How many CL recipes do you make a month?

[rissole]

I recently started looking at the October issue, and I was just wondering how many CL recipes members of this bulletin board make each month. I generally make at most 2 a week, or about 8 a month. If I try to make any more than that, I just get frustrated and burned out. Anyway, just curious how many recipes others make.

[gertdog]

I try to incorporate 1-2 CL recipes into my menus each week. I have so many other cookbooks with recipes I want to try, otherwise I'd be making more CL recipes. I never get to try ALL of the recipes in CL that sound good to me each month.

[dixie]

probably 3 or 4....or if not a CL recipe then I use tips from the magazine to at least try and lighten old favorites.

[rissole]

Most of the recipes I make are actually from the CL issues, which means unfortunately I'm not able to make many recipes from other sources. And there are still recipes in each CL issue that I'd like to try but don't have the time for. If I made every recipe out there that I wanted to try, I wouldn't have time for sleep or work. :)

[ElinorC]

It varies from month to month. This year, in the Jan/Feb issue, I tried 13 recipes but usually I try around 6-7 recipes. Of those, I keep maybe 1/3 of them to repeat. Some months, such as July, I only made one recipe. I've tried many more recipes from Cl in the last 3 years than from the earlier issues. I think they are getting better and better recipes in the magazines.

[claire797]

I'm ashamed to admit that lately I'm down to maybe 1. With a new baby that demands to be held all the time, I can't do much cooking unless I put her in her sling or her Baby Bjorn carrier....everthing I make has to be quick and easy...which means a lot of frozen foods.

I may attempt to put her in her carrier and make those Rasberry Bars.

At any rate, I really miss cooking and can't wait until she is old enough to sit up so I she can sit in the kitchen and "help".

[LaraW]

If I made every recipe out there that I wanted to try, I wouldn't have time for sleep or work.

Plus I would be eating a really unhealthy volume of food!

Lara

[MrsReber]

Claire, I know how you feel! My little girl loves to sit in her chair in the kitchen and watch mommy cook. For the first couple of months, though, it wasn't so easy. I missed cooking and baking. I made a bunch of CL dishes and froze them (I had to go back to work :( ) She's 4 1/2 months old now and loves to hang out in the kitchen. Beware the baby carrier! I put my daughter in the carrier and attempted to make muffins. Everything was great until she grabbed the bowl. I didn't realize she had the bowl in her hand until I walked away from the counter and the bowl followed! Luckily I caught it in time.

Anyway, I find that I am making more and more CL recipes lately. I make the easier ones and the ones that I can freeze ahead. It helps since our life is so hectic now with our baby and working. I find that I have to plan my meals a bit more. CL really helps me from getting stuck in a food rut, too. There's always something different in each issue, even if it's just a different twist on an old favorite. My favorite make ahead dishes are the spaghetti pie and the chicken enchilada casserole.

[Peggy]

Interesting topic.... I make between 20 and 30 recipes from each Cooking Light issue. Usually about six of those are done at my monthly Supper Club dinner. Cooking is a major creative outlet for me and I get bored eating the same thing over and over. I probably only repeat main dishes that we really like maybe three times a year. I do repeat salads and vegetable dishes more often than that. There is no such thing as a menu rotation in my household! My husband teases me ut this all the time. Sometimes, I'll ask him what he wants for dinner and he says he tries so many things, he can't remember any to request! I am now keeping a list of his highest rated recipes to fresh his memory. Probably 70 % of my recipes come from Cooking Light. The rest come from my endless supply of cookbooks. Like everyone else on this BB, cookbooks are my major addiction!:p

Peggy

[Terrytx]

For the most part all my recipes come from Cooking Light, sometimes as many as 3 new recipes at one meal. Since I lost about 2 years of recipes yesterday, I just don't know what I will do.:confused: I'm going out of town for the weekend, so maybe I can take a stack of old Cooking Lights (thank goodness I saved some) and figure out the next couple of weeks menus.

I know, I know, I'm feeling sorry for myself...I'll get over it. Things could have been worse, I could have lost ALL my recipes.

[lorilei]

It's interesting to see the responses to this thread -- and then to decide what exactly it means in the holistic sense.

I am one of the people (the sad, lonely few.. apparently) who only makes between 0-2 recipes from CL every month. Why? You might wonder why I bother to post on these boards if I'm not a huge fan of CL recipes -- at least not a big enough fan to make at least one thing out of their magazine every week.

Well, Cooking Light is more a state of mind than a magazine. I cook "light-ER" in my every day life than I have ever done before. And I always look to Cooking Light for ideas -- I buy a copy of the magazine every month, in the hopes that I will be inspired somehow to make something a bit more creatively. On occasion, I'm so blown away by a recipe that I just have to try it :) But, generally, I love coming to the boards for discussion -- in the hopes that each of you will bring something to my experience of cooking.

But I don't really cook from Cooking Light...

[Sarah]

Three years ago, my New Year's Resolution was to make more recipes from CL or I was going to have to stop buying it.
As a happy result, I now try and make 4 recipes a month to make it pay...and usually I succeed...if I count what I eventually go back to!! But living alone, if I make something that feeds 4 or 6 I'm eating it for a week, so I'm pretty choosy.
I am in awe of you who make so many every month. I wish I had the mouths to help me do that ;)

Sarah

[ElinorC]

Mrs.Reber,
Nice to see you back on the boards. Life certainly is more hectic now isn't it? I remember when my kids were little and I was working--I hardly had a minute for myself, let alone cook much. Good luck!
Elinor

[Ralph]

Well, I'm one of those rare people who seems to find tons of good-looking recipes in each issue! In fact, now that you've brought this up, I eat my words from my posting way back on the first thread about the October issue where (before I got mine) I said that the recipe titles posted looked quite disappointing! Probably only checked off 30 or so!;)

Virtually all my recipes come from CL, but I still peruse other books & web-sites for interesting ones.

[Varaile]

Funny, I've been wondering about this exact question lately! :p

I've only been subscribing to CL for about a year, and I've been keeping track each month of the recipes I try and those I would like to try. Jan - June I made roughly 6 different recipes a month. July was nothing (sandwiches don't inspire me) and in August I made a whopping 12 different recipes!:eek: For Sept I believe I've made only 3 and I have made 1 out of October.

Since I've started cruizing the BB I find I am picking up quite a few recipes from everyone's great suggestions and past recommendations. :eek:

I still enjoy going through my other cookbooks, but mostly I have been enjoying what I've been finding in CL! :D

[Angela]

Practically everything I make is from CL! I don't have a very extensive cookbook collection, since I've only been on my own for 5 years, but the other cookbooks I do have don't get used very often. It's just that CL hardly ever lets me down with a yucky recipe, so why spoil a good thing?!

[ElinorC]

Sarah,
Most of the recipes can be halved or even quartered. There is only two in our house now and I halve most recipes so we don't have to eat the same thing too long. Some things, like soup, I like to make enough to freeze a couple of portions.