I must begin a lowfat diet. Sad, I know. 
Doctor’s orders and whatnot.
Thing is, I’ve tried a lot of lowfat recipes in the past and most of them were junk, complete trash, not at all palatable.
Please, I beg you. Help me.
Any recipe which calls for unbreaded fish or skinless chicken is likely to be low in fat, and more palatable to most people than vegetarian alternatives. “Low fat” can also be a relative term; extra lean ground beef is worth eating if you like beef even though it is relatively higher in fat than other choices. The biggest change you will have to make is giving up processed snack foods and using lower fat dairy products.
I find low-fat chili to be very nutritious and palatable; it is my favourite low fat food. In a crockpot, I mix one pound or so extra lean ground beef with two large cans of red kidney beans and one can of a bean mixture (such as Heinz chili beans). I add a small can of tomato paste, lots of chili powder, some green and jalapeno peppers, a can of plum tomatoes, pepper, salt, salsa, onion and let the mixture stew on low heat overnight. It’s low fat, high flavour, has a very meaty texture and is high in vegetables, fibre and general nutrition. If I eat fast food, for example, I try to eat Wendy’s chili which has (small) 200 calories or (large) 300 calories with about 22% calories from fat and is high fibre, and quite filling.
Another great low fat recipe I like is from Cooks’ Illustrated and is for Vietnamese Spring Rolls (served cold). If you like spring rolls, I would be pleased to write down the recipe; I guarantee they are nicer than ones you’ve had in your favourite Asian restaurant!
I don’t believe I’ve had spring rolls. Umm, unless they were called something else.
Oh well, go for it. I’ll eat almost anything and I have no food allergies so far. 
A good strategy to take might be to find the things you like that are already low-fat and eat more of them and less fatty things, instead of trying to make substitutions constantly and making yourself miserable. For example if you’re having a barbecue have grilled chicken breasts instead of hot dogs rather than trying to choke down a low-fat tofu dog or something. Plus, you can jazz-up a lot of low-fat things with full-fat items because the net fattiness is still far less than your usual intake. For example Minestrone is nearly NO-fat, so you can use some really sharp full-fat parmesean on top, likewise with say, a meatless black-bean soup with a dollop of sour cream on top.
What do you like to eat? And what are the diet’s guidelines? Are we talking about ultra-low-fat (like 5-10% of calories from fat), or just a normal low-fat, in which 25%-30% of calories can come from fat?
Spaghetti with a sharp, herby tomato sauce can be wonderfully tasty and very low-fat. Minestrone, as mentioned before, is low-fat, as can plenty of other soups.
Learn to stir-fry. Adding lots of ginger, garlic, and hot pepper flakes to a stir fry can help you reduce the amount of fat you add.
Daniel
Hamburger Stroganoff
1/2 pound 93% lean ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped (or more if you like more)
Cook together until the hamburger is done. Drain if you feel like it, but it doesn’t have to be (not much fat).
Stir in
one small can mushrooms (undrained)
one can low- or non-fat cream of mushroom soup
salt & pepper to taste.
Let it simmer for a while so the flavors blend.
Meanwhile, cook some whole wheat egg noodles.
When the noodles are ready, stir 1 cup light sour cream into the beef mixture. Then add the drained noodles, and you’re all set.
I don’t know the fat content, but it makes 4 servings and has 5 weight watchers points per serving. My husband–who does not need to lose weight and who hates diet food–really likes this.
Depending on your diet, some fats may be better than others. I don’t know the details of your diet, but you may be allowed to indulge in olive oil, nuts, avacadoes, and other yummy things long as you’re reducing your intake of non-low-fat dairy products, meat, potato chips, and the like.
Like voguevixen, says, avoid fakeo low fat versions of fatty foods that you love. They’re rarely satisfying. Stick to naturally low-fat foods.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are great. Don’t get burned out on carrot and celery sticks. Have some green pepper strips (a little pricy, but nice for a treat), jicima (a big ol’ root vegetable, very reminiscent of firm, crisp apples in texture, and slightly sweet), cherry tomatoes, etc. If you’re getting bored with the fresh fruit selection, try frozen fruit. Partially unfrozen fruit can be very refreshing! Also, quality frozen fruits are picked at the peak of ripeness, so the taste and nutritive value is sometimes better than fresh produce!
