Dietary turkey stew with green beans, peppers and spinach
Photo: @TheSeriousfitness / YouTube
Ingredients
- 70 g green beans;
- ½ bell pepper;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- 1 teaspoon olive oil;
- 1 teaspoon finely grated ginger;
- 120 g minced turkey;
- 1 bunch of spinach;
- salt - to taste;
- ground black pepper - to taste.
Preparation
Boil the green beans for 5–7 minutes.
Cut the bell pepper into pieces, chop the garlic. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger and bell pepper and fry for a couple of minutes.
Add the turkey and cook, stirring, until the meat turns white.
Add chopped spinach and cover the pan with a lid. After 3-4 minutes, add beans, salt and pepper. Stir, reduce heat and cook for a few more minutes. Per 100 g: 86.4 kcal, 8 g protein, 4 g fat, 3.4 g carbohydrates.
Dietary cauliflower rice with vegetables and eggs
Photo: bhofack2 / Depositphotos
Ingredients
- 1 head of cauliflower;
- 1 onion;
- 1 carrot;
- 1 teaspoon olive oil;
- 120 g frozen green peas;
- 2 eggs;
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce;
- a few sprigs of green onions.
Preparation
Separate the cauliflower into florets. Grind them with a blender so that the mass resembles rice. Cut the onions and carrots into small cubes.
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Fry the onions and carrots for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add cabbage and thawed peas and cook, stirring, for a couple more minutes.
Make a well in the middle of the vegetables and crack the eggs into it. Gently stir the eggs into the rice until they are fully cooked.
Season the dish with soy sauce. Sprinkle with chopped green onions before serving.
Per 100 g: 52.6 kcal, 3.8 g protein, 1.8 g fat, 6.5 g carbohydrates.
Rice diet
Any rice cereal contains complex carbohydrates that saturate the body for a long time. A good advantage of rice is the fact that it does not have to be cooked at all. After all, such cereals can simply be poured with boiling water and left overnight. This method of cooking reduces the number of calories.
In order to get rid of the hated kilograms, it is recommended to eat only brown or brown rice, and if necessary, simply reduce the number of calories consumed per day, you can also take white.
Dietary red lentil and vegetable soup
Photo/Depositphotos
Ingredients
- 1 carrot;
- 2 celery stalks;
- 1 onion;
- 1 tablespoon olive oil;
- salt - to taste;
- favorite spices - optional, to taste;
- 170 g red lentils;
- 1 liter of water;
- 1 dried bay leaf;
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice.
Preparation
Cut the carrots, celery and onion into small cubes. Heat the oil in a saucepan or deep frying pan, add the vegetables and add salt. You can add other spices as well. Fry, stirring, for about 5 minutes.
Add legumes, water and bay leaves. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20–25 minutes. The lentils should cook and become soft.
Remove the soup from the stove, add lemon juice and stir.
Per 100 g: 122 kcal, 7 g protein, 2 g fat, 17.4 g carbohydrates.
Cooking process
Cut the potatoes into cubes and celery into pieces. Pour water into the pan, bring it to a boil, add the cooked vegetables. Cook under a tightly closed lid over low heat for fifteen minutes. We take out a quarter of the vegetables and place them on a separate plate. Pour everything else into a blender and mix. Return the resulting mixture to the pan, add milk, add salt, white pepper, whole vegetables from the plate and finely chopped onion. Stir gently and bring to a boil. We pour it into plates and, as agreed, eat it right away. One serving of this soup contains only one hundred and five calories. Miser! But how useful. And the dish will taste better than soda.
Diet casserole with chicken and broccoli
Photo: ChamilleWhite/Depositphotos
Ingredients
- 5 eggs;
- 500 ml natural or Greek yogurt;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- salt - to taste;
- ground black pepper - to taste;
- 500 g chicken fillet;
- 500 g broccoli florets.
Preparation
Whisk the eggs and yogurt until smooth. Add chopped garlic, salt and pepper.
