Probably a dopey question..but ..

CJ Jones said:

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

Tough one. I also like cooking for others, and have a habit of "licking
the spoon" too.

Quick question: when you say "others" do you mean your day-to-day
family cooking or entertaining other people?

If its just "family" cooking, perhaps someone else can take over the
cooking for a while, just until you have got your weight down a bit?
You could still make salads and soups or any non-fattening stuff.
Snacking on raw veggies is healthy... or maybe just having someone to
talk to and taste the food for you when you are cooking would help?

If you entertain a lot, I would cut down on that for a while - your
friends will understand.

Good luck!

Cheers
Cathy(xyz)

"CJ Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so I've
ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things, as
I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

thanks!

CJ

Maybe not typical, but the more I cook, the less I tend to eat. At Christmas
I made all kinds of peanut brittle and similar candy, and I ate some, but
not a lot. The more I made, the less I wanted to eat of it.

There was something on TV a while back that said that just smelling
different food combinations can make you feel full sooner, so maybe that has
something to do with it. But for me it's true even if I'm making familiar
foods. And it's not that I'm doing a lot of tasting while cooking. I might
take a little taste here and there to adjust seasonings, but it's not like a
meal's worth of tastes.

I can also be happier with small portions of things that are particularly
tasty. In the end, I eat a lot less, calorie-wise, if I'm eating tastier
foods even if they're higher in fat, calories, or carbs, whichever you're
counting, because I stop eating a lot sooner.

In article <[email hidden]>,

CJ Jones said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so I've
ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

I am a big fan of Weight Watchers. If you follow their plan carefully,
you can lose weight and keep it off. At least that's been my experience
and for other people I know.

Weight Watchers offers many healthful recipes that you can cook for
yourself and others to enjoy. The trick really, is to watch your portion
sizes and get a reasonable amount of exercise each week. If you want to
cook for friends, eat less the rest of the day and get in some rigorous
exercise.

Check out http://www.weightwatchers.com for details and recipes.

CJ Jones said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so I've
ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

thanks!

CJ

Ride a bike. Seriusly if you live in an area where your daily travels
are lesst than, let's say 5 miles ( 8 km) you can do much of your
traveling with a bike. Add some panniers (saddlebags) and you can do
most food shopping and other errands with no problem.

This means that every trip you make is almost the equivalent of going
to a gym and in an uban environment you often save time over driving 🙂
I cannot say that I have 'lost' weight this way, but I have not gained
any in years by doing this and I don't particularly watch my
diet-well except to check out the hazelnut torte etc at the local
patisserie.
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

CJ Jones <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and posted
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so I've
ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

thanks!

CJ

For me, tasting is pretty much instrumental in cooking because I seldom
measure anything. I put on some weight a few months back but I lost it as
mysteriously as I gained it.

About the only thing I can tell you is to cut down on your own portions of
the meal to compensate for the tasting.

Ob Ancedotal:

I found some old, old pics of a vacation in Europe I took with my parents.
We were in Europe a month and I was 17. The pics are hilarious. The first
pic when we arrived in London was excellent and I looked normal. As we
progressed through the various countries, more pics were taken. You could
literally see our weight gain in the pics. I gained 20 pounds on the trip
and you could see it in the pics as the trip progressed. It was hilarious.
I lost the weight as soon as we got home and I began horseback riding
again.

Michael

--
“It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun.”
_Ray Kroc, creator of the McDonald's franchise

CJ Jones said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so I've
ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

It is possible to eat just about everything you want and still manage to
lose weight if you are willing to work at it. I spend at about 1 1/2 hours
per day in the gym 5 days a week and on Sunday mornings I have a one hour
riding lesson. I have managed a slow but steady weight loss without dieting
since I started that. While I am not exactly on a diet, it has made me a
little more careful about what I eat. That muffin that I have with my
coffee is about 25 minutes on the cross trainer or 45 minutes of walking.

