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" Ever since my cook-at-home challenge last month, I haven&amp;#x27;t been eating out much, which is good--I&amp;#x27;m eating healthier! But, I still love restaurants (don&amp;#x27;t we all?) and next time I find myself giving a server my order, here&amp;#x27;s what I&amp;#x27;m going to do...**** We all know that there&amp;#x27;s usually a lot of oil that goes into restaurant cooking (here&amp;#x27;s why, explained by celeb chef Devin Alexander), but did you know that you can actually cut the calories of your meal in half--just by asking? I recently chatted with Robin Stotter, director of culinary research and development for the restaurant chain P.F. Chang&amp;#x27;s. Robin told me about something that P.F. Chang&amp;#x27;s does for customers who are watching their weight, and it&amp;#x27;s pretty cool. Here&amp;#x27;s what you do: Next time you&amp;#x27;re at P.F. Chang&amp;#x27;s (they have 187 restaurants across the country, so there&amp;#x27;s bound to be one near you), just ask your server to swap out the oil that your meal is cooked in and exchange it with vegetable or chicken stock. It&amp;#x27;s a practice called &amp;quot;stock velveted,&amp;quot; and you&amp;#x27;ll save somewhere in the range of 250-500 calories by making this healthy choice. And guess what? You might not even miss the fat. Stock-velveted entrees may be light on fat, but they&amp;#x27;re not light on flavor, Robin assures me. And here&amp;#x27;s another healthy eating tip: &amp;quot;Ask for light sauce,&amp;quot; he adds. &amp;quot;There is natural sugars in food and it&amp;#x27;s often enough to carry it through.&amp;quot; (I think this is brilliant--I mean, we ask for &amp;quot;light syrup&amp;quot; at the cafe, why not ask for light sauce at the restaurant?) While this is something unique to P.F. Chang&amp;#x27;s, go ahead and ask for the same special treatment next time you&amp;#x27;re out at your favorite restaurant and ordering something where it makes sense to ask (stir fry dishes, sauteed dishes, etc.). Heck, it doesn&amp;#x27;t hurt to ask! Want more slim by summer tips? Click here. What kinds of healthy-eating strategies do you use when you eat out? Photo: iStock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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