Lisa Lillien - Hungry Girl - Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World

Is there a Hungry Girl diet plan?

No, there is no Hungry Girl diet plan. While there are HG recipes for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and more, the idea is to incorporate these recipes into an eating plan that works for you.

Why a Hungry Girl book?

Hungry-Girl.com offers many recipes. They have become the most sought-after content we provide. Over the years, we've received thousands of requests for a Hungry Girl recipe book, and we agreed that it was a good idea. So here ya go!

Why don't you use as many name brands in the book as you do on the site?

As you read this book, you'll see that while some of the recipes call for very specific name-brand items, most do not. The idea behind this is to keep the recipes as generic as possible, so people can easily find all the items they need at local supermarkets. The nutritional information in the book has been carefully calculated based on the averages of many brands, so you don't have to find our favorite low-calorie picks for your recipes to have the same stats. When a very specific ingredient is super-important to a recipe (like it simply will not taste the same or have as impressive nutritional stats without it), we will call out the name brands and specific products needed. We feature more specific products in our daily emails because we can easily give you up-to-the-minute information on where to purchase them. We simply can't do that in this book. (For a list of our recommended brands, see page 6.)

What happens if I make substitutions for ingredients in some recipes?

Your oven will explode. Okay, not really! You can, of course, make substitutions for products and ingredients, but the taste and nutritional information will vary accordingly, so keep that in mind when swapping.

How was the nutritional information in this book calculated?

The stats for each recipe were carefully calculated using extremely reliable nutritional databases, countless product labels, and by doing extensive research. When recipes call for generic ingredients (like light vanilla soymilk or light bread), we used average nutritional information for those products. Those averages were calculated based on a wide variety of national brands. Also taken into account were the small amounts of calories and fat in many so-called «no-calorie» and «fat-free» ingredients. We take great pride in determining the most accurate nutritional information possible. After all, we make these recipes, too!

Are optional ingredients included in each recipe's nutritional information?

No, they aren't. If you choose to use the optional ingredients listed in the recipes, the nutritional information will change accordingly. However, all optional ingredients are guilt-free items, so they won't add crazy amounts of fat or calories to any of the recipes.

Some of your recipes call for ingredients (like chicken) that are already cooked. What's the best way to cook without adding any fat?

There are so many simple ways to cook chicken, shrimp, and beef without adding fat and calories. Just cook your food in a pan with a spritz of nonstick spray, boil it in a pot of water, or steam it in the microwave or over the stove. Easy!

Good question. If you're a Hungry Girl fan, you know how much we love and support Weight Watchers. Their plans are healthy, easy to follow, and can fit into your lifestyle. That's why we co-developed a bunch of recipes with them for this book. For a listing of POINTS В® values for all the recipes in this book, go to hungry-girl.com/book.

Where can I find photos of all the recipes in this book?

While the book is cute and pretty as is, we know it's important to see photos of our recipes. Luckily, we have pictures of every recipe in this book online at hungry-girl.com/book (and a bunch in the book, too!).

Why are there so many single-serving recipes in this book?

Throughout the years, we've heard over and over how easy Hungry Girl recipes are to make, and how often people prepare food for themselves. Single-serving recipes are ideal for this reason, and HG subscribers always eat up (pun intended) these made-for-one recipes. That being said, it's easy to double, triple, or quadruple any of the single-serving recipes—so you can adjust them to feed as many hungry people as you like. Just don't quadruple a recipe and eat the whole thing yourself, or you'll be in BIG trouble!

How can you have FAQs about the book when this is your first book?

Yep, we've been caught! These aren't really frequently asked questions. They're actually questions we anticipated you might have. But «QWAYMH» didn't sound as good as «FAQs.» Now quit asking so many questions and start readin' already!

Hungry Girl's Recommended Products. .
We're not shy when it comes to naming names, and it's no secret that we have favorites. While the recipes in the book work well with many different products, we definitely have our favorites as far as taste and nutritional information are concerned. Here are some of our recommendations:

Light Soymilk (Vanilla, Chocolate, or Plain)
8th Continent Light Soymilk
Silk Light Soymilk
Almond Breeze Unsweetened (technically not soymilk, but it's SO good and much lower in calories!)

Fat-Free Liquid Non-Dairy Creamer
Coffee-mate Original Fat Free

Fat-Free Powdered Non-Dairy Creamer
Coffee-mate Original Fat Free

Fat-Free Cheese
Kraft Fat Free Cheese
Lifetime Fat Free Cheese

Reduced-Fat Cheese
Sargento Reduced Fat Deli Style Sliced Cheese
The Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges (used in specific recipes)

Light Whipped Butter/Light Buttery Spread
Brummel amp; Brown
Land O'Lakes Whipped Light Butter
Smart Balance 37 % Light Buttery Spread

Fat-Free Liquid Egg Substitute
Better'n Eggs
Egg Beaters Original
Nulaid ReddiEgg

Fat-Free Yogurt
Yoplait Light (for creamier, more decadent yogurt)
Dannon Light amp; Fit (for extra-low-cal, thinner yogurt)

Fat-Free Greek Yogurt
Fage Total 0%
Oikos Organic

Fat-Free Ice Cream
Breyers Double Churn FREE
Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Light (not completely fat-free, but
it's awesome and will barely affect recipe nutritional information)

Light Bread and Buns
Weight Watchers Bread
Wonder Light Bread and Buns
Nature's Own Light Bread and Double Fiber Wheat Buns
Arnold Bakery Light Bread
Pepperidge Farm Light Style Bread, Very Thin Bread,
and Classic Whole Grain Buns
Sara Lee Delightful Bread