500 cal food ideas?

runmypretties

Hey, I am looking for some nice 500-600 calorie meal ideas, I am getting a bit bored of the rota of 'diet' food I am eating now!! I am not a massive fan of fish and I don't eat a lot of meat but will eat veg etc till the cows come home (ok, not artichoke - its the work of the devil!!) any other ideas I would be SOOOOO grateful for!.....

melsinct

Eatingwell.com has all sorts of different recipe collections, like under 500 calorie meals. It's a great website for inspiration and as a bonus, most meals on there are already in the MFP database!

therealangd

What is currently in the repertoire?

I love salads. My two current go to's are steak and potato salad. Yep. Chopped cooked steak, sweet potato cooked and diced. Asparagus cooked and chopped. cucumber. grape tomato. romaine lettuce and calorie wise peppercorn ranch dressing.

The other one is a chicken stir fry salad. Romaine lettuce. chopped chicken. Stir fry vegetables of choice (I just thaw out a bag of frozen stir fry veggies). Bean sprouts and a cal wise mandarin ginger dressing. I've subbed in shrimp and chick peas in place of the chicken.

ETA: These are very hearty salads. 400 - 500 cals depending on the protein choice.

jennalink807

Super veggie pasta!

3-4 cups Whole grain penne
1 bell pepper
3 pieces of asparagus
1 onion
1 portabella mushroom
1-2 cups your favorite marinara sauce
half a container of mascarpone cheese

dice up the veggies (you can use any old veggies you have lying around) and lay them in a sautee pan with a little bit of olive oil. sautee them until al dente, then add the sauce. when that starts simmering, stir in the mascarpone. then at the end toss the pasta and the veggie filled sauce.

When I made it, my calories came out to 450 cals for a 2 cup serving (cooked) of pasta and sauce. There were 3 servings. Its a perfect lunch- super filling, super creamy and satisfying.