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Beverages Gluten Free Low Calorie Low Carb Recipes

This Tea is NOT For Tea Totolars

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lemonade

There are two ways you can frame these beverages – a cup of tea that got kicked up a notch, or a healthy(er) cocktail. Some recipes are for single servings – hey, sometimes a girl’s just gotta take a break, and some are for a crowd. Either way, I hope you’ll enjoy this collection of low cal, low carb, gluten free, low sugar hot toddies as much as we have.

Apple Hot Toddy

Ingredients

1 chai or cinnamon-apple tea bag

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar (or a packet of Stevia or monk fruit)

3 tablespoons to 1/4 cup apple brandy

Instructions

Pour 3/4 cup water into a mug. Add tea bag. Microwave for two minutes, then remove from microwave.

While the tea is steeping add remaining ingredients. Remove tea bag after 2 to 5 minutes.

 

Lemon Vanilla Brandy

Basically all you need to do is heat up your lemonade and add brandy. I’ve included the recipe below in case you want to start from scratch or you want the extra flavor dimension of the honey and vanilla extract.

I almost forgot to mention that you can use whiskey or dark rum in place of the brandy. A flavored liquor would be a nice twist.

Ingredients

½ cup xylitol or honey

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (somewhere near 6 lemons)

5 cups water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup brandy (you can add more if you like, but taste it first)

 Instructions

Mix all ingredients and heat until hot, but don’t bring it to a boil. If you’re having a party you can put it in a slow cooker with a ladle for serving or in a thermos.

 

 

Chai Toddy

Ingredients

1 cup chai tea

1/4 cup heavy cream or nondairy milk

1/4 cup Kahlua, dark rum, or brandy

1 to 2 packets monk fruit, Stevia, or Splenda

Instructions

Mix all ingredients in a mug. Heat in microwave for one minute.

 

Now sit back, relax, and sip your “tea” 🙂

 

Gluten Free Low Calorie Low Carb Paleo Vegetarian

Caulitillas – The Low Carb, Gluten Free, Paleo, Grain Free Tortilla

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cauliflower-tortilla

I didn’t invent this recipe, although I have improved it, expanded it, varied it, twisted it and generally taken it to outer space and back.

I never liked the extra work of wringing out the hot cauliflower. I always burned my hands, the cloth I used had bits of cauliflower clinging to it and consequently I had a mess to clean up just from the process of wringing the water out of the cauliflower. So I add 1 tablespoon coconut flour for every head of cooked cauliflower. It sops up the water and doesn’t affect the taste or the texture. Don’t you love a simple solution?

If you don’t have cooked riced cauliflower on hand, then after ricing an entire head of cauliflower place it in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Stir and microwave for 2 more minutes. Let cool enough so that it doesn’t cook the egg when you stir it in.

If you don’t know how to make riced cauliflower it’s really easy. Just trim and cut a head of cauliflower into florets. Cut the florets in half so that each piece is no bigger than 1 inch square. Place half the florets in a food processor and pulse until you have a fine texture similar to bread crumbs. Dump into a microwave safe bowl and pulse the other half of the cauliflower.

Save the cauliflower stump to make a salad. Just shred it on a box grater into a bowl. Use your hands to wring out the water and mix it use it in place of shredded cabbage in a salad.

Some readers have asked if they can substitute almond flour for the coconut flour and the answer is no. The almond meal won’t absorb the water. I haven’t tried using soy flour, tapioca starch or arrowroot flour but I assume they would work fine.

Caulitillas can be used in place of lasagna noodles, corn tortillas when making enchilidas, as taco shells, for quesadillas, with a little cinnamon and sugar as pancakes, as bread for a grilled cheese sandwich. They are almost endlessly versatile. Try adding herbs and spices for a different flavor experience. I’ll suggest a few but you really can’t go wrong adding whatever seasoning you like to these.

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon taco or fajita seasoning

1 teaspoon cumin or mix of cumin and coriander

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon lemon, lime or orange zest

1 teaspoon cinnamon and a pinch of stevia or monk fruit

1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence

pinch cayenne pepper or chili flakes

1 teaspoon oregano

up to ½ cup fresh herbs such as cilantro, basil, sage, mint or dill

If after making this the first time it has too much of a cauliflower taste, you can add up to 2 cups of shredded cheese to the recipe.

