I need 200-300 calorie meal ideas

Lately I've been eating 400-600 caloried meals in one sitting, and it's not working any more. I want to start eating smaller portions of healthy foods consistently so I don't get hungry or over-eat.

If you have any easy to make dishes/sandwiches/other ideas than please let me know!

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  • Posts: 1,143 Member
    One of my faves is a tortilla (low carb tortillas have less cals) filled with romaine lettuce, a mix of choppped tomato/red onion/cucumber, feta cheese and whatever dressing you want. Get a good tortilla, a light dressing, and with feta cheese a little goes a long way.

    Make your sandwiches on Sandwich Thins or an english muffin, and only spend 100 cals on the bread.

    Broth based soup!

    Protein shakes made with good quality protein and unsweetened almond milk. You could even throw in 1 T of peanut butter and still get under 300 cals.

    Egg on toast or english muffin

    Salad with hard boiled egg, light dressing

    String cheese, hard boiled egg, apple

    Banana with peanut butter

    Veggies and hummus
  • Posts: 288 Member
    Avocado-Tuna Sandwich

    Half a can light chunk tuna: 50 calories
    Two slices of low cal bread: 90-100 calories, or if you can find lower calories, that be great.
    Half an avocado: 150 calories
    Tabasco or whatever you like ;3.

    Just mash the avocado and mix it in with the tuna with whatever seasonings you like ;D. Instead of bread, you can also use carrots or crackers to dip it in.
  • Joseph's tortilla, lavash bread or pita pockets for a bread/wrap. Great stuff with 11 carbs (tortillas) and 7g of protein (amazing for bread)
    [url] http://www.josephsbakery.com/p-10234-Flax-Oat-Bran-and-Omega-3-Whole-Wheat-Flour-Tortilla [/url]
    Fill that with lean white chicken breast, lettuce and salsa

    Another go to for me is Chobani 0% greek yogurt (8 oz) with blueberries (frozen or fresh). Some people complain it's too tart, the yogurt by itself does taste just like sour cream. Add 1 packet of Splenda if you need a little more sweeter.

    and my absolute "in a rush need to eat and run at same time" 1 can of solid white albacore tuna in water, with lemon juice. Fast, easy, grear protein and omega 3 source.

    As always make sure you're drinking plenty of water before and during your meals, always helps fill me up.
  • Posts: 12 Member
    Sweet potato with tuna and tomatoes is my favourite :)
  • Posts: 181 Member
    Anything high in protein (tuna, salmon, turkey, etc) with avocado and a TON of spinach. Spinach is so good for you and you can eat it bottomlessly so it gives you the mental feeling of eating a lot. I make awesome salads of all sorts and wraps with La Tortilla Factory (low carb, high protein and 50 cals) and I'm full for hours without ever feeling weighed down. Low fat cottage cheese is also a good item. You're welcome to browse my diary - I generally eat meals in the 300 cal range and I can't tell you how great I feel. The trick is knowing you're not going to feel super full - you will feel satisfied. Hope this helps!
  • Posts: 594 Member
    There is a diet bread i found,
    with only 35 calories per slice,
    it is called Healthy Life Diet 35-calorie high fiber bread,
    i found it at Walmart.


    and it comes in
    wheat
    or
    white.

    might help you make lower calorie sandwiches.
  • Posts: 15 Member
    There are two books from Hungry Girl that I like - "300 under 300" and "200 under 200." Literally hundreds of recipes under 300/200 calories. Word of caution, though - some of the sodium/fat can be high in them, so I use them as jumping-off points instead of following the recipe to the letter.
  • Posts: 4,391 Member
    Take a look at my diary (not todays, because I'm not logging). All of my meals are 300-400 calories in size, and super healthy/nutritious.

    If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

    Oh, and ignore the donuts from the past week. Too many birthdays at work!
  • Posts: 7 Member
    This is how i eat and here are a few of my stand bys that are really quick and easy.

