Puerto Rican Style Dishes

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try using lo sodium chicken broth in place of oil to cook the rice dishes ...for example saute the garlic/onions or sofritio in it....its yummy and lo cal!

rice and beans is VERY good for the entire family ....try adding more bell peppers and veggies to it if you can....big salads but zesty dressings...maybe some lime juice....and just keep the tostones to a few nights a week maybe....canola oil is good! : )

how bout adding some boneless chicken breasts to the rice and beans....it cooks up so moist! mm mm good!

I'm italian, my hub is pr and we make lots of variations....I'll try to think of some more!

:flowerforyou:

we make empanadas with seasoned ground turkey, instead of beef.

instead of frying, trying spritzing plantains with oil, and baking.

For arroz con pollo, use chicken breast and low sodium chicken broth. (for some reason, my family has never used pork in rice and beans.)

Instead of pork shoulder, try seasoning porkloin and baking, or grilling. Also, try pork chops or any leaner cut of pork.

Any of these meals can be served with a side salad.

Rice bowls -rice, meat veggies
Our whole family eats them I measure mine out.

The trick for the rice & beans for me is to dilute the rice & beans with a LOT of vegetables (add 1-2 bags of frozen spinach, for instance, is an easy way). It drops the calorie density a lot while still being very similar to what you are all used to.

My boyfriend spent 7 years in Puerto Rico for grad school (originally from Colombia), so lunch HAS to be 'rice & beans' or it doesn't count. I batch cook large pots of rice/vegetables/beans/meat A LOT. You can tailor the calorie content and protein content per serving pretty well, by varying how much rice and how much meat you add to a LARGE amount of vegetables. Despite adding a much larger volume of vegetables to the caldero than rice (which I pre-cook to the side in a rice cooker while simmering the frozen & canned vegetables and meat), he seems to be happy with it (though he will pick out specific things he doesn't like, such as olives, if I happen to add them. His brother will pick out green beans). I especially like to add a lot of spinach for nutrition and volume and mushrooms and snap peas which I love. When done, I portion into containers (typically 12-16 of them) and stick in freezer and calculate the calorie per serving on MFP (which generally ranges from 250-400). (I don't have time to cook most days - so I have always typically batch cooked). He can bump up the calories if he wants by adding an arepa or hard boiled egg or eating a second serving or, as he frequently does, adding a banana and ketchup on top.

I can't help you on the pastelillos - I have no idea how to get those healthy. If the pork shoulder is getting chopped up and going into rice or another dish, then a smaller amount diluted into the lower calorie items can help. On its own will be hard.

Wow. Old post is exceptionally old.