Cut the chicken into medium pieces, separate the broccoli into florets. Place the fillet and vegetables in a baking dish and top with the egg mixture. Place in an oven preheated to 180°C for approximately 50 minutes.
Per 100 g: 80 kcal, 10.5 g protein, 2.7 g fat, 3 g carbohydrates.
Main courses and snacks
Lazy cabbage rolls: dietary option (117 kcal)
Stuffed cabbage rolls are a whole complex of dishes in one: a meat dish, a side dish and a salad. They can be prepared several days in advance, as they are good not only on the day of preparation. In order for the cabbage rolls to become dietary, it is necessary to make some changes in the recipe: replace the fatty minced meat and sauce.
So, to prepare dietary cabbage rolls you will need:
- minced chicken breast - 350g;
- white cabbage - 130g;
- rice - 70g;
- 15% sour cream - 100g;
- tomatoes canned in their own juice - 300g;
- greens to taste.
Cook the rice until half cooked. Finely chop the cabbage. Mix rice, minced chicken, cabbage, egg and salt. Form small cutlets from the resulting mass and place them in a frying pan for stewing. Pour in a sauce made from tomatoes, sour cream and herbs, pureed in a blender. Simmer the resulting dish covered for about 30 minutes.
Turkey cutlets with onions (85 kcal)
This is a quickly prepared dish with few ingredients.
For the dish you need:
- low-fat kefir - 100g;
- turkey fillet - 350g;
- egg - 1 pc.;
- onion;
- wheat bran - 1 tbsp;
- spices.
Cut the meat into small pieces, the smaller they are, the better. Pour in kefir and place in the refrigerator for three hours. Add egg, onion, salt, pepper and bran to the prepared mass. Mix well, make cutlets (preferably small) and fry in a very hot frying pan.
Don't be surprised by the liquid state of the raw mass. It is better to fry such cutlets as pancakes.
Liver pate (112kcal)
This dish can complement breakfast, lunch or as a snack for dinner.
Ingredients:
- chicken liver - 1 kg;
- garlic;
- bulb onions;
- greenery;
- lean ham - 3 slices
- black peppercorns - 5 pcs.
To prepare this pate, it is very important to take into account the amount of water and calculate it. You should fill the liver so that the water just covers it, but no more. There are often errors in this process. However, nothing will work out otherwise. Transfer the liver, stewed until tender, into a blender, adding ham. After making a homogeneous puree, add spices (this is according to your desire and taste preferences).
Place the resulting dish in a mold and place it in the cold, for example, in the freezer for 40 minutes. To make it easier to remove the pate, first cover the mold with cling film.
Chicken on a bottle (137 kcal)
Sometimes this dish is prepared not in a bottle, but in a 0.5 liter wide-necked jar.
Ingredients:
- chicken - 1 pc.;
- beer - 0.5 l. (can be replaced with water);
- garlic - to taste;
- sour cream (or kefir) - 4 tbsp;
- pepper, salt.
Pour beer (water) into a jar (bottle). Place the chicken on the jar. In other words, the size of the chicken depends on the size of the oven. Coat the chicken with the mixture prepared in advance (sour cream, garlic, salt and pepper). It is not necessary to use sour cream. Can be replaced with a mixture of salt, pepper and garlic.
Pour water into a baking tray with sides and, placing the chicken there, bake in the oven for about 1.5 hours at 200 degrees.
If the crust browns too quickly, cover the chicken with foil to prevent it from burning.
Breast stewed in kefir (100kcal)
This dish is made in a hurry.
Components:
- kefir - 1 tbsp.;
- chicken breast - 1 pc.;
- dill, garlic.
Clean the chicken, rinse and cut into small pieces. Place in a bowl. Wash the garlic and dill and chop. Add to the chicken along with kefir and leave to marinate for an hour. Transfer the chicken and marinade to a frying pan and simmer until done. Serve the dish with herbs (basil and cilantro).
