Why did you start reading?

[beejayw1]

Cooking Light Magazine!

That's why we're all here: because we read, cook and love CL magazine. As a well-rounded publication focusing on wellness issues as well as cooking, I don't think it has any equel, and I've been hanging on to issues for a long time.

My question is:

How did you start reading it?

In my case, I was at my company's gym, cycling away on the LifeCycle. It was 1992. Some talk/health program was on the TV, and someone from Cooking Light was making low-fat sticky rolls using yogurt cheese.

It sounded wonderful, and the lowfat was a bonus. If I agreed to a trial subscription, they would send me the recipe as a throw-in. I phoned and signed up.

I got a couple of magazines but no recipe, so I phoned them and told them to cancel the subscription (it was, after all, the principle of the thing :rolleyes: ).

But I kept buying the magazine in the grocery store and finally, a couple years later, admitted to myself that I needed a subscription, so here I am.

How about you?

[MrsReber]

Well, this is kind of a cheesy (no pun intended) reason. My friend's daughter was selling subscriptions for a fundraiser about six years ago so I decided to try Cooking Light. I had gotten Eating Well, but I like CL much better. I really liked all the different recipes, though I hardly got to try any at the time. I was living by myself and dating a guy who wouldn't touch anything that was "light" (which was probably why he wasn't so "light"). I ditched him and my hubby loves that I try new dishes. Now I can't live without my subscription. We have a few new favorites these days.

[SQ]

When CL was new, (in the 1980s, I do believe)... My SIL received it in place of a magazine she subscribed to which had gone under. She didn't care for it :eek: so she passed it on to me. :D I've been a subscriber ever since.

[GayeC]

My sister gave it to me as a gift three years ago. One of my best gifts ever!

[Mamasue]

I picked an issue up at the store one day and it was probably because of the cover or photo of some recipe that got my attention. I filled out one of those nasty cards within the magazine and became a subscriber from then on. :D

[kwormann]

I started looking at it in college (1990) and went full force after getting out and getting married (1994). Have been a sunscriber ever since!

[BlueMoose]

I don't remember exactly, but I suppose I really started cooking about 10 years ago. Since then I've always been a sucker for cooking magazines in the supermarket checkout line! :o I'm sure that's how I first picked it up.

[lindrusso]

My mom gave me a gift subscription in '96 or '97 and I've been hooked ever since.

[gertdog]

My mom started receiving it in the late 80s, so it was around the house when I was in high school and college. When I moved out here to NY, I knew I had to get a subscription of my own!

[kirkbyky]

I kept reading the magazine at the library I work at, but was too paranoid of getting it messy while trying recipes, so I got a subscription.:p

[Beth H]

My mom also subscribed during the 80's, and I always enjoyed the things she made from the magazine. When I started living on my own, she gave me a gift subscription (this was in 1992), and I've had it ever since.

[Pat]

The year I retired, I was standing in a checkout line in October and noticed the title, Cooking Light. The photo did not pull me in as so many indicate. That issue had a steak on the cover and I am not a big meat eater. It was the words--Cooking Light.

Several years ago I started lightening my tried and true recipes and cooking American Heart Association recipes because of my husband's HDL-LDL ratio.

I liked the magazine so much and raved about it so, my daughter gave me a subscription for Christmas that year. She continues to do that each year. She says she loves giving me something that she knows I will enjoy as much as I do this magazine.

[Safari Girl]

I think it was the cover photo of the first issue I bought that did it. It was a Spring 2000 issue, can't remember which. I'm hooked now and love to see each new recipe. I have to confess because I haven't had time or the cooking utensils (been living with a 2 burner hotplate and convection microwave only since February) that I haven't been too inspired to start making the recipes. My new stove is supposed to be hooked up today or Monday and I'm just dying to get at it and start creating all the yummy recipes I've earmarked.

[Gina O]

I started reading CL two years ago. My SO and I were staying with a friend, fabulous cook and occassional BB lurker at the home of he and his wife in suburban DC. He prepared dinner and breakfast from CL sources. We got on the subject of cooking magazines, and discussed Gourmet and Bon Appetit. He mentioned that it seems that most of the recipes from those magazines start with "4 Tbsp." butter and that the recipes from CL were just as tasty but without all the fat.

