Magical Breakfast Cream:
When 'French Women Don't Get Fat'
Meets Weight Watchers

So echo “Oui! Oui” if you’d love to lose 10 pounds over the summer, all without dieting, all without exercising.

That’s the premise of the first recipe in the brand-new French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook, the recipe edition of French Women Don’t Get Fat.

Author Mireille Guiliano tells a long, fond tale of summers with her favorite aunt, Tante Berthe (Aunt Berthe), movie-star glamorous, squired by many a beau. Tante Berthe was both a gourmet and a gourmande and tended to plumpness. But by the end of each summer, she managed to look sleek and svelte.

Her trick? For a week, a serving of Magical Breakfast Cream for breakfast, followed by a light lunch and light supper, all the while giving up two treats entirely, wine, say, bread, say, or sweets, say. For the rest of the summer, eat lightly, just nibbling at bread and sweets.

Now far be it for me to promise weight loss without dieting and really, neither would Tante Berthe. Note how she starts off with a South-Beach style or Atkins-style "phase one" period at the front end, then carries on with Weight Watchers-style sensible eating. It’s a sort of front-end cleansing, a diet "correction" to use a term from the financial markets, all to adjust the body and the mind to a "new normal" while all full of decision and determination.

But what I can promise is a satisfying summer breakfast, one that takes just a couple of minutes to stir together. It tastes great, it’s a healthy breakfast. And if 10 pounds happen to slip away? All the better.

You'll Like Magical Breakfast Cream If ...

... your breakfast habit is something simple and light
... quick preparation with common pantry ingredients is important
... you work to limit morning carbs and build in morning protein
... you like a grab 'n' go, portable breakfast

MAGICAL BREAKFAST CREAM

NUT & CEREAL MIX
(enough for 7 days)
• 1/2 cup (42g) toasted walnuts
• 2 cups (115g) Original Shredded Wheat or another low-sugar shredded wheat

PER SERVING
• 1/2 cup (115g) 0% Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon good olive oil
• 1 teaspoon honey
• scant 3 tablespoons Nut & Cereal Mix
• Juice & pulp of half a lemon or lime or orange (my favorite)

NUT & CEREAL MIX In a small food processor, grind the nuts and cereal. Transfer to a covered container, I use a quart jar. For easy measuring later, tuck an extra tablespoon right inside the container and refrigerate.

PER SERVING To serve, spoon the yogurt into an individual serving bowl. Stir in the oil first, then the honey, creating a lighter, slightly sweeter yogurt. Top with the Nut & Cereal Mix, sprinkle the lemon juice over top, then stir it all up. Serve and savor, one small bite at a time.

A SKINNY FRENCH WOMAN’s TIPS
Consider the ingredient list more "guide" than recipe, make it work for you.
Substitute another nut for walnuts but do toast them first (how to toast nuts) to draw out big flavor.
For yogurt, substitute any thickened milk product, cottage cheese, say, or kefir, even ricotta.
For olive oil, substitute any good oil.
For honey, substitute agave or maple syrup, even sorghum.
For lemon juice, substitute a squeeze of orange juice or grapefruit juice.
Feel free to play with the proportions to fit your own eating and pantry style.
A little fresh fruit, summer’s best, can be turned in too.

ALANNA's TIPS
I love Fage 0% Greek Yogurt but it's gotten to be soooo expensive! My go-to Greek yogurt right now is new in 2017, two large tubs for $5 at Sam's Club, their house brand. I also like Trader Joe’s Greek Style 2% Yogurt and Trader Joe's European-style full-fat yogurt.
Oranges are big and I hate to waste the fiber so I usually toss a peeled orange into a mini food processor, then dole it out into individual serving containers.
Oranges are also way sweeter, I just might love the orange juice a little bit too much. To like it all a tiny bit less, I force myself to choose tart lemon and lime juice more often than not.
When filling individual serving containers ahead of time, include everything except the Nut & Cereal Mix, add that at the last minute or hmmm, maybe an hour or two before eating.
Since I make a week's worth of the Cereal & Nut Mix and use it up within a couple of weeks, I don't bother to refrigerate the Mix, zero trouble with nuts turning rancid.

SUGAR-FREE BREAKFAST CEREALS The cereal aisle in my grocery stretches half the depth of the store, five shelves high. In all this, there is just one – ONE! – sugar-free cereal, the Original Shredded Wheat which is 100% whole wheat, nothing more. What’s up with that, Kellogg’s and Post and General Mills? But? Once again, Trader Joe's to the rescue! Their shredded wheat cereal is wonderful, just avoid the one dipped in sugar.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Serving: 230 Calories; 8g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 43mg Sodium; 25g Carb; 2g Fiber; 11g Sugar; 14g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 5 & PointsPlus 6 & SmartPoints 7 CALORIE COUNTERS 100-calorie serving = scant half serving (6g protein).

Adapted from the French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook Disclosure