Wow what a great resource all of you are!!! I appreciate each and every suggestion and feel so much more confident and less confused now - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Now I know what to buy tomorrow when I go back to the supermarket and will have some focus instead of feeling like an alien in a foreign land. ;-)

Hi Slow2lose...not sure where you are in Canada, but I'm in Ontario and I have found the WF products in Metro, and my sister says they also have them at Zehrs. If you can't find them there, you can order them online, but they are a little more expensive and there is a small shipping charge. Here is their website. http://waldenfarms.ca/

I don't like to cook either. I usually cook enough meat for 2 or 3 meals. I use a lot of frozen broccoli. I put it in a bowl with a tiny bit of water, cover it loosely, and steam it in the microwave for about 8 minutes. It makes enough for 2 or 3 meals. I do the same with cauliflower. Lately I've been doing stir fry veggies--peppers, celery, onion, zucchini. I use various seasonings. Our local health food store has some seasoning blends without any forbidden items--italian, taco, fajita. I also like the montreal steak and chicken seasonings on the veggies, as well as on meat. A friend suggested ratatouille using Walden Farm italian dressing. I didn't care for it that much but you might want to experiment. Just google ratatouille and lots of recipes pop up. I try to keep it as simple as possible!

I use a lot of Walden Farm individual salad dressing packets for eating out and I buy them directly from Walden Farm online. I also use some of the bottled sauces. If I can't find them locally, I get them online too.

I recently used Walden Farms Italian dressing as a marinade along with spices. In a ziplock bag I put a few boneless skinless chicken breast tenderloins, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper, paprika, red pepper flakes. Close the bag and mush everything around inside, massage the chicken!

Leave it in the fridge for a while, I left it overnight. The next day I sprayed a frying pan with Pam and cooked the chicken until no longer pink inside, the juices will run clear.

You could also bake it in the oven. I usually do 350 or 375 degrees, maybe 20 mins for tenderloins, longer for whole breasts.

My crockpot is seriously a lifesaver, no work involved and meat is always fall apart tender!

Look up the thread here on being Canadian so you can see different products etc. You can buy WF products at the LowCarbGroceryStore, Low Carb Canada Store, Proteinwell.ca, Well.ca, TheSimplyBarStore...

GOOGLE is your best friend -- just google "waldorf Farms Canada" and it'll get ya there. Just check out various shipping prices.

I've found some canned tomatoes with seasonings that don't have any sugar added. The main one I use from time to time is S & W brand diced tomatoes with garlic, oregano & basil. It adds a nice flavor to meat or veggies when you don't have time to mess around with recipes.

Cooking is not my thing either. I did learn that my steamer pan was the easiest way for me to cook rice and veggies though. I soak the rice for a few minutes then throw it in the steamer with four or five different frozen and fresh veggies, including onion and sprinkle everything with Mrs. Dash spices and let it steam for about 20 minutes. By trial and error I have come up with some very delicious and healthy mixes.

Rice isn't allowed on the IP diet though.

Google is your friend! If you ever need a recipe, google "recipe for XXX" and look at the hits. There's lots of sites that post daily recipes. MSN has a good section for food, and I like Yahoo's clips from Ciao Chow.

I find cooking to be fairly easy, for basic stuff. I'm not Emeril, but everything I cook is edible and usually tastes pretty good. Baking, on the other hand, eludes me and I think it's because I wing it when I cook but baking requires precise amounts of ingredients which to me is too tedious.

Since you mentioned meat and sounded like you meant read meat, let's see...
My favorite steak recipe is: take your steak (whatever cut) and either use a meat tenderizer or fork and poke it full of holes. Put enough balsamic vinegar on it to completely coat the meat but not so much it runs off. Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic or montreal steak seasoning on it. Flip it, do the same to the other side. Put in oven on broil. Broil top side until brown, flip and broil that side until brown, turn oven off. If steak isn't cooked to your color preference, leave in oven until cooked with oven off (the residual heat will finish off the steak).

That sounds yummy but balsamic vinegar is not allowed in phase 1 of IP

I agree - Breathe

I use Frozen Chicken Breasts a lot and they come seasoned - Tyson is a good choice (frozen foods)

I also use seasoned chicken strips for stir fry or just to have on salads - Tyson again or Oscar Meyer works very well. OM comes in 6 oz packages just right for one and then I make my Husband a Pizza.

I also use a slow cooker for larger meats (like a roast) and found a crock pot receipe book. I have found that tossing Mrs Dash seasonings on any kind of meat works very well. Good Luck

LOL I found this thread when I was doing a search for an IP-friendly alternative to worcestershire sauce! The subject title totally cracked me up because I have very feeble cooking skills too.

I'm not a cook at all!! lol I don't know how to do much and I never ate veggies until I joined IP - 9 days ago.

I'm also very visual, so then I started reading some of the recipes and when I didn't understand what they meant, I googled it. I googled how to peel turnips, rutabaga, how to cut up cauliflowers just everything!!