Most nutritious/nutritionally dense meals

[SlayPantaloonsSlay]

Help!
have come the realisation that I need to get my shit together and e kinder to myself. I’m starting with wha I eat - and is a low base given a go day without a single one a day. Please share your suggestions- bizarrely I am a competent cook🙏

@babasaclover Let’s do it and have some accountability!
have had a roast dinner today with 3 veg and and oj….….….….…
.and a family size bag of chocolates 🙄

Baby steps

Ok, so could you slice a banana over your weetabix?
Instead of a cheese sandwich, a bowl of vegetable soup with a slice of cheese on toast.
Whack a load of veg on your pizza and make your own coleslaw with a half yoghurt dressing to accompany it.
Instead of chocolate and sweets could you move to strawberries dipped in dark chocolate?
I think the key is still enjoying the treats but boosting meals and snack to increase nutrients and keep you fuller longer so less likely to hit the snacks

Well done on the roast dinner

If you eat meat I'd start with an easy chicken casserole - bone in chicken thighs browned, onions and leeks sauté, add carrots, garlic, swede, parsnip, turnip, handful pearl barley, chicken stock, dried herbs de Provence, bring to boil then simmer 40 mins, add dumplings (6oz flour, 2oz suet, teaspoon dried sage) for 15 mins turning half way through.

Turn up heat removing lid, using a slotted spoon start dishing up letting the sauce thicken up as you are doing it.

It's not low calorie but nutritionally it's packed full of veg and you can serve with green veg to add extra. Easily converted to gf if needed.

For vegan add celery at the chicken stage, sub the stock for vegetable stock, add lentils and a can of chopped tomatoes if desired.

Do you like soup? This is lovely and also easy

weetabix coffee
croissant nuts
c heese sandwich
pizza
chocolate bar and sweets
tea and coffee

Ok so how about adding banana or sultanas to the weetabix? Do you have full fat milk as well? It's far more satisfying and does reduce snacking.

You can keep or swap croissant for now.

Keep the nuts but perhaps swap the pistachios in their shells do they take longer to eat.

Add lettuce or beetroot to the cheese sandwich and have an apple?

Have a side salad with the pizza?

Do you like dark chocolate? I find I can eat a lot of chocolate but if I eat dark chocolate I eat much less, kid it's better for you

I make a five bean chilli with red lentils.
Lentil soup
Moroccan soup
Stir fry with tofu and loads of vegetables

Yes I can have soup when I’m no working
still having full fat milk as a hang over from when I was being mindful

How about planning and shopping for 5 easy, healthy meals. Sometimes it's easier on the day when you don't have to think, you just follow the plan.

There's lots of options on this thread for meals but I'd be tempted to go with quick/simple to cook so that you can't use that as an excuse not to stick to it! Stir fries, tray bakes, grilled fish, baked potatoes etc.

Some really easy changes we've made have been:

• Swapping from white rice/pasta to brown, and from white to sweet potatoes.
• Keeping the freezer well stocked with frozen veg and the pantry well stocked with tinned tomatoes and pulses to easily throw in to everything.
• Keeping a bag of salmon fillets in the freezer as our go-to "easy freezer meal" instead of e.g. frozen pizza.
• Keeping a bag of unpasteurised sauerkraut or kimchee in the fridge to have as a "side dish" to any sandwiches, baked potatoes etc.
• Related to the above: almost always having a side of veg, even if its not the conventional side for that meal.

My current issue is that I struggle to get through the day without something sugary. So after Christmas I'm going to start having "sugar days", i.e. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays I can have something like a chocolate biscuit or the kids' haribo a piece of cake. I'm hoping that knowing I can have something sweet the next day will help me avoid lots of refined sugar on my non-sugar days (I realise it's in all sorts of things and you can't eliminate it)

Having full fat milk is a good choice, so well done for that

When my dc were small 2 out of 3 were really veg adverse.
I used to roast tomato and as many veg as I could pack in. I'd throw anything in there.
With garlic etc.
Then blend.
That was the base for
Pasta sauce
Spag bol
Lasagne
Chilli
Pizza sauce

I'd make huge batches and the vegetables weren't overly powerful tasting it was just an easy way to up their veg.

I'd just alter herbs/spices for whatever meal I was making with it.

I found swapping rice for cauliflower rice to be a super easy change. (I'm diabetic and rice sends my blood sugar sky high)

It's one tiny thing. But as you say, baby steps!

@mistification you are me 😃

I've also done all that, though we were already eating around 3 vegan batch cooked things a week.

Beans, nuts, avocados, seeds, mushrooms, hummus, saukraut, salads/ leafy greens, steamed broccoli, yogurt, kefir. I also eat some cheese, hard Italian particularly.

