Ethnic Foods for Your Diet Plan or Weight Loss Program

Yes, You Can Enjoy Enchiladas, Spaghetti & Cheeseburgers While Dieting

If you're like most dieters, you have a particular ethnic food that you enjoy than you miss while dieting. You favorite may include enchiladas, spaghetti, lasagna or rich Greek or Asian foods.

The great news is that whether one is watching the amount of calories they are inserting into their day - or not, all foods can be enjoyed; and the key of course - is, in moderation.

Tips for Trimming Caloric Values in Food Choices

Learning how to prepare your favorite foods may be easier than you think. One of our favorites is the enchiladas we mentioned. If they are of the cheese variety, opting for reduced fat can slash calories significantly as can steaming the whole grain corn tortilla shells instead of using the stove-top frying method.

As to pasta recipes, any type or size - from basic macaroni noodles to bow-tie will contain about 200 calories per cup. Because there is nothing one can do to get around this, we can adjust the types of ingredients that are used in the sauce recipe.

As an experiment, the next time that you go to the market, visit the Italian section. Look at several nutrition labels for different sauces and marinara. Some contain as few as 40 calories per serving while others contain upwards to 200 or more.

By choosing the sauce with the minimal of values, we can add a nice selection of sauteed vegetables to the sauce and create a healthy Italian sensation that will fit nicely into almost-any weight loss plan.

Tips for Trimming Fat

If you're a fan of Asian food, many dishes are fried - thus adding too many fat grams to the food. At this point, it's difficult to squeeze them into our meal plate and actually feel great about eating the food. And when one doesn't feel of this nature, it puts a dent in the meal - and it's just not as pleasurable when dining.

The solution is obvious; rather than opting for fried selections, think 'steamed, boiled, baked, grilled, broiled'.

While a fried eggroll might taste dandy, a baked eggroll can be just as tasty without all that added grease.

When dining, if your fingers feel oily or look such, then it's highly likely that there are much healthier options that you can choose for your meal plate while dieting.

Bringing Out the Flavor of Foods

To bring out flavors of most foods, try the oven-roasting method.

For example, if you're using canned tomatoes in a recipe and you desire a richer flavor, try roasting them inside of the oven.

Other vegetables that can be improved in flavor by this cooking method include: onions, leeks, garlic, most peppers, and almost all types of meat.