Healthy low calorie cooking

gears

We're on a bit of a health/diet kick at the moment, I know I know it will probably last another week but we're giving it a go for now, any way I'm looking for some recipe ideas so I'd be grateful if any one could help with ideas or direct me to a recipe site. Thanks

the beer revolu

Replace white bread with brown, white pasta with brown, white rice with brown. Use pearl barley, quinoa, and wholemeal cous cous. Use less butter. Use natural yoghurt instead of cream. Eats lots of fruit and vegetables. Fry a bit less. Do not deep fry. Don't buy processed foods. Cut back on sugar.

Exercise.

I'm sure other people will give you specific recipes.;)

gears

Thanks for the advice but it is actual recipes I need, most of what I've found are from US based sites and they're just not to our tastes.

Stench Blossoms

Here's one that I like

Cauliflower rice http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbsidedishes/r/caulirice.htm

Have it with meat/fish and some veg.

neuro-praxis

If you want recipies for cooking with low fat products, you might want to go over to the nutrition and diet forum. However you are better off, imo, to cook with natural unprocessed foods, and the beer revolu has actually given some really great general advice.

If you're looking for low calorie recipies, I am not joking when I say eat small portions of whatever you want, and just pair it with mounds of vegetables.

Soups can be fairly low calorie if you're careful with preparation - sauté 1 cup onion and 1 cup of potato in a spoonful of olive oil or butter, season with salt and black pepper, and then steam with the lid on, on a low heat, for ten minutes. Remove the lid, add 3 cups of vegetables of your choice and 850ml of light chicken stock. Bring to the boil and then, when vegetables are just tender, liquidize. Add a little milk, cream or creme fraiche just before serving for a hint of creaminess.

Stews and casseroles are filling and warming, and can be low in calories if you watch the amount of potatoes/bread consumed alongside. Sear your meat in a little oil or butter and add to a large oven proof casserole dish. Toss in a tablespoon of flour. Fry off some onion, garlic and carrots in the meat's juices and add these to casserole too. Add root vegetables of your choice - carrots, swede, parsnip etc. - to the casserole. Add a can of chopped tomatoes if you like. Season well with salt, pepper, thyme and a bay leaf or two. Pour on a good quality stock of your choice (appropriate to the meat) and a splash of white wine for white meats and red wine for red meats. Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce, stir well, and leave on a low heat in the oven for a couple of hours until the meat and vegetables are very tender. Serve with baby new potatoes and greens.

livinsane

Its hard to suggest recipes not knowing what your tastes are but I cant recommend BBC Food site enough. Its the only website I use for recipes. You can tailor the search exactly based on your favourite ingredients. And British tastes are quite similar to ours.

By searching "healthy" and "main course" in bbc food, there are 172 recipes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?keywords=&courses%5B%5D=main_course&diets%5B%5D=healthy&occasions%5B%5D=&chefs%5B%5D=&programmes%5B%5D=

gears

Thanks for the suggestions, the BBC site looks v good.

huskerdu

livinsane wrote: »

Its hard to suggest recipes not knowing what your tastes are but I cant recommend BBC Food site enough. Its the only website I use for recipes. You can tailor the search exactly based on your favourite ingredients. And British tastes are quite similar to ours.

By searching "healthy" and "main course" in bbc food, there are 172 recipes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?keywords=&courses%5B%5D=main_course&diets%5B%5D=healthy&occasions%5B%5D=&chefs%5B%5D=&programmes%5B%5D=

I was just about to suggest the same.

It is a very good website with all sorts of recipes and searching is easy.

If a recipe uses lots of veg, doesn't involve deep frying and doesn;t have lots of cream then its fairly healthy.

I know is sounds really obvious, but stick to what you like and make it healthier
If you like Indian takeaway, then make indian food using healthier recipes etc etc.

That way, it won't be a fad that will last a week, but a proper change to your lifestyle.

the beer revolu

gears wrote: »

Thanks for the advice but it is actual recipes I need, most of what I've found are from US based sites and they're just not to our tastes.

