Have your heart attack and eat it too.(foodistablog/creative commons)
Americans seem to either love or disdain Paula Deen. The fans like her no-nonsense approach and her no-apologies attitude toward fat content. The naysayers think Paula Deen goes too far, drowning everything in an artery-clogging amount of fat that makes already-unhealthy recipes even more unhealthy.
Count me in as a naysayer. While I respect the entrepreneurial spirit of Paula Deen, I prefer a cook with more food know-how. It's easy to make a stick of butter and a pound of cheese taste good. What's hard is bringing fresh ingredients together in novel ways that bring out the best of the food itself, rather than obscuring it in a mountain of lard.
Sure, I'm one of the first people to say that a healthy diet has room for splurges. My beef with Paula Deen is that, in an age where colon cancer, heart disease, and obesity are real threats that loom large, her recipes as a whole collection suggest that you splurge every day, and at every meal.
In fact, it's so hard to find a healthy Paula Deen recipe, that I spent the time digging through her recipe repertoire and came up with only five needles in the high-fat haystack (See PaulaDeen's 5 Healthiest Recipes), some of which require tweaking to be fully healthy. The scant few light recipes are not near enough to balance thegutbusters Paula Deen ladles out on a regular basis.
With that in mind, here are the 5 worst atrocities (in a huge, greasy ocean of other unhealthy recipes) Paula Deen has foisted on the public:
Deep-frying any lasagna would be asking for a coronary, but this isn't just any lasagna. Paula Deen's lasagna has an entire eight cups of full-fat cheese (pretty much a whole cup of cheese per person.) As a matter of comparison, a recommended serving of cheese is one ounce. PaulaDeen's lasagna recipe has eight times the recommended serving of cheese per slice, and then she suggests we take the whole thing and fry it in oil.
It's rare that a fast food hamburger is a saner choice than home cooking, but in this case, McDonald's looks like health food. PaulaDeen takes a pound-and-a-half of beef to serve a mere three people, tops it with bacon, tops the bacon with eggs fried in butter, then sandwiches the whole thing between Krispy Kreme donuts.
Is Paula on the Krispy Kreme payroll? If having Krispy Kremes with bacon, eggs, butter, and a huge hamburger patty somehow doesn't satisfy you, crumble up another two dozen donuts, add rum, butter, eggs, and make them into dessert. But wait: if you somehow think Krispy Kremes aren't sweet enough, you're in luck. The recipe also calls for an entire box of confectioner's sugar.
Deep Fried Stuffing on a Stick
Stuffing is something we know isn't healthy to start with, as it's just globs of bread and butter at its most basic. That's why we tend to keep it relegated to a once-a-year food. PaulaDeen takes your everyday stuffing, adds a pund of pork sausage, wraps a corndog sized lump around a stick and deep fries it into oil. Have fun at Thanksgiving, because you might not see Christmas.
Compared to many of the other Paula Deen recipes, this one may seem innocuous in the surface. It makes the top five for one simple reason: it's for kids. Listed as one of PaulaDeen's "kid-friendly" recipes, the Joes might be expected to take our children's health into consideration, even if our own isn't. Calling for three pounds of beef to feed just eight children, the recipe uses a jar of Ms.Deen's sugar-loaded sauce, and then tops off each Joe with completely unnecessary cheese.
A splurge should be a luxury and a reward. It shouldn't be deadly. Next time you feel like treating yourself, have a square or two of expensive dark chocolate, a glass of your favorite wine, or a scoop of ice cream. If you've been good, have a slice of cheesecake.
Just resist the temptation to add butter and deep fry it.
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Comments
I wasn't feeling well to begin with and now...
THIS isn't cooking. It's murder! :)
Count me among the Paula Deen haters, not for her cringe-inducing cooking so much as for her Godawful exaggerated Southern Belle accent. We get it, you're from Georgia. Stop trying to talk like you're on Hee Haw!
I think it's a southern thing? I'm originally from NY so I don't get it, but at least she's creative. LOL! I would never eat nor advise anyone to eat any of the above recipes.
Very interesting read here. Thanks
OK, let me get this straight....DEEP-FRIED lasagna? Whatever happened to just placing cold lasagna into the microwave and setting the timer for 5 minutes?
I'm waiting for the Paula Deen take on a Wisconsin favorite: deep-fried Snickers bars. Let's see....how about you wrap that deep-fried pork and stuffing mixture around an already deep-fried Snickers bar, then deep-fry that whole concoction again? Brilliant!
Sounds like recipes straight from the county fair!
Great article - so funny! :-)
Eating foods like these every once in a while is not going to hurt. It's okay to be a little indulgent sometimes. I'm almost sure that no one goes around eating celery for every meal.
