dinner meals under 500 calories

Here are two cookbooks I love that have great recipes for hearty meals.
Cooking Light: Comfort Food
Americas Test Kitchen: Comfort Food Makeovers

I do better with cookbooks unless I know exactly what I want to make. Both can be found on Amazon for pretty cheap.

6 ounces (raw weight) grilled cod - 140 calories
1/4 cup dry serving brown rice - 160 calories
85 grams steamed broccoli - 30 calories
Total - 330 calories

There's a ton you can do under 500 calories.

Ham and bean soup- around 224 cals a big bowl
Anniversary Chicken- depends on size of chicken breast. I use thin sliced so most of mine are 4-5 ounces
Beef strognaff- 383 cals
Breaded Chicken tenders(homemade)- 366 for 8 ounces are about 3 decent size strips.
Cheeseburger-400-500 cals

I love making my "200 calorie pizza". Its a low carb or low calorie tortilla, 1/4 cup of any pasta sauce (although it tastes better when you actually buy the pizza sauce that you normally find where they sell pizza crust at grocery stores), shredded chesse, and pepperoni slices. about 10-12 minutes in the oven at 350 (just keep checking to make sure your "crust" doesn't look too toasted) and its good! My personal pizzas tend to become around 200-210 calories but you can add extra ingredients or a side of 300 more calories and still be at just 500 calories without feeling hungry!

Hot dogs are also not too terrible in calories. You can get low-calorie buns (usually labled as "lite" buns) if you spend a little more time in the bread isle reading all the lables... and then voila! Most condaments are pretty low in calorie too. But the actual amount of calories will depend on how many calories are in the bun

I love making my own "taco salad" which is just taco meat, low-fat sour cream, cheese, pico de gallo, ect without any shells. It's pretty good and I normally just make my meat all at once (I just buy ground up beef and put it on a pan and then add taco seasoning). You will have to count the calories individually but mine came out to be not that many calories (definitely under 500 a night).

I don't know about you but I usually also get lazy at dinner sometimes and will just pour myself a cup of cereal and a cup of milk and call it a day which would be less than 500 calories.

Another really interesting fact that you may or may not like is this thing called "shirataki noodles". Its this vegetable that is shaped like and tastes like pasta. Its a bit strange in texture but it's 0-10 calories for a whole serving of it. In which you can really overdo the sauce and still have a lot more room to eat other things. Its a bit pricey (about 1 dollar per serving.. and each bag usually only has 2 servings-worth) so if you were to want to try this only buy one bag at first as see if you like it. You can look it up if you are interested and people make so many different recepies out of it or just add it with their pasta so its more filling for the little amount they use.

Pretty much anything can be made into a 500 calorie or less meal with some modifications and smaller portions

Shakshuka - delicious, makes enough for lunch the next day as well http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2010/07/summer-2010-travel-blog-shakshuka/ 140 calories a serve, team it up with some bread of some description and a salad and it's still well under 500

morowinder wrote: »

Just figure out how to make non starchy weggies taste good. As they are super low on calories you can have a lot of meat to got to 500.
Just had 500 cal dinner - 1 quarterpounder burger patty fried on pan, 2 cumberland sausages, 270g beansprouts + brocolli pack, another 100g of beansprouts, 250g radish.
As you can imagine this is a HUGE meal, for someone who came home after 2 hours of gym. Most people I know would barely be able to finish it.
The trick is to make veggies taste good, sure I would prefer mashed potatoes and gravy, but with enough practice you can make some that you are actually looking forward to eat.
I fry/steam them on huge pan with lid on, adding extra water and oil. All I need for anything to taste good is salt, pepper and garlic, but you should figure out what works for you.

In for weggies

I made bean burritos the other night: 400 cals for 1 burrito. Add red kidney beans to a pan with tomato sauce or tomato chunks, red peppers, onions, paprika, a bit of salt. Then add some shreeded cheese and fresh avocado to it in a small tortilla wrap! This recipe is packed with fibre and flavour. Great for when ur craving a taco!