Favorite regular meals

Unknown

I have overnight steel cut oats with Greek yogurt, a little honey or maple syrup, fresh fruit (usually berries), and a little granola for breakfast. Another favorite is a parfait of Greek yogurt with fruit and a little granola. Breakfast is about the only meal I have standard. My husband usually fixes dinner so it's whatever he makes.

Unknown

Favorite standard breakfast: 1 egg 2 pieces of toast and one breakfast sausage patty
Favorite lunch: Burrito bowl which for me is 4 oz of ground sirlion, 1/2 cup chili beans, some mexican cheese and sour cream maybe some onion and green pepper cooked with the beef. Or thin slices chicken breast seasoned to perfection with either a can of corn or peas.
Favorite Dinner: Either cubed steak seasond with beefy onion soup mix and mashed potatoes or homemade chicken burritos

Unknown

ForeverSunshine09 wrote: »

Favorite standard breakfast: 1 egg 2 pieces of toast and one breakfast sausage patty
Favorite lunch: Burrito bowl which for me is 4 oz of ground sirlion, 1/2 cup chili beans, some mexican cheese and sour cream maybe some onion and green pepper cooked with the beef. Or thin slices chicken breast seasoned to perfection with either a can of corn or peas.
Favorite Dinner: Either cubed steak seasond with beefy onion soup mix and mashed potatoes or homemade chicken burritos

The burrito bowl sounds great.

Unknown

I love this thread! I'm just starting my journey to be healthier. My problem is the TIME it takes - I've found quick meals to make but they aren't the healthiest. I also only shop at Aldi's to keep the budget on track, so some of the frozen/ready made options just aren't there.

My new favorite breakfast: Simply Nature Instant oatmeal and Flax.
Favorite dinner: grilled chicken breast marinated in balsamic vinegar, steamed corn on the cob, fresh fruit salad (bite size cut strawberries, apples, and whatever else I've got fresh, dressed up with a scoop or two of greek yogurt)

Unknown

Favorite Breakfast:
3 oz. ciabatta bread (sliced in half lengthwise)
Roasted asparagus
2 poached eggs
Maybe some canadian bacon if I have the calories. I basically toast the bread, top with asparagus and then a poached egg. Heaven.

Favorite Lunch:
Bruschettini toasts
Pepper Jack cheese stick
sliced salami
cherry tomatoes
carrots

Favorite Dinner:
There are many recipes I love, but my current favorite (had it every Saturday for the past 3 weeks) is:
Grilled cheeseburger with bun, lettuce, tomato, pickle and ketchup
Roasted Potato wedges
*I have a weakness for hamburgers and french fries and this fits the bill without going crazy on the calories

Favorite "treat":
Fiber One 90 calorie Mint Brownie
1/2 cup Edy's slow churned vanilla ice cream
drizzle of Hershey's Syrup
dollop of cool whip free

Unknown

Variety is the spice of life, however, my go to breakfast is a PBJ on a carb counter tortilla. It's also one of my favorite snacks when I have the calories left for it. Eggs any time of day is always good too. One of my favorite dinners is a Thai red curry beef stew recipe I adapted from Cooking Light magazine. I love to cook and be creative in the kitchen.

Unknown

Favorite breakfast: steel cut oats and quinoa with a little hemp seed, cacao nibs, fresh whole milk yogurt, and banana

Favorite lunch: lamb gyros with homemade tzatziki sauce, quinoa salad with cucumber and roma tomato, and a little homemade purple sauerkraut

Favorite dinner: 2 fried eggs on whole grain toast with a spread of strained yogurt and sriracha, raw carrot sticks and cauliflower florets

Unknown

Breakfast - Soft boiled eggs, toast (dry, I smash the eggs on top and sprinkle on some salt), milk with coffee, pineapple (or another fruit but lately I've been loving pineapple.) I eat this nearly every morning now and it's around 550-600 calories.

