Does anyone have any good low calorie recipes or snacks

AlainaS0721

Hello everyone, I’m Alaina and I’m 22. I’m kind of restarting my weightloss journey. I just bought a house and live on my own now and I’m in need of some low calorie recipe ideas and low calorie snacks to add to my grocery list.

penguinmama87

I like to keep it simple for snacks - cut up fruits and veggies with yogurt dip or hummus are great. Hardboiled eggs and cottage cheese are nice for higher protein snacks. I don't usually do prepackaged stuff, but I do keep a box of protein bars for on the go - I find these can vary a lot so it's best to just find one that suits your tastes and calorie needs.

Congratulations on your new house!

springlering62

Hahaha, you’re new so I get to spring my old favorites on you. I know everyone else is tired of me singing the praises of:

Cottage cheese with fruit (especially still-frozen blueberries) a dash of sweet balsamic vinegar, and a few grams of grape nuts. Sweet, tart, crunchy, creamy bliss.

1 serving plain fat free Greek yogurt, 14gr any sugar free pudding flavor, and half a cup ice water. Makes a huge, filling bowl for 140-150 calories, or can be easily halved. Lemon is the best. Tastes like lemon mousse.

Add a can of pumpkin purée to vanilla yogurt pudding and stir in some pie spice. This is so filling I divide it into three bowls. It keeps well if covered with Saran Wrap.

Beef jerky 80cal/serving

Apple and nut butter

Hot drinks are very filling- they take attention to make and must be drunk slowly. I love chai latte. An easy one is half a cup Silk plain cashew milk (12 cal), zero cal Jordan’s salted caramel syrup, and 2-3gr Blue Lotus instant chai. 12 calories for a giant steaming mug. I have a hand pump to froth skim milk to pour on top (adds about another 17 calories) and I hit it with cinnamon.

I have just discovered the joys of cold brew coffee. I add some salted caramel (0 cal) and half a cup cold almond milk (12 cal). Those do go down very quick, though

If you shop at Lidl or Aldi, keep an eye out in their “seasonal treat” aisle. I got some Grissini breadsticks and also found some little tiny tin containers of tomato/sardine pate. Three sticks and a tin of pate is 130 calories.

A piece of low cal bread, toasted, topped with a slice of cheese and some chopped prosciutto or other fancy ham, stuck under the broiled til bubbly is a nice treat for about 180-200 calories.

I make my husband a smoothie of 3/4 c (179grams) cashew milk, 3/4 serving fat free Greek yogurt, 5 gr ground cacao, some zero cal chocolate syrup, and 4 or 5 cups of ice. It makes a huge serving. He loves it and it’s only 105 calories. I add half a frozen banana to mine because I like the creamier texture, so mine is 153 calories.

A low carb tortilla (45 cal) with a handful of greens, a few chopped tomatoes, a few ounces of leftover grilled chicken, and a sweep of chutney, vidalia relish or Thai sauce comes in around 240.

A savory Lidl chicken sausage (size of a hot dog) on a piece of low cal bread and a tsp of Dijon is 155 calories.

The other day I had a wild craving for (of all things) an Icee. It hit the spot, was decently filling, hydrating, and the calories were reasonable.

Get creative, look at food differently or that you ‘be forgotten you liked or haven’t even considered before.

Read other users’ diaries for ideas. Many of us have our diaries open.

I won’t wish you luck. Luck doesn’t come into weight loss. I wish you much focus and application instead!
😇

springlering62

PS if you find yourself craving sweets, a diabetes coach told us years ago that your tastebuds recognize cinnamon as “sweet”. You can put a good quality cinnamon on just about anything and it instantly tastes sweeter.

Frontier Coop Saigon aka Vietnamese cinnamon is the best. You’d never beleive the variety of cinnamon could make a difference but it does.

AnnPT77

For recipes, I think MFP has some pretty good stuff.

There are a lot of good ideas in the MFP blogs, where there's a whole recipes section. Direct link:

https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/recipes/

I'm not sure where it is in the phone/tablet app, but in web MFP there's a page where you can sign up for email newsletters, one of which is for recipes. Here's the page in web MFP to sign up:

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/email_settings

Last but not least, there's a part of the MFP Community forums specifically for recommending or asking about recipes, where you might find some good stuff. Here's a direct link to that:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/recipes

For snacks, I like hard-boiled eggs (pickled keep an even longer time in the fridge, tasty, easy to make), reduced fat string cheese, cottage cheese, crispy chickpeas or broad beans (available commercially or make your own), Greek yogurt, frozen berries with the yogurt plus chocolate peanut butter powder (like PB2), raw veggies, fruit, pickles (all types, not just cucumber).

Sometimes I make an oven-full of roasted veggies - whatever's in season that roasts well - put them in the refrigerator, then use them all week as snacks, cold in salads, reheated briefly to mix with grain or pasta and a protein, as a sandwich ingredient, etc.

vanmep

Original fudgesicle 80 cal. An excellent source of chocolate

Popcorn - make your own and you can control the level of butter

Sugar free jello - 20 calories for a whole cup

Lite laughing cow cheese and Good thins crackers

OhMsDiva

Pop your own popcorn and season with a few squirts of olive oil or I cant believe its not butter, boiled eggs, roasted beets in apple cider vinegar.

westrich20940

I think it might be helpful for you to give some idea of any dietary restrictions you have - or what calorie goal you're shooting for for a snack or meal bc that will be different for everyone.

Example: A 'meal' to me should be like.... at least 500+ calories (anywhere from 500-900 or something even depending on my activity level that day). A 'snack' might be like 150-300 depending.

I keep convenient things bc that works best for me with my job:
Kind Bars
Kashi bars (various)
Larabars
Sahale nut/dried fruit mixes
Chili Roasted Pistachios (or some other type of seasoned nut)
Duke's smoked sausages


Meals: for lunch at work I am into convenience like I said -- so I typically use Veetee Rice & Easy Jasmine rice (it's parcooked so you just stick it in the microwave) - 1 package is 2 services (~200 something calories per service) so again, depending on what my activity level is or how hungry I am I may eat half or the whole package of rice. I always also include a protein (and veggies). Like chicken or salmon (smoked sometimes).

Example: This morning I had a medium iced coffee from Dunkin with cream/sugar. A strawberry Kashi bar (basically their version of a Nutrigrain bar), two Duke's smoked sausages (these I had early morning as a snack), then I had a full package of Jasmine Rice and a full package of smoked salmon (4oz).

So my morning snack/coffee was 450 calories and my lunch was 560 calories. I am going to be going for a 6 mile (hopefully a bit more) run today....so I'll have PLENTY of calories left for dinner.

It all depends on what your personal calorie needs are.