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower riced and cooked

2 eggs

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon coconut flour

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Stir together warm or cold cauliflower, eggs and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Use a quarter or half cup to scoop out onto parchment paper. Use your hands to pat each portion into a thin circle. They can be anywhere from so thin you can almost see through them to ¼ inch thick.

Place in oven for eight to ten minutes, until the underside is cooked enough that you can carefully peel them from the parchment paper and flip them. Return to the oven for five minutes. Remove from oven and do one of three things: cool and store in fridge or freezer with squares of parchment paper between them, or if you’ll be using them right away, lightly oil a heavy bottomed skillet set over medium high heat and cook the tortillas until the outside is browned and slightly crispy. Turn and brown the other side. No matter how you store them, be sure to brown them before eating them. You could also brown them before storing them in the fridge or freezer.

Gluten Free Low Calorie Low Carb Vegetarian

The Famous Cauliflower Pizza Crust Everybody Is Talking About

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cauliflower pizza crust

I can’t claim to have invented this recipe, but I’ve worked out some of the kinks and wanted to make it available to the UnDiet gang.

This recipe works as a pizza crust, bread sticks to dip in marinara sauce, focaccia , bread slices for a sandwich or just to eat as is.

I’m going to give you the biggest tip of all  – USE PARCHMENT PAPER. The first time I made this I thought it would be so cool to use my new cast iron baking sheet and while it delivered a nice crisp exterior on my crust, it was NOT FUN to clean up, and I lost most of the crispy exterior on my crust as it stuck to the pan.

Ingredients

4 cups riced cauliflower, about 1 large head

2 large eggs

2 to 2-1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella or 2 cups Mozzarella and 1/2 cup grated or shredded Parmesan

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, oregeno, basil, or whatever you like (optional)

sea salt

black pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the riced cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl, toss with a pinch of salt, and microwave for five to eight minutes, until al dente. Set aside to cool down a bit, or mix in all remaining ingredients except egg to cool it down enough that the egg doesn’t cook when you mix it in at the end.

Line a pizza pan or baking sheet with parchment paper. Dump the cauliflower mixture onto the parchment paper and with your hands pat it out to evenly cover the pan. If you’re making sandwich bread, use two trays so you have a thinner crust. Bake for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Remove from oven and slide the parchment paper with the crust off the baking sheet. Place another piece of parchment paper on the pan. Carefully flip the crust over onto the baking sheet so that the bottom is now on top. Return to oven and bake for another ten to fifteen minutes until the top is lightly browned.

At this point you can start getting creative:

Slice into squares for sandwich bread.

Slice into rectangles for bread sticks.

Top with cheese, sauce and toppings; place back in the oven for about fifteen minutes until the cheese is lightly browned and bubbling.

Before putting in the oven scatter a handful of sliced or minced olives, sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, feta cheese, basil shreds, anchovies … whatever your favorite focaccia toppings are.

Tips

I didn’t need to remove the moisture from my cauliflower to get a crispy crust. If yours turns out soggy (which isn’t a complete failure – you can still top it with cheese and toppings and eat it with a fork), then the next time you make it, you can squeeze out the moisture from the cauliflower after cooking it or add 1 tablespoon coconut flour or use the up to 1 cup grated (not shredded) Parmesan in place of 1 cup of Mozzarella.

Gluten Free Living Food Low Calorie Neutral Paleo Recipes Vegan Vegetarian

Bacon Eggplant Jerky – Paleo, Vegan, & Gluten Free

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eggplant jerky recipe

You can find various recipes for eggplant jerky all over the Internet. I don’t claim to have invented this one, but I do believe that I’ve worked to make it as simple and tasty as possible while giving you easy ways to alter it according to your own diet or taste preferences. There are so many ways you can change up this recipe within a certain framework that will still  end up with the chewiness of jerky and tasting like bacon.

Start with an eggplant that has a smooth and shiny skin. While I don’t like to remove the peel, its so full of nutrition and honestly, its one more step to get to the end result, but I do prefer this without the skin. My compromise is to slice it so that not every piece has skin attached to it. In the end the few pieces which were mostly all skin were the crispiest.

