I would suggest your friend try making things with green giant's harvest
burger crumbles. They seem to most closely resemble real meat to me and
don't have the funny TVP-aftertaste that SAD eaters seem to notice.
Although, telling him about eating this while he's eating it might blow
up in her face ... he may not trust her cooking anymore and begin
hovering in the kitchen when she's cooking to make sure he's getting the
fat and cholesterol he seems to feel he needs. Also, to avoid a problem
with him discovering this in the freezer, she may want to put the
crumbles in freezer bags and throw out the original packaging ... that
way it just looks like browned ground round. She can make sloppy joes
using manwich sauce (the manwich sauce tastes so familiar he probably
won't notice any potential aftertaste), "meatballs" for spaghetti or
"meatball" subs, lasagna (with nonfat ricotta & mozzarella), etc.
Another good thing is lowfat "salisbury steak". Take vegan boca burgers
and broil them until they're a little crispy. Then, top with a nice
low-fat veggie gravy, or if he will notice the difference, you can use
Franco-American mushroom gravy (I know, it isn't appropriate for the
list, but if it will fool him long enough for you to get him used to
this kind of food, then you can start sneaking lower fat items in).
SErve with mashed potatoes and some broccoli with a lowfat or nonfat
uncheese sauce or cheese sauce made with skim milk and a nonfat american
cheese, you can probably trick him into starting to eat this way. Also,
Yves makes a vegetarian canadian bacon, pepperoni, and "deli slices"
(look like bologna). I've had the pepperoni style (the large ones that
look like salami). They're all fat-free and taste pretty good. You can
try making lowfat/nonfat pizza with this and he probably won't realize
what she's done.
Hope this helps. BTW, I'm not typically sneaky, but I have a bad SAD
S.O. and these are tricks that have worked with him (although I never
tried substituting the fake cheese sauce because he does like his
broccoli steamesd with just some vinegar and spices).
Also, for the two posters going off to college, I also wanted to mention
that, if you can find a larger co-op or HFS, they probably have a deli
or sell prepared foods. The one by me has premade sandwiches, soups,
various salads, etc.
Leah in Cleveland
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