RECIPES: 'The Most Decadent Diet Ever!'

May 16, 2008 — -- Love to eat delectable dishes like chocolate cake, tacos and pasta but still want to look good this swimsuit season?

Chef and cookbook author Devin Alexander says you can! Alexander has maintained a 55-pound weight loss for more than 16 years and her new cookbook, "The Most Decadent Diet Ever," provides healthier versions of your favorite meals to help you lose weight and keep it off.

Please find the recipes from Day 2 of Alexander's "Most Decadent Diet Ever!" below:

When I first heard about MySpace, I thought it was for kids and teens. Then when "Fast Food Fix," my first cookbook, was coming out, my friend Amanda said, "You have to get a MySpace page." Amanda is a voice-over artist and is very tapped in to Hollywood, so I instantly believed her. We put up a page and I started getting all sorts of e-mails and "friend requests" from people who had seen my work. I now love MySpace because so many of my "friends" write and suggest new dishes to create. By far, one of the most requested recipes is breakfast sausage. Obviously everyone loves it. So as a tribute to my MySpace "friends," I created this recipe.

Though I wish I could eliminate even more salt, unfortunately, in this dish, I can't without sacrificing flavor. So don't go crazy eating this every day, especially if your doctor told you restrict your sodium intake. But it sure will do the trick when the craving for breakfast sausage strikes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly mist a small nonstick baking sheet with spray. Use a fork to mix the egg substitute, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, thyme, pepper, rosemary, sage and salt in a medium mixing bowl until well combined. Mix in the pork until combined. Divide the mixture into 16 equal parts, and then shape each into a 4-inch-long by 3/4-inch-thick link. Place the links side by side, not touching, on the prepared sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, then flip and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes, or until no longer pink inside. Serve immediately.

Can be made in 30 minutes or less. No more than 20 minutes hands-on prep time

MAKES 16 LINKS; 8 SERVINGS

Each 1-Decadent-Disk serving (2 links) has: 95 calories, 14 g protein, 4 g carbohydrates, 2 g fat, <1 g saturated fat, 37 mg cholesterol, 220 mg sodium

You save (pork sausage): 45 calories, 10 g fat, 4 g saturated fat

You save (turkey sausage): 45 calories, 9 g fat, 3 g saturated fat

Traditional serving (pork sausage): 140 calories, 6 g protein, 1 g carbohydrates, 12 g fat,

4 g saturated fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 400 mg sodium

Traditional serving (turkey sausage): 140 calories, 9 g protein, 0 g carbohydrates, 11 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 45 mg cholesterol, 360 mg sodium

When I was in high school, I had braces (for the second time) and was really fat. I had already missed the junior prom because the only guy I wanted to go with didn't want to go with me. By my senior year, there was one guy who did want to go with me, but he was the only other fat kid in my class. All the kids knew he had asked me, and the teasing began weeks before the big night. Plus I really wasn't interested in him.

So instead, I worked my waitressing job at the Shillington Restaurant. The menu there was very Pennsylvania Dutch. Wednesday nights were smorgasbord nights, my favorite. It was so much easier to wait on a table of buffet eaters than to serve individual entrées. That, and the buffet included the best potatoes O'Brien ever. I looked forward to them every week.

These potatoes are great for dinner, as I was accustomed to eating them back then. But I tend to eat them a lot more as a side with an omelet or scrambled egg whites for breakfast now.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Line a medium baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the potatoes, onion, pimientos, olive oil, garlic, paprika, 1/8 teaspoon salt, cayenne and black pepper to taste in a medium glass or plastic mixing bowl. Toss until the potatoes are evenly seasoned, and then transfer the mixture in a single layer to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, and then flip and bake for another 14 to 18 minutes, until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife. Season to taste with additional salt. Serve immediately.

No more than 20 minutes hands-on prep time

MAKES 2 CUPS; 2 SERVINGS OR 4 PORTIONS

Each 1-Decadent-Disk portion (1/2 cup) has: 101 calories, 2 g protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 2 g fat, trace saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 80 mg sodium

Each 2-Decadent-Disk serving (1 cup) has: 201 calories, 5 g protein, 39 g carbohydrates, 4 g fat, <1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 160 mg sodium

This dish was probably one of the most frustrating in the book to get right -- in part, because it is so difficult to make a quality pasta salad without tons of oil, and people just don't realize that until they make one on their own.