializing in "figure-flattering flavors," Chef Susan is host of The Bikini Lifestyle with Susan Irby The Bikini Chef on KFWB News Talk 980 in Los Angeles and author of The $7 a Meal Quick & Easy Cookbook, The $7 a Meal Healthy Cookbook, and Cooking with Susan. She has cooked for several celebrities including Patrick Swayze, David Spade, Kate Sagal, and Bill Handel, and appeared on The Patti Gribow Show and KLAC Los Angeles and numerous other media outlets. She lives in Orange County, CA.

MY REVIEW:

What a great concept Chef Susan Irby has come up with in her cookbook SUBSTITUTE YOURSELF SKINNY in which she admits that she is a "foodie" who also enjoys looking good and being healthy. Chef Irby has come up with 175 "super-slimming" recipes in which she takes the part of the ingredients that are overly fattening and replaces them with something that tastes as good, or better than, in order to still enjoy those foods we are all drawn to but are not the kind that keep us in our bikinis. I say this, because Susan Irby is also known as "The Bikini Chef" for her other books and she is very conscious of healthy good looks, while eating great food.

The book is divided into six sections with each displaying mouth-watering gorgeous food photographs throughout and recipes with clever names to make you smile as you read it and try to decide what to prepare first.
The sections are:

• Jumpstart-Your-Day Breakfast-Sample Recipes: Flat-Belly Eggs Benedict, Not-So French Toast, and Ham It Down Breakfast Casserole

• Energizing Lunches-Sample Recipes: New-You England Clam Chowder, Join My Club Sandwich, and Not-So-Fat Tuesday Gumbo

• Thinner Dinners-Sample Recipes: No-Dimple Dumplings with Chicken, Hottie-Tottie Manicotti, and Slimmy Chimmy-Changas

• Slimming Sides-Sample Recipes: Potato Lat-Kiss, Sugar-Me-Sweet Baked Beans, and Sweetly Sweet Corn Bread

• Guilt-Free Snacks and Appetizers-Sample Recipes: Wrappin' It Up Seafood Crepes, On the Bar-b BBQ Chicken Pizza, and Lite 'n' Creamy Vanilla Pudding Pop

• Deliciously Skinny Desserts-Sample Recipes: I Love NY Cheesecake, Mad 4 Mud Pie, and Don't Lay It on Me Four-Layer Dessert

Do I need to say more? If the names alone don't make you want to try these sumptuous slimming substitute recipes, I don't know what will. Perhaps the fact that I (NOT the bikini chef myself) made the Wrappin' It Up Seafood Crepes and they were heavenly. The substitutes were simple. I used half whole-wheat flour instead of all plain flour for the crepes (no difference in taste that I could tell), and non-fat milk, sour cream, and cream cheese instead of whole milk and I use these most of the time anyway. She also said to use reduced fat Swiss cheese (again what we normally eat) and this part was her "Skinny Secret" which said you could even leave the shredded Swiss over the top of the crepe off and save 90 calories--we didn't. These Skinny Secrets are found with almost every recipe. Go ahead and Substitute, I don't think you will be sorry!

Below are some extra BONUS ENTRIES using this post to add to your chances for the "WHAT'S COOKIN' FOR MOTHER'S DAY GIANT COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY" that ends May 25. Check it out if you'd like to win this and 4 other cookbooks/DVDs as you can enter there as well and have that many more chances.

THANKS TO CAITLIN AND ANNA AND MY
GOOD FRIENDS AT FSB ASSOCIATES, I
HAVE ONE COPY THIS COOKBOOK AS WELL
AS 2 OTHER COOKBOOKS TO GIVE AWAY!
AND FROM "GRANDMA BINGO", 2
PAULA DEEN "HOME COOKING"
DVD's TO ENJOY AND FOLLOW!
ONE WINNER WILL WIN ALL FIVE ITEMS!
ONE RUNNER-UP WILL WIN AN EXTRA
COPY OF "SKINNY ITALIAN"
AGAIN THANKS TO FSB ASSOCIATES

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING ABOVE THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO WIN "SUBSTITUTE YOURSELF SKINNY" AS WELL AS THE OTHER 2 COOKBOOKS AND 2 DVDs

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON A FOOD YOU WISH YOU COULD SUBSTITUTE AND IT WILL STILL BE HEALTHY AND LOW CALORIE FOR YOU!

+1 MORE ENTRY: READ THE ARTICLE FROM THE AUTHOR BELOW AND COMMENT ON IT

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, MAY 25 !
GOOD LUCK!

