Healthy southern meal ideas

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Sammi1244
Sammi1244 Posts: 85 Member
edited April 2018 in Motivation and Support
My husband is a Southern food fanatic. Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes, butter beans with corn bread, lots of unhealthy stuff.
Give me your best recipes for healthy southern food. Thank you

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  • DanniB423
    DanniB423 Posts: 776 Member
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    I eat sensible portion sizes of the foods you listed.
  • amgreenwell
    amgreenwell Posts: 1,268 Member
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    You can still eat those things, just in much smaller portions...or do small substitutions that can still be delicious. How about baked "fried" chicken boneless/skinless breasts, roasted potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes (with very little milk and butter), use canola oil butter instead of regular butter, you can do ALL kinds of beans...just don't add the butter or other fatty stuff. Instead add some seasoning from the pantry.
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
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    Yes. Portion control.
  • fluffigkattunge
    fluffigkattunge Posts: 8 Member
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    Lots of greens? A tiny bit of pork and "pork derivatives", i.e., ham hock, Canadian bacon, etc. can flavor a huge pot of greens, which is very filling and have lots of antioxidants. You can also use chicken stock with a tiny drop of liquid smoke instead of pork.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
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    Roasted chicken with the skin on has fewer calories while still being delicious. Blackened grilled catfish is another low calorie Southern food. There's nothing in this world wrong with butter beans as long as you don't literally drown them in butter! Lots of greens. Corn bread is also fine, particularly if you avoid making it overly sweet. Make it in small muffin tins instead of a big batch and it's easier to control portion size.

    My favorite easy low calorie Southern comfort meal is chicken thighs roasted in Wicker's BBQ marinade, field peas, and greens. If you need more food add summer squash sautéed with onions, sliced cucumbers, or sliced tomatoes. Now that summer is almost here it's much easier to find good vegetable options such as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and okra. If you have several vegetables per meal it's much easier to eat your fill without consuming too many calories. Instead of relying on fat for flavor, add herbs and seasonings such as vinegar and lemon juice.