Food inspiration, or what's for supper?
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Salad (minimal dressing), 11 cooked small shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce, 8 Bibigo mini wontons. Roughly 300-350 calories. Beats snacking!
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Sounds good Yooly! Shrimp are actually one of the "cheapest" proteins I've found for calories for quantity!
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I might be able to manage that, Nic. And that sounds like fun.
I've made two rather enormous pots of soup since I returned home on the weekend. Supper is in the freezer for a while. Trying again to have bread in moderation. So far so good this week. It seems if I stick to my old breakfast of clementines and almonds - my day doesn't go off the rails quite so much? I brough home 3/4 a loaf of bread on saturday and it lasted until today. That is manageable. And really quite shocking :)2 -
It's tricky to moderate. At times I've found almost saving the calories and having a big meal works. At other times that having a big meal early on and then not opening the flood gates works. And at other times that multiple snacks with NO big meal works too. In the end I think that hamster management has more to do with it than anything else!🤷♂️
The biggest gamble for me I think IS the big meal at the end. Because I can easily overeat the calories by throwing in some candy bars or cookies. Or get it to be large and filling enough while still having a deficit. Yet it is my most frequent choice. And was the way I've tended to eat most of my life (large dinner). Hmmmm 🤔
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Homemade pork stew courtesy of hubby. Lots of veggies and some verrry lean pork chunks. Tonight I think it’s crackers and cheese 🧀…..
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I hope the stew was not too tough? Maybe… turn it into flaked pork? :-)
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Nothing special🤷♂️ Base food was a tray of lasagna (1160g, so under 1450 Cal) and a bag of broccoli, cauli, carrots and green beans about 760g and 225 Cal. Looked huge when I initially piled the dried off veggies on top!!!! But that did not prove an impediment over two sittings!!!! 🙈
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For this week:
Lunch: Sandwiches (ham or chicken salad) with lettuce, tomato, and pickles (or some combo of). Side of chips.
Dinner: Currently finishing off tacos and mexican rice. Making some peanut noodles with tofu tomorrow and will have that a couple days. Then Friday will be cleaning out the fridge or something from the freezer.
Snacks: Veggies with hummus, greek yogurt, honey roasted peanuts, fresh fruit
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I’m so impressed with your planning. My pre planning has all but disappeared. Perhaps because my daily routines have been so disrupted for months. Got to get back….
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Well…. at least one person's unplanned planning continues to remain unplanned around here! 🙈
But I need to do a better job with freezer FIFO. I see some things in there not moving much while other stuff is in constant movement.
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Glad to find fellow food yakkers.
Leftover cleanup, 1/2 salmon burger patty, cup of spaghetti sauce meat medley (approx 1 oz ea ground turkey, diced ham, diced large shrimp bites), cup green beans and mixed vegs with remaining liquid, Tbsp craisins, 1/3c shred tex-mex cheese blend. Warmed, turned into a nice soup. Had a tangerine after the soup (472 cals).
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I’m down with all that - except maybe the Craisins….
Pop in more often Yakky!1 -
Yo @yakkystuff 👋
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Cough cough. I turned Yooly's most favoured March 3 soup leftovers into butter chickenoid! 🤯
Drained the solids (1kg), nuked to extreme high temperature for food safety, and mixed with 700g of butter chicken sauce and chicken while donating the 370g of basmati rice from the butter chicken family pack to the k9.
Calories calculation is a bit uncertain but have a good enough idea I think (about 1200 Cal per 850g container). Served with riced California veggies. 🤷♂️🤔 Goes under the food category of: sauces can hide a lot! 🤣
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Pav Yo - lol
Had to go back to the March 3rd soup, looks rather good - love soups that are random.
Yooly, regarding craisins in soup, it's a bit like having them in stuffing/savory ways.
I try to eat cranberries for bladder health, but need to hide them. Not a fan of them straight up, so in the category of sauces can hide a lot. ;)
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Hello, Yakkystuff. That soup looks pretty fine - even though I'm a vegetarian :)
I think I'm attracted to those green beans :)2 -
Hi Lauriekallis, beans were good! Ty :)
Someone mentioned this group on pinned favorite MFP groups or I might not have found it. Love yakking food ideas.
Tried this today. Liked it. Pre-sauced asian flavor.
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What an idea. fantastic for times when you are hungry and haven't prepared.
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Ha! Ms Laurie: you need to tell yakky about your green soup!
