I fell off of the wagon a while ago and gained it all back PLUS SOME I need to start calorie counting again and started today I need ideas, I will be going to the grocery store tomorrow. The hard thing for me is to stay on track when I have 4 kids and a husband that I'm cooking for. I want to stay between 1300-1500 calories for now. Thanks for any ideas

Here's what I had today

Breakfast- 2 cups of coffee with 2 servings of FF french vanilla creamer
Total:102 calories

Snack- 1 cup of grapes
Total: 60 calories

Lunch- fit & active chicken florentine alfredo
Total: 250 calories

Snack- Original sun chips (1oz)
Total: 140 calories

Dinner will be a salad with 4oz bonless, skinless chx breast, a hard boiled egg and balsamic vinegarette(sp?) dressing
Total: 261 calories

I have around 400 calories left which I will find something for a snack.

I buy a lot of individual portions items so I don't have to worry about over eating (portion control). I eat 1400 calories per day.

Breakfast is usually a pack of single serving oatmeal such as cinnamon roll or wild blueberry muffin oatmeal (150-160 cals) and 4 slices of microwave bacon hormel brand (70 cals).

I love the great value weight loss shakes in strawberry (170 cals) I also like chunky soup ( 2 servings per can 300-380 cals for the one's I like) starkist tuna salad in a pouch (100 cals), frozen dinners, yogarts, individual sized bags of chips like doritos (150 cals), peanut butter nabs (190 cals) coke zero, diet pepsi, water crystal light.

Thank you so much Robin, great ideas I would like to do all week portions on Sunday if that makes sense? That way I don't have to do it through out the week. Thanks again for the ideas.

Do you mean meal ideas for yourself for like lunchs or do you mean for the whole family?

Either will do... I am mainly stuck with lunches, my kids are in school for lunch and then I will just eat a small portion of what I make for the family as my dinners.

I can't recall the exact calories count but I recently made a wonderful chicken tortilla. Just brown a tortilla in a skillet with an oz or so precooked chicken breast, 1 T lite masterpiece bbq sauce and about an oz of cheese( i used an microplane so 1 oz of cheese looks like alot). You can add spinach if you would like or any kinda spices. I added some cilentro.
I made this using two tortillas one on bottom one on top. You can easily make it with one tortilla folded in half with a side salad.
I also like to make wraps with tons of veggies and hummus as the condiment. You can either use a tortilla or one of those pita bread things with yogurt and a piece of fruit on the side.

I'm terrible at lunch ideas and struggle with that, but here's some of the things we have for dinner.

Taco salads without the shell. Kids and hubby can have tortillas with theirs if they choose. Use lots of greens and beans. Leave out the fatty ground beef. Go easy on the cheese. Sub plan greek yogurt for sour cream. Did I mention lots of greens? Oh and tomatoes, onions, green peppers, or any other veggie you like. Here's an example with pics.

Black bean patties. Kids and hubby can make theirs into a burger. You can too or leave off the bun for less calories. Add some roasted veggies or side salad to make it a meal. Here's my post from making them a while back with details and photos for making Brit's Black Bean Burgers.

Grilled sandwiches - My husband loves these and they take next to no time to make. You make them just like you would a grilled cheese. Use a few sprays of butter spray instead of the large smear of regular butter on the bread. Load up lean turkey, ham, or other lean meats plus veggies. I love tomato and fresh spinach on mine. Add a steamer bag of broccoli or other veggies for a quick 15 minute meal.

So there's a few ideas that will hopefully be family friendly that you can also keep low-cal.

I also like this recipe but I don't use the cucumber or lemon pepper seasoning.

1 cup (about 4.5 oz.) cooked & roughly chopped skinless lean chicken breast
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/3 cup red seedless grapes, halved
1/3 cup chopped apple
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
2 tbsp. fat-free mayonnaise
1 no-calorie sweetener packet (like Splenda)
1/4 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning
dash salt

Directions:
Mix together the yogurt, mayonnaise, sweetener, lemon pepper seasoning, and salt. Coat the chicken in this mixture, and then stir in the chopped cucumber, grape halves, and chopped apple. Then try not to pass out as you chow down on this insanely good chicken salad! MAKES 2 SERVINGS


Serving Size: half of recipe (about 1 cup)
Calories: 145
Fat: 1.5g
Sodium: 332mg
Carbs: 14g
Fiber: 1g
Sugars: 10g
Protein: 21g

POINTSŪ value 3*

Thank you so much for the ideas and recipes, I'm saving them and will hopefully use them

Are you looking to do all your cooking on Sunday then just reheat & eat thru the week?

I usually do the frozen meals for dinners (michelina's, lean cuisine etc) and a sandwich for lunch (my fave is cream cheese and cucumber sandwich on wonder+ whole wheat bread = 233 calories only!) sounds nasty but it's not haha!

i have salads & lots of veggies in between.. but i'm going to try to venture out to start cooking a single chicken breast on my own... now all i have to do is find some recipes on baking a chicken breast