I tried to use a mandoline, as well as a food processor to slice it but that was a complete fail – a combination of the tough skin and the sponginess of the flesh. I tried peeling it and running it across the mandoline but the spongy flesh still fouled up the process, so out came my favorite chef’s knife and my bamboo cutting board and three minutes later I had a pile of bacon shaped pieces of eggplant. Well really you wouldn’t have thought they looked like bacon at this point, but since I knew where I was going with this, it was already starting to look like bacon to me. Do you think that positive thinking helps in the kitchen?  I do. I’ve noticed that when I’m feeling less than confident or unexcited about a new recipe it often turns out badly.

In the interest of making the recipe as simple as possible I used a Tandori spice mixture which has paprika, garlic, and salt. You can use any spice mixture which has a paprika base. I used garlic flavored olive oil, but you can of course use plain olive oil, just be sure it’s extra-virgin. Your taste buds will thank you. And I used balsamic vinegar because I love the rich flavor, but you can use apple cider vinegar if you prefer. I didn’t use black pepper but if you want to add some be sure it’s freshly ground.

I like my version of the marinade because you don’t get a lot of runoff like many of the recipes I found on the Internet. You don’t get oil dripping off into your dehydrator and you don’t have to use towels to sop up the oil after dehydrating them. Still I think my recipe would be better with a little more oil. Flavor-wise, it won’t matter much, but it will help the jerky to be a little less dry.

All of the recipes tell you to mix up the marinade, pour it over the eggplant, and stir to coat. That really doesn’t work very well when you’re working with what is basically a vegetable sponge. The first few slices soak up all the marinade and then you have to press on them to release enough marinade to coat the other slices which still don’t get evenly coated with the marinadde. So I covered the bottom of my bowl with a thin layer of marinade. Placed half the eggplant slices in the bowl, drizzled with half the marinade, added the rest of the eggplant, the rest of the marinade and tossed to coat.

I dehydrated my first batch for 12 hours and while I liked the end result, there were a few pieces which weren’t as dry which I liked even more. So my next batch will go for maybe 8 hours.

Ingredients

2 large eggplant

1/2 cup coconut aminoes, or low sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Tandori or Cajun spice mixture

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 to 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, optional

Instructions

Trim the bottom and top from the eggplant. Discard.

Slice the eggplant into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Stack 4 or 5 rounds and slice into strips.

Place all marinade ingredients in a small jar. Cover and shake well.  Coat the bottom of a large bowl with marinade. Working quickly, place half the eggplant in the bowl, drizzle with half the marinade, the remaining eggplant and then the remaining marinade. Toss to combine. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours but you can leave it there all day or overnight.

Place strips on dehydrator trays being careful not to overlap the slices. Depending on your dehydrator you should have 5 to 6 trays. Dehydrate at 115 degrees for 8 to 12 hours. Take a few pieces out after 6 hours. Let them cool down and see if you like the consistency. If you do then stop the process. If you don’t then let them go for another hour or two and check them again.

And there you have it – your basic recipe for eggplant jerky. The next time I make it I’m going to make the following tweaks to see if I get an even better result:

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut aminoes, or low sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Tandori or Cajun spice mixture

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

I’m sort of resisting adding the maple syrup because I don’t like to add sugar when it isn’t really needed, but I want to see what happens to this jerky with the addition of the rich amber flavor. I’m also going to use 1 eggplant and 2 medium zucchini. I don’t see why zucchini wouldn’t work and then the tough skin wouldn’t be an issue and it can be easily sliced on the mandoline.

I’ll update this post after trying out the new version. Happy eating!

Gluten Free High Protein Low Calorie Low Carb Paleo Recipes Vegetarian

Provincial Cauli”rice”

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cauliflower riceShredded cauliflower used in place of rice is the new Paleo and Low Carb Hero. I’ve been doing a bit of experimenting to find the easiest and foolproof way to prepare it and have come up with lots of options which I’ll be sharing in upcoming posts. Today I want to share my Provenical Cauli”rice” recipe. Warning: this recipe does not mask the taste of cauliflower. It will taste like a French vegetable dish, not like rice. I’ve found that the cauli”rice” recipes that taste closer to rice are those that are heavily spiced such as curried “rice”, Spanish “rice”, and those with tomato paste.

