To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it's the portions, stupid.

There are two upsides to downsizing the amount of food we eat: fewer calories, lower cost -- although the former definitely outweighs the later.

The trick is making less food look, taste and satisfy like more.

Looks are everything: Use luncheon-sized plates for dinner. Fill them -- cautiously. Serve a smaller portion of meat and mounds of vegetables in assorted colors: corn, beets, broccoli, tiny frozen peas. Remember that frozen vegetables are as nutritious as and cheaper than fresh. Fill in spaces with cherry tomatoes, carrot slaw (processor-shredded carrots, oil, vinegar, touch of sugar). The plate will be so pretty and full that nobody will miss the starch.

About the meat: Make a little look like a lot by alternating small chunks of pork tenderloin, chicken breast or chuck steak with bell pepper squares and mushroom caps on a skewer. Brush with salad dressing. Grill outside or broil in the oven. For a steak splurge that isn't, grill or broil a thick sirloin, slice and fan out a few slices on a warm plate instead of buying one steak per person. Slice and fan out a chicken breast the same way.

Stir-fry marinated chicken strips for the appearance of more. Slice shrimp horizontally to "double" the amount. Extend lean ground beef for meatloaf with processor-shredded carrots, potato, zucchini, onion, celery. mushrooms (15 calories a cup, really) processed with the metal blade melt into a meat loaf or meatballs.

Pasta perfect: Invest in shallow soup/pasta bowls with wide rims but moderate capacity. Before ladling on heavy, rich meat sauce drain pasta and swirl with a spoonful of olive oil and enough tomato juice or vegetable cocktail to color pasta red. Top sparingly with sauce. Or, concoct a spicy vegetarian prima vera sauce.

Glamorize fruit: Peel and slice a ripe pear in half. Scoop out seed cavity with a melon baller. Gently poach halves in cranberry, pineapple or apple juice (or cider) and a touch of honey. When pear is tender and syrup reduced run pear halves, cut side up, under broiler to caramelize. Fill cavity with a tablespoon of vanilla yogurt and spoon syrup over all. Thread cantaloupe and honeydew chunks on skewers and brush with melted jelly or jam (try red pepper jelly for a kick). Place on grill over low coals until jelly bubbles and begins to brown. Nothing like fresh strawberry gelatin: Mash a cup of very ripe strawberries with sugar; let sit until juices are released. Dissolve an envelope of unflavored gelatin in 1 1/2 cups boiling light cranberry juice. Cool juice, mix with strawberries, spoon into wine glasses and chill until firm.

Pretty soon, you'll forget that fried chicken,

three-cheese lasagna and chocolate layer cake ever existed.

Contact Deborah Salomon at debsalomon@hotmail.com.