    Plain or vanilla nonfst or lowfat Greek yogurt (1/2 cup)with fruit(1 cup) and granola(1/4 cup) or a few chopped nuts(1/2 ounce)

    Cottage cheese(1/2 cup) and triscuits(1 serving, 6 crackers)

    Big salad - lots of fresh lettuce and the veggie toppings of your choice. I dress my lettuce first with 1 tbsp of salad dressing then add the other veggies. I then top it with 2-3 ounces of lean protein - chicken or ham. If I can afford the calories at the meal, I add 2 tbsp of toasted soy nuts for some crunch and added protein.

    1 rice cake with 1 tbsp almond butter and a 1-2 cups of fresh fruit

    Check out skinnytaste.com for some entrée ideas. I have liked everything I have tried from this site and the calorie counts on her entrees are reasonable.

    Good Luck!
  • Turkey chalupas are a hit and run about 280 cals

    2 ounce lean ground turkey 81 cal
    2 baked corn toastada (2 toastada =100 cal)
    1/4 cup drained and rinsed balck beans 70
    1/4 Roma tomato 16 cal
    1/8 cup grilled green onions 5 cal
    and lots of lettuce and or spinach usually 5 cals for a cup
    you can add kraft fat free swiss cheese but it cost 25 cals extra

    be sure to spice up your turkey with cumin, pepper, garlic, thyme, I even add curry, do not add salt to turkey because it is in the toastada.


    also veggie 3 egg white omelet is about 100 cals with pam olive oil spray
  • The best way I've found to do this is to cut out grains. As a type 2 diabetic I have to be very careful of my carbs. I found that really hard to do and I was always hungry. Also, eating grains of any sort (bread, pasta, rice, cereal..etc...) made me just crave more of them and totally sabotaged my diet. By cutting out all grains I now get my carbs from fresh fruit. I eat a LOT more vegetables also. You can eat quite a lot of veggies and feel very full (and get the benefits of the fiber and vitamins) and stay within your calorie goals much easier without grains.
    Be careful what meats you eat also. Store bought beef is just full of fat. Store bought pork has added sodium. (check the packaging. At Wal Mart their pork has added salt and water!) We stick to chicken, fish and goat. The only beef I eat is grass fed which is MUCH lower in fat and calories.
    Here's an idea for breakfreast:

    Saute 1/2 cup mushrooms with 1/4 cup onion in a skillet sprayed with oil.
    Once the onions and mushrooms are cooked, add 2 eggs and scramble.
    I serve this with a medium sliced tomato. Only 195 calories and it's nicely filling.
  • Posts: 522 Member
    Great website for recipes and inspiration - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/

    I am an avid cook and this is my go to website every time. I don't even bother looking at all my cookery books anymore. The great thing about it is that people who have made the recipes gived feedback on them and suggestions as to how they can be improved so you're not taking a chance making something new.

    They have filters for 0-200 calories and 200-400 calories.

    It's a UK site so you might have to do some measurement conversions.
  • Posts: 851 Member
    There is a diet bread i found,
    with only 35 calories per slice,
    it is called Healthy Life Diet 35-calorie high fiber bread,
    i found it at Walmart.


    and it comes in
    wheat
    or
    white.

    might help you make lower calorie sandwiches.


    and it is delish...at least the wheat that i've had
  • Posts: 2,113 Member
    Here are some of mine:

    Hard boiled egg and a Morningstar Farms breakfast sausage patty
    Yogurt/Greek Yogurt (90 calories) and a whole grain waffle (or two)
    Banana and a whole grain waffle

    Fish (canned tuna, baked/grilled salmon or whitefish) or Grilled Chicken Breast on a big old bed of lettuce/spinach (tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cucumber optional)
    Hummus or tzatziki with carrots/cucumbers/celery and a few pita chips
  • Posts: 220 Member
    I will be making an indian-esque dinner tonight of stir fried veg (1 tbl spoon oil) tandoori chicken which has 2 cloves garlic, lemon juice, cumin corriander, tumeric, salt and pepper, gara masala ans chilli powder in with a little bit of oil (low fat) and marinated in 0 fat natural yoghurt, cooked under the grill on a high heat then finished in the oven and some rice with some lemongrass sticks and corriander leaves in total it comes to about 400 cals you can make some low fat alternatives though, no skin on the chicken, low fat oil or dry fry your veg and use less rice to bring it to 300. Its still really tasty the yoghurt only gives 20 cals so well worth a try.

