Eating well on a diet possible with new cookbook

To lose 165 pounds, I needed an organized weight loss program and a support group. If Eating Well magazine's new book, "The Eating Well Diet," by Dr. Jean Harvey-Berino Ph.D., R.D., was available at the time I might have made it with the book alone - seriously, it's that good.

The title seems counterintuitive, since any weight-loss diet must mean small portions of marginally flavorful food, right? Really, who believes they're going to eat well on a weight-loss plan? Put your skepticism aside for a moment and see how this book lives up to its name.

Dr. Bob Arnot, a recognized weight-loss expert, writes in the foreword that the "Eating Well Diet" is about real and permanent transformation. It's not a diet you start, lose weight and then stop, but a seven-step program meant to target the true reasons people gain weight. Then, it helps them transform that behavior, permanently.

The seven steps: Make certain you're ready to change; set realistic, doable goals; keep written track of both food and exercise; eat mindfully using healthy-eating principles; commit to move more by working exercise into a busy life; get support from yourself and others; and have a long-term plan, using a wide variety of targeted strategies.

Berino devotes the first 85 pages to explaining and expanding on those steps. Those pages are, literally, jam-packed with information, insights, methods and even short questionnaires that help the reader understand themselves, what they want and how best to achieve and maintain weight loss. At the end there's a four-week "mix-and-match menu" that makes for easy meal-planning.

Eating Well's weight-loss program is based on the University of Vermont's successful and acclaimed VTrim program where participants lose an average of 21 pounds in six months.

That's an "average," many participants lose more, some much more.

VTrim wants participants to lose an average of one pound a week.

A slow, lose-no-muscle-only-fat weight loss is not only healthy, but a plan that significantly increases the possibility of maintaining weight loss.

After the toolbox, comes the recipes, lots of recipes. More than 150 recipes, many with full-page color pictures, help readers create delicious, yet healthy meals such as: asparagus and Canadian bacon omelet, cranberry-almond granola, shrimp Caesar salad, spicy chicken tacos, crab cake burgers, potato-horseradish-crusted Mahi-Mahi and spicy beef with shrimp and bok choy.

You'll find many easy, one-step recipes at the end of each recipe chapter for treats such as chocolate-dipped strawberries and mini ice cream sandwiches.

Every recipe supplies complete nutritional information, including fiber and potassium counts.

"The Eating Well Diet" presents a study-based, well-thought-out weight loss diet, woven with healthy recipes that deliver good-looking, flavorful meals to the table and, if followed, should easily deliver on all its promises.

Here's just one of the book's recipes, give it a try.

• Don Mauer appears Wednesdays in Food. He welcomes questions, shared recipes and makeover requests for your favorite dishes. Address them to Don Mauer, Daily Herald Food section, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006 or don@theleanwizard.com.

Almond-crusted chicken fingers

Canola oil cooking spray

½ cup sliced almonds

¼ cup whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoons paprika

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon dry mustard

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 egg whites (see note)

1 pound chicken tenders

Heat oven to 475 degrees. Set a wire rack on a foil-lined baking sheet and coat with cooking spray.

Place almonds, flour, paprika, garlic powder, dry mustard, salt and pepper in a food processor; process until the almonds are finely chopped and the paprika is mixed throughout, about 1 minute. With the motor running, drizzle in oil; process until combined. Transfer the mixture to a shallow dish.

Whisk egg white in a second shallow dish. Add chicken tenders and turn to coat. Transfer each tender to the almond mixture; turn to coat evenly. (Discard any remaining egg white and almond mixture.)

Place the tenders on the prepared rack and coat with cooking spray; turn and spray the other side. Bake the chicken fingers until golden brown, crispy and no longer pink in the center, 20-25 minutes.

Serves four.

@Recipe nutrition:Cook's note: Dried egg whites are convenient in recipes like this one because you don't have to figure out what to do with 4 egg yolks. Look for powdered brands like Just Whites in the baking aisle or natural-foods section or fresh pasteurized whites in the dairy case of most supermarkets. Nutrition values per serving: 175 calories (20.5 percent from fat), 4 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 27 g protein, 66 mg cholesterol, 254 mg sodium.

"The Eating Well Diet" by Dr. Jean Harvey-Berino, with Joyce Hendley and the editors of Eating Well (2008 Countryman Press, $24.95)