The Bikini Chef, Quick, Light, Easy Meals for Summer

By Laura Medina

Chef Susan Irby

It’s Bikini Season. It’s a season of dread for those too busy to diet and exercise ahead of time months ago, plus, you’re running around in the sweat and the humidity and squeezing into that swimsuit, much less a bikini or a swimming trunks and briefs, only packs on more stress. Oh, what a girl or boy to do?

Chef Susan Irby, aka “The Bikini Chef,” knows you can still enjoy summer without starvation and still have fun with flavor, none of the fat. Her cookbook, "Substitute Yourself Skinny," proves this.

Left, Susan in real life. Right, Chef Susan Irby in special cut-out chef jacket.

She wants to bring back the carefree summers she enjoyed growing up at her family’s lake house in Alabama, swimming and water skiing all day then cooking and grilling on the lake side, all in their bikinis and swimsuits.

Years later, as an accomplished cookbook author and teacher, her students can’t get over how slender and fit Chef Irby is. Once she told them she only eats her traditionally rich Southern fare for the holidays when you ought to eat them and eats healthy and light within reasonable portions, on top of an active lifestyle, her students requested more healthy versions of her satisfying but light versions of her Southern favorites, such as the Slidin' Home BBQ Pork Sliders.

This is how "Substitute Yourself Skinny" Cookbook by Chef Susan Irby, "The Bikini Chef," came about.

During one of her demostrations/book signings, her sliders were so rich in flavor and tender, they sure fooled this writer but they're half the calories of normal pork sliders.

Left, Chef Irby autographing her cookbook. Right, the chef in action.

For Chef Irby, it is all about hitting all four senses (flavor, texture, smell, visual) in order to feel fulfilled, satisfied, and joyful-without guilt while being healthy and relieved without being deprived or going insane with hungry.

The key to being healthy and fed is through texture and flavor substitutions and enhancements. She also wants to dispel the notion that nonfat mayonnaise and yogurt are tasteless. When used with fresh herbs and spices, such as lemon zest and black pepper, these make great all-natural fat substitutes. So, does replacing egg yolks with egg whites or using won ton wrappers in place for puff pastry for that crunch. If you want even more crunch in your mouth, she suggests baking, instead of frying. For her Chicken Pot Pie recipe, you still have that authentic crisp of the puff pastry as the lid only and the creamy filling, in an individual-sized pot, without the extra pastry or calories. No food wasted.

Fibers stand in for starchy carbohydrates, responsible for fat and diabetes. The chef noted that fibers help break down proteins and carbohydrates.

She wrote this book for the average American on the go, like herself, Chef Irby wrote this cookbook with ingredients that the everyday person can find and afford at the neighborhood supermarket. Both her and "French Women Don't Get Fat" author, Mireille Guiliano, agreed on using fresh herbs and produce and portion control but Chef Susan stocks her cookbook with American favorites, new and old then uses nonfat ingredients and spices that anyone in surburbia can find at their local super store, all within budget. Think of "Substitute Yourself Skinny" as the American version of "French Women Don't Get Fat."

Knowing this is the dog days of summer, Chef Susan was kind enough to provide two recipes. The minimal cooking one is already in her "Substitute Yourself Skinny," cookbook, the "Lots o' Flavor Chicken Salad on Papaya Boat," and for dessert, this super duper exclusive scoop she forgot to include in the book, her Amaretto Chocolate Chip Cookies, just for this publication.

Lots o' Flavor Chicken Salad on Papaya Boat

Nonstick cooking spray

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped into 2-inch cubes

1/4 cup water, or as needed

1/2 cup nonfat vanilla or plain yogurt

1/2 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon fresh finely grated lemon zest

1/2 cup green seedless grapes, halved

1/4 cup chopped celery

2 papayas, halved and seeded

Spray a medium skillet with nonstick spray and heat on medium. Add the chicken and 2 tablespoons water. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes, adding water as needed to prevent burning. Cook the chicken until done, about 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

In medium mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, honey, salt, pepper, and lemon zest, and whisk until well combined. Toss with the grapes, celery, and chicken until well coated. Spoon equally into the papaya halves.

This dish examplifies the sweet and savory from the black pepper and honey and the decadent textures of creamy and crunchy from the yogurt, grapes, and celery. The halved papaya itself is four ounces coupled with four ounces of the salad. Together, they are eight ounces of a well-balanced meal, making healthy fun.

Now, here is the super duper exclusive dessert just for us "The Arriviste" readers-only here!
Amaretto Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur
2 cups (12-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecan halves (optional)

Preheat oven to 375*. In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt, stir together. Separately, in a large mixing bowl or mixer, beat butter, molasses, brown sugar, vanilla, and amaretto. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans (if using). Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cookies will be flat and should be crunchy yet chewy. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes approximately 24 to 30 cookies.

According to Chef Irby, there are no "evil" or "good" foods. There are foods you prefer to eat daily and there are foods you reserve for the holidays. Both her and Ms. Guiliano agree food is meant to be enjoyed and savoured, all within in reasonable amounts and quality.

Like her lake house summers, her "Bikini Cuisine" is good, clean fun.

To achieve a healthy lifestyle, you have to change your mindset, you can have a little bit of everything; healthy cooking and eating aren't boring, and don't be too hard on yourself.

Sometimes, a mistake is an invention of something new. She accidentially forgot to toss in eggs for her old chocolate chip cookie recipe. Relaxing with wine, she tossed in some amaretto instead and this is how her egg less but chewy and crispy Amaretto Chocolate Chip Cookies were baked up. Great for all our food sensitive readers who don't want to feel left out.

If you can't get enough of Chef Irby's fit and fulfilling meals and want or need something to whip up for the holidays, her next book, "Boost Your Metabolism" Cookbook is set to be released in September, just in time for Fall recipes and fancy but fit meals like the rich but not fat stuffed filet mignon-yummy.

The Bikini Chef now provides recipes for the cocktail dress season. You can be "bikini fit" year around.