Brilliant! Do you think my husband will get me a wife for my birthday?? (Mormons are allowed to make polygamy jokes now, right?)
A lick of sauce here. A taste of dough there. A few jelly beans popped in as a palate cleanser. Cooking dinner for me is like one long buffet of yumminess. Part of it is out of necessity; I’m not the world’s great cook (*cough*understatement*cough*) and tasting the food before I serve it spares my family some of my more spectacular failures. But mostly I snack while I’m cooking because of some combination of: I’m hungry, it tastes good, I’m stressed and it’s there. All those licks, nibbles and handfuls of chocolate chips out of the bag (whoa, what’s that doing open in my cabinet?) add up and often by the time I actually serve dinner, I’m F-U-L-L full.
If I were a single gal this wouldn’t be a problem – I could just pack up the food and save if for later – but because having family dinner together is important in my house, I will need to sit down with my kids and husband to eat. This leaves me with two options. I can either sit and not eat anything, honoring my fullness intuitive-eating style but giving my kids the warped impression that moms cook dinner and never eat it. Or I can eat with my family meaning I have second dinner and end up overly full. (Aiee I have too much yummy food available! First-world problems, I know.)
Obviously the logical conclusion is to finish off those last chocolate chips so I can throw the bag out so I won’t have to listen to it call my name every time I open the cabinet. Oh wait. What I meant was obviously the logical conclusion is to not eat so much while I’m cooking it so I’ll still have an appetite when it comes to dinner! Ding, ding, ding! So simple and yet, like Lindsay Lohan doing community service, so hard to follow through with.
Over the years I’ve come across a few tips for solving this problem:
– Chew gum to keep your mouth busy. Good idea except I often forget I’m chewing gum until I pop something in my mouth and realize that mint-flavored cheese biscuits are surprisingly good.
– Have a plate of cut-up crudites to snack on. Sometimes I do this but I generally end up eating other stuff along with it. Celery dipped in pasta sauce? Don’t mind if I do! Plus, overeating healthy food is still overeating.
– Suck on a piece of hard candy. This one surprised me. Eat candy to stop snacking…wha?? But the point was that if you are sucking on a piece of candy then the flavor and activity will keep your mouth occupied. And while it did prevent me from slurping too much soup, it did not prevent me from eating eight Jolly Ranchers. Who stops at one? Plus I discovered that I’m a biter, not a sucker.
– Drink a big glass of ice cold water. Sipping on cold water with a lime floating in it (Yes a whole lime. Why settle for a slice when you can have the whole fruit? My tooth enamel hates me.) is supposed to shock your tastebuds into… I dunno. Hiding? Whatever it was supposed to do, I ended up finding it complimentary to my pre-meal meal.
– Brush your teeth before cooking. This is the tip that has come closest to working for me as I have to use a very expensive brand of prescription toothpaste (no enamel, see above) to help with tooth sensitivity and it only works if you don’t eat or drink for 30 minutes after brushing with it. So as long as I can cook it in half an hour or less I’m golden.
– Make food you don’t like. What, really? Who writes these tips?!
Please tell me I’m not alone in this bad habit! And then please tell me how you fixed this problem! Are you one of those people who can cook without tasting it? Any other lemon/lime lovers out there? “Go suck a lemon” is like the awesomest insult ever for me.
Also, on a slightly related note: Has anyone ever made their own edible bouquet? How hard is it??
Was that a real ad ? From this century ? I really hope not !
I hate cooking so generally avoid it but I don’t have a family so that’s easier for me.
Maybe make up a plate to snack on when you’re cooking. A couple of jolly ranchers, some jelly beans, whatever it is you want. That may help with portion control. And eat mindfully 🙂
That’s all I’ve got
I don’t tend to cook things that require much attention (i.e. pasta) or things that cook in less than 15 minutes, so I don’t have the temptation to snack from it. Also, I don’t have the family to cook for so it wouldn’t matter if I did snack.
The “Go suck a lemon” insult is pretty awesome. Even though I like lemon and lime juice, I don’t like to eat the fruit so much. My grandpa will eat lemons like they are oranges, though.