When I returned home and looked at my newest issues of those magazines I realized how right he was. Soon afterward I became a loyal CL subscriber. :) Gina

[Jewel]

I saw the cover of the magazine while standing in line at the grocery store back in mid-97 and liked the tag line next to the cover recipe. Can't for the life of me remember what it was, but it was clever. Kind of like the cover of the lemon bars with the headline "Pucker Up Sweetie!" I've always liked that one... anyway, I bought the magazine, and halfway through I'd already decided to subscribe. I bought one more issue while they were processing my subscription, then from that day on I've been clapping my hands like a 4 year old who just found out he's going to Disneyland every time I see the new issue in the mailbox! :D

[MaryB]

I bought my first issue at the Minneappolis-St. Paul airport in 1996. My flight was delayed and I was too tired to do work reading so I chose this magazine because I like cooking and I also like to cook healthy low-fat meals. I bought it at the newstand the next month too but then started my subscription and have loved the magazine ever since. Oh, sure there have been issues that haven't had recipes that I have tried but I still like the magazine as a whole.

[Heidi]

I first found CL while on the airplane flying back from seeing DB. It was one of the magazines provided by the airline for passengers to look at during the flight. It was the June 2000 issue, and had so many yummy sounding recipes that I just had to steal it. I felt a little guilty for taking it at first, until they lost my luggage that trip, and then I felt totally vindicated! I was so impressed by the practicality and variety of the recipes, that I was hooked!

[csmcnamara]

I bought the magazine when my DH's cholosteral level hit numbers I didn't even know were possible! I really liked it and decided to start subscribing to it. This was probably about 4 years ago!

[Wendy w]

I was at my sister's house last spring and looked through her May 2000 issue. I drooled my way through it and immediately bought a subscription. I now have several CL books.

[AD]

I stumbled across the magazine at the used magazine section of my local library where they sell old donated magazines for 10 cents each. I found even more at used bookstores. I finally decided to subscribe as my interest in cooking grew. I like to make things that are healthy enough to eat on a regular daily basis.

[Bailey]

About 3 years ago a co-worker who loves to cook was raving about several recipes she had found in CL. She told me I just had to check out her copy. I did, and subscribed that day with the little card inside.

[lnodes]

For me it was the July/August 1998 issue with the Blueberry Poundcake on the cover. I've been hooked since. Sign me up for a lifetime subscription!

[Little Bit]

I don't subscribe to CL, yet, but have bought the last few issues. Naturally, I've been waiting and waiting for the August issue to arrive, no luck so far. At this rate, I'm tempted to drive over to the Barnes and Noble to see if they have a copy. (are we obsessed yet or what?) :D

I've read some other issues in the past, but only in recent months have I bought the magazine regularly. Somewhere I have a notebook filled with most of the pages ripped out of a CL, and I vaguely remember it had something wonderfully gooey and cinnamon-y on the cover. Don't remember the exact date though.

Postal service here is kinda weird where magazine delivery is concerned, so I've pretty much given up subscribing to anything I can find in the supermarkets or bookstores.

I thought I'd edit this to add that I found my old notebook, and it looks as though I saved most of the recipe pages from April and May 2000 in there! LOL!! Must have been lured by all that sugar! ;)

[KathrynY]

I've had a subscription to Southern Living since I got married 12 years ago (mothers think you need these things, even when you move away and live in the North). Somewhere in there I got promotional material from Cooking Light - they are somehow affiliated, not sure of the exact relationship. I've been a subscriber since 1994.

lnodes - I love your quote!

[LGBurns]

My mom subscribed to both Eating Well and Cooking Light. After I moved to New York, I went home to stay for the summer and started cooking out of both magazines when it was my turn to cook. When I went back to New York that fall (1994) I started to subscribe. I dropped the subscription a couple years later when I was very broke and couldn't afford it. The minute I got a new job and was more settled I started my subscription again and that's been almost three years. I don't ever plan on ending my subscription again.

BTW, during that broke period I was also moving a lot and in one of my fits of clearing out so I would have less to move I threw out all my old CLs and Eating Wells. I'm kicking myself now--I had three years worth at that point. Sigh.

[CAROL ANN]

I was taking a cooking class and the person giving the class told us about this wonderful magazine. Cooking Light. I bought an issue and have been subscribing ever since then. I think this was in 1987 or 88.

[Peggy C.]

Like a lost puppy, it just showed up one day and I've been getting it ever since. I really don't know if I signed up for it initially or not, but I've renewed it a couple of times! Weird huh.

[BethR]

About two years ago, an acquaintance died suddenly (and young) of a heart attack. Because of this, I mentioned to a friend in a mother's group that I wanted to cook more healthfully but didn't know where to start. She recommended CL -- saying not only were the recipes delicious, but that it was a well done magazine focusing on an all-around healthy lifestyle. She was right -- I subscribed and got completely hooked.

