Wanna cut calories in HALF? YOU are in luck...

From Hungry Girl - Filling your diet with foods that have low energy density (high water and fiber contents) can help you eat fewer calories without even realizing it. These foods give you larger portion sizes for fewer calories. Our good pal (and master bar-maker!) Dr. Melina Jampolis is here with FIVE fantastic tips for cutting calories in HALF (which means you can eat twice as much food for the same number of calories!). Good times! 1. You Say Tomato... Chili is AWESOME but it can be a bit dense, and so the calories add up quickly. If you want to add volume to chili and get more bang for your calorie buck, mix a large can of cooked tomatoes (stewed, diced, or chopped) with a standard-sized can of chili. And if you start out with a low-fat veggie or turkey chili, your new chili blend will be super-low-cal! 2. Sassy Salsa... Everyone knows guacamole is delicious. But avocados (the main ingredient in guac -- doy!) are super-high in fat and aren't exactly low in calories either. Yes, we know it's good fat, but cutting some of the calories from guacamole is still a good thing. Add 1 1/2 cups of your favorite salsa (either jarred or fresh, but we prefer fresh!) to 1 cup of guacamole, and your new concoction will have half the calories in each serving. Weeeeee! 3. Mushroom Mania... Mushrooms taste good and are good for you, but did you know that they can do wonders for lean ground meat? Simply add 1 1/2 cups of chopped mushrooms (feel free to put whole ones in the food processor!) to 4 oz. raw lean ground beef (or turkey) to cut calories in HALF. Use this trick to make burgers, sloppy joes, meatloaf and MORE. 4. Veg Out... Mom always said to eat your veggies, but she should have insisted you toss 'em into your pasta salad! Why? Because adding 1 1/4 cups of broccoli (or another favorite vegetable) to a cup of pasta salad is yet another fantastic way of cutting calories in half. YEE-HAA! 5. Super-Duper Celery... You can definitely save loads of calories and fat grams by making your tuna (or chicken) salad with reduced-fat or fat-free mayo as opposed to the full-fat kind. But you can slash oodles MORE calories from your creations by adding one heaping cup of chopped celery to each cup of tuna or chicken salad. Don't like celery? You can achieve the same results with chopped cucumbers. YES!!!