Dinner Help

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DrBorkBork
DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Okay so we are having Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner... normally 800-900 calories of tropical glory. We make it with chicken, rice, cream of mushroom soup, pineapples, cheese, and crunchy noodles. I don't want to cut any of it out, but was wondering if I could do a substitute for the rice? It's 200 cals, one of the biggest items on the menu. It would be great if you could make some low cal substitution suggestions for any of the ingredients. Thanks!

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  • kittybellenir
    kittybellenir Posts: 128 Member
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    use minute rice brown rice, 150 calories for 1 cup, and use the fat free cream of mushroom soup, that should help :)
  • Advengirl
    Advengirl Posts: 88 Member
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    Hmmm....
    I'm not sure what would be a good substitute for rice...unless you've been using white rice and want to sub for brown? At least you'll be getting the nutrients out of the brown vs. the empty calories with the white :)

    Btw...those sound SOOOO good! And I'm a vegetarian! lol

    (you can get low-fat cream of mushroom that shouldn't taste too much differently with all the other ingrediants)
    (maybe cut down on the amount of cheese by 1/3...if it gets all melty, I doubt anyone would notice :)
    (maybe put in extra chicken for bulk which will let you cut back on the amount of rice used?)
  • DrBorkBork
    DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
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    I've tried, and I do mean try (for several months), to eat brown rice, but I just can't get past the taste of it. And another thing with rice, I'm always confused how much dry equals how much cooked. I had 1/2 a cup of cooked minute white rice. Is that 200 cals like MFP suggests?
  • Advengirl
    Advengirl Posts: 88 Member
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    Yeaaah- brown is hard to get used to if you don't like it. I found that I really don't like regular (medium grain) brown rice...but I love love love Jasmine or Basmati brown rice. Minute brown rice tastes like cardboard to me. hehehe

    If you really like the white rice- I'd say go ahead and use it since I can't think of anything else that would be a great substitute aside from the brown. Just try to use it in moderation/cut down in the recipe? As long as you budget for your calories- you'll be fine :)


    Rice doubles in size when cooked- so 1/2 cup cooked rice would equal 1/4 dry.

    Hope that helps? :D

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