Chicken with apple sauce (125.4 kcal)
The most important thing when cooking chicken breasts is not to dry them out. To prevent this from happening, you should make a sauce that will not allow the tender chicken to dry out.
For the sauce for 2 juicy chicken breasts you will need:
- apples - 2-3 pcs.;
- onions - 1-2 pcs.;
- cherry tomatoes - 5 pcs.;
- butter;
- lemon juice;
- Salt pepper.
Fry the onion in butter using a high-sided frying pan, add peeled and chopped apples and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Place the chicken, cut into pieces 1-2 cm in size on one side, with the apples and onions, adding lemon juice, pepper and salt. Cook until the fillet changes color. Then cut the tomatoes and simmer covered for 5 minutes.
Baked pollock fish
A wonderful lunch or dinner is a mix of fish and vegetables. It is best to bake fish to minimize calories. Despite the fact that pollock seems to be a rather dry fish, when properly baked it is juicy and, most importantly, very healthy. One of these recipes is pollock baked with cheese (220-250 kcal per 300g serving).
If you cook fish without foil, the crust will be dense and crispy. In this case, experts recommend using hard cheese with a fat content of less than 20%. You can choose other cheese, in particular Parmesan, but it is taken in smaller quantities.
The implementation of the recipe requires the presence of:
- pollock fillet - 6 pcs.;
- onion - 2 pcs.;
- carrot - 1 pc.;
- tomatoes - 4 pcs.;
- eggplant - 1 pc.;
- bell pepper - 2 pcs.;
- garlic;
- cheese - 200g;
- spices (mint, basil, parsley);
- lemon juice.
Cut the pollock into pieces, place each of them in a mixture of greens and forget about them for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the vegetables into slices. Peel the tomatoes. Mix grated cheese with garlic.
Place the fish on a baking sheet lined with foil; place a layer of vegetables and cheese on the fish. Cover with foil on top and bake for less than an hour. Shortly before the end, add mint and lemon juice to the dish. To bake the crust, remove the foil.
Beans stewed with mushrooms (80 kcal)
Although this dish belongs to the latter, it can be made more liquid, then it will already be a soup. Regardless of its numerical value, all nutrition experts agree that it is very filling with a minimum of calories consumed.
The main difficulty of this dish is soaking the beans in a timely manner for quick cooking . It is better to use white beans, as they are less likely to stain the entire dish. The longest part of the preparation is directly boiling the beans until tender. It takes about two hours.
If you take care of everything in a timely manner, then the total cooking time is no more than an hour.
Ingredients:
- beans - 1 tbsp.;
- mushrooms - 200 gr.;
- onions - 3 pcs.;
- vegetable oil;
- greens (dill, parsley);
- seasonings (salt, pepper).
Of course, ideally for this dish you need to take wild mushrooms recently brought from the forest, but frozen or regular champignons are also suitable. In any case, first boil the mushrooms for about 15 minutes. Cut the mushrooms into large pieces, and the onions into strips. Fry the onion until golden, stirring for evenness. Add mushrooms to it and continue frying for 5 minutes.
Important! Do not add spices and salt at this stage.
Add beans to the resulting, actually ready, independent dish, and only now add salt and pepper. The main part of the salt is added later. Simmer the resulting mixture, adding water, for 15 minutes.
When stewing beans with mushrooms, you should prepare a sauce, which comes in two types:
- Flour - in a frying pan without oil, hold the flour until golden brown (1 tbsp) and add hot water to the desired consistency, add salt and pepper;
- Based on soy sauce - mix flour (1 tbsp) and soy sauce (2 tbsp), adding water. Since the sauce itself is salty, you probably won’t have to add more salt.
Regardless of the type of sauce you choose, add it to the main dish and simmer for about 10 minutes. It is advisable to eat this dish hot with chopped herbs.
Dietary beet salad with feta, chickpeas and lemon dressing
Photo: @TheSeriousfitness / YouTube
Ingredients
- 1–2 beets (250 g);
- 50 g feta;
- several sprigs of parsley;
- 50 g boiled or canned chickpeas;
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice;
- 1 teaspoon olive oil;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- salt - to taste;
Preparation
Boil the beets until tender. Then cool, peel and cut into cubes. Chop the feta the same way. Finely chop the parsley.