Your grandpa and I would get along wonderfully:)
Hey, I’m a single gal and I still do this from time to time. Testing, you see. And I still eat dinner, because after I cook it, I’ll be damned if I’m about to not eat it! I have found that if I have a little snack on a plate to nibble on while I cook, I eat less straight from the meal. Not that that stops you from snacking, since it is basically condoned snacking, but it keeps you from snacking too much. Sometimes.
Homemade edible bouquets sounds like a fantastic idea!! I want to do this! I have abunch of super cute, little cookie cutters that would be perfect for pineapples and melons too. Now, to think of an occasion. If someone gives you a good tip, let me know!
I will! I really want to make one but I wonder if they are one of those things that looks easier to make than they are, you know? And good idea about the portion control/plate!
I usually nibble at the low cal stuff if I nibble. I could tell you to make a filling smoothie before hand but I know how you feel about protein powder 🙂 Then again, you could make one out of cottage cheese. you’d be too full to snack but hopefully by the time dinner was ready you’d be ready to eat a bit of what you made for the familia? Just a thought.
Interesting idea! I may have to try the shake idea!
Surprisingly, I don’t really have a problem with snacking during cooking. It’s more the snacking between and after meals. Ugh.
When I make dinner while already being quite hungry, I tend to munch on a few carrot sticks. I put carrots in nearly all of my dishes, so they are already in my hands. Plus, I only season to taste at the very end, so I only eat 2-3 tsp max. I also drink plenty of water while cooking, keeps my mouth busy.
If I’m not hungry when it’s time to have dinner – which hardly ever happens – I’d only eat a very small portion. That way I can participate without stuffing myself.
LOVE lemons! When I was a teenager I used to eat them in wedges like oranges. I also love lemon water, but I put the sliced up lemon in a jug of water and slowly let it eat away at my tooth enamel all day.
I’m hosting a baby shower in 2 weeks and I’m going to attempt a sort of edible bouquet, but I’m not even going to try to make it look like the professional ones! It will be more like fruit kabob’s stuck in a watermelon.
Convert to being a Hare Krishna. They never, ever sample the food (not even to test it) before offering the meal to God (in other words, saying grace) when it’s put on the table.
I didn’t know that although the Krishna’s are quite famous in our town for providing a free lunch on campus for over thirty years! I like that!
Snacking while cooking – yah – that was a tough one. But somehow over the years, I’ve just stopped. It might have had something to do with my super sensitive teeth – cold AND hot were just too painful…
On that note – I started making my own toothpaste (super easy, made a batch this morning in about 3 minutes…) mixing some food grade diatomaceous earth with some coconut oil and wintergreen essential oil for that minty fresh (I used refined VCO so it has no taste…). I ran out last week and went back to my Sensodyne and boy howdy my teeth were PAINFUL! I didn’t even really realize they quit hurting…And they feel so clean! (My dentist is impressed too, congratulated me on my awesome flossing – I floss religiously – Easter, Christmas… LOL)
I drink coffee! Keeps my mouth busy and I don’t want to mix anything else with it =X
I cook dinner almost every day. For some reason, I NEVER taste anything until it is plated out and I am seated at the table! I guess I like surprises, lol!
This is so funny – J and I were just talking about this last night. I paid my way through university as a baker and working in restaurant kitchens in all areas (almost went to chef school I love to cook so much…) and so something I learned really quickly is how much you can eat just “tasting” things. Especially on an 8 or 9 hour shift! I when I initially tried everything when I was a baker I a bit of weight…didn’t care at the time, but when I began losing weight, this was one of the major things I had to focus on even more. To not try things unless absolutely necessary. I’ve learned to cook by feel and appearance, and taste at the end to tweak flavours…it goes a long way to help me maintain my weight, and I still enjoy the experience and don’t spoil a holiday dinner by getting to the meal I spent hours preparing and not actually having room left to eat it.
