Fix my Diet!

PTR

PTR

Striker
Ok, so I've finally got a little bit of time to work on my quite crap diet.

I've got a wife and 3.5 yr old in the house, and with me being out from 7am-6pm most days, its a bit tough to really do much meal planning, and my missus does most of the cooking.
The bairn eats at the childminders 3 times per week, and I'm planning to start working 2 times per week at home, which does open up some extra chances to add some better meals.

As it happens, I'm riddled with GERD, so I need to eat 2hrs before I go to bed (usually 10pm ish). The probable way this is going to work is that one of us will bath and bed the bairn while the other cooks. I know this is obvious, but I've found it pretty hard to walk in the door after a long/hard day at work and do anything but collapse on the sofa. I tend to crash pretty hard about 6pm and only really wake up about 8 - which is too late to start cooking........ but I'm going to try.


I'm not looking for uber-diet scran here. It needs to be stuff we enjoy, or we'll go back to our old ways pretty quick - we've both done fixed diets before where you eat shit meals from books that you tell yourself are "ok while we're on this diet", but truthfully would never eat otherwise. This needs to be a middle ground that we can do long term.
Quinoa instead of rice is something I'd try. Quark instead of cheese? Fuck that.

We like loads of different stuff. Curries, Mexican, Stews, pizza, BBQ. She loves salads whereas I'm really not keen on anything of that type - its ok as a garnish, but its rare I enjoy a salad (although she does a bean and avacado salad that I enjoy from time to time).
I really really hate celery and courgettes - as in, I can tell if they've been blended into a sauce!

We're not skint, and happy to buy shortcuts to make things easier.
Would be great if anyone could throw suggestions into the thread - thanks in advance.
 


D.A said:
What do you want to achieve? What's the problem?
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Simply short of good meals to cook. end up falling back on crap.
I Want to lose weight, but a simple step is just eating better food to start with I think.
 
PTR said:
Simply short of good meals to cook. end up falling back on crap.
I Want to lose weight, but a simple step is just eating better food to start with I think.
Click to expand...
Struggling to help, but i use the Maggi bags to cook chicken, brown rice and veg. Very easy meal.
 
Sundays are handy to cook batches of stuff. Always have carrots, onion and celery in the fridge, base of loads of dishes and cook about in 10-15 minutes.

Work your cals out and be flexible with iifym.
 
PTR said:
Quinoa instead of rice is something I'd try. Quark instead of cheese? Fuck that.
Click to expand...

Have you tried cauliflower "rice"? You can buy it in bags ready to eat, under 40 calories a portion so a good calorie saver over rice.

How about textured soya protein instead of minced beef in chilli or bolognese etc - lean and you can't really tell much difference in those kind of dishes.

For pizzas, obviously the thinner the base the better, avoid oils or oily toppings. Try to gradually decrease your portion sizes, you won't really notice and it can save some calories.
 
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AndrewP said:
Have you tried cauliflower "rice"? You can buy it in bags ready to eat, under 40 calories a portion so a good calorie saver over rice.

How about textured soya protein instead of minced beef in chilli or bolognese etc - lean and you can't really tell much difference in those kind of dishes.

For pizzas, obviously the thinner the base the better, avoid oils or oily toppings. Try to gradually decrease your portion sizes, you won't really notice and it can save some calories.
Click to expand...

Tried cauli rice once, it was ok ish. I guess its a change I could make. That and quinoa instead of rice.

I really think "real food" like mince is fine - that said, it wouldn't hurt to try something different.

I do make my own pizzas, albeit very rarely. I imagine they are horrific from a calorie point of view? Bread, cheese etc. As you say, make 'em thin as hell, minimal cheese, and get some peppers, onions and chicken on top.

Thanks.


Someone suggested those Maggi chicken things - aye, that's something we've had a few times, with a bag of microwave rice - maybe one for the quinoa?


Does anyone know of a "great" site to go to for ideas? I keep hoping I'll run into something like Al's kitchen where the food is brilliant and simple.
 
PTR said:
I really think "real food" like mince is fine - that said, it wouldn't hurt to try something different.
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I'm with you on this, hate veggie substitute stuff in general, but that soya protein stuff you get at tesco is pretty good, I can't really tell the difference in a chilli. I had to check with the wife that she didn't use beef. Avoid quorn though, f***ing awful.

One obvious thing is eat plenty of veg. If you usually have a large carb portion, reduce it and replace it with carrots instead. If you're doing a stir fry type dish, load up on brocolli and stuff, will bulk it out and it tastes canny.

I need to shift a bit timber after two weeks in Florida on Disney Dining, so I'll be trying my own tips. :lol:
 
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oROSSo said:
be flexible with iifym.
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I know its small steps. First thing is to improve the menu of foods we make regularly. We don't have loads of time, we need a routine where we know what to order from Asda and know what to make.

