Fried Cheese

This is the sort of decadence I would never have considered in my low-fat days. If you miss cheese-flavored snacks, you've got to try this.

Ingredients 

• 2 or 3 tablespoons olive or canola oil
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar, Monterey Jack, or jalepeno Jack cheese

Directions

1. Spray a small, heavy bottomed, nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray, and place over medium-high heat.
2. Add the oil, and then the cheese. The cheese will melt and bubble and spread to fill the bottom of the skillet.
3. Let the cheese fry until it's crisp and brown around the edges. Use a spatula to lift up an edge, and check whether the cheese is brown all over the bottom; if it isn't, let it go another minute or so.
4. When the fried cheese is good and brown, carefully flip it and fry the other side until it, too, is brown.
5. Remove the cheese from the skillet, drain, and lie it flat to cool. Break into pieces and eat.

Yield: 2 servings, each with 1 gram of carbohydrates, no fiber, and 11 grams of protein.

Cheesy Bowls and Taco Shells. For a tasty, cheesy, tortillalike bowl, follow the directions for Fried Cheese, until you get to Step 5. Then remove and drain the cheese, but drape it over the bottom of a bowl to cool. When it cools and hardens, you'll have a cheesy, edible bowl to eat a taco salad out of. 

You can also make a taco shell by folding the cheese disc in half and propping it partway open. Be careful when handling it, though; hot cheese can burn you pretty seriously.