It’s actually developed into a pet peeve when I cook with other people, as they prep or cook, snack the whole way through…grazing on the ingredients. It’s silly I know… I call J Homer when he nibbles too much – it’s our code word for “get outta my kitchen!”… He hee.:)
I don’t really do this. My only exception is light brown sugar. Every time I use it for baking (daily), I take a little bit for myself. I love the flavor as it melts on my tongue. Now, my weakness is wanting to get into a freshly baked dessert, before it cools! I have to set a timer and force myself to walk away!
How about a backlog of episodes of “30-Minute Meals?” (Rachel Ray on Food Network. You can probably either rent some or get one of her cookbooks from the library. Or YouTube it!) Then you can brush your teeth, and by the time you can eat dinner will be ready.
Oh, and that ad is both hilarious and horrifying, lol!
Sounds like you’re eating both out of habit and hunger. Most of the tips you list involve substituting what’s going in your mouth, but perhaps you would find it easier to stop the habit completely (most of the time, actual taste-testing can wait until the very end). If you’re snacking because you’re honestly hungry, would it be better to make yourself a small snack and sit down to eat it right before making dinner? Something that will *just* get you over the hunger hump (a few nuts, veggies, or a yogurt?) until dinner is served? Then, you eat mindfully, and afterwards you can focus on breaking the *habit* of eating during food prep while not also fighting hunger signals. You might also want to think about other reasons you’re snacking, e.g., if you don’t really like the chore of cooking, then you may be distracting/rewarding yourself with the snacks. You say one of the reasons you’re eating is because it tastes good…but it will taste just as good (or better!) if you eat it with dinner, when you’re not distracted. Do you allow yourself to eat these things at other times?
Okay, that’s enough armchair psychology out of me. (Although in a literal sense, isn’t nearly all psychology armchair psychology, really? Anyway.)
Something else to consider: whatever you eat is affects your taste buds, meaning you cannot accurately assess the taste of the food you’re preparing—sorry, jelly beans are NOT a palate cleanser! 🙂 Not snacking during meal prep has the potential to make you a better cook.
Love looking at those old adds.. Thank god things have change! Oh and I looove the fact that you joke about your hubby getting you a wife for xmas! I was laughing at my desk
Back to the snacking… If I am hungry before I cook, I’ll have a quick snack (dates with nut butter, carrots dipped in hummus etc) or I will plate a couple of things to much on.
I also try the out of sight out of mind approach… I keep healthier stuff at the front of the cupboard / fridge, and sugary stuff is on the very bottom shelf
Hope this helps!
When you figure this one out let me know! If I didn’t have kids it wouldn’t be an issue–I’d just wait until later to eat. But those kids (the nerve of them!) sort of need a regular 6’ish dinner time. I too am very conscious about the example it sets (escpecially for my daughter) to sit down and not eat anything or eat something completely different from the rest of the family.
I’ve noticed that I do better if I can eat some protein (actual meat works best for me but protein shakes are almost as good) around 4p.m. I prepare my salad first and then snack on my salad while I’m getting dinner ready. Even if I’m not hungry I tend to snack while I’m preparing dinner (I think I snack because with dinner prep there is often some waiting time but there’s not enoug time to do anything productive so I snack to kill those minutes) so if I can snack on my salad that’s o.k. Then when dinner comes I finish my salad and eat about half a portion of whatever I”ve made for dinner.
But how often do I remember to bring a 1/2 chicken breast to work to eat before I leave the office, or remember my blender bottle? About 2x a week. The other days I struggle with the snacking during meal prep and the not hungry let-down at dinner. But I have improved on this front so much lately–at least I’m aware of the snacking–it’s not as mindless and numbing.
Whenever I want to snack during cooking I make myself look at my ‘i had two kids’ gut that won’t go away no matter how hard I exercise and imagine it getting bigger. The urge to eat vanishes pretty quickly after that…
Yep I do this. I try to just snack on the vegetables I’m cooking – carrot slices, mange tout, or help myself to cherry tomatoes or grapes from the fridge. Or sometimes I make myself a cup of tea and drink that whilst cooking which can keep the urge to snack away.