Vegetarian cuisine has many options. Try tofu! Avoid recipes that try to make it taste “just like” a meat product—these are almost certain to disappoint. Just get a block of extra firm tofu, dice it, and saute it with your favorite stir-fry vegetables. If that’s too bland for you, marinate the diced tofu in your favorite oriental-style sauce for 20 minutes before cooking it. I like Gardenburgers, too. They don’t taste at all like beef; they’re something different entirely. But they’re good with some ketchup on a bun.
Here’s an easy, meaty low fat recipe I like:
Unstuffed Peppers
1 Tbs olive oil.
4 garlic cloves, minced.
1/2 large onion, chopped.
1 lb ground meat (turkey, lean beef, what have you.)
2 bell peppers, colors your choice, cut into large chunks.
1 bottle of Spicy V-8 (or regular V-8 and a lot of hot pepper sauce.)
Cooked rice.
Saute the garlic and onion in olive oil until the onion is translucent. Add the meat and brown. Add peppers. Add a goodly amount of V-8 to form a sauce and cook ~10 minutes until sauce is slightly thickened and peppers have reached desired doneness. Serve over cooked rice.
Grilled fish tacos
Stack some corn tortillas (I like the little ones) in a casserole, cover them with a couple of damp paper towels, and microwave for a minute or two.
Meantime, very lightly oil a couple of fish filets of your choice, salt and pepper them, and grill them on a grill pan until just done. Shred some cabbage very finely, chop some cilantro and quarter some limes.
Assemble tacos by wrapping chunks of the grilled fish in a couple of the steamed tortillas, top them with shredded cabbage and cilantro, and squeeze lime over them. Add some squirts of your favorite hot sauce, if desired.
If you melt a little jalapeno jelly OR red currant jam, you can baste roasting chicken breasts with it. That gives a lot of flavor without adding any fat. There are plenty of marinades that make a plain chicken breast or fish fillet really flavorful.
HOMEMADE SPRING ROLLS are best eaten immediately, but can be kept in the fridge up to 4 hours covered with a wet kitchen towel. Recipe from Cooks’ Illustratd Jan 2002, p.7
1.) Combine 1 tsp. SUGAR, 1.5 tbsp FISH SAUCE (any Asian grocery) and 2.5 tbsp LIME JUICE in a small bowl and set aside.
2.) Boil 2 quarts of WATER, and stir in 1 tsp. SALT and 3 oz. RICE VERMICELLI, cooking 3-4 mins until tender not mushy. Drain noodles, rinse with cold water, transfer to medium bowl, add 2 tbsp. fish sauce mixture (above) and set aside.
3.) Combine 1 LARGE GRATED CARROT, some UNSALTED PEANUTS (less than 0.33 cups) and 1 minced JALAPENO PEPPER in a small bowl. Add 1 tbsp. fish sauce mixture.
4.) Add 1 tbsp. fish sauce mixture to one LARGE CUCUMBER (12 oz. or so) cut into about 40 1/8 inch strips.
5.) Spread a clean, damp kitchen towel on a counter. Fill a nine inch pie plate with room-temp water (one inch or so). Working one at a time, dip one of eight ROUND RICE PAPER WRAPPERS (8" diameter) in the water for 10 seconds until pliant. Place soft wrapper on towel, and scatter 6 BASIL (or MINT) LEAVES and 6 CILANTRO LEAVES over each wrapper. Arrange five cucumber sticks, 1 tbsp. carrot mixture, 2.5 tbsp noodles on each wrapper and make a roll.
Also very good with added cocktail shrimp or crab (surimi) sticks. Peanut dipping sauce is very good with this, but higher in fat. In total, you need about 0.5 cups basil or mint leaves and cilantro leaves.
Recipe very tasty, filling, nutritious; requires Asian grocery store ingredients, though.
Well, this isn’t exactly a recipe, but at the Java City coffee stand at my work, they have peach-blueberry cobbler that is low fat. It has 290 calories and 1.7g of fat, which I guess is pretty low. When you can’t cook low fat, you can always scarff down one of these babies. They’re out of this world.
