Quick & Easy Light Dinners?

adorebella · September 2012

I used to cook a lot prepregnancy but it was all from scratch and my dinners would take 1 1/2 to 2 hours to make. As you all know we are strapped for time these days so if I'm going to be able to make dinner it has to be quick and easy. However, turns out a lot of easy dinners are also high calorie and I'm trying to lose that baby weight (ugh). I'd also like to attempt to make it healthy. Basically I'm looking for the holy grail of dinners. Anyone have any ideas?

So far on my list is pork chops, salad with breaded chicken (in the future I'll do grilled but right now I have breaded), sandwiches (lame), light prepared mac & cheese, turkey burgers, and I'm already out of ideas.

I do have a crock pot but don't know of any healthy/low cal recipes for it.

Help ladies

apollonia10 · September 2012

One of our favorites is a can of garbanzo beans, pasta sauce, and diced onions. Combine and simmer until beans are softened, then serve over brown rice. It takes about 10 minutes and is yummy!

katybug499 · September 2012

I have an eye of round rump roast that I got the butcher to trim in the crock pot right now. It's in there with potatoes, celery, mushrooms, onions, carrots, white wine, beef broth, and two bay leaves. Took all of ten minutes to sear off the roast, chop the veggies, deglaze the pan, and get it all in the crock pot. All in all about 10g of fat per large serving and tons of veggies.

Tomorrow it's roast chicken stuffed with garlic and lemon, roasted parsnips, and flash-boiled brussels sprouts sauteed at the last few minutes with one slice of bacon. I prepped last time she took a nap and it all just needs to be popped into the oven tomorrow.

Pretty excited to lose my last 15 pounds too!! But I love to cook and don't want to lose our home-cooked dinners we're used to, so I just go for quick prep and long cook time now.

Gingham · September 2012

I've been making a taco bake at least once a week. So quick and easy. Just layer beans, browned ground beef (I use lean turkey) with taco seasonings, sour cream, salsa and cheese, bake at 350* for 25 minutes. Add some lettuce, jalapenos and olives if desired and put on tortillas or eat with tortilla chips.

cwm11985 · September 2012

If you have an hour one Sunday make a bunch of veggie burgers chop different veggies in a processor and mix with bread crumbs and eggs abd freeze them. They're easy to reheat.

Shrimp is easy to boil and then eat on pasta or just with cocktail sauce. You can bake, broil, or grill fish quickly.

aah1013 · September 2012

We usually make a protein on Sunday for dinner, either grilled or baked. Then we have leftovers in a different form for several nights. If we have steak, we'll eat it with a baked potato and veggies the first night, second night steak fajitas, third night throw it over a nice salad. We do breakfast for dinner sometimes, too. I love a good egg white omlet with peppers and onions.

RTaylor12 · September 2012

This crock pot recipe is super easy:

https://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/11