Lunch - Lunch is my "meh" meal. I pretty much stick with a standard template that neither thrills nor disappoints. It's quite utilitarian. Either a cup of cottage cheese or a yogurt, sometimes add a tuna packet (not to the yogurt, just on the side ), a Kashi bar, and a bunch of raw veggies/fruit. 400-500 calories.

Dinner - Probably spaghetti and meatballs. Depending on how much the meatball ingredients end up weight together, I make them each anywhere from 1.5 to 2 ounces and I generally eat 4 of them. Plus 1 serving pasta and a half cup sauce. It's around 700-750 calories.

Unknown

girlviernes wrote: »

mamapeach910 wrote: »

Favorite Breakfast: Cottage cheese with pumpkin, almonds, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice
Favorite Lunch: Lentil Stew with lentils, San Marzano tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions OR Lentil Taco Salad
Favorite Dinner: Greek yogurt, frozen raspberries, and almonds

Breakfast sounds delish! Love more lentil ideas too. Any kind of spices in your lentil stew?

Nothing fancy. Trader Joe's sells a salt free mix called 21 Seasoning Salute. I use that.

Unknown

badgermama220 wrote: »

I love this thread! I'm just starting my journey to be healthier. My problem is the TIME it takes - I've found quick meals to make but they aren't the healthiest. I also only shop at Aldi's to keep the budget on track, so some of the frozen/ready made options just aren't there.

I'm a simple cook, but I'm always cooking on the run, and have found that once you are in the habit it's really not that time consuming. I think a lot of people make it harder than it needs to be by thinking in terms of more complicated foods or recipes.

I try to make some lunches ahead on the weekends (I like to use the slow cooker to make some larger source of meat, like turkey breast or drumsticks or a pork shoulder) and then make up meals from that, and then also make enough for dinner for leftovers. I am inconsistent about this, so some weeks I end up buying meals a lot, but when I'm consistent it's really not that difficult.

My breakfast is pretty much one of two things (and not as fast as many as I'm a morning person).

But dinner tends to be: (1) decide the night before what the meat will be and get it out to defrost in the refrigerator if it's frozen; (2) on the way home think about how long the meat cooking time will be and what starch if any will be involved; (3) walk in the door and immediately turn on the oven and start my starch, as that's normally the longest part--this means pop rice in the rice cooker or lentils in a pot or chop my potatoes or sweet potatoes or root veg. If doing a starch that gets roasted, by the time this is done and I do my other immediately home things the oven is heated up and it goes in the oven. (4) Start the meat cooking based on the starch time (sometimes it takes about the same, occasionally less, like if I have pasta). Usually I just use dry spices or fresh herbs when cooking this way, no marinade. (5) Look at what vegetables I have in the refrigerator and get them out and start them cooking based on when everything else will be done. While doing this get inspired as to what extras would be nice to add to the overall meal, if any--olives, cheese, fruit, nuts/pinenuts, so on.

I don't always cook precisely this way, but it's pretty standard. I could race Rachael Ray! Fish is especially fast, although generally more expensive.

If I'm really short on time I try to double cook the night before so as to have cooked meat available and tend to think of ways to exclude the longest parts of this--like an omelet is super fast, pasta generally is (I make my own sauce with chopped up meat and lots of veggies, some olive oil and garlic, sprinkle a bit of cheese at the end), something like a salad with meat and some cooked veggies on top is. In the summer I do Asian salads with tomatoes and cucumbers and radishes and basil and bok choy or cabbage plus lean beef or chicken in a lime, fish sauce, soy, and sriracha-based dressing, which can be extremely fast (and low calorie when that's the goal). Stuff like that--you will develop things that are easy and be able to just work with what's in your refrigerator the more you do it.

