Barbara - I think a lot of it may be retraining not what your relationship with food is, but what your tastebuds and ideals are for what GOOD food is. I cant STAND high fat, really rich food, it tastes awful to me. Changing your tastebuds can be done! You learn to savor the true flavor of food
I would start slowly. One meal a week find something gourmet but in plan. And go the all out route, but in a different way. Go and pickout a very nice cut of steak or prawns or scallops. Get fresh herbs to cook it with. If the recipe calls for wine, cook with good wine. Pick recipes that call for herbs and spices and get the freshest possible. Focus on the colors and presentation, the aromas, the feel of cooking. Set the table with good tableware and candles.
Savor
Enjoy.
Overtime you may find that gourmet does not have to mean high calorie, and healthy doesnt have to mean boring.
mmmmm off to make my grilled Salmon with balsamic mustard vinaigrette, roasted cabbage with asian black bean sauce, carmelized onion and sweetpotatoes and spring green salad with slivered almonds and freshly grated parmesan.
mmmmm off to make my grilled Salmon with balsamic mustard vinaigrette, roasted cabbage with asian black bean sauce, carmelized onion and sweetpotatoes and spring green salad with slivered almonds and freshly grated parmesan.
Barbara - I think a lot of it may be retraining not what your relationship with food is, but what your tastebuds and ideals are for what GOOD food is. I cant STAND high fat, really rich food, it tastes awful to me. Changing your tastebuds can be done!
Oh I definitely still like the high fat, rich foods. It's just that I've found many low fat, low calorie recipes I like as well. I've definitely made recipes that came out tasting low calorie (not usually from Cooking Light, but I have several other sources and some of them aren't as dependable); when that happens, we finish off that batch but I don't make the recipe again. You win some, you lose some.
Sorry, if what I said about frozen meals came out wrong. I'm not trying to criticize anyone for eating Lean Cuisines or other frozen meals. I definitely have them occasionally myself for lunch, especially the panini sandwiches. I did try some of the spa cuinsines recently though and they left me really hungry. Not "I need a snack" hungry, but "did I forget to eat lunch?" hungry. And I was not low on my calories so I didn't actually have room in my plan to eat anything else. It was pretty miserable . I do have better luck with the Ethnic Gourmet entres.
It was really good. ds was not cooperative so I skipped the sweet potatoes and made couscous pilaf instead. Actually think that went better anyway, I think the sweet potatoes would have been too much with that particular marinade on the salmon - too overwhelming. I'll save the sp's for something like pork or steak.
There is LOTS of gourmet healthy food. You just have to look for it.
And since you do like to cook, approach it like learning new techniques and new recipes...isn't that half the fun?
Barbara,
I LOVE the Amy's organics meals... they do a great veggie lasagna, very tasty Indian one (can't think of the meal right now) and I LOVE their Enchilada casserole.. all are veggie and under 400 cal....
I also love the Pannini by Lean Cuisine and Chicken Margarita by Healthy Choice.
I found an old recipe from my veggie days that I love.. it's a black bean salad.. Now I use black soy beans and add fresh cilantro (that I grow), jalapeno, tomato, lime juice, chick peas, finely chopped red bell, a small amt. of corn, chopped red onion, chopped cucumber, garlic salt, lemon pepper and cumin. (I think this is everything.. this is off the top of my head).. I am making it for lunch today.. I think i am going to see how it freezes (well I KNOW I am as I am going to put it in 1C containers RIGHT AWAY and put the rest in the freezer. DH and I will have it again for lunch tomorrow..
See! I am motivated... BUT.. this is my one meal for the week.. Next week I think I will try some Pasta Primavera... DreamField's pasta is pretty good and when I was on LC it didn't take me out of ketosis at all so I know it is very LC.. I have a stash of it from my LC days..
Ennay..
Do you like Quinoa?
I used to make a mean Quinoa pilaf.. and it has protein (Quoina).
Your meal sounded wonderful.... thank you very much for sharing..
Barbara.. what did you make for dinner last nite?
Patrick and I had Boston Market chicken breast, mixed veggies (they use too much butter) and a side salad.
I do like Quinoa, but dh doesnt so I dont make it often. After being on SB for quite awhile, my idea of an ideal portion of starch is pretty small, so I make small portions of the good starches that dh likes - ww couscous, brown rice, barilla pasta, sweet potatoes etc. I no longer crave huge plates of pasta.
Preheat oven to 350°.
Coat 2 (6-ounce) ramekins with cooking spray; sprinkle each with 3/4 teaspoon granulated sugar.
Combine 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, flour, cocoa, and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook 2 minutes, stirring until smooth. Spoon chocolate mixture into a medium bowl; cool 4 minutes. Stir in vanilla.
Place egg white in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Add remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form (do not overbeat). Gently stir 1/4 of egg white mixture into chocolate mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Spoon mixture into prepared dishes. Sharply tap dishes 2 or 3 times to level. Place dishes on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until puffy and set. Sprinkle each soufflé with 1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar. Serve immediately.
Yield: 2 servings (serving size: 1 soufflé)
NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 79(7% from fat); FAT 0.6g (sat 0.3g,mono 0.2g,poly 0.0g); PROTEIN 3.5g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 26mg; SODIUM 35mg; FIBER 1.4g; IRON 0.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 16.5g
Marcia Whyte Smart
I made these tonight and they came out great, but I recalculated the calories just to make sure they were correct (it tasted too good to be just 80 calories). It turns out that the calorie info is a misprint (which is a real bummer because I was pretty stoked to find this recipe). The calories more like 190 per serving. The Cooking Light website lists the calories as 150 for the same recipe, but I'm not sure how they get them so low unless somehow their cocoa and/or is a lot lower in calories than mine. I thought you all might want to know.
I love to cook also, and I love to eat what I cook, even if it's not great for you. I'm having a hard time finding recipes that sound tasty that are healthy. And another downfall, I love baking. Cookies, bread. All the stuff that you're really not supposed to have a lot of. Ugh.
I'm an emotional eater, I eat when I'm bored, lonely, stressed, sad, etc. and it's been really hard not to turn to food when it happens.
I love sugar. It's my huge weakness. I've (mostly) managed to get over the emotional aspect but there's still an underlying sugar addiction. Once I start eating refined carbs I don't stop. Luckily if I can force myself to avoid them for a while I get better at not having them at all.
Aside from that I'm moderately indifferent to food. I don't need very much food and I didn't like most of the things my parents prepared growing up so I didn't care too much about mealtimes. (Try eating standard American cooking if you don't like meat, potatoes, or onions.) I'm not sure I feel better when I eat healthily, but I do feel better about myself which makes a huge difference.
. I do have better luck with the Ethnic Gourmet entres.
