I need some good, healthy recipes... Please!

jhartram

I'm just starting to turn my dieting habits around, but I've been trying to do that with what is in my freezer... I started counting calories after I went grocery shopping. (Backwards, I know.) Today I'm working on my meal plan so I can get together a grocery list, but just looking at my recipes I can tell I'm not going to get very far with the cookbooks I have!

I have to eat a lot of red meat (for the iron) but we like chicken and fish too...
I need to get more veggies in my diet...
I love smoothies for breakfast...
I'm cooking for two (albeit disgustingly fit) normal American kids... tofu and hummus would not get eaten =(

I really hope you guys can help me out... cheesy sausage potato soup and homemade pizza are making my weight loss/ fitness goals hard to attain!

Thanks! =D

Bloomsday

I used to subscribe to a magazine called Cooking Light. It does a good job of providing recipes for brkfst, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc. I think their holiday issues are particularly helpful. I think this is a good place to start, and once you get a hang for techniques and new things you like you cd make up your own stuff.

mathen2

I think you will love this website.
www.skinnytaste.com

ivyslocum

We like Chicken Alfrado in our house.

Put 20 ish oz of frozen checken breast in the bottom of crock pot (4qt)
Mix 1 packet ranch dressing powder into 1 can fat free cream of chicken soup
Pour over cx
Set 1 block of fat free cream cheese on top
Put lid on and cook for 6-8 hrs on low.

Cut up 1 large head of broccoli and steam
Boil 1/2 box of thin spegitti (we like ours totally soft)

When crock pot is done mix in cream cheese

Put noodles on plate, top with chicken and sause, top with (or mix in broccoli) and enjoy

That should make enough for everyone. I divide it into like 5 servings and its only 300 ish cals

jhartram

Awesome! Thanks guys... this is a great starting point!

Froggeh

Low Calorie Vegetable Soup


6 cups broth (I found a vegetable broth, but a low-sodium chicken broth would work too)

Two handfuls of baby carrots (I diced mine but they're good whole too)
1/2 large onion, diced small
1/2 cabbage, chopped (I chopped mine into about 1-2 inch chunks)
1 cup frozen green beans
1 cup frozen peas and corn
1 large zucchini, diced (I cut mine in half then in about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices)
Basil, oregano, rosemary, and pepper to taste


Bring the broth to a boil. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes on MEDIUM-HIGH. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook on MEDIUM until the zucchini are tender (about 5-10 more minutes). Serve and enjoy!

Approximately 60 calories per cup


Feel free to add or remove any veggies you like/don't like!

ROCKERFOREVER81

Green Smoothies: fruit and spinach or Kale.

Cindym82

Apple Maple Turkey burgers

Ingredients
For Maple-Dijon Sauce:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
For Burgers:
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey breast
1/4 cup real bacon bits
1/2 cup chunky applesauce
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Hamburger Buns
Hamburger condiments

Directions
Set up grill for direct cooking over medium heat. Oil grate when ready to start cooking.

For Maple-Dijon Sauce: In a small bowl, stir to combine mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, and 2 tablespoons maple syrup; set aside.

For Turkey Burgers: In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients for burgers. Wet hands to prevent sticking and shape into 4 patties.

Place burgers on hot oiled grill for 5 to 6 minutes per side or until done.

Serve on buns with traditional burger condiments and a dollop of maple-Dijon sauce.

Note - Indoor: Prepare burgers as directed. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot add burgers and cook 5 to 7 minutes per side or until done.



Calories Carbs fat protein sodium chol
Per Serving: 268 17 11 31 348 10

tootie71

Try going to this website: www.laaloosh.com. They have weight watchers recipes. I also found a great turkey burger recipe at prevention's website yesterday too. Best of luck. It's hard cooking to please everyone. There are three of us here.
Tootie71

boobee32

Green Smoothies: fruit and spinach or Kale.

LOVE these!!!!

jutymo

Start surfing. Lots of good sites with great recipes. I keep finding more and more recipes that I want to try. I print them out, plug them in to my food log and I'm already 1 1/2 weeks ahead with menus. Easy to grocery shop when I know what I'm going to eat for the next week. Some good sites:

www.skinnytaste.com
www.biggest-loser-recipes.com
www.hungry-girl.com
www.cookingwithjax.com (good blog)
www.weight-watchers-recipes.net
www.kitchenparade.com
www.bocaburger.com

I found 4-5 good recipes on the Special K food plan site too (www.specialk.com). I just find recipes, plug them in, and I'm good to go. I'm only at day 18 and I'm just now starting to do a few repeats that I tried and liked. Still lots of new stuff most days and I like that.

