Hi all,

So I did Medifast until I went on vacation last month, and had great success with it, but now that I am getting back on plan I am really struggling. I guess its just a combination of that horrible first-3-days feeling you get when transitioning back onto the plan, and just generally feeling tired and over-extended.

Anyway, the thought of cooking elaborate Lean and Green meals is enough to make me want to call it quits. I've read some of the recipe ideas, but they all seem either too complicated or that they just won't be very tasty. The stickied thread with recipe ideas is not updated very often... can anyone offer some advice or a go-to recipe here?

Thanks.

I don't do elaborate for L&G--simple is much easier!

My favorite is shrimp with cocktail sauce and a green salad.

Grilled salmon with broccoli.

Grilled chicken with a vegetable.

Steak with ratatouille (grilled zucchini and onions and fresh tomatoes all mixed together).

Burger patty with salad (that way the rest of the family can have regular burgers and I don't have to fix a whole separate meal. I usually use a large piece of lettuce for my "bun".

Well, I can tell you some of the meals I cook.

- Buy boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets. Use some herbs de provence, or some McCormicks Grill Mates for chicken, or a McCormick's rub, or just salt and pepper. Cook in a nonstick pan on medium to low heat for maybe 15 minutes until done through.

- Do something similar with lean boneless pork chops.

- Do something similar with 90% lean ground beef, or with steak.

- Or, you could get some peeled shrimp and cook in a pan or grill or broil them until pink but not too tough.

- While that's going, microwave some frozen Birdseye Steamfresh green beans, and when done, mix with some salt and dill weed. Or, you could cook some fresh broccoli. Or try steaming or roasting some summer squash. The yellow is nice.

- Include prewashed salad from a bag or container, with an approved dressing. I like Newman's Light Lime. All this takes not very much time, and you have leftovers.

- Use Butter Buds or Smart Balance spray for some additional flavor.

- I also just like to have a big salad with some sweet red pepper, small tomatoes, celery, etc. and add a couple cans of water-packed tuna. Yes, you can have up to two cans of tuna as your lean! Put the dressing on before you add the tuna. Or buy some peeled, precooked shrimp.

Seasoning is the key to taste, and you don't have to make the seasonings yourself. I almost always opt for packaged stuff to make thing easier.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Jay

For summer, I'm doing lots of salad. I use whatever bagged salad greens are on sale each week, grape tomatoes and mushrooms.

For my meat, I either grill a steak, or a tuna steak, or a swordfish steak - 5 minutes on a side for medium-rare. If I'm motivated, I'll grill veggies with the meat - zucchini, portabellas, red peppers, eggplant. I brush them with a little olive oil, season with salt, pepper, and italian seasoning.

My grocery store has frozen cooked salad shrimp in 8oz bags. I know, it's a little too much, but whatever. It's easy.

Today I wanted something different, so I had cottage cheese for my lean. Instead of salad, I cut up shrooms and cherry tomatoes this morning and marinated it in olive oil and flavored balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper til dinner.

There's always breakfast for dinner - 3 scrambled eggs with veggies.

I just made picked eggs - can't wait to try them over a salad!

Good luck!

I've been using my crockpot to make some of my leans. I had a small roast I needed to get out of the freezer; cooked it with Mrs. Dash chili-lime and a bit of cumin, then shredded it.

I've been eating the shredded meat over chopped romaine with garden tomatos and salsa. Simple and good.

I never think to pull out the crock pot in the summer! Pulled pork or pulled beef on a salad sounds yum!

My pickled eggs came out great - I had them today with shrooms and tomatoes, marinated in basil olive oil and cranberry-pear white balsamic.
Here's the recipe - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mustard...gs/Detail.aspx

Easy L&Gs? Frittatas, Omelettes, Grilled Meat with Salad.

I've used some of the medifast meatless options http://www.medifastmedia.com/shared/...tions_list.pdf

2 Meatless Burgers Original or vegan or vegetable are great. Add some spices if you want. You get 2 healthy fat servings with those. There are other meatless burgers were you get less fat services (or none at all) that are also good. I used these years ago when I lost weight not on medifast and knew they would be good. Usually they're frozen so a quick cooking.

I've also done the frozen vegetarian meatballs. They were good. I had about 3 L&G meals with the bag.

ETA: Oh and then add some veggies or a salad (low carb of course).

My easiest L&G -
grind pepper on chicken cutlets.
Throw them on the George Foreman grill.
Microwave a "steamer" veggie.
Chicken is done when the veggies are done.

Ziploc makes steamer bags that you just throw your food into & then stick it in the microwave. You're done cooking with no cleanup in about 5 minutes

i cant wait to get started, this all sounds so good