Add chickpeas to prepared ingredients. Separately combine lemon juice, oil, chopped garlic and salt. Season the salad with the resulting sauce.
Per 100 g: 98 kcal, 4 g protein, 5 g fat, 9 g carbohydrates.
Principles for making delicious low-calorie salads
There are many recipes for low-calorie salads, the first place among which is occupied by salads from fresh herbs and vegetables, and leaf salads. What are leaf salads? These are low-calorie salads that use leafy greens as a base: lettuce, arugula, endive, watercress, corn lettuce, spinach, all varieties of cabbage, green onions and herbs. The calorie content of lettuce, our most common salad, is only 15 Kcal per hundred grams.
There is a recipe for a delicious low-calorie salad with lettuce, which includes only lettuce, herbs, onions and marinade. The marinade consists of sugar, salt, vinegar and vegetable oil. The calorie content of this salad is 35-40 Kcal per hundred grams. For 500 grams of salad there is one tablespoon of oil, which is diluted (to a volume of 70-100 grams) with water, vinegar and salt (a pinch) with sugar (a teaspoon). This is seasoned with coarsely chopped lettuce leaves and herbs (parsley, green onions and dill). The main feature of such salads is that they need to be consumed immediately; they are not stored in the refrigerator.
You can supplement the fresh greens of leafy salads with such juicy vegetables as cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes, fennel, turnips, and zucchini.
You can also get delicious low-calorie salads if you add proteins to greens and fiber: lean meat and fish, eggs, shrimp and other seafood. The calorie content of shrimp and mussels is only 98 Kcal and 70 Kcal per hundred grams, the calorie content of chicken breast is 107 Kcal per hundred grams, these are excellent sources of low-calorie protein and healthy vitamins and microelements.
The basic rule for delicious low-calorie salads: if you add one high-calorie item, the rest, including the dressing (primarily), must be low-calorie. The biggest “suppliers” of calories in salad are mayonnaise, butter and heavy cream, and excessive consumption of dressing for the total amount of salad. The second important rule is not to subject anything that does not need it to additional cooking and not to cut it too finely. This way you will retain more of the nutritional benefits of the product.
Low-fat young cheeses will also be useful: feta cheese, sheep cheese, tofu (soy cheese), mozzarella and other low-fat dairy products.
As a dressing, as an alternative to mayonnaise, low-fat yogurt, natural vinegar and sour juices, and a small amount of high-quality vegetable oil are recommended. It is better to use unrefined vegetable oil; you can choose from a variety of unusual types of oil: pumpkin, walnut, wheat germ, rapeseed, olive, almond, mustard. If you still have to choose between mayonnaise and sour cream, we recommend low-fat, sour store-bought sour cream. Or homemade fermented milk products. Salads offer a lot of room for creativity.
Diet cucumber salad with mint and kefir dressing
Photo: Civil/Shutterstock
Ingredients
- 2–3 cucumbers (300 g);
- ½ bunch of parsley;
- several sprigs of mint;
- 150 g low-fat kefir;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- salt - to taste;
- ground black pepper - to taste;
- ground red pepper - to taste.
Preparation
Cut the cucumbers into pieces, chop the parsley and mint. Add chopped garlic, salt, black and red pepper to kefir. Add vegetables and herbs to the dressing and stir.
Per 100 g: 29 kcal, 2 g protein, 0.4 g fat, 4 g carbohydrates.
Diet chicken salad with avocado and corn
Photo: @TheSeriousfitness / YouTube
Ingredients
- 120 g chicken fillet;
- 1 dried bay leaf;
- ¼ onion;
- ½ avocado;
- 80 g canned corn;
- several sprigs of parsley;
- salt - to taste;
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice.
Preparation
Boil the chicken until tender in water with bay leaf. Cool and cut into pieces or disassemble into fibers.