And red meat is not required for iron. 6 oz. sugar snap peas = 20% of daily iron, steel cut oats = 10%, shrimp = 25-30%, Cheerios = 15-25%, Boca burger or Chicken = 10-15%, LaTortilla flour torilla = 12%. Lots of ways to get in that iron without the red meat. I've had red meat maybe 4 times in the last 18 days....

LeenaRuns

Check out my diary on ways to squeeze in produce :-)

mslack01

I absolutely LOVE skinnytaste.com. I use there recipes all the time and try something different almost everynight. I also use ziplist.com and clip the recipes there so it creates a shopping list for me. It makes it so easy. I just click away and make a menu and then I know what I am going to be eating every night so I don't cheat easily.

horror_hamster

i hate to be one of those people to plug their own stuff, but i have recipes posted on my blog www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/horror_hamster

I'm not a huge fan of the tofu and stuff like that, mine recipes are always made with everyday all-american things, so I hope you might find something yummy there

Otherwise I like skinnytaste.com, hungry-girl.com, and the skinny slow cooker on facebook.

beckyinma

Another vote for skinnytaste.com!

grt2b40

Check out "Clean Eating". You can usually find the mags in the grocery store or go to the book store and check out the cook book. It's by Tosca Reno and has awesome, very healthy, recipes, including deserts. Good luck.

phlpsfamily01

I've been cooking from diabetes cookbooks, kids still like it! My Fav so far because it's quick and easy

Honey Chicken Stir Fry
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 clove garlic
3 tsp olive oil
3 Tbls honey
2 Tbls low sodium soy sauce
1/8 tsp salt and pepper
1 package frozen broccoli stir fry blend
2 tsp corn starch
1 tbls water
brown rice-cooked

In large skillet brown chicken and garlic in 2 tsp oil.
Add honey, soy sauce, salt and pepper
cook and stir until chicken is lightly brown and juices run clear Remove and keep warm
In same pan stir fry broccoli stir fry in remanining oil for 4-5 minutes or until heat through
return chicken to pan and mix with veggies
combine cornstarch and cold water until smooth stir into check mixture, bring to boil cook and stir 1 min or until thickened
serve over rice.

Cindym82

Beef Stew

2-4lbs beef chuck stew meat cut into 1in cubes
1/2 cup flour
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
3 cups beef broth
1tbs worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
6 small potatoes, quatered
2-3 onion, chopped
3 stalks of celery sliced






Directions
Place meat in crock pot, sprinkle flour, salt and pepper over meat.
Add remainging ingredients and stir well
Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10hrs or on HIGH for 6 hours, or until meat is tender




Calories Carbs fat protein sodium chol
Per Serving: 348 32 10 35 460 67


Pasta Fazzul


Calories Carbs fat protein sodium chol
Per Serving: 390 72 4 19 668 18

Goya - Large Lima Beans - White- 1 bag
Garlic - Raw- 4 cloves
Celery - Raw- 3 stalks
San Marzano - Whole Peeled Tomatoes , 14.5 oz
Generic - Salt Pork, 2 oz
Barilla-Gianni - Rigatoni Pasta, 1 container
B&g - Hot Pepper Rings Slices, 8 oz

Soak beans in water for 10-15 mins, rinse. Place beans, garlic, celery, and salt (to taste) in 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Keep at constant boil for 1hr. Add water if needed

Add tomatoes, crushing as adding. Cook add'l 1.5hrs. Cut salt pork into small cubes and fry in separate pan and than add to sauce.

Once beans have softened add in uncooked macaroni and cook until firm. About 10mins



Or skinnytaste.com has chicken rollatini stuffed with ricotta and spinach alla parm and its amazing and only 195 calories

vjrose

You can start with label reading (I know sucks) but you can have two items on the shelf and one is a better choice. For instance, it's a bit more expensive but we don't buy ground beef unless it's at least 93/7 and sometimes I can find 95/5, you do have to add some moisture, we use onions a lot, if you shred them in a food processor they don't have a super strong onion taste. Do some research on your other cuts of meat, look for ones that are lower in fat.
Veggies can be made attractive even to kids, homemade pizza with lots of veggies and uncured pepperoni is a good choice. Stir fry, grilled, you don't need to add a lot of salty stuff, try Mrs Dash marinades, I use it all the time and my salt loving friends still love the grilled veggies with Zesty Garlic and Herb (not tons of calories either)
Seasonings can help a lot in making things more tasty, when you are cooking healthy. Less fat can seem like less flavor at first.
Take a look at how much salt your family is consuming, there are a number of studies on sodium and weight loss, not excessively low since you are young and healthy but if you can get it down a bit it will help and your family will be healthier too, lol.
I agree with someone's suggestion of Cooking Light, they also have an email list that gives you lots of fun recipes.

daphnegetnfit

Try going to this website: www.laaloosh.com. They have weight watchers recipes. I also found a great turkey burger recipe at prevention's website yesterday too. Best of luck. It's hard cooking to please everyone. There are three of us here.
Tootie71

Thanks so much!!

