I thought I would share some of my go to meals when I'm trying to loose weight. They are pretty minimal recipes that you should add your own spices and herbs to to make it your own.
I love cabbage and cabbage rolls. But on a diet I try to not eat rice so much and who has time to make cabbage rolls anyway, not this girl! So one of my almost weekly meals is I will buy a head of cabbage and slice it up. I will cook up a pound or two of ground turkey with some garlic. When it's cooked I add the cabbage and slice a couple of onions (I like a lot of onions, so you may want just one or two) then I will add a can of low sodium stewed tomatoes. Depending on what I have available I will throw in some other veggies, I love corn with this.When it's all done I add some Franks RedHot and some Parmesan. Mmmmm I usually have enough of this to last me the week so if the family is having something that isn't so diet friendly I can throw a bowl of this in the microwave and voila dinner/lunch. I will also snack on the raw cabbage as I'm chopping it, it has a very nice crunch and is kinda sweet.
Quick, easy and I love squash! I will do up either a butternut squash or an acorn squash with a little butter and some splenda brown sugar. While these may seem like a side dish I will eat it as the main dish. That being said depending on how hungry I am I will eat 1/2 to a whole squash. I get unlimited vegetables on my diet so they often become my main course. I will occasionally have a chicken breast or steak on the side or save my protein for cottage cheese or yogurt later in the evening as my snack.
Another fav is spaghetti squash. Personally I love it roasted in the oven but don't often have the time for that so I often put it in the microwave. If I have some pasta sauce I will put that on it or I will just melt some margarine on it and add some Parmesan. I recently found out that I'm allowed almonds so I may try toasting some and adding them to the squash. I wonder if I'm allowed pine nuts, I'll have to check on that one. I'm also love mushrooms and spinach, but being that mushrooms are higher in starch I try to only eat this one once or twice a week. I will saute the mushrooms and onions with some garlic and when they are done I will throw in a LOT of baby spinach and saute it till it's done, usually only take a min or two for the spinach to be done so I always add it at the last minute. This one is good with some margarine and Parmesan but can be done without too. To add some protein to this I will cook it in scramble eggs and add Franks. Add some diced chicken or cooked ground turkey, again with some Franks! Occasionally I will cook up a few scallops and add fresh lemon juice to the dish. It's sooo yummy and if you like spinach and mushrooms like I do I'm sure you'd enjoy this!
Chicken breasts. I will eat chicken most of the time. I will cook a few and they will last me for a few days. I will chop one up and add it to a salad. I will sauteed some zucchini, onion and garlic and added some frozen corn, chopped a chicken breast and dinner is served. I don't feel that corn or zucchini need anything else.
Soups! Who does not love soup!? Well I suppose some people don't but I'm not one of them! I like a cream of whatever soup with vegetables in it. But my diet soups can't have the typical things that make soups creamy. To work with that I will put a small pot on to boil and and add veggies of my choice, usually onion, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower..... I boil the veg's till they are soft and kinda smush them, this helps make the creamy texture, and then add some fat free cheese slices and melt them. A little pepper and voila I have a creamy bowl of soup with whatever mixture of vegetables suits me on that particular day.
Being that I love salads I eat a lot of them. Although recently I have not, hmmm. But the romaine lettuce is tasting rather funky right now, must not be a good season for it. But I will have a garden salad, cesar and spinach salad. I add different toppings to them to make them more of a meal. I will add chicken breast, ground turkey (I like that best on spinach with a homemade crouton, cesar or ranch dressing and hot sauce), a can of tuna (all the animals come begging around my feet for the tuna water when the hear a tuna can, lol) and some of my fiesta rice meat mixture, I like that one with catalina dressing. I've tried a honey mustard dressing on chicken and romaine before too and that was good. I'm open to suggestions on salads! I will also do a cucumber and tomato one with itallian dressing. Now my big meal salad that I've served when we've had guests often has them a little stumped! They're not quite sure about the combo of cooked and raw vegetables on their salads.
I'm thinking a salad post is in order because I'm not doing them justice in this little blurb!
I try to keep things different but when you're on a diet it's often easiest to stick to a few main meals that you know are OK for you, that you like and always have those ingredients on hand.
These are just general ideas so I'll post the actual recipes I go by to make the dishes I listed in this post. So check back often and see what new strategies or suggestions I'm working on to keep on track of my diet.
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