Being married to a Chef, I thought I knew a thing or two about cooking. Boy was I wrong!

To provide a bit of background, I was making risotto for the boys, and discovered I was out of butter. Just as a professional chef would, I usually add a tablespoon of butter at the finish to add a creamy sheen to the risotto, and bind the grains together. Without the butter, I thought to myself, this risotto is going to be inedible. My boys won’t eat it. My husband will laugh at me, etc.

Expectantly, I looked once more into the fridge, hoping a forlorn stick of butter would magically appear. Instead, what caught my eye was a container of low-fat yogurt, that I had purchased because I wanted to make yogurt cheese. For a moment, I wondered, could this work? Desperately, I added two large tablespoons of yogurt to the risotto, and stirred it in. I could not believe my eyes as the yogurt had exactly the same effect as butter, without the fat and cholesterol. I was thrilled, and hoped you would find this discovery equally wonderful.

For other great ways to use low fat yogurt, check out this awesome recipe for seafood salad dressing. With springtime fast approaching, this creamy dressing tossed with seafood, cucumber and celery is a great dinner idea for those lighter meals that we crave in warmer weather.

People who have issues with gluten may have some relief. There’s been an enzyme identified that degrades gluten in laboratory studies. This means if you have a problems with foods containing gluten (cereals, breads) you may be able to occasionally indulge. Celiac Disease affects a very small percentage of people. But when it does, people who aren’t aware of their body’s intolerance of gluten experience symptoms like diarrhea and fatigue. There are gluten-free diet programs to help assist people with the disease.

Now here’s some breaking news… losing weight by diet or exercise is good for your heart health. Sarcasm aside, the crux of this study is that no matter how you lose the weight – whether you do it by diet or exercise – it doesn’t matter; you can return to a youthful heart. Excess weight and obesity have been shown to affect the heart’s elasticity. You can get back relaxed heart muscles by losing those excess pounds.

Fast-food chains have definitely taken a beating in the past few years particularly following the release of the explosive documentary, “Super Size Me.” Given the recent Swedish findings that a diet high in fattening fast food choices can not only add on pounds, but can also damage the liver is another red check mark for these restaurant conglomerates. t

It’s been quite some time since I’ve had a full meal at a fast-food chain. I do admit though to zipping through the drive-thru every now and then to pick up a McDonald’s ice cream cone, especially during the summer. Today, most fast-food restaurants offer a few low-fat options, but how many of fast food diners eat them? Do you order a grilled chicken breast salad because it’s your own preference for lunch or is it because you happen to be with a group of people who have chosen a fast-food joint as their place of eating and you don’t want the usual fare of burger and fries? All judgments of fast-food restaurants aside, I am just very curious about the reasons.

First, let me give a snapshot of episode six, which I managed to not blog about last weeks. Due to some technical difficulties I didn’t get to catch the show until right before last night’s Biggest Loser came on. So, Episode 6: Mark the mean little shark on the blue team won the chocolate-candy temptation giving him the power to trade team members. He chose to keep the teams exactly as they were. The black team continued their “little engine that could” mentality, frequently referring to themselves as “David” and the blue team as “Goliath.”  They certainly aren’t exaggerating there. But the black team has buckets more heart that the blue team- that’s where they get their edge. I thoroughly enjoyed the cook-off for Chef Rocco. That’s one element that’s missing from Biggest Loser that I wish they’d give a few minutes to in each episode- the food and recipes. It’s obviously an important subject and something that people watching at home could probably more easily implement than attempting to approach those exercises unsupervised. So the little engine did it- black team won the challenge and the weigh in, with sweet little Bernie taking Biggest Loser of the week! Don’t you just want to pinch his cheeks? He’s adorable. Back on track… the blue team went down in a blaze of dispute and glory as they all agreed to send Trent home and then turned around and voted Momma Jackie out. Dan… Jackie… Not. Happy. But they played it cool and….

… enter Episode 7 from last night. Dan decided if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. He “told” them he was over it and that he forgave the guys for letting his mom go after they had “sworn on their children’s lives” that they’d save Jackie. Looks like Mark, Jay, Roger and Trent had their fingers crossed behind their backs. So the Goliath team pulled it back together and put their head back in the game. Black team was coming down off their high of beating Blue when they headed to their challenge. They had to support the amount of weight they’d lost so far while balancing over a lake. Allison, the host, was giving her always too-dramatic play-by-play of the event. But it’s reality TV and that’s her job, so I’ve learned to just accept it. Mark the mean little shark totally snapped at her basically telling her to be quiet, to stop over dramatizing everything because this wasn’t a soap opera. So shocked! Moments later Mark was the first to fall in and soon after all of the black team was in the water helping the Blue team to win yet another challenge over Goliath. Go David!

They were still all sweating it heading into the weigh in. Which turned out to be the most jaw-dropping weigh in yet. Blue was picked to win since Black had last week and the coaches continued to remind us that you can’t lose that kind of weight two weeks in a row. So it wasn’t that they had lost that amount of weight two weeks in a row that helped the Black team win a second weigh-in, but that the Blue team didn’t pull that kind of weight. Jay weighed in and missed the win by one measly pound. ONE! While everyone was reeling from that, Coach Bob walked out. When you’re the coach- do you get to do that? I thought you had to stand strong and support your team through thick and then. Rather, he left them there hanging.

You’ve never seen a bigger group of men cry than when they sat in the elimination room to say goodbye to Trent. He’s one I believe will go home and come back Biggest Loser at-home winner. He’d lost more than any other contestant at 80-some pounds and more than anyone, his head and heart were in Biggest Loser for all the right reasons.

Next week- They are sending everyone home. What looks to be a week-long temptation at their own homes around their old vices and crutches. The previews do not make it look pretty… devastating in fact.

Cry of the Week- NONE! No tears this week. Too much drama.

Quote of the Week- Something about Jillian calling Bernie her “little monkey” just made me giggle.