Store brand "compliments" has some pre sauced cauli rice and they are not bad at all. But even more expensive for quantity than the riced California veggies from president choice (Loblaws). For plain riced cauliflower Costco is the most bang for buck!
I've found via experimentation that most peops can be "tricked" into 50-50 real rice/ cauli rice mix. I more often go for 100%
Nah. My best "hack", these days, if I haven't prepared anything ahead of time is to nuke a 750g bag of veggies in the morning and to have them sitting around for use in anything and everything.
Can go with/enhance/fluff up frozen dinners, (instant) mash, instant noodle packs (I know I know it is wasteful. And some people think i should be shot for the waste. But I often/sometimes use the packs with either half or none of the noodles but supplemented with veggies). You can even use the cooled down veggies as a cold salad with a tasty vinegar for example and a drop of oil or two 😛
Anyway. You get the idea: add bunnies to fluff up anything and everything. (For reference to bunnies please see the "bunnies a day" thread
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Ha, found that at Costco. Not sure why riced-cauli and frozen vegs are so expensive, but they are a go to for me. I'm trying to get more in. Will check bunnies.
Added some chocolate protein powder, frozen blueberries, criasins and cashews. Yum. Will probably be a hot summer fav. (489 cals, 39g carb, 56g protein)
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Being short and old limits my daily calories significantly. The Oikos feast looks tasty but would count as a full meal+ for me - even in maintenance. I do have that frozen cauliflower rice in my freezer. Good stuff.
PAV - I hope when you nuke your bag of veggies in the morning that you don’t leave them out on the counter ALL day in anticipation of future use? Bacteria love bunnies too!2 -
Nods, yes, it was lunch meal.
Just wonder about the high protein grams (56g) between the greek yogurt with the protein add-in on kidneys.
Alternative could be a cocoa packet no added sugar like swiss miss maybe.
But, I have been focused a bit on lower carb... so i don't know. The calorie has to shift one way or the other. Don't know if it is of concern.
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Today - I just remembered this trick - I might cook up a nice batch of mashed cauli-potatoes. That sounds soooooo good :) And the last two bowls I have of freezer food is Dal Makhani - and it goes really well over potatoes so this mix should work.
Yakky, PAV was referring to my staple "green soup" - which is basically anything green - broccoli, kale, spinach, green beans, brussel sprouts, fresh peas - in a base of green split peas. My son and I have what has become a weekly tradition: I make and supply us both with 6 jars of green soup - and he makes and supplies us both with 6 jars of beet/spinach/blueberry/lemon smoothies. It is pretty magical to share love this way. And between the soup and smoothies we cover a good supply of veggies and protein :)
Green soup is especially good topped with some feta cheese :) And in a pinch, on a hot summer day, can be pulled out of the fridge and eaten as a cold green pudding 😉1 -
Personally I do yogurts similar to those but I'm more mercenary and start with 0% Greek or Skyr and, if I want to sweeten use sucralose drops saving the calories for candy/cookies/chocolate or, on rare occasions, actual food!
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@yakkystuff I am not sure if you have a cause/reason/suspicion/numbers/concerns re: kidney function or this is a generic "should I be worried" question.
If there is existing / suspected kidney impairment issue I would definitely check with real doc. If this is a generic question regarding official protein RDI versus much higher recommendations discussed online it may be worth checking out the protein articles on examine.com (you shouldn't have to pay anything to access them).
Absent disease there is, what appears to me to be overwhelmingly good enough evidence supporting 0.6g to 0.8g per lb (not kg) of LEAN MASS. Usually and taken as having the fat levels at the top of normal weight be in the 20 to 25% range, and given that people usually do not have an adequate enough method of estimating their lean mass, this is often seen as 0.8g to 1g or even 1.2g per lb of scale weight.
If I were obese and given that adipose tissue doesn't really need protein support, I would structure my protein goal in grams at the top of normal weight and call that more than sufficient. I mean you don't have to always reach your protein goal and it is also far from the end of the world (absent actual or latent impairments) to exceed it. There exist in fact, a number of papers that discuss even higher levels of protein intake to be optimal.
Of course at some point protein starts to crowd out other nutrients. And chewing on protein bars for the sake of getting a magic number of the nutrient does become pointless at some point of time for most of us. While probably more satiating for most and while having a slightly higher TEF it is still just one nutrient and most of us benefit from variety!
Low carb and keto do have some non fat loss associated with them when glycogen stores are reduced initially. When re-feeding on carbs the glycogen stores replenish, again this being a non fat regain. It plays a mental game on the scale. But neither the initial loss nor the regain represent fat level changes.