I’m with you. I’m usually so famished by the time I’m cooking that I want to eat it all NOAWWWW…. I simply try to keep track of how much I’ve eaten and subtract it from my portion. Also, when I get a smaller portion and it makes me sad, I try to remind myself that I like eating meals better than just eating out of pans.
The tooth brushing is the only thing that ever works for me, although I rarely cook these days so I guess that solves that problem haha.
I don’t have this problem these days as dinner requires no chopping or much preparation at all. Throw chicken on plate. Melt cheese on top. Done.
Trying to picture a dough filled sauce-topped dinner with a side of jelly beans. Hmm, I think I’d rather just have the glass of water with a lime. 🙂
Good luck Charlotte – hope you find something that works.
With the way I cook – well, I am not sure it matters! 😉 Actually, I really don’t cause I don’t cook anything the really needs to be tasted first – I am very very very simple! 😉 My big prob is if I make a healthy treat cookie or bar – I may want to taste the dough but usually I am pretty good just because I don’t cook any of that fun tasting stuff! 😉
This probably sounds bad but it works for me- when cooking, I taste the food when I need to and spit it out. Probably wouldn’t look too good to people walking by though.
I thought I loved citrus until I read this post! My kid requests the garnish lemon off our restaurant plates to lick – people think we’re punishing her or something.
Most of the things I cook are not tastable – I tend to roast or slow cook or whatever – so I’m not much of a cooking snacker but I agree with Pam: you need to know why you’re snacking. It sounds like you’re hungry, and that a lot of us need to get in a fat+protein snack at about 4 pm. Her other possibilities are reasonable too, and I’d add the (hyperpalatable) kick that the candies you list give as another trigger. If it doesn’t belong in my mouth, it doesn’t go in my shopping cart! That’s the one and only way I can keep myself off gummy bears.
There was broccoli in my wedding bouquet. I was pregnant and always hungry; it was a joke with my husband. The florist wasn’t nearly as amused.
Simple solution: Make your husband cook. Works for me.
You are not alone! Yet again, while reading one of your posts, I was thinking, “THAT IS SO ME!” What is my cure? Don’t have one. I am sitting her overly full because I can’t stop the snacking. Of course, it is the time of year when my body is remembering, but still. Yikes!
Hilarious post! Love it. I struggle with this one and haven’t really found a solution, other than calorie counting. I get obsessively detailed with it, and when it comes to tasting and snacking, I’m too lazy to figure out what I ate, but feel bad that I don’t account for it.
We’ve temporarily simplified our diet (for two people who are trying to get in shape) to salads with various protein, because who needs to taste salad? It’s a short term solution and I have yet to figure out what to do when I start cooking again. Also, soups are my BFF, all you need to do is taste a sip and I’m okay with that. I would like to continue eating this way, but I my husband is meat/potatoes guy, so the solution is yet to be found.
I like having a few pickles (the sour french type) or some lacto-fermented veggies in a bowl for snacking at dinner time. They are flavorful enough to keep my mouth interested but too strong to have tons (and when your mouth is full of pickle juice, who wants to try the marinara?)
adore this post! thank you!
to combine two of your ideas (gum + hard candy): if you need extra reinforcement (like me) suck on sugar-free breath mints (its a double psychological whammy — the mouth is occupied, and your brain is like, ‘dude, i just made my mouth all fresh’).
watch the calories, though — e.g., lifesavers mints (not sugar free) have 15 calories each. i like to put out a pretty little ceramic wasabi dish with my ‘portion’ of mints (3 usually do the trick (45 calories), cause the freshness lasts long enough that i dont find i need to chain pop them immediately), so i have a visual cue to stop/be mindful, and a sense of aesthetic/ceremonial satisfaction that ive done something tangible for myself to work towards being more healthful 🙂 (prepping them v popping them also reminds me to enter the calories in loseit.com. every little bit helps …. )
keep being awesome 🙂
I’m so glad I’m not the only person struggling with this! Unfortunately I don’t have any great tips, but I generally resort to brushing my teeth also. If I do snack it’s on baby carrots but I still end up feeling full and in addition unsatisfied. So by the time I sit down to dinner I’m bloated after eating half a bag of baby carrots but longing to eat something with substance. Of course I’m still trying to figure out this whole “intuitive eating” thing and while I seem to have hunger down to a “t” I have no clue how/when to stop eating. Before I’m full? When I’m satisfied? Should I feel like I could go for a slow jog after I eat or if I can do that does it mean I haven’t eaten enough? Should I be ok with putting on a bathing suit after I’ve eaten?
