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Feast on Many Diets in No Time Flat"Whatever your goals for 2010, we have a workshop for you," promotes the website of the internationally acclaimed Hilton Head Health Weight Loss Spa on Hilton Head Island, S.C. It's true, there's a full calendar, starting with their Overcoming Emotional Eating seminars in both January and February and the famed Recipes for Success healthful cooking lessons in February. However, one of the first goals I would suggest for the new year is signing up for the residential spa's free e-newsletter. Without dropping a dime, you just may drop a few pounds by following the advice and recipes. In fact, just perusing the website (www.hhhealth.com) is a nutritional gold mine if you want some inspiration for your own copycat cooking. Sample menus for all meals, as well as snacks, are shared, including calorie and fat counts. The blueprints are there, like this description of a Pork Tenderloin Marsala 325-calorie, 6-gram fat dinner entree: Noisettes of pork dredged in seasoned flour and sauteed with assorted mushrooms in sherry-broth, served with barley and green pea risotto and roasted mushroom spear. Hilton Head is far from alone in what has in many cases become the wide-open World Wide Web of what was once for-sale-only nutritional information. Now free samples and tidbits are often the norm. The Oaks at Ojai, a decades-old exercise and diet residential and day spa near Santa Barbara, Calif., also offers a jam-packed newsletter at www.oaksspa.com as well as once-secret recipes on the website. Questions about making spa cuisine at home can be e-mailed via the site to Chef Christine Denney. In addition, The Oaks gives an entire daily menu, complete with times that the meals are eaten and calorie counts, such as the 7:45 a.m. 200-calorie fresh-baked muffin and fresh fruit breakfast followed by the 10:45 a.m. 15-calorie high-potassium vegetable broth break. Since the spa also details its full day of exercise classes, it's easier to model your own home workouts and eating after the experts. In the past, without a payment, you were just treated to not much more than peppy advertising copy about popular online diets. Many plans, though, from Nutrisystem (which shows color photographs and descriptions of every meal it offers) to Pritikin to Atkins dole out a lot more than that now. SouthBeachDiet.com, for instance — based on the best-selling diet and cookbooks of Florida cardiologist Arthur Agatston — offers dozens of uniquely formulated recipes divided into all phases of the diet.
EDAMAME SALAD 8 ounces frozen shelled edamame (green soybeans), or substitute chickpeas 1 ounce seasoned rice vinegar 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil 1Ú8 teaspoon salt Dash freshly ground black pepper 1/2 bunch radishes (4 ounces), cut in half and thinly sliced 1/2 cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro leaves Yields 2 servings, 224 calories each. Toss the edamame, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, radishes and cilantro together in a large bowl. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Excellent served with grilled salmon. — www.SouthBeachDiet.com ARTICHOKE CHILI STUFFED POTATOES 6 potatoes, baked 1/2 cup fat-free cheddar cheese (grated, or see below) 1/2 cup green chilies, chopped (see Note) 1/2 cup artichoke hearts, chopped coarsely 1/4 cup low-fat sour cream 1/4 cup salsa Yields 6 servings, 180 calories each. Split potatoes in half and remove most of the pulp. Leave just enough to help keep the skin intact. Set the potato pulp aside. If not bought already grated, place cheese in food processor and process to grate. Add the potato pulp and process to mix. Fold chilies and artichoke hearts into potato mixture and fill the potato skins with the finished product. Reheat potatoes covered with aluminum foil in a warm oven or in a covered microwave container in microwave oven. Serve the potatoes topped with sour cream and salsa, or let your guests help themselves to toppings like guacamole, chopped olives, chopped scallions and cooked chile beans. Note: Experts recommend wearing rubber gloves when handling chilies and not touching your eyes during or afterward. — The Oaks at Ojai Spa
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM 
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