I’ve been shredding cauliflower for these recipes using my food processor which involves cutting the florets away from the core. Getting out the food processor and fitting it with the shredding disk. Shredding the cauliflower. Cleaning and putting the food processor away. Today I wanted to see if using a box grater would be easier – and it was – significantly easier. I trimmed away the green leaves and that was all the prep needed. I shredded the whole cauliflower with the box grater, stopping when I reached the core. It took less time than it took using the food processor (including the setup and cleanup) and I burned a few calories in the process. So in the future I’ll use the food processor if I already have it out for other projects but otherwise I’ll use a box grater.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 head cauliflower

1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Trim the green leaves from the cauliflower and shred the florets using a box grater or food processor. Discard the stem and core.

Heat oil in large saute pan over medium heat. When oil is hot add the shredded cauliflower and stir to coat with oil. Stir in Herbs de Provence, salt and pepper. Cook until cauliflower is al dente. Remove from heat. Taste and add salt and/or pepper if needed.

Variation

Drizzle the finished dish with extra-virgin olive oil or melted butter. If you’re doing Paelo you’ll want to avoid the butter though.

Use Italian seasoning in place of Herbs de Provence.

Living Food Low Calorie Neutral Recipes

A Very Simple Salad

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lettuce-salad

 

I’ve been working on recipes for the new cookbook for so long that I’ve gotten into the habit of more elaborate meals and it feels good to not only enjoy but look forward to an easy lettuce salad with a very simple salad dressing and one garnish.

The Salad

Fill a bowl with lettuce torn into bite-size pieces. Toss with dressing. Garnish with one item.

The Dressing

Shake or whisk together fresh lemon or lime juice, extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Taste and adjust to your taste.

The Garnishes

  • avocado
  • hard-boiled egg
  • toasted nuts or seeds
  • shredded chicken or turkey
  • bacon
  • sliced pepperoni, pastrami, corned beef, or prosciutto
  • feta cheese
  • blue cheese
  • shredded Parmesan cheese
  • fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese
  • sun-dried tomatoes
  • orange slices
  • thinly sliced red onion
  • artichoke hearts

Now go enjoy your lunch 🙂

 

 

Beverages Gluten Free Kid Friendly Living Food Low Calorie Neutral Paleo Recipes Vegan Vegetarian

Delicious Easy Nutritious Coconut Milk

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freshly made coconut milk

freshly made coconut milk

Recently I discovered that the “organic” nondairy milk that I’d been buying wasn’t so organic. It’s right there on the ingredients label, I was just blinded by the “organic” in big letters on the front of the package. I’ll add more to this post next week detailing what I learned, but for today I wanted to give you all who saw my post on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter this super simple recipe for coconut milk.

Once I figured out that the only way I was going to get nondairy milk without all the junk added to it was to make it myself I started looking around for the easiest and least expensive way to do this. Almond and cashew milk are fine, but pretty expensive when you’re buying organic nuts AND it’s a little more work than I want to invest.

I’ve yet to try making brown rice milk, which I will and will post about later, but today I had a bunch of coconut flour and shredded coconut and decided to give coconut milk a try.

For my first batch I went with the coconut flour method mostly because I could skip the blender step.

Coconut Flour Milk

Ingredients

4 cups filtered hot water
1 cup organic coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Ingredients

Mix the water, coconut flour and sea salt in a large measuring cup. Set aside for at least 30 minutes. Pour through a very fine sieve, cheesecloth lined colander or nut milk bag. You could also pour through a coffee filter set on top of your coffee pot. Once no more milk is coming through the sieve, press down on the flour to express as much milk as possible. Most people discard the coconut flour that’s left over but I used mine to make a nondairy cream cheese. You could also use it to thicken sauces, stew, soup, or gravy.

My Review: the milk tastes flat and watery, not a lot of flavor. I’ll use it to make a smoothie but won’t make it this way again.

