Over my AMAZING vacation, my best friend and I were discussing my blog and what it’s missing. And the answer was quite simple: more food. Not more recipes, but more actual instructions on how to eat MORE food and weigh LESS…hence the name of this entire endeavor. So far I’ve focused on slimming down recipes and exercising, so now it is time to EAT MORE! One of the funniest anecdotes my friend relayed over the weekend was about how she will go to the break room and fill up a giant bowl with a bag of salad mix and vegetables for lunch. She has a co-worker who will come in and look at her giant bowl of salad (which has somewhere between 50-75 calories in the entire thing and 1 WW point) and say, “Oh my God! That is so much food! How can you possible eat all of that?” This from the true nutritional expert in the office who only eats things that are orange—think Spaghetti-O’s, Cheez-its, and Cheetos for example.
So this post is dedicated to Jenna and Marjorie. It is all about making BIGGER choices without sacrificing calories or Points—an eat this, not that tribute that celebrates eating more quantity (and quality quite frankly) for your caloric buck.
1) Salad-ify: Turning a typical higher calorie entrée or sandwich into a delicious salad boosts the fiber content and reduces the excess carbohydrates and fat. Use as many greens as you want as the base to fill you up and top it as you would your favorite dish. It is very easy to do!
One of my favorite high calorie pasta dishes is a recipe called Rasta Pasta. It consists of cooked chicken or shrimp that was marinated in Jamaican Jerk seasoning with touch of olive oil tossed with cooked pasta, cream sauce, tri-color peppers, red onion, and parmesan cheese. Even the reduced-fat version of this dish has 12 Points. When I ditched the pasta, milk, and cheese for the sauce, it brought this down to a 6 Point meal (using the chicken…shrimp brings this down even more). The excess marinade on the chicken tossed with the veggies, 2 cups of Romaine and a teaspoon of shredded parmesan cheese make the most filling entrée salad you can imagine.
Here are some great entrées and sandwiches to Salad-ify (Start with an enormous bowls of mixed greens and/or spinach):
Club sandwich—ditch the bread (why is it okay to use three pieces of bread in one sandwich anyway?) and toss with 1 Tbsp low-fat honey mustard, 2 pieces crumbled extra crispy lean bacon or turkey bacon, 1 ounce of deli turkey, chopped tomatoes, one ounce of deli ham, a few low-sugar sweet pickles and ¼ cup 2% cheese.
Fajitas—loose the tortilla and sour cream and top your taco-seasoned grilled meat and/or veggies with extra salsa and Pico di Gallo instead of dressing.
Philly cheese steak—grill 3 ounces of lean flank steak, peppers, and onions. Toss with ¼ cup shredded 2% cheese of your choice and a touch of horseradish.
Chicken pot pie—spray with Pam and roast a few diced small new potatoes and pearl onions at 400 for about 10 minutes. Thaw frozen peas by simply running warm water over them. Toss salad mix, roasted veggies, thawed peas, fresh mushrooms, and matchstick carrots with 1 Tbsp light buttermilk ranch dressing (homemade is best). Top with ¼ cup fat free croutons.
Stir Fry—skip the rice or noodles and put all of your veggies (raw or steamed) and sautéed meat or tofu on a bed of spinach and bean sprouts. Top with a splash of soy and teaspoon of peanut oil.
2) Shove it in a pita—halving a Western Bagel pita allows you to actually have TWO sandwiches for the caloric price of one. I halve my cheese portion and melt in the bottom of each half. I then fill the bottom with sprouts or greens and top it with my protein. This works great for tuna or chicken salad, but it also works with any deli meat, too.
3) Vegetables as fillers—any time I make pasta of any kind I use 2 ounces of dry pasta. It yields about 2/3 to ¾ cup cooked pasta, which feels like a sad amount of food for an entrée. So regardless of the sauce, I always bulk it up with a ton of fresh peppers and onions and usually fresh spinach wilted in at the very end before serving. Some other additions that are great for bulking up your pasta without taking over the flavor are zucchini, squash, cannellini beans, and mushrooms. Try the same method with your favorite casserole. Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken Spaghetti could do with less chicken and more vegetables. Fill your tortilla with less meat and double the grilled peppers and onions (as long as you cooked them and you have controlled the oil). Cut the amount of meat in half and double your veggies. You will get a BIGGER serving size for less Points and calories every time!!!
4) Soup or salad before the meal—I’ve mentioned before that I try to eat soup or a small salad before a meal as meal as often as possible. There are so many zero-Point soups that are super simple to make (hello food processor, you just cut my prep time in half!) or just waiting for you on the supermarket shelf to fill you up before you eat your main course…allowing you to eat more of what isn’t weighing you down and less of your higher calorie entrée. Or start with two cups of greens with a handful of raw veggies, a drizzle of good balsamic, some fresh cracked pepper and sea salt, and a teaspoon of parmesan (1 Point). Eight totally separate, clinically-proven diet plans confirm this idea, and my belly agrees!
5) Fruit salad after the meal—Give into dessert, but make sure that dessert is a bunch of berries and fruits full of antioxidants and WATER. The water makes you feel so full that any desire for sweets you had left after you soup, salad, and entrée will be more than satiated. Great low-calorie, high-water content fruits are: cantaloupe, mango, strawberries, blueberries, okay any berry, and papaya. A huge fruit salad for dessert (like 1-2 cups) will have about 100-150 calories or 1-2 Points.
Size does matter. When your brain sees a massive amount of food, it thinks it is eating a massive amount of food. So let that massive amount of food be an entire bag of salad instead of a bowl of Spaghetti-O's, and you will be the champion!
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