Ok so I got off on a major tangent there but somehow they’re all related. 🙂 Clearly I am of no help..
Dearest Charlotte,
I know how you feel for years I would not allow myself to nibble or snack between meals, I’d starve myself and become extremely grumpy and lethargic by the time dinner was ready. Now I believe in snacking constantly! The trick, however, is to make sure your snacks are healthy and frequent enough that you aren’t starving by the time you start cooking. For me an approximately 100 calorie snack every two hours with a slightly larger meal at the traditional times works wonders. Then you’ve just eaten around an hour before you start cooking and you’ll be less likely to be so nibbley. Another hint, if it’s a high fiber snack it’ll be more satisfying and that feeling will last longer. I find that this extension of your eating times helps to maintain energy levels, satisfy cravings, encourage activity, and reduce nibbling. I hope this helps! I’ve got my fingers crossed for you! 😀
-K
Hi Charlotte!
A little late here, but I relate to this so much, I couldn’t pass it up! I work on intuitive eating as much as possible, and I am also a fan of tasting what I cook. My husband loves nearly everything I make, so I’m generally the one making the decisions about “what’s for dinner” and that means that I make what I’m in the mood for. So I never find myself feeling torn about tasting something I’m not hungry for, knowhuttamean?
My question for you is: do you enjoy eating more when you’re “tasting” as you cook, or when you’re sitting down to eat a plate of food? For me, I find that at dinner time, it’s usually the former! I think my favorite part of cooking is casually tasting as I go–at my own pace, in my own space, feeling the flavors unfold and improve (or worsen, ha ha), often dancing and just generally enjoying myself. I get SO much enjoyment (and fullness) from the food that way. When I finally serve up our plates, my husband often asks “Where’s yours?” because I’ll only have a little condiment bowl filled with two bites of food. I always answer honestly, “I took bites!”
I don’t use distractions like gum or flavored water (unless I’m craving it) because I always want to give myself what I truly want. My days of snacking on raw veggies to thwart my garlic bread plans are long gone. I eat raw veggies when I crave them! And garlic bread, too! My eating is the calmest when I don’t try to control it.
So far, this feels right for me. I’m always learning new things about myself through eating intuitively, but I think that the private cooking time is really where I gain pleasure. And that is probably something that your kids will see, anyway, as they watch you in the kitchen, right? (I know the kids I nanny for always notice when I taste the breakfast I make for them ’cause they immediately start begging for French Toast or egg burritos! They KNOW I eat!)
Love your posts, as usual.
Thanks,
Cara
I’m realllly late replying to this but I’ve def been thinking about it ever since you wrote it! This: “My eating is the calmest when I don’t try to control it.” is elegantly simple and so true for me too. And your question is a good one. My answer is… sometimes. When I’m really cooking I DO enjoy tasting as part of the experience. But when I’m trying to throw something together for my family and I’m starving so I’m just shoving chocolate chips in my mouth because I’m exhausted and overwhelmed then I don’t enjoy it at all. Of course the obvious answer is that if I’m mindful of my eating it will be plain to differentiate between the two states. I like your idea of doing what I enjoy. ANd not doing what I don’t enjoy. Thank you for this!!
Wait!
I need to clarify. I regularly cook meals for the family I work for, and often that means preparing things that I am not in the mood for, or simply don’t eat (I’m mostly vegan, most of the time). I definitely do the “taste and spit out” when it comes to those items that I don’t care to ingest. Works well. I get the flavor, I understand what needs enhancing or fixing, and I don’t have to actually eat something I don’t genuinely want.