Hi all,

Feeling cranky. Wanna beer. Or a cup of coffee. Or, something I shouldn't have. So, here's some stuff I'll argue about:

1. "Muscle weighs more than fat . . ." I see this over and over. I DO know what you mean . . . But, muscle or fat, a pound of either weighs a pound. Just like a pound of gold weighs exactly what a pound of feathers weigh. So, you may not lose a pound, or even gain a pound, and still lose inches.

The good news is, (depending on all those individual factors and your metabolism) it takes about 2 to 3 calories a day to maintain a pound of fat, and 30 to 50 calories a day to maintain a pound of muscle. Muscle burns more energy. And takes up less space.

2. Chicken breasts are part of an insidious plot by the low fat big food industry. Skinned chicken breasts. I don't know much about heraldry, but if you designed a coats of arms for LOW-FAT, it would feature a skinned chicken breast rampant. The plethora of low-fat cookbooks feature this unfortunate part of the bird prominently, and restaurants bragging about their low-fat menus offer this up as real food.

The food industry is well on the way to creating a poor caged-chicken that has no thighs, legs or wings, but is all breasts. You think I'm kidding? Witness the chicken neck. Gone forever.

I know there are ways to make chicken breasts edible -- barely -- but they remind me of the old joke about how to cook a carp. You put it on an oak plank and season it with butter and olive oil and blah-blah-blah, etc. The punchline of this corny old joke is, you throw the carp away and eat the plank.

**Sorry to be so grumpy at you. Just when you think all your cravings are gone . . .

But, I had seven things on my list, and only mentioned two, so this is definitely a low-calorie post.

Perhaps we should qualify. Given equal volumes, the muscle is more dense and will weigh more than the same volume of fat, so if you have a pound of fat it will take up more volume (or space), than a pound of muscle. This is one of the reasons why you can lose inches and not pounds if you're losing fat and gaining muscle instead. My DH is a good example of this. He hasn't lost a single pound since the beginning of the year, but has lost 7 inches instead. Which do you think he's happier about?

About those poor buxom chickens....the secret is to not overcook them and to serve them with a (definitely not low fat) sauce or gravy. It IS real food, it's all in how you prepare and serve it.

Aw come on...let's hear the other five!
Inquiring minds want to know!

Hang in there...this too shall pass

LOL....Thanks Arrow, it was funny. I heard that muscle weighs more than fat line. Thanks for clearing it up Lisa. Can't wait for the other 5.

red

Dear Cranky,
Too bad you didn't catch me yesterday when I was cranky-I would have given you a great arguement. Feel way too good today- hope tomorrow is a better day for you. If not we all will look forward to the other 5.
Jan

Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow you can laugh your head off about this one!

Whoa! Watch it!

The same people who believe that muscle weighs more than fat will believe this one too! Come to think of it, chicken breasts weigh less than either fat or muscle.

Karen

Hi all,

Nuthin' wrong that a six-pack of beer wouldn't cure.

3. Sugar-frosted Sugar Smackies !

Every blankin' diet book out there has an opening that says something about getting your family doctor's seal of approval. That's so you can't sue the socks off 'em when it goes wrong. But can you imagine Sugar-frosted Sugar Smackies carrying the same warning?

Heck no ! Froot Loops has the American Heart Association seal of approval, 'cause it's low fat. Plus that, it's got Blue Dye, and Red Dye !

If you think I am one of those strange bizzaro's you see on the street corner, wearing nutsy costumes, or maybe standing there naked ('fore the cops haul them off), then go eat your Sugar-frosted Sugar Smackies.

But, is it really possible that the most respected authorities, the most reliable people I've listened to for years, the people who have said fat is as bad as a cockroach in the sugar container, as bad as Drano sprinkled in your underwear drawer, are wrong?

(Sorry. For non North Americans, Froot Loops is a breakfast cereal made of sugar, corn syrup, sugar, wheat, blue dye, red dye, and about 50 chemicals, and is a sweet addition to your low fat diet. The American Heart Association, respected medical doctors all, say it is very good for you.)

