Hi! I'm waiting on my book to come, so I'm winging it, but I wanted to see what you thought.
I think my calories are a little high, but I'm planning on eating mostly vegetables, and beans the rest of the day, so I'm thinking most of my calories will come from morning.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal( 1 serving)
Blueberries(1/2 cup)
2 slices turkey bacon
2 tbs flax seed

Snack: small apple
Green tea w/ 1 tbs soymilk and a dash of stevia(I can't drink it plain just yet, lol)

My calories so far are 531. I'm going to try to stay at or under 1800 for the first few weeks, and work my way down to 1400 as I lose the weight.
For lunch I'm doing beans, rice and spinach. For dinner, chicken, rice or tortilla, and broccoli . For snacks I have oranges , lowfat yogurt, carrots. I'm trying to keep it simple until I get the hang of it. I'm still completely unsure what would be best for condiments.
Would love to hear some feedback.

Tracy

I just went back and checked my calories, and I had accidentally entered an extra 100! Thats a relief, lol.

Sounds good to me but I'm definitely not an expert, I just started myself. I still keep it pretty simple too. In the beginning I was practically scared to death to eat anything unless it was on the list, but I've realized I can't eat ONLY superfoods, just try to incorporate as many as possible.

Ha You definitely can't live on ONLY super foods, that would be sooo restrictive! The author of the book doesn't even advocate that! He says there are LOTS of foods that are good for you, he is only pointing out 14 (in the first book) that are EXCEPTIONALLY good for you. There are tons of great foods that the author doesn't consider "super" (mangos, beets, radishes, bananas, red peppers, artichokes, green peppers - and until the second book - avocados, apples, olive oil, garlic, onions, kiwi, pomegranate etc) but are good for you and worthwhile to eat.

Hopefully, you will make this a permanent change for the rest of your life and you probably wouldn't be happy eating 14 foods and sidekicks forever!

Looks good to me! Don't neglect your healthy fats - olive oil, nuts, avocados, etc. (flax seed at breakfast is good - did you grind it? Makes it easier to get the nutritional benefits if they are well chewed or ground, otherwise, they just pass right through you!

I'm not sure what you mean by condiments - what do you want to put stuff on? I tend to stick to stuff like spicy mustard or organic ketchup or low fat mayo.

AndLy and Glory- It seems like there is so much superfoods that I don't have room for much else, lol! Right now I'm thinking it will be easy to stick to these, and work my way out as I get comfortable.
Glory-The flax seed I use comes milled. For condiments, I guess I meant like seasonings, flavorings, etc, maybe simple recipes? I made a spinach and tomato salad for lunch, and I couldn't take it without dressing, and since I didn't know what to do, I ended up stir frying it for about 30 seconds and added some garlic and pepper. I guess I need to learn how to flavor the foods. This is a huge change for me, I'm used to conveneince foods and eating out a lot. I'm not a big chef.

Also forgot to mention, I used to be on Atkins for years...til I got pregnant, gained some weight, got depressed about that gained more weight. I think I got burned out on atkins, and when I tried to go back to it, it just didn't work out. So this new way of eating is totally opposite of everything I've learned in the past. But so far I love not really worrying about carbs!

Oh

I love wilted spinach with tomato and onions and garlic! But you can definitely eat it as a salad with dressing. A nice walnut oil or olive oil or canola based dressing would be good (especially when you are maintaining your weight loss and get a few more calories to play with). If you are interested in low cal, there are some great light/low cal organic dressings out there. I love Annie's Naturals Gingerly Vinaigrette. A little healthy fats helps with the absorption of nutrients so low fat (not necessarily fat free) is a good option.

I totally hear you on the cooking thing, but luckily there are literally of THOUSANDS of healthy recipes available on the internet and most of them are pretty easy too. I don't mind cooking but I don't get into elaborate food preparation very often.

