Healthy Dinner Ideas- - HELP!

blooomers

I am a stay at home mom of 2 beautiful girls. I started this life change the first of January. When we went grocery shopping, we bought a lot of fruit and veggies and turkey, chicken and fish.
I am completely new to eating healthy and counting calories and such. Also, I haven't been able to get to my 1200 calorie intake yet. A couple times i came with in 150 of 1200. I just can't seem to get to 1200 a day.. I drink a lot of water and i think i'm doing fairly well.
I am just stumped on dinner ideas and of course how to get my calories up. Ideas?

busyPK

Have you checked out the recipes fourm on here? There are a ton of recipes and you can do a search for certain things you like (crockpot, casseroles, chicken, etc.). When I'm not at my calories and not super hungry I have 1T of peanut butter w/a banana - that is an extra 200 calories at least.

blooomers

i haven't checked it out yet. thanks! and banana and pb is a great idea!
i'm fixing turkey burgers for supper tonight. yumm!

Jennifer0878

Protein shakes are always good and filling. Here's my favorite:

1 scoop EAS 100% Whey Vanilla protein powder
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Mix together in a blender. It tastes like a fruit smoothie and is about 250 calories.

For dinner, I like stir fry with chicken or lean beef, fish (broiled with white wine, tomatoes, garlic and basil), and boneless skinless chicken breasts topped with salsa and crushed tortilla chips (just a few). Bake chicken at 400 degrees for 2o minutes, add shredded cheese and then cook for 5 more minutes.

Those are just a few of my favorites.

kingnarsis

Where is the recipe section in MFP? when I click under Food--> Recipes then it only shows my own only.

Brandicaloriecountess

I get tons of recipies from skinnytaste, hungry girl and this website. I also have bought a lot of low cal cook books

Alexdur85

The recipes section is under community it's it's own category. Try skinnytaste.com. I've made something from that website EVERYDAY this week. It's wonderful!

BassesGirl

Where is the recipe section in MFP? when I click under Food--> Recipes then it only shows my own only.

Its in the message boards, like how this one is "food and nutrition" there is one called "recipes"

krisotis

i was wondering the same thing - where to locate recipes on the site. when i click on recipes it only shows mine

TeresaWash

I love cookinglight.com. Lots of great ideas. Lots of quick, healthy meals. I change them up a little usually, cuz they'll have something in the recipe I don't have but I have gotten a lot of great ideas from there.

Sweet_Potato

Here are some dinners I've made recently-- I'm pretty sure all of them are 300 calories or less:

Grilled Striped Bass w/ Mango Salsa
African Sweet Potato Stew With Red Beans
Frittata With Turnips and Olives
Puréed Tomato and Red Pepper Soup
Carrot Miso Soup
Grilled Root Vegetables with Tahini Sauce
Braised Coconut Kale & Chickpeas
Stewed Cauliflower w/ Red Onion& Tomatoes
Shakshuka
Brown Rice Pasta w/ Puttanesca Sauce
Potato & Artichoke Roast
Black Bean Tacos
Butternut Squash Tacos
Potato Fennel Gratin
Broccoli Sesame Salad

Terk1968

Skinnytaste.com is a great site.

jessicajoy87

bettycrocker.com! Go to the heart healthy cookbook! I have made several dinners from there! NOM!!! There is also a bettycrocker app is you have a smartphone. There's another app on my phone called healthyrecipes.

amk1118

Where is the recipe section in MFP? when I click under Food--> Recipes then it only shows my own only.

Try this link: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/14-recipes

dfborders

I find a lot of recipes on line - one great place is Light and Tasty Magazine recipes: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Healthy-Cooking-Magazine Keep in mind not all recipes on the site are light (or even very healthy) but they have some really good ideas and recipes and all of the nutritional information is posted for each recipe (hooray - no guess work).

leavingfat

I absolutely love crockpot meals. You can make more than you need and have frozen meals for future occasions! We make shredded meat for tacos, soups, pastas, chicken and rice--pretty much anything we can put in there. I'm trying to make stuffed cabbage with rice and textured vegetable protein tomorrow.

tinkerpuppet

And you probably already know this, but it took me awhile before I learned so I'll mention it just in case, when you exercise and add it to your tracker, you 'earn' extra calories to eat.

amk1118

Skinnytaste.com is a great site.

Thanks! This looks like an amazing site!