Food ideas to stay below 1,200 calories a day?

[SweetAlmondOil]

I'm eating up to 1,200 calories a day and tracking on MFP. I'm eating chicken fillets, lots of broccoli, some pasta, tuna salads, eggs, and rice cakes mostly. Would love some new ideas to break the monotony. Thank you!

Things I eat a lot
Apples
Cottage cheese
Corn thins
Strawberries and raspberries
Fage 0% yoghurt
Flumps!
10 cal jelly (hartleys)
Kale done in the oven then add Nando's peri salt
Cauliflower mash
Omelette/scrambled eggs
Wafer thin ham
Light babybel

How do you eat kale? As a side dish? And how do you make cauliflower mash? Thank you!

Yeah I eat it on the side
Plain popcorn is good too
Cauliflower mash - literally cook it until soft, and mash up like potatoes
Carrots cut into batons, toss them in a tiny bit of oil, cornflour and spices and bake in over are good too

Cottage cheese and sweetcorn (or chicken or tuna) on a sweet potato (sweet potato nuked in the microwave first).

I do a lot of buddha bowl type things. Pick a bean/legume, add a protein, lots of salad veg, and a dressing. So customisable. A fave atm is green lentils, feta, beetroot, spinach, red onion, cucumber with a balsamic dressing.

Try the Pinch of Nom website for calorie counted recipes. Also Hairy Dieters are good.

I’m losing weight using the noom app and have 1200 calories a day. I always cook a meal and rely heavily on these websites.

Yesterday I had
Breakfast - multi grain toast with honey
Lunch - chickpea fritters with courgette and feta salad Good Food recipe
Dinner - pork stroganoff with rice (Hairy Dieters)

And had enough calories left over for a doughnut with a cup of coffee which my son bought for me and I didn’t have the heart to decline 😀

ON a related note, is the MPF website (not the app) down? I track on the website mainly and it won't load!

I blew quite a few calories on lunch today so dinner is iceberg lettuce with boiled eggs and some balsamic vinegar

When I was doing the diet I generally would have something like scrambled eggs for breakfast (two eggs, no butter or toast) with a cup of tea and a small orange juice (100ml), for lunch half a tin of heinz soup with a big salad (lettuce, cucumber, lettuce, plum tomatoes) and for dinner anything I could fit into 600kcal or whatever I had left. Trout with rice and broccoli was good for a simple dish! I'd then have enough kcal for an after dinner tea and 2 biscuits (custard creams or milk). I lost a stone quite quickly.

I eat a lot of chicken sausages with salad and roasted veg, or bowls of bolognese/chilli/stew without the carbs. Egg and ham/bacon salads, homemade soups, pizzas made with tortilla base as a wrap etc

I'm sticking to about 1200 calories too, made easier by the fact I don't like to eat breakfast so just need to account for lunch, dinner and any snacks/drinks.

Today:

Lunch (226 cals) 1 x leftover cooked Asda reduced calorie sausage, chopped into small bits and quickly fried with some spring onions using fry light spray, 2 medium eggs fried with runny yolks.

Dinner (350 cals) - pork loin steak, steamed greenbeans and frozen sweetcorn

Snacks/drinks - 3 x options chocolate orange drinks - 120 cals
Pepperami - 126 cals
2 x slices of Allinsons whole meal bread with 2 tsps I can't believe it's not butter 243 cals

Total so far 1065 so I could eat more now if I wanted. I will probably have an a Emmi Skinny latte coffee drink for 87 cals between now and bed.

One of my favourite quick lunches is a combo of veg depending on what I have in the fridge, steamed, a knob of butter, some wafer thin chicken or ham sliced up and lots of pepper and salt. It's tasty, quick and ridiculously low calorie for a big plate full.

Wafer thin chicken - 3 slices = 27 calories
Green beans - 1 cup = 40 calories
Mushrooms - 1 cup = 20 calories
Spring onion = 4 spring onions = 10 calories
Sugar snap peas = 1 cup = 40 calories
Baby corn - 1 cup = 50 calories
Real butter - 1 tsp = 35 calories

So you can mix and match to make a big plate for less than 200 calories which means you can have a more normal dinner without having to be careful on your count.

Six Kitkat chunkys

Only half joking, I had a kitkat chunky for lunch today. I don’t calorie count funnily enough but I noticed it was 202 calories because it was written on it.

I would totally go for a diet with a kitkat chunky in it.