I guess the point I was trying to make, as others have alluded to too, is that you'll have better and longer lasting results if you change the way you cook and the food you cook in the long term rather than just add a few 'healthy low calorie' dishes to your repertoire. Look at the food you normally cook and see if it can be improved.

curly from cork

How about following the Operation Transformation recipes
www.rte.ie/ot/


The programme seemed to have great results this week.

Jellybaby1

This week I discovered Ellie Krieger's cookery program 'Healthy Appetite' on the Food Network channel. I've already taken down some of the recipes to try as they look interesting. However, as it's American she does use some stuff we can't get here i.e. concentrated oranges (not juice, actual oranges, a very thick substance in a can). Still worth checking out the recipes I think. Good luck. Operation Transformation is definitely one to check out.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-appetite-with-ellie-krieger/recipes/index.html

artyeva

+1 for changing the way you cook. once you get used to making a few switcharoos you get into the hang of cooking healthier easy enough. and another key to eating healthier is to branch out. you need to have a wide and varied diet so you won't get bored and go back to more unhealthy eating. and taste taste taste. if a recipe call for a certain amount of sugar/butter/salt/whatever, think before you add it all in blindly - do i need it all or can i put in three quarters and have a taste, maybe i won't need the rest. this obviously is less effective with baking things like cakes where the chemistry has more of a bearing than savoury cooking though!

i rarely if ever cook with cream any more. low fat/fat free natural yoghurt or a tiny bit of low fat creme fraiche that's been thinned out works just as well. for things like curries i've done a lot of swapping creamy recipes out for tomato/dhal based ones too. no processed food - all sauces, snacks and breads like nans or pittas or flatbreads are home made so i know *exactly* whats going into them. and wholegrains are your friend.

i hardly ever need to use oil to 'fry', now that i splashed out on some super duper non stick saucepans. like if i'm making a pasta sauce and starting with frying onions and garlic - replace the oil for a tablespoon or two of water and put the lid on! same works for starting soups - when you sautee your veg bases like onions/carrots you don't need oil - hot non stick pan and water ftw! similarly we both love quiche - but i bought a really good quality tin to bake the veg/eggy filling in without pastry. simples! [technically it's more of a fritata i spose but you don't miss the pastry.]

loads of veg, too. i put veg into EVERYTHING to bulk things up and reduce the bread/rice/pasta portions. my 10 veg fritatta, 9 veg bolognese and 8 veg curries are now weekly regulars. you can be clever about how you add the veg so hardened meat/carb fiends [like mr artyeva;)] need never know what yer up to!

and remember than even if you are on a healthy eating kick you can still treat yerselves. there's loads of things you can adapt to be healthier - no butter cakes, fruit cookies, sugarless flapjacks, etc. the bbc website i find is *great* for ideas.

Mellor

the beer revolu wrote: »

Replace white bread with brown, white pasta with brown, white rice with brown...

The brown optinos may be slightly better choices various reasons, but they aren't any lower in calories.

Cheshire Cat

Mellor wrote: »

The brown optinos may be slightly better choices various reasons, but they aren't any lower in calories.

Indeed. However I find the brown/whole options much more filling. So I personally need less = less calories consumed.

Mellor

Cheshire Cat wrote: »

Indeed. However I find the brown/whole options much more filling. So I personally need less = less calories consumed.

I know what you mean, some whole options are more filling. But often they are higher in cals too, like denser slices of bread.
A better low cal option would be cutting them out all together

olaola

I think the key to low fat cooking is a good quality, heavy based, non-stick sauté pan. You’ll be able to dry fry everything from chicken breasts to eggs.
Something big enough that you can cook curries, pasta sauces in etc. I have a Circulon pan, couldn’t live without it.

Another tip is smoked rashers. If you cut the rind/fat off, and dry fry – it’s a good flavour base for a lot of sauces.