Tofu and tempeh in the air fryer with cherry tomatoes or any other veg is my latest go to. Roast salmon, tinned sardines, tinned mackerel. (Sainsburies organic tofu is quite cheap.) Eggs are great.

I grind up flaxseed in the coffee grinder and freeze, add a couple if tablespoons to my porridge with frozen berries and yogurt, nuts and seeds.

Proper coffee is also full of polyphenols. Decaf is also good. Green tea, normal black tea. Dark chocolate. Cacao in water or milk, add cinnamon.

Two really easy things to do:

(1) make a batch of vegetable soup for your lunches - any veg you have, currently I’m doing pepper, tomato, onion, carrot and butternut/pumpkin - chop up, roast in olive oil, toss into veg or chicken stock and blend into a soup. Have with a brown bread with butter. A big pot will make you a week’s worth of a nutritious warming lunch at lost cost and minimal effort.

(2) have a fruit salad every morning with breakfast - go get loads of different fruits, chop yourself up a small bowl every morning or do it the night before. It means you start your day with a good variety of fresh fruit.

I've been existing on a diet of wine, cheese, bread and crisps for ages. I'm so sick of looking and feeling like shit and one day a few weeks ago I decided enough was enough.

All I have done for the last 15 years is lurch from one fad diet to another. This time I haven't restricted anything but have followed:

Min 100g of protein per day
Min 2l of water a day
Min 10,000 steps
No processed food/no seed oils

I bought myself a walking pad and pretty much eat the same thing everyday and the fat is defo going plus I feel good.

I'm under no illusion that I might fall straight into a bucket of wine and crisps over xmas but I'm hoping that I won't this time 🤞

Daily diet at the mo is usually

Slice of sourdough with avo, tomato and egg

Jacket potato with knob of butter, tuna and salad
Kvarg yogurt

Something like sea bass with new potatoes and veg
Satsuma

I always like the philosophy of what you can add in to your diet, rather than eliminating anything. So grated apple or carrot in porridge/overnight oats, plus flaxseed or pumpkin seeds, blended veg tomato sauce, pureed squash in Mac and cheese (adds great colour), lots of soups and stews with veg, beans and pulses. Lots of washed ready to eat fruit in the fruit bowl and chopped crudités (carrots, peppers and cucumber are our faves) in the fridge plus a dip of your choice. Smoothies with banana, berries, spinach and kefir. If you change nothing else, you'll be eating a lot more nutrients than before!

Beans beans and more beans! Seriously, they're so versatile, and nutritious (and cheap). If you're stuck for inspo just add some beans / lentils to whatever you normally make lol.

When I see threads like this and someone suggests getting 10 veg a day, I roll my eyes. No one is going to make that level of change in the first instance. INstead, try to improve what you are doing - add tomatoes to your cheese sandwich, slice fruit over your cereal and think about adding some veg to your pizza - mushrooms, peppers, spinach, onion, corn are all popular choices.

Ditto soup - if you can bring yourself to cook a good veggie soup, BRILLIANT. But if that feels too much effort. buy a good quality fresh or tinned soup as a first step.

Smoothies - if you add one to breakfast, preferably homemade, brilliant way to increase your fruit intake. I always add a few oats and some linseeds to ours too.

Buy a bag of mixed nuts to snack on instead of your crisps.

If you're a pasta/pesto kind of person - add some veg. Frozen peas or fresh spinach tossed in with the pasta in the last few minutes of cooking is practically painless. Making your own pesto is less painless bu so probably better nutritionally. Roasted tomotoes topped with fresh avocado and some feta goes brilliantly with pasta pesto.

It's not just veg though, it's plants in general - mixed herbs can be 3-5, add some cinnamon to your tea and eat some dark choc is 3 more. Mixed nuts, seeds and raisins another 5 or more.

Soups, home made salad dressings, curries, beany stews are all easily added in across the week.

Cant do it all at once though, small changes over time

When I see threads like this and someone suggests getting 10 veg a day, I roll my eyes. No one is going to make that level of change in the first instance. INstead, try to improve what you are doing - add tomatoes to your cheese sandwich, slice fruit over your cereal and think about adding some veg to your pizza - mushrooms, peppers, spinach, onion, corn are all popular choices

Me too. I'm sat here hoping that the mince pie and cup of tea ice just had counts as two of my five a day...

Can I join? I have rubbish diet too, and all the nice food ideas on here help me feel encouraged to try more things.

@GiantBears welcome aboard.
today I bought cheap Xmas veg but have had lamb sandwiches and crisps and some chips.
tomorrow I’m meal planning