Need cheap, healthy meal ideas to help with weight loss

MrsSippi

So DH went to the docs yesterday (unrelated to weight) and while he was there the nurse weighed him (she did the same to me as I had an appointment just before and said she was doing it to everyone). DH was showing up as being overweight (not massively but still...). He has quite a physical job so he's a bit muscly anyway and the nurse did say it's nothing to be overly worried about but just to maybe exercise a bit more, eat more healthily etc.

With this in mind I would love some suggestions for cheap, healthy meals (we also have a 3yo and a 7yo so need ideas that are suitable for all of us as I want us all eating the same things). Obviously I need to keep to a budget and as DH has a physical job he needs meals that will fill him up as he is obviously hungry when he gets home from work. The only things we wouldn't eat is soup and I am a bit fussy about fish (Breaded is as far as I'll go!)

So far I've thought of chicken salad with some new pots or similar to bulk it up a bit for him. Also jacket potatoes, but will just stick to butter or beans, rather than cheese. We do tend to have a roast dinner a couple of times a month and usually use leftover meat in a curry but might change this to a stir fry.

Obviously salad is an abvious one but could do with some ideas for how to bulk it up a bit.

I'd love any suggestions/ideas

[purplesignup][/purplesignup]

elsien

Salad's not going to be doing for him in winter, I wouldn't think.

It might be a helpful starting point if you tell us what he usually eats now and what he has in the way of snacks. Sometimes just cutting down or changing the extras can make enough difference.

MrsSippi

elsien wrote: »

Salad's not going to be doing for him in winter, I wouldn't think.

It might be a helpful starting point if you tell us what he usually eats now and what he has in the way of snacks. Sometimes just cutting down or changing the extras can make enough difference.

Thanks for the reply. At the moment he tends to have a big bowl of porridge in the morning, a piece of fruit and a cereal bar mid morning, his lunch is normally a couple of rolls (cheese and pickle/chicken salad/ham and mustard) or occasionally a pasty (he maybe has this a couple of times a month at the most), yoghurt, a small pot of nuts, a piece of fruit, carrot sticks and a bag of crisps.

When he comes in he has his dinner then he sometimes has 2 or 3 biscuits with a cup of tea before bed.

Dinner tends to be baked pots/meat and veg/spag bol etc so nothing that I think is particularly unhealthy.

At a glance I don't think that's a bad diet (and I know he doesn't have access to shops etc to buy stuff at work so he doesn't stuff himself with extra snacks).

NewShadow

MrsSippi wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. At the moment he tends to have a big bowl of porridge in the morning, a piece of fruit and a cereal bar mid morning, his lunch is normally a couple of rolls (cheese and pickle/chicken salad/ham and mustard) or occasionally a pasty (he maybe has this a couple of times a month at the most), yoghurt, a small pot of nuts, a piece of fruit, carrot sticks and a bag of crisps.

When he comes in he has his dinner then he sometimes has 2 or 3 biscuits with a cup of tea before bed.

At a glance I don't think that's a bad diet (and I know he doesn't have access to shops etc to buy stuff at work so he doesn't stuff himself with extra snacks).

Have you tried tracking the calorie intake?

There's some free software like myfitnesspal which you can input a day's worth of food in and just get an indication of how it adds up.

It could be that it's not the food per say so much as managing the portion sizes

ETA: This is what you've told us for one day - obviously you haven't mentioned what you have for dinner

Does anything need adding to this? Does he have butter on the rolls or sugar with his porridge?

suki1964

If he's only a little overweight, cutting the crisps and biscuits would be a big help

I lost 6lb this year just by doing that

If he's hungry before bed perhaps a bowl of cereal?

MrsSippi

NewShadow wrote: »

Have you tried tracking the calorie intake?

There's some free software like myfitnesspal which you can input a day's worth of food in and just get an indication of how it adds up.

It could be that it's not the food per say so much as managing the portion sizes

ETA: This is what you've told us for one day - obviously you haven't mentioned what you have for dinner

Does anything need adding to this? Does he have butter on the rolls or sugar with his porridge?

Thank you for the reply, it is useful to see it written down like that. I might have a look at myfitnesspal and track it that way for a while.

He does have marg on the rolls but I've always been careful with how much we have (DH says I don't do bread and butter I do bread and scrape ) and he tends to have those Oatso Simple big bowl sachets for breakfast, though lately (I've just remembered) he's been having a bowl of cornflakes (no sugar, semi skimmed milk).

Dinners (to give you an idea) for the last week have been:

1. Jacket pot with marg, 1 fishcake and salad (tsp of butter)
2. Roast chicken (with pots, veg etc)
3. Chicken and salad baguettes (teaspoon of mayo, no butter)
4. Jacket pot with beans and salad (no butter)
5. Spag bol
6. Swedish meatballs (no sauce), mash and peas
7. Mushroom omelette, beans and salad

I think that's fairly healthy.