My favorite herbs/seasonings to cook with - garlic (LOTS - ha), onions, red pepper flakes, white pepper, basil (fresh if I have it), grated ginger, organo, cayenne, chili powder, cumin

Easy ideas:

* Omelettes - stuff with tons of sauteed or roasted vegetables, a tiny bit of low fat feta, herbs and top with green salsa

* Quesadillas - I make a great quesadilla with a block of frozen spinach, 1/2 can of low fat cream of mushroom soup, garlic, onion, a little low fat cheddar to stick it all together, sun dried tomatoes, diced jarred artichoke hearts, sliced black olives, cayenne, cumin, pine nuts. I make another one with shredded sweet potato (I shred it up with my food processor) a little cumin, a little cayenne and a little sharp cheddar cheese

* Pita - I love red bean and corn pita pockets, with a little bit of low fat cheddar, roasted red pepper

* Pizza - whole wheat crust (Trader Joe's has a good one) or whole wheat pita, or whole wheat English muffin, spicy tomato sauce, garlic, spinach, sun dried tomato, red onion (topping of your choice!) a little bit of low fat feta

* Stir fries - protein of your choice, whatever vegetables tickle your fancy, stir fry sauce (You can also jazz it up with lite coconut milk and curry paste)

* Soups - I make a fabulous spinach/chickpea/leek soup, I also like kale and navy bean, chili with Morning star farms veggie crumbles and 3 kinds of beans

* Roasted vegetables - I love making big pans of roasted vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots, tomato, cauliflower, red pepper, onions, beets) and eating them over quinoa or whole wheat couscous or brown rice. I usually flavor them with a little pesto or a little spicy stir fry sauce. Leftovers are great to stuff in an omelette or a wrap or a pita

Some of my favorite recipes

Orange Ginger Tofu Stir Fry

1 lb tofu
1 cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup shoyu (kind of a soy sauce, substitute soy if you can't find it)
2 tbs canola oil
2 tsp dark sesame oil
3 garlic cloves
1 tbs minced fresh ginger
¼ tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 scallion
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 jalapeno
5-6 mushrooms
1 orange pepper
1 carrot
1 broccoli crown
1 onion
snow peas
(whatever vegetables you want, those are just a suggestion)

In a medium bowl, wish together orange juice, vinegar, shoyu, oils, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes.

Place tofu in a baking dish in a single layer, cover with the marinade and sprinkle with the scallions and cilantro. Chop jalapeno and sprinkle on top. Marinate at least 30 minutes (up to over night).

Stir fry tofu with remaining ingredients and serve over brown rice.

Quinoa Sweet Potato Quesadillas

1 cup quinoa, washed/drained (use brown rice if you can't find quinoa)
1 large sweet potato/yam
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic (I used more)
1 14 oz can of tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained
1 can green chiles
2 tbs minced cilantro
Some low fat cheese
Whole wheat, low fat tortillas
Salsa

Cook quinoa in 2 cups of water. When done, set aside.

While the quinoa is simmering, I cut up the sweet potatoes into small pieces (dice sized) and spray a cookie sheet with PAM. I bake the potatoes for around 20 minutes (shaking often) until they are soft and getting crispy. (if I don't have time, I nuke them for 5 minutes!)

Saute onion, garlic. Stir in tomato (crushed, with juice), black beans, chiles, cilantro. Add quinoa, potatoes. Season with salt and pepper (I added some red pepper flakes, because i like spicy). Stir and heat through. I've also started adding spinach leaves, they wilt down nicely.

Put in tortillas, add some cheese so it sticks together, grill on both sides. Top with lots of salsa. Made enough for 3 nights!

Curried Vegetables

1 sweet potato, cut into small cubes
2 tbs olive oil
Carrots - I cut baby carrots in half, use about a cup
1 onion - cut into big wedges
Garlic - I use a freakish amount, whatever works for you
2 14oz cans of tomatoes, crushed with juice
1 can chickpeas, drained
2 heaping tablespoons curry powder
1 cup veggie broth
juice of one lime
salt, pepper
Veggies of choice - I've used green beans, broccoli, wilted spinach, parsnips (whatever floats your boat)
Brown rice

This dish isn't hard to make, just lots of chopping. I like to call it "every 15 minute curry" because you have to add something every 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Cut up potatoes into small, dice-sized pieces. Coat a deep metal baking pan with PAM and drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil (to your preference) over the potatoes. Stick in the oven for 15minutes.

