Oven Bake

Irish stouts produce a thick head when poured, so chill the can or bottle well before measuring to reduce the foam.

The flaky dill biscuit crusts that top these creamy pies look impressive, but they're surprisingly easy to make.

This crab dish is as much of a treat as digging in to a good book: It's adapted from a scene in the novel The Hours and featured in The Book Club Cookbook (Tarcher/Putnam), which pairs recipes with great reads. The casserole offers lean protein and doses of vitamin A and folate. Plus, Self substituted soymilk for cream and replaced butter with olive oil, giving this storybook recipe a healthy ending.

Although this dish is lower in fat due to the skim milk and reduced-fat cheese, you'll love it so much you may never resort to the fluorescent-orange boxed stuff again!

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

Mariah Carey's personal chef, Zipora Einav, doesn't simply feed her songbird client, she nourishes her: The mango wontons offer a hearty dose of vitamin A (a half cup meets 25 percent of your RDA). Don't let the exotic ingredients throw you. This recipe is so easy, you'll get it right in only one take.

Chef Nadine Barner, who kept Gwyneth Paltrow looking fab with a macrobiotic regimen (a diet of mostly grains and vegetables), has served these tasty morsels at private parties hosted by the actress. Brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids from the walnuts makes this a smart starter. The calcium and protein combo found in tofu works to bolster bone density (no wonder Paltrow stands so tall in Hollywood), and the mushrooms' potassium helps protect against high blood pressure.

Round out your breakfast: Add half a small whole-grain bagel, 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt and 1/2 cup orange juice.

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.

Fish dish: Tori Amos's favorite recipe Chef Duncan Pickford shares his recipe for his client's preferred healthy dinner.

Round out your lunch: Add half a mango or papaya.

Wrapper's delight: two paper pouches, eight shrimp, 10 minutes — dinner! Take a lowfat cooking tip from French-born Alain Ducasse, whose New York City restaurant, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, is among the world's swankiest. Ducasse has perfected a simple method of cooking in a paper pouch, which uses trapped steam — not fat — to seal in flavor. In this recipe he teams shrimp with apples and cheese for a trio of seductive tastes. Tuck the ingredients into parchment-paper hearts, pop them in the oven and prepare to fall in love.

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.

Slice advice: One of America's favorite pastimes — going out for pizza — doesn't have to be a caloric catastrophe if you stick with the basic (like Pizza Hut Hand Tossed cheese) and stop at two slices. Steer clear of cheese-filled crusts; they can add 10 grams of fat per slice. We gave our homemade pie an advantage by adding broccoli, but there's no reason not to put veggies on a fast food or frozen one.

The health benefits: nearly a fifth of the RDA for vitamin C in 1/2 cup raw cabbage; magnesium from the zucchini; eggplant offers fiber.

Saturday dinner. From Miraval Resort & Spa in Catalina, Arizona. This dish tastes indulgently creamy, but it's made with rice milk, so it's low in fat.

This spicy stew is no garden-variety meal. Healthy eating is easy when Mother Nature cranks out plenty of nutrient-packed produce. Chef Shawn McClain of Chicago's Spring restaurant created a vegetarian dish using a variety of veggies in a tagine, a flavorful Moroccan stew. We can't think of a tastier way to help get your five-a-day.