Low Calorie Recipes

[drunkpeggy]

GLou's comment about weight loss being accomplished in the kitchen in the PP weight loss thread struck me. I've been working out for weeks now and I'm starting to see and feel a difference but I know I'm going to plateau if I don't change my eating habits.

What are some of your go to low calorie meals? We will eat just about anything so don't hold back.

[prettyinpink]

I love a lot of the recipes on Skinnytaste.com

I love this recipe for creamy one pot pasta. Its from Pampered Chef. I use WW pasta and nufelta cream cheese and add a TON of veggies.
www.pamperedchef.com/recipe_search/recipe.jsp?id=78235

[iluvmytxrgr]

Go on Pinterest and search clean eating. There are a ton of them. I have a few that I've started posting on my board.

[GracieLouFreebush]

I'm going to keep an eye on this b/c we need some new ideas.

When I'm on track (I went grocery shopping last night and plan to eat healthy again starting today!) we rotate through things like steak stir fry with brown rice, chicken fajitas with whole wheat tortillas (or no tortilla and low sodium black beans), a grilled meat (fish, chicken, steak, chops) and veggie and fruit, buffalo shrimp tacos, grilled burger on whole wheat bun.

A lean protein and a good carb (fruit and whole wheat) and a veg at every meal is my goal.

[moviegirl03]

I really like Prevention RD's blog. She posts nutritional information on each of her recipes, and I've made some of them and they are amazing.

www.preventionrd.com/

[audette]

In general, we stick with lean protein, low/non-fat dairy, whole grains, and lots and lots of fruits and veggies.


So, the proteins we tend to vary around: chicken breast, pork loin, beef round roasts or extra lean ground beef, lean chicken or turkey sausage, eggs (some folks limit their yolks, I don't), canadian bacon/lean ham, beans, lentils, etc.

Whole grains are brown rice, whole wheat breads, whole wheat pasta, or we'll do sweet potatos or regular red potatos for our starches.

Fruits and veggies are part of every meal. Sweets are limited, but not eliminated.


For example: supper tonight will be vindaloo chicken breast (vindaloo paste mixed with non-fat yogurt, chicken breast marinated in it all day and broiled for supper), with brown rice, and steamed veggies (unless I pick up some zucchini and peppers this afternoon, then I'll roast those). I have some fresh strawberries that will be good for dessert.

[Deleted]

The biggest thing I have found when trying to eat healthy at home is watch my portion sizes!
H and I are both trying to lose weight. I've lose 8 pounds in the last month, and he's lost about 10. Here's what we've been eating:

1. Pasta, salad, bread. ONE SERVING of pasta each (I weigh it on a food scale before cooking). Tomato sauce on top. One dinner roll. Side salad with veggies, ONE serving of croutons (this is like five croutons!), and a TEASPOON of ranch dressing (not two tablespoons, which is a serving -- trust me, for a side salad one teaspoon is enough).

2. Grilled chicken with caramelized onions and couscous on the side. Again, I measure portions.

3. Stir fried chicken and veggies with teriyaki sauce/soy sauce. I sautee ginger and garlic in the pan first, then throw in the chicken, then the veggies. I make white rice (could do brown, but white is fine), and measure out the rice.

4. Tacos. We each eat TWO tacos (sometimes crunchy, sometimes soft). Each has one ounce of ground beef cooked with taco seasoning. We top with lettuce, tomato, a sprinkle of low fat mexican shredded cheese (about 1/4 oz over both tacos), a little taco sauce or salsa, and a half teaspoon of light sour cream on each taco. I also make low fat spanish rice (recipe from BH&G cookbook -- white rice, can of diced tomato w/ chiles, one green pepper, one onion, and 1/2 tsp chili powder -- this makes about 4 servings of rice, and we do leftovers)

5. Pizza night. We make our own boboli pizza with 1/2 turkey pepperoni and 1/2 diced ham and canned pineapple. It's a bit of a splurge, but we do it every Friday. Way better (and tastier) than takeout pizza or DiGiorno.

6. Steak or grilled sausages with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. I do the mashed potatoes with skim milk, low fat margarine, and light sour cream (just a little bit of each). They come out really tasty. Again, we weigh and measure portions.

I think a good place to start would be looking at what you normally eat and identifying ways to make little substitutions that you can live with. Do spaghetti instead of lasagna (less cheese). Grill your chicken instead of cooking it in creamy sauces or casseroles. Make pizza instead of ordering or eating frozen. The little things add up! Also, I can't emphasize portion size enough. It really helps to stay on top of what "one portion" is, and then weigh/measure to make sure you know exactly how much you're eating.

[GracieLouFreebush]

Ah yes! Portions. My rule is that a portion is the size of my clenched fist. So one portion of carb, one portion of protein, unlimited veg.

[basilosaurus]

I don't follow low-cal recipes per se, but when I've done nutrition audits, my food tends to be quite low-cal.

I think portion size on grains is probably the hardest thing to figure out. I'm not anti-carb in the least, but when I watch H, I find that's probably one of his biggest sources (besides the pint of ice cream that can disappear in an evening, or the tons of sugar in his many coffees).

Other than that, tweaking your normal style of cooking will help in ways that don't make you feel you suffer. A splash of oil instead of 2Tbsp to sautee has always worked for me. I normally skip all butter, unless it's a small amount to finish a sauce. Bake instead of fry. If you're making a cream sauce, use evaporated milk instead. Tweaks like that when combined with eating mostly veggies and lean protein, and it's fairly hard to have high-cal when your portions are the correct size.