You can enjoy delicious meals without a lot of unhealthy animal fats

Wedges of a cheese,tomato and pesto frittata with organic whole wheat spaghetti, also dressed with pesto from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Costco's frozen mackerel stands in for salted cod with ackee, sweet peppers and onion. This breakfast included mashed Kabocha squash with extra-virgin olive oil and a baked sweet potato stuffed with Mexican-style salsa left over from our Super Bowl party.

Organic red quinoa and kale from Costco Wholesale is a great side dish and bread substitute.

Baked sweet potato, mashed Kaboucha squash and frittata.

An 8-inch frittata uses a mixture of whites and whole organic eggs.

Mexican-style salsa accents a baked sweet potato and an egg-white omelet stuffed with a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese,

Organic quinoa with organic diced tomatoes, low-sodium black beans and chopped garlic can be enjoyed hot right out of an electric cooker, especially when topped with Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix and cucumbers, all drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Hot Beet Soup at the Empire Diner on Tenth Avenue in Manhattan ($8). A House Salad was dressed in a delicious white balsamic vinaigrette ($10).

Good food that helps me watch my weight

Crunchy cucumber kimchi at So Gong Dong, the soft-tofu house in Palisades Park.

Instead of tofu stew and lots of white rice, I had So Gong Dong's seafood pancake.

Organic eggs, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese and pesto make a fluffy frittata. Instead of bread, I eat all of my egg dishes with leftover brown rice or whole wheat pasta.

Egg-white omelet with reduced-fat cheese, kimchi and picked jalapeno.

Canned-fish salad (sardines, salmon, tuna) with chopped celery and red onion is flavored with Dijon mustard, lime juice and ground cumin, not mayonnaise.

Cabbage and salted cod fish with Korean 7 Grains, a mixture of brown rices and beans.

An omelet with sun-dried tomato, pesto and cheese is finished under the broiler.

I bought two Seafood Fra Diavolo takeout dinners at Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood for $5.99 each (reduced from $7.99 after 4 p.m.), and plated the tender shrimp, squid and octopus with vegetables before reheating them. I left rigatoni in vodka sauce and two bread-crumb-and-cheese stuffed zucchini for someone else.

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A guilt-free, turkey-free Thanksgiving

Leftover Thanksgiving vegetables and mashed sweet potatoes at breakfast today.

I smiled when I weighed myself today -- 181.6 pounds, exactly what I weighed on Thursday before our big Thanksgiving meal.

I helped roast turkey parts and heat up a fully cooked Niman Ranch ham for the meat-eaters in the family. 

They also had store-bought corn-and-crab chowder and homemade brown rice and peas.

But I was happy with a meatless meal of salad, vegetables (carrots and green beans), and Black Tiger shrimp.

Another side dish was mashed, skin-on sweet potatoes and garlic cloves with extra-virgin olive oil, butter substitute, maple syrup and cinnamon.

I drank sparkling 100% Apple Cider from Spain mixed with lemon-lime seltzer to cut the sweetness, and a glass or two of Bordeaux.

This red wine tasted great with Black Tiger shrimp.

 


Later, with my teenage son, I watched a football game on TV. I also watched a Robert De Niro movie, "Being Flynn."

For dessert, I had Spanish clementines and a ripe Bartlett pear with a couple of slices of reduced-fat cheese.

For breakfast this morning, I fried two organic eggs sunny side up with sun-dried tomatoes and Aleppo red pepper, and slid them over leftover vegetables and sweet potatoes, which I reheated in the microwave.

Delicious, especially the yolks broken over and eaten with the mashed sweet potatoes.