my goal this year is to actually pull out my recipes and cookbooks and try making stuff and making it healthier if I can (doing Weight Watchers). I've collected tons and tons of recipes since I was a preteen. My mom and grandma both loved cookbooks and recipes so guess I  inherited the 'gene'! But I've never done more than try a recipe every so often from being lazy and intimidate dmostly (cook for myself) but I sat looking at my stack of cookbooks and files of recipes and decided to start cooking!!

So far I've made:

shepherd's pie from taste of home rcipe cards (found at walmart checkoutstand) of course had to modify this one and stupid me should've read the cook's note about the 3 strips of bacon providing flavor throughout the meat filling and I never would've used low fat turkey bacon..was a little dry but still pretty good.

chicken pot pie - came out good but think I'll try 2 cans of veg-all next time for more veggies per serving - got this recipe from coworker

black bean soup - this was a simple and good hot spicy soup! got it from a posting on weight watchers message board

tomato and barley soup - allrecipes daily recipe a while back. modifed using italian seasoned tomatoes and added more italian seasonings, left out the barley since I planned on eating it with a cheese sandwich and didn't want the extra carbs. also cut up some leftover white asparagus I had in the fridge.

spaghetti squash - tried this for the first time and I give it 2 thumbs up for fun factor but next time I won't forget the important step of getting the water out of it before adding spaghetti sauce to the top...talk about runny! whew! I think this would be good added to a soup! and it was super fun shredding it up with the fork!

also tried a new twist on my staple breakfast of egg beaters---added spicy fat free refried beans!

also tried some 'healthy' nachos the other day and, well, I wont' be buying the tyson southwest precooked chicken breast again.too much chil i powder taste or something...like the fajita breast at walmart better...or HEB's brand...

anyone else wanna post their tries/successes/goals??

other goals I've achieved over the past 1 1/2 years since doing WW are: I now like beans! never liked them before. I've also started eating veggies and even like them plain! I've also cut back on a lot of carbs and subbed whole wheat or fiber enriched. along with the desire to cook more stuff and try new foods.

I am just trying to expand my horizons and try some different things lately.  Most recently, I made an Indian curry chicken dish at home, and it was pretty good- and surprisingly, my 11 year old son even liked it!  Prior to this, my one and only experience with Indian food was at a local restaurant at their $4.95 lunch buffet, and it was HORRIBLE...so ever since then, I have shied away from Indian foods.  I found a local shop that sells clothing, food products, and other things from India, and had a wonderful chat with the owner, who convinced me to try cooking at home with their spice blends, so I bought some of their curry powder, and he gave me the recipe to try.  I am now looking for other recipes I can use with the curry powder, and plan to go back to his shop and try a few of the other spice mixes he has.

Also tried a recipe out of the current issue of Cooking Light, a butternut squash soup with gruyere croutons, and it was excellent.   It's a blended soup with butternut squash, potatoes, and leeks, very simple but remarkably flavorful.  That recipe is definitely a keeper!

Susanna, congrats on your goals!  I think one of the most important things is to be willing to try new things, including preparing foods different ways, because it is so easy for us all to get into ruts with our eating/cooking habits.  Sounds like you have made a lot of strides in making good changes.

those sound good! I haven't had time to cook this  week and probably wont' do much next week either but I have some more recipes marked to try soon.

I haven't been able to do anything with light coconut milk...I've tried 3 recipes 3 different times and it's gross to me. sigh. also can't do anything with brussels sprouts...ick...or bell peppers. they're pretty but I hate the taste...maybe someday they'll grow on me. I've never tried fixing Indian food though.

Susanna, my favorite way to prepare brussel sprouts is to roast them.  Trim off the stem end and halve them lengthwise.  Toss them on a baking sheet or a 9x11 pan with some olive oil.  I sometimes also like to add some sliced fennel (which is sometimes called anise in the grocery store) or maybe some sliced sweet onions.  Roast for about half an hour at 400, tossing every 10 minutes or so.  The outer leaves should begin to brown, and the brussel sprouts should be tender but not mushy.  When you remove them from the oven, drizzle with some balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.  The key is not to overcook brussel sprouts.  The sweetness of the balsamic vinegar really balances the natural bitter flavor of the sprouts.  These can be served warm, room temp or cold- they are fine the next day as leftovers after being refrigerated overnight.

What have you tried with coconut milk?  I really only use it in Thai curry dishes, and you really don't taste it much there because of the curry spices.  I also recently tried a recipe from a friend, "sticky Thai chicken with coconut rice"- the rice was cooked with half water and half light coconut milk, and it was quite good.  The coconut flavor was very subtle.

