Low fat easy prepared meals for working mum?

milkydrink

I returned to work last Monday.
I work Mon, Thur & Fri till 6pm & Tue till 5.30pm, so weekends & wed off.

We all need to loose weight & I need to get orgainised so that I can cook lowcal meals that are good for us quickly. I think I will follow Slimming World as I have done it in the past & it does work (if you stick to it:rolleyes: ).

We will do green days (lots of carbs less meat) Mon - Fri, as these are quick & filling & red days at the weekends (lots of meat/fish less carbs) as these go well with cooked breakfasts & weekend roasts, b-b-qs ect.

I have done a 4 week rotating menu planner, I would be grateful for any pointers or suggestions.

Here goes......

Mon - Home at 6.15pm.
poached eggs, rashers (green day portion) beans & SW style homemade chips/wedges. We will have this EVERY Monday as we all love it:D

Tue - Home at 5.45pm,
Shepards pie, using quorn & lowest fat minced beef mixed to cut back on the cals with lots of veg added. This could be prepared in advance on Monday evening & heated & served with beans when we get in.
Bangers & mash, I will use quorn & family can have low-fat meat sausages, this can be prepared the night before by frying off bangers & putting them in a dish with gravy & onions then re-heating & serving with mash on Tuesday.
Burgers, these can be homemade or shop bought lowfat. I will probably buy them lowfat & buy myself quorn. I can serve this with homemade lowfat chips & large salad.
Curry & rice - home made with chicken breasts & lots of veg slipped in to lower the cals.

Wed - day off, so lots of time. Will probably do jacket potatoes with different fillings every week. Chilli-con-carne, cheese & beans, tuna, ANY OTHER LOW FAT IDEAS????? Served with large side salad.

Thursday home about 6.15, pasta night.
Ratoutiee bake - loads of vegs & pasta, pre night before cook & add pasta when I get in.
Spag Bol, half quorn & half low fat mince to lower cals, pre night before cook & cook pasta when I get in.
Vegetable lasagne - loads of vegs, pre night before serve with salad.
Tag Carbonara - have to cook as I want it, I have a low fat reciepe for this. Plenty of mushrooms in it. side salad.

Friday is fish night, we usually have cod or salmon. But I think I will try & do a fish pie once per month & perhaps fish cakes once a month too.

Saturday we are on Red, so lean meat is in. Either cooked chicken off the spit from the supermarket, or steak or lamb chops, or mexican style meat dishes. Usually served with salad & crusty bread (wholemeal I think in the future)

Roast - Beef & now & again ring the changes with chicken or lamb. Lots & lots of veg, roast potatoes done in spray oil.


Breakfasts will be high fibre cereals with skimmed milk & chopped fruit on top Mon - Fri. I will probably do a low fat healthy cooked breakfast at the week ends.

Still puzzling over lunches. Wholemeal sandwiches for DH & DD, I'm trying to cut down on bread. Might make cold pasta/rice salads.
Lots of fruit & mullerlights as snacks.

ANY POINTERS?????

Brighton_belle

Hi Kim
you sound an excellent candidate to join us on 'I wanna lose weight' (thread 13) in the 'I wanna' forum board. It is full of people like you and me wanting to lose weight, all doing it in our own way -quite a few SW (like myself) It's a fun and supportive forum with good ideas.

Suggestions for green lunch:
cold brown rice and cold broad beans (cooked night before) shredded salad leaves,tomatoes,chopped apple and 40g grated 1/2 fat mature cheese (healthy extra). = 0 syns.
OR
left over cold roat veg from meal the night before (butternut sqash,corgette,red pepper) + 50g Ainsley herriot citrous cous cous (.5 syn) and chopped apple.
Both delicious and filling.:D

Hope this is helpful. I love your ideas, thanks.:T

Brighton belle

milkydrink

Thank you, Brighton belle.
I need to get myself into action with a weight loss plan. Now more than ever, as it is so easy to eat high cal junk when you come in too tired to cook.
Do you go to SW class? There are 2 not that far from me, one is on Wednesday morning which is perfect for me. I used to go to it, but the consultant ran a pay'n'weigh in the school holidays, she charged the full whack just to weight & go. I though this was a bit cheeky & not on. So I stopped going to her.
The other lady is lovely, but only does Tuesday evening. I like my family time & am loath to go out on Tuesday eveing to class. My DH gets up so early he would be in bed by the time I got home.
So I will think on that.

