Cooking Healthy Snacks

21stone

just quick question as im a newbie and as name suggests im too out of shape

lad of 27 , 6.3 and to be honest i dont look as big as ud think

anyway deciding to get my act together


my prob is i come home from work and look for quickest food , ie takeaway as its just a dial a way

want some ideas of quick meals but also very good for you

ive started the gym 3 days a week mix of cardio and weights and 2 days a week walking aswell

trying to sort my diet out any suggestions

all helpful comments appreciated

EileenG

All you reallly need is something to tide you over until you can cook a proper meal, right?

So a handful of almonds or walnuts would do the job, as well as supplying healthy fats and giving your stomach something to occupy itself with until you get a proper meal.

One thing I make a lot of chocolate egg white. You make a smooth paste with a spoonful of cocoa powder, a little sweetener and water or cold coffee. Then whisk an egg white till it's stiff and fluffy. Fold the cocoa paste in with a spoon, and keep mixing it through until it's all brown. Freeze. Now you've got a really low cal snack when you need one.

The same recipe, but with the egg yolk added to the cocoa mixture, can be divided into about four muffin moulds and microwaved on high for around 60 seconds, and you've got instant brownies.

If you don't want to cook, then keep things like hard boiled egg in the fridge. If you are not worried about sodium, chew a strip of biltong. Or eat some cottage cheese.

Oh, I've just re-read your post and you want quick meals as well as snacks.

Ok, then steak and broccoli cooks in about 10 minutes. Salmon and spinach is even quicker. Omlette is the ultimate fast food. An avocado stuffed with cottage cheese doesn't even need cooking.

Just stock up your fridge with thin cut lean steak and fish, plenty of green veg, and lots of eggs. You can put together a meal in minutes. At the weekend, you can spend some time cooking more exotic stuff for the freezer.

21stone

im not a fish eater i know i should be but im not

like chicken , pasta , steak , cheese , eggs , beetroot , scallions , onions , coleslaw , wedges , bread , ham , turkey ,

my new diet im trying is

morning , either 2 x brown bread toasted with weight watchers jam or cereal ( depends what time i fall out of bed at )

11 am fruit

1pm , brownbread , ham , turkey , onion , lettuce , tomato

3pm fruit

5pm either pasta chicken / spagetti bolognese / chicken fillet x 2 mushroom , onion , carrot oven cooked in chassuer sauce / chicken stir fry etc

evening fruit

bout 2 ltrs of water a day

EileenG

You've got an awful lot of processed carbs in there. I'd try to eat eggs for breakfast instead of all that toast, and and have a turkey salad for lunch instead of that sandwich. Get more protein if you can.

Each slice of bread has almost 100 calories, and virtually no nutrition. The only time bread is likely to be useful to you is in a pre-workout meal.

I'd cut your dinner pasta in half, and eat two extra portions of vegetable like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, green beans, kale, brussel sprouts, fennel, aubergine, asparagus, courgette, celery, chard, celeriac...... I'm getting carried away here.

You don't have to eat fish, but try to base your diet on fresh whole unprocessed food, like eggs, meat, chicken, turkey, lots and lots of green vegetables (at least four portions a day), berries and fruit, porridge, nuts and seeds, cheese and cottage cheese, and keep anything with sugar or white flour to a minimum.

21stone

while i appreciate ur imput anything is better than what ive been doing and im not looking to eat like a pro etc

just change it and do regular exercise to lose the weight

EileenG

I'm not trying to make you eat like a pro, this is what I feed my family of young daughters for the good of their health.

I'm not suggesting you start weighing your food, or worrying about the number of grams of protein and fat you eat every day. But it's just good sense to eat the best quality food you can manage.

One trick I heard for losing weight easily is: anywhere you'd normally eat a sandwich, eat the same filling but on a bed of salad instead. And anywhere you'd normally eat pasta or rice, eat the same food, but with green veg. You are likely to increase the nutrients in your meals and save around 500 calories a day just by doing that.

You'll find that if you eat fewer processed carbs, you'll have fewer energy slumps in the day, so it will be easier to stay active.

