Yummy, Healthy Food can taste like Olive Garden!

We used to love to go out to eat all the time. I can remember back before we were homeschooling, eating out several times a week. Mostly because we were both working long hours and we liked fresh food. There were no frozen dinners in our house. Our standards were freshly made and yummy is great! We wasted LOTS of money letting other people cook for us. We now realize that not only was it bad for our bank account, but bad for our health as well.

We tried to eat "healthy" but all we could think of was how in the past "healthy" was aka 'cardboard'. Well we have found that the definition of healthy is not 'cardboard'. Healthy to us is yummy homemade cooking with fresh ingredients without GMOs or pesticides to name a couple things.

We have recreated our favorite eat-out meals in the past with great success. I'm convinced that the Lord gave me this gift... I can eat something 2 or 3 times and be able recreate the food at home. It does not always work, but most of the times we've found something we really like, it usually tastes the same or better than the original. Our game plan is not copy someone else's food for any personal gain. We just like these foods and want to be able to eat without the stomach issues that usually arises in our family from eating out or eating unhealthy packaged food. A few of our favorite restaurant re-creations are:

Hawiian Chicken Teriyaki

Cheeseburger in Paradise - Island Chef Salad with Curry Dressing
                                           Chips & also their French Fries
Red Lobster & Olive Garden - Shrimp Scampi
Bennigan's - Monte Cristo Sandwich (very yummy but no matter how you slice it Extremely fattening)
P.F. Changs - Lettuce Wraps (appetizer)
Olive Garden-Chicken Alfredo
                       Bolognese Sauce
                       Stuffed Chicken Masala with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Like I already mentioned, we like to take foods from processed food or even everyday recipes, made with ingredients containing preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial colors, nitrates, MSG, GMO, any corn syrup, and recreate them into healthy food for our family.

Here are a few we've created:

Mediterranean Salad

• Chicken Picata
• Chicken Franchaise
• Chicken Masala
• Chicken Parmesan
• Grandma's Macaroni & Cheese
• Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• Taco Salad
• Homemade French Toast (not just cinnamon, eggs & milk...LOL)
• Quiche (different kinds)

We also have a lot of sauces and seasonings that we've made which are not listed here. Once we started making our own versions of our favorite eat-out foods, we have a really hard time eating out. We went to one of our favorite restaurants the other night, got our favorite meals and were thoroughly disappointed! When we left we couldn't figure out why we would pay $70 for that food. We won't do it anymore. Our taste buds have literally changed because we are not eating processed foods anymore. We are happy that we can not only feel and see the difference in the food, but now we can actually taste the difference! Which leads me into our new yummy chicken enchiladas, courtesy of a friend of mine, JS. You can read about that one in my next post on yummy, healthy food.