Tip# 35 Zing Kebobs

WOULD YOU BELIEVE:
Kebobs taste better without meat.
SOME FACTS: If you don't believe me, try taking a piece of meat and chew it about 100 times. You will for the first time learn the true taste of meat. It tastes like cardboard or worse. Kebobs taste good because of the sauce. So you don't need the meat. The trick is to get the right sauce.
In my original Eat More, Weigh Less™ Diet book, you can find four delicious marinades for kebobs. One was so good that one of my patients took vegetable kebobs to a party, used the Dijon marinade and found that even the meat eaters enjoyed them. In fact, they liked the dish so much, they were taking the meat off their kebobs, using my friend's sauce, and enjoying a better tasting kebob.
Five of the nine sauces described in the "Nine Zesty Sauce" section of this book on page 239 are excellent marinades. They are Dijon Sauce, Asian Sauce, Miso Sauce, BBQ Sauce, and Curry Sauce.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
• Try vegetable kebobs with vegetables of your choice.
• Use one of the sauces from the "Nine Zesty Sauces" in the following section or from the Kebob Section in the original Eat More, Weigh Less™ Diet Book (page 194). Personally, my favorite is the Dijon Sauce.
Kebob Salad
2C Firm tofu cubes or Tofu Nuggets
1 large Red bell pepper
1 large Green bell pepper
1 large Yellow bell pepper
16 Cherry tomatoes
16 Fresh pineapple chunks
16 Button mushrooms 1 med. Zucchini
2-3 Tbsp. Any of this cookbook's dressing
s Shredded lettuce for bed
Wash all vegetables well. Cut all the bell peppers into small, equal-sized chunks.
Skewer the tofu cubes or nuggets, peppers, tomatoes, pineapple chunks, and mushrooms onto wooden kebab sticks, alternating the colors and textures, starting and ending with a cherry tomato.
Arrange on shredded bed of lettuce on platter, drizzle favorite dressing over bed of kebabs, to taste. Makes 4 portions. (1 portion = 296.5 calories, 12.3 grams fat, 30% protein, 37% carbohydrates, 33% fat - dressing not included)

Sauces and Gravies
Sauces and gravies enhance the flavor of your meals. Unfortunately, most of the sauces and gravies we grew up eating were made from a base of animal grease and/or cream, both high in fat. With the following recipes, the Eat More, Weigh Less™ Diet once again proves that low fat doesn't have to mean low taste. You can eat gravy again. Just learn the Eat More, Weigh Less™ Tips and stick to the low-fat recipes below. Use these gravies and sauces to dress up vegetables, beans, noodles or grains. Mix and match, use your creativity. You'll soon be turning simple dishes into something special.

Sauces For Steamed Vegetables
Steamed vegetables should be a staple part of your Eat More, Weigh Less™ Diet. There are several techniques for steaming, including a bamboo basket over boiling water, a metal steamer over boiling water, or a modern electric steamer that is compact, low cost (between $20-$30), has a timer, and makes your steaming foolproof. If at all possible, invest in an electric steamer. A good one is a Black and Decker®, at about $30. It will make your steaming so simple that you'll do a whole lot more of it, and steaming is one of the healthiest ways to prepare your food. A good combination of steamed vegetables, for use with dipping sauces, is cauliflower, broccoli, julienned carrots, zucchini squash, and so on. These same vegetables may be sliced and used raw, too. Use the sauces above to dip them in, experiment with a variety of them. You'll find that turning your vegetable dishes into wholesome easy snacks - whether raw or steamed - is one of the easiest ways for you to get your 3 to 5 servings of vegetables per day.
Try sauces to give your vegetables variety.