Can someone help me plan out meals?

thiosulfate
thiosulfate Posts: 262 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello! I've recently noticed that I contantly underate all throughout last week, mainly due to a lack in food. This week, I seem closer to my calorie goal, but I usually get there by eating what I did last week and fill the rest with junk. I was hoping someone had some resources for creating a variety of meals so that I don't feel the need to eat junk every single day. I'm also vegetarian and thinking about going vegan soon. I have access to a pretty great supermarket, Wegmans and my calorie limit is 1640.

Replies

  • DaisyGrammy
    DaisyGrammy Posts: 148 Member
    That's the joy of having friends with open menus...you can copy what they are eating and simply copy that meal right into your meal plan. Just find some friends that eat the same calories that you do and ENJOY!!
  • mommyrunning
    mommyrunning Posts: 495 Member
    You can view my diary it is open and I am a vegetarian. I am also pregnant so you may see weird stuff sometimes :>

    Some of my go to meals are:

    Rice or Quinoa with veggies
    Veggie tacos
    salads with fruit, feta cheese, and nuts

    snacks:
    crackers & hummus
    cheese & crackers
    fruit
    cottage cheese
  • FancyPantsFran
    FancyPantsFran Posts: 3,687 Member
    Im not a vegetarian and not 100 percent clear on what a vegan would eat but I usually try to preplan and prelog at least one to two days in advance

    some of my meals include spinach mushrooms and 1/2 slice swiss cheese and 2 egg omelets I make a batch of green smoothies every morning and drink it throughout the day kale cucumber 1/2 banana handful of frozen pineapple spinach and swiss chard and 1/2 avocado. sometimes I thorw in 1/2 scoop of whey protein power each glass usually averages out to 25-30 calories makes 8 glasses

    I make a lot of stir fry usually I use shrimp with that for my protein

    Rice and black and red bean burritos

    Those are just some of the meals I premake and plan Good Luck
  • Meerataila
    Meerataila Posts: 1,885 Member
    Meera's 1000+ calorie black bean salad:

    2 cups of black beans
    1 medium banana
    1/4 cup raisins
    1/2 cup onion
    1 cup mushrooms
    chili peppers
    jalapeno peppers
    tomatoes
    1/4 cup sunflower seeds
    a clove or three of garlic
    salt
    Broccoli or spinach if you want some greens

    Put beans in a big bowl, throw everything else on top, sliced banana and salt last. The raisins tend to get into the black beans in the bottom of the bowl so I just eat those on the side.

    If you want more fat, trade some beans for some olive oil or coconut oil or avocado or whatever.

    You can either have it in one sitting if you're a food-devouring beast like me, or you can have it in two or three. Lots of healthy calories and if you make the beans in advance it's quick to make.
  • thiosulfate
    thiosulfate Posts: 262 Member
    That's the joy of having friends with open menus...you can copy what they are eating and simply copy that meal right into your meal plan. Just find some friends that eat the same calories that you do and ENJOY!!

    Unfortunately, I don't have any active friends on here
  • thiosulfate
    thiosulfate Posts: 262 Member
    Meera's 1000+ calorie black bean salad:

    2 cups of black beans
    1 medium banana
    1/4 cup raisins
    1/2 cup onion
    1 cup mushrooms
    chili peppers
    jalapeno peppers
    tomatoes
    1/4 cup sunflower seeds
    a clove or three of garlic
    salt
    Broccoli or spinach if you want some greens

    Put beans in a big bowl, throw everything else on top, sliced banana and salt last. The raisins tend to get into the black beans in the bottom of the bowl so I just eat those on the side.

    If you want more fat, trade some beans for some olive oil or coconut oil or avocado or whatever.

    You can either have it in one sitting if you're a food-devouring beast like me, or you can have it in two or three. Lots of healthy calories and if you make the beans in advance it's quick to make.

