Wednesday, January 31, 2007

You Don't Have to Know You're on a Diet...

So far Dean has been doing very well on his diet. I haven’t changed too many of my cooking habits to accommodate his low fat needs since I tend to only cook with olive oil, lean meats, low fat dairy products and lots of fresh produce. The biggest area where he needed to make adjustments was eating out, where he doesn’t make the wisest decisions. So the rules are (1) I continue to cook delicious, health conscious meals (2) meals he eats that I don’t cook must be “wife-approved” and (3) Saturday nights are freebies.

Why, you ask, must I approve meals I don’t personally cook? Because Dean says things like, “Broccoli cheese soup is healthy, right? I mean, it’s soup.”

We decided Saturday nights were a good free meal because the doctor said the main culprit was fast food. (“Did you ever see Supersize Me?” the doctor asked. I have. Obviously he has not.”) We are not as likely to eat fast food on Saturday nights since they are typically reserved for something like Carrabba’s. Fast food was usually for a week night or lunch. He is currently getting used to Wendy’s grilled chicken sandwich with a side of chili. Fries are only approved occasionally from Chik-fil-A since they fry in peanut oil.

Dean’s been lurking more in the kitchen to see what substitutions I’ve made for dinners, which as I mentioned have been few. Last night I was making tacos when he came up behind me to check things out.

“Um, what is that?”

“What?”

That. It doesn’t look like beef.” He said pointing at the skillet.

“Ground turkey…”

“Ugh. Gross.”

“You won’t be able to tell the difference.” I said, grinning.

“Of course I will!”

“Well, you didn’t notice when I first swapped all the ground beef for turkey three years ago.”

Silence.

7 comments:

Scott said...

Poor Deano. You probably spared him from a heart attack with all those substitutions. My wife did that to me when she first moved in with me. One of the first things to go was anything good to drink with dinner, like Coke. Now it's just water. Oddly, I prefer it now. All that sugar turns to fat, plus the caffeine didn't do much for my sleep.

Runner Girl FL said...

YEA DEANO!! I love that guy! I'm glad he is snooping around to learn new stuff. And those grilled chicken sandwiches are pretty good.

Natalie said...

scott-
Um, I hope you mean lucky Deano! He didn't even noticed I pulled the old switcheroo on his favorite foods. Like your wife I am also opposed to anything but water with dinner (unless it's a nice meal, then a glass of wine is okay). It's a very easy way to cut your calories. If I am really in the mood for a Coke, I'll have one after dinner for a treat when I can fully enjoy it.

runnergirl-
I doubt he's going to pick up a pan any time soon, but I think him knowing that you can cook with skim milk and ground turkey helps him realize that his diet doesn't have to taste bad. Maybe instead of avoiding complaining and confrontation I should have convinced him of this years ago. We're all learning.
Last night we had turkey melts with low fat cheese, Boar's head turkey and Publix bakery 9 grain with side salads. Those were a hit.

anne said...

Ahhhhh I love it! I switched the sugar to Splenda and no one was the wiser.

Anonymous said...

I love his man-logic. "I mean it's soup; soup's healthy."

Sounds just like Josh.

Well, sometimes soup is made with heavy whipping cream. And butter.

Also, isn't 98% lean ground beef higher in protein than ground turkey?

brainhell said...

MB,

I should have asked you directly, first. You sexy, sexy postdoc! I'm thinkin' that regardless of whether the bands or intererence pattern appear on the first screen, the second set of slits have no detector behind them, and the electrons behave as usual ... creating a wave interference. Or superimposing both.

What I wish to convey is the idea that the DSE can be tweaked and taken further, perhaps (?) leading to an unexpected result.

Natalie said...

e.b.-
I'm not ready to switch everything to Splenda though I don like it in tea. Unfortunately, I'm the resident sweet tooth. :)

lefty-
I'm not sure, you could be right. I didn't want to go into my own meat-eating anxiety and how I'm trying really hard to make the leap to being a vegetarian, but for now am settling for no (or very little) red meat. Maybe one day I'll get there.

bh-
See my long-winded response on your blog. I'm really starting to sound like a scientist in that we drone on and on without actually committing to an answer. Maybe I should run for office next.