In article >,
Bell Jar > wrote:
>I am sick of cooking. I used to love cooking but right now, I'm pretty
>tired of it.

Me too. And I'm the DH (I thought it meant "dickhead" the first
time I saw it, but as long as it means "dear husband" I guess I
don't mind).

What I like is when my wife and I collaborate on a meal. This
generally happens on weekends, often results in an elaborate
multi-course meal, and we make enough so that the leftovers last
through most of the week.

So, lately, we end up cooking just 2 or 3 times a week when we don't
want to eat leftovers, or when we run out (the leftovers are used
for our lunches at work too). We also eat out once a week, maybe
twice.

I still have to make breakfast every day though. I've reduced that
to a low-carb high-protein shake which we both like very much and
satiates us until lunch. If anyone's interested, the recipe is as
follows, with plenty of footnotes:

Moderately low-carb chocolate soy breakfast

For each serving:
8 - 10 oz soy milk [1]
1 teaspoon soy lecithin granules [2]
1 round to heaping tablespoon un-sweetened cocoa powder [3]
1 tablespoon flax oil [4]
1 scoop whey protein powder [5]
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon stevia powder, add to taste [6]

Optional additions (pick one or more, or all at once):
1 level tablespoon carob powder (imparts a good flavor)
1/4 cup fresh blueberries [7] or 3-4 strawberries (reduce soy milk
accordingly)
3-4 drops peppermint oil (for essence; goes well with chocolate)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of "greens" powder (healthy and doesn't seem to alter the
flavor)

Notes:
All ingredients can be found at Whole Foods Market, although we buy
soy milk at Trader Joe's or Costco.

[1] I try to use soy milk with the least amount of sugars. Avoid the
"low fat" or "fat free" varieties; there's nothing wrong with the fat,
and it tastes better too. The "Silk" brand soy milk at Costco is
okay, and tasty, and we use it because it's cheap (less than
$1/carton). However, it has 14 g sugars per serving. WestSoy has one
with only 4 g sugars, and Trader Joe's Organic Unsweetened Soy Milk
has only 4 g sugars also, and it's only $1.19/qt. We've been using
Trader Joe's lately.

[2] Lecithin is an emulsifier that allows oil and water to mix without
separating. It imparts no flavor at all. It's in a refrigerator
section of Whole Foods, and you should keep it refrigerated.

[3] The more chocolatey, the better, in my opinion. You can always
offset the bitterness of more cocoa by using more stevia. If you're a
chocolate connoisseur, you might be particular about the unsweetened
cocoa powder you use. I can't tell the difference, but I have been
told that Sharffen Berger cocoa has a "one note" flavor while others
are more complex. We buy based on price, and around here the
Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa powder is the best deal. Just make sure
it's un-sweetened.

[4] Flax oil: try to buy it refrigerated (not room temperature), and
keep it refrigerated. It can go rancid otherwise. It should never
be cooked; cooking destroys its nutritional value. Pure filtered
flax oil has a tasty nut-like flavor and can be consumed by itself,
or on salads, or instead of olive oil for dipping bread. The "high
lignan" type of flax oil is healthier but has a vile bitter flavor.
High lignan flax oil is fine for this recipe and better for you --
you won't notice the flavor because the cocoa powder is bitter too.

[5] There isn't enough protein in soy milk to last until lunch.
Adding protein powder also thickens the final product slightly.
Most diet books recommend whey protein, in particular brands called
"Designer Whey" and Solgar's "Whey To Go." Whatever you buy must
have NO ADDED SUGAR. Many work-out supplements contain sugar, so
avoid those. We generally use Designer Whey, either plain, vanilla,
or strawberry flavor (strawberry flavor complements chocolate
nicely, although it has artifical sweeteners). The best price
I've found is from http://www.vitaminshoppe.com and they also have
brick-and-mortar stores. They sell it in 2 lb or 5 lb containers.
You might also have some luck finding unsweetened whey protein at
Costco, but all I've ever seen there has added sugar.

[6] The 1/8 teaspoon in this recipe assumes you're using PURE
stevia extract powder, where 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon has the equivalent
sweetness of 1 cup sugar. I don't actually measure it; I just shake
the jar a couple times over the blender, dip my finger in to taste
it, and repeat as necessary.

In my opinion stevia is the best sweetener for liquids, bar none.
It seems to aid digestion in some people, and has never revealed any
adverse side effects, unlike artificial sweeteners like Sweet'nLow
(saccharin, a carcinogen), NutraSweet (aspartame, proven to leave
formaldehyde deposits in the brain; see the Barcelona Study
described at http://www.presidiotex.com/barcelona/ ), or Splenda
(sucralose, probably the "safest" of the artificial sweeteners,
having adverse affects in only a small minority). Sometimes I
make some cold chocolate soymilk on a hot day with just soy milk,
cocoa powder, and stevia. It's good for sweetening cooking sauces
too. However, Stevia is worthless for making cookies, cake, and ice
cream because those require the crystalline structure of sugar, and
the tiny amount of stevia you need for sweetening doesn't provide
sufficient crystal structure. If you want sugar-free cookies or ice
cream, I say use Splenda.

[7] I have observed that blueberries have a nice reaction with soy
milk causing the final result to be quite thick, thicker than you'd
expect, and thicker than you get from using other berries.

-A