Cheap red day meal ideas

[sully123]

Hello. I have been doing SW from home for 4 weeks and have lost half a stone. It's coming off slowly but surely and I'm not always 100% so I'm comfortable with my weight loss. I still need to loose another 3st 2lbs target to my target. I have been doing EE and green days. Money is limited and we are on a tight budget so I've found these to be the cheapest as meat is so expensive yet pasta, rice, potatoes etc are so cheap and easy to fill up on. However I have just been diagnosed with PCOS and have been advised that a low carb diet is the best option for me. I am wondering if anyone has any red meal ideas for lunch and dinner/tea that they wouldn't mind sharing that are cheap to make. I cook for myself and my boyfriend and like us to eat the same. I can't get my head round not having carbs with a meal. I like my healthy extras for milk, cheese, cereal, bread and don't really want to use them for carbs.

Sorry for the LONG post

 

[rjg123]

omlette/ fritattas are a good lunch option. i take them to work and eat them cold or heat up in the microwave. also have cottage cheese and tuna on healthy extra crackers etc.
cheap teas based around mince are good - bolognaise, Chilli, beef burgers (lots of recipes on here if you search). also chicken thighs and drumsticks are cheap and you can add all sorts of favouring to them and roast or put them in a curry, casserole etc.
some people have HEB cereal for breakie and then have something like ryvita HEB and cheese HEA for lunch just having the meat or fish for tea. there are lots of options.

 

[gemma1985]

Quiches I find cheap and they last and can be eaten hot or cold, and you can vary what you put in them depending on what you have. They are pretty cheap to make up eggs, cottage cheese and whatever you want to throw in I make tuna and red onion & bacon and mushroom & chicken, mushrooms, onions and peppers. These are also great for taking for your lunch if you bake the night before. Soups I also find cheap and last Aldi do a stew pack for 89p, last week it was 2 leeks, 2 onions, carrots and a turnip (bargain!!) I chuck these in the slow cooker with some chicken or gammon with chicken/vegetable stock and salt and pepper. I also usually have ryvitas (using HEB) with cooked meats and cottage cheese and boiled eggs (usually a lunch option) hope that helps.

 

[gemma1985]

also as othe OP said omlettes, tuna and onion, chicken and mushroom, cooked ham etc etc and stir frys with some meat thrown in you can usually get stir fry packs for 99p

 

[sully123]

Thank you that's really helpful. I like omelettes and stir fry. But I'm struggling to think of that I can serve my meals with? What do you use instead of rice, pasta or potato? I'm really confused about red days. Im doing slimming world from home and have my books but still cat make sense of the rules of red? Z

 

[gemma1985]

I usually have it with a side salad, I'm really in to tomatoes at the moment so for instance today i had some thick cut gammon, 2 tomatoes chopped up a little kraft fat free french dressing, lots of pepper and 4 dark rye ryvitas and snacked on crab sticks. I just find more than anything that buying fruit and salad/veg fresh all the time is a right pain to be honest! you could also have cous cous but that's at a 6/7 syns on a red day or try the odd EE day and incorporate the cous cous...? I love bulking up stir frys with it. It's easy for me to talk as I just cook for myself not sure about you? so usually a few slices of quiche/omlette and a side salad usually just do me. Eggs also I usually chuck in boiled eggs with everything!haha

 

[gemma1985]

Rules of red are basically
1 or 2 A Healthy Extras
and 2 B Healthy Extras
As a general rule all meat and fish are FREE - all visible fat removed and be careful with smoked fish i.e. mackrel as this is synned - I discovered that the hard way...haha
Then all your other general free foods apply i.e. low fat yoghurts, low fat cottage cheese, eggs, fruit, veg etc... hope that makes a bit more sense of it...

And also the Smart Price Gammon Rounds think they're a £1 for 2 and are very nice are 1 syn each (last time I checked)
I like tinned fish in tomato sauce these are free I love mackrel in tomato sauce with beetroot, boiled eggs and cottage cheese, sounds very ermm random but it's yummy!

 

[RichT]

Liver - Turkish Style

One pack of lambs liver (cut into bite size pieces)
One onions
Two cloves of garlic
One red peppers
Flat leaf parsley
Seasoning
Fry light

Get the pan v hot and fry the liver on both sides till it is is nicely browned.

Set the liver to one side

Again, on a high heat fry off the onions and peppers, adding the garlic after a couple of minutes, so it doesn't burn.

Once the onions and peppers are cooked to your liking, pop the liver back in the pan and mix together

Season with salt and black pepper, and finish off with the finely chopped parsley.


Serve with any veggies that are free on a red day.

 

[geordie_lass21]

Hmm this is a tricky one because for me i am a carb girl. however red day food was things like cottage pie made with swede/ turnip mash (i hate turnip so wouldnt even try this but its quite common). Other things you can make a stew with celeriac chips (never tried this either but know some people do).

Pack a stew with lots of veg to make it a bit bigger.

Or you can do meat / fish (chicken fillets or salmon fillets can normally be found on special offer esp if you look in the frozen section for salmon) and serve with lots of veg.