JennaM222

Skinnytaste.com is my fave site!!!

firefly171717

there are some really greak cook books you can get, otherwise anything that is more simplier made will reduce the calories :-). Yogurt, granola, fruit, and chocolate sauce is a good ice cream subsitiute.

MsLilly200

I've found that one easy way of loosing calories in basically every meal is to replace carbs with more vegetables. Cause most meals are a meat, vegetables, potatoes/rice/pasta. If you replace the potato/rice/pasta with vegetables it really cuts down on the calories.

jhartram

Thank you all so much for your help! I'm feeling a lot less hopeless! It's hard enough cooking for everyone (one won't eat mushrooms, one won't eat anything without some form of tomato sauce, unless I trick him into it...) but trying to integrate healthy eating into it seemed really daunting!

I guess it would have been helpful to mention that the red meat I eat is either venison or antelope... both VERY low in fat and I just substitute it for beef in my recipes. My kiddos will eat veggies if I don't cook them too much, and they're little fruit hogs...

I will definitely be looking at those websites, and thanks to those who gave me their own recipes. Those sound great! I'm motivated again! =D

kmfolkins

I think you will love this website.
www.skinnytaste.com

Thanks for posting this site, it's great!

Nharley

S-L-O-W-L-Y wean yourself and your family away from the red meat. You can get iron in green leafy vegetables instead of eating red meat more than 2 times a week. My family is/was a die hard carnivore red meat eating family with a huge side of starch like potatoes and very little vegetables until Mom decided (that's me) we all needed to change our eating habits. My kids are 16 and 18 years old, very physically active and by their looks don't need to change their diet. However after explaining to them that mom and dad are the size and girth they are after not watching the amount and type of food and drink we consume all of our adult life. Think *YOU too can look like this at (insert age here)* type of talk with your kids. You and they don't need to radically change anything...just substitute a little here and there. Try one meatless dinner a week. Get out a package of cards to size up how much a serving of steak should be on your plate. Measure serving sizes. This alone has stopped me from sitting down with a bag of chips and it also has given me a rude wake up call on what I use to consider a serving size.

So, for the red meat in your freezer: Take a recipe and cut the serving of meat in half, replace it with vegi's, legumes or starch such as rice or potato. Try one new food item a week, just at dinner. Have you ever thought about trying cauliflower mashed potatoes or sweet potato baked fries?

Also, sign yourself up to Hungrygirl.com and Relish.com. Have recipes and ideas (low calorie) about food items delivered to your in box daily. Search for and keep any dinners that are at or below 500 calories a serving. Make a huge salad once a week that can be available for at least 2-3 meals a week. Make sure to drink 16 oz. of water as you are preparing dinner. This one thing alone helps curb your appetite. Before pulling anything out, pour yourself that water. Here is my week's dinner menu. I *try* my best to spend at least an hour a week just planning for dinners. This way I am less likely to fix a heavy meal or call for take out!

Dinners:

1. Ground turkey tacos, (one for me) with yellow rice, red beans (I prepared a package of dried red beans last week and froze 1 cup serving sizes to get in more legumes in our meals), salsa and a serving size of chips (I ate 1/2 serving size)

2. Atheana fish ( tilapia) 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 3/4 cup diced onion, 1 tsp minced garlic, greek salad dressing, 1/4 cup white wine, 14oz artichoke hearts, Greek seasoning.

The cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, salad dressing seasoning and salt to taste make a vegetable salad. The fish is pan saute' finished, seasoned with Greek seasoning, salt and pepper, diced onion and garlic.

Calories per serving:140, Fat:11g, Sodium: 520mg, Carbs: 31g, Fiber 2g, Protein 1 g, Vit A 15%, Vit C 20%, Calcium 2%, Iron 2%

3. Root Vegetable Pie: Any root vegetables, I use leeks, spinach, carrots, potato, onion, turnips, dried and reconstituted mushrooms. 1/4 cup cooking sherry. Dice into 1 inch pieces, saute' with cooking sherry, salt and pepper to taste. Make a white roux gravy. I use about 1/2 cup milk product (your choice), mushroom water, a splash of sherry, 1/2 chicken bouillon cube. Heat together, add flour or corn starch to thicken. Use a prepared pie crust dough, mix white gravy and vegi's together, pour into pie crust. Top with second crust or do without. Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Serve with a salad.