While the potatoes are baking, cut up carrots and onion. After 15 minutes, take the potatoes out and give them a good shake. Scootch the potatoes to the edge of the pan and put the garlic, carrots, onion and chickpeas (and any veggie you are using you think will take a little longer to cook, like green beans) into the middle of the pan. Drizzle some more olive oil and stick it in the oven for 15 minutes.

Dump the tomatoes into a large bowl, crush them up and add the two heaping tablespoons of curry powder (of course, if you don't loooove curry like I do, use a little less).

Start the rice.

Take the veggie mixture out of the oven, shake things up a bit. Arrange the broccoli around the rim of the pan (and any other veggies you have left that you think will cook in 15 minutes) and dump the tomato mixture all over everything (particularly the broccoli because it really soaks it up and gets DELISH). Stick in oven for YES 15 minutes.

Make broth.

After 15 minutes remove curried vegetables from oven and transfer them to a huge serving bowl.

Put the metal baking pan on the burner, add the broth and the lime juice and salt and black pepper to taste. Reduce the broth by half, stirring vigorously. (note, never cook this in a glass pan, I had a glass pan shatter on the burner, because I'm a spaz!!)

When the broth has reduced by half, pour over veggies. Serve them over rice!

Makes plenty for 2 people for 2 nights. One of my all time favorite things to cook (so easy, just lots of chopping).

Charcooked Vegetables with Spicy Sidekick Dressing

great recipe to add a grilled chicken breast to

Grilled Veggies
1 red pepper
1 orange (or yellow pepper)
2 zucchini
4 corncobs
1 eggplant
olive oil

Spicy Sidekick Dressing

1 tbs olive oil
crushed garlic (I use a lot)
1 small onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 small green chile, seeded and finely chopped
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 inches of cucumber, finely chopped
1 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs lime or lemon juice (I usually use a little more)

Dressing

To make the dressing, heat the oil in a saucepan or skillet. Add the garlic and onion and saute gently until softened, around 3 minutes. Add the celery, chile and tomatoes, cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.

Add the cucumber, tomato paste and lemon/lime juice and simmer for 8-10 minutes until thick and pulpy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Veggies

Cut the veggies into thick slices and brush with a little olive oil. Cook the vegetables on the grill for about 5-8 minutes, sprinkling them with salt, pepper and fresh herbs as they cook, turning once (under the broiler in the oven is okay too).

This dish is delicious served over brown rice with lime wedges to squeeze.


Spinach Chickpea Leek Soup

This is SO good and so fast and easy to make - makes plenty for several days. Great to make on a Sunday and eat all week.

1 tbs olive oil
2 leeks, sliced thinly (circles)
1 zuchini, chopped
minced garlic (I use tons)
2 14 oz cans tomatoes
small can tomato paste
1 bay leaf
3 3/4 cup veg broth
1 14 oz can chickpeas (gabanzo beans) drained
block of frozen spinach (thawed, drained)
1 tbs oregano
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
fresh parm cheese for topping

Heat the oil in a large sauce pan, add leeks and zucchini and cook briskly for 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf, vegetable broth, chickpeas and spices. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.

Shred the spinach finely, add to the soup and boil for 2 minutes. Season to taste. (the longer it cooks on the stove, the better it is). Remove the bay leaf, sprinkle with parmesan cheese (if desired).


Soft Polenta with Spicy Tomato Sauce

1 quart water
1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups minced onion
1 large portobello mushroom, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans Tomatoes (14 oz)
1/4 cup sherry
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups chopped green onions
Parm cheese, grated

In a small bowl whisk together 2 cups water with the cornmeal, quinoa and salt. Bring the remaining 2 cups water to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Stir the cornmeal mixture into the boiling water, and continue stirring. Be careful! The polenta may spit and sputter and the hot bits of polenta can burn. Turn the heat to very low and cook the polenta for 40 minutes; stirring with a wooden spoon every 10 minutes.

