Looking for cheap no frill food pIan eg pb andj

ChanieMommy

Thu, Sep 10 2020, 6:08 am

lk1234 wrote:

I gained a lot of weight the past few months. I would say around 20 lbs. I have a slim figure but I feel heavier. I can't afford nor do I have time to patchka with healthy food. I want a very simple meal plan.

For Example,
breakfast coffee with oatmeal
Lunch peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Snack apple or banana
Supper eggs or chicken with potato

Throw in basic salad somewhere
Is this okay? Will I lose weight? I just want cheap and easy and no fancy cooking. Any other ideas would be much appreciated.

oatmeal is fine, you might want to add a few fresh fruits, blueberries, a grated or diced apple, nectarine dices, for better taste...

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch is not such a good idea.
It would be better to prepare a big salad, say from 4 veggies (tomato, cucumber, carrots, lettuce, sprouts) and to add a protein, either chicken breast or 2 hardboiled eggs or a white fish or smoked salmon, or tuna without oil or mayonnaise...

If you need a carb, I would suggest quinoa (that lends itself very well for cold salads) or corn or rice.
Either you could integrate the protein to the salad (e.g. cut the egg in little cubes), or you could buy a subdivided plastic box (think bento box) to separate them.

If you search for "bento lunch" "bentobox" on youtube, you will find a plethora of ravishing, tasty, amusing, heathy ideas for a cold picknick lunch... So that's the basic structure I woulld follow, and a bento-style box could help you, because then you fill each case... it gives a basic structure..

Of course, if you can use a microwave at work, you have even more possibilities... In this case I would recommend a hot thick vegetable soup as a starter, because hot feels more satiating. If you have no microwave, a hot beverage at the end of the meal would do the job too...

Supper is fine, but I miss veggies...
Potatoes should be boiled, not fried. Boiled potatoes are very high on satiaty index, that's good...
For variety in carbs, you could also take rice, quinoa, whole grain pasta...

For variety in protein, you could take white fish (white fish has the highest satiety index, it is very satisfying and has only 100 cal per 100g) or salmon, eggs...

(you don't have to eat protein 2 times a day, 1 time is enough, but you can do it if you like)

Your plate should be covered 1/2 with veggies, 1/4 with protein, 1/4 with carbs.
For veggies, my prefered way is to take 4 kinds of veggies (zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms broccoli) and either bake it for 20 min in the oven, or saute it in a pan...

I like to do stir fry in this way, in the pan...
Or to take a fish & varied veggies in oven...

Also, I would suggest a vegetable soup or salad as a starter, because the body needs 20 minutes to feel satiated, and the starter gets that clock going...

As far as "fancy" cooking is concerned: I think it is worthwhile to invest a bit of time and effort for meal preparation, especially for the picknick at lunch (you can prepare it the evening before), but it can be very efficient once you get the hang of it... you can also do it as family activity...

Here is an example for the bento box lunch:

lk1234

Thu, Sep 10 2020, 8:18 am

ChanieMommy wrote:

TY!

ChanieMommy

Thu, Sep 10 2020, 10:19 am

PS: To go with the salad, I started baking sourdough crakers with full grain rye flour. They are extremely satiating, for a very long period of time.... I was not hungry, at all for 6-8 hours although I had not even incorporated a protein to my salad (but drunk a latte macchiato for desert)...

If you take white fish as a protein (cod, haddock, saithe, sardines, trout), you should eat enough of it... like 3 saithe filets are about 100g - just 100 cal... and if you do this, it holds also for a very, very long time...

You could sprinkle a bit of lemon on the fish, a bit of paprika powder, a bit of soy sauce, salt, pepper, sauté it for not too long (10 min) in the pan - excellent dinner. When I eat it cold, I prefer cutting it to pieces about 1-2"- long before I cook it... and fill it into one part of my bento-box...then it's like fish-salad... you might even want to experiment with a drop of balsamico vinegar...

For the salad sauce: if you prepare salad the evening before, you can fill the sauce in a little plastic bag, tie a knot, and put it in the box with the salad... but sprinkle the salad only once you eat...

More ideas for salad
beetroot salad (also very satiating, like a carb)
Grated Carrot salad with pineapple bits
raw red cabbage thinly sliced with thin apple slices, a few cranberries, balsamico vinegar, cumin and anis
chumus with veggie sticks (carrots, cucumber, celery stalks, kohlrabi, white radish)
Cherry tomatoes with black olive slices and basil and balsamico vinegar
false waldorf salad with sliced celey stalks, apple, a few walnuts...

My friend likes to combine green salad, raw veggies, fruit and grains in her salad, and it's excellent... for example:
lettuce, romaine, a few sunflower seeds, a few sesamy seeds, a few bits of walnut, diced nectarine, cranberry, cherry tomatoes, grated carrots...
In such a salad, you could integrate 100g little pollock bits (sauteed as described above)... that would be a perfect lunch! I'll try it at the next occasion...

Or you could take a can of tuna, in water, add pickled cucumber dice, carrot dice, cherry tomatoes, onion, sliced celery stalks, a drop of balsamico, pepper... should be nice too... with sourdough crakers or a slice of pumpernickel bread.