    I might play with some of the ingredients, but sounds yummy :)
  • thiosulfate
    thiosulfate Posts: 262 Member
    Im not a vegetarian and not 100 percent clear on what a vegan would eat but I usually try to preplan and prelog at least one to two days in advance

    some of my meals include spinach mushrooms and 1/2 slice swiss cheese and 2 egg omelets I make a batch of green smoothies every morning and drink it throughout the day kale cucumber 1/2 banana handful of frozen pineapple spinach and swiss chard and 1/2 avocado. sometimes I thorw in 1/2 scoop of whey protein power each glass usually averages out to 25-30 calories makes 8 glasses

    I make a lot of stir fry usually I use shrimp with that for my protein

    Rice and black and red bean burritos

    Those are just some of the meals I premake and plan Good Luck

    Thanks! By the way, a vegan is just someone who does not consume any product that comes from an animal. Basically, no meat, fish, dairy, honey, etc.
  • thiosulfate
    thiosulfate Posts: 262 Member
    You can view my diary it is open and I am a vegetarian. I am also pregnant so you may see weird stuff sometimes :>

    Some of my go to meals are:

    Rice or Quinoa with veggies
    Veggie tacos
    salads with fruit, feta cheese, and nuts

    snacks:
    crackers & hummus
    cheese & crackers
    fruit
    cottage cheese

    Thanks!! Will do
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
    The Eating Well website has some free sample meal plans for various calorie levels including vegetarian ones
  • kmbrtn
    kmbrtn Posts: 9 Member
    I'm also vegetarian, although I do eat fish, cheese and eggs and I drink milk.

    I recently added almond milk to my diet and it helps tremendously. Mix it 50/50 with an already prepared protein drink, add a little unflavored protein powder, I like Syntrax, a little fruit and some ice for an easy, quick breakfast.

    I also add the protein powder to chocolate milk I make at home, you can put it in yogurt or kefir, anything less than 130 degrees and this has been a lifesaver for me. No carbs, no fat.

    Maximize your time in the kitchen. I always make extra servings and either freeze or put in the fridge so I can have a decent lunch or dinner the next day. I find this keeps me from having an excuse to not get on the treadmill. It also keeps me to the proper serving sizes so I have nothing extra to cheat with.

    Keep nuts, bars and nut butters, and any other snacks you like in your desk drawer at work and fresh fruit on your desk and you've always got something to eat. I had tuna for a snack between breakfast and lunch today.

    I don't eat much that comes out of a package, but I love the Kind and Clif Mojo bars.

    I also find that sometimes I'll play around with foods in MFP and see how they'll affect my numbers and sometimes make decisions on dinner based on what I see here in my food diary.

    PS, If you eat fish, fish tacos are wonderful!
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
    I looked at your diary and if it is showing all you are eating, your diet is pretty low in things like protein. Happily, not only do you have others' diaries to look at but lots of good information on the web.

    First thing I'd do is look at the Healthy Eating Plate from Harvard's "Nutrition Source." There's lots of good information there about what makes up a healthy diet. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/

    Then google "healthy eating planner shopping list" and you'll retrieve lots of good suggested menus and lists to take with you to Wegman's. For example, Fitness magazine has a month-long planner with a grocery list and lots of recipes at http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/healthy-eating/nutrition/healthy-eating-planner-31-days-of-superfoods/

    Cooking is a hobby to me so I'm constantly cruising the web looking for easy meals to make. One handy way to go about it is to know what you have in the house that needs using. For example, tonight I'd better use up those two summer squash and that 1/2 bag of spinach before they go bad. I'll just google "summer squash spinach recipes" Lots of the recipes that show up are for pasta. So, I will probably start from this recipe:
    http://www.ebfarm.com/recipes/linguine-spinach-summer-squash-and-mozzarella

    I don't have mozzarella in the house but there's other cheese so I'll wing it a bit. That's the thing about cooking. You can almost always wing it unless you are trying to do fancy baking.

    Also, if you are new to cooking, or even an old hand like me who still needs to learn stuff, you can always look on youtube for videos that show how to do all the cooking things -- so if a recipe calls for "minced shallot" and you are not sure what to do, just go to youtube, search "minced shallot" and you'll find a whole bunch of videos showing you what to do. I finally learned how to butterfly a chicken awhile ago by watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8tMEwBnSA

    Holler at me if you have any cooking questions. I love to talk about cooking.

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