Thread: Super Simple Low-Cal Meal Ideas

Hello!

It's hard enough trying to think of simple recipe ideas when everyone is so busy these days.

It's even harder to think of simple recipes that are also low calorie!

So I thought it would be good if we pooled our meal ideas together, and come up with some yummy stuff for us all to try!

For example, I've been inspired by Naomi's recent post about baking a sweet potato, spreading on some hummus, with some green beans - YUM! Definitely going to try that.

Does anyone else have any easy meal ideas they'd like to share?

aw I'm glad you think that sounds good! It sure is delicious!

I really like to make lentil soup. It's really filling and I can have a huge bowl for 300 calories! I just cook some of those red lentils in some broth, a bit of white or brown rice, or even barley, with some carrots, onions, garlic, cumin seeds, lemon juice, and whatever herb I have lying around.

I also enjoy my taboule-like salad. I just cut up a lot of parsley with cherry tomatoes, throw some chick peas in there, couscous, and with cucumber sometimes if I have it, then put a tiny bit of olive oil plus lots of balsamic vinegar and lemon juice and it's a perfect lunch to carry around.

Also a big fan of stir frys. I just have a small portion of rice, cut up some chicken, have tons of veg like broccoli, baby corn, onions, peppers, whatever you want and I season it with lemon juice, garlic, ginger and soy sauce, all of which are very flavourful but have barely any calories in it.

Oh and I often make a mean chili with diced tomatoes, tomato soup, kidney beans, green peppers, onions, sweetcorn (only a little bit), barley, and whatever spices I have lying around but I like crushed chilis, saffron, garlic and this beautiful red pepper spice I found. You can also put some mince in there but you get a smaller portion. It makes for a humongous bowl and sometimes I don't put barley in there so I can have some bread with it and dip it in the luscious sauce.

I love those four meals cos I feel like I'm eating a proper meal with protein, carbs and veg and I don't feel like I'm on a diet. It's like magic!

I have loads of things similar to Peachy, you can vary all of those a lot too depending on what you have in.

I've been having quite a lot of pasta lately too.
I limit the pasta to about 40-50g, which keeps the calories down, but with loads of veg it's still filling and feels like a good meal, especially if you add a tiny sprinkle of grated cheese on top
I cook chicken (if I'm having it - grill or dry fry) and brown the onions first (teeniest bit of spray oil for that). Then usually make a tomato sauce, with just tinned tomatoes + a stock cube +garlic and dried basil + oregano (or just that dried italian seasoning you can get) for the sauce (literally just chuck the lot in the pan and leave until it's done) plus loads of whatever veg I have in.

I also recently made potato skins (just bake the potato in the microwave, then quarter and scoop out the middle, spray with a teeny bit of oil and put in the oven to crisp up) then mix some sour cream and fresh chives. When the potato skins are crispy, drizzle over the sour cream and chives (just don't have tooooo much), or serve it on the side and dip the potato skins in it (i think this was a cook yourself thin recipe). I also had a a slice of bacon chopped up into tiny pieces with mine, but that adds more cals.


For even smaller quick meals I tend to have things like mushrooms (cooked in tomato/cream cheese/ butter + garlic) on toast.

I think you can adapt anything you want to be relatively low cal, just limit the fat/oils, and possibly watch how big the portion of carbs is (compensate with extra veg - I have absolutely massive portions of veg), and you can make it lower cal.

Yeah I do the pasta thing too but with loads of veg. Been having brown pasta lately and it's nice

In the winter I usually make a big batch of vegetable soup and freeze some so I can have a ginormous bowl for just about no calories and it's really handy when I'm too lazy, I get to eat real food. I also like to add barley or rice in there just to make it more complete, and sometimes also kidney beans or those white beans. I have it with Ryvita and low fat cream cheese or something like that. Really yummy and dead easy. Also if I'm steaming vegetables earlier that week, I keep the water which is full of nutrients and use it as stock

God, reading these recipes are making me hungry! Great stir fry seasoning idea with the garlic/ginger/lemon/soy sauce.

Yes! I'm glad you agree. It is very winning and delicious and healthy and low cal. All the things you want from life.