Episode 11 My favorite cooking support items for my diet

Today’s episode covers all the support items I used while cooking during my diet. I share tips on where to get them from grocery stores like Aldi, Fresh Thyme, Pick n Save/Kroger and more. I also cover recipe ideas and how I used them to make filling flavorful food.

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Transcript

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Hi I'm Thomas welcome to the parachute advice. My life has taken a lot of twists and turns and on this podcast I will dive into those. The goal is to help everyone listening learn from my experiences and hopefully avoid some of the mistakes I've made welcome to today's episode of the parachute Vice podcast. I'm your host Thomas so far we've talked about lean proteins starches fruits and vegetables. Today I thought we would get into what I like to call support items what are support items whether items that you add to your food or your meals, to help add flavor or volume or just overall 8 in the cooking process so first off fats olive oil and olive oil cooking spray as with any fat remember to use this sparingly and measure it at all times I still don't eyeball fat because it's too easy to go from 100 to 300 calories by not paying attention. Same goes with cooking spray spray enough and this will add up even if the can says zero calories it still has calories in it I actually transfer my cooking oil at home from large bottles into small squirt bottles with a very fine tip so that it's harder to quote over poor, homemade hot chili oil I love this to seasoning for spice and stir-fries or even on soups or vegetables but at the end of the day this is still a fat as well and should be accounted for in your calories. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Both regular and the low calorie version this is a great way to get butter flavor without adding a ton of calories it is a very processed items and it doesn't Brown well because of the emulsifiers and water mixed into it but it is still a great way to finish a meal with a little bit of butter flavor for example, a 14 gram serving of butter is 100 calories. Well I Can't Believe It's Not Butter is 70 calories and the low calorie version is only 35 calories for the same 14. I also like to use the spray version of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to enhance popcorn from the air popper or spread it on toast for grilled cheese sandwiches. Early on I tried using nonstick spray or no cooking spray at all and cooking my grilled cheese sandwiches in a non-stick pan, and they just did not come out compared to the real thing so using a little bit of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, while may add some calories will ultimately make the product better make your meal more enjoyable, Bacon fat from cooking bacon I like to store this in the freezer as I mentioned in several earlier episodes I'll save Bacon fat and use it to enhance items like potatoes or vegetables I love that a single 14 gram serving at 126 calories will flavor an entire cookie sheet of potatoes or several servings of vegetables, another one is butter. What do I say other than sometimes you just need butter in your life I use this very sparingly but I don't completely eliminate from my diet. For example I'll do a low calorie lean protein like shrimp with a tablespoon or two of butter with a ton of garlic tossed with vegetables to make a scampi stir fry, take this example here 200 grams of shrimp two tablespoons of butter and a bag of vegetable melody will get you a 500 calorie dinner at a cup of rice and you're at 700 calories you have a great meal condiments first off just so everyone's aware I love condiments, mustard is something I use all the time for example it's my go-to for sandwiches I also use it to marinate meat from time to time or to flavor sauces, a trick I've started to use is when you get to that point where it's too hard to get any more mustard out of the bottle. Add a little bit of water and vinegar shake it up and then store it in the fridge till you need it for a saucer and marinate. Just the other night I made roasted chicken that I marinated in a mix from old mustard bottles and sriracha sauce bottles I'll add some liquid smoke for a hint of smoky flavor as well. Soy sauce hosting sauce oyster sauce fish sauce and SRI Racha are my go-to items for stir fries along with Chinese black vinegar. A tablespoon of each are altogether toss with a stir-fry will make a great sauce, again make sure you're measuring these by the G this is especially important for the oyster sauce and a host and sauce due to the high sugar content, all right fish sauce definitely an acquired taste but if you've ever had Thai food Laotian food or other selfies Southeastern Asian dishes you've likely had fish sauce. Don't be afraid of it once cooked into a dish it just adds a salty Umami flavor the same Rich Umami flavor can be accomplished by anchovies as well, a great trick is in the oil or cooking spray that you're about to start a meal with put in some of those Anchovies and then let them break down into the oil I assure you that you will not be able to taste it directly in the end, but if you eat the same dish side-by-side one with and one without the anchovies you will notice the extra flavor burst from the dish with anchovies sesame oil goes great in a stir-fry but again this is a fad. If you're not careful too much of this will ruin your calories for the day so again measure it but it's a great way to add a little bit of flavor and authenticity to a stir fry. Hot sauce this is a great low calorie to zero calorie flavor adding items. Some of the new modern hot sauces have added sugar and fat so just make sure you're reading a label to be safe and know what's in it for example I love the Chipotle Tabasco for its heat and Smoky flavor this is great added into a dish to add a little bit of that spice and smoke flavor. Light male is also a nice ad for sandwiches or even over a sushi rice bowl or as I mention another episode kimchi fried rice. Apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar both are great to enhance