Keep in mind that sometimes “low-fat” means “extra-sugar”; if you’re concerned about total calories (and you should be), you want to look at more than just the fat content.
But cobbler, especially if it’s more of a crumble than a cobbler (i.e., made with a streusel topping), could theoretically be mostly fruit and oats. Num.
Daniel
I had to go excruciatingly low fat for a while. Some of the things I discovered:
You can eat a baked potato with salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar.
You can eat a baked potato with fat-free salsa. Fat free cheese may be an option, depending on your feelings about fake fat/desperation for cheese.
Corn on the cob is actually OK with just salt and pepper.
Lean fish is good with just grated lemon zest and crushed black pepper. Squeeze lemon on it when it’s done. If you can use a little olive oil with this, even better.
Apple jelly is good on bagels if butter/margarine/cream cheese are not an option. Especially cinnamon raisin.
Salmon and/or tuna burgers (found in the freezer section) are low fat and better than you’d think. Check the labels, some are lower fat than others.
Gourmet chicken/turkey sausage can be low fat and very flexible to include in stir fries, with pasta, etc.
Cooking Light is an excellent magazine to get creative, delicious low fat recipes.
I’d urge you not to worry about fat in fish. Fatty fish are still relatively very low infat and the omega 3 fatty acids in fish are very beneficial. Eat more fish and skinless chicken with any sauce you like (no mayo or butter bases though) and you will already go a long way to your goal.
I like improvised blender concoctions.
You know how you can buy fruit juices that are combinations of several fruit juices? Like Kiwi-strawberry-orange or banana-mango-oh-let’s-say-pineapple? Buy a carton of one of those. Also buy some frozen fruit chunks or frozen berries.
Pour some juice into a blender, add a few fruit chunks, and a handful or so of ice. For a smoother mouthfeel, add some low-fat yogurt. You could also add some vanilla extract or sugar if you want. Blend until smooth and enjoy.
Also good with alcohol!
Well… I’m not really sure about restrictions. See, I have gallstones. I wasn’t put on this diet to lose weight or get healthy or anything (although it wouldn’t hurt…), I was told “low-fat” (no guidelines) specifically to avoid the searing, awful, “God, I want to die” pain that comes with eating high fat/greasy foods. We’re also suspicious of ulcers, though those are not yet comfirmed. But, honestly, most food makes me want to rip my stomach out and dance on it.
Thanks for the suggestions!
I tried the stroganoff (a little pain, nothing a vicodin couldn’t ease), and the spring rolls and they were GREAT! I ate a bunch of shrimp tonight and that seemed to work out okay, but the real test comes at about 5ish tomorrow morning. Basically, too spicy = bad, and too greasy/fatty = bad.
The two low-fat cookbooks I swear by (if you can get them)
are LooneySpoons and CrazyPlates
I have made nearly every main course recipie in both books, and everything has turned out really, really well.
They include detailed caloric and fat counts, as well as tips for cutting down on things like salt.
One of my favorite low(er) fat cookbook authors is Martha Rose Shulman. I own several of her books but the website gives some great recipes too. One of my absolute favorites of hers isn’t included there is for a much lower-fat version of hummus. I quite honestly prefer it to the more traditional versions. It still has some olive oil in it–gotta have it!–but much less. The whole key is to use fresh squeezed lemon.
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 can garbanzos (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
salt to taste
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice*
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3-4 Tbsp. plain nonfat yogurt
2-3 Tbsp. sesame tahini
Dump garlic cloves into food processor; chop finely. Stop processor and scrape down sides. Add the garbanzos, salt and cumin and process for about 30 seconds. Stop processor, scrape down sides and turn back on. Using feed tube, add lemon juice, olive oil and the yogurt. Blend until smooth. Add the tahini and blend again. Taste and adjust salt. Thin out with more yogurt if desired. Transfer to bowl, cover and refrigerate until use.
This is great with veggie scoopers, or baked pita chips.
- I usually just use one whole lemon. Pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to soften, roll firmly on countertop, then cut and juice.
[NOTE: this keeps 2-3 days in the fridge, but it does get slightly more pungent as it ages. If spices bother you, you could always reduce the amount of garlic and cumin.}