So one of my friends recently introduced me to the Hungry Girl website, which basically includes lots of low-cal recipes for things that are typically very high in calories (like chocolate cupcakes and pizza). I was wondering if any of you had tried cooking with the Hungry Girl recipes and how you felt about them...

I eat a lot of whole foods, so I'm kind of scared off by how many processed ingredients are in these recipes...but gosh, some of them look so good!

I've tried a few...some good results, some not so good. Unfortunately, the good results mostly made me want to binge, particularly the baked goods (I eat mostly whole foods too), . However, I do regularly use the pumpkin oatmeal recipe, slightly modified, and I sometimes "fry" by coating veggies with seasoned egg substitute then tossing in crushed up Fiber One (one of her methods).

I really like her egg mug recipes- fast and easy breakfasts.... but yeah- too much processed stuff for me. We shouldn't be eating faux desserts...

Love her "onion rings" with crushed fiber one cereal as mentioned by the OP. Great addition to a steak dinner and everyone at my table seems to like them.

For me, personally, the "faux" is never truly satisfying and just makes me crave the real more. I find I'm much better off eating healthy, whole foods (trying to retrain my habits/expectations) and very occasionally indulging in something fattening and delicious!

Trying one right now...stuffed chicken breasts. You flatten the chicken breasts, put in Laughing Cow cheese and some ham, roll up, fasten with a toothpick and bake at 350 degrees. She says for 20 minutes. Yeah, if you want raw chicken. I cook chicken with a meat thermometer after a bad episode - going on 40 minutes now and not cooked to the right temp yet.

ETA: Ok...guess I can't read directions. Says cook covered in foil 20 minutes...THEN uncover and cook more. Duh...

I am also a fan of the onion rings, add lots of herbs and seasoning though otherwise they taste sweet.

yah there's a lot of 'fake' to her recipes, but one I use is to take a boxed cake mix and add a can of diet soda in lieu of eggs and oil. It makes the cake super light and fluffy. I use a lemon cake and a diet ginger ale mostly, doesn't taste too fake, even if I refer to it as FrankenCake

I have a hard time with Hungry Girl. I picked up her cookbook for my boyfriend so we can do some substitutions and it works good for that. However, I would much rather have the "real deal" on a rare occasion than the fake food trying to be the real food. But this doesn't work for my boyfriend.

Thanks for all of the feedback, everyone. I guess I'll try one or two recipes just for the heck of it, haha- those onion rings sound great!

I don't have any of the cookbooks but I get the daily email. I live overseas and a lot of the pseduo-food ingredients aren't available here. I do make some substitutions and the things I have tried were pretty good, though sometimes higher in calories without the fake foods. The one I'd recommend from HG is chocolate cake mix with low-fat yogurt in lieu of eggs and oil. It's fast, easy, and yummy!

She does lean towards processed food but here are 3 recipes that I have really enjoyed.

*Hungry Girl Cabbage Pack

*Ginormous Oven-Baked Omelette

* The egg mugs mentioned above

So wait a minute you're saying you use one whole box of cake mix and one can of soda mix it up and bake and that's it?