Give me your best low-cal, fast dishes.

[SuzySunshine]

My mom has SEVERELY cut back her Coke drinking and has lost a ton of weight.

[niener]

I lost 10 pounds in college just by going from about 40oz of coke/day to 8oz/day. It's kind of crazy how easy that was.

We do a lot of one pot meals in our house -- a bunch of veggies, a meat, and either rice, pasta or quinoa. DH is a huge meat eater but meat is expensive, so instead of serving him a whole chicken breast with a side of veggies and side of rice, I cut up the chicken and mix it in with the veggies and rice and he ends up eating about half as much meat as he would otherwise but he doesn't know the difference, he's still satisfied. For instance, this week I threw some chopped veggies in a pan (onions, bell pepper, squash, zucchini), sliced a couple links of italian sausage, boiled up some pasta, threw it all together and coated it in pasta sauce. Easy peasy. And if I had a 16 y.o. boy in the house, he could have scooped out as much as he wanted and sprinkled a handful of shredded cheese on top. Tonight, I threw a couple of chicken breasts in the crock pot along with a can of black beans, some frozen corn, chopped onion, chopped cilantro, squeezed some lime juice over it and sprinkled a little Mexican seasoning on top and just pressed the on button. Once it's done, I'll shred the chicken and either serve the whole thing over tortilla chips or rolled up in a soft flour tortilla. If I were making it low-cal, I could spoon it all over a bed of lettuce, call it a taco salad. Easy and not a lot of calories.

ETA: seasonings and tomato-based sauces are your friend. My spice rack is stacked deep and we go through quite a lot of red pasta sauce and salsa in our house.

[MarissaNicole]

Chili Mac
http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/r...recipeid=95081

BBQ meatloaf
http://www.parade.com/169171/devinal...f-stay-skinny/

Spinach and cheese eggs
http://www.food.com/recipe/spinach-c...sserole-156851

Crockpot chicken tacos
http://www.food.com/recipe/yummy-cro...r-tacos-313793
(Last 20 minutes I add sliced peppers to steam and serve on light tortillas

My other go-tos are:

Soup and grilled cheese (lo-cal bread and 2% cheese)
Grilled meat served with veggies
Veggie omelets
Naked broccoli cheese stuffed chicken breast from market day (I eat one and a half)
BLTs made with turkey bacon, light mayo and lo-cal bread
Any boxed or frozen dinner (even if it includes veggies) I add more veggies

I add veggies to everything... Poor dd always gets peas, corn and carrots mixed in with her Mac n cheese.

Definitely check out skinnytaste.com

My best advice is to make what you like, just healthier... If you don't enjoy eating it you won't stick with it. If you have a taste for something just google or check out cooking light for a healthier version. Everyone is always shocked when they find out a recipe was weightwatchers.



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[MarissaNicole]

Haven't tried this yet but would like to.

Light Mac n cheese:
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recip...-mac-n-cheese/


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[Momo]

here's a low fat healthy recipe!!

Dice some: tomatoes & Persian cucumbers
Coarsely chop some curly parsley discard(compost) stems.

Heat a can of chickpeas &/or fava beans, rmafter thoroughly heating, remove from pan w/slotted spoon and add to the tomato, cucumber parsley mixture.

Mince and or crush/mash(I use a mortar& pestle) some garlic(as much as you prefer)

Stir all ingredients and generously drizzle w/olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon juice (or from a bottle) add salt to taste. I also like to grind cumin seeds into a powder and add some as well. I have 2 coffee grinders in the house, one for coffee& one for spices.

This salad is a very traditional middle eastern salad. It is really healthy and yummy...my kids call it bean salad!! I love the marinated leftovers the next day(if there are any).

[Ladybug]

I add craisins and a touch of vinegar and sugar to the above salad. I use chickpeas and soy beans. It's a great salad!

I premarinating chicken breast and freezing. I have the best marinade! I'll look up and post later.

Turkey tacos or taco salad. We love our bean burritos. Ranch style beans, spinach, bell peppers, whatever is in the fridge.