Once we get this cracked, and get rid of the really shit stuff (frozen pizza, frozen fish and chips, takeaways), I think some weight will drop off anyway. But once we're settled, we can look at the macros a bit more closely.
 
PTR said:
I know its small steps. First thing is to improve the menu of foods we make regularly. We don't have loads of time, we need a routine where we know what to order from Asda and know what to make.

Once we get this cracked, and get rid of the really shit stuff (frozen pizza, frozen fish and chips, takeaways), I think some weight will drop off anyway. But once we're settled, we can look at the macros a bit more closely.
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It's hard to find time, especially with kids. Batch cooking can save you some time. I don't tend to do it anymore, but I should really. Many of the foods you like are suitable for batch cooking, then you don't even have to think about it on a night.

One other tip, weight all your portions, you might be going way over on carbs, such as rice/potatoes, replace these with something else if you are.
 
AndrewP said:
One other tip, weight all your portions, you might be going way over on carbs, such as rice/potatoes, replace these with something else if you are.
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Aye. That's later though. Need to actually cook something before I worry about how much of it I'm making :)
 
PTR said:
I know its small steps. First thing is to improve the menu of foods we make regularly. We don't have loads of time, we need a routine where we know what to order from Asda and know what to make.

Once we get this cracked, and get rid of the really shit stuff (frozen pizza, frozen fish and chips, takeaways), I think some weight will drop off anyway. But once we're settled, we can look at the macros a bit more closely.
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I'd suggest if its to drop weight then I'd work your cals out first. The weight won't come off if you're eating 'healthier' but larger portions than you need.

If you're tight on time then batch cooking is the way to go IMO, ragu with a fresh soffrito base, tomato based curries with onions, chillis with a holy trinity base and beans, tagine with onions, peppers, chickpeas. I do a spicy lentil dish with mirepoix, tomatoes, green lentils (50p a can) you could freeze that and I just hoy a couple of decent sausages on top. All of these are one pot dishes that can freeze, have plenty of fresh veg and fibre in them.

I've been eating a lot of pork loins lately, lean source of meat, half a bag of microwave rice and half a big head of brocolli. Less than 600 cals, big protein hit and can do done in about 15 minutes. I do mine on my Traeger.
 
PTR said:
Aye. That's later though. Need to actually cook something before I worry about how much of it I'm making :)
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First step is to see how much you're eating mate. It could be that what you're having isn't inherently bad, just you're having a portion twice the recommended size.
 
AndrewP said:
I'm with you on this, hate veggie substitute stuff in general, but that soya protein stuff you get at tesco is pretty good, I can't really tell the difference in a chilli. I had to check with the wife that she didn't use beef. Avoid quorn though, f***ing awful.

One obvious thing is eat plenty of veg. If you usually have a large carb portion, reduce it and replace it with carrots instead. If you're doing a stir fry type dish, load up on brocolli and stuff, will bulk it out and it tastes canny.

I need to shift a bit timber after two weeks in Florida on Disney Dining, so I'll be trying my own tips. :lol:
Click to expand...

Sainsburys have just brought a mince replacement out as well thats in the fridges in the meat section havent tried it yet but is meant to be good. Farm foods have a decent non meat mince and their non meatballs are good as well. Stir fries can use shitake and other mushrooms instead of meat still gives meat texture but obviously bit healthier. Another thing to try is jackfruit again quite healthy (can get tins of it for 1.20 in tesco) can use it instead of say pulled pork or hoisin duck.

Adding legumes is good as well (ie beans) I tend to eat a bunch chickpea based stuff anyway but tesco again have these really good mixed bean tins mexican taco and another spicy one, they good for quick meals mix them in with a bit rice etc and quite a bulky filling healthy meal.
 
DufraisFTM said:
No problem. That is how to lose weight after all.
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Which would be great. If that's why I posted the thread.
Which isn't the case.

Marsden Mackem said:
Sainsburys have just brought a mince replacement out as well thats in the fridges in the meat section havent tried it yet but is meant to be good. Farm foods have a decent non meat mince and their non meatballs are good as well. Stir fries can use shitake and other mushrooms instead of meat still gives meat texture but obviously bit healthier. Another thing to try is jackfruit again quite healthy (can get tins of it for 1.20 in tesco) can use it instead of say pulled pork or hoisin duck.

Adding legumes is good as well (ie beans) I tend to eat a bunch chickpea based stuff anyway but tesco again have these really good mixed bean tins mexican taco and another spicy one, they good for quick meals mix them in with a bit rice etc and quite a bulky filling healthy meal.
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All good, but I'm after meal suggestions, rather than meat replacements
 

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