[BosunsWife]

I started picking it up in the store probably around 1990. After I married DH and moved to NYC in 1994 (first of many moves) I got the subscription and haven't looked back since. I didn't really start cooking out of it a lot until last year when I decided I really needed to start eating a better diet and also to try and get the last of my baby weight off. Well, I can proudly say that the baby weight is gone along with about another 15 pounds and of course, now we are talking about making another one! I am hoping that this time I will eat more sensibly and not gain as much as I did the last time.

[RobinC]

I started when I moved out of my parent's house a few years after I finished college. My mom had been getting CL and I had browsed through it. I had cooked quite a lot, so I wasn't a complete novice in the kitchen, but I mostly cooked desserts. When I moved out and had to fend for myself with a reasonable food budget (unlike the college days), I found that I didn't have any cookbooks. I remembered my Mom's Cooking Lights and thought it would be a great way to build my recipe collection and start cooking for myself.

[sandy77d]

For several years, I would buy Cooking Light anytime I would fly anywhere and read it on the airplane. I don't know why that became a habit but I found myself looking forward to Cooking Light more than the trip. I finally subscribed about 2 years ago.

[ReneeV]

I bought the premier issue off the stand because it looked interesting and I've never missed an issue since. The funny part is I always bought it off the newstand until just 3 issues ago! That's when my free Mastercook CL subscription kicked in. What's really ironic is I must have bought 10 subscriptions as gifts for friends and family over the years. LOL.

Renée

[mb]

after college, i decided i wanted to start cooking 'real' food. not knowing where to start (i already had joy of cooking, but it is too overwhelming!), i went to the bookstore and looked through the various cooking magazines. cooking light just seemed to have the best-looking recipes that didn't sound too hard to make. my family has considered me some kind of 'gourmet' every time i make a CL recipe! :)

[Angela]

My mom (Carol Ann on the BB) has been subscribing for years as she mentioned above. When I lived at home I would look through it with her and 9 out of 10 times we (dad included) loved what she made from each issue. She gave me a subscibtion the first Christmas I lived on my own (1996) and the subscription has been a gift each year since. Thanks Mom! :)

[luv2cook]

Got it as a gift...

[freckles]

I got motivated to exercise and eat better about 2 years ago when I hit 47 and didn't like the shape my body was in. I bought several lowfat cookbooks at first, but found their recipes boring. Picked up Cooking Light on vacation - had always thought the recipes were too complicated, but tried out a couple and realized that wasn't true. (I still tend to gravitate toward the 30 minutes or less recipes) My husband got me a subscription for my birthday - he has become a convert to eating lowfat and healthy. I cook pretty much exclusively from Cooking Light now.

[sneezles]

I began my subscription as a charter member having seen an ad in Southern Living , I let it lapse a couple of years when we lived in the UK but picked it bakc up when we moved home.

[Rose Ann]

I bought my first issue in March 1995, It was the issue with coffee desserts. I still make them too.
I saw the magazine at the checkout in the store and bought a couple more issues and then subscribed.

[matt]

It is interesting to look back, my first copy was the chicken echallada I saw it at Eckerds. I got it and read liked what i read and fell in love with the cooking light. for the past several years i have given my kid sister Lora some cooking light cookbooks for her christmas presents. So I got myself a convert.

[kls029]

My visa was ordering special magazine deals. I had recently graduated from college, rented my first apartment without roomates and had no idea how to cook a MEAL. I mean I could back simple dishes and spice them up that but that was it. That was way back in'96. Now, as so many others, I experience a thrill when I find CL in my mailbox...

[Leanne]

I got it as a gift from a friend about 3 years ago. Magazines are a great gift idea.

[catharine]

I actually starting subscribing back in ’98 when I decided that I wanted to have a few subscriptions. I went overboard – not uncommon for me (my DH calls me “the all or nothing girl”). Anyhow to make a long story short I subscribed to CL, Eating Well, Vegetarian Times, and maybe one other. I was totally overwhelmed and, being the all-or-nothing girl, didn’t renew any of them.

This past February I was looking for some recipe and went to search the CL recipe finder. I came across the BB and was hooked. It got worse when I found the supper club hub and quickly found myself in a club. At that point I knew I had to renew. [CL, take note! I probably wouldn’t have re-subscribed without this wonderful BB.]

PS – CL and Shape are my only current subscriptions…learning how to act in moderation as I get older :D