Cadrach

21stone wrote: »

while i appreciate ur imput anything is better than what ive been doing and im not looking to eat like a pro etc

just change it and do regular exercise to lose the weight

This is true, but in my experience, if you're making the positive changes, it is worth aiming high. At the early stages, the small changes and the exercise will make a huge difference. Your weight loss will slow after a number of weeks and an extra effort will be required. The danger of making a half-hearted attempt in the early stages, even though it works, is that you might start thinking "well at least I'm not eating white bread or drinking fizzy drinks, so a couple of chinese takeaways a week won't do any harm". Once you're conscious of what you're eating and making healthy choices, then eating "like a pro" is not far off, and is worth the extra little bit of effort. In a couple of months if you're still on course then it will be worth stepping it up a gear on the diet.

To answer your original question, I agree with Eileen. For a quick meal, I throw either a steak or two chopped up chicken fillets into a pan with broccoli, peppers, onions, maybe spinach or whatever else is there and stir fry it. Or else an omelet with everything chopped up in it.

BlueIsland

I used to eat wrap for luch with chicken, lettuce, onion and peppers. I now eat that on a plate without the wrap and a boiled egg.

I cut out pasta for dinner and now eat chicken fillet, beans and loads of veg and two egg whites.

I have so much more energy every dAY

slemons

Home made snacks - wedges!! i love em. Takes about an hour incl prep work but damn they're so tasty.
Also fruit (no banana's - too starchy), boiled eggs, tuna (not so nice)

Vinnie K

Buy yourself a George Foreman,
Marinate a chicken breat in garlic and soy sauce for a few mins and throw it on the george, ready in less then 5mins. And while the chicke is marinateing cut up some veg and boil it. Meal ready in 15mins.

Omlettes are great, a bit of gratted chadder, onions and veg, fry em up, ready in a couple mins,
or boiled eggs, poched eggs are all great.

Get some cottage cheese and mix with natural yogurt, finely chopped onion and a little bit of salt and pepper, great with boiled eggs or with anything else for that matter,

Just base your meals on lean meat/poultry and veg and you'll be sorted. My biggest problem is when there nothing in the fridge i get tempted for takaways instead of going to the shop, so make sure you always have food at home.

For your snacks at 11 and 3 you should really try to get some protien in like have some nuts as it will keep you fuller for longer.

Vinnie.

FunkZ

EileenG wrote: »

One thing I make a lot of chocolate egg white. You make a smooth paste with a spoonful of cocoa powder, a little sweetener and water or cold coffee. Then whisk an egg white till it's stiff and fluffy. Fold the cocoa paste in with a spoon, and keep mixing it through until it's all brown. Freeze. Now you've got a really low cal snack when you need one.

Thanks for that! Last night I made this with five egg whites, 20g of cocoa, a small bit of water and a pinch of sugar. It took me ten minutes of looking at it this morning before I worked up the courage to eat it, but damn it was lovely! 40g of protein and 1g of saturated fat (I think).

I cook chicken fillets on the George Foreman every night, throw them in tinfoil and a container and have them in my bag for college. That's a tip for ya that I find useful!

rubadub

Make a big batch of spag bol at the weekends. Get proper unminced round steak, or ribsteak, now trim off all the fat. Get a knife or scissors and chop it into tiny bits. Now collect jars and weigh out individual portions, you can calculate the calories in each jar. Now keep some in the fridge or freezer and they are ready to go each day.

I would suggest eating it in iceberg lettuce wraps. But if you insist on pasta then at least use wholemeal pasta.

Or make up a few batches of stuff, e.g. curry, chinese etc. So you have varieties to choose from the freezer.

But get a scales for food, portion size is most peoples biggest problem.

And lift heavy weights first in the gym, cardio second if at all.

Leon11

1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 small jar black olives
1 small jar green olives
1 small can sweetcorn
2 large cans tuna

cut the peppers up really fine and throw a tin of tuna in and mix with olive oil. add the olives and sweetcorn and mix futher. finally add the last can of tuna and more olive oil and you're laughing. 5 massive portions of goodness.

throw in some black pepper and onions if your a fan of them, they do wonders i've been told. takes about 20mins in total and sets you up for 5-6 snacks throughout the week.

Cadrach

Leon11 wrote: »

1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 small jar black olives
1 small jar green olives
1 small can sweetcorn
2 large cans tuna

cut the peppers up really fine and throw a tin of tuna in and mix with olive oil. add the olives and sweetcorn and mix futher. finally add the last can of tuna and more olive oil and you're laughing. 5 massive portions of goodness.

throw in some black pepper and onions if your a fan of them, they do wonders i've been told. takes about 20mins in total and sets you up for 5-6 snacks throughout the week.

I'll vouch for this... a dose of ketchup works wonders too.