So I have a question about what you guys typically do for dinner. I am trying to stick to Lean Cuisines most nights, because they are quick, easy, and I know exactly how many calories they have. But I live with my boyfriend, and I like to cook for him so we can eat dinner together. My problem is, it's hard to find meals that are low-enough in calories for me to eat that he will still enjoy and not end up feeling starved! Any suggestions?

Really Big Salads with tons of great and healthy ingredients!
I find I usually make reallllly bohring ones - but then I went to a friends house - and she put rosemary in it and chopped up carrots (which I usually don't like) and chopped mushrooms and other stuff (she was veggie) like mozz cheese - also well chopped (so it was spread out, but not too much) - you could throw in specially cooked chicken (marinated and grilled?) or shrimp - even lean steak. I love the newmans own lite asian dressing - or you can make your own! I've been eating a lot of raw zuccini lately - with hummus - YUM. (and have also put it into my salads) - also garbonzo beans or cawliflower or broccili or some fresh corn (cooked) or kidney beans make good additions too! And maybe you could make your own croutons or put some fruit in it (strawberries? apples?) to sweeten it up...

ok - salad isn't always great - but just know - you can have a LOT of veggies and it won't ruin your cal intake. Like pasta primavera - add some chicken to it - but more veggies and its all good! as long as you have good flavors you won't nes. miss all the carbs! (still have the carbs - but proportional).

Ok enough rambling!

B

Bida's idea is good... A couple (ok, like 4) nights a week I set up a salad bar... diced grilled chicken and several veggies and greens and everyone makes their own.

My boyfriend is also into egg white omeletes and it's one of my favorites as well. It's not completely filling so I will roast some veggies and/or new potatos to go with it.

A lot of the time, if it's something hearty I'm looking for I will pull whatever lean meat I have (usually chicken breasts or ground turkey) and just kinda throw something together- meat loaf with shredded vegetables (carrots, zuccini, and diced veggies), chicken with wild rice and veggies. It sounds complicated, but if you are using minute rice and frozen veggies, all you have to worry about is the chicken. You just have to find ways to cut time.

My boyfriend and I work it like this:

-some nights, we make our own food (sort of a smorg/cold cuts type night) and then eat together. (I'll generally eat tuna on bread and some salad, while he might make himself some pasta and cheese and have salad on the side.)

-other nights, we cook two versions of something. For example, he'll have refined pasta, and I'll have whole wheat. Or, his portion of something will have cheese on it, where mine won't.

-some nights, we have something high calorie (pizza, lasagne, etc.) On these nights, I'll have a controlled portion, and then fill up on salad.

-some nights, I'll cook something low-calorie and yummy for both of us. It's sort of an experimental thing, and we've ended up working some of these dishes into our regular routine. Salad and proteins help keep the meal filling.


We also have gradually incorporated healthier replacements into some of our typical dishes; leaving out cheese and putting in banana peppers or spices for flavour is a popular one.

I eat chicken a lot. I just weigh the peices and plug the numbers into fitday. If I'm eating legs then I will bake them in the oven for 30 minutes each side and then sometimes I'll add some bbq sauce or something. I eat that with a big salad or veggies. Sometimes I'll add a starch like brown rice or potato.

Sometimes I'll cook chicken breast on the george forman and then put them in wraps, or salads, or pasta, or almost anything. Again just make sure you weigh your portions.

Omelets. I use egg beaters and then add whatever fillings you want.

Sometimes I feel like red meat and then I just watch my portion size.

If I'm making something like pasta with meat sauce, stuffed green peppers, or something else that has ground beef cooked into it then I will mix mornings fake ground beef. You can't taste it and it adds bulk.

I'm lucky to have people cook for me so all I really do is control my portions.

1/2 plate veggies...
1/4 plate lean protein...
1/4 plate carbs (whole grain if possible)...
and a glass of cold milk.

And I try using a smaller plate so I eat less.

Hope that gives you an idea.

Thanks for all the ideas, guys, I'm definitely going to use some of these! I need to get a food scale, and I think that will make things a lot easier on me. It's just to hard for me to guess-timate!

Tonight I made a great dinner that I found at CookingLight. It was 4 oz beef filets in a balsamic sauce (215 cal) and a small portion of roasted new potatoes (132 cal). It was SO yum! But for some reason I felt really guilty afterwards. I followed the recipe, watched my portions, and it stayed within my calories for the day, but for some reason I felt bad about it! It's like I feel like I need to be really depriving myself! I think it may have to do with the fact that my 5-morning/week workouts are starting to kick in and make me feel fatigued, plus its my TOM. So maybe that's all it is.

Thanks again for the yummy suggestions!

Stir Fry is great! Lots of veggies plus some chicken or lean beef then serve his with rice and make yours just the veggies and meat. Use low sodium soy sauce or a low cal teriyaki sauce.

Wisher,

I love stir fry, that's been a regular here lately!

I also love stir-fry - yummy!

One recipes I love to make:

Sugar snap peas, fresh chopped garlic, a little olive oil - fry in pan on stove for about 5 minutes, they are sssooo yummy. The other night I added mushrooms also really really good! I don't think that this has that many calories.

Other than that, I eat a lot of baked chicken with veggies and salad. I also eat veggie burgers, turkey burgers, veggie chili, turkey chili, and something else really good is veggie chicken that is breaded bake in oven and chop in put in salad, like eating a fried chicken salad!!

I hope that helps, I have not really watched calories in the past but I am going to start!

(semi) homemade Soups with is a quick, easy, flavorful, customizable and healthful option. Just start with a simmering broth and toss in whatever you feel like -- and you can easily bulk up his portion by giving him more soup, or adding some cooked meats & pasta to his bowl.

Make sure you are getting enough sleep Brittany - esp. if you are getting fatigued. I know I need more sleep to recoup my body when I work out hard! Did you feel guilty because you felt like you were eating too many calories or too much fat? If you didn't overeat you should be fine - but I know what you mean about feeling a bit guilty - last night I felt a bit guilty about my dinner - but I realized I had measured everything out - and I wasn't stuffed when i finished it (which is my pitfall) so even though I worked out before - I didn't kill the work out. make sense? (but I had to tell myself that!)

B

Thanks Bida. I just work up from a nap and that seems to have helped. I'm not sure why I felt guilty. I knew it wasn't too many calories because I had measured it out, and right now I'm not counting fat, just calories, because my diet is typically very low fat anyways. So I think it was just because I felt so satisfied from such a small meal. Who knows? And I do need to be going to bed earlier now that I'm getting up so early to work out. So thanks for bringing that up, hopefully it will help!

Oh there's lots you can do!

My biggest thing is making a healthy, balanced meal, and making sure that I serve myself, and my boyfriend serves himself. That way we each get the portion size we want/need, without me overeating or him starving.

Stirfries are quick, easy and balanced. They're easy to work around dietary restrictions, too.

Last night we had spinach and cheese tortellini tossed in balsamic vinegar, with steamed broccoli and carrots. I had a small serving of the pasta, and loaded up on veg, while my boyfriend did the opposite.

We often make tacos with ground turkey (leaner than beef), and then we can each load them up with what we want. For me, that means salsa, lettuce, cucumber, etc, with a touch of low fat sour cream. For my boyfriend, it means lettuce and cheese.

You'll have to play around with things to find what he likes and will eat. I find that the more my boyfriend sees the veggies as an option, the more he'll start loading up on them. If they're not there, he won't ask for them or make them.

My mom's been making a lot of stir fry lately- easy because you can just cut up all the veggies in advance, and mix them in each night- this week I've had salmon stir-fry, and beef stir-fry another night. It's delicious, easy, and low cal.