The more you exercise, the more energy you have for it.

Michael \'Dog3\' Lonergan said:

I found some old, old pics of a vacation in Europe I took with my parents.
We were in Europe a month and I was 17. The pics are hilarious. The first
pic when we arrived in London was excellent and I looked normal. As we
progressed through the various countries, more pics were taken. You could
literally see our weight gain in the pics. I gained 20 pounds on the trip
and you could see it in the pics as the trip progressed. It was hilarious.
I lost the weight as soon as we got home and I began horseback riding
again.

Riding is a good way to lose weight. I took up equestrian jumping a few years
ago. I wish I had done it when I was a kid and got it out of my system when I
was young enough that broken bones heal quickly. I was surprised to discover
how physically demanding it it. I used to get tired after a rising post once
around the arena, and cantering is even more tiring. You would think it was the
horse doing all the work.

Last year when the YMCA opened a new facility 2 miles from here I started
working out regularly to lose some weight and get in better shape for riding.
It paid off. I entered my first show in late November and won in my class.

Dave Smith <[email hidden]> hitched up their panties and
posted news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Riding is a good way to lose weight. I took up equestrian jumping a
few years ago. I wish I had done it when I was a kid and got it out of
my system when I was young enough that broken bones heal quickly. I
was surprised to discover how physically demanding it it. I used to
get tired after a rising post once around the arena, and cantering is
even more tiring. You would think it was the horse doing all the work.

Hunt seat and jumping is good exercise but if you want the bones to rattle
try some barrel racing. While growing up we had 4 horses. 2 of the
horses were used for hunt seat and jumping. My old paint mare, Maudie, was
used for trail rides and barrel racing. She was a wiz at the barrels. The
4th horse was a rescue horse. She was a racer and mean as hell. My
parents kept them all until the horses succumbed to old age.

When I graduated from college, I wanted to get back into the horse biz.
OMG, I could not believe the cost of it, just for 1 horse. I could not
afford it. I really miss it and wonder if equestrian events is not the one
thing missing in my life.

Quoted message said:

Last year when the YMCA opened a new facility 2 miles from here I
started working out regularly to lose some weight and get in better
shape for riding. It paid off. I entered my first show in late
November and won in my class.

Hot damned! Congrats. Which class did you win in? Was it Western? The
English classes were always easy for me but the Western were always hard.
Well... except for the Marlboro man in Florida. He was easy.

Michael

--
“It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun.”
_Ray Kroc, creator of the McDonald's franchise

D.Currie said:

"CJ Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so
I've ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste
things, as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

thanks!

CJ

Maybe not typical, but the more I cook, the less I tend to eat.

That's what happens with me. I'll be all set on preparing something and by
the time I'm through at least 50% of the time it goes straight into the
fridge without my taking a bite. I'll have some for lunch or dinner the
next day.

Quoted message said:

There was something on TV a while back that said that just smelling
different food combinations can make you feel full sooner, so maybe
that has something to do with it. But for me it's true even if I'm
making familiar foods. And it's not that I'm doing a lot of tasting
while cooking. I might take a little taste here and there to adjust
seasonings, but it's not like a meal's worth of tastes.

Yep, I'm not a big "taster" while I cook. But then, unless I'm trying a new
recipe I usually already know how to season it and what it's going to taste
like.

This info doesn't really help the OP, though. I know some folks who are
just born tasters. Ever go to someone's house and while you're chatting in
the kitchen as they cook they want you to taste this, try that, do you think
it needs XX? It's their normal "kitchen mode" 🙂

Jill

jmcquown said:

This info doesn't really help the OP, though. I know some folks who are
just born tasters. Ever go to someone's house and while you're chatting in
the kitchen as they cook they want you to taste this, try that, do you think
it needs XX? It's their normal "kitchen mode" 🙂

There are some things you just have to taste. When I make ice cream there is no
way you can clean off the paddles. There are all those arms and all sitting at
different angles. You can either let it drip all over the counter of into the
sink, or you can lick them clean. :-)

I taught my son to bake cookies when he was young and there were only half as
many cookies in a batch of his cookies as there were in a batch of mine because
he ate so much of the dough.

