Replacing calorie-controlled supermarket ranges with OS cooking

persa

So, here's a meal planner, made up almost entirely of pre-prepared supermarket ready meals: http://health.marksandspencer.com/our-health-ranges/count-on-us

M&S claim they can make macaroni cheese for 338 calories, four cheese ravioli for 352 and chicken pizza for 370, to name but a few. I've tried some of their ready meals and you know what, they're pretty tasty; the calories haven't been magically sucked out at the expense of flavour.

Now, I can make something like macaroni cheese, but I'm sure if I were to tot up the calories and fat in my version, it would be 3 x that. I can't for the life of me figure out how to compete with calorie-controlled supermarket ready meal ranges.

There must be some Old Stylers out there who cook their own food from scratch, but who are a healthy weight? What are your go-to recipes? Whenever I cook, I add lots of olive oil and full-fat cheese (I find the low-fat stuff doesn't work as well, even with mustard to bring out the flavour) and therefore whenever I cook from scratch, the bathroom scales get mad.

The low fat desserts perplex me even more - I can bake a mean sponge, but I can't bake a low-calorie one.

Please save me from the ready meals. I want to be more OS, but right now, my priority is my weight.

Hard_Up_Hester

I use the one cal fat spray instead of cooking oil, cottage cheese in quiche etc.
Slimming world have a lot of low cal pud recipes.
Alternatively maybe smaller portions with lots of veg would work.
Hester

suki1964

I think what you have to do is accept that pasta, mac n cheese and pizza are high fat foods and treat them as a treat, not every day food

persa

Hard_Up_Hester wrote: »

I use the one cal fat spray instead of cooking oil, cottage cheese in quiche etc.
Slimming world have a lot of low cal pud recipes.
Alternatively maybe smaller portions with lots of veg would work.
Hester

Thanks, Hester. I'm very liberal with the extra virgin olive oil whenever I cook so using a spray would probably help a lot in my case. I'll have a look at Slimming World too.

Re veg, I'm happy to half a big portion of something and bulk out with my salad, but my OH is very anti-veg, which doesn't help.

suki1964 wrote: »

I think what you have to do is accept that pasta, mac n cheese and pizza are high fat foods and treat them as a treat, not every day food

But what do you cook as your healthy every day food?

elljay

I don't like lo-cal spray as it has loads of additives, as have the ready meals, even those from M and S. Just because a ready meal is low cal doesn't mean it's healthy! Either use a small amount of oil or none at all in your normal recipes. For example I never fry meat or veg first for a stew/curry etc - why? The meat and veg has plenty of flavour.and never seems to taste any different. There's no law that says you have to have pasta, rice etc with a meal, a bowlful of veg n bean curry is seriously yum!!

Just cut down the fats, especially the artificial ones, and get rid of the carbs and the weight will soon go. You can replace carbs in a meal with extra veg, salad etc or halve the normal portion if your OH can't do without carbs. If he doesn't like veg, then tough. You enjoy yours and let him go hungry, I couldn't be doing with that!!! Alternatively get him to make things he would like but with fewer carbs and fats (though on the whole fat isn't bad if it isn't stuff like spread - butter and oil are good in small quantities as is full fat cheese - you don't need to use a lot if it's full flavoured.) Things like crustless quiche etc are great for that carby feeling! Have you checked your portion sizes?

There's a helpful OS weightloss thread on here, have a dip into it for ideas.

Goldiegirl

The beauty of cooking your own meals from scratch is that you are in complete control of what you put in.


So if you feel that something is too fattening, then you simply don't put it in to the recipe.


I'd suggest looking on this site and other internet site to get inspiration for recipes, then you can count up the calories per portion, and then tweak to miss out or replace anything that's not suitable.

persa

elljay wrote: »

I don't like lo-cal spray as it has loads of additives, as have the ready meals, even those from M and S. Just because a ready meal is low cal doesn't mean it's healthy! Either use a small amount of oil or none at all in your normal recipes. For example I never fry meat or veg first for a stew/curry etc - why? The meat and veg has plenty of flavour.and never seems to taste any different. There's no law that says you have to have pasta, rice etc with a meal, a bowlful of veg n bean curry is seriously yum!!

Just cut down the fats, especially the artificial ones, and get rid of the carbs and the weight will soon go. You can replace carbs in a meal with extra veg, salad etc or halve the normal portion if your OH can't do without carbs. If he doesn't like veg, then tough. You enjoy yours and let him go hungry, I couldn't be doing with that!!! Alternatively get him to make things he would like but with fewer carbs and fats (though on the whole fat isn't bad if it isn't stuff like spread - butter and oil are good in small quantities as is full fat cheese - you don't need to use a lot if it's full flavoured.) Things like crustless quiche etc are great for that carby feeling! Have you checked your portion sizes?

There's a helpful OS weightloss thread on here, have a dip into it for ideas.

I am woeful with portion sizes, hence the over-reliance on ready meals. These days, I have a 30g bowl of cereal, but I used to have more like 200g as one serving. I had to actually weigh out a real portion one day and establish how high up to fill the bowl... Answer: not very high.

I don't think I've ever made a curry or stew, but I suppose that's something which would be really easy to serve up in different portions, maybe with some bread on the side for OH. As well as the gender difference, he's a lot taller than me, so does need more calories. I do think kidney beans are great for bulking out (I use them in veggie burgers) and taste quite meaty, so that might be my first meal idea... Could probably get some hidden veg in there too.

TiredTrophy

Measuring a portion size for a week....gets boring after that....is very enlightening......and lightening!
We are very nice on the OS weightloss thread.....:)

VfM4meplse

TiredTrophy wrote: »

Measuring a portion size for a week....gets boring after that....is very enlightening......and lightening!

You can get used to eating diminished portion sizes after 3 days. The size of your palm is a good guide.

If you really want to lose weight, cut down carbohydrates drastically, up your vegetable fibre intake and eat fat in moderation.

notjustlaura

You might find the 'myfitnesspal' website helpful. It's free (supported by advertising) and allows you to input the ingredients in a recipe and the number of portions to find out the calories per portion. It's a lot easier than doing it with paper, pen and a calorie counter book!

Farway

plus one for my fitness pal, been sing it for over two year now