For many of us focusing on carbs creates a deficit by reducing overall calories. Let's face it: both Laurie and I (and I am sure a heck of a lot of other people) can eat A LOT of bread / croissant / cookie calories in a very short amount of time. While croissant and cookies have just as many or more calories from fat as carbs, by focusing on cabs many people eliminate these type of calories and feel more satiated by what they eat allowing them to achieve a caloric deficit.
But in the end (i.e. excluding fast initial movements etc), the caloric balance is what is going to determine longer term loss or regain.
For me focusing on what would work for me LONG term and paying some considerable attention at managing my deficit levels so that they were striking a balance between too fast and too slow is what got me to lose weight. And then by concentrating on slowing things down and dampening any pendulum weight shifts what helped me weather the (multi-month/multi-year) initial maintenance pitfalls
In the end a lot of it being a mental game managing one's world and also managing one's actual and imagined hunger….. as a quick review :)
Personally, my "lower" carbs during my initial time on MFP were the furthest thing from low (45%) and the normal range of carbs I've settled down on over the ensuing years has ranged (the times I've checked) from 52% to 57%. Of course I have an easier time managing my weight when I eat apples and potatoes for carbs as opposed to when I eat pasta, white rice, potato chips or cookies ;-)
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Random egg salad yesterday (and continuing today etc)
So this time around I remembered to add extra egg white to the eggs (lowers calories and fluffs up the quantity)…. but I forgot to boil and add the potatoes! So my potato and egg salad…. is just an egg salad
1,600 Calories / 1,800g: 355g (6 eggs), 300g egg whites, 733g 0% greek, 110g black olives sliced, 117g sweet relish, 141g onion, 9g mustard powder, 21.5g sriracha, 5g garlic powder, 3g lemon pepper
A bit too "wet". Probably should have used a bit less yogurt but I wanted to finish the pail. Could have drained the relish I guess too, which I didn't.
Would have definitely been better with potatoes… but far from terrible. Just "calls" for a bit too much bread the way it is!!! 😝
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I was thinking of potato egg cauliflower salad today too - but am going to opt for the potato cauliflower mash this time around - and maybe next depending on the temperature :)
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Ty Pav
Eggs at grocery are empty shelves someplaces or $9+ - I had not realized how much I used eggs! Sparingly for the moment...
LaurieKallis - Yum! And how lucky to share the love that way. The green soup sounds really good. How do you spice?
I try to keep frozen or cooked veggies on hand to amp up soups or salads, have at meals.
Pav - The carbs are an utter 'bs' issue, so limited. I find lower carb (vs unrestricted carb) easier than keto. (Or heavens, Carnivore that several in family started in Jan NY and are enthusiastically pushing now - but not for me, i don't foresee it either.)
If I had my preference, i woukd swap 100% anything else for carbs/goodies the whole range of carbs, love it all.
No tests issues with kidneys, just have read here and there too much protein might hurt. Same for fats.
Gets all rather confusing, especially with the carb limits. As a larger loser, the rest has to shift somewhere.
I did not get a good answer from the dietician nor the person managing meds… I did get the usual ideas for a 1200 calorie diet, it just leaves me to decipher my limits.
The strong recommendation for carbs is 45g or less foe meals. Shoot for 3 meals a day for weight loss. A 4th meal or partial snack is between weight loss deficit and maintenance.
I figure whenever I eat at mainenance or less, i'm good. Way better than gaining. I tend to do the 3, sometimes more as a snack or 4th meal when struggling with hunger.
So just stream of concious musing where to shift the carb cals and does too much protein hurt. My protein added to yogurt was very high at 56g in a single meal and triggered the concern.
'Diet/Approach" guidelines keep shifting… I now know less than I knew as a teen... lol
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Are you diagnosed full bore T2? Some evidence suggests that faster loss with increased activity exercise is higher chances of remission and, of course, keto does help manage insulin response.
45g or less for meals sounds like a "pre-configured" deficit. "we won't count calories" but we will count carbs :)
I will round up to 50g to avoid calculators :)
50g of carbs is 200 Cal. If you take carbs at a typical 50% to 60% of total calories, this means your meal is 400Cal. 3x400 Cal = BINGO: your "typical" give every woman a 1200 Cal diet and she will lose weight.
