Cook Yourself Thin features a former Top Chef Contestant

Do you want to have your cake and eat it, too? Lifetime Television premieres Cook Yourself Thin, an all-new series that offers viewers the skills and the confidence to give their favorite indulgent meals a healthy makeover by cutting the calories and doubling the flavor! Culinary experts Harry Eastwood, Allison Fishman and Candice Kumai show guests how to lose their unwanted inches by replacing extreme dieting with clever cooking. The twenty-episode, half-hour series premieres with back-to-back episodes on Monday, May 4 at 5:00 and 5:30 pm (ET/PT). For the remainder of the week, Cook Yourself Thin will air new episodes Monday through Friday at 5:00 and 5:30 pm (ET/PT). Starting Monday, May 11, new episodes will air Monday through Friday at 5:00 pm (ET/PT).

Based on the successful, British series and popular cookbook, Cook Yourself Thin encourages women to lose weight by changing their eating habits. Each half-hour episode follows one guest as she learns simple ways to transform her favorite high calorie meals into delicious, healthier fare. Hosts Eastwood, Fishman and Kumai use their sharp culinary know-how to tailor a specific menu for each participant. In the premiere episode, show participant Rachel trades in her typical lunch of traditional lasagna (858 calories per serving) and dinner of ribeye steak and mashed potatoes (1,040 calories per serving) for a spinach and mushroom veggie lasagna (343 calories per serving) and steak with cauliflower mashed potatoes (389 calories per serving).

The meals are prepared step-by-step, comparing the calorie count of the original recipe to those of the Cook Yourself Thin version. The guest is then sent home with the ingredients, tools and tips necessary to make healthy changes in the kitchen. After six weeks of living the Cook Yourself Thin lifestyle, the hosts visit each participant at home to check on her progress.

Visitors to myLifetime.com will be able to view full episodes of the series the day after they premiere on Lifetime Television. Additionally, site visitors will have access to recipes featured on the show and step-by-step cooking instructions. For each episode, there will be five exclusive webisodes featuring behind-the-scenes information about show participants including an inside look at the contents of their refrigerators and a video blog recorded by one of the hosts offering cooking tips and additional strategies for Cook Yourself Thin.

Fans of the series can also log on to the Cook Yourself Thin subscription-based online club at cookyourselfthin.tv for exclusive access to features, tips and tools that will help users drop their unwanted pounds.

ABOUT THE CAST

Food writer and cookbook author Harry Eastwood is an expert baker. She prides herself on being able to cut the calorie count of delicious desserts by substituting healthy alternatives for the high fat ingredients typically found in baked goods. Eastwood starred in the British version of the series and co-authored the cookbook Cook Yourself Thin: The Delicious Way to Drop a Dress Size.

Chef Allison Fishman honed her culinary skills while working for Martha Stewart and Food Network as a recipe developer and food stylist. Additionally, Fishman served as co-host of TLCs Home Made Simple. She currently writes a weekly food column for www.thestreet.com and her recipes and writings have been featured in national magazines and newspapers across the nation.

Candice Kumai, a contestant on season one of Bravo’s Top Chef, was professionally trained at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu. Kumai is currently a special events chef at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Laguna Beach, CA and runs her own catering company, Stiletto Chef LA. She has been featured as a cooking expert on KNBC’s Your LA and participates in high profile cooking demonstrations across the country.

-From Lifetime TV

Project Runway’s Future is Up in the Air

In an unexpected turn of events NBC Universal has won an injunction against the producers of the reality show, Project Runway, preventing the show’s move from Bravo to Lifetime.

Project Runway’s producer, the Weinstein Co. announced last winter that it would be moving the show to Lifetime, starting with its sixth season this winter. Bravo’s parent company NBC Universal filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the production company. Today, the results of the preliminary injunction were revealed.

“NBC Universal is pleased that the court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction against the Weinstein Co.,” NBC Uni said in a statement. “The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that the Weinstein Co. violated NBC Universal’s right of first refusal to future cycles of ‘Project Runway.’ After hearing all of the evidence, the court issued an order prohibiting the Weinstein Co. from taking the show or any spinoff to Lifetime.”

It is doubtful that Lifetime will let the court’s decision stand without putting up a fight. More on this story as it develops.

Lifetime Tries to Give Their New Reality Show A Cool Title With “Blonde Charity Mafia”

But the “charity” part clues me in that these women won’t be putting a hit out on anyone. I’m pretty perceptive, huh? But get ready for Lifetime to serve up a gritty look at hard-core charity event planning in the unforgiving town of Washington, D.C. This show is not for the faint of heart, so if you can’t handle the sight of young, wealthy, ambitious women doing what needs to be done to be sucessful in their lives, do not tune in.

From Lifetime:

In the city that is home to some of the world’s most important power players, one group of young women dominate the social scene, an exclusive group known as the ‘Blonde Charity Mafia,’ comprised of the capital’s social heavy-hitters, Katherine Kennedy and Krista Johnson. Also featured is Sophie Pyle, an acquaintance of the girls, who is always in attendance at the charity functions thrown by Katherine and Krista. Their events are always a hot ticket; their dating lives are gossiped about; and sometimes merely their simple daily activities are chatter within the D.C. social set. Throwing these glamorous soirees every week, they are the young personalities of Georgetown and the darlings of the city’s most fashionable clubs and hottest restaurants.

In making the announcement, Jessica Samet, Senior Vice President, Reality Programming, Lifetime Television, said, “Katherine, Krista and Sophie are at the epicenter of Georgetown’s young cultural scene. This absorbing series will pull the curtain back on the fragility of friendship among the beautiful, wealthy and powerful.”

Parental discretion advised. Just kidding.