On Sat, 04 Feb 2006 04:53:49 GMT, CJ Jones <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so I've
ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

My loving toots, D, has dropped over 70 lbs in the past year and a
half eating mostly stuff I've cooked for her, and I cook pretty well.
We're follownig the South Beach rules, mostly. That means low carbs,
and reduced fats. I've tried to replace what's missing with
intensified flavors. Here's an example from a little while back:

[quote from Google search]

D came home from the Cow Hill "supermarket" with a pack of pork chops,
an orange, some frozen okra, some zucchini, and jalapenos.

It was a challenge of sorts.

I zested the orange and put the zest into our mini chopper. I added a
bunch of pecans. And a little lemon confit. And some cilantro left
from last night. And some Dijon mustard. And a little jalapeno. And
some pepper. Chopped, buzzed, rechopped it all to a chunky paste
which I spread over the pork chops. One side only. I'd previously
set the chops into an oiled baking dish. They're in the oven now.

I put the okra -- all of it -- into an oiled iron skillet, added salt,
and brought it to a simmer on the stove top before setting it into the
oven to cook at a medium temperature.

I sliced the zukes into strip-like thin wedges, tossed them with olive
oil, a little lemon confit, and pepper. They're in the oven.

I sweated some garlic in oil and in a separate pan reduced some smoked
turkey stock till it was pretty thick. I juiced the orange into the
pan with the stock and reduced some more. In went the garlic. Voila!
Reduction sauce for the pork!

[end quote]

Reduced stocks are a really good way to make low calorie foods feel
good in your mouth. And big flavors like lemon confit and Dijon
mustard and chiles, etc. are a good addition, too.

modom

I've heard the trick is to convince yourself that their food is poisoned!

"CJ Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so I've
ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things, as
I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

thanks!

CJ

It's not the riding that keeps the weight off. It's the barn duty
tossing bales and cleaning up (And not the cost of the horse, but the
cost of the farrier, vet and hay, if you don't grow your own). "The
outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man." Or woman. (We
have 5 Davenport Arabians ;^)

OB food:
Greek-Style Pasta with Shrimp (from Cooking Light June '95)
1/4 c olive oil
4 tsp minced garlic
1 lb med shrimp peeled and deveined
1 can or jar artichoke hearts chopped and drained
1 1/2 c crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c tomato chopped
3 T fresh lemon juice
3 tsp fresh parsley, basil or oregano or 1 1/2 tsp dried
12 oz angel hair pasta or linguini

Heat oil & add garlic. Add shrimp and saute until almost cook through.
Add rest of ingredients (except pasta). Saute until shrimp is done and
season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve over cooked pasta.

skai said:

It's not the riding that keeps the weight off. It's the barn duty
tossing bales and cleaning up (And not the cost of the horse, but the
cost of the farrier, vet and hay, if you don't grow your own). "The
outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man." Or woman. (We
have 5 Davenport Arabians ;^)

OB food:
Greek-Style Pasta with Shrimp (from Cooking Light June '95)
1/4 c olive oil
4 tsp minced garlic
1 lb med shrimp peeled and deveined
1 can or jar artichoke hearts chopped and drained
1 1/2 c crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c tomato chopped
3 T fresh lemon juice
3 tsp fresh parsley, basil or oregano or 1 1/2 tsp dried
12 oz angel hair pasta or linguini

Heat oil & add garlic. Add shrimp and saute until almost cook through.
Add rest of ingredients (except pasta). Saute until shrimp is done and
season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve over cooked pasta.

