Cook Yourself Thin... in a naughty way

Steve and I love to eat, but we also love to cook recipes in a healthy way-- taking all of our favorite meals and swapping out certain fatty/carb-laden ingredients in order to make a more healthful yet delicious dish. Trapeze classes aside, this is truly how we've been able to stay so lean. After all, in our first year together we both gained 15-20 pounds each, and that was when we decided to get on the South Beach Diet and get ourselves back on track.

But fad diets don't work for us, which is why we dove into reconfiguring our own menus so that we could be satisfied and healthy at the same time.

Our greatest love thus far has been Ellie Krieger who used to have a show called Healthy Appetite on Food Network. Her show not only offered delicious recipes but explained things on a deeper level than you usually get from these programs. For example, she'd tell you about the vitamins in certain vegetables, why certain foods were better than others, and really educated the viewer so that when we were cooking for ourselves we'd already know certain tricks as well as WHY those tricks were better. This wasn't just taking something for fact because a TV personality would suggest it, this was a woman who did research and could back up her claims in a TV-friendly manner.

As a side note, I also interviewed Ellie once for an article about eating healthy through the holidays and she's a really wonderful person.

Unfortunately, I think Food Network has canceled her show, giving us one less reason to watch the network. It's also gotten us tuned in to a new Lifetime series called Cook Yourself Thin, where there sometimes-manic ladies try to rush an overweight woman through three recipes, then check back with her some time later (which could potentially be the best part of the show) to see if she dropped a dress size.

The show is less about nutritional value and more about offering up a quick recipe, and we never quite get the feeling that they know why something is healthier than anything else. They just say things like, "This will make you feel full..." rather than explain why. Like on the website, for example, they only show the calories for a recipe and not the fat, carbs or any other nutritional information. OR, on a recent episode, a woman was excited by the new enchilada recipe and said she'd eat it with her girlfriends and a nice margarita.

"Wait!" Steve and I screamed. "Why don't they tell her that one margarita has more calories than the enchilada?" You see, it's that kind of short-sightedness that makes the show somewhat sad for us. Steve and I were actually thinking they should make the episode into an hour and do a makeover as well -- I mean, if you're going to be frivolous about the facts you're presenting then let's get these ladies new hair, makeup and wardrobe.

Nevertheless, we watch it and sometimes find recipes we will take into our lives. A could weeks ago we found a frickin' delicious baked potato skins recipe-- the image is at the top of the blog. We made it for friends as part of a barbecue and it was a huge hit.

However, during the shopping trip, this is one of the sweet potatoes we discovered.
Please discuss.