My biggest problem is that I'm hunger when I'm cooking so I keep "tasting things" and then will not be hunger by the time the family eats but feel obligated to sit and eat with people. I snack waaaaaay to much while I'm feeding kids throughout the day. It's definitely their fault!

[PrincessFiona]

We're all suffering. This time, Chad really wanted to try. I'm really kind of done trying and failing. I'm going along with what he wants, but I just don't have high expectations for a lasting change.

1. It's never lasted before.
2. I have no motivation at all for change this time. I'm just not there.

So, we'll see, but I'm just keeping it jaded, as per my usual.

Then I suggest making small incremental changes that don't cause suffering. I'm like Angie in that I like large portion sizes. That's why I suggested heaping on a large salad with low-calorie dressing and then eating a regular portion size of the foods you love. You are right. If you are suffering, there is no chance of it being a lasting change for any period of time. This is simple. Buy a bag of salad each day. Let Ryan and Lexi eat the portions they need and just cut back a little on the heavy stuff and enjoy more salad before digging in to your main course. You can fill up on salad before turning to the main meal. Make a change that you can more easily stick with. For the life of me, I can't see how starting to cook new foods at the beginning of a new semester of school ... when you feel unmotivated .... is going to be anything more than an exercise in futility that you will chalk up as more failure! All said with love, of course!

Carry on with the talk about low cal recipes, of course ... just think this through so you can have a chance of holding onto change.

Kris

[Ladybug]

I didn't see this here so I must have seen it on FB. I'll definitely deploy some of these for crock pot go-tos. Honestly, it hadn't occurred to me to put it together in a gallon freezer bag, then just dump it in the pot in the morning. This is quite smart, if you ask me.

http://www.mommysfabulousfinds.com/2...zer-meals.html

Cool! I keep wanting to try something like this. I bought a Christmas light timer for the crockpot so it doesn't we don't end up with a la mush 10 hours later. I've read to put the frozen ingredients into the crockpot in the morning and set the timer for a lunch start time.

[PrincessFiona]

Have you guys visited cookinglight.com?

Their Sauteed Bass is really good. I'm partial to mushrooms though.
http://www.cookinglight.com/food/rec...442/page9.html

[Cleave]

I am a big fan of Mark Bittman. One of the things he does is eat vegan all day and then whatever he wants at night. He lost about 40ish pounds over months and his assistant lost 25 lbs over the year (I think), so it may produce slower results, but they also permanently changed the way they eat. Also, there's been some research that shows if you eat a light salad before a meal, you eat less of the main course and reduce caloric intake overall. FYI, eating a "high energy" -- ie high calorie -- salad increased calorie intake in the meal overall. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15389416

My downfall is that I eat really healthy all day (I'd rather eat veggies than anything else) and then eat something unhealthy at ten pm. You'd think it would be easy to just give up that ten pm snack, wouldn't you? And yet...sigh. I am so close to being really healthy and still so far away.

[OrionGrad]

I second the suggestion to check out skinnytaste.com for recipes. I've tried a lot of them and they're almost always very good.

When I decided to buckle down and lose the rest of the baby weight, I eliminated all side dishes from my diet. I'd have my normal main dish (salmon, turkey burger, tacos, etc.) but skip any side dishes (rice, chips, bread, beans, etc.). This worked well for me because I could cut a significant portion of my calories w/o giving up my favorite dishes altogether. As a side benefit, it's also made grocery shopping much cheaper.

[spotty_dog]

I am a big fan of Mark Bittman. One of the things he does is eat vegan all day and then whatever he wants at night. He lost about 40ish pounds over months and his assistant lost 25 lbs over the year (I think), so it may produce slower results, but they also permanently changed the way they eat. Also, there's been some research that shows if you eat a light salad before a meal, you eat less of the main course and reduce caloric intake overall. FYI, eating a "high energy" -- ie high calorie -- salad increased calorie intake in the meal overall. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15389416

Wait, if you eat a salad drenched with cheese and dressing, then you go to an all-you-can-eat pasta bar, you might end up consuming more calories than if you had only the pasta bar?!