On bell peppers- I'm with you, I don't like the green ones at all!  I do like red, yellow, and orange ones, especially roasted, which is very easy to do.  Just put them under the broiler, and when the skins begin to turn black, turn them.  When they have roasted on all sides, remove them and put them into a paper or plastic bag for about 5 minutes.  This allows the skins to sort of steam, and makes them very easy to remove- just peel off with your fingers.  Don't rinse them though- that removes a lot of the flavor!  Cut them in half lengthwise, remove the stem end and scoop out all the seeds and membranes.  Roasted peppers are fantastic in salads, pureed in soups, on sandwiches, or just drizzled with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  You can make roasted pepper-based pasta sauces and dips also- I have made a white bean and roasted pepper dip that is fantastic with pita chips, and very easy.  Just puree a can of drained/rinsed cannelini beans with some roasted red pepper, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

I'm still on a quest for new Indian food recipes- not finding a lot that doesn't require a lot of complicated ingredients that I don't have though!  If it wasn't so cold and rainy, I'd try a tandoori chicken, but I won't be able to break out my grill until at least May.

I may have to try the spagetti squash, now that you mentioned it- I have never tried that, but I always see them in the grocery store.  My kids are not big squash fans, but maybe they'd try it if they got to shred it up.  Do you cut it in half or quarters to cook it?

Lesley

I havne't tried roasting anything.

I can't remmber the website someone sent me the link to for the spaghetti squash.it had instructions for the oven and microwave but I cut it in half lengthwise and scooped out the seeds then put the halves in a dish..had to use 2 small baking dishes since didn't have a large one...and put some water in the dish and the halves(inside them) and baked for aobut an hour  or two at 350 seems like. I liked shredding them! oh, you cook til you can stick a fork in it easily. it was a bugger cutting it though!

the last coconut milk recip I tried was adding chicken adn using one of those thai packets where you follow the instructions..ick..not to myliking at all. fogot what the other 2 were but I remmber one ws pretty similar..again ick! another thai dish I tried even my german shepherd turned her nose up and walked away and mylab looked at me suspiciously for a month!

Thanks for the info Susanna- that will go on my list of things to try!

I have not tried those Thai kits- but I would be curious to know what kind you used.  I usually go with Thai curry paste and just use the recipe on the jar.  It's pretty simple, you just stir-fry chicken and veggies with some seasonins (garlic and ginger, I think), then add the coconut milk and curry paste at the end.  I use red curry- green is a bit too hot for me, but if you like milder foods, you can try yellow.  You really can't taste the coconut milk through the curry seasonings, but the coconut milk provides a nice creamy texture that you wouldn't get if you used water or broth.  I think curry is not necessarily for everyone though, so it might just not be your thing.  At least you gave it a try, so now you know!

this was oneo f those soup packets they make..ick..but thai just might not be my thing..

Well, had success with another soup but ended up freezing about half of it because though it was good it was boring! I made a healthy meatloaf Sunday with homemade mashed potatoes...added fat free sour cream and fat free cheddar cheese...it was pretty good but was better reheated the next day IMO. I think next time I'll use tomato sauce instead of tomato juice..was a bit looser than I like mine...

my coworker made french onion soup the other day and brought some for me to try and it was so good..I'd never had that before; not even ina restaurant! Now I want to try it myself...

Susanna, I often do that with soups- like you, I get bored of eating the same thing for more than a couple of days!  If it freezes well, then I like to make a double batch to freeze some for later- it's a great time-saver for evenings when I'm short on time or just don't feel like doing a lot of cooking.  What kind of soup was it?

French onion- one of my favorites!  A really easy way to do it is to cook the onions in a crock pot.  Just slice the onions thin and put them in the crock pot with some butter and cook on low  for half the day, then turn to high for the rest of the day.  Give them a stir a couple of times- not too often.  You won't need to add any liquid, they will make their own as the carmalize.  Then when you have your onions all done, you can make the rest of the soup on the stovetop.  Sautee a little minced garlic in some butter, then add the onions and some beef broth.  Simmer 20 minutes or so.  Add a pinch of thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.  This is good by itself, or with traditional cheese croutons, which are just toasted slices of bread topped with shredded cheese put under the broiler.  You can use any kind of cheese you want, but gruyere is my favorite.

