Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook: New Family Classics Collection: Lose Weight with 416 More Great Recipes!

Making It Work for You!

A No-Fuss Plan with Impressive Results

Whether you’re looking to lose weight, control diabetes or feel and look your best, the Comfort Food Diet can help. The easy-to-follow plan pairs a commonsense approach to healthy eating with the tools you need to succeed. In addition, a series of success stories, tips from readers and access to the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook online community provide friendly motivation and support.

This is the food we love. My husband didn’t even realize he was eating healthier!…Pamela Moffett, Johnson City, Tennessee

Each of the 416 recipes found here includes a complete set of Nutrition Facts, and many of the recipes include Diabetic Exchanges when applicable. But don’t let those numbers fool you. We’re sure that no matter how light the recipes are, your family will be too busy enjoying the delicious meals you serve to ever realize that they are eating healthy.

I lost 24 pounds on the diet! The plan allows anyone to lose weight while enjoying the foods they love.

…Vergel Voth, Stillman Valley, Illinois

That’s because the recipes in the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook offer all of the hearty, satisfying goodness you’d expect from a classic home-cooked meal.

The recipes are already a hit with families because they were shared by cooks who submitted their favorite dishes to Taste of Home magazine or one of its sister publications. And now they’re sharing those recipes with you!

The recipes are for the things my family craves, so I don’t have to cook separate meals. The Web site offers great support…. Elza Reeves, Louisville, Kentucky

Each recipe in this book was evaluated by a registered dietitian and passed a review in the Taste of Home Test Kitchen. Every recipe is not only healthy and delicious, but you can be assured that each dish will turn out perfectly every time you make it.

In addition, the recipes come together easily with common, everyday ingredients you likely have on hand. No need to run to expensive specialty stores for items you’ll use only once or twice. You’ll also find no-fuss menu suggestions (with calorie counts) throughout the chapters to help you round out meals.

The diet focuses on down-home cooking with ingredients I have on hand. You can trust the recipes are going to be great because each is from Taste of Home…. Lori Herr, Springfield, Missouri

There are tips on exercise, hints for making the most out of grocery shopping and secrets to lightening up your own recipes. So what are you waiting for? Turn the page and get ready to discover how delicious eating right can be.

It’s True! You Can Indulge in All of the Family-Favorite Foods You Love and Still Lose Weight!

Many of today’s weight-loss plans focus on the participant alone. This means that family cooks end up preparing multiple meals…traditional menus for their loved ones and low-calorie dishes for themselves. With the Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet, however, the whole gang can enjoy the flavor of classic foods while gaining the benefits of eating right!

The basics behind the Comfort Food Diet are easy—count your calories, watch your portion sizes and burn off more calories than you consume. But it’s the family approach to preparing healthy meals and snacks that makes this plan different than most. Take a look through this book, and you’ll see how easy the diet plan is, discover how to lighten up your own recipes and learn how others lost weight and made deliciously healthy foods a daily part of their family’s lives.

COMFORT FOOD DIET BASICS—

so easy, anyone can do it!

It’s a snap to get your entire family to eat healthy without depriving them of their most-loved foods. In fact, they likely won’t realize they’re eating healthy at all! You can follow the diet, and all they have to do is sit back and enjoy the incredible foods this book offers. best of all, you’ll slim down by simply following the three simple steps outlined here.

Step 1 Eat three meals a day and two snacks for a total of 1,400 calories.

If you’re a woman, shoot for a total calorie consumption of 1,400 calories per day. Men should consume 1,500 calories per day. Check with your doctor before you begin this plan to see if this calorie guideline is appropriate for you. Then, consider the Six-Week Meal Plan. There you’ll find detailed menus that total roughly 1,400 calories per day.

Use the following guide to distribute calories through the day:

350 calories for breakfast

450 calories for lunch

500 calories for dinner

Two 50-calorie or two 100-calorie snacks, depending on the total calories you’re shooting for per day. You can consume more or less calories in a snack or meal than what is suggested here, as long as your daily total is 1,400 or 1,500 calories.

Step 2 Start a food diary, keeping track of everything you eat. Find blank Do-It-Yourself Meal-Planning Worksheets at ComfortFoodDietCookbook.com.

Keeping a food diary is a key to success on the Comfort Food Diet. By jotting down everything you eat, you can easily identify eating habits you weren’t previously aware of. You’re also less likely to cheat if you know you’ll have to write down that milk shake you had at lunch or that extra piece of cake you snuck in after dinner.

Use your food journal or the Meal-Planning Worksheets to help you plan menus in advance as well. Browse through this cookbook and decide which of the hearty dishes you plan to make. Map out menus and snacks for an entire day in advance, then go back and record what you actually ate.

Always remember to watch portion sizes, and review the Nutrition Facts at the end of each recipe to learn what a serving size is. If you increase the serving size, the amount of calories (and nutrients) will obviously increase as well.

It’s also important to understand that you can mix and match foods however you’d like as long as you stay within the 1,400 or 1,500 daily calorie limit.