Unknown

Dinner:
Vegetable fetticcini

2T thinly sliced onion
3 small zucchini (50 cent diameter)
2-3 shakes of Cavenders Greek Seasoning (or salt & pepper, or Tony's, etc. what you like)
If you have it 2T dried tomato snipped to 1/2" shreds (mine is from my garden so no oil added)
2 triangles Bonnie Bell Low fat cheese (swiss, white cheddar, dried tomato & mozzarella, Chipotle, what ever you want)
3oz already cooked protein cut into small pieces (chicken, shrimp, pork loin, etc.)

Run zucchini through one of those twisty vegetable spaghetti makers on the large holes (saw them at CVS in the "on TV" aisle, bought mine at Bed Bath & Beyond). You could also just very thinly slice it into ribbons.
Saute onion on medium heat, in a couple of squirts of spray oil until transparent/golden. Remove from pan.
On fairly high heat, saute zucchini in another few squirts of oil until it starts to look translucent, 5-8 minutes.
Add in the cooked onion, the spice, and the dried tomatoes. Cook another 2-4 minutes
Turn down the heat to low and drop in the Bonni Bell cheese, break up cheese and gently fold around to coat the vegetable mixture - 2-3 minutes. You may need to add a tablespoon or two of water to keep everything fluid if the juice released from the zucchini cooks away to fast. It should not stick.
Fold in the protein for another minute or so until heated through.
Enjoy

Shredding up the zucchini is the longest part of the prep.

Unknown

Anne2325 wrote: »

Dinner:
Vegetable fetticcini

2T thinly sliced onion
3 small zucchini (50 cent diameter)
2-3 shakes of Cavenders Greek Seasoning (or salt & pepper, or Tony's, etc. what you like)
If you have it 2T dried tomato snipped to 1/2" shreds (mine is from my garden so no oil added)
2 triangles Bonnie Bell Low fat cheese (swiss, white cheddar, dried tomato & mozzarella, Chipotle, what ever you want)
3oz already cooked protein cut into small pieces (chicken, shrimp, pork loin, etc.)

Run zucchini through one of those twisty vegetable spaghetti makers on the large holes (saw them at CVS in the "on TV" aisle, bought mine at Bed Bath & Beyond). You could also just very thinly slice it into ribbons.
Saute onion on medium heat, in a couple of squirts of spray oil until transparent/golden. Remove from pan.
On fairly high heat, saute zucchini in another few squirts of oil until it starts to look translucent, 5-8 minutes.
Add in the cooked onion, the spice, and the dried tomatoes. Cook another 2-4 minutes
Turn down the heat to low and drop in the Bonni Bell cheese, break up cheese and gently fold around to coat the vegetable mixture - 2-3 minutes. You may need to add a tablespoon or two of water to keep everything fluid if the juice released from the zucchini cooks away to fast. It should not stick.
Fold in the protein for another minute or so until heated through.
Enjoy

Shredding up the zucchini is the longest part of the prep.

The "pasta" sounds very yummy, although I usually prefer full-fat cheese myself I bet this would be good with feta as well.

Unknown

Breakfast: baked potato breakfast bowl
Lunch: gigantic garden salad made with greens topped with Feta and Newman's light Italian, 1/2 avocado, grilled chicken breast, and a boiled egg
Dinner: cod fish fry, baked potato with sour cream and chives, sauteed mushrooms and greens

Unknown

badgermama220 wrote: »

I love this thread! I'm just starting my journey to be healthier. My problem is the TIME it takes - I've found quick meals to make but they aren't the healthiest. I also only shop at Aldi's to keep the budget on track, so some of the frozen/ready made options just aren't there.

My new favorite breakfast: Simply Nature Instant oatmeal and Flax.
Favorite dinner: grilled chicken breast marinated in balsamic vinegar, steamed corn on the cob, fresh fruit salad (bite size cut strawberries, apples, and whatever else I've got fresh, dressed up with a scoop or two of greek yogurt)

The nice thing is that home cooking can actually take less time than eating out. I like lemurcat's suggestions. An alternative is to do batch cooking, which more or less is what I do. I usually cook about 8-10 portions worth of a food at a time. Then I'll save half in the freezer and eat the rest. Lately I've been making big batches of lentil and and soup. Baked chicken/fish is very easy. I generally have a simple template for my meals, about 4 oz of meat, 1/2 cup of starch (corn, rice, potato, sweet potato, etc.), as many veggies as I can have. Sometimes I have fruit instead of the starch. This makes it very easy to put meals together.