Speaking of soup, I made one the other day for a pot luck we are having at work today.  It's white beans with ham, kale, and roasted garlic, and I think it turned out pretty well.  I kind of combined two recipes, plus added my own tweaks, so I was a little nervous about how it would work.  My only complaint is that it took forever to cook, because I cooked the beans from scratch- usually I use canned ones, but I had a bag of dried great northern beans I wanted to use.  Just didn't realize how long it takes those to cook!  It made a lot, so there will be lots of leftovers!

boy think I gained 10 lbs reading about the butter LOL! My coworker used butter/olive oil then skimmed the fat off the top after it cooled before heating it up. she used baby swiss and some small slices of french bread on hers and stuck it in the toaster over to melt...I just used the cheese. I'm gonna give it a try..the crockpot sounds like a good way to do the onion though while I sleep after night shift on that rotation...

the soup I made was a 'modified' tomato barley from allrecipes.com..one they sent out as the daily recipe. I left out the oil and barley LOL so guess the barley part didnt' get fulfilled..no particular reason other than to not have as many carbs in the soup so I could eat a toasted cheese sandwich with it instead. next time I think I'll add the barley and eat it 'as is'. Ialso used another reader's tips about adding additional italion seasonings and it called for fresh tomatoes and canned so for the canned I used the italian seasoned ones.figure I couldnt' ahve too many seasonings!

I tried kale in a soup once and it was terrible.I think it was the whole recipe and not just the kale. I have a book I got on amazon called 'greens glorious greens' that gives way to cook different types of greens but haven't tried any of the recipes yet. was flipping through a cookbook I've had awhile '1000 lowfat recipes' It hink is the title and there were a couple of soups I thought sounded good 'chicken corn chowder' and 'velvet corn soup'..hmm.maybe I'm in a 'corn' mood!

Tonight I made a pizza casserole that was really good. 3rd time I've made it in the past couple of years(weight watchers leader gave us teh recipe back near when I started).I'm sure my version was an extra' point' but it was worth it and still pretty healthy. pillsbury pizza dough (refrigerated) rolled out and I added italian spices and garlic to the top. then I browned a lean turkey hot italian sausage with about 3/4 lb of lean hamburger(leftover from my burger ealier!) with garlic and chopped onion. then stirred in italian diced tomatoes and the rest of the tomato juice leftover from the meatloaf the other day. I was glad to use up stuf instead of it going to waste...the onions were stuck in the freezer because they were at their 'use by' date so used those up in this. and it had a good taste..enough of the sausage for a good spicy flavor. not sure how leftovers of this will freeze but it makes 6 huge pieces and not sure I want that many in the next few days but we'll see..sometimes I surprise myself! I also used up the rest of the green beans I had from lunch. oh and lunch I used up some baked beans I had leftover from a meal before...sorta pushed it on those but they still tasted ok...my mom told me a week was too long..she only does leftovers 3 days but they smelled and tasted ok and I'm not sick! :-)

It's been fun cooking though. I'm trying not to buy a lot of new groceries without using up stuff I already have. some new breakfast stuff I did last week were egg beaters mixed with black fat free refried beans and some of that fresh guacamole you can buy in stores now(sadly that got wasted because it goes bad so fast) but found some low carb whole wheat tortillas at HEB that are really pretty good and made breakfast tacos! good and filling.  I might do something crockpot this weekend or resort to the frozen chicken breasts/precooked frozen shrimp I have on hand..working 12 hr shifts I dont' feel like doing much whenI get home or before work..doing good if I have time to exercise...and can't leave crockpot on during the day when working 'cause anything that smells good my dogs can get to! I usually use the crockpot when Ig et off of night shift...come in and brown meat for chili or taco soup while cheicking email and taking the girls otu to potty then dump everyting in the crockpot and go to sleep...also like dumping frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts in it with a can or two of rotel tomatoes and can or two of black beans then whe n I wake upI shred the ch icken and stir in some corn and eat with corn torillas smeared with a bit of fat free sour cream..messy but tastes good!

Ya'll made me hungry reading your posts.  I also have a lot of cookbooks at home.  Susanna you have inspired me to get them down and go through them.  How do you keep up with the recipes that you want to try.  sometimes I would write the recipe name and page number down and what cookbook I got it out of but  the problem wiht that was I always lost the paper I wrote the information down on.  I also love the allrecipe website.  They have some really good recipes on there.

