Dinners for 500 calories or less

Hopefully this will work (it's a books.google link just shortened) http://tinyurl.com/y7rejzcu

My dinners, as in supper, are pretty small. 300-400 calories unless going out. Dinner, as in the largest meal, usually ends up at about 600-800 calories unless we're having something higher in calories. I don't have allocated numbers for meals, I just see every day if I want something in particular or if I have something planned and then just adapt my other meals around it to make it fit. If I don't want anything in particular and have no plans I just go through the day eating what I feel like eating at that moment making reasonable choices, then see how many calories I have left for dinner and fill them up with whatever is left and sounds good to me.

Now with that said, I have this planned today because my hunger levels are through the roof:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/lemony-chicken-soup-with-farro-white-beans-and-kale

It has many things that fill me up (beans, protein, volume, fiber) and is under 1 calorie per gram, under 0.8 even. I'm not using farro and kale, I'm using hulled barley and spinach because that's what I have on hand, and I'm eating it with a piece of bread because the more starch the merrier, might even make croutons if I'm not too lazy. It's such a low calorie dish for the volume that I can afford croutons.

If it doesn't work you can google Nadiya Hussain prawn orange curry with basmati and *hopefully* you should get a book preview of the recipe & instructions. It's so delicious!

I'm making another of her recipes tonight which is fish pie with cinnamon sweet potato and that comes in at under 500 a serving too. Looking forward to it as usually I find things seem to be less satisfying for dinner if they are under about 700.

One pork chop cooked with little to no oil in a frying pan and pile of veggies like zucchini and broccoli.

Most of my dinners are 600-750 cals. My calorie goal for the day is 1590 plus I usually get 100-150 exercise calories. This split generally works for me, though some days are totally different (like when the local Mexican place caters at work..900 cal lunch right there, but I budget for it). 300-400 breakfast, 200 snack (depends on day/activity/what's going on), 400-500 lunch.

My favorite dinners right now are Cajun pasta, homemade meatball sub with spinach salad, Italian roasted chicken and vegetables, shepherds pie. As long as I plan ahead, I more or less eat whatever I want.

bbell1985 wrote: »

Meat and a ton of veggies.

I agree. 5 to 7 ounces of meat, depending on the fat content, one small starch such as a piece of bread, small potato, or a serving of rice, and lots of veggies.
Some of my dinners are:
Chicken (6 oz) shis kabobs with green and red peppers, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and small potatoes
Chicken lettuce wraps made with ground turkey and slice of bread
Spicy shrimp (7 oz) with tomatoes, green peppers over a serving of fettucini
Pork tenderloin (6 oz) with asparagus, mushrooms and a serving of rice
Grilled steak (5 oz) with zuccini, salad and small baked potato
Orange roughy (7 oz) with spinach and tomatoes over rice
Chicken breast (6 oz) with red peppers and broccoli over a serving of angel hair pasta and low calorie marinara sauce

My go to dinner is:
2 Fit and Active Whole Grain Waffles with Apple butter (200 Cal)
3 Egg Whites and 1 egg (150 Cal)
2 Slices Fit and Active Turkey Bacon (50 Cal)

I have 100 calories left for Fruit.

An omelette and a salad. No cheese or anything like that, I put veggies and mushrooms in the omelette, low cal dressing.