Make the tomato sauce while the polenta cooks: Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the onions. Cook the onions for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until they have softened.

Stir in the chopped mushrooms and the garlic, saute for 5 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, sherry, chili flakes and oregano. When the sauce comes to a boil turn the heat to low. Simmer the sauce for 30 minutes; season with salt and pepper.

When the polenta has cooked for 40 minutes sprinkle the green onions and grated cheese into the polenta. Stir well. Mound the polenta on plates, make a well in the center of each mound and ladle in the tomato sauce. Garnish with some cheese (if desired).


Spicy tomato sauce with fresh basil and veggie crumbles

3 cans 14 oz tom
1 can 12 oz tom paste
1 onion, diced
garlic (I use TONS)
1 tbs olive oil
Sun dried tomatoes
Fresh Basil
1 tsp dried oregano
Whatever else I feel like - black olives, mushrooms, carrots, zuch
1 package MorningStar Farm Crumbles
Salt
Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes
Splash of red cooking wine
whole wheat/spinach pasta

Saute onion/garlic for 5 minutes until translucent. Add veggie crumbles, dried oregano, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes. Brown the veggie crumbles - stirring often.

While the veggie crumbles are browning, put 2 cans tomatoes (with juice), tom paste, fresh basil and half the sun dried tomatoes into a food processor - blend until smooth.

Put the tomato mixture over the crumbles and stir.

Put the last can of tomatoes into the food processor and pulse until the tomatoes are chunky. Throw these in with the rest.

Add the rest of the sun dried tomatoes and any other additional veggies. Add a splash of red cooking wine. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Those sound terrific Glory! I will definitely be trying a few of those recipes! Thanks

Wow! I sure do feel lucky that I stumbled upon this thread. Glory, I just copied all of your recipes - they all sound delicious. The orange ginger tofu especially appeals to me. I may make that this week.

Thanks!!!

Awesome! Thanks so much glory! I'm going to make that soup real soon.

How do you all count your calories on recipes like the orange ginger tofu stirfry? Do you figure it up for the whole meal, and then divide it? I'm going to make it tonight for dinner, my family has never had tofu, so we'll see how it goes.

When I counted calories fastidiously, I created an excel spreadsheet that had a column for every bit of nutritional info listed in Fitday (calories, fat, protein, fiber, etc etc). In every row, I put an ingredient. I used the spreadsheet to create a total number of calories for the entire dish and then I divided by the number of servings.

So, it would look something like this (this is all just made up stuff, I don't have Fitday open or any packaging in front of me).

1 cup orange juice - 100 calories, 0 grams of fat, x number of carbs, x grams of fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, niacin, thiamin, etc etc etc
1 package of tofu - 200 calories, 9 grams of fat, 0 grams of carbs, x grams of fiber, x grams of proten, etc etc
broccoli crown - 25 calories, 0 grams of fat, etc etc

Once I got all the ingredients listed, I would sum up the colums (add up all the calories, all the grams of fat, all the fiber, carbs, protein, vitamin A, whatever). If the result was 800 calories (this is just an estimate, I don't remember the total number of calories for this dish) and it made 4 servings - 200 calories per serving.

I cook so much, I found entering all the calorie info to be extremely tedious (even though I mainly ate the same 10 dinners over and over and once I entered the dish once in Fitday as a custom food I had it forever) that I sometimes just did estimates and now I only estimate calories in my head.

I would go back to carefully calculating calories if I were trying to lose weight and the weight wasn't coming off as I expected based on my calorie estimation.

I wish I had time to completely track every single calorie I take in, but I do what Glory does which is estimate so I get a rough idea of how many calories I'm eating every day. It's working b/c I have lost 26 pounds so far so maybe I'll have to count more carefully if I hit a plateau that lasts awhile, but right now I just don't have the time.