Poultry

You can omit the salt in this recipe if the recipe you are using calls for it.

A slightly firm, mellow triple-crème, Mt. Tam cheese softens into this stew but doesn't melt. We like to add a little extra Sherry just before serving.

Save big in the calorie and fat departments with this remade version. Plus, get a fiber fix courtesy of the oatmeal and potato skins.

Jada Pinkett-Smith gets a lean, muscle-building protein kick from these marinated turkey skewers, which she recently served at a luau and which come from her personal chef, Bernie Guzman.

A New York City chef adds some punch to poultry with a spice mix and...a brick? Pazo restaurant's Patricia Yeo is hip to the Tuscan tradition of cooking chicken under a brick. Weighing down the meat keeps its surface in contact with the pan, making a crispy outside with little fat. She also coats it with a North African spice combo called ras el hanout. The result? A funky, multicultural — and healthy — way to goose up your chicken.

The enchiladas and the calabacitas each take around 30 minutes to prepare, so if you're making both, give your Self about an hour. Round out your dinner: Add 1/2 cup mixed greens with 2 tbsp lowfat Italian dressing.

Lean, smoked chicken breast gets a special — and healthy — treatment in this creative mix. The couscous absorbs the citrus juices (or use quinoa for extra protein — it has the highest amount of all the grains) for a tartness that plays well off the sweetness of the grapes. The bed of arugula is more than merely dish dressing: It's high in calcium and magnesium, making it a bone builder.

Homemade, at least the way Self does it, fills you up without filling you out, but it takes an hour to make. Freeze the leftovers for quick meals that are more healthful than most of the ones you find in the freezer section of the supermarket.

Round out the meal with a veggie side, like a microwaved, vitamin-A-rich sweet potato.

A bowl of soup is the winter equivalent of a summer salad — an easy, all-in-one way to get your veggies and protein. This filling dish, adapted from The Weekend Chef by Barbara Witt (Simon &Schuster), calls for flavorful leeks and potassium-rich mushrooms. Whip some up and freeze leftovers for future quickie dinners.

It's the ultimate shortcut stir-fry.

Saturday lunch. From Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Go ahead and pack it in: This chicken salad tastes deceptively creamy, but unlike the old-fashioned mayo-drenched variety, it is held together with tangy nonfat yogurt. The sweet and spicy flavor is a pleasure for your palate, and the flavonoids in the grapes are a boon to the heart.

Sunday lunch. From Lake Austin Spa Resort in Austin, Texas. Chef Terry Conlan calls this hearty sandwich "a two-fisted meal," and it's a healthful one, too: The fat is almost exclusively the good, monounsaturated kind (from olives and olive oil), and the peppers and tomatoes deliver vitamin C and beta-carotene — both known to boost the immune system. The unusual addition of fig preserves gives the sandwich a Mediterranean flair.

Hello, New Orleans! Mark Twain once said, "New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin." Speaking nutritionally, meat-heavy jambalaya is a misdemeanor. But toss in chicken instead of andouille sausage and pick a leaner cut of ham — keep the shrimp, of course — and you can dine with a clear conscience. Use brown rice instead of white and be generous with the veggies, and one bowl will provide 4 grams of fiber and 20 essential vitamins and minerals. Pretty impressive for a Fat Tuesday feast.

Los Angeles: land of sun, fun, and burritos. Southern California's Mexican-influenced cuisine has the potential to be an all-out fat fest (cheese, sour cream) or a healthy mix of carbs (tortillas, beans) and protein (chicken, beans). A chicken burrito with the full-fat works can tip the scales at nearly 600 calories and 31 fat grams. To slim it down, we stuffed it with all-white-meat chicken, less cheese and nonfat sour cream. We also rolled it in a whole-wheat tortilla for extra fiber.

Nashville: Try the "fried" chicken, y'all. Southern hospitality wouldn't be quite so hospitable without corn bread, collard greens, and, of course, fried chicken. If you haven't already guessed that grease is what's so "finger-lickin' good," we'll let you in on a secret: You can spend nearly half a day's calories on one thigh of this Southern-fried favorite. So make our baked version instead.

When you crave something hot and filling, a bowl of this chili will do the trick.