help need side dish ideas

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paulgee11369
paulgee11369 Posts: 11
in Recipes
I am looking for some low fat and good side dish recipes. all I heve ever had with every meal was potatoes, rice, potatoes, pasta,potatoes I think you get the idea, but looking for tasty new alternatives.
Thanks Paul

Replies

  • kk_stephens
    kk_stephens Posts: 129 Member
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    How about a side salad, steamed veggies, Cauliflower steamed and mashed with butter and garlic, fresh fruit, cottage cheese.... Hope these give you some ideas.
  • ladybuglola
    ladybuglola Posts: 3 Member
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    Cooking Light website has a whole section on side dishes. I use the myrecipes.com for side dishes, desserts, etc. It has all the foods I love to eat only made with better ingredients. They have the calorie info on all the Cooking Light recipes and so far every recipe I've made has been a huge hit.

    As a side note, we normally do thin slices of potato, like chips and bake them until they are still some what soft - so good. I'm a potato fan myself.

    Hope that helps!
  • CGerman
    CGerman Posts: 539
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    You can still have those - just shoot for whole grain pasta and rice, try sweet potatoes in place of white potatoes. We make a quick olive oil and garlic marinade and will put that on a lot of veggies (zucchini, green beans, squash, etc.) Another good idea is to do stir fry - you can get a load of veggies and some chicken in there with just a small side of brown rice.
  • 6Janelle13
    6Janelle13 Posts: 353 Member
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    When squash and zucchinni are in season I grill them with salt and pepper.
    You can also use a pie shell (un cooked) and put tomatoes and zucchinni and bake a tart. (i usually cover mine with about two tablespoons of fat free italian dressing.) and then bake off until crust in browned (if you have time you can make it healthy by using whole wheat flour and lighten it up. - you can also just use italian dressing, tomatoes and zucchinni as a base layer with a fish (talipa on top of the veggies) and wrap parchment paper bake for 20 minutes.
    humus and pita bread (whole wheat) but only if you limit how much you eat.
  • paulgee11369
    paulgee11369 Posts: 11
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    just found something that sounds tasty and thought I would share.

    I found this recipe on all recipe.com

    it is a apple,pecan,cranberry salad and yeilds 1 serving

    Ingredients
    1 cup baby spinach leaves
    1 tablespoon dried cranberries
    1 tablespoon chopped salted pecans
    1/2 apple, cored and diced
    1 tablespoon diced red onion
    2 tablespoons grated carrot
    1/4 avocado, peeled and diced
    1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing, or to taste

    Place spinach, cranberries, pecans, apple, onion, carrot, and avocado into a bowl. Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette, and toss to coat

    Nutritional Information
    Amount Per Serving Calories: 256 | Total Fat: 17.8g | Cholesterol: 0mg


    I am making this tonite for dinner with some grilled chicken. I will post the results later.
  • paulgee11369
    paulgee11369 Posts: 11
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    and thanks for all the great ideas I am going to try some for sure!

    quick question though what type of veggies and types of squash work best on the grill?

    please keep the ideas coming. :love:
  • CGerman
    CGerman Posts: 539
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    quick question though what type of veggies and types of squash work best on the grill?

    Zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, eggplant, corn on the cob, asparagus - some of the favorites at my house
  • 6Janelle13
    6Janelle13 Posts: 353 Member
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    don't forget about bell peppers (you can even stuff them with lean ground turkey or beef, some bread crumbs and cheese)
    and when you cook/grill veggies make sure they still keep a little "crunch" to them. they tend to taste better and be more nutritious.
    also for corn just grill in the husk. it keeps them juicy and makes shucking them easier since the steam pushes the silk off the cob more
  • ppslucy
    ppslucy Posts: 4 Member
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    I bought a wonderful book by Taste of Home. The name of it is Comfort Food Diet. It is full of recipes that already has the calories, fat grams, etc. etc calculated for you. You might be interested in purchasing it.
  • ppslucy
    ppslucy Posts: 4 Member
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    I just tried a new salad at Wendy's today that is so much like this. It is the Apple, Chicken, Pecan Salad. It was very good. Thanks for sharing the recipe so now I can fix it myself.
  • wingshadow
    wingshadow Posts: 6
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    I like to bake a couple Portobello mushrooms stuffed with lowfat cheeses, lowfat Italian dressing, I even make a main dish of it sometimes by adding in lowfat ground beef. Yellow squash sauteed in lowfat(or on atkins real butter) season with Cavendars greek seasoning turn when turns a little soft and cook other side. Salads also good. Good luck I think were all in this same boat of bad past eating habits.
  • jha1223
    jha1223 Posts: 141 Member
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    I hope it's ok to link to WW from here ...

    http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/index.aspx?recipeId=94061

    This is an AMAZING salad. And if you are familiar with the points system at WW at all, TWO points. Yes, just two. I really can't begin to say how much this salad feels like cheating.

    One thing to point out though - it tells you to make the salad and dressing and store separately. That is imperative to keep it fresh as long as possible (four days).
  • alphaip
    alphaip Posts: 86
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    I've been mixing my rice with a 3 pepper and onion blend (frozen), adding in a can of pinto beans (protein!), and a can of diced tomatoes. Makes the rice wonderful!
  • paulgee11369
    paulgee11369 Posts: 11
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    just found something that sounds tasty and thought I would share.

    I found this recipe on all recipe.com

    it is a apple,pecan,cranberry salad and yeilds 1 serving

    Ingredients
    1 cup baby spinach leaves
    1 tablespoon dried cranberries
    1 tablespoon chopped salted pecans
    1/2 apple, cored and diced
    1 tablespoon diced red onion
    2 tablespoons grated carrot
    1/4 avocado, peeled and diced
    1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing, or to taste

    Place spinach, cranberries, pecans, apple, onion, carrot, and avocado into a bowl. Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette, and toss to coat

    Nutritional Information
    Amount Per Serving Calories: 256 | Total Fat: 17.8g | Cholesterol: 0mg


    I am making this tonite for dinner with some grilled chicken. I will post the results later.

    I just made this tonite as a side for dinner and my only regret is I didn't make it for the complete meal. I believe my wife was right when she said add a little feta to make it perfect, and I really suggest this anytime and will definatly make it again!

    definatly a 5 out of 5 stars for us :heart:

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