    One more if you want chips part boil them, put them in the oven with some chilli and paprika flakes and a couple sprays of 1 cal oil
  • Posts: 54 Member
    Two white cheddar rice cakes with yellow mustard and thin sliced turkey breast
  • Posts: 230 Member
    One of my favorite lunches is a hawiaan crepe. I us a crepe, 2 oz deli shaves ham, 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup pineapple. Heat until melted. You can also add a little diced jalapeño if you want. It comes to 345 calories. But you could use feta cheese and reduce that a little. You could probably use a tortilla instead of the crepe too.
  • Posts: 836 Member
    One of my favorite "I need to eat a lot but don't have the calories left" meals are

    1 pack of Veggie dogs
    1 can or bag of sour Kraut
    1 large sweet onion
    1 green apple

    Cook the onions til they are nice and brown, add the apple cook til it's soft. Add sliced up veggie dogs, and Kraut. You can eat half the pan for less than 300. It is kind of high in sodium.. but, I like it when I need to eat a bunch.


    I also do a Veggie LoMein with Shirataki noodles. That is a huge bowl of food for less than 150.
  • An egg or 2 or a few whites scrambled with Cheese, real bacon bits and top with alil salsa
  • Posts: 328 Member
    I just had breakfast...2 eggs fried with cooking spray and 2 pieces of turkey bacon. It's about 240 calories sou you could easily add some berries, or another fruit and still stay around 300 calories. This is what I have most morning for breakfast and it keeps me full for a while. I try to save most of my calories for dinner :)
  • A cheese omelet with some veggies.
  • Posts: 694 Member
    I found that I needed to adjust my portion sizes of what I typically eat to get to the calorie range you want. When I started, a lean cusine type meal was never enough for my appetite. Now that portion size (not one of those meals) is what I normally consume at a meal. Also, I now run 2-3 mi. per day. I don't require more food to support the running habit. I had to make substitutions of more nutrient dense foods for those calorie dense foods to fill me up and keep me satisfied.
  • Posts: 85 Member
    bump for later
  • Hi there. Maybe this video will help:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VJM89WmNis

    Good luck!
  • Posts: 200 Member
    Hungry Girl has entire books of under 200 and under 300 calorie small meals. I have made a few of them, and they weren't bad.
  • Posts: 439 Member
    Tofu Shiratake noodles with just about any topping / sauce and lots of veggies. Yes, you have to get past the smell when you open a package. but if you rinse them really good under cold water, the smell goes away. They are the best substitute I found for pasta, and only 40 calores for a package!. I've stir fried with asian style sauces and veggies, and finally tried with pasta sauce to see if I could fool myself into thinking it was pasta. I topped with a jar sauce to which I added broccol and mushrooms and good parmesan cheese, and the whole thing was under 300 calories. I went a bit heavy on the sauce and cheese :flowerforyou: .
  • Posts: 222 Member
    Hungry Girl has entire books of under 200 and under 300 calorie small meals. I have made a few of them, and they weren't bad.

    I get the Hungry Girl emails and love them!! :)

    Also, I'm not sure on how many calories it has, but I make a Cauliflower Casserole. Cauliflower Florets, 1 cup spagetti sauce, 1 cup shredded cheese and just bake for a half hour (or until warm and cheese is melted). I got it out of a Weight Watchers cook book. My 4 yr old daughter and I love it!
  • Posts: 439 Member
    There's also a book called 400 Calorie Fix from prevention that combines fast food / prepared foods / cook it yourself ideas. I downloaded it from amazon.
  • Oatmeal is alway a good choice. It's low in calories & very versatile. Lately I've been poaching an egg and having it over my oatmeal with 2 strips of bacon. It comes out to just a little over 300 calories. Also maybe look for the book 400 Calorie Fix. Tons of delicious recipes & there are two books. Plus it will teach you how to cook meals in the 400 calorie range.
  • Posts: 353 Member
    bump for later

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