Adapting Family Favorites to Weight Control Reality

T-Rez over at Queen of My Domain has a familiar lament regarding her ethnic heritage: http://www.queenofdadomain.com/2009/08/oh-i-love.html

She wants her Boudin Sausage, but is trying to lose weight.

Well, I say you can have your sausage and lose weight too! The trick is to just eat less of it. Instead of filling up on Boudin, make a big healthy raw salad and serve a vegetable side dish. So, if you normally eat one link of Boudin, cut it down to half, and fill up the plate with salad and veggies.

I did that with one of my summer family standards--Sausage and peppers. Two years when I made sausage and peppers for my family, I would use two pounds of sweet Italian fennel sausage and pile them on Italian Hogey rolls. Now I only use one pound of sausage and serve it over brown rice. I use more peppers, tomatoes and onions in the dish and usually serve a tomato salad on the side.

No one leaves the table hungry, but we leave the table having eaten less of the fattening meat.

Because you can't lose weight and keep it off by just going on a temporary diet. You have to make permanent changes to your eating habits.

And you won't make those permanent changes if you can't eat the foods you grew up with and truly love.

Junk food like Twinkies you should permanently jettison, but family foods that are part of your ethnic heritage you should adapt to your new weight management lifestyle.

The funny thing is, the way I cook now is probably closer to how my grandparents ate. They actually ate very little meat, and when they made it, it was pretty much secondary to the vegetables and pasta.

So I guess, in reality, I'm just returning to my ethnic roots, not abandoning them.