Sounds good. I have been doing a lot of variations of oil garlic and pasta
lately but a post here recently about brown butter got me curious. I fried
up some chopped garlic, ginger and dried chilli flakes in butter then
added some diced red pepper, snow peas and shrimp (that had been marinated
in sesame oil and salt) some lemon juice, coarsely ground pepper and
parsley, then a bit of freshly grated Parmesan.

Last night I did a variation of that with less ginger, cut the cheese and
added a medium sized chopped Roma tomato and used cilantro instead of
parsley. It was very good.

Dave Smith said:

skai said:

It's not the riding that keeps the weight off. It's the barn duty
tossing bales and cleaning up (And not the cost of the horse, but the
cost of the farrier, vet and hay, if you don't grow your own). "The
outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man." Or woman. (We
have 5 Davenport Arabians ;^)

OB food:
Greek-Style Pasta with Shrimp (from Cooking Light June '95)
1/4 c olive oil
4 tsp minced garlic
1 lb med shrimp peeled and deveined
1 can or jar artichoke hearts chopped and drained
1 1/2 c crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c tomato chopped
3 T fresh lemon juice
3 tsp fresh parsley, basil or oregano or 1 1/2 tsp dried
12 oz angel hair pasta or linguini

Heat oil & add garlic. Add shrimp and saute until almost cook through.
Add rest of ingredients (except pasta). Saute until shrimp is done and
season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve over cooked pasta.

Sounds good. I have been doing a lot of variations of oil garlic and pasta
lately but a post here recently about brown butter got me curious. I fried
up some chopped garlic, ginger and dried chilli flakes in butter then
added some diced red pepper, snow peas and shrimp (that had been marinated
in sesame oil and salt) some lemon juice, coarsely ground pepper and
parsley, then a bit of freshly grated Parmesan.

Last night I did a variation of that with less ginger, cut the cheese and
added a medium sized chopped Roma tomato and used cilantro instead of
parsley. It was very good.

I never would have thought of adding the tomato to it, but I'll have
to try that one out! And I think you're right about browning the
butter. It brings out the flavor. Guess it's the same idea as toasting
nuts before using them. It really emphasizes the flavor of the nuts
and works in lots of different dishes from sweets to green beans
almondine. I think it makes a big difference. But I've learned the
hard way-never turn your back for a second while doing the browning!

CJ Jones said:

I know all of us have a love of cooking....and I love watching folks
enjoying things I make, but I'm just getting off of prednisone..so I've
ballooned up over the last few months.

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

I've done it. Since a big part of your weight gain has to do with
medication, I wouldn't suggest limiting your calorie intake more and
more. Instead, exercise, exercise, exercise. That's aerobic exercise.
Stretching and weight work are still important, but the emphasis
should be on aerobics. (Advice tailored to people whose weight gain is
from medicine, different advice for different weight gain situations.)

--Lia

cathyxyz said:

CJ Jones said:

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

Tough one. I also like cooking for others, and have a habit of "licking
the spoon" too.

you do?
you put your spit in everybodys mouth?

I have seen chefs dip dey little fingers in the food...
you know...keep da spit out da mix

hehe, but I guess it depends on who you''re cooking for

CJ Jones said:

It's just so dern hard to not taste things as I go,
and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

First thing I do is fill the wine glass... very little tasting while
sipping.

Switch said:

cathyxyz said:

CJ Jones said:

Have any of you had success LOSING weight while you're still enjoying
cooking for others? To me, It's just so dern hard to not taste things,
as I go, and to not try something right when I'm done.

Ideas? Happy anecdotal materials?

Tough one. I also like cooking for others, and have a habit of "licking
the spoon" too.

you do?
you put your spit in everybodys mouth?

I have seen chefs dip dey little fingers in the food...
you know...keep da spit out da mix

hehe, but I guess it depends on who you''re cooking for

Heh. do a google on this group on and old "lick the spoon" thread -
you can read the whole saga 😉
Cheers
Cathy(xyz)