(And that's only #3. Good Grief ! Cravings are bad.)

Sugared cereals are not the only "heart healthy" foods. Artificially flavored and colored red and blue "licorices"(Red Vines, Twizzlers...) are also tuted as fabulously FAT-FREE. So is every hard candy, tootsie rolls(virtually) and all that other insulin rising sweet crud.

Yep, my friend, the farm girl, says she'd make ten time the money if she could just get those chickens to grow breasts, that would fall off, then grow more!
She was joking of course, but for a small farmer, she gets fustrated when people don't want the whole chicken!

Kathy

Chicken breasts are an excellent medium for stuffing, or dicing and sauteing with vegetables. They do cry out for butter or olive oil but they are also an excellent medium for herbs and spices.

When I roast a chicken, I invert it breast side down, so as to bring as much flavor and juices to the breasts as possible. I also rub herbs or rubs under the skin of the breasts to increase flavor.
Stuffing them with mushroom, onion, cheese and paprika is also delicious. Almost any flavor works. On their own, the chicken breasts can be quite bland and uninteresting. But with a little imagination they become quite flavorful.

Good Luck!

Hi all,

Let me comment on a few of your comments re: chicken breasts.

Lisa N, I am sure from other things you've offered in my brief time on this forum (thought your tartar sauce was spectacular ! ) that the sauce you suggested for -- not over cooked -- chicken breasts would be really good. Why waste it on such a dismal piece of meat?

Karen, if taste were measured on a scale like muscle and fat, then chicken breasts would weigh less than a chunk of pine destined for the stove.

(But Shar, Sugar Frosted Sugar Smackies ! are good for you !)

Kathy, please ask your friend who raises chickens -- bet'cha the eggs she eats are really good eggs -- whatever happened to chicken necks?

Teuthis, if you would lavish the same care and culinary genius on chicken thighs as you suggest for chicken breasts, then you would have something really worth eating.

So, you purchased a whole chicken and are stuck with that miserable part of the bird. Here's what I suggest you do with it. Throw it in a pot of water, with maybe the wing tips you cut off when you made chicken wings. Throw in some onion, or whatever. (I add tumeric, not so much for the flavor, but for the golden color that carrots used to provide. I don't like gray stock.) Let it simmer for a good long while, strain it, throw the solids away, and you have chicken stock which is really good for a lot of things.

Bought three cans of Swanson chicken breast (4.5 oz) the other day 'cause they were on sale, three for a dollar. Okay, with chopped celery, daikon, and mayo, and on a bed of lettuce, they are edible. But just barely.

Chicken thigh cordon bleu anyone?

Hey,

If you refrain from over-poaching those breasts (and I heartily agree that they're the least desirable part of the chicken) they'll taste better than the canned ones in that chicken salad. Mayonnaise, cilantro and some sweet red pepper can cover a multitude of ills!

--Ruth

I am one of those guilty of eating only breasts - I do not like dark meat chicken or turkey. I use chicken breasts for casseroles, soup, salad, grilling etc I would be happy to buy those chickens grown in a cage w/out other body parts ! I look for it to go on sale and stock up!

I've always preferred the dark meat over the white, but chicken breasts, especially if you can find them with the skin on, are not that bad either if they're cooked properly.
In general, though, I tend to use the bonless chicken breasts in salads and casseroles where they will be accompanied by a good amount of mayonnaise or sauce to keep them from being so dry and I only cook them until they are just no longer pink in the thickest part. The biggest mistake people make with cooking chicken is to overcook it due to fear of salmonella poisoning (and you should be scared of that...I had it once...couldn't even stand the smell of chicken for almost a year afterwards!).
Meat producers are deliberately breeding livestock to have lower body fat (thank you, 20+ years of low fat dogma) and we are seeing the results in pork as well. It used to be moist and tasty, now much of it is dry and tasteless. Beef is quickly getting that way too. Somebody stop the madness!

Great thread. I'm still trying to visualize the skinless chicken breast rampant on a coat of arms. Oh, Monty Python, where are you when we need you?

Cindy