Cut the onion into small cubes, and the avocado into larger ones. Add onion, avocado, corn, chopped parsley, salt and lemon juice to the fillet and stir to combine.
Per 100 g: 111 kcal, 9.7 g protein, 5 g fat, 5 g carbohydrates.
Basic principles of nutrition
In order to lose weight, you need to eat low-fat, low-carb foods. This could be fish, chicken, turkey, veal, eggs, vegetables (except potatoes), citrus fruits, apples, berries, low-fat dairy products. You won’t get tired of such a menu, and you’re less likely to “break out” of it.
An important aspect of dietary nutrition is fractionation, that is, you need to eat often, but little by little. The ideal serving size is the palm of your hand. In this case, hunger will not wake up quickly, but heaviness in the stomach will not appear.
At the same time, it is better to give up carbohydrate side dishes, forget about pasta, fried potatoes (and boiled ones too), and heavy porridges. It is better to eat steamed or oven-baked vegetables, buckwheat, and light casseroles.
Important! Eat carbohydrates in the morning, and in the afternoon it is better to eat proteins - low-fat cottage cheese, chicken breast, mushrooms, vegetables.
Dietary baked pears with cottage cheese and cinnamon
Photo: tycoon/Depositphotos
Ingredients
- 2 pears;
- 100 g low-fat cottage cheese;
- 50 g natural or Greek yogurt;
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon;
- 2 teaspoons honey.
Preparation
Cut the pears in half lengthwise and scoop out the middle. Mix cottage cheese, yogurt and cinnamon until smooth. Stuff the fruit with this mixture.
Place the dough in the pan with the filling facing up. Bake for about 30 minutes at 200 °C. Before serving, pour honey over the finished pears.
Per 100 g: 69 kcal, 4.7 g protein, 0.7 g fat, 12 g carbohydrates.
Desserts and baked goods
Diet chocolate jelly (118kcal)
Components:
- skim milk - 1 tbsp.;
- gelatin - 10g;
- water - 5 tbsp;
- sugar - 2.5 tbsp. (or sweetener);
- cocoa - 1-2 tbsp.
Soak gelatin in water. Add sugar to milk and mix well. Pour part of the milk into gelatin until completely dissolved (heat, but do not boil). Add the remaining milk to the gelatin.
Heat part of the milk (100g) without boiling and dissolve cocoa in it. Pour chocolate milk into the mold and refrigerate. When it hardens a little, pour the rest on top. And again into the cold. The jelly has frozen - it's ready. Placing the mold in hot water for a couple of minutes will make it easier to remove the jelly from it.
Oatmeal cookies (211 kcal)
Ingredients:
- low-fat cottage cheese - 100g;
- oat flakes - 100g;
- egg whites - 2 pcs.;
- cinnamon - 1 tsp;
- honey - 1 tbsp.
Mix (preferably with a blender) all ingredients, except for the flakes. Add the flakes to the mixed mass. Bake for 20 minutes.
Steamed cheesecakes with dried fruits (97 kcal)
Compound:
- low-fat cottage cheese - 0.5 kg;
- chicken yolk - 1 pc.;
- chicken protein - 3 pcs.;
- fiber - 2 tbsp;
- vanilla, cinnamon;
- dried fruit water - 0.5 tbsp.;
- dried fruits - 80g.
Pour boiling water (0.5 tbsp) over the dried fruits and set aside for a while. Beat the fiber, whites and yolk until smooth. Add cottage cheese and dried fruit water. It is important that there are no lumps. Maybe the water will remain. Control this process. Add cinnamon, vanilla and pieces of dried fruit to the resulting mass. As a result, the dough is not very thick and does not mold well.
It is best to prepare such cheesecakes in a slow cooker:
- In a silicone mold at the bottom of the bowl (Baking mode)
- On a steam grate (“Steaming” mode).
If you bake in the oven, you should do it in a steam bath. Regardless of the cooking method, do not remove it, but leave it to cool so as not to damage it.