 

Shredded Coconut Milk

Ingredients

4 cups filtered hot water
2 cups organic shredded coconut

Instructions

Pour the water over the shredded coconut in a blender. Set aside for at least 30 minutes or until the water has cooled enough to safely blend. Blend for a few seconds. It doesn’t take much. Pour through a very fine sieve, cheesecloth lined colander or nut milk bag. You could also pour through a coffee filter set on top of your coffee pot. Once no more milk is coming through the sieve, press down on the flour to express as much milk as possible.

The left over shredded coconut can be used in any recipe calling for shredded coconut, however it won’t have as much flavor or fat since these were expressed into the milk, but you will get the bulk and the fiber. You could also just add to your smoothies, pancake batter, home made bread, or yogurt.

My Review: the milk tastes fabulous! I don’t drink milk, even nondairy milk but I had to stop myself from drinking the whole batch and calling it breakfast. I thought I would have to add some sea salt at least, if not vanilla and sweetener, but this milk doesn’t need a thing.

The milk will separate as it sits, just shake it up before you use it. I don’t worry about skimming the fattier cream off the top because I try to add coconut oil to my diet every day anyway.

Beverages Fruit Gluten Free High Protein Kid Friendly Low Calorie Low Carb Recipes Vegetarian

Protein Smoothies – Kick ‘Em Up a Notch

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protein smoothie recipe

Breakfast and lunch – ready to hit the road.

Sometimes I get tired of protein powder shakes, add ice cubes and some water, blend, yawn. So I start playing around with the basic recipe and suddenly my mornings are a lot more interesting. I’m using stevia as a sweetener but you can use monk fruit, Splenda, or any other healthy sweetener.

Strawberry Flaxtini

To your chosen protein powder recipe add 1/2 cup frozen or fresh strawberries and 1 tablespoon ground flax seed. If all you have is whole flax seed add them by themselves in the blender and process until ground, then add the remaining ingredients.

Mocha Monkey

To your chosen protein powder recipe add 1 & 1/2 cups unsweetened nondairy milk, 1/2 banana, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 1/4 cup cold coffee, 1 teaspoon stevia.

Green Energy

To your chosen protein powder recipe add 1 & 1/2 cups unsweetened nondairy milk, 1 cup spinach leaves, 1/2 pear or apple, 1 teaspoon stevia.

Ginger Kick

To your chosen protein powder recipe add 1 & 1/2 cups unsweetened nondairy milk, 1/2 pear or apple, 1/2 banana (optional), 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon stevia.

Mocha Magic

To your chosen protein powder recipe add 1 & 1/2 cup unsweetened nondair milk, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 1/4 cup cold coffee, 1 teaspoon stevia.

Pineapple Smile

To your chosen protein powder recipe add 1 & 1/2 cups unsweetened nondairy milk, 1 cup chopped pineapple, 1 teaspoon stevia.

Cinnamon Roll Smoothie

To your chosen protein powder recipe add 1 & 1/2 cups unsweetened nondairy milk, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon stevia.

Low Calorie Recipes UnDiet Eating Plans Vegetarian

300 Calorie Day

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We haven’t talked about the Rotation Diet here on The UnDiet – I’ll do that in an upcoming post, but I did want to give you a taste of how easy it can be to do what most people would think is impossible and that’s to have only 300 calories in a day and not be hungry.

On 300 calorie days you’ll want to use salad dressings and sauces that are 25 calories per tablespoon (or less) so that you don’t use up the majority of your calorie allotment on jazzing up your salads and veggies . I’ve included a recipe in this post, but for those of you who are crunched for time most health food stores carry these in the produce section by the lettuce or on the shelf in salad dressings section, or you can whip up your own by combining yogurt and herbs seasoned with sea salt and black pepper – my Yogurt Dill Dressing recipe will show you how it’s done and you can create endless variations from there.

Oh and if you’re checking my math and wondering why it doesn’t add up, when doing the Rotation Diet you don’t count the calories in fruits or veggies, so they’re freebies. Eat as many fruits and veggies as you want. That’s the secret to staying out of the “gorilla hunger” zone.

