15 years...down the drain!

whatsyour1020 · July 2011

I'm struggling with the realisation that I need to ditch 15 years of hard work. That's how long I've been developing recipes, and none of them are good for me. I have fed countless people in my home and beamed as they told me I should open a resteraunt. My niece has been so inspired by our cooking sessions, she decided to pursue a career in the food industry. I have lured friends over with the promises of food and my family bring their friends to my house to EAT! My husband brings his boss and co-workers home to EAT.....the only thing I can do right in my parents eyes, is make EATING fun. It's a BIG part of who I am (pardon the pun

I always said if my house was on fire, I would rescue my kids and my cookbook! And now.......it's time to END it and it HURTS....but so does hauling my lard *kitten* around all day :-/ So it's time to choose.

I've been convicted this change needs to happen, for some time now, but I've put it off. "I'll just have so and so and so and so over one more time, THEN I'll change my cooking!" (I am so uncomfortable "talking" about this, I'm actually squirming in my chair as I type) I am genuinely afraid people will not like me if I don't cook for them! Shallow...I know! But, if I don't distract people with food, I actually have to build RELATIONSHIPS with them to keep them coming. Not my strong point! *sigh*

The final straw....entering my vegetarian lasagna recipe on this site. 784 calories per serving folks! That's half my limit for the entire DAY! *gulp* So, I'm moving forward. One baby step at a time, I intend to make the shift from good food, to good FOR me food. And who knows. Maybe I'll find a way of bringing the two together.

nickyevans · July 2011

lower fat, lower calorie food can still taste great. Plus once in a while you can still eat the good, rich recipes, just not every day!

RhonndaJ · July 2011

~smiles~ It sounds like you're a great cook. Instead of looking at it as 15 years down the drain, why not look at what you're doing as a new challenge? Take your favourite recipes and start working on them to bring the calories down and make them healthier. Take a look at what you've been considering as portion size to see if it's reasonable, or maybe needs to be pared down.

If you love to cook, this could be a whole new bunch of fun for you.

KatyE213 · July 2011

~smiles~ It sounds like you're a great cook. Instead of looking at it as 15 years down the drain, why not look at what you're doing as a new challenge? Take your favourite recipes and start working on them to bring the calories down and make them healthier. Take a look at what you've been considering as portion size to see if it's reasonable, or maybe needs to be pared down.

If you love to cook, this could be a whole new bunch of fun for you.

Thats exactly what I was going to say, you've got the great recipes, now you need to look at how to make them healthier while still tasting great. It can be done, good luck

amberjk35 · July 2011

You can do it! And I'll bet you can find a way to make fun, delicious & HEALTHY foods.

blueeyedtraveler · July 2011

I LOVE to cook and try new recipes. I also love those comfort foods that I grew up on (which is part of the reason I'm here lol). But what I love even more is trying to find HEALTHY ways to make these foods. Try to focus on that. There's still a way to eat healthy and have the food taste great! Good luck to you :flowerforyou:

abigailhutch · July 2011

I think this is an exciting challenge for you to! I also LOVE LOVE LOVE to cook! And cook for everyone who enters my house! So I have been trying to change recipes to make them better for us/or even just making way less cuz I know we shouldn't be eating mass quantities! Keep your chin up girl! This just gives you more to learn about cooking (just when you thought you knew it all) hehe!

PegasusDeb · July 2011

~smiles~ It sounds like you're a great cook. Instead of looking at it as 15 years down the drain, why not look at what you're doing as a new challenge? Take your favourite recipes and start working on them to bring the calories down and make them healthier. Take a look at what you've been considering as portion size to see if it's reasonable, or maybe needs to be pared down.

If you love to cook, this could be a whole new bunch of fun for you.

I totally agree! This is just a new chapter in your cookbook of life! "Impress" your friends by getting them to eat healthy DELICIOUS meals! I'm sure they could use it as well! It's a challenge tweeking a recipe, but sounds like you are awesome at that. Don't look at it so negatively, people will still like you! If they don't, they weren't friends anyway!

fudgebudget · July 2011

The final straw....entering my vegetarian lasagna recipe on this site. 784 calories per serving folks! That's half my limit for the entire DAY! *gulp* So, I'm moving forward. One baby step at a time, I intend to make the shift from good food, to good FOR me food. And who knows. Maybe I'll find a way of bringing the two together.

You totally can! And it's not the end of the world to eat a 784 calorie meal, either. If that's half your allotment, just make sure that you budget 400 calories each for breakfast and lunch or dinner.

