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

This book is dedicated to all the Hungry Girl
subscribers. Your devotion and loyalty
are appreciated and valued more than
you will ever know.

Acknowledgments

The inspiration for Hungry Girl came to me in 2003 as I was speeding down the freeway with a car full of desserts I was taking to a laboratory to be tested for nutritional information. The pastries came from a local bakery, and I was obsessed with them because they were fantastic and (supposedly) very low-calorie. But they were just a little too good. I was suspicious. As I zoomed along, it occurred to me that my bizarre passion for guilt-free foods could somehow help the world. So I quit my cushy job and started a free daily email subscription service called Hungry Girl. The first HG email went out to less than 100 people, mostly friends. Today, Hungry Girl has over 400,000 subscribers. (P.S. The lab confirmed my suspicions—those pastries had WAY more calories than the bakery claimed.) I am the founder and voice of Hungry Girl, but running a company that churns out so much content isn't something I could ever do alone. This book is the result of countless hours of hard work by a very small yet amazing group of people. And they all deserve to share the credit for it with me.
Elizabeth Hodson,thank you for being with me since day one, back when we had only seventy-eight subscribers (aka, our friends and families). you've always given a billion percent of yourself to hungry girl. everything you design looks sooooo awesome and cute (including this book)! i'm also convinced that you and i share the same taste buds, which i value even more than you know. please, please work with me forever.
Jamie Goldberg,i love your feisty passion for detail, and your obsession with grammar and all things guilt-free. it's obvious that hungry girl is much more to you than just a job. thank you for putting your blood, sweat, tears, and tongue into this book and never giving up when you believe in something. please keep on challenging me because this book wouldn't be the same without you.
Lynn Bettencourt,thanks for putting up with me, for lugging hundreds of food-filled boxes up countless steps, and for all that turkey taco meatloaf (see page 132). you wear a lot of hats at hg headquarters, and you wear them all well (especially your red sox hat!).
Alison Kreuch,i swear, you have the energy of nine nuclear power plants! it's because of you that hg can pay its bills. i'd run hungry girl for free (seriously), but thanks to you, we don't have to.
John Vaccaro,you're a guy, but you'll always be an honorary hungry girl—even though you order two entrees at a time (and usually fatty ones) and i know you'd never eat anything i cook or write about. your expertise in powerpoint and excel makes your greasy-food consumption 100 percent excusable.
Tom Fineman,you put the «pro» in «bono» (yes, i know that makes no sense). you're the best entertainment lawyer in los angeles—and perhaps even the tallest! i'm so lucky to have you on the hg team. i'd say you're a great friend, but you're really more like family.
Neeti Madan,you are a superhero and literally (get it???), the best agent a hungry girl could ever have. Thanks a million times over.
Jennifer Enderlinand Matthew Shear,thank you both for believing in hungry girl, for trusting me, for publishing this book, and for making the whole process more fun than i ever could've imagined. everyone's «first time» should be with you guys (don't take that the wrong way!).
To Lisa Senz, John Murphy, John Karle,and the amazing marketing and pr crews over at st. martin's—thankyouthankyouthankyou!
Special thanks to Jennifer Curtis, Ina Burke, Jackie MacDougall, Dena Krischer, Jack Pullan,and Lorig Koujakian.all of you made invaluable contributions to this book. let's do more fun hg projects together in the future!
To my parents, Florence and Maurice Lillien,i may have conceived hungry girl, but you conceived me (nice work, guys!). thank you for your neverending love and support. to my sister, Meri Lillien,a great friend and the ultimate super-sleuth, who can sniff out guilt-free finds as well as anyone i know. and to my brother, Jay Lillien,who i've always secretly envied for his ability to eat an entire box of lucky charms (with whole milk!) in one sitting and not gain an ounce.
To Cookieand Jackson,my furry babies who keep me sane and calm when life gets crazy. and to sweet Mischief,who is no longer with us, but was a major part of hungry girl (not to mention a huge fan of fiber one) from the very beginning.
To the love of my life, my husband, best friend, and partner, Daniel Schneider.your insight and brilliance inspire me every day. thank you for your endless creativity, for loving me unconditionally, and making me laugh harder than i've ever laughed before. you are the reason hungry girl exists.

Introduction

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Who/What is Hungry Girl?

If you're holding this book in your hands, there's a good chance you already know the answer to this question. But for those of you who don't know, Hungry Girl is a free daily email about guilt-free eating. Our news, food finds, recipes, and survival strategies are read by hundreds of thousands of people every day. To sign up or see all of our past content, go to Hungry-Girl.com.

Is Hungry Girl a real person? And is she a doctor?

Yes, I'm a real person. I'm Lisa Lillien, and I'm not a nutritionist or a doctor. I'm just hungry, and a bit obsessed with foods that taste great but don't pack on the pounds. I'm the nut who watches you shop at the supermarket, comments on your choice of low-fat ice cream, and tells you which brand to buy (FYI, Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned is the way to go). HG's daily emails and all other HG content are the result of extensive research done by me and my super-dedicated and talented staff. Because much of what we do is a group effort, I refer to HG as «us» and «we» (the team as a whole) as opposed to «me» and «I» (an individual). The exception is when I have a personal story to share, because saying the awesome chili recipe was invented by «our husband» would be silly (and illegal in most states!).

Is Hungry Girl a chef?

Sort of, but not by traditional standards. And this is not a typical cookbook. If you're looking for fancy, formal «chef-like» recipes you've definitely come to the wrong place. This book is filled with simple, fun, easy recipes that use lots of packaged foods and shortcuts to make great-tasting guilt-free snacks and meals. If you aspire to be a gourmet chef, there are more appropriate books out there for you. But if you want to prepare awesome, tongue-pleasing foods that won't send you out shopping for bigger pants, you've got the right book!

What makes a recipe «guilt-free»?

When it comes to HG recipes, our goal is to make them delicious—but also to keep them low in fat and calories (that's the guilt-free part!). We also aim for high-fiber counts, because we love fiber (it's good for you, and it fills you up!). Even though we mostly focus on calories and fat, we provide nutritional information for carbs, sugars, protein, etc., so you can tweak any recipe to meet your needs. For example, people concerned about sodium can simply use low-salt versions of canned items called for in our recipes.