Now I can certainly be as indulgent as anyone you'll meet, but indulgence should taste good. I'm sorry, but the Krispy Kreme burger makes me sick just reading about it, that must be repulsive. I've yet to crave anything I've seen her make.
oh no! It's not a Southern Thing. Just a Paula Deen thing.
I love deep fried southern food as much as anyone can, being a deep fried southerner myself. I love Paula Deen, but I've never cooked one of her recipes except desserts, and then only to take to a party where I didn't have it around to eat.
C'mon, y'all, get a grip! Eating too much of anything is unhealthy. Indulging in some comfort food once in a while is not a bad thing, as long as you're smart enough to know you must temper that with a lot of healthy eating--it's all about balance. I eat very healthy and am very nutrition conscious, but I'd eat some of Paula's comfort food in a heartbeat--just not a lot of it. The first forkfull tastes the best. I don't need a second.
Who doesn't remember Jacques and Julia using tons of butter and cream in their recipies. In fact the laughed and referenced the fact in one of their segments for PBS. They did state they knew and used the secret for being able to eat all of these high calorie and high cholesterol foods. It does in part involve moderationa but also they drank and believed wine helped keep their own cholesterol levels low.
Mr. Griffy, telling Paula Deen to lose the accent would be like telling the old guys in the Bronx to losing their accent. They have had it all their life. I have a Texas drawl and that accent is not going to go away. Y'all understand now.
Chris Griffy, you dumbass bigot. Have you ever MET a southern person?? Unless they're from a big city like Atlanta, THEY HAVE ACCENTS. My mother sounds like this. Is she trying to talk like she's on Hee Haw? No. This is what her peers and parents sounded like when she was growing up and getting educated (yes, you CAN be educated and have an accent!). Clearly you have never tried any of her cooking. While it is definitely not day-to-day food, who doesn't indulge once in a while? I supposed you don't and that is precisely the reason why you have a giant stick up your ass.
Ugh. A burger between 2 Krispy Kremes? That's just not right.
Can't she be prosecuted for manslaughter??????
This is just outrageous.. it's sending (perhaps innocent?) people right down the grave..
Wow...nothing gets me more than people who have nothing better to put someone down. I suppose your a tree hugger type as well...lol I happen to love Paula Deen and most of her recipes.
Extremists like you like to throw the baby out w/ the bath water.
If you don't like that kind of food...don't eat it! Simple. But to be stupid as well as judgmental by saying she should be prosecuted because of the food she makes on her show...makes YOU the IDOT!! I don't like tofu....should I prosecute someone who does? Julia Childs used butter and creame in many of her recipes...she lived to a ripe old age of 91!! Your the type that wants the government to run our lives and control everything we do! I choose what I eat and if I want clogged arteries....NOT YOU! GET A LIFE!!!
Hey Liz--it's Liz here. I linked your fabulous Paula Deen article to my latest piece about Deen taking a ham to the face! Thanks for the great info!
Hey Liz! I picked up the second topic months ago, but I've barely done anything with it! Howard Stern is on vacation this week so I'm going to my 'alternate source'!!!
Health concerns aside, many of her recipes simply do not appeal to me. Some of them seem to be created for the wow factor. I'm interested to see how that bread pudding works, but I can't bring myself to make it. (I'm pretty sure the sauce that uses a pound of sugar will make much more than the recipe actually uses.)
I don't know how many people are regularly enjoying these recipes, but Paula Deen is good entertainment (turn the channel when/if she gets to be too much) and I expect that's what draws fans.
Vanessa
Dallas Baking Examiner
This is a bit dramatic. Calling these recipes "deadly" is a stretch.
I love Krispy Kreme donuts and get a dozen about twice a year, goes great with coffee. But using donuts as hamburger buns looks gross.
All things in moderation. It won't kill anyone to eat something high fat and/or sweet, even someone with health concerns, the key is moderation.
I agree somewhat with Rose David's comment.
I don't really care for her style of cooking. So many fat Americans already. Most her food is garbage people eating in this lifestyle end up in obese clinics then we're supposed to feel sorry for them. I don't laugh at heavy people, but they anger me. I'm vegan btw. And don't ever plan to eat anything Paula makes.
Since I eat a healthy lifestyle I stay away from her cooking and have not intention of buying her books. Not worth it.
You guys are hateful. Wow...
YUM YUM Heat me up a HEART ATTACK DEAR.Don't forget THE MAYO and CHEESE TOO.For an Extra Greasy Slide down to the GULLET Followed by a SMELLY FART and a LOUD .BURPPPPPP That sounds like a TEABAGGERS DREAM Don't forget a big hunk of yer favorite chewing tobacco and a six pack of yer favorite brew that makes those burps sound better and a Bowl of Hot Chili and BEANS to fuel the NOISE .and a FAT JOINT ? why not !Nobdy will know !
Then have a dozen fesh Krisy Kreme for dessert.
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