Breakfast

40 calories

  • apple slices dusted with cinnamon
  • coffee with 2 tablespoons half & half

Lunch

50 calories

  • green salad tossed with 2 tablespoons Yogurt Dill Dressing
  • artichoke cut in half, hairy choke removed and cooked with cut side down until tender in a broth made of white wine, vegetable broth, garlic and balsamic vinegar, allowing the broth to boil down so that the cut side of artichoke is carmelized.

Quick version: use frozen artichoke hearts instead of whole artichokes. Don’t use canned artichokes, they’re a whole different animal – a bit tough and vinegary. If you use canned artichokes you’ll not be satisfied with your lunch salad. If you’re not satisfied with your lunch salad you’ll start to think that eating healthy doesn’t really work. If you start thinking that eating healthy doesn’t work then you’ll start eating junk food. If you start eating junk food then you’ll start gaining weight and feeling lousy. If you start gaining weight and feeling lousy, you’ll get really really grumpy. If you get really really grumpy then … well you get the picture – don’t use canned artichokes.

Dinner

50 calories

  • celery sticks with 2 tablespoons any 25 calorie/tablespoon dressing
  • Imagine Foods Butternut Squash Soup thickened  or vegetable broth with pureed roasted onion and/or cauliflower.
  • 1/2 whole wheat roll

 Snack

120 calories

  • 2 cups lite popcorn (if no cream in your coffee you can melt 1 teaspoon butter and 1 teaspoon honey, drizzle over popcorn, toss until well mixed – m-m-m, who needs caramel corn?!)
  • sliced apples

 

Yogurt Dill Dressing

1 serving = 2 tablespoons

Per serving: 19 calories, 1.5 net carb, 2.3 grams protein, .5 grams fat,

Since I use this recipe in my Rotation Diet menus (and another version in my low carb menus) I’m using low calorie ingredients and including the calorie count as well as the carb count for any low carbers using this.

Even if you’re going for the low calorie bang, be sure to use real mayo, not the light stuff which contains added sugar and other ingredients to make up for the loss of fat.

Stir together:

1 cube dill pesto or 2 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1 cube parsley pesto or 2 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 clove garlic, minced

 

At the end of the day, you’ll have lost around a pound – maybe a little more, maybe a little less. That’s a nice way to recover from a day or two (or a lifetime) of unhealthy eating. Rinse and repeat.

Low Calorie UnDiet Eating Plans

Choosing a Natural 1500 Calorie Diet

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Have you heard about the 1500 Calorie Diet? If not, you might just be the last person on the planet not to have asked us about this quick weight loss plan. Read on as our Guest Blogger talks about this popular diet.

The books, recipes and complete menu plans that form part of the popular 1500 calorie diet need to be chosen with care in order to get the highest quality calories you possibly can. What do I mean by “high quality” calories? It means that a meal that is carefully planned to come in at around 400 or 500 calories can end up containing little to no nutrition. Or that same calorie count can contain foods that are full of nutrients and vitamins that your body needs to lose weight safely. For example a 1500 calorie diet meal plan could be entirely designed around items that come from boxes, cans and packages – refined foods, dry goods, lean meats, poultry, even dairy and still add up to the same number calories as eating a large fresh salad with dressing, steamed veggies, a variety of raw vegetable juices and even whipped fruit drinks and desserts. The difference is that while one 1500 calorie diet may be primarily fresh, full of water, vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids, the other may be devoid of almost all nutrients.

How can you know if your 1500 calories are natural or not? How can you be sure to choose the best 1500 calorie diet possible to heighten weight loss and increase energy? There’s a simple rule. If eighty percent of everything you eat is fresh and raw and comes from the produce aisles and not from cans boxes, bags or bins, chances are that you can eat MORE and still consume less calories, and those calories will not be empty but instead will be nutritious and give you health and energy.

A low calories menu plan can include unlimited amounts of celery, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, leafy greens and sprouts. Instead of a sandwich with bread, dressing, turkey or something similar, try making a large cucumber, tomato and lettuce salad with a little chopped turkey. Get more of your calories from carrots, beets, cabbage and thick fresh tomato soups, than from bread, pasta or potatoes. Don’t overcook your vegetables and try to eliminate as much dairy as you can. Try a 1500 calorie diet, but choose your meal plans carefully and you will not only lose weight quickly but you’ll be healthier and full of energy.