Lots of folks are tricked by markets that boast to be health food stores or natural food stores or even have the word fresh in their name. Though there is definitely something to be said for eating foods that are minimally processed, just because you do doesn’t mean you’ll be healthy in terms of weight, cholesterol, etc. I was recently at a natural food market where I saw a breaded portobello mushroom in the deli case. I thought it was a great idea until I looked at the nutritional information. It had a ridiculous amount of total fat, saturated fat, and calories. Believe it or not, the turkey meatballs were almost as bad. So I trudged home and made my own version in minutes. The team in my kitchen was particularly excited about this recipe, especially since each breaded mushroom has only 64 calories!

　　

Ingredients

makes 2 servings

　　Olive oil spray (from a spray bottle, not a store-bought, prefilled one that contains propellant; I used a Misto)

　　1/2 cup (about 14) fat-free herb-seasoned, Caesar, or Italian-seasoned croutons (I used Marie Callender’s Fat-Free Herb-Seasoned Croutons)

　　2 large portobello mushroom caps, rubbed clean with a damp paper towel

　　4 teaspoons Dijon mustard, divided

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a small baking sheet with parchment. Lightly mist the parchment with spray.

　　

Step 2

Put the croutons in a resealable plastic bag. Using the flat side of a meat mallet or the underside of a skillet, pound the croutons until they are crushed into crumbs, being careful not to crush them too finely (they should be coarser than bread crumbs). Transfer the crumbs to a medium shallow bowl. Set aside.

　　

Step 3

Brush all sides of one of the mushroom caps with half of the mustard. Dip it in the crumbs to coat it on all sides. Place it on the prepared baking sheet, gills up. Lightly mist the top with spray. Repeat with the remaining mushroom, mustard, and crumbs. Bake the mushrooms until they are cooked through and the breading is crisp, 5 to 7 minutes per side. Serve immediately.

　　

nutrition information

Step 4

Each (1 breaded mushroom) serving has:

　　

Step 5

Calories: 64

　　

Step 6

Protein: 3g

　　

Step 7

Carbohydrates: 10g

　　

Step 8

Trace Fat

　　

Step 9

Saturated Fat: 0g

　　

Step 10

Cholesterol: 0mg

　　

Step 11

Fiber: 1g

　　

Step 12

Sodium: 229mg

　　Reprinted with permission from I Can't Believe It's Not Fattening! by Devin Alexander. Copyright © 2010 Devin Alexander. Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.Devin Alexander is the author of The Most Decadent Diet Ever, Fast Food Fix, and coauthor of The New York Times bestsellers The Biggest Loser Cookbook and The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook. She was a chef on NBC's The Biggest Loser and the host of Healthy Decadence on Discover Health and FitTV.