Wow I need help

Grandmaelf2008

2nd day. Logging in my breakfast and snack for the day. Entered my recipes for a few things and WOW I really need to revamps recipes to me more healthy. Need to cut back sugars, carbs and saturated fats. I can use a ton of help. I like to make things myself instead of buying the foods already made. So I can cut out unhealthy ingredients and swap for healthy ones. But clearly I don't know where to start. Does anyone know of a good book for newbies? Logging my food intake is a real eye opener!!'n

suruda

I tend to read the message boards...there are a lot of recipe threads that will give you ideas for swapping. Here's one I've discovered that is fairly painless...We used to love the occasional "big breakfast". Bacon, hashbrowns, eggs, muffins....NOW I can live without the bacon and muffins and instead of hashbrowns, I make a breakfast hash. 1/3 potatoes, onions, peppers, and whatever other veggies I have in the fridge. Yesterday's included daikon and butternut squash.

Everyone loves it with a fried egg (or two) on top and it is a delicious big breakfast!

I started by finding those healthy things I like...and eat those. Turkey burgers smothered in sautéed mushrooms, chicken, apples, celery, cucumbers...those low cal things that taste good to me!

Keep logging and learning...some of us have also found some surprising low calorie things too!

RoxieDawn

I swap "white" with the following:

White bread for whole or multi grain
White potatoes for sweet potatoes
White flour for almond, coconut flour (this takes time to learn baking this way)
White rice for brown rice or wild rice
White milk (cows milk) for almond and cashew milk
Still eat butter, nut butters, nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, heavy cream, cottage cheese (low and full fat), sour crea, (low and full fat)

Bake with Truvia Baking Blends and Splenda Sugar Blend..

I look for low glycemic veggies (I grill veggies, bake veggies or stir fry).

My snacks are nuts/mixed nuts in stead regular chips and crackers.. however I do make my own vanilla wafers and crackers, dips (houmus), avacado, etc...

Now with all that said above, I still have all of the regular foods above but I pick and choose when I want to bake with regular flour etc... Like last week I made a regular flour and yeast cinnamon raisin bread I just cut the slices thinner... substitutions in this case just wouldn't cut it.

As far as cook books, I have not found anything... I do a lot of searching on the internet and am always looking for recipes swaps.. I look for low carb cooking, even the diabetic connections websites... I use ymmily, all recipes websites on line and many many more...

Grandmaelf2008

Thank you for the tips. Definitely a lot of research ahead of me

softblondechick

Don't cook.

Make simple foods, meat, veggies.

I had to stop cooking. I made too large of portions. Now, I grill a chicken breast, side salad. Portion control made easy.

JoRocka

softblondechick wrote: »

Don't cook.

Make simple foods, meat, veggies.

I had to stop cooking. I made too large of portions. Now, I grill a chicken breast, side salad. Portion control made easy.

so you eat your chicken raw?

I don't understand "don't cook" what does that mean?

I cook 1x a week- I portion everything out and then I have food for the week.

LKArgh

mamaelf2008 wrote: »

2nd day. Logging in my breakfast and snack for the day. Entered my recipes for a few things and WOW I really need to revamps recipes to me more healthy. Need to cut back sugars, carbs and saturated fats. I can use a ton of help. I like to make things myself instead of buying the foods already made. So I can cut out unhealthy ingredients and swap for healthy ones. But clearly I don't know where to start. Does anyone know of a good book for newbies? Logging my food intake is a real eye opener!!'n

What are the ingredients you have trouble with? what is it you want to replace?

ndj1979

mamaelf2008 wrote: »

2nd day. Logging in my breakfast and snack for the day. Entered my recipes for a few things and WOW I really need to revamps recipes to me more healthy. Need to cut back sugars, carbs and saturated fats. I can use a ton of help. I like to make things myself instead of buying the foods already made. So I can cut out unhealthy ingredients and swap for healthy ones. But clearly I don't know where to start. Does anyone know of a good book for newbies? Logging my food intake is a real eye opener!!'n

honestly, as long as you are eating in a calorie deficit there is nothing wrong with carbs, sugars, etc. Just make sure that you are eating nutrient dense foods and staying within your macro allowances.

Carbs and sugars are not evil or bad for you, no matter what the internet and others would lead you to believe.

However, you could simplify your cooking and maybe not make as many complex recipes. Things like chicken, steak, pork, etc, can be cooked in a simpler fashion and still taste good.

mistikal13

You can absolutely still cook, just use less butter/oil etc and portion things out.