I finally just flip through and if one catches my eye strongly enough and I have most of the stuff and it looks like it'll fit into my schedule I'll make it..just get the rest of the ingredients if/when I know I can make it....seems like less goes to waste that way! before I'd buy for 3-5 dishes then get busy or too tired and nothing got made...Idid good with that pizza casserole...I've eaten 4 servings and only have 2 left...I'l eat them this weekend or freeze them and see how that goes. adding that one hot italian lean turkey sausage gave it a great flavor!

there are 2 corn soup recipes i'm wanting to try but I have to wait until I'm actually off Monday/Tuesday and see if I'm still wanting to try them before buying hte rest of the ingredients; otherwise I know the milk would end up ruining!

I also use sticky notes to mark recipes i want to try..this doesn't work well when I'm hungry 'cause everything gets a sticky! :-)

Renee, I have been looking at recipe software because I have had the same issues- can't keep track of all the different recipes I want to try that come from lots of different sources.  My husband got me MasterCook 9.0 for Christmas, and I was SOOO excited to try it...however I have been very disappointed, because the web import tools do not work, and the company's "technical support", if you can even call it that, was no help.  Since I don't generally have time to type in hundreds of recipes, it's not going to work too well for me. :(  Anyway, I've been looking at others and there are lots out there, so maybe that's something you want to explore, especially if you get a lot of recipes off the web.  I subscribe to several cooking magazines and that's where I find a lot that I want to try out- and usually I can get those same recipes from the magazine's websites so that I don't have to type them all in.

Susanna, I love corn chowder- tell me about yours when you get a chance to try them out!

I"ve got Mastercook but haven't tried it out yet..I got it because several ladies on the weight watchers board said you can cut and paste recipes in it..it's gonna be a bummer and a half if I can't do that!

right now I'm trying to make that onion soup likemy coworker did last week...weight watchers says we're supposed to get 2 tsp healthy oil so I used olive oil to cook the onions in and added a little bit of wine...got the beef broth ready and some baby swiss to put on top..this had better be good!

I hope the soup turns out!  Let me know how MasterCook works out for you too.  Not everyone has a problem with it- it seems that the problem I have is due to running Windows XP.  They supposedly had fixes for the bugs, but they didn't work for me.  Hopefully you will have better luck than I did.  Fortunately, it was not expensive software, or I would be asking for a refund.

well the soup came out good! salty though so won't fix it all the time I dont' think..took a long time to cook the onions. I ate the rest for supper today...for lunch I'd thawed out some of those thin boneless pork chops and cut up sweet potato and frozen italiangreen beans and did them in olive oil..cheated with both and nuked them first..simple but it was  pretty good.

not sure I feel like dealing with mastercook now! mine is also XP...sigh...

Aww, now I feel bad for mentioning my problems with MasterCook- don't let that deter you from at least trying it out!  Yours might work- I don't know why mine doesn't, but I really liked it before I started having the problems.  I neglected to mention that the web importing *did* work at first, but then for some reason stopped working, and I have not been able to figure out why.  The "technical support" on their website consists of a few notes on known problems and supposedly how to fix them, but it didn't work for me.  Then when I emailed the company via their tech support page, I got back an email with the EXACT same thing on their site pasted into the email!  That's when I gave up and started researching other programs.  Anyway, what I wanted to say was that it might work ok for you, so don't let my bad experience deter you from trying it out.  If the web import stuff worked, I would love the program.  I put a few of my own recipes in there by hand, and I do really like how it organizes things, and especially how it calculates the nutritional values for you, based on the ingredients that you list.

Glad to hear that the soup was good- although I hear you on the cooking time on the onions!  It does take forever to properly carmalized that many onions, and that's why I like the crock pot method.  Once they are cooked there, then I put them on the stovetop with some butter/olive oil and reduce the liquids, and it takes much less time.

I haven't done much cooking this week- it's been kind of hectic, so we got Chinese take-out one night, and I did an old chicken stand-by last night.  Last weekend I did some maple-soy glazed pork chops that turned out really well- the marinade was SO simple and they were really delicious!  I cooked them under the broiler, but if the weather was nicer I'd probably grill them next time.  The marinade was 1/3 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup soy sauce (I used the reduced sodium kind), and 1 tsp adobo sauce (from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo).  I found the recipe on epicurious.com, but it was actually for salmon- I just used the same marinade with the pork chops.  They were great over brown rice pilaf.

yeh, see what you mean about the crockpot now! had now idea it'd take so friggin' long!

well, this evening I decided to try a recipe I got emailed to me from allrecipes.com 'chicken thighs surprise'..said you could use any chicken parts and any vegetables..sigh..halved the recipe but forgot and added the whole can of chicken broth instead of 1/2 can...so my stew was pretty good LOL! 1/2 can makes a big difference between casserole and stew...