flavors if you ever made a soup and found that it just tasted a bit flat even after you salt it and season it did everything you could to get the flavors there. We'll add a teaspoon or a little bit more vinegar right before you serve it and it will brighten up the entire dish it's a trick I learned working in the restaurant Korean barbecue marinade and go see John or Korean red chili paste, both of these can be high in calories so be cautious but they are packed with so much great flavor for marinades on lead proteins. It's often worth the extra little bit of calories and besides because of how strongly flavored they are. They stretch out very well when marinating Meats just recently I made a fat-free homemade salad dressing by blending go she's on soy sauce rice vinegar honey water and xanthan gum. If you follow me on Instagram you've seen me rave about the beauty of xanthan gum it is a great way to add a thick. Almost fat like quality to meals without adding calories just remember to account for items like go Jean or Korean barbecue sauce when you are using them because they are higher in calories. I usually assume 50 to 75 percent of the calories gets on the food and the rest is lost when you take the protein out of the marinade now this is assuming you throw the marinade out and don't cook the food in the marinade so if you use right it's only 20 to 30 calories per portion for a ton of great flavor here's an interesting one pickle juice. Why is this on here well it's a great quick marinade for chicken I've even heard that that's Chick-fil-A secret to great chicken, whether it's true or not I don't know but I do know that when I marinate my chicken in pickle juice overnight it comes out tasting so good think of it as a brine that's already been pre-made for you with extra flavors I will warn you. I discovered recently that some pickles have added food coloring to give them a brighter Greener color so your chicken might come out looking a little green that's fine the chicken is fine it's just died from the marinate all right Dairy. I'll tell you this right off the bat I've never been a fan of actual milk so I rarely ever have that on hand. I like for dairy to get most of my calories or my Dairy from things like 70 and 80 Cal cheese sticks from oldies like their Buddha are pepper jack, but again she sticks can be tricky because I've seen them range from 60 to 120 calories depending on the cheese in the size of the stick, but yet they will often look like they're the same size so be careful or you could be eating more than you realize just make sure you look at the label and understand just how many calories are in that she stick your. Another great one and when I take a lot with my lunches is 50 cal low-fat string cheese it's another great snack option for adding additional protein into your meal without adding a ton of extra calories or fat. Fat-free or low-fat shredded cheese for topping egg Skeletor mixing in a grits this is a great way to add that fat free protein to a dish now there when I like is Laughing Cow Cheese wedges. I use these a lot ranging from just eating them on their own to spread like cream cheese or mixing two side dishes like instant mashed potatoes or grits another great all these fine is there mini Breeze when they have them. These are really good and really aren't fun way to change up your cheese snack again I love the small pre-portioned cheese products because it helps you know what you're eating and limit overeating of calories, I don't get these off in those specifically the mini Breeze because they are a bit pricey and not always available but from time to time they're a great option. Okay nutritional yeast why is this in the dairy section well because it almost tastes like Parmesan cheese, so I will often use this as a Parmesan cheese substitute for topping popcorn or in conjunction with fat-free cheese and things like grits to get that that funky cheesy flavor, with minimal calories and fat and still adding some protein even also it's great when added a blended cottage cheese to make a cream sauce to get them or cheesy flavor. Fat-free plain Greek yogurt is another item I keep on hand to eat as a snack or in place of sour cream. Yep you heard me right unflavored fat-free plain Greek yogurt is just like sour cream with a lot less calories, I like to keep powdered peanut butter and powdered chocolate peanut butter on hand as well just the other day I stirred some of that into some oatmeal for breakfast before I went on my Half Marathon run. It's a great way to get protein and peanut butter flavor without a ton of extra fat. It's also a great way to add a peanut flavor to a stir fry and helps thicken the sauce because you're adding a powder another item I've started using a lot as xanthum gum. Is a great calorie-free thickener that does an excellent job of mimicking the texture and mouthfeel of fats and oils how do I use this well like I mentioned earlier I've used it in a salad dressing but another way, is about a half a teaspoon or less stirred into egg white Skillets to get that egg whites. To go from watery and chewy too much more like regular egg this is especially true if you're adding some fat-free cheese and then a tablespoon or two of salsa. The eggs will come out rich and creamy as if you're using a whole X finally another trick I'll use was xanthum gum is that will blend it into low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese while it in a blender, to get a cream cheese like texture and I'll stir this in the items to make a fat-free or low-fat low-fat cream sauce as I keep saying just remember. Eating a diet doesn't have to be boring or light and. Both are easily done and will make this whole journey much easier to travel it will also make maintenance that much easier to accomplish thank you for listening please join me again for future episodes. You can contact me at parachute advice podcast at gmail.com again that's all one word parachute advice podcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Instagram at parachute advice again thank you for listening and please like And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Music.