2snakeswoman

Get a new cookbook?

luv_lea

I find a lot of great healthy recipe's on Pinterest.

Good luck!

quiksylver296

try sparkrecipes.com. there are a lot of healthy recipes you can try.

enterdanger

I like the recipes on www.skinnytaste.com. I even bought her cookbook, but you can get most of her recipes free from the site. As someone with little kids and a full time job I gravitate towards the crock pot recipes.

Grandmaelf2008

Well I am NOT able to stop cooking. I've changed the way I'm cooking. More chicken less red meat, no butter - small amount of olive oil instead etc...Baking will definitely be a challenge, but that I can easily cut back at. Looking at my local library for books to start cramming my head full of info to help me out. This is very overwhelming!! Thanks everyone for your advice. MFP is really turning out to be very helpful!!!!

blink1021

I know it was an eye opener for me too especially jarred spaghetti sauce nearly knocked me over. I love skinnytaste.com she has great recipes and that is where I found a great make from scratch marinara sauce. I also cut out all drinks that are not water or seltzer. I prefer to eat my calories and not drink them. I learned a lot from that website and yes I still cook things like chicken parmesan and chicken tenders. My husbands favorite is her pork stir fry. In fact he just asked me last night if I a had any new recipes from her. She gives you the nutrition breakdown as well as weight watchers points so its really helpful. I also get a lot of recipes on allrecipes also. Just by using less salt, butter, oils and cheese can be really helpful.

FoxyLifter

Another vote for Pinterest! Just type in a few choice words (easy healthy recipe) and see what appeals to you! Plenty of ideas out there and you can easily save them all in one spot.

Wattyz

Check pinterest for great recipes. Like JoRocka, I cook a large meal, and just portion it out before touching it. Prepped food for the week. Even breakfast. A small carton of egg whites (or 8-12 egg whites) some veggies, a little 2% cheese, and possibly some sort of meat on occasion, partially cooked on the stove, and finished in the oven. It gives me 6-8 breakfast portions a day.

No sugar applesauce instead of oil in baking helps. I also mix white and almond meal or whole wheat flour in baking (like banana bread. yum...) More mustard instead of mayo, or replace with avocado.

If you don't like the same foods daily, make a few meals at once if you have the time. portion them out still before putting them away, and put some in the freezer. Then If you want, you can take them out the night before so they're thawed for the next day.

Also if you don't have a food scale, you should invest in one to help with equal portions.

RodaRose

softblondechick wrote: »

Don't cook.

Make simple foods, meat, veggies.

I had to stop cooking. I made too large of portions. Now, I grill a chicken breast, side salad. Portion control made easy.

I agree that thinking about modifying recipes can be unnecessarily complicated.
For me it makes sense when I am grocery shopping to think about what vegetables I want to eat.
Often I cook them grilled, steamed, baked, or kind of stir fried with one or two teaspoons of oil, garlic, and some water.

try2again

We eat virtually every meal at home and I've always collected recipes. I've always been conscious of making easy swaps when I can- low fat/low salt versions of everything possible, using 93% lean ground beef or ground turkey, switching to whole grains, and adding more veggies- but since starting on MFP I've continued to use all of our favorite recipes and have just been carefully measuring portions. Also, I don't fix the higher-calorie stuff as often as I used too- it's true that staying simple saves calories.

azyn

Hummus instead of mayonnaise works great (and I actually even like the taste more) for sandwiches, tuna etc. If it's any recipe that needs something to thicken it up and provide texture hummus often works. I also really like it as a sauce on burgers or subs.

Cauliflower mash in itself isn't the nicest substitute for mashed potatoes for me, but it's fantastic with low-fat cottage cheese (esp if you mix in onion and garlic powder and chopped chives), or you could mix in some cauliflower mash *with* mashed potatoes for it to still taste really good. Low-fat cottage cheese actually works great as a substitute for a lot of things to get your cheesy/comfort food cravings with very little calories and a lot of protein at that, and it makes a lot of food very nice- if you microwave cauliflower torn or chopped up into decent sized pieces and have it with a cup of low-fat cottage cheese, it's easy to eat three or four servings of veggies and a lot of protein in a meal.

For green tea, if you get bags that are green tea with mint it's still really pleasant even without any sugar, because the mint flavor balances out the slight bitterness of unsweetened tea really well. Peppermint or spearmint green tea substituted for sodas and coffees or other beverages cut out a lot of calories.