I really understand your plight - I am a foodie through and through, and I have found that I do best when I just budget around the big calorie items I eat so that I never feel deprived. _Only_ eating what you perceive to be "diet" foods is a quick way to burn out (I know because I've been there, too - that's kind of how I got here ...)

Monica_has_a_goal · July 2011

I hear you! But ultimately you need to improve yourself for YOU. I loved doing everything around food... Celebrating.. visiting with family... feeling loss.. its always at the table. .and then i wondered why im an emotional eater? lol..

But the changes ive made are good ones.. Now I walk with my daughter and talk about her and her life.. I walk with my mom and discuss how many things are happening in the world.. I swim with my husband and have fun competing and Challenging each other..

I replaced eating at the table with exercise.. and I feel so much better at the end of the day.

whitejessamine · July 2011

Trust me on this. If your friends are impressed with how good your cooking is now, they'll be totally blown away when it's just as good, AND you can tell them it's good for them! My friends love when I develop wonderful new, guilt-free recipes. It's very rewarding--even better than before, because it's all the acclaim and none of the shame!

Fliegenschwein · July 2011

I dont think forming relationships with people will be too much of a problem once they see how great you`re looking. Theyre all going to know how you did it and I bet there`s going to be a huge demand for your new healthier recipes.

Good luck

jdhosier · July 2011

Congratulations! You are taking an AWESOME step and you have much to be proud of! I salute your resolve to get started. You are a good cook. You will always be a good cook. Now you have a new palette to work from and you are going to create some amazing meals and your friends and family won't even realize how much healthier they will be eating! All they will know is that they feel better, less bloated and sluggish will have more energy after YOU feed them. And, the best part is that you will feel great, too!

Qarol · July 2011

The people who really care about you, the ones who truly matter, won't care about what you're feeding them.

awyler · July 2011

check out---> http://www.hungry-girl.com/ she has a lot of comfort food on her site with HEALTHY recipes.

bcattoes · July 2011

Oh there is definitely a way to bring the two together. One of my favorite things to do it take a delicious unhealthy recipe and make it healthy but still delicious.

ricster55 · July 2011

A friend of mine (who is also using this site) said to me recently, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." And he's RIGHT. The great thing about this quest to lose weight is that not only can we prepare healthy food that tastes fabulous, but it also costs less than the old ways of preparing meals. I mean, think about all those ingredients that you'll no longer need to use!!

It sounds to me like, over the years, you've been quite creative with the meals you've prepared. That's why people keep coming back for more. Just put that creativity to work with healthy options. I KNOW you will be amazed at the reaction of your family and friends. You'll probably start hearing, "This is so delicious and it looks so simple. How'd you do it?" When it looks like it was simple - and it is - people will actually realize they can do it too.

One person posted on this thread that you can even tell them that it's healthy for them. You certainly can do that. But you can also keep it as "our little secret." People don't come back to your house to eat because they think, "Oh, this is so tasty and unhealthy for me - I'll have more." No. They come back because it's so tasty.....period.

Gsc122 · July 2011

Portion control. Bad foods are only really bad, if you eat to much of it. I wouldn't give up on your
recipes and your passion for cooking. instead find a way to mix some of the bad in with the good.

dointime · July 2011

You definitely don't have to stop cooking delicious food because you want to cook healthy food. When I became vegetarian last year, I had no idea what to eat. I spent a lot of time using google to search for healthy vegetarian recipes. What started out as "what the heck can I eat" became a 3 inch binder full of recipes, plus a 2 inch stack under that. And if you're a better cook than I am, you can definitely develop your own recipes or tweak the ones that you find to suit your tastes.

shootoutx3 · July 2011

If you're that good with cooking, I guarantee you can make healthy food fun too. It's just going to take time and some creativity. I know you can do it

rfjl · July 2011

I find this exciting! To know you have tons of recipes that are loved and now you can change them to healthy recipes. I do that with the help of a lil' program on my pc, MasterCook. I have started a new cookbook for healthier eating. In it I take my favorite recipes from 40+ years of cooking and tweak them to be healthier, if I like the finished product it gets the honor of staying in the cookbook. If not it is tossed!!! I had rather be alive and healthy to enjoy my friends and family instead of over-fed and dead. Sorry to be so blunt but that is the choice I have at this time. You can do this and others will love being your test subjects for these new/old improved recipes. ENJOY YOURSELF

souchie · July 2011

Food and feeding those you love, is nothing to be ashamed of. The best memories of family and friends probably center around food, get togethers/holidays..... the important thing is to find balance. Know that if you're making lasagna for dinner, you need to plan for a smart breakfast/lunch, and great workout that day. When you establish that balance, you'll glow and others will notice. Do some tweaking of your recipes if you feel you need to, but more importantly, stop being so hard on yourself.

lbelfrey · July 2011

Hey! Cheer up

@Familiar is right! I have found ways of tweeking my old family favorites so even I can enjoy them. It doesn't have to be the end of wonderful tasting foods. I have found that MFP's have great ideas for great tasting foods. So let us know some of your favorite recipies so that we can enjoy them too! It'll be just like you're cooking for us, your extended family!
Louisa

rwroble1 · July 2011

I known what you mean, but it isn't true!