For instance, let’s say you enjoy a California Pizza for lunch. Note that the recipe makes two individual pizzas, but the serving size and Nutrition Facts are based on one pizza. As such, you can enjoy one pizza and serve the other to a family member or refrigerate it for tomorrow’s lunch.

The guideline for lunch is 450 calories, and one California Pizza weighs in at 245 calories. This means you can also enjoy a cup of Watermelon Cooler (82 calories) found in addition to a medium kiwifruit (46 calories) for a lunch that totals only 373 calories. You can pat yourself on the back for saving 77 calories or you can spend those calories later in the day. It’s up to you—as long as your daily caloric intake meets the 1,400 or 1,500 goal.

Step 3 See the Smart Snacks List, the Free Foods Chart and the calorie breakdowns before each chapter when pairing foods with entrees.

The lunch example covered in Step 2 noted that a medium kiwifruit was 46 calories. How would you know that? Click here for the Smart Snacks list. There you’ll find 45 ideas for low-calorie bites that don’t require a recipe. These items are great for snacking, but they also make tasty additions to meals as demonstrated by the lunch example. While these items come in at 100 calories or less, be sure to include them in your food diary.

Similarly, the Free Foods Chart offers dozens of items that you can enjoy without guilt. In fact, these foods are so light, there’s no need to worry about their calorie content as long as you follow any portion restrictions they might offer.

The chapters in the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook are broken down into Snacks, Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Side Dishes and Desserts. Every chapter begins with lower-calorie staples and ends with higher-calorie specialties.

If you ate a lunch below the 450 calorie guideline, you may want to consider a higher-calorie dinner. If you enjoyed a high-calorie breakfast and morning snack, you may want to stick with a lunch that’s a bit lighter.

Many of the chapters overlap a little, making meal planning easy! For example, some of the higher-calorie lunches make wonderful low-calorie dinners. You could also see the calorie breakdown at the beginning of the side dish chapter, and use one of those recipes for a meat-free lunch or substantial snack.

My Comfort Food Diet Success!

Thanks to the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook, I’m healthier, happier…and 30 pounds lighter! It worked for me!

By Beth Schuetz-Wilson

Like most women, I always put my family’s needs ahead of my own…and like most women, I truly don’t mind doing so. But it wasn’t until I noticed a few extra pounds creeping up on me that I realized I needed to make a change.

Looking back, I was a petite, active child who didn’t worry about weight. In fact, weight was never an issue–even in my 20s and 30s. But after having my daughter, Jordyn, I couldn’t lose those extra pounds caused by pregnancy.

In addition to Jordyn, who is a special-needs child, my family also consists of my husband, Don, and three stepchildren ranging in age from 14 to 19. I was busy with my family and career, and I wasn’t focused on taking care of myself.

To top it off, Don is a great cook, and I hadn’t watched my portion sizes for years. I’m 5’4 and weighed 185 pounds. I was getting frustrated buying clothes in sizes ranging from 14/16 to 18/20. In addition, I was being treated for high blood pressure. This made me worry about something happening to me. Who would be here for my family?

This all changed when I received the first edition of Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook. That’s when I realized I could make a few adjustments to my lifestyle and still easily care for my family.

I read the simple diet plan, followed the tips, started drinking more water and paid attention to portion sizes. Best of all, I began preparing family meals from the book. In fact, I started to plan meals more than ever before, making hearty entrees three to four times a week. I then packed up the leftovers for lunch at the office.

Since I don’t eat lunch until 1 p.m. and don’t get home until almost 7 at night, tasty yet effortless snacks became a lifesaver. Light string cheese, rice cakes and fruit got me through the day without being tempted by vending machines or overindulging in snacks shared by coworkers. In addition, I found that eating a healthy breakfast before leaving for work really helped curb cravings throughout the day…and Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook has so many delicious breakfast options to choose from!

As I prepared items from the cookbook, I became much more careful about what I bought at the grocery store, too. I learned about cooking with healthy ingredients such as lean ground beef, whole grain pasta and brown rice. Being selective and checking nutrition labels makes grocery shopping take a little more time, but it’s worth it.

Tracking how many calories I consumed each day really helped me stick to the Comfort Food Diet plan. Each day I wrote down the calories of everything I ate. Not only did this help me stay on track, but it was easier to resist a high-calorie treat because I didn’t want to have to add that item to my daily journal.

I knew that to be successful, I needed to get moving, so I began walking 20 to 30 minutes at lunchtime every day. Once I got into a walking groove, I started to add other exercises to my routine at home twice a week. Taking the stairs at work as often as possible was also a calorie-burning boost. My office is on the third floor, so I had ample opportunities to skip the elevator and hit the stairs.

My biggest challenge was getting through holidays and attending gatherings without overeating. It was also hard to motivate myself in the winter to step outside for a walk. The trick was to not let a little setback get me down or make me fall back to my old ways.

To date I’ve lost 30 pounds, going from 185 pounds down to 155. I’ve even been able to reduce the amount of blood pressure medication I take. I have more energy and feel healthier. I buy tops and pants in size 10/12, and I love shopping for clothes now!