AUTHOR ARTICLE:

Ten Simple Food
Substitutions to Get Bikini Ready
By Chef Susan Irby

Bikini season is just around the corner! There's still time to get in top bikini shape and what tastier way than with these easy, simple, and delicious substitutions. Great tasting food doesn't have to be bland, boring, and flavorless. As the Bikini Chef, my food philosophy is fresh, fresh, fresh. Fresh citrus, fresh herbs, fresh natural ingredients that wake up your taste buds, are pleasing to your palette, and give you the satisfying flavors your body craves. In fact, most people love the lower calorie, lower fat substitutions once they've tried them and have gotten past their fear of trying what they perceive will be tasteless food.

The best part to these substitutions, besides achieving your bikini goal, is that they are simple substitutions you can make every day. Easy, affordable, and flavorful, these simple tips will help you stay in bikini shape all year long.

10 Simple Food Substitutions To Get Bikini Ready

1. Using ½ wheat flour and ½ plain flour will make your scones more bikini but adding fresh wild raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries will also liven up the flavor, wake up the color, and give a fresh, flavorful twist to an otherwise boring biscuit.


2. Cream sauces and creamy soups get most of their creaminess from fat and calorie laden heavy whipping cream. Use ½ nonfat milk and ½ nonfat sour cream instead for the same creamy texture without the unwanted creamy fat that will sabotage your bikini body.


3. Eggs vs egg whites. Some people go the extreme and swear off eggs forever using only egg whites. However, using only egg whites can get expensive and eggs are necessary as a binding agent for many recipes. For breakfast, use 2 egg whites for every one egg for a leaner, lighter breakfast and when baking or making dishes such as burgers, use ½ whole eggs and ½ egg whites to keep the texture but save on calories, fat, and cholesterol. As a side note, the majority of protein in eggs comes from the egg whites, not the yolk, making them a deliciously healthy option all around.


4. Cut back on the beef. If you crave a hamburger, make your own lighter, leaner version by using ½ lean ground beef and ½ lean ground turkey. You'll find you sacrifice nothing on flavor or texture but save yourself plenty on fat and calories. Enjoy these leaner burgers as smaller sliders for lunch, dinner, or for tasty bites at summer pool parties.


5. Nonfat vanilla yogurt is a delicious substitution for mayonnaise. Use as a healthy substitution in chicken salad, tuna salad, and dipping sauces such as aioli. It is very flavorful and naturally creamy so you don't need to use a lot of it.


6. Cut the cheese. Skip the cheese altogether but if you must have cheese, go for lower fat versions such as reduced fat cream cheese, reduced fat Monterey jack, reduced fat feta. If you must have your full fat versions, opt for freshly grated parmesan or parmiggiano reggiano and cut back on the amount you use. Fresh, good quality cheese such as this has great flavor so a little goes a long way.


7. Add a little citrus. The rind, or zest, of lemons, oranges, and limes is edible and adds a refreshing flavor to steamed or grilled vegetables, sauces, meat dishes, practically everything. Cut back on salt which causes bloating and add a little fine grate citrus zest for tons of flavor with no fat or calories.


8. Most people love crispy bacon but it adds loads of fat and calories that are often an afterthought for many dishes. If you must have crisp bacon crumbles on your salads or even for breakfast, use leaner turkey bacon instead. It has great flavor and crisps nicely like traditional full fat bacon. Or, better yet, skip the bacon all together. If you are having a luscious salad, add fresh, crisp asparagus tips or diced fresh zucchini. For breakfast, substitute crispy no-sugar added bran cereal or fresh berries. Pass on the bacon, it's just not worth it.


9. Watch out for sugary pasta sauces and dipping sauces. Sugar has empty calories that add up quickly. Instead, use freshly diced tomatoes with a little freshly chopped basil leaves or cilantro leaves. Add a hint of lemon zest, drizzle of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil (½ tablespoon each) and finish with a small pinch of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Toss with pasta such as penne or fettuccini or serve with baked wonton crisps.


10. Wonton wrappers are perfect as crispy crackers instead of crostini and tortilla chips. Buy the squares and cut into triangles. Brush lightly with olive oil and bake in a 225º oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until crisp and golden. Top with salsa, serve with chicken salad or other dips as you would crostini and chips. As a bonus, they are inexpensive and unused wonton wrappers keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

© 2010 Chef Susan Irby, author of Substitute Yourself Skinny: Cut the Calories, Keep the Flavor with Hundreds of Simple Substitutions!