A Chat With MyRecipes.com

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to talk with Holley Johnson Grainger, an editor at MyRecipes.com. I was contacted by their publicist after commenting on Meghann’s blog about how much I loved using MyRecipes.com for recipe ideas, and was asked if I wanted an opportunity to do my very own interview! I was really excited, on one hand, as I check MyRecipes.com nearly every day, and it was almost like talking to a celebrity! On the other hand, I was pretty nervous since it was my first non-school-related interview, but I got a couple question ideas from coworkers and friends.

Holley’s area of expertise on MyRecipes.com is “Restaurant Eating at Home” which interested me for obvious reasons. I asked her what was meant by “restaurant eating”, and she told me that what they did was take “iconic” dishes from national chain restaurants, such as the BBQ Chicken Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen, a Caesar salad from T.G.I. Fridays, and many others. Then, they did two levels of “at home” replacements: cost efficiency and health improvement.

In the “cost efficiency” arena, the replacements were simple. She explained to me that in order to buy a simple dinner at California Pizza Kitchen consisting of their BBQ Chicken pizza, a side salad, and a beer, it would cost about $19 per person. To recreate the same meal at home with grocery store ingredients? A mere $4.25! The main reason for this is that the markup at a restaurant is huge, whereas we only pay the grocery store cost if we cook at home. She sent me this budget-focused story that I wanted to pass on to you.

From a health perspective, the replacements were a bit more challenging, but still easy enough. The main “substitute” for the higher-fat, fried, or cream-based restaurant favorites is to use simply, lower-fat and calorie preparations instead! Bake the chicken for a chicken parmesan instead of frying, use low-fat cheeses, and use smaller amounts of olive oil as a substitute for butter. Another huge way to save with fat and calories is to simply watch serving sizes. The average restaurant serving of a dish like chicken parmesan can be up to 4 “normal” servings! Holley also sent me a health-focused story about restaurant eating at home that I think will interest all of you!

If you haven’t yet checked out MyRecipes.com, I urge you to do so (after searching my site first, of course!) They have a myriad of healthy, cost efficiant, and delicious recipes from magazines such as Cooking Light and Southern Living. The recipes are also quite “accessible”, with easy-to-find ingredients and simple instructions.

If you check out MyRecipes.com, please let me know what you think of it! Thank you, Holley for all your cooperation and putting up with my obnoxious questions!

Tagged as: interview