Bored of diet food, need some inspiration please

[GoldenSnitch]

I need to do the weekly online shop again tonight and I'm dreading it. I'm bored of everything we eat and devoid of inspiration to change anything.

I ask DH for ideas but he was brought up in a house where Mum did all the cooking and you got what you were given so he never has any suggestions, he is happy with whatever I serve which is great most of the time but it also means I get no help planning the weekly menu.

I'm trying to lose weight, breastfeeding and cooking for a 3 year old as well as DH so I need low-ish calorie meals that are full of healthy ingredients so we can all eat together. The only thing I can't eat is chilli as it makes my face swell up.

Hopefully this thread will help everyone struggling to stick to their diets....

What sort of things have you been cooking lately?

Chicken and turkey breasts are quite low in fat, I've got a few low fat recipes that I cook, but what I find brings flavour to any dish is the cleaver use of herbs. They can completely change a boring meal into something quite tasty.

We all seem to be obsessed with Paella at the moment which is great, and I've found an easy recipe for, but there's only so much I can handle.

I make chicken nuggets and we have them with cous cous, pasta, lots of Roast Chicken (my pregnancy craving seems to be surviving post-partum ) Last night we had lasagne made from the leftover bolognaise from the night before... See how it gets less healthy the more bored I get?

I love cold pasta salad with bacon and boiled egg in, spring onion, cucumber and tomato and a small sprinkle of grated cheese.

or salad leaves (the spinachy ones etc) and spring onion, cucumber and tomato a small sprinkle of grated cheese and chopped chicken goujons a salad dressing of your choice (I have low cal honey and mustard) served with a small jacket or maybe a few new potatoes

this looks nice - you could leave the sugar out

I find most recipes can be adapted to be lower fat to some extent.
If you're using cheese then use strong cheese as you need less of it for the same level of flavour
If cooking mince then cook it in it's own fat and then add onions etc (even works with lean mince
Use herbs/spices for flavour if it doesn't upset your baby via bf
Take the skin off chicken
Eat smaller portions of carbs and bulk meals out with more veg.

I'm a slow typer so this may all have already been said

That does look nice mrsboogie.

I do try to lower fat as much as possible. The bolognaise recipe is a Tesco Diets one and even then, I use less meat and bulk it out with grated carrot and extra veg.

I need some new things to lower the fat in though...

I'm breastfeeding and trying to lose weight whilst also feeding toddler & constantly hungry (but super slim ) DP...

Some of the things we've had in the last couple of weeks are...

Chicken & leek risotto
Cottage pie (I was being lazy so used leftover bolognese sauce from freezer then added some bisto gravy to make more meaty than tomatoey)
Lentil dhal with hard-boiled eggs & spicy rice
Spaghetti Bolognese (with grated carrots and sometimes lentils added)
Pasta with tuna, passata & veg sauce (peas, sweetcorn, broccoli - whatever's lurking in fridge/freezer)
Pork & apple casserole with red cabbage & mash
Stirfry using leftover roast chicken, peppers, soya beans etc & noodles
Egg fried rice with whatever protein & veg are lurking again

I tend to just give DP a bigger portion so that he doesn't complain, although if he is really hungry he'll have some bread with meal as well which I'll avoid!

Hope this gives you some inspiration I've been trying to get more variety into our food recently so will be watching this thread for more ideas!

Just realised my post was too late to be much help for your online shop yesterday...oops...sorry!

chickpea and chorizo stew is lovely & healthy:

• 2 tins chickpeas
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes + 1 small tin tomato puree
• handful of fresh coriander or parsley (depending on what you have)
• approx 10 cm of chorizo sausage roughly chopped

cook for 30 minutes without lid to concentrate flavours.

Otherwise: tagliatelle with 2 salmons (smoked salmon + normal salmon steak) & kale, replacing the cream base by following mix:
1 cup of low fat yog mixed with grated garlic + parsley.
Sautée 1 medium finely chopped onion, add salmon steak (diced) & kale (max 5 min, covered), add to cooked pasta, finish with yog sauce + smoked salmon

Hello, I'm back again. Sounds like you don't eat too badly.

Here my chicken casserole recipe which is low fat:

1 tbsp olive oil
4 chicken breasts diced
3 carrots peeled and chopped
450ml chicken stock
2tsp mixed herbs

Heat oil and fry chicken in pan till brown on all sides, then set aside. In same pan fry off the onion till soft.

Then add chicken and all of the other ingredients to the pan cover and cook for an hour.

There will be alot of gravy left, so just use a thickner like cornflour or mash some boiled potatoes up and add to thicken.

Thank you for all the suggestions. They look yummy. I've done the shopping for this week but am certainly adding some of these ingredients to next weeks shopping list.

Here's my favourite one for packing in the veg:

500g low fat minced pork or beef.
Chopped fennel bulb
Chopped red onion
i clove garlic
6-8 defrosted nuggets of spinach
2 crusts of wholemeal bread, crumbed in blender.
2 eggs
sprinkling of your fave herbs.
salt and pepper

Put all ingredients except the meat and breadcrumbs into the blender and blend until they're a foamy puree.

Put the mince meat into a large mixing bowl, add the puree and stir it in until you can't really see it. Add the breadcrumbs. Form the mixture into burger-sized patties and grill, turning once, in a grill pan with a flat base (not wire - they'd fall apart)

Serve with low fat oven chips and salad, or in buns with peas and carrots or with savoury rice.

They are so delicious - everyone scoffs them down, but v low fat and full of veg the kids won't usually eat - like spinach and fennel.

Ooh, looks good. Not sure about the Fennel myself but I'll give it a try!

Thanks realitychick

Can't really taste the fennel and it's good for digestion (anti-bloating). I know it sounds a bit disgusting - all that pureed veg but it does taste good. Everyone who's tried it makes it again.

Forgot to say: this quantity makes loads of them - about ten burgers.

Could do with some anti-bloat. Will definitely give it a try...