Muesli (369 kcal)
Components:
- oat flakes - 300g;
- honey - 4 tbsp;
- sunflower seeds - 1 tbsp.;
- raisins - 100g.
Fry rolled oats in a preheated frying pan (5 minutes). Cool. Add the remaining ingredients and prepare to bake in the oven for 20 minutes. You can add any dried fruits to muesli depending on your desire.
Diet ginger cookies (120 kcal)
Compound:
- oat bran - 3 tbsp;
- dried ginger - 1 tbsp;
- natural yogurt - 1 tsp;
- sugar (preferably a sweetener) - 2 tbsp;
- baking powder;
- vanilla.
Mix all ingredients until smooth. If the dough is liquid, add bran. Bake cookies for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees.
Diet chocolate cheesecake (87.7 kcal)
Ingredients:
- low-fat cottage cheese - 400g;
- skimmed milk - 100g;
- honey - 20g;
- gelatin - 15g;
- cocoa powder - 70g.
Place gelatin to swell. Heat it without letting it boil. Mix the remaining products until smooth, adding the cooled gelatin. Transfer to a mold and refrigerate for about 2 hours. Sprinkle cheesecake with cocoa powder.
Curd ice cream (67 kcal)
Components:
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- low-fat cottage cheese - 125g;
- milk - 1 tbsp;
- vanilla;
- sweetener.
Add the remaining ingredients to the whites whipped until foamy and mix. Now add the yolks to the resulting mass and mix thoroughly again. Place the mixture in the freezer.
Diet smoothie made from apples and celery
Photo: id-art / Shutterstock
Ingredients
- 4 green apples;
- 6 celery stalks;
- 2 kale leaves;
- 250 ml water (or as needed).
Preparation
Remove skins and seeds from apples. Cut the fruit and celery into pieces. Beat all ingredients with a blender, diluting with water.
Per 100 g: 34.5 kcal, 0.9 g protein, 0.3 g fat, 6.6 g carbohydrates.
Rules and principles of a low-calorie diet
The basic rule of a low-calorie diet is: don't lose weight too quickly. Healthy weight loss is 0.5–1 kg per week. If you are overweight - 2 kg per week.
Low-calorie nutrition for weight loss does not exclude any component of the regular diet, because the body needs proteins, minerals, carbohydrates - this is the basis for healthy weight loss.
The consumption of fat and sugar is reduced, and more movement is added to the daily routine. One walk a day is enough. Choose other sports activities depending on your well-being and preferences.
How many calories should you consume per day?
Diets based on reduced calorie intake are divided into low-calorie diets with a daily intake of 800–1200 kcal and strict eating patterns with less than 800 kcal per day. A strict diet is recommended for people with a BMI of more than 30 or with a BMI of 27–30 in the presence of concomitant pathology, i.e. a disease caused by excess weight (eg, hypertension).
Diet smoothie made from blueberries, bananas and avocado
Photo: NoirChocolate / Shutterstock
Ingredients
- 1 banana;
- ⅓ avocado;
- 120 g blueberries;
- a pinch of cinnamon;
- 120 ml water (or as needed).
Preparation
Cut the banana and avocado pulp into pieces. Blend them with a blender along with blueberries, cinnamon and water.
Per 100 g: 99 kcal, 1.4 g protein, 4.9 g fat, 12.8 g carbohydrates.
Oatmeal
If you need to lose up to 2 kilograms, low-calorie milk porridge is ideal. That is, steamed oatmeal can be poured with milk and eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But if you need to lose more weight, you will have to limit yourself in consuming other foods, because oatmeal contains a considerable amount of fat.
The ideal period for losing weight by about 5-6 kilograms would be one week. In this case, it is necessary to consume the porridge in steamed form, and only berries or fruits can be used as additives (with the exception of high-calorie bananas and grapes). After a week-long diet, it is necessary to carry out fasting days (drink only water during the day). This way you can lose up to 15-20 kilograms in a couple of months.