I’m veggie so it’s easier to make lower calories meals as no meat to bulk it up. Cauliflower rice has been the biggest change for me (less than 51cal for 150g-I buy it premade in Aldi in the veg section but you can get it frozen or make it yourself, Aldi do a rainbow veg version as well which is even less calories and so good). I have that regularly with a protein, sauce and veg, usually comes to around 250cal for a big dinner. Like @FatGirlShrinking I also love whatever veg is in the fridge cooked in butter or sometimes cream cheese with all purpose seasoning and a protein. Shoushouka is another favourite, as are good hearty soups, substantial salads-roasted cauliflower cooked in Nando’s rub is my new favourite salad topper alongside halloumi, eggs, avocado, hummus etc. I weight everything and try to keep each meal at 350cal max.

I tend to eat two meals a day so I can still eat the foods I like. For lunch I had a fry up with one slice of toast, mushrooms, sausage, bacon and eggs (750 cal according to mfp) and dinner is a sirloin steak and salad (350 cal). Not such a good day veg-wise though.

For me the trick to keeping the calorie count down is to have lots of protein and veg and minimal carbs. So ill have the chicken curry but no rice and the roast dinner but no potatoes.
I also try to fancy up my veg so peas with a tiny bit of finely chopped bacon or courgettes with sesame seeds - just changes things up a bit.

Veg soup is fantastic, I cheat and buy ready made pots of fresh soup but it's easy enough to make your own if you prefer.

Snack on carrots and cucumber.

Salads don't have to just be iceberg lettuce - peppers, pomegranate seeds, low fat feta, pumpkin seeds - just weigh out a decent portion. And homemade dressing with a little oil, little honey, lots of balsamic and garlic and wholegrain mustard.

100g Fage 0% yoghurt, banana and 5g chia, flax and pumkin seeds is a good breakfast

Some brilliant ideas here. Thank you everyone.

Porridge sachet for breakfast- 150ish

Soup for lunch- 200ish maybe with an apple/bread thin 100 cals

600 cal dinner- loads of options- I like bbc good food for these- I had vegetable stew with herby dumplings (including extra dumplings!) and chicken and mushroom risotto this week.

In the afternoon I’ll snack on carrot batons/babybels/blueberries and after dinner I like a sweet treat so moser Roth dark choc (130), a judes ice cream pot (70), a curly wurly (109), club (120) etc. Sometimes I’ll skip this and my pm snack and have a 200 cal choc bar instead. I try not to deprive myself if I really fancy something. But the absolute key for me was counselling to deal with my emotional eating and finding other coping strategies.

Simple and quick. Mine is under 400 usually because I don't use any oil.
White fish fillet, plenty of black pepper, 150g of potatoes mashed and mixed with some wasabi (depends on taste).

Pan fry fish, add green beans or mangetout beans (usually half a pack so 90g), some young brocolli (about same as beans), cover with lid. When it's all done make quick sauce in the pan you used. Ginger (a plenty), 15ml soy and teaspoon of honey. Mix and reduce a bit. It takes a minute on a hot pan. Pour over the food.

If you have more calories, you can use trout fillet. It's really lovely.

Variations. Add chopped fresh tomatoes when you flip the fish, add smoked paprika, salt, pepper, splash of tobasco. Add veg like in the other one, cover. Instead of wasabi, add tablespoon of quark and some chives into the mash with good crack of black pepper.

Hope it makes sense🙈

I'm also on 1200. I've just discovered the hairy dieters books. Loads of recipes below 400cal and so delicious. In no way do I feel like I'm dieting!

Breakfast: hard boiled egg
Lunch : coronation chicken salad, fruit salad with Greek yoghurt
Dinner: lamb and barley casserole
Snacks: banana and 3 chocolates.

I’ll skip breakfast and then during the day have a big salad with dressing or soup and 2 slices of ww bread, French fries and an apple. Then for tea have something around 500 cals (we have gousto meal kits and they are normally about that unless very cheesy!) it’s normally fish or veg, lots of veg with loads of flavour. This week it’s been veg pad Thai, herby/spicy minestrone, tandoori fish/rice/salad and bean chilli. I really look forward to the evening meals!
In the evening I’ve bought some muller lights and fun size maltesers for a sweet fix.

I tend to do

300 for lunch
500 for dinner

The rest for snacking

Baked beans on whole meal toast is a new find for me. Half a 400g can (I keep the other half for the next day) and two toasted slices of hovis medium sliced (no butter).

It’s about 350 calories. Really filling.

@WellTidy

Baked beans on whole meal toast is a new find for me. Half a 400g can (I keep the other half for the next day) and two toasted slices of hovis medium sliced (no butter).

It’s about 350 calories. Really filling.

Oo thats good to know