PasturesNew

Check out that "cereal bar" - and find a way to replace it with something pretty similar that doesn't have the calories..... those things tend to be packed with fatty calories, using a name that makes them sound "like nothing".

In fact, inspect everything he eats and get the true calorie value of it - then look for "very similar" things to swap out.

Yoghurt - is that a low cal one? They can have more calories than a chocolate mousse, yet they pretend to be "healthy".

Crisps - check the calories, then compare with alternatives... Skips used to be low calorie, as did Quavers.

Don't change his world overnight or he won't stick with it.

MrsSippi

suki1964 wrote: »

If he's only a little overweight, cutting the crisps and biscuits would be a big help

I lost 6lb this year just by doing that

If he's hungry before bed perhaps a bowl of cereal?

Thank you for the reply. Point taken about the crisps and biscuits.

He's not addicted to the crisps or anything, I think it's just that they are an easy thing to add to a packed lunch, so maybe I just need to find a healthier alternative.

I'll get him to try the cereal before bed idea from today and that might help.

MrsSippi

PasturesNew wrote: »

Check out that "cereal bar" - and find a way to replace it with something pretty similar that doesn't have the calories..... those things tend to be packed with fatty calories, using a name that makes them sound "like nothing".

In fact, inspect everything he eats and get the true calorie value of it - then look for "very similar" things to swap out.

Yoghurt - is that a low cal one? They can have more calories than a chocolate mousse, yet they pretend to be "healthy".

Crisps - check the calories, then compare with alternatives... Skips used to be low calorie, as did Quavers.

Don't change his world overnight or he won't stick with it.

Thank you for the reply. The yoghurts are fat free (72 cals a pot), that's not bad is it?

Crisps are 114 cals a bag, but could maybe check the calorific content before I buy the next multipack.

suki1964

MrsSippi wrote: »

Thank you for the reply. Point taken about the crisps and biscuits.

He's not addicted to the crisps or anything, I think it's just that they are an easy thing to add to a packed lunch, so maybe I just need to find a healthier alternative.

I'll get him to try the cereal before bed idea from today and that might help.

Thats what I was doing, the easy lunch option, sandwich, crisp and biscuit. Then of course it wasn't really filling me, so when I got in Id have another bag of crisps to keep me going till dinner

So now I take it a bit of left overs and have a bag of muesli in work but then I have access to a microwave

For Mr Suki ( who's a builder) I will make a pasta salad, pasta, chopped peppers, sweetcorn, scallions, peas, chilli sauce or a tuna and sweetcorn one ( pasta, sweetcorn, mayo and tuna ). Ill make a potato salad if Ive cold potatoes left over. Chicken drumsticks are welcomed as well as hard boiled eggs. And his sandwiches I really pack out. I make a mix of two hard boiled eggs, a bit of mayo, scallions, tomatoes, cucumber, grated cheese. Not too sloppy. That gets spread over the ham or whatever. A bowl of that will last 2/3 days in the fridge. I bake the odd time as well, cold quiche goes down well ( throw whatever veg you like in a quiche)

And please don't take this the wrong way,I really don't mean to be rude, but are the evening meals enough for him?

MrsSippi

suki1964 wrote: »

Thats what I was doing, the easy lunch option, sandwich, crisp and biscuit. Then of course it wasn't really filling me, so when I got in Id have another bag of crisps to keep me going till dinner

So now I take it a bit of left overs and have a bag of muesli in work but then I have access to a microwave

For Mr Suki ( who's a builder) I will make a pasta salad, pasta, chopped peppers, sweetcorn, scallions, peas, chilli sauce or a tuna and sweetcorn one ( pasta, sweetcorn, mayo and tuna ). Ill make a potato salad if Ive cold potatoes left over. Chicken drumsticks are welcomed as well as hard boiled eggs. And his sandwiches I really pack out. I make a mix of two hard boiled eggs, a bit of mayo, scallions, tomatoes, cucumber, grated cheese. Not too sloppy. That gets spread over the ham or whatever. A bowl of that will last 2/3 days in the fridge. I bake the odd time as well, cold quiche goes down well ( throw whatever veg you like in a quiche)

And please don't take this the wrong way,I really don't mean to be rude, but are the evening meals enough for him?

That's a really good thought. He always says sandwiches are fine but I personally find that within an hour of having a sandwich I'm hungry again so I tend to have a hot lunch (scrambled egg on toast or similar) or a pasta salad so I might start doing the same for him. The bulking out the sandwich idea is good too. I think that a cheese and pickle sandwich always looks a bit pitiful so I could try making something much more substantial, esp as I have a lot of the ingredients you mentioned in the fridge already.

And no offence taken re: the dinner sizes. I've often asked if he has enough and he always says yes but even I wonder sometimes as occasionally his dinners aren't much bigger than mine and I think they should be. I might make more of an effort to make his dinners slightly bigger and see if that stops him snacking later.