What's for dinner?

“Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.” 

― Craig Claiborne

I am not a great cook.  Most of the time when I experiment with a recipe or try to come up with one on my own the end result is not pretty.  And it sure doesn't taste good. Occasionally I will have a success. But not often enough that I can trust myself to just randomly come up with pleasing recipes. To this end I recently purchased several cookbooks.  I first bought 400 Calorie Fix on discount at Wal-Mart for $6.  I got it because I liked the idea of eating 400 calorie meals.  It seemed fairly easy and full of foods that not only I would eat, but my family would as well.  I cooked many recipes from this book for a couple of months and then I got the 400 Calorie Fix Cookbook for Christmas.  Yay, more recipes! In January we went to a local flea market where I found several Taste of Home cookbooks.  So now I have a nice collection of cookbooks and recipes.

I've always been a lazy one. I enjoy eating out. I love food. All food. But the thing I loved most was not having to cook. I hated cooking with a passion, mostly because I cooked the same few things over and over and over.  So I preferred eating out to cooking at home. But since I've started dieting I have to cook my meals. Sure I can eat out occasionally, but any food you buy at any restaurant, fast food or not, is laden with calories. So in order to keep my calories low, I need to cook the majority of my meals. First I sat down with my cookbooks and made note of every recipe that looked good to me. I also looked for 400 calorie recipes online, and made myself a notebook with them.  Armed with all of my new information I started cooking. And do you know what I discovered?  Cooking is FUN!  At first it was a chore that I hated with a passion.  But then it grew on me, and pretty soon I would rather go home and cook than eat out.  I KNOW!  Who would have thought I would ever say that?!  But the food that I prepare at home is just so tasty. And really most of my recipes are super simple that take very little time.  And an average meal for me is around 500 calories. 

Skillet Pork Chop with onion gravy, Honey-Lemon Carrots,
Fried Corn, Homemade Mac and Cheese - 608 calories

Ok so the Mac and cheese put me a little up on calories for that meal.  I don't care, it was soooo worth it.  I don't think I'll ever win an award for plating. And probably not for cooking. But what I have done is made my family look forward to dinner again and discovered a love for food that I didn't even know I had.  And I think the reason that I don't fail miserably at my diet is because 90% of what I eat is home cooked meals.  Now if I could just get rid of the junk food habit!  UGG!