Add another meal = go to 1600 Cal and with a glass of wine or a meal or two at a restaurant you're probably averaging a good 1800 to 2000 Cal so a typical maintenance range for your average little lady! (yes, I am being ironic)
Because, of course, just calculating your calories is too difficult to do ;-)
You don't actually have to estimate calories to lose weight. Yes, personally, I did find the "adventure" of trying to maximize my "utility" for my calories (utility be it satiation, satisfaction, or a combination that struck me as good at the time) was a very useful exercise.
Depending on how high you're starting from you can always figure out your sedentary maintenance calories at the high / low / mid-point of normal bmi and eye ball the difference between where you're at and where you would like to be in a couple of years. if that difference would yield a 0.25 to 1% of your total weight weight reduction per week (biased towards the >0.5% perhaps in the beginning and reducing towards the 0.5% in four to eight months or whenever things start to get a bit slower or problematic…. because making things sustainable is the name of the game… well then… I would give a good look at starting to, from the very beginning, envision and position myself at goal weight and explore "healthy" and somewhat satisfying ways that I could see myself eating at those levels. And, would keep in mind that a) my activity will probably increase as I get leaner and will probably be able to eat more than I think when I'm there b) not right away perhaps; but for most definitely after a good while, "appetite"/"desire to eat because of hunger" will right size for a leaner body :-)
Anyway. All this to say that 1200 may make sense or may not make sense. (sailrabit TDEE web site might give you some ideas; smartbmi.com might be of some interest too) But you CAN estimate calories if you want to put in the work to do so. Or you can just lose weight by less precise "limiting" methods that create a deficit.
Overall I would ALSO try to figure out the situations that make one over-eat. I don't know about you but even though I was personally convinced that I was not an emotional eater I definitely discovered during this past decade a whole bunch of situations that used to prompt me — and STILL PROMPT me — to gulp down Calories like there is no tomorrow! From being tired to being cold to being angry, anxious or "perturbed", to being unable (perhaps powerless) to solve something I think I should be able to… all these things prompt me to eat for non hunger reasons even when I am not hungry. Limiting and managing these situations is almost a must for most of us.
Nowadays I do count all the calories including the ones I've just discussed, and put them in my log, and, depending on the situation either take the hit and move on, or adjust or try to do something different next time.
Personally I would explore methods of eating and moving I would see myself being able to sustain for years. In my mind I set 5 years. But I know that I "bargained myself" down a few times to two or three :-) That said: collecting a bunch of tools for the toolkit, figuring out some interesting tips and tricks (laurie's cauli-mash, rutabaga mash is also a good one, apples before food, baked or boiled potatoes with less trimmings, the versatility of plain (0%) greek yogurt), not being afraid to experiment with larger breakfasts or larger lunches or larger dinners or equal meals and seeing what works at this time and trying again when when used to work no longer does… well there you go! It all adds up. Even continuing to be involved and posting is another way of continuing to be in the game!
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Pav! Wow, lots to ponder there...
I have shifted from trying to lose weight (now secondary) to top emphasis on improving health.
Had 2 bouts of covid that rocketed my bs #s up both time during treatments, the #'s tripled and remain stuck requiring meds instead of food/exercise control. It also triggered an insatiable appetite that has taken a year to recede. So I am all about food volume (hence big broth soups and big non-starchy crunch salads.)...
Historically, I was a nibble grazer and goodie seeker - see food, eat food, any reason is a reason… so sorting out the body needs from the body does not need that ... is what I am working on. That essentially excludes over-eating and food reasons beyond co-inciding with body needs more food now.
So, interesting. Because of the insatiable appetite, they had me try keto but did not work because it was a med-induced hunger. They are still adjusting meds, getting better. But That's how i discovered the 'not for me' part.
Now they have ther standard(?) target 45g carbs for meals, 15g for snacks. So I asked if i could just do roughly 3 or 4 eqiualish meals, and, when struggling I eat at maintenance.
They also gave me lists and that my plate picture, and I found a bunch of recipes and websites, and realized putting veggies into broth soups, big salads, bento type bowls is kind of working for me emotionally? But big change.
And, had never occurred to me that the lists/pics translate more to a 1200 cal diet for normalish sizedwomen? Well that 'splains it Lucy! Why I have been trying to figure out where to place my other cals.
They sent me here to see if using a food calculator because I was like, how much meat, or fats, or what do you mean 1/3c rice is like a potato??? Lol, so crazymaking though.
The food calculator is helping understand where I'm hitting. My eyeballs and brain do still think it otter be double. My tummy/receding appetite is now thinking it might be possible.
The bunnies are intriguing… as is the idea of green soup tomorrow for St Pattys day
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