From Dangerous to Delicious and Healthy.

THE RECIPES YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

I worked on this post for quite awhile yesterday and am so excited to post it today. I know that many of us love food, even when it's "bad" for us. I could eat pizza every day for the rest of my life and seriously be happy. I have lost a lot of cravings for other foods lately but pizza, good chips and salsa from ghetto Mexican restaurants, and french fries are still foods that I would indulge in if they were on the program. Unfortunately I can't come up with any substitutes for bean burritos on my program, and pizza is way out of the question, so sadly I have to go without for a time.

I know I enjoy celebrating with food and every party is a nightmare for me, especially because most parties involve food. I can think of many parties that I went to and ate myself so sick that I felt a big combination of guilt, shame, and full, and disgust. For people not battling a food addiction this might not be a common scenario, but for me, parties are just one big fat disaster.

I decided that once I am in my maintenance phase I would like to enjoy some of these dangerous foods, but with a twist. I just know that I will always have to be accountable to myself and for me that means never going back. I just can't go back to eating out once a week. I can't go back to ordering pizza a few times a month. I can't go back to having french fries with meals. I can't. I won't. I know where it will take me. I don't have the luxury of being able to get away with that kind of eating, even once in awhile. I am sure that I will have "real" food like that again, but in very very small quantities.

The solution you might ask? Turn some of my favorite "danger" foods into something I can enjoy, savor, ad eat without guilt. I am not a fan of pre-packaged "diet" foods like snackwells, 100 calorie packs, or even baked chips. I know I have used these as substitutes but honestly those foods don't really do the trick for me. I really believe in making REAL food. Sure, I can't make my own turkey pepperoni, but I can make my own pizza crust, sauce, and veggies.

There are always ways to make food better and I am on a mission to find out how. These recipes I am posting today are ones that I have tried (most of them) and have loved. I dug into all my cookbooks and magazines to find the very best recipes for danger foods turned healthy. We all have those danger foods and wouldn't it be nice to have a healthy version of that food that actually tastes like real food? Now I know I will probably always prefer the taste of real french fries verses baked, but these baked ones are a substitute that really do satisfy the craving.

I hope you will all check out these recipes. (The link is at the top of the page AND in the recipes tab) About halfway through typing them up I remembered that most of these recipes could be found online with pictures, printer-friendly versions, and reviews so I have posted links to the ones that could be found online. Just click on the link and then a little link will appear under the link. Don't worry, the link is there, it just works a little different because you have to click it twice. For fun I have also posted a picture of myself sporting the jeans that fit again, you know the ones, the ones I've been talking about FOREVER that fit before I got married? A little snug, yes, but I don't care, I'm rockin those snug jeans with PRIDE. Yes these are with my camera phone but it's SO much easier to just bluetooth a picture than with a regular camera that involves chords.