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

A simple yogurt breakfast from the 'French Women Don't Get Fat' Cookbook, whose promise is to help us lose 10 pounds over the summer, ahem, effortlessly.

This recipe is so quick and easy
that I'm adding it to a special collection of easy summer recipes.
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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.

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?

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences.

Do you have a favorite easy summer recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com.

How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe.

If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture.

MAGICAL BREAKFAST CREAM

Hands-on time: 5 minutes up front, 5 minutes for breakfast
Time to table: 5 - 10 minutes
Serves 1

1/2 cup (1-1/2 ounces) toasted walnuts
2 cups (4 ounces) Original Shredded Wheat

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

In a small food processor, grind the walnuts and cereal. Transfer to a covered container, tuck an extra tablespoon right inside the container and refrigerate.

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 this ‘recipe’ as a guide, 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. I (oops, that's me, Alanna) really like the Fage 0% Greek Yogurt and the Trader Joe’s Greek Style 2% Yogurt.

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.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE ESTIMATE (How many calories in Magical Breakfast Cream? How many Weight Watchers points in Magical Breakfast Cream?) Per Serving, made with 0% Greek Yogurt/2% Greek Yogurt: 180/191 Calories; 6/8g Tot Fat; 1/2g Sat Fat; 0/5mg Cholesterol; 33/29mg Sodium; 24/24g Carb; 2g Fiber; 10g Sugar; 10/9g Protein; Weight Watchers 3.5/4 points

Adapted from the French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook

Disclosure

Would Tante Berthe Approve?

(hover for a description, click a photo for a recipe)

~ more breakfast recipes ~

~ more Weight Watchers recipes recipes ~

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"Oui Oui"

Anonymous on 6/22/2010

I often have a breakfast of plain Greek yogurt, honey, granola (Trader Joe's maple) and berries. I suspect the omega-3s in the walnuts help her Tante Berthe stay slim and I also suspect she uses full-fat Greek yogurt.

Stephanie on 6/24/2010

Post, Kellogg and General Mills are all over the HFCS and other sweeteners (do we wonder about our chubby kids?), but Bob's Red Mill produces unsweetened cereals in various mixes which would be just right for this.

Karen on 7/29/2010

I love this recipe. Ate it a lot last summer and dropped a few pounds by making a few other easy sensible changes. Have begun eating it again this summer. Currently topped with strawberries. I love this stuff and so does my husband!