Unknown

Breakfast: 100g cold smoked salmon with some carb - oatmeal or English muffin. I just eat the salmon straight as is.

Lunch: Bacon and grilled chicken wrap - 2oz grilled chicken, 1 low carb 80 cal tortilla, 1-2 strips of bacon, 1tbsp of Miracle Whip Light or tzatziki, 7g fat free cheddar shredded cheese, 1/4 cup or so of cole slaw mix.

Dinner: Probably pizza margherita made out on the grill with fresh mozzarella, basil, and roma tomatoes. I wish today was Friday. Meh, meh, meh. Vegetarian chili or chili made with 95/5 ground beef, falafel, cod skillet, grilled chicken chopped salad w/grilled corn on the cob, bison burgers, Jamaican jerk pork tenderloin.

Unknown

Favorite breakfast: light English muffin (or bagel thin), Laughing Cow cheese, scrambled egg. Alternately, Greek yogurt, fruit, turkey bacon.

Favorite lunch: deli turkey and cheese on a sandwich thin/in a wrap with spinach and tomato, side of baby carrots and cucumber slices, handful of popchips. Alternately, two turkey franks with mustard, cottage cheese with diced raw vegetables and salsa, fruit.

Favorite dinner: pan-grilled pork loin chops with garlic and thyme, two whole steamed artichokes with lemon butter. Alternately, roasted chicken thighs, lemon-steamed broccoli, quinoa.

I like food way too much, man. I didn't even have to think.

Unknown

CrabNebula wrote: »

Breakfast: 100g cold smoked salmon with some carb - oatmeal or English muffin. I just eat the salmon straight as is.

Lunch: Bacon and grilled chicken wrap - 2oz grilled chicken, 1 low carb 80 cal tortilla, 1-2 strips of bacon, 1tbsp of Miracle Whip Light or tzatziki, 7g fat free cheddar shredded cheese, 1/4 cup or so of cole slaw mix.

Dinner: Probably pizza margherita made out on the grill with fresh mozzarella, basil, and roma tomatoes. I wish today was Friday. Meh, meh, meh. Vegetarian chili or chili made with 95/5 ground beef, falafel, cod skillet, grilled chicken chopped salad w/grilled corn on the cob, bison burgers, Jamaican jerk pork tenderloin.

Love love love a good margerita pizza.

Unknown

avskk wrote: »

Favorite breakfast: light English muffin (or bagel thin), Laughing Cow cheese, scrambled egg. Alternately, Greek yogurt, fruit, turkey bacon.

Favorite lunch: deli turkey and cheese on a sandwich thin/in a wrap with spinach and tomato, side of baby carrots and cucumber slices, handful of popchips. Alternately, two turkey franks with mustard, cottage cheese with diced raw vegetables and salsa, fruit.

Favorite dinner: pan-grilled pork loin chops with garlic and thyme, two whole steamed artichokes with lemon butter. Alternately, roasted chicken thighs, lemon-steamed broccoli, quinoa.

I like food way too much, man. I didn't even have to think.

Dinner sounds delicious. Two artichokes, how decadent!

Unknown

I have been known to eat four whole artichokes at once. I actually quibbled over that meal, because my FAVORITE favorite dinner would just be three artichokes and lemon butter... but that doesn't sound very balanced.

Unknown

avskk wrote: »

I have been known to eat four whole artichokes at once. I actually quibbled over that meal, because my FAVORITE favorite dinner would just be three artichokes and lemon butter... but that doesn't sound very balanced.

The truth comes out!!