It's hard to avoid the calories with something like rice, but lentils (or chickpeas) are a really good way to add body to meals that would normally be rice, because it has a similar feel and is also delicious. Not the way health junkies will tell you kale is delicious, I really love chickpeas. If you're making a rice and thick curry (works best for tuna or vegetable curries or just thick curries), having half rice and half lentils is really satisfying. I think there's actually a Middle Eastern comfort food called mujadarrah(?) which half and half rice and lentils with I think cumin (that or coriander, there'll be recipes on the internet) and spices, and it is actually really nice.

Tossing a cube of frozen chopped spinach in works for a lot of meals. It's inoffensive and often unnoticeable esp in stronger dishes like curries but adds nutrition. Benefiber grit and glug free fibre powder is also completely tasteless and dissolves in basically anything, and you can add a couple spoons (or more, depending on the thing) into anything from curries to tuna to pasta to sauces to breakfast cereal to soups (you can add a *lot* to soups with almost no change) to baking to protein shakes.

gramarye

When I started, I found that I simply used too much of everything when I was cooking (not baking, obviously). Too much oil/butter when making my meats, too much cheese added to dishes -- that sort of thing. So I started cutting them back to smaller and smaller amounts until I found that balance of flavor and calories that I wanted.

Bonus: my foods cook a lot better now that I use more reasonable amounts of oil/butter.

Grandmaelf2008

I just love all the replies. Feel free to add me as a friend if you want

amyj514

I've got tips for baking! You can manipulate recipes in sooo many ways it's nuts. First and easiest thing is sugar. You can reduce it by half and shouldn't notice much of a difference! Sub half unsweetened applesauce for oil. Fat free yogurt for sour cream, etc. A lot of the liquids are interchangeable, like yogurt, milk, eggs, water, applesauce, pumpkin, banana, oil etc. You want to make sure you use enough oils that your baked goods don't come out dry but sometimes you could omit it completely and be fine. Also, you could try using white whole wheat flour instead of regular white flour. I really got into quick breads about a year ago and was on a spree and went really nuts comparing recipes and ingredients and pictures online to see what looks different and what was used etc and mish-mashed recipes to make what I wanted. That way I could keep it as healthy as possible, fit it into my calorie goals, and still satiate my cravings! Do some research into the science behind baking to really understand what you can and can't swap, esp when it comes to the baking powder part...cause soggy squishy cake is gross...

I found this blog post helpful: http://bakerbettie.com/basic-quick-bread-recipe-sweet-or-savory/

If you can't tell, I'm a cake person, but this should get your gears turning in the right direction. Hope this helps!

Grandmaelf2008

Great tip

kickassbarbie

http://www.foodsubs.com

besee_2000

enterdanger wrote: »

I like the recipes on www.skinnytaste.com.

I second this! If you have foods you NEED to have these are healthy substitutes. Husband-approved and he's picky about "health foods". I just made a cheeseburger casserole and thumbs up on that. I love the meatloaf cupcakes, portion controlled and tastes amazing. I would say I've made over 20 of her recipes and they all are easy to follow.

Wattyz

besee_2000 wrote: »

enterdanger wrote: »

I like the recipes on www.skinnytaste.com.

I second this! If you have foods you NEED to have these are healthy substitutes. Husband-approved and he's picky about "health foods". I just made a cheeseburger casserole and thumbs up on that. I love the meatloaf cupcakes, portion controlled and tastes amazing. I would say I've made over 20 of her recipes and they all are easy to follow.

I think I know what I'm making for dinner tonight, btw. TY!

alexislucas84

Plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream
Turkey or chicken instead of beef or pork
Protein Smoothies instead of milkshakes
Lots of veggies and fruits, I know...
Stay away from starches and most grains.
Don't fry your food.
Supplements, vitamins, and omega fatty acids all are key and aide in weight loss.

Tubbs216

besee_2000 wrote: »

enterdanger wrote: »

I like the recipes on www.skinnytaste.com.

I second this! If you have foods you NEED to have these are healthy substitutes. Husband-approved and he's picky about "health foods". I just made a cheeseburger casserole and thumbs up on that. I love the meatloaf cupcakes, portion controlled and tastes amazing. I would say I've made over 20 of her recipes and they all are easy to follow.

Thirded. I really like skinnytaste.