quick, healthy, low cal dinners?

Hi Jess

It's good that you're sick of the prepackaged stuff....the best piece of advice I ever got from the guy that started training me in the gym was...EAT LIKE A CAVEMAN. If they couldn't have eaten it, stay away (for the most part lol). For dinners, I take some primary ingredients like lean steak, boneless/skinless chicken, veggies, garlic, lemon, fruit, brown rice, etc. and mix and match, just keep it changing so you don't get bored

Good luck!

Here's a couple.

15 minute Chick Pea Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced (more or less to taste, I like a lot)
1 can of chick peas
4 cups water or stock
2 oz spaghetti, broken into 1-2" pieces

Sauté garlic in olive oil for 1-2 minutes. Add chick peas, including the liquid from the can. Add water or stock and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add spaghetti. Boil for about 8 minutes. Enjoy!

It's surprisingly good for so few ingredients.Sometimes I add a little tomato paste or spices to the broth.


15 Minute Garlic Lemon Chicken
Ingredients:
Servings:

4
•
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 4 teaspoons flour
• salt and pepper
• 2 teaspoons oil
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon butter
Change Measurements: US | Metric
Directions:
Prep Time: 3 mins
Total Time: 11 mins
1. Flatten chicken slightly. Dust with flour. Salt and pepper chicken.
2. Fry in hot oil 5 minutes each side. Remove chicken from pan.
3. To pan add broth, garlic, lemon juice and butter. Cook 2 minutes. Pour over chicken


Serving Size: 1 (159 g)
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
% Daily Value
Calories 174.0

Calories from Fat 43
Total Fat 4.8 g
Saturated Fat 1.3 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.6 g
Trans Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 70.9 mg
Sodium 179.0 mg
Potassium 335.7 mg
Magnesium 34.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate 2.5 g
Dietary Fiber 0.1 g
Sugars 0.1 g
Protein 28.1 g

well i've just eaten morrocan meatballs & brown rice
Basically 100g very lean beef mince mixed with 1tsp morrocan spice mix. Formed into meatballs, dry fried & drained. Served with 1 cup cooked brown rice & a couple tbsp spicy salsa. Came to 414cal and took less than 15min to make.

The important thing is having some basics in that can be used to quickly create yummy meals i.e tinned tomatoes, brown rice, wholewheat pasta, fresh/frozen veg and plenty of herbs & spices.

I know it sometimes feels like you have no time but believe me it can be done, most of my meals take no longer than 20min to prepare. I go to work at 7:30am and get home bout 8pm, 6 days a week but we always have homecooked food. On my rare days off i batch cook meals and freeze them, then i always have something in which i can defrost in the morning ready for heating up when i get home just adding fresh veg which only takes a couple of min.

hope this helps

Make turkey burgers with ground turkey and throw them on a George Forman grill if you have one. If not bake them in the oven. I like taking simple recipes and substituting healthier ingredients. For instance. Buffalo chicken sandwiches. At a restaurant you get a breaded and fried piece of chicken dipped in sauce with a ton of cheese and fatty ranch dressing on top. What I do is cook a chicken breast (however you want) then shred it using 2 forks. Toss it in some hot wing sauce, there are several that have 0 cals, and top with fat free cheese and a litte fat free ranch. Serve it on a bun with a side of veggies and you have taken a delicious but very hi fat and cal sandwich and made it in a much healthier way.

I like salmon fillets with a baked potato and some green veg? Salmon is high in protein so you feel full longer and fish oils (Omgea-3,6) and good for your hair and nails.

You place a single fillet on a plate, put a little 1/2 teaspoon of oil on it, add some salt/pepper as preferred, place a bowl over it and microwave for 1 min and it's ready (850Watt microwave), the baked potato usually takes about 4 mins, and then you can boil you brocilli or peas or asparagus etc, I added some mushrooms tonight (because i love them and they're very low calorie) ... So all in all took me about 10mins to make dinner and you know it's healthy when your eating it because you know exactly what went into it!

Worth a try x

jess,
i used to be a tv dinner addict too. If you're not really into cooking, an easy way to at least make something on your own is to buy Pedue Perfect Portions or individually packaged fish filets. The perfect portions are great if you're cooking for one, and they come in diferent flavors. If you buy plain chicken or fish, lightly coat with egg whites (or even water) and then lightly coat with bread crumbs. Make some veggies on the side (Bird's Eye Steam Fresh frozen veggies are great) and a small serving of rice or potatoes. If you don't want to use breadcrumbs, Shake n' Bake products are good too. Hope that helps!