[ajc20657]

I can handle finding healthy snacks, but when it comes to cooking healthy, that's more of a challenge. I looovvvvveeeee cooking. One of the reason i got a man is so he can taste dishes i experiment with (and yes he is still alive and well). I love working with vegetables, but I never knew anyone who cooks healthy. I'm at ther b eginning at this new healthy lifestyle and a healthy diet is important. I try googling healthy recipes but haven't much lunch. Anyone know any healthy meals or even tell me subsitutions like instead of blah use blah blah.

[tommy]

Have you checked out Cooking Light magazine? The Weight Watchers cookbooks are generally pretty decent too and surprisingly au courant and innovative (at least some are).

[JenB77]

I have been making little pizza's lately, using plain tomato sauce, light shredded cheese, chopped up chicken breast on a whole wheat tortilla, they crisp up nicely in the oven for a yummy flat bread like pizza. When I have more time I fry up some peppers and onions to add to it as well.

[Nola Celeste]

Hi, ajc! I love to cook too, and I'm finding I really have to stretch my imagination to keep meals both healthy and exciting.

Do you like Indian food? I find Indian dishes a great inspiration when cooking vegetables. Same goes for many Chinese and Japanese dishes too. Borrowing dishes from cuisines and cultures that have a history of eating vegetable-rich meals has had good results for me.

Some recipes "lighten up" more easily than others. For example, I'm a huge fan of New Orleans-style red beans and rice, but had to change the way I cooked it a bit. My new version contains a much bigger proportion of beans to sausage (the andouille is now just a flavoring, not a major ingredient), has additional celery, green peppers, and onion to make up for any flavor lost from the sausage, and is served over a lot less rice.

One suggestion that I've read and loved here at 3FC is to turn many of my favorite sandwiches into lettuce "wraps" instead. Chicken salad tastes as good (or better!) when daubed into a butter lettuce leaf than it would on boring white bread. A BLT doesn't actually need bread to be a BLT. (This doesn't work with all sandwiches, though--a PB&J on lettuce would be pretty vile. )

As for outright substitutions, some folks love 'em and find them satisfying, but I am generally not a fan. I'd rather eat nothing containing cheese, cream, or butter at all than use low-fat or artificial versions of these things. There's just no way to make fettucine alfredo fit easily into a healthy eating plan, so why make an unsatisfying fake version that will only leave me craving the real thing? That's my take on it, at least. Instead I'd rather look at recipes that start off fairly light to begin with.

[shcirerf]

I just had the most delicious pizza soup. I had to throw something together this morning and was short on groceries, so this is what I did.

1 small can of sliced mushrooms
1 serving of Canadian bacon, diced up
covered with tomato juice
a good sprinkle of Oregano and
topped with mozzerella.

I put it in a leak proof plastic bowl, heated it up for lunch at work, it was fab.

Next time I'm going to add some chopped onion and green peppers.

[MadamButterfly]

Hi

I'm new at this too, but this summer a friend of mine gave me a spagetti squash. I cut it in half and microwaved it til it was tender, then you just scrape out the "spagetti" into a bowl. Meanwhile I sauted some peppers (I used red & yellow) and onion, some seasoning, oregano, basil, garlic pepper (I can't remember exactly which ones) Then added a jar of spaghetti sauce. It was wonderful. The next day I added grilled chicken.

You could add anything you like, mushroom, zuccini, yellow squash
Yummmmmmmy!

The spaghetti squash has a crunchy texture, I really liked it.