simple healthy meals

mummyroysof3

would really love some help please

really need some ideas of simple healthy meals that i can make for my fussy DH who would like to loose weight.

we usually have meals such as
spag bol
curry
sweet and sour
chilli
casseroles in slow cooker
meat, mash and veg
meat with jacket and veg
lasagne
tuna pasta bake

then im afraid it seems to then be 'something out the freezer'

im pretty sure there must be ways of making what we already have healthier and can use slowcooker more now its colder weather i just not very good when presented with a big list of ingreadients so needs to be simple

please help x

rachbc

smaller portions and more veg is an easy and cheap way of making your fav food more healthy.

last night I did lasange - used cottage cheese whisked with eggs instead of white sauce, mozzarella instead of cheddar a little parmesan for flavour - lots of carrots, celery and onion in the meat sauce and served with a huge salad

squeaky

While waiting for responses you might like to browse these threads from our cooking collection. There are bound to be a few ideas that you can use or adapt...

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frugalfrancesca

Hi just a few ideas - jackets with healthy fillings, stir fries with noodles, salads with filling bits like hb eggs and anchovies or sardines, stuffed peppers?

valk_scot

rachbc wrote: »

smaller portions and more veg is an easy and cheap way of making your fav food more healthy.

Yup, that's it in a nutshell.

The quick way to focus on this is to look at the plate as if it were a clock, divided into four. You should have 1/4 protein type foods, such as meat, 1/4 carb type foods such as pasta or potato,1/2 (2/4) veg. So if you're serving chilli or lasagne for example then it sound be served with an equal amount of vegetables, like a large salad. NOT an entire plate of lasagne btw plus a side salad, but both should fit on the same normal sized dining plate. (Even if you do actually serve them in seperate dishes.)

Meals should balance this way across the courses or indeed entire day btw..don't have a stodgy main course plus stodgy pud, for example, and half of what you eat should be fruit and veg based. It's absolutely astounding how many folk base their meals on an excessively large portion of meat/fish/protein plus the same of carbohydrate and just add a couple of spoonfuls of veg as a garnish.

If you think of meals like this then it doesn't actually matter what kind of food you prefer to cook ie spicey, no fish, only white food or whatever. as long as you set up the proportions right. The only type of fussy that it doesn't work with is when someone refuses to eat vegetables or fruit in any shape or form. If there's no sound medical reason for this fussyness then really, it has to be got over if the person is going to eat in a healthy manner.

Anyway, to the OP your basic meals don't sound bad at all to me, as long as the veg is on the plate too. You might want to have a look at any snack eating as the possible cause of the extra weight rather than the actual meals? Also check out the fat content of ingredients...use lower fat mince, tuna in brine rather than oil, less oil and butter in cooking, less cheese (use stronger tasting cheese and less of it).

mummyroysof3

thanks for the ideas, will work my way through that list squeaky...more fruit and veg in place of processed foods is the way to go i think and try to make what i already do healthier

is brown rice/pasta/bread better than white?

we having a chicken dinner today..chicken, veg and mash with small yorkshire pud

tommorow is chicken stir fry with noodles and pitta bread...i usually have my stirfry with just a little soy sauce but he wants a propper sauce with his argh

Swipe

chicken breast, steamed veg and 3 egg omelet served with cottage cheese

Swipe

mummyroysof3 wrote: »

is brown rice/pasta/bread better than white?

Yes, always choose wholemeal over white.

adelight

Go for lean, skinless meat slike fish, chicken breast, certain pork cuts. These can be sourced cheaply from Lidl, Aldi etc

Less white carbs, more colourful veg and brown carbs. Try mashed cauli/swede instead of potatoes sometimes.

Get him into eating smaller meals by giving him small filling, protein rich meals for a week. 2 scrambled eggs with brown toast, can tuna & 2 egg comlette(he will be stuffed with this), chicken breast with loads of veg etc
Get him to drink a glass of water before he eats, and one during. I know i'm just generalising a lot of people right now but most people don't drink much water and they eat too fast for their body to realise they're full!

mummyroysof3

i guess the big problem i have is that he doesnt like many different types of veg....and he doesnt drink enough water, hes more of a coffee coke and beer drinker

valk_scot

mummyroysof3 wrote: »

i guess the big problem i have is that he doesnt like many different types of veg....and he doesnt drink enough water, hes more of a coffee coke and beer drinker

If he's drinking coffee with sugar, non diet coke and a lot of beer then there's one possible contribution to the excess weight. All calories, and completely pointless ones too. I'm not a fan of artificial sweetners but I also know there's not much point trying to seperate a man from his beer! So you might want to work on the coke and coffee end. How about fruit juice mixed 1:4 with sparkling water as a drink instead of coke? (Value sparkling water is 18p a bottle from Tesco, if you don't have a soda stream). And only have water with everyday meals, never coke or such.

As to veg, what kinds does he like? Most folk can manage sweetcorn, peas and carrots but if that's the limit you can try mashing potato with other kinds of veg, or making bubble and squeek, more ingredients into stir fries and casseroles.

As to sauce in stir fries I marinade strips of pork or chicken in a mix of sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce before frying, then add a tablespoonful of water at the end to provide a sauce. Adds a lot of flavour for little extra effort.