[Phoebe]

I am looking for help from all you guys who are doing so well. I have got stuck in the rut of eating cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and pasta for dinner. Would anyone be willing to post a sample day's menu so that I can get some alternative ideas!

Thanks!

[Sarah Ann]

Do you normally have set amounts of calories at any one meal... for instance I have about 400 cals at breakfast, 300 at lunch and about 800 at dinner and the rest go on snacks? Or do you do it differently. I can give you some ideas for those kind of calories. Let me know....

[Sarah Ann]

The other thing is, are you completely vegetarian or do you eat fish????

[Phoebe]

I would tend to have 250 to 300 for breakfast and maybe 400 or so for lunch. I find sandwiches quite boring.

I don't eat meat or fish but am happy to see what everyone eats as I can usually adapt it to leave out the meat.

Thanks Sarah!

[Sarah Ann]

OK - I'll put my thinking hat on and reply a bit more fully tomorrow. Believe it or not I am cooking a roast for dinner tonight - in all this heat!

[Sarah Ann]

Ok.... I've been thinking..... how about

Brekkie: poached or boiled egg on toast, grilled tomatoes on toast, cereal (of course), fruit smoothies and cereal/chew bar (yum), croissant with jam, crumpets with scrambled egg on or (my favourite) split and toasted wholemeal muffin with low fat laughing cow spread or slice of processed cheese between and sandwiched together - eat hot!.

Packed Lunch: Rice salad - mix leftover rice with low fat yoghurt and a half teaspoon curry powder and then add in veggies. Stuff a pitta bread with salad and hummus. A layered salad in a dish with a small amount of potatoes, pasta or rice and sauce at the bottom topped with salad (make extra the night before). Cold potato frittata. Pitta bread with spicy salsa or tzatziki dip (v. easy to make). Bulghar wheat/couscous salad (I use a packet of couscous) and add in some crunchy salad veggies, topped with a dollop of low fat yoghurt/onion/garlic dip.

At home lunch: Baked beans on toast. Soup and a roll. Jacket potato. If you're like me and don't like microwave ones you can bake them in the oven and freeze them and either warm them up in the oven or microwave. You could have Baked potato with salsa and a dollop of low fat yoghurt. Baked potato with quarter tin of chilli beans (red kidney beans in chilli sauce) or BBQ beans. My other lunchtime favourite is 200g oven bake potato wedges sprinkled with 28g cheese and a very fine sprinkle of cayenne pepper then put back in the oven for a few minutes to melt.

[Phoebe]

Thank you so much Sarah, those ideas sound so yummy. I love the idea of the rice salad and the potato wedges sound lovely. I am going to have scrambled eggs for brekkie tomorrow.

I just needed a little kick start to my imagination. It just shows you how healthy food can still be delicious.

Thank you very much!

Also, thanks for Veggie for sending me suggestions too.