Cook myself skinny? On a budget? With easy prep & delicious results? Challenge Accepted!!
Monday, August 15, 2011
The Skinny Cook Challenge
I have let something that was once not just a "part" of me, but one of things I took the most pride in and so much joy out of, whither away. I have stopped cooking.
It started about 3 years ago, after my husband proposed. I wanted to lose weight for our wedding, and believe it or not, those Italian family recipes that were my main staples were not condusive to dropping the poundage. The lasagna alone had over 3 lbs of cheese in it! I didn't know how to make anything else that didn't require lots of noodles, cheese, sauce, or high sodium meats. What little I knew that wasn't straight out of the Italian cookbook was "Yooper" based food - and if you're familiar with the area, you'll know that lard or Crisco is a favorite ingredient.
So we decided to get regimented on our eating habits; and I'm ashamed to say that for the best part of the last 3 years our standard fall back for dinner was a family pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts. I'd do a bunch of different marinades, freeze them by the dozen, and we'd take one out a day, grill both breasts, and steam a random pack of veggies in the microwave. Once every week, some beautiful steaks would find there way into our rotation. It sounds sort of sad now, even though it did taste good.
Even after the wedding, we realized how much money we'd been saving by relying on this for dinner instead of buying different ingredients each week and we continued. But somewhere our original goal was abandoned...and we've both gained a LOT of weight back. Now, it's not the chicken's fault (haha). Other factors contributed - like the complete collapse of our work out schedule and the tracking what we are eating has become the cliche Alka-seltzer commercial (you know, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing").
So this time, we're going to try a different approach. I want to see if I can foster my skills to not only get my cooking back to par, but expand my vocabulary. In the world of cooking, I want to be not just fluent - but multi-lingual! And as if that weren't enough, I want to prove to myself that I can find delicious recipes that fit into one or more of the following categories: Low Cal, Low Fat, or Low Carb. I really enjoy creating and crafting. I love having people ask for my recipe or advice or request that I bring something to a meal. I want to bring that back into my kitchen and my life.
To start off what I've titled The Skinny Cook Challenge, I've been doing research on different recipes that appeal year round or on holidays, are relatively easy to prep, will have some left overs (money saver), and/or take advantage of fresh seasonal ingredients. Once I have a good list ready, I plan on attacking 1 or 2 recipes per week and posting the results with notes and pictures accompanying the original recipe. Credit for the recipe origin will be given! If you have any recommendations or comments, please let me know! I'd love to see how this project could grow.
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