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Community Corner

"Hungry Girl" Comes To Howell

Lisa Lillien, host of the Hungry Girl show on the Cooking Channel, gave a speech on healthy cooking habits at the Howell Barnes and Noble on Thursday evening.

Quite the event was held at the Howell Township Barnes and Noble on Thursday evening, as cooking celebrity Lisa Lillien was in town to promote her new book, Hungry Girl 300 Under 300:300 Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Dishes Under 300 Calories.

Most book signings simply see the author speak about their book, perhaps reading a passage, then finishing up with a book signing. This one was a bit out of the ordinary, however, as not only did Lillien sign books, but she also gave out healthy snacks, handed out raffle prizes and gave health and cooking advice to the nearly 200 members of the audience.

She began the evening noting that she was so happy to see everyone come out to the event, saying “it’s the results night on American Idol, and I know you all want to be home watching that instead!”

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Following a brief introduction, where she talked about being born in Brooklyn and loving the local area, she offered to take questions from the many in attendance who wanted to know about her diet tricks, her appearances on many national television shows like Rachael Ray and Good Morning America, as well as a myriad of other subjects.

One question asked of her was if she had ever been heavy in her life. Lillien replied she used to be about 25 pounds heavier, but through the use of the Weight Watchers program, she was able to shed the extra lbs. She explained she uses the basis of the Weight Watchers program as a companion to her meals under 300 calories philosophy. 

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“I’m no health expert,” she said. “I just know a lot about food.” Currently Lillien has a show on the Cooking Channel, and the show will be given a test run on the Food Network on Sunday mornings coming up in May.

She then noted she has a busy next few months, as on top of filming another season of her show, she is also working on a healthy supermarket guidebook, which will be coming out in October. She explained that book would be part of an eight-book cooking anthology that will be slowly rolling out in the next few years.

One audience member asked if there was any way they would be able to send her recipes under 300 calories, and Lillien replied there is a space on her Hungry-Girl.com website where users can submit any type of recipe they desire.

Another member of the crowd asked her is she ever anticipated having such success in the field of cooking. She replied that she did not anticipate it would grow so largely, but she has always worked hard and prepared herself to reach the celebrity she has grown into today.

“Once we created a logo for Hungry Girl, then we created a cartoon character to go along with it, I called my dad and said, ‘I think this might be a brand,’” she said. “It was a hobby at first, now it’s a job.”

One of the final questions asked of Lillien was about seeing success stories at her book signings. She replied that all over the country people have lost weight through the use of the Hungry-Girl recipes as a companion with the Weight Watchers program. She then asked if anyone in the audience had such a story, and one woman said she lost 130 pounds on this program to the ovation of the crowd.

Following the program, Lillien explained why her Hungry-Girl program works for people all over the world.

“The best thing about it is that there are so many different types of foods to try,” she said. “I get bored with some food, so this is a good way to get creative and never give up looking for ways to be healthy.”

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