Curries can be served with bulked up cauliflower (a bit like an aloo gobi without the potato)!
Stir fries can be cheap but without rice or noodles it wouldnt feel like a meal to me and i would still be hungry.

other than salads (i quite like prawn and egg, tuna and egg, hot sweet chilli sauce and beef slices) i am not overly a salad person.

ooh i forgot my faithful cooked breakfast - i have this at lunch often (lean bacon, low fat sausage - need to check syns for the variety but morrisons is 0.5syns a sausage), fry light fried egg, mushrooms, resh or tinned tomatoes....

roast dinner (without the potatoes but more meat) - you can have parsnips but not sure if these are too carbs for you. chicken is good as its cheap and you can make something with the leftovers (like a corination chicken salad).

 

[sully123]

Thank you for all the ideas. I'm am going to try my first red day tomorrow. Breakfast and lunch I'm not worried about but I just can't get my head around not having potato or rice with my main meal at tea time! Will see how I get on tomorrow!

 

[sully123]

I usually have it with a side salad, I'm really in to tomatoes at the moment so for instance today i had some thick cut gammon, 2 tomatoes chopped up a little kraft fat free french dressing, lots of pepper and 4 dark rye ryvitas and snacked on crab sticks. I just find more than anything that buying fruit and salad/veg fresh all the time is a right pain to be honest! you could also have cous cous but that's at a 6/7 syns on a red day or try the odd EE day and incorporate the cous cous...? I love bulking up stir frys with it. It's easy for me to talk as I just cook for myself not sure about you? so usually a few slices of quiche/omlette and a side salad usually just do me. Eggs also I usually chuck in boiled eggs with everything!haha

I'm good at buying and eating fruit, vege and salad which helps when doing SW. I cook for me and my boyfriend but he's very good and eats anything I make regardless of how bad it tastes lol. I will make him rice or whatever to go with his and I'll not have the carbs with mine. I'm like you when it comes to eggs, I have them with everything!! X

 

[sully123]

Rules of red are basically
1 or 2 A Healthy Extras
and 2 B Healthy Extras
As a general rule all meat and fish are FREE - all visible fat removed and be careful with smoked fish i.e. mackrel as this is synned - I discovered that the hard way...haha
Then all your other general free foods apply i.e. low fat yoghurts, low fat cottage cheese, eggs, fruit, veg etc... hope that makes a bit more sense of it...

And also the Smart Price Gammon Rounds think they're a £1 for 2 and are very nice are 1 syn each (last time I checked)
I like tinned fish in tomato sauce these are free I love mackrel in tomato sauce with beetroot, boiled eggs and cottage cheese, sounds very ermm random but it's yummy!

I'm gonna get some of the gammon rounds! Ive never tried mackerel, I never used to eat fish at all but I do now. Going to try some tinned tomato mackerel, if I don't like it at least my animals will get a treat lol x

 

[sully123]

Hmm this is a tricky one because for me i am a carb girl. however red day food was things like cottage pie made with swede/ turnip mash (i hate turnip so wouldnt even try this but its quite common). Other things you can make a stew with celeriac chips (never tried this either but know some people do).

Pack a stew with lots of veg to make it a bit bigger.

Or you can do meat / fish (chicken fillets or salmon fillets can normally be found on special offer esp if you look in the frozen section for salmon) and serve with lots of veg.

Curries can be served with bulked up cauliflower (a bit like an aloo gobi without the potato)!
Stir fries can be cheap but without rice or noodles it wouldnt feel like a meal to me and i would still be hungry.

other than salads (i quite like prawn and egg, tuna and egg, hot sweet chilli sauce and beef slices) i am not overly a salad person.

ooh i forgot my faithful cooked breakfast - i have this at lunch often (lean bacon, low fat sausage - need to check syns for the variety but morrisons is 0.5syns a sausage), fry light fried egg, mushrooms, resh or tinned tomatoes....

roast dinner (without the potatoes but more meat) - you can have parsnips but not sure if these are too carbs for you. chicken is good as its cheap and you can make something with the leftovers (like a corination chicken salad).

Wow lots of ideas thank you! Have never managed to find celeriac but will keep an eye out for it! X

 

[sparty]

I'm new to red as well. I used to overload my carbs as since I was little we always had meat/fish, veg/salad and carbs as our dinners and it was just a habit that was so ingrained in me. I have been doing EE for the last 2 months nearly and stopped losing so started to calorie count instead. This did NOT work and I ended up with a gain so back on SW and having red days now. I have been doing it for about 4/5 days now and managed a 3lb loss over the weekend so it obviously agrees with me so far. I have started up a thread (see my signature) to log my recipes/dinners so you could take a peek at that if you like and hopefully get some ideas - for brekkie I always have fruit and yoghurt and lunch is mostly salads and sarnies using hexb (but I will post if I have anything special for lunch).

I tend to just use a lot of vegetables with my meat/fish for dinner to make sure I am full up. Could you have the occasional potato with dinner or WM pasta?? (You can't have rice though - that has to be synned). They can be counted as a hexb on red so you could maybe have 2 days per week where you have this but stay low carb the rest of the week? Or you could try every other day - this might be a good starting point and then reduce once you are more used to it?

 

[Elfinesse]

I used to struggle for things to eat with meat on red days .. i now do roast mediteranean style veggies [baby tomatoes,onion,mushrooms,red pepper & courgette].. butternut chips .. aunt bessies mashed carrot and swede .. roasted english veggies [carrots,swede,butternut and quartered onion] .. hope this helps