Extremely tasty, nutritious, low cal meals that don't cost alot

Breakfast


I have several options for breakfast (which truly is the most important meal of the day):

1. Old Fashioned Oatmeal
- Not the instant crap that comes in individual packets. I get this stuff. Sure it takes a little effort to prepare, but its so good and healthy. Just put about 1 quart of water in a pot and get it started to boil. Once the water is boiling good, I'll turn the heat to low and put in enough oatmeal to make it relatively thick. Stir for about 20 seconds, keep on low for another minute then remove from heat. Let sit for another minute and add some brown sugar and/or honey to taste and if you're getting bored with it try adding granola, grape-nuts, or a small amount of coconut. So good!

2. Bagels - I recently went to Einstein Bagels and oh my gosh it was so good. But that doesn't make my list cause Einstein Bagels are expensive. You can get bagels at the grocery store at a fraction of the cost, but beware, the cheaper they are the least good taste I think. I bought some fairly good bagels at a good price and got some low calorie whipped strawberry cream cheese to top it off and oh boy its so good. Problem is you don't really want to do this every day, cause it isn't really low calorie. I'll go with this option to reward myself for something or when I simply don't have time.


3. Grapenuts - Rarely do I go with anything other than oatmeal, but once I went with grapenuts and that was good and less than 300 calories for a good sized bowl with milk.

Breakfasts to avoid

1. What got me in trouble to begin with was getting sucked into that damn monopoly promotion and trying to get a monopoly to win something, which I never did!. I'd get two Sausage Egg McMuffins, two hashbrowns and a large OJ. I'd take one bite out of the hashbrown and then stack it in my McMuffin. (My mouth is watering right now really bad) I did that some weeks two or three times. Now that is expensive! And will give you a big bum, like I did.

Lunch and snacks:

1. Green salad with lots of goodies - I just buy the "Dole Greener Selection" salad at the grocery store. I'll take one string cheese and break it up all over the salad. Earlier in the week I'll grill 3 boneless chicken breasts and marinate them in Fat Free Italian Dressing. Then take 1/2 a breast (3 should last all week) and break all over the salad, then put 3 TB of low cal ranch on the salad. Oh man, so good, filling, cheap and good for you!


2. Chocolate Quakes - WARNING: This low-cal snack is so good you might eat the whole dang bag, and then it wouldn't exactly be low cal! But if you are able to leave the bag at home and just put a handful in a baggie for later, you're better off. I think I got these at Walmart for $2.50 a bag and if you're smart, you'll make it last a couple days at least. I'm amazed that one serving is only 60 calories. Even if you do eat the whole bag it's 700 calories. But beware they're addicting, better than eating a whole bag of potato chips I guess.


3. Hardboiled eggs - While you're putting water on for the oatmeal, get another smaller pot and put about 3 inches of water in it to allow for an egg to be nearly submersed. Don't wait to get a boil. Put the eggs in at first to allow them to heat up gradually along with the water. Once you get a hard boil, let them hard boil for at least 5 minutes or so. Then remove from heat, drain and replace with cold water. Let the eggs sit in the cold water for a few minutes. Then you can take them for a snack throughout the day.
   I typically remove the yolk which takes the calories down from 70 to 17. The yolk isn't bad, just if you want to really watch the calories, you can remove it and still enjoy the whites. Sprinkle a little salt on it if you can't stand a plain hardboiled egg white.



4. Beef Jerky - when I'm feeling real low on protein (you know if you're Non-vegan and feel like a steak) I'll go with Beef Jerky. For me though it's alot like the Quakes and I have to use great willpower to not eat the whole bag, but its lots of protein with a very small amount of fat (depending on the brand you get). Jerky is expensive though so its at the very bottom of my list. I only get it once a month or so.

Dinner

To be honest, if you really want to lose weight, dinner should be some veggies, or some fruit. Don't feel guilty if you get most of you're calories in breakfast and lunch with snack, and you end up skipping dinner (or having another green salad). If you get most of your calories throughout the day that's better than loading up at night for when you're just gonna sleep. Nothing's better than eating a real hearty breakfast when you're hungry knowing you didn't load up the night before.