Oh no!  I have done that kind of thing before, but at least yours was salvageable!  A couple of years ago, I was making a pumpkin pie for a holiday potlulck at work.  I misread the recipe- it said one CUP of pumpkin puree, and for some reason, I read one CAN.  So I put the whole can in, and didn't figure out my error until after it had baked and was a big, mushy mess.  I had to drive to the store to get more pumpkin and start all over again!

I wish the rest of my family liked casseroles, but they won't eat them usually.  I make them occasionallly so that I have something to bring to work for lunch, but it would be nice to be able to make one ahead and have an easy dinner.  That's what I get for having picky kids, I guess!  I did throw one together earlier this week- sauteed some italian sausage, mushrooms, onions, artichoke hearts and olives, tossed in some whole wheat penne pasta, mixed in some jarred spagetti sauce, and topped with some grated parmigiano cheese, and baked.  It's pretty good- and I've gotten several lunches out of it.

Hi Susanna,

I just posted my Turkish spaghetti recipe on pbs and it is great with whole wheat pasta.  I'm a life time WW and the exchanges are with 1C pasta. 1C meat sauce ( a lot) /1/4 C garlic sauce  = 8 pts.

I usually use only 2/3 C meat sauce and it's still plenty.

My best dinner and WW tip to give you is to make a new cook book with only the recipes you like that you can eat every day guilt free and healthy.  It doesn't have to be pretty -I use a 3 ring notebook and just copy the recipe out of the book and put my notes on it.  It comes in real handy when I'm hungry for something new or making a grocery list for the next week.

Good luck

tracyL

lesley, I didn't like casseroles until I was out of college..Ilikedmy food all separate! even thehamburger helper my mom made I would pick out the meat and pasta and eat them separately! I wouldnt' have though a can and a cup of pumpkin would've made that much difference...

Tracy, congrats on making lifetime! I've been stuck up and down 10 lbs and can't seem to motivate myself/control myself to lose the next 40..lost about 40 but need to lose more. I get too stressed at work and work a rotating 12 hr shift and it's really hard for me thoughI need to get a grip! I like the idea about the recipes. Ihave a box I've been putting the 'tried and true' ones in and every so often I try a new one.

Hi everyone!  I'd like to try some new easy low fat recipes.  We've been in a food rut lately and I'm tired of cooking the same things. 

The DH and I usually cook on Saturday night... enough to get us through the following week.  When we get home from work we just nuke what we've made.  We were quite creative for years and enjoyed cooking elaborate meals on Saturday nights.  LOL, sometimes we wouldn't finish up until the wee hours of the morning. That's changed in the last year or so.  We've been busy with other things and don't have as much time to devote to cooking.  I think I'll enjoy being part of this thread and picking up new tips.  Hopefully, I can help contribute some good ideas, too!

Tonight's meals involved  a lower-in-fat meatloaf and spicy baked catfish.   I'll make the potatoes tomorrow  because I'm out of cumin that the recipe calls for.  We'll add some sort of vegetable or a salad and we should be set for next week.   I love not having to think about cooking dinner after work!

Hi Jo! Do you bread your catfish? I haven't tried much with fish but I'd like to find some easy and good recipes to try. I was gonna do a lowfat meatloaf yesterday but  no eggs or egg sub to use and wasn't sure what it's purpose is in the meatloaf but think it helps hold the stuff together so figured if I didn't want my meatloaf to resemble a taco salad I'd better go ahead and freeze the meat then that it out for Monday or Tuesday!

I still have those 2 corn soup recipes to choose between and since it's gotten cold again chili or taco soup is sounding pretty good..I could do either one of those in the crockpot Monday and let it cook while I sleep...hmm..wonder if it's gonna still be cold then?!

We made a rub out of paprika, dry mustard, cayenne pepper, cumin, pepper, thyme and salt.  Sprinkled it over the fish and baked it until it was done.  The house smelled wonderful!

I've made meatloaf without the eggs.  I think as long as you have something in there to help bind it, you don't really need the eggs.  A little worcestershire sauce, ketchup, milk, broth, etc. will work.

This is my favorite meatloaf recipe.  We use ground turkey or 97% fat free ground beef, low fat cheese and reduced fat crackers.  So, not truly low fat cooking, more like 'not as artery clogging' cooking!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rempel-Family-Meatloaf/Detail.aspx (meatloaf recipe)