4. Grandma's Chicken with Salad and pre-packaged noodle mix.

Ingredients

8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons garlic powder, divided
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a shallow bowl, beat the egg with salt, pepper and 1 teaspoon garlic powder. In a separate dish, mix bread crumbs with 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and Parmesan cheese. Set aside.
Mix together the melted butter and lemon juice. Pour about 2/3 of the butter mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Tilt pan to coat the bottom. Spread mushrooms in an even layer in the bottom of the dish. Dip each chicken breast into the egg mixture, then into the bread crumb mixture. Place on top of the mushrooms. Drizzle remaining butter over the chicken, and sprinkle with parsley.
Bake uncovered for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until chicken is golden brown and juices run clear.
Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 281 | Total Fat: 11.6g | Cholesterol: 113mg

5. Tofu Spicy P-nut Noodles (I am using tofu for the first time this week)

Linguine (8oz)
1/3 cup low fat creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 tbs rice wine vinegar
2 tbs. low sodium soy sauce
1 -2 tsp. chili paste
1 tsp minced garlic
1 med. size red bell pepper
3/4 cup chopped cucumber
3 green onion slice diagonally
2 tbs chopped cilantro
4 lime wedges (1 lime)

per serving: 234 calories, 9g protein, 8g fat, Sodium 270mg, 33g Carbs, 3g fiber

I serve this with a pre-packaged pork egg roll.

5. Bratwurst and french fries (not healthy or low in calories, but I will adjust my other meals to allow for this)

6. Peas and cheese tortillini - Pre-packaged tortillini, a small bag of frozen peas, 5 green onions sliced, 2 tbls. flour, 1 2/3 milk product (your choice), 1/3 grated parmigiana. Serve with a salad or slice tomatoes and fresh basil. Also serve with cheese toasts; small slices of bread topped with minced garlic, a little olive oil and a very small amount of parm. cheese toasted.

7. Chicken Verde Salsa Casserole - 2 tblsp. oil (I use olive in almost every meal if it calls for it), 2 lbs chicken, skinless, boneless, cooked and diced, 1 16 oz jar of salsa verde, 1 can (15oz) kidney or red beans (I used a serving of red beans made earlier in the week) , 1 onion diced, 3 cups tortilla chips, 1/2 cup shredded Mexican cheese. The original recipe calls for 1/2lb of chicken, another 16 oz jar of verde salsa and sour cream. Also 8oz bag of cheese. I reduce when I can the 'bad' stuff! Place all in a casserole dish and bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

8. Balsamic Pork Chops with tomato, basil wide noodles and green beans

4 pork chops (your call on type or thickness), 1/2 cup green onions sliced, 1 green bell pepper chopped, 1/2 diced piminentos drained, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 cup chicken broth. Saute' flour dusted pork chops several minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate (I tuck into a warm oven) Add pimientos, onions, cook 3-4 minutes, add vinegar and broth, reduce broth to thicken. Add pork chops to pan and coat with vinegar mixture.

Tomato -Basil Noodles

No Yolk wide noodles ~ cooked per package directions
fresh basil
tomato finishing butter or phildelphia cream basil and tomato cream mixture, to taste (I wouldn't use a whole container ~ just enough to taste) 1/4 cup grated parm. cheese

Steam fresh green beans or another family loved vegetable side

Enjoy!
BTW~ I enjoy cooking but don't like to spend all night in the kitchen. Most of these meals are well under an hour from start to finish, and many of them under 500 calories a serving.

Natalie:flowerforyou:

countrygirlatheart2719

I use any recipe I can find by Ellie Krieger and have recently found (thanks to other people on here) www.skinnytaste.com and I really like it!

Queenb62303

i have been living by skinnytaste.com....the asian glazed wings are amazing! i also love italian food and use italianfoodforever.com to make sauce and seafood recipes!

alecta337

I think you will love this website.
www.skinnytaste.com

^^^ My obsession!!!! AMAZING recipes

JLervold86

Agreed skinnytaste.com is awesome! Also, www.thegraciouspantry.com great clean eating delicious recipes )

alecta337

i have been living by skinnytaste.com....the asian glazed wings are amazing!

I made this on Friday, I don't really like chicken but they were soooo good. I am also going to make this again, but use tofu and broccoli with the same sauce. YUM!