To ask for your favourite low calorie dinner recipes?

[Mypremiumwhat]

I know IABU asking food related questions in AIBU 😂 But I'm meal planning and seriously stuck for inspo. Need ideas for dinners that are circa 500-600 cals per portion. No restrictions on pasta or rice. I've tried youtube but it's all pompous faffy artichoke heart this and that. I just want good old fashioned filling food please!

vegsoc.org/recipes/gails-butter-bean-pie/

187 cals per serving

This is lovely. About 400 calories per portion www.slimmingeats.com/blog/one-pot-lemon-garlic-chicken-rice

www.lavenderandlovage.com/2013/01/52-diet-fasting-and-feasting-lemon-chicken-with-cannellini-beans-and-rosemary-recipe.html
This is delicious. This blogger has a lot of 5:2 recipes!

313 calories & very filling. Even meat loving DH enjoyed it.
realfood.tesco.com/recipes/vegan-shepherds-pie.html

The squash, halloumi & bulgar wheat bake from the roasting tin book is absolutely delicious.

Jacket potato, cream cheese and beans is my favourite. Quorn chicken pieces are nice and lower calorie than meat for curries.

Low calorie comfort food: an old Slimming World carbonara recipe - so nice my entire family like it instead of the real cream carbonara.

Per person:

1 rasher back bacon with fat trimmed off or 2-3 slices of fat reduced parma ham, speck or similar, chopped up.
1/2 small pot quark
1 large egg beaten
squeeze of garlic puree
tiny pinch of grated nutmeg
heaped teaspoon of fresh or dried oregano or marjoram
black pepper
75-100g spaghetti
40g peas or petit pois
20g fat reduced mature cheddar or grana padano, finely grated
Finely chopped parsley and/or fresh chilli optional

Boil pasta to the shorter cooking time. Half way through, put the peas on to steam over it, or chuck them in with the pasta for the last couple of minutes.

Dry fry or grill the bacon rasher and chop it into small pieces, or chop up the parma ham.

Beat the eggs and quark together with the garlic paste, herbs, grated cheese, spices etc.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it very thoroughly then return it to the pan over a low heat, tip the quark mix into it and stir, cooking for two minutes. Add peas and ham/bacon and stir. Serve with green salad.

The Claire Bailey/Michael Mosley lamb saag recipe is delicious and really easy - you only have to slice an onion and chop lamb into chunks - you just hung everything else in the pot: expressdigest.com/dr-michael-mosley-explains-why-its-essential-to-have-a-regular-eating-pattern/ (2nd recipe at end of article)

Seconding (or thirding?) the Hairy Dieters books. In particular the first two - really good at bulking meals out with veg, and also family friendly so we can eat with DS rather than cooking separate meals.

Our go tos are the Spanish chicken tray bake, jambalaya, harissa lamb and tabbouleh - but there are plenty more to choose from.

Two Chubby Cubs have a couple of great cookbooks. They also have a good website with loads of recipes on

Thanks for all the lovely suggestions I downloaded the Fast 800 book but was a bit because all of the recipes to me seem to be just regular dinners but with the carb element removed?

Have also downloaded a load of hairy dieters books to kindle, they are SO cheap, and am looking forward to looking through them for inspo

just chicken, brown rice and a bit of salt, pepper, sometimes smoked paprika seasoning is amazing, easy and nutritious while not calorific. My all time fave.

spinach was meant to be in my above post too, oops!

Another fan of the Hairy dieters book. My favourite low cal quick cook meal is a salad of cold cooked broccoli, cherry tomatoes and smoked salmon with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The broccoli is really filling for some reason.

When I'm lazy I'll often have half a portion of a cauliflower cheese ready meal with half a tin of tuna.