I have been cooking since I was in the 6th grade. I too have been told to open a restaurant. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with Celiac disease and had to cut out all gluten, ie wheat, barley and rye!!! At first I was depressed. I remember walking in the grocery store, looking at the pasta and breads on the verge of tears! Now I still get to spend time cooking, I just have to be more creative. It has actually been fun and I feel so much better!

Hang in there. You'll find your niche. Remember, losing weight isn't all about diet, but exercise too. When I want to eat a decadent meal, I workout an extra time so I can eat to my hearts delight!!!

whatsyour1020 · July 2011

Thank for all your encouragement guys

DRJJ2004 · July 2011

My heart hurts for you. I agree with everyone else when they say you should just try to change up the good recipes that you have. Good cooking doesn't have to be full of calories. I'm sure you're up for a good challenge, are you not? :O) No one has to know that they are low cal or good for you...at least until after they eat it. :O)

Hang in there!!

Hugs!

MissyFit08 · July 2011

You could publish a cookbook....one side will have the original recipes then you turn the book over and that side will have the same recipes but changed up to be healthier. I SO would buy a cookbook like that....

trishlambert · July 2011

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it (lots of responses here!), but you might get inspiration from the Hungry Girl site (http://www.hungrygirl.com). And I'm sure there are other similar sites out there.

Hungry Girl has "swaps," where she takes a calorie-laden dish and comes up with a facsimile with significantly fewer calories. For example, with lasagna, she recommends substituting thinly sliced aubergine/eggplant for alternate layers of noodles.

Check out what she does with "fatty" recipes, and then maybe you can come up with similar "swaps" for many of those recipes you have.

And if you're successful, please share your "new" recipes with us!!!

Sarahdangerfox · July 2011

I LOVE to cook, and I LOVE to cook for my friends and family, and they LOVE eating at my house

I also used to love to cook with a lot of butter, cheese, cream sauces, pasta and rice...it's amazing how far a few little substitutions will take you. Try just getting inspired by a farmers market, letting veggies and lean meats speak for themselves instead of covering them up with heavy sauces. What are your favorite things to make? Can you substitute half shredded zucchini or spinach for the ground meat? Can you substitute half turkey for pork? I love to use fat-free greek yogurt instead of butter, cheese, sour cream or cream in a lot of my recipes. Your crock pot or dutch oven will be invaluable to you in the way it infuses your food with flavors and richness that don't come from a quick fix on the stove top.

Good luck- this is an exciting new adventure for you! You are not throwing away fifteen years of experience, you are using them as inspiration for the next fifteen. Those years and recipes will inform your new lifestyle in a way that a brand spankin' new cook's wouldn't be.

shell1580 · July 2011

I just happened to see your post and I wanted to share something with you. Since the time I could talk my grandmother had me in her kitchen. I read your post and I thought, wow that is me! I love to cook and bake like you wouldn't believe. You don't have to change that. You don't have to give up feeding people. I made it a challenge to myself and spent four weeks learning how to shop, comparing nutrition facts and implementing those things into my favorite recipes. My boys would NEVER touch something healthy, so I had to make things that they, too, would eat. I surely wasn't cooking two seperate meals

Two of their favorites I make with morning star farms veggie products and they have NEVER questioned it or said it tasted funny. I make enchilada's and chicken quesidilla's for them all the time! I even had one of my hubby's buddys over for dinner, whom I fed all the time, and he had no idea the meat in my spaghetti was meatless! As for the baking, I make healthy bran banana muffins for me and I still bake all of my favorites, I just pawn them off and get them out of my house so I'm not tempted

Patchworkperson · July 2011

I'm so with you on this. I love to cook & felt bereft when I seriously started on MFP. But I've taken our fav recipes & tweaked here & there & the calories are down to reasonable levels. The main thing I found was portion size! My portion control was out of control! We still eat the same great food (ok, not so much bad fat), have increased the veggies - I grate carrots & zucchini in to many dishes. The best thing is no-one has noticed & I still get told how great my cooking is.

Please look at you recipes again, see how you can make them part of your healthy lifestyle & carry on enjoying them. The other thing is, please share some!!

Geri

15 years...down the drain!

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