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low fat menu planning ideas please!

8 replies

eleanorsmum · 23/07/2010 06:29

Hi, I need to follow a low fat diet and so far have done really well in becoming more healthy and losing weight. BUT I'm running out of ideas for yummy low fat meals for dinners and lunches (there's only so many salads!). Have dh and dd 6 and dd 9mth to feed to.
thanks in advance!

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eleanorsmum · 23/07/2010 21:05

bump

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eleanorsmum · 25/07/2010 14:43

no-one.....,.

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jooseyfruit · 25/07/2010 14:52

here's one

what about this one

I guess looking at normal recipes and working out how you could substitute high fat ingredients for lower fat ones is one way you could approach menu planning.

young kids need fat in their diet and low fat options aren't necessarily good for them. [trying not to sound patronising emoticon!]

eleanorsmum · 25/07/2010 15:00

thanks joosey, I'm getting better at adapting recipes, although it doesn't that dh can't eat most dairy! and trying to include fat fo the little ones too! maybe i should just eat salads on my own......NO! want to eat together just need to go through the recipes i guess and write out my lowfat meals i can do and then pan. just wondered if anyone had any ideas.

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Lynli · 25/07/2010 15:00

Chicken wraps

Chicken
Mushrooms
Peppers
Onion

Stir fried with an olive oil spray. A little healthy fat.

Add Soy sauce when nearly cooked

Serve in wholewheat wraps.

Chicken or pork kebabs
Same ingredients skewered, and served on a bed of brown rice.

Clockface · 25/07/2010 15:29

I have been on a low fat diet for a few months now (since seeing a shockingly overweight me in a photo mid-May) and have lost 1 and a half stones so far (hooray!). Ideally I want to lose another stone and a half.

Last week I borrowed a Rosemary Conley cookbook from the library which is excellent, and I think I'll do lots of the recipes from that. I have Crohn's Disease (weight gain was due to steroids) so my diet is complicated. But basically...

Chiese / Japanese flavours more than make up for fat. So try ginger and soy marinated skinless chicken, or fish (white fish is pretty much fat free, as are prawns). The Garden Gourmet tubes you can get are really good at injecting flavour into low fat foods. I love the flavour of ginger so use that a lot and never get tired of it. (The lemongrass one is good too). Also terikayi marinade is a good one - gentle, slightly sweet. If you like chilli flavours, sweet chiil sauce mixed with lemon / lime juice is gorgeous. Just don't add any oil. Wrap the fish / chicken in foil / greasepoof paper, add marinade and cook in oven / microwave. Serve with boiled rice or noodles.

Also...microwaved sweet potatoes as main dish, served with a softly poached egg and lots of black pepper on top gives a nice balance of flavours. Eggs are good as they are a great protein source.

Home-made curry sauces based on tinned tomatoes and dry spices work well - finish at the very end with low fat yogurt, but don't let it boil or it will split.

Veg soups can easily be fat free and are cheap and easy to make.

Puddings...meringues are great! About 50 cals each. If you buy ready-made, top with some 0% fat Greek yogurt or Quark, then add raspberry coulis (again, being me and busy, bought, but you could make your own) or mix the yogurt with a teaspoon of lemon curd for a nice flavour. Sorbets are yummy and fat free. You can get some gorgeous ones, or make your own if you have time. I have a real sweet tooth so having a pud that comes in under 200 cals once a day makes me feel like I am not suffering too much! You can also get yummy cinnamon biscuits whose name I can't remember but are less than 40 cals each, so serve one of those with sorbet and you are eating well. Ummm...if I can think of anything else I'll post later. I am having teriyaki cod with noodles and courgettes for dinner tonight, and genuinely looking forward to it. I've also given up booze, which I'm sure has helped shift a few pounds. So lemon and ginger tea has become my staple evening drink.

But this is all very much to my taste - what you need is to think about the food you love, adapt it low-fat, get genuinely enthuiastic about it and you'll be away. If you really can't adapt some things, like chocolate (which I love) ration it and treat it like the greatest treasure!

eleanorsmum · 26/07/2010 07:46

thanks clockface, great tips and ideas! I feel a trip to the library coming on! Where do you get the tubes you mention please? thats what i need lowfat sauce/flavourings to add to plain chicken etc. Dh and dd are quite accomadating really!

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Clockface · 26/07/2010 17:05

You can get them in all supermarkets I think, definitely Waitrose and Sainsburys. Thet are in chiller cabinets with the salad veg, and there are lots of different ones - called Garden Gourmet.

We are having prawns marinated in soy sauce, honey and ginger tonight with noodles and loads of stir fry veg....yummmmmm! I love Chinese!

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