Thoughts on Hungry-Girl?

I was hoping to get a few different opinions on Hungry-Girl from people.  I havent made any of her recipes and I was wondering if they were any good.  If anyone's made any of them let me know!  Some of her concoctions call for heaping amounts of Splenda and I'm a little skeptical to create anything with that much artificial sugar in it. 

She got me into Fiber-One and unsweetened Almond Breeze though...good stuff!

What do you guys think?

Way too much artificial stuff.

UD

I also feel like she uses too much artificial stuff in her recipes... whenever I find something I'd like to try I'm like, "Really? People actually cook like this?" I'd rather have something with a higher calorie count that isn't so mysterious to be honest. I do like her recommendations for products, though.

I'd love to try some of her recipes (artificial stuff doesn't scare me), but her ingredients are sooo expensive. I could afford one or two items (laughing cow, shirataki, fiber one, etc...) each month, but not multiple ingredients in one shopping trip.

When I'm in a better position to experiement with expensive food, I will certainly try lots of her recipes.

Hungry girl seems to be mostly a product endorsement site.  Since I cook from scratch using fresh ingredients, I don't usually like the sound of her recipes.

That said, I hear from many people who just love her recipes. 

I've made the cheesecake bites from her site, but instead of Splenda, I just used real sugar. There's some other recipes that don't call for too much artificial things, that I would like to try, but again, I would replace the Splenda with real sugar.

Ugh, its too complicated though I probably won't make anything else from her site, and I'll just indulge in some REAL dessert.

Edit: For the cheesecakes bites, I actually just used real chocolate for the topping too. It was a really simple recipe, so it was easy to adjust. But its probably not worth it with other, bigger things.

In my experience, her "recipes" are just sugar-free, fat-free, taste-free, nutrition-free plastic food substances and food products compiled together and called healthy.

Anyone try recipes from this show? I'm curious if it's a hungry-girl alternative (less expensive/fake).

cptbunny, I haven't tried any recipes from Cook Yourself Thin but I did watch a few of their episodes - and it was ALL natural, fresh foods, they just tweaked the recipes a bit to make them healthier and lower cal (like using less cheese and so on.) I would try one of their recipes any day, as an added bonus I already have all of that stuff in my pantry and it doesn't cost a fortune, lol.

Original Post by ibii:

cptbunny, I haven't tried any recipes from Cook Yourself Thin but I did watch a few of their episodes - and it was ALL natural, fresh foods, they just tweaked the recipes a bit to make them healthier and lower cal (like using less cheese and so on.) I would try one of their recipes any day, as an added bonus I already have all of that stuff in my pantry and it doesn't cost a fortune, lol.

 I've only watched that show twice, but I liked their style.  Everything they made looked and sounded delicious.  What I liked best was the general philosphy, which I share, that you don't have to sacrifice good food to lose weight.

I enjoyed reading her emails for a long time there, but I have to say I've never tried any of her recipes. There are a few that I'd still like to try, but I agree with others here, most have too many artificial ingredients for me. I'm not against artificial ingredients per say, but I don't think it's good to add as many as she uses. Plus the hubby is hypoglycemic so we don't really keep Splenda/other fake sugars around the house for his safety.

I'm not to bothered by artificial stuff but I usually make her recipes with added ingredients. For example i'll use regular milk instead of soy (EXPENSIVE) or real sugar instead of fake. Her desserts are just amazing though, there are some banana muffins that if you top with peanut butter you will honestly think you have died and gone to heaven.

I'd say as long as you are eating healthy nutritious meals during the day, making one of her recipes will not kill you and will help you stay under your calorie budget.

yeah her recipes are not very healthy.. they may be low-cal but they have very little nutritional value

low calorie/fat/sugar/carb does not necessarily equal healthy

I like looking at the recipes for ideas though, but i'll do my own twist on them and use more real and good-for-you ingredients

I just made the crock pot pulled bbq chicken from hungrygirl yesterday and loved it!  It was really yummy and only had 150 cals for a 1/2 cup.  I just put some into a low calorie bun, and made up some of my own low calorie version of cole slaw (since their version had too many ingredients that I didn't have at home), and it turned out delicous.  Oh and another one that I have tried recently from their site is putting egg beaters in a mug and microwaving it with different low calorie meats and cheeses, and vegetables, to make a delicious, healthy and super easy breakfast.  Overall, i'm a fan of hungry girl.

I haven't tried Hungry Girl but I do have the Cook Yourself Thin Cookbook. I have tried a couple recipes and I really liked them. I haven't tried any desserts because I haven't had the time.

I have both hungry girl cookbooks and love them.  They have some great ideas (making potatoes creamer by using half and half instead of a ton of butter) and are easy to make fast.  I'm a bit of a health nut and don't use artificial sweetner, and in fact eat mostly organic when i can afford it, but i've found it easy to tweak the recipes to do that.  The splenda is easily substituted for stevia which i grow myself, and most of the other food i can find alternative to as well depending on if i'm looking for something cheaper, or something healthier.  Of course you have to keep in mind that her recipes aren't about health and never really claim to be, they are just about making low calorie versions of the food she loves.

Hungry girl really helped me find a lot of 'alternatives' but as for the stuff she wants you to eat, its so much filler and artificial crap. Most of it you can make up yourself. High fiber tortillas, tomatos, cheese, and eggs? I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist. But the other 'treats' she has are pretty icky. Plus you need to use piddly things like "1 tablespoon canned corn" and it's like... "Okay now what the hell do I do with the rest of the corn?" I still receive her newsletters, and I think she has a TON of potential, but I'd rather you invest in some Eating Well books/magazines. It's healtier, it doesn't shy away from oil, and it's not Fiber one crusted chicken that tastes NASTY.

Just my thoughts :)

I get hungry girl emails and I really like them for the product ideas. I've only tried one of her recipes though. It was for the microwave chocolate cupcake. I thought it was pretty good, convenient and fast. As for artificial stuff, I know it's probably not the best, but I use a lot of it. Regular sugar isn't sweet enough for me unless I use a TON of it. So it's either consume an enormous amount of calories from regular sugar or use the artificial stuff. (Well, I could always wean myself off the stuff and teach myself to like less sweet things, but I've tried and not been so successful).

I'm going to try her butternut squash fries tomorrow. We'll see how it goes!

She also introduced me to almond breeze. I got some good recipe ideas for oatmeal and tips for eating at restaurants too. Overall, I think it's a good site!