Friday, March 24, 2006

Food

I'm writing this post mainly because I'm hungry! I want very desperately to lose just 5 extra pounds before I put on anymore baby weight. No one will really notice if I do or not but I am very conscious about not letting my weight creep up. My mother's side of the family has so many bad heart genes and my mother constantly battles her weight. My theory is that it's best to keep it under control rather than try to lose a bunch of it later.

Problem right now is that I have no willpower! There was a time when I could easily drop 5 pounds in a short period of time just by portion control. But this is a very stubborn bit of weight this time around it seems. I am willing to admit, too, that part of me is probably still dealing with some grief issues and just trying to deal with this whole infertility thing. But that's an excuse and I know it.

I've never been much of a cook. I've also always liked eating out. When G was born I knew I had to get better in the kitchen because 1. she needs to grow up with healthy attitudes about food and 2. we can't afford to eat out like we could on two incomes. For a long time now I've fallen back on the recipes I grew up with. Most of them are ground meat based casseroles because that's what my Mom cooked. Even though I buy organic meat, I still just don't feel right about eating so much of it.

So I'm trying to make a switch to a less-meat diet. I can't say that I'm going completely vegetarian because I just enjoy a really good steak too much to ever do that. And I certainly couldn't go vegan (without dairy). I've got a slew of vegetarian cookbooks on reserve at the library and I just finished a copy of Vegetarian times. I even copied a few recipes out of it. Does it count that the first one I'm going to try is for scones???!

Anyway, if anyone has any good meat-less recipes that are easy to cook, please pass them along. Or any recommendations for good cookbooks.

Gotta go check on those scones!

2 comments:

Josefina said...

I don't cook a lot either, my strength goes more on the sweet side.
But what E has been cooking a lot lately (on my requirement) is WOK, I mean, in a wok, basically chopped meat with vegetables. You could try it without meet, it's really delicious and it isn't really caloric.
You can put mushrooms, "dragon teeth" (I will search for it's real name in english), succini, carrots, and anything else you like. Just put everything in the wok, and let it cook.
I will try to remember to look for other simple no-meat recipes, see if I can help you!!
pd: I've been trying to lose some weight this last month, so I totally understand you!!

lorem ipsum said...

Two veggie cookbooks I have: Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin (over the years, I've tinkered with a lot of the recipes to taste) and Vegetarian Express Lane Cookbook: Hassle-Free, Healthful Meals for Really Busy Cooks by Sarah Fritschner. Sarah is the food editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal and I bought it from her several years ago when she was at a farmer's market. I love it!