Go to dinner choices?

almartini11

Hi Everyone,

I spent the night pouring over some clean eating cookbooks and am wondering what others out there use for their go to dinner ideas. I am a big quantity person, I would rather have a lot of food than a small bowl of pasta for the same calories. Anyone have any go-to's they'd like to share? Looking for easy, healthy meals. Thanks Everyone! ~Anita

VelveteenArabian

Homemade soup. If you like vegetables, it can be as simple as chopping up veggies, tossing them in water and setting to simmer for a while. Boxed soup or packet soup can be fine too. Canned soup is always loaded in sodium and that makes my stomach hurt so I can't do that one. The packet soup makes about 3-4 1-cup servings depending on the brand, but it's under 100 calories per serving, so even if you eat all 4 servings, it's only like 400 calories but it's a LOT of soup.

Boccellin

I have a recipe for Ratatouille with ground beef that I make fairly often. It's an enormous portion, gigantic really. I eat it all by myself since by fiance doesn't like that it's primarily veggies, and it only has 580 calories, or less if you want to use pureed fresh plum roma tomatoes instead of the canned tuttoroso I use. First, I take 3 cloves of garlic and 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion and start to saute them in a little bit of cooking spray until they just start to cook. Then, I add 6 oz of 96% lean ground beef and cook until its about halfway pink. Then I add two cups of eggplant, cubed fairly small, and let that cook for about five minutes. Then I add a whole red bell pepper, a whole green bell pepper, one large zucchini, one large summer squash, and one jalepeno with the seeds removed (all diced) and let it cook for another five minutes. Then I add about 100 grams of mushrooms, let them start to cook for a minute or two. Finally, I add 1.5 cups of Tuttoroso crushed tomatoes with basil (but if you'd prefer to keep it cleaner, you can just puree 1.5 cups worth of plum roma tomatoes and add those instead. I do from time to time. Probably saves on the calories) and the spices. For spices, I add about a tsp of dried thyme, a half thsp of dried basil, a light sprinkle of dried parsley and salt/pepper to taste. Let it simmer for another few minutes. This is an enormous meal, your stomach WILL feel stretched afterwards. No need to have pasta with it, it's plenty of food on it's own. And it's only 580 calories. Probably enough for two people to really, then you divide the calories in half.

amandanndel

My go-to meal would be either lettuce wraps or stir-fry. I throw a ton of veggies in it and do all different flavors. My favorite is Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Cherry Tomato, Onion, Peppers, and we tend to grill on the weekends so I add some chopped up leftover chicken. I also spice it up with Cayenne and tons of Herbs.

skiextrm

With winter coming, we' 'll be having lots of veggie stir fries over brown rice. I use garlic, onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, celery, green beans, zucchini, cabbage, broccoli, basil, curry, - whatever I have handy. I cook the veggies in a Wok sprayed with Pam then add lite soy sauce and a touch of water to steam saute it or you can use olive oil. To really get crazy, add some crumbled bacon! We eat tons of this and it makes great leftovers. I also add pork, rice or beef cut up and sauted with the veggies. Versatile!

almartini11

Ahhhh these sound amazing everyone!! Thanks so much for the recipes! I can't wait to try them and I love the idea if tons of veggies to get quantity without the guilt!! You guys are the best, thanks :-)

buttermilkdrop

I love breakfast for dinner. I usually scramble some eggs add a little cheese and serve on a corn tortilla with salsa.

susanyounkin

I've been replacing the pasta in my go-to pasta dishes with spaghetti squash.

Stir-fried veggies over brown rice.

Homemade enchiladas, burritos, or tacos. There are lots of low cal, high veggie recipes.

MyMalfunction7

If I want an insane quantity of food for few calories, I do an eggbeater frittata for dinner. 10-12 tbsp eggbeaters, 2-3 oz shredded chicken, onions, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots - whatever kind of vegetables you like. Then I add 28g of feta or 1 package of laughing cow swiss. It is a mound of food lol. My last one was 260 calories, and that had chicken, swiss, onions, and asparagus

snowflake930

Soups and stir fry with a lot of vegetables and use turkey or chicken for meat.
No rice for me on the stir fry.

This works well for leftovers for lunches and suppers throughout the week.

There are a lot of recipes on the internet.

I just got one this a.m. for a soup with smoked turkey sausage, beans and spinach with a low sodium chicken broth.
Looking forward to making it. The highs here are only in the 40's this weekend. Good soup weather.

wkwebby

Skirt steak fajitas are sooooo good. I chop up the steak into little 1/2 inch cubes and julienne lots of different colored peppers to give us the veggies and some onions mixed with a packet of the taco or fajita seasoning (you can go lighter than a full packet if you're watching your sodium). I personally like either packet, but you may have a preference. With or without the wrap (to save some calories) it is so good with some salsa added and greek yogurt for the "sour cream". Yummy!

I've been forgetting the freshly chopped tomatoes and lettuce nowadays, but it adds in some more veggies. If you are especially in the mood to be indulgent, you can do some sprinkles of cheese on there too. All good!

Lizzy622

A big pot with onions, peppers, mushrooms, celery, shredded zucchini, can of crushed tomato and a pound of ground meat. Depending how you spice it up you can have chili or sloppy joes without guilt.

kadenadie5

All these sound so good .I've been concern that winter is coming and I will want more food So .these meals have encouraged me.

MamaMollyT

I love turkey burgers for lunch because I make extra and just reheat through the week. It's high in protein and I just grab whatever fruits and veggies I have on hand to go with it. I almost always have some greens and avocados around. I also love roasting a whole chicken for dinner then I have lots of shredded chicken left for lunch or soup the next day.

pamcris

Chicken Burrito bowls with brown rice, peppers, onions, corn and beans! Chicken enchilada casserole with quinoa, grilled chicken/steak with grilled corn on the cob and veggie stir fry, cauliflower crusted pizza, oven fried chicken with corn flakes breading, zucchini lasagna, veggie soup, pumpkin soup and baked chicken, and my least favorite but still a fast/easy option, cilantro lime fish and cilantro rice.

Yesterday I tried slicing zucchini, adding a little bit of tomato sauce, cheese and oregano and bake it to make pizza bites. It was yummy and everybody loved it. Specially the kids! Great for a side dish or a snack.