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Worst non-fat/low-fat meals you've ever had


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As an ancillary thread to the thread started by Ellen regarding the worst meals you've ever had that had in someone's home, what are the worst non-fat or low-fat meals that you've ever had, anywhere, anytime?

I think the one that takes the cake would have to be the time I tried to make a low-fat version of New York-style cheesecake from tofu. Bad idea....something I've never tried to replicate again. :blink:

Soba

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Um... all of them?

There is something about making a meal where the primary focus is something other than making the food taste great that tends to produce... well food that doesn't taste great. The only low-whatever meals that are actually good are those where the low carb/fat/calorie/whatever-ness is incidental.

--

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Pretty much all of them.

It's been a few years since I threw all of that money at Nutrisystem, but I do remember at the end, right before I quit, that I couldn't stomach that food any longer

I'm a much wiser (if poorer) person now. :laugh:

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i used to subscribe to cooking light. many of the things i made from there were delicious, but at regular intervals, something would end up being just awful.

for some reason, it was hard to tell which recipes would turn out tasting terrible. i think it was because many of the longer recipes involve substituting this or that for unhealthy stuff and combining several healthier things to replicate the fat or sugar.

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i used to subscribe to cooking light. many of the things i made from there were delicious, but at regular intervals, something would end up being just awful.

for some reason, it was hard to tell which recipes would turn out tasting terrible. i think it was because many of the longer recipes involve substituting this or that for unhealthy stuff and combining several healthier things to replicate the fat or sugar.

In the past year or so cooking light has started to add back the butter and cream in many dishes that traditionally use it. I think that they are now beginning to lean towards "everything in moderation", which is a good thing because that is North America's problem: many don't understand moderation.

Basically, most low fat things taste horrible and are not worth the time. Even if it does taste decent you'll just be compelled to eat more of it and end up consuming more.

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This is easy: the dinner I had last Thursday, at the home of a friend from high school. She made a recipe from Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food, called Brinjal Albaras (Layered Eggplant Dish). In place of the (minimal amount of) coconut milk, she used "light" coconut milk; she also had to leave out the ginger (for food-sensitivity reasons) and the cilantro (because she didn't know that's what "coriander leaves" are); she had to use the inedible fresh tomatoes available now; and she cut the eggplant slices thicker than called for. Oh, and I think she left out the salt and pepper, too. The result was, well, not a gourmet tap-dance.

Why oh why do people think they're IMPROVING on recipes when they do that kind of thing?????

Edited to add: one of my cooking mantras is: FAT CARRIES FLAVOR.

Edited by Suzanne F (log)
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OMG! Back in the late 60s we traveled from New Orleans to Houston for Thanksgiving at my parents. Now, my mother was a great cook. However, that year she had jumped on the Weight Watcher's band wagon... for Thanksgiving dinner. She NEVER did that again and we laughed about it for years.

There was someone on Food TV a few years ago that used to saute things in WATER! :blink: Who was that?

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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I think the one that takes the cake would have to be the time I tried to make a low-fat version of New York-style cheesecake from tofu.  Bad idea....something I've never tried to replicate again.  :blink:

No particularly horrid meals. Just terrible attempts at low-fat cheesecake.

One year on Shavuot my mom decided to make a low-fat cheesecake using cottage cheese - it was awful. At another Shavout, we were invited out for dinner and the hostess made a cheesecake using neuchatal (sp?) - the cake was thin, watery, and tasted strange.

What a waste. I had added an 11th commandment as a result:

Thou shall only bake full fat cheesecake

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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I like soy milk. I like tofu. I see each as a standalone product. But I don't like those phony soy burgers, soy burritos, and the ilk. It's just wrong.

I think it's silly when people substitute ingredients to the point where flavor is significantly compromised. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here.

I don't think one needs to give up high-calorie, which means calorie-dense, foods. Instead, reduce the quantity while maintaining quality. Eat a smaller portion. Eat less of something else to allow more room for the thing you really want. Or, dare I say it, exercise and increase the amount of daily calories you can eat so you don't have to penny-pinch so much with the calories. People in France, for example, generally aren't eating what one would call a non-fat/low-fat diet yet they tend to be thinner than Americans. If you notice how they eat you'll see that they aren't going crazy with the portion sizes on a regular basis.

Here's my free (worth what you paid) diet tip for the day. Use plates with a rim rather than plates without. There's less room for the food. You might find yourself scaling your portions down to fit thus leaving room for dessert with less of the guilt. :laugh:

p.s. I know I might be a hypocrite about the soy milk but I've really learned to like it, heh. But I *never* cook with it.

Edited by esvoboda (log)
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One of my worst all-time cooking disasters was larp with tofu. Don't even bother.

I'm just not sure if it was worse than the fat-free vegan piece of "Chocolate Cake" I had at some function.

Suzanne is right. FAT CARRIES FLAVOR.

I will add that FAT MAKES ONE FEEL FULLER.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Fat is also necessary for good nutrition; certain vitamins are only fat-soluble, and cannot be absorbed any other way. Parents who think they are saving their children from a life of obesity by feeding them a very low or no-fat diet are actually setting up the possibility of developmental problems.

FAT IS GOOD FOR YOU.

(FWIW, I've made tofu "cheesecake." It wasn't bad. It just wasn't cheesecake.)

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Um... all of them?

There is something about making a meal where the primary focus is something other than making the food taste great that tends to produce... well food that doesn't taste great.  The only low-whatever meals that are actually good are those where the low carb/fat/calorie/whatever-ness is incidental.

I think there are some things you can do to things to reduce the fat that doesn't change the nature of what you are eating.

It's similar to the posts about Cooking Light on here. The recipies in there that succeed are teh ones that are either A) low fat to begin with or B) use the fats where they are necessary, but in moderation.

There was a recipie in CL a while back for Fettucine Alfredo that is a regular at our house. I love Pasta and Cream Sauces, but they might be the single worst thing for your health that you can eat aside from eating cake frosting with a spoon. Their version calls for just a little butter and replaces the heavy cream with half and half. If I got this in a restaurant I wouldn't be happy, but for a weeknight meal at home it works.

Edited by bilrus (log)

Bill Russell

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Smart Ones (Weight Watchers) frozen pizza is the worst thing I've tasted in YEARS.

"Save Donald Duck and Fuck Wolfgang Puck."

-- State Senator John Burton, joking about

how the bill to ban production of foie gras in

California was summarized for signing by

Gov. Schwarzenegger.

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Not a meal, but I used to HATE non-fat/skim milk. When I was a teen I used to call it "Blue Water" it was so thin and odd looking.

But today's non-fat/skim milk is anything but "Blue Water". Have dairy processes changed over the years? It doesn't look anything like it did when I was younger. It's much more palatable these days.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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But today's non-fat/skim milk is anything but "Blue Water".  Have dairy processes changed over the years?  It doesn't look anything like it did when I was younger.  It's much more palatable these days.

Really? I remember HATING skim milk as a kid. For a while, my mom arranged for my sister and I to stay at some woman's house after school until she got off work (as a schoolteacher). Every day, this woman served us a "snack" consisting of a slice of Velveeta on Wonder bread and a glass of skim milk.

We were appalled! We had never seen "food" like this. Every day I would put the sandwiches in my pocket and we'd pour the milk into the potted plant. For some reason, we never told our mom.

Squeat

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