Some Diet Meals
Egg Beaters:Nutritionally, egg whites are packed with protein and have almost no calories in them. Sounds great right? Wrong. Apparently the yolk also contains any iota of flavor you would normally find in egg dishes. You could easily mix in some garlic, basil, and ground black pepper to spice it up a bit, but I have been trying something else recently. Try getting some pre-sliced jalapeno peppers and green olives at the store, then mixing them in when you make your scrambled eggs. These give every fork-full of egg whites the flavor they are so sorely lacking.
Sandwiches:
For me, kicking these up a few levels is all about the grilling. Almost anything tastes better when its crispy and warm. If you have a george foreman grill (or copy) or a nice toaster oven you are set. If you look at a sandwich, Most of the calories really come from the bread and the cheese, so try and limit these items. Get bread in smaller slices and pile on the meat. Leave the cheese off, or replace it with some low-fat american cheese instead. Mustards are a good way to add variety to your sandwiches. If you stick with the "normal" bottle of yellow mustard all the time, try something else! Also look for low-cal toppings at your grocery store. Feel free to all banana peppers, cucumbers, or whatever you prefer. These are basically "free" flavor.
Tuna Pasta Salad:
I absolutely love pasta. My friends joke that the two things I have no self control with are pasta and ice cream. I sadly admit that this is true. The key to enjoying pasta is making sure you keep the portions down. With this salad, mix in carrots, bell peppers, celery, and canned tuna with a little bit of mayo. All those veggies add a lot of volume and not a lot of calories. This meal will fill you right up.
Salads:
This is another area where you get a lot of the volume from very low-calorie foods. I personally am not a big fan of most leafy greens, but I do love spinach. Lucky for me since it's probably the best for you! Since spinach has a lot of fiber and only a few calories per serving we can splurge on some other ingredients. Hard-boil some eggs and slice them up into your salad, or grill some chicken and use it the same way. Then add some chopped carrots and tomato and use your favorite salad dressing (in moderation!) and you have yourself a meal.
Green Beans:
This isn't a meal, but I want to fit it in somewhere! There are these awesome steam bags of frozen veggies at the stores these days. You literally throw them into the microwave for about 5 minutes and the veggies come out all nice and steamed. Doesn't get much easier than that. The main problem with frozen veggies is they can get a little watery. I like to dump mine onto a paper towel before they go on the plate. Toast up some almonds and toss them in with some lemon juice and you have a tasty AND healthy side dish.
Feel free to post any meal tips you have here! I am always desperate to find a new meal.