I will be happy/grateful to join you on the I wanna loose weight thread.

redsquirrel80

Might be a good idea to use some time on your day off to batch cook some things you eat often (e.g. the curry, spag bol, maybe casseroles, pasta sauces etc) and freeze portions so you can just take this out in the morning on the days you are working... would probably save you a bit of time on other evenings.

Good luck

milkydrink

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

Might be a good idea to use some time on your day off to batch cook some things you eat often (e.g. the curry, spag bol, maybe casseroles, pasta sauces etc) and freeze portions so you can just take this out in the morning on the days you are working... would probably save you a bit of time on other evenings.

Good luck

Good idea, at the moment the frezzer is fairly full, so this week is use-up week & I will start from next Saturday.
I have one of those huge 2 side by side door American fridge freezers (the one with the ice & water on tap). Well when you look at them in the shop they look massive (& the fridge side is), but the freezer isn't as big as it looks (I know that sounds odd) anyone that has one will know what I mean.

I want to use the fridge space to store wholemean loafs (cheaper & fresher to buy in the supermarket than from the local shop on the way home). To store anything to make my menu planning easier sounds the way to go:beer:

Brighton_belle

Hi Kim
yes I joined a class, for the first time 8 weeks ago. I didn't enjoy them myself at first - seemed like a living Victoria Wood sketch! :rotfl: However, the leader really encouraged all newbies to stay on the basis that those that stay are the ones who lose best and keep it off. So I made myself keep going as I felt I needed to pull all the stops out to make this work., and now I have got to know some others do enjoy it. I go to one that runs from 5.30, so it means I am home by 7 so I don't loose a whole evening.
I know it seems a lot to pay just to get weighed, when it's not your fault you can't stay in the school hols :rolleyes: , but I suppose if she doesn't charge (and that is a national SW policy not her own made up one) she'd lose her income, which she needs to earn, as she still turns up and you have the same access to the SW online facilities which are great. If you think of it as 6 (school summer hols) x 4.50 = £27 for the 6 weeks you pay when you only get weighed: what a fantastic investment in your health for the cost of a meal out.
Do join us on the other thread. Let me know if you can't find it. Together we can do this. I've lost 10lbs in the 8 weeks which is fantastic giving various health problems that mean I can't exercise much
BB
xx

lynzpower

grab yourself one of the WW books ( i have 123 success) and I have made many of those recipes for anyone & everyone.

We are not losing weight but OH has high choestrol and almost all them recipes are almost fat free :j

One that ijmmieidaltely springs to mind ( cos I do it v often) is moroccan veg casserole which is a selection of your fave med veg ( aubergines, courgette, sqush, mushrooms onions,) tin of chick peas, a tin or 2 of chopped toms, some chilli, some cumin. Serve with cous cous. literally, all in a pan, simmer serve. sometimes I do baked chicken thighs with these, but it certainly doesnt "need meat" freezes well too, and goes well in a jacket potato or with wedges or whatever.

there are stacks of ideas in the WW books that will work well for SW.

milkydrink

Brighton_belle wrote: »

I know it seems a lot to pay just to get weighed, when it's not your fault you can't stay in the school hols :rolleyes: , but I suppose if she doesn't charge (and that is a national SW policy not her own made up one) she'd lose her income, which she needs to earn, as she still turns up and you have the same access to the SW online facilities which are great.
BB
xx

No you misunderstand. Its the consultant that RUNS the pay'n'weigh.
Its her that can't/won't do a normal class, but still charges us full price:mad: .
Thats why a few of us had the hump about it.

The class in Woodhatch on a Tuesday evening starts at 7pm (I think), so it would be 8.30pm ish to get home. My DH is going to bed then.