I think this is where the lazy part kicks in. :)

Thanks for the website info.; I'll check that out. I grew up in a house with five brothers and there was no such thing as leftovers. I look at them now and just think "why are you in my house and what do I do with you?''

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I think that may be the secret for some people, but not everyone. I wouldn't want to tell someone that they need to learn how to cook or they just won't lose weight.

Given that, I have to say that I don't cook, but am becoming pretty stinking tired of the maybe 20 frozen/takeout items I currently eat. I have a really hard time eating anything I haven't seen an actual nutrition label for.

Maybe it's something worth a try though. I've been seeing these 'sauteed helper' things from land o lakes on tv recently. They cook them with chicken breast and veges and look pretty darn good. I need easy, no recipe stuff. Maybe that's not even cooking I guess, and just heating up.

I learned to do more than bake sweets and make quesadillas and spaghetti as an adult, and I completely agree that cooking helps with overall nutrition and weight loss because you know exactly what is going in, you know how many calories, you can make tweaks to almost any dish, you have the full power to be able to take your time and really appreciate the food. I love to cook and try new dishes, All Recipes, Eating Well, and Pinterest as well as asking about family recipes have been successful for me!

Hey JolllyGreen--you're right--it really does help! I'm not a great cook myself, but I've learned to make some pretty delicious, healthy things. Two little tricks you might try for fish are Old Bay seasoning, and lite Italian salad dressing.

Bland/gross fish is usually the result of over-cooking, too little acid, and too little salt. It's hard to screw up fish with one or two seasonings (think garlic powder and dill, or old bay, lemon pepper, etc), some salt, and tomato or lemon as an acid component. Fry in a pan, broil, braise, whatever, but make sure it is salted, seasoned, AND acid is added. The acid really is crucial :)

For me, learning to cook and portion control were the big things. I used to eat pretty much exclusively fast food and/or frozen microwavable dinners.

I starting cooking pretty much 90% of my food a few months ago, but the difference maker in terms of actually losing weight came with keeping a food log and measuring my portions.

I think it's a challenge to lose weight when you eat out a lot, particularly fast food, because even if you watch your portions, the foods are so high calorie it's hard to stay on budget and be satisfied.

If you have access to a nice restaurant that serves healthier options, or can live with the limited lower cal options at fast food joints that might be a different story. For me, cooking for myself makes it much easier to portion control and have a nice variety of foods I enjoy.

I usually pick a max of one red meat recipe, at least one meatless recipe, two seafood recipes and then fill in the gaps with poultry or meatless options.

Since I'm cooking for just me, I generally will prepare one recipe that feeds four, eat that for lunch and dinner the first day, then cook another recipe the next day so I have one new thing for dinner and one leftover thing for lunch, rinse repeat. It's a good balance of spending less time in the kitchen and not getting too bored with endless leftovers.

I too didn't really learn to cook as a child beyond licking the bowl or the spoon if my mom was making something and I happened to be passing by. I was forced to learn the basics (boiling an egg, frying an egg, boiling rice baking a cake) in Home Ec in school. But it wasn't till I was like 16 in boarding school, I remember emailing my mom to ask how to make childhood favourites. For me, learning to cook at this point didn't help, because I still ate a vat-load of my own cooking.

When I decided that I wanted to lose weight, that's when I actually became obsessed with recipes and how to make food lighter and healthier. I mostly use recipes and watch a lot of Food Network to get ideas of interesting cooking techniques, what to make or even to get interesting ideas for upcoming meals, then I challenge myself to make quicker, healthier versions that are to my taste. I still have to be careful about portions though. For me, eating out has always been a beloved treat; it gets kind of expensive to live on though. Congrats on finding your kitchen voice though!

I agree! My nutritionist actually comes to my house for some sessions and we cook easy healthy meals! Its been great. I didn't realize how easy and quick it could be to steam veggies for example or to prepare and bake chicken with seasoning .... It helps A LOT.

It's easy to learn to cook but you have to enjoy the taste of whole, unprocessed food. I mean, if you're trying to replicate the taste of something you're getting in a restaurant, yeah that will be hard. But if you actually LIKE the taste of chicken (for example) without it being bathed in a greasy sauce, then it's easy. You can just sprinkle some salt and pepper and other spices on it, and grill it or bake it. Same thing with most meats. That's just an example.

I can't afford to eat out, so in the absence of being able to cook, £1 potato waffles and the like became the kind of stuff I ended up eating. HORRIBLE. I bit the bullet a few weeks ago and hunted down some cheap recipes. Depending on where I'm living on any particular day I can usually rustle up some wholegrain pasta with pesto sauce or chilli & pine nuts (yum), a mushroom risotto, a turkey burger, an omelette or something.

Glad I finally started learning to cook! :D

i love looking through this website!

www.vintagerecipes.net

hope the link works....i love the idea of cooking like they did "back in the day" when there simply WASN'T the option of fast food, processed food, chemicals in everything etc