Need canned food ideas
 

I love, and I mean love, low calorie sources of protein to go with my daily salad and I need your help to identify more, specifically of the canned variety which are easy to store.

So far, I eat on a regular basis:

canned snails (sauteed of course)
canned sardines in water
canned octopus in olive oil; and,
canned tuna
canned clams
canned cockles

I have just ordered some canned sockeye salmon and some canned Dungeness crab.

Can you think of any canned seafood or meat that I may have missed that fits my main criteria of being low calorie, high protein?

Shrimp and oysters.

Thanks Sum!

I love smoked oysters in the can and fish steaks in mustard sauce!

What about canned flaked chicken (the kind normally used to make chicken salad sandwiches)?

I know this isn't what you asked for but check out the asian and hispanic aisles/sections if you haven't already- sometimes they have a ton of flavored canned seafood in sauces (some of them, not all) that may be awesome.

I've never tried them but I heard they may be good- lobster, mackerel and eel.

fish steaks in mustard sauce? I wanna try! What brand/where or?

I've seen salmon packets. Great to throw on a salad and they're 70 calories each with a lot of protein. Starkist makes them.

I can't remember the brand...but I always find them in the sardine aisle. I just love them and the ones in tomato sauce are good too!

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions.

If you can find an asian or other multi-ethnic groceries or markets, the variety of canned seafood options are mind-boggling. Not all are low-calorie, but most are.

Smiling Fish is a brand I like. They come in cans the shape of tomato paste cans and tuna cans). I especially like the sardines and Mackerel in assorted curry flavored sauces. The sardines tend to be lower calorie/fat, and some sauces are low-carb and others are high carb.

My favorite is fried mackerels in chili sauce, but I don't buy it often because the calorie, fat, and carb levels are higher than for other products in the Smiling Fish line (300 calories, 22g protein 15g fat, 16g net carbs).

Another "treat" variety is Smiling Fish brand fried clams with chilis (220 calories for the can, 13g protein, 12g fat, 14g net carbs.

I don't have info on the lower cal/carb varieties, because I've already eaten those.

I also have a tin of "boiled scallops" from the Dollar Tree. I haven't tried them yet, but I buy other tinned fish there all the time and the quality has been good (tuna, salmon, crab, shrimp, sardines and smoked oysters, clams and muscles.

The boiled scallops are in a flat sardine type can and are 45 calories for the whole can, 0 fat, 0 carb, and 9g protein.

The scallops are the lowest calorie canned fish I've found, but is so low that two cans would fit better into my own guidelines for canned fishies. I try to choose products that run 100-200 calories, less than 10g of fat, and 15 - 30g protein.

I also LOVE canned eel, but it's sometimes hard to find a brand that doesn't contain a lot of sugar (sometimes the meat is weirdly candy-like).

If you can find an asian market, also check out the snack aisle and look for "prepared cuttlefish" or "prepared squid." It looks like shreds of pink, stringy jerky, which is pretty much what it is. Check ingredients, because sugar content varies. Some brands and varieties are sweet, some, salty, some spicy (and the best have a bit of all three). I'm addicted, but it does smell strongly fishy, although the flavor isn't as strong as the smell). Usually even the high sugar brands are low in calorie.

What about canned chicken breast? I buy it at Aldi for super cheap. You can make just about anything out of it or just put it on top of salad.

Just to let you know that I have taken all your ideas (except canned lobster...$25/can) and done some serious Amazon shopping. Many cans will be appearing in my office at work on a shelf I have dedicated to "lunch".

12 cans of shrimp arrived yesterday. Crab, sockeye salmon, smoked oysters and smoked sprat are on order.

Next up will be eel, chicken and rainbow trout.

I fricking love tinned low-calorie protein. On a salad.

I have a serious smoked oyster problem. When I was a kid, my parents would buy a can once in a great while. It was a really rare "treat" and my dad would dole them out as if they were gold.

When I was a teen, I was surprised to learn the cost was only a dollar or two per can. I'd actually spend my own paper route money on cans of smoked oysters (I was an odd kid).

Another odd treat I like are pickled sausages (though I don't like pickled pigs feet or pickled eggs).

Awesome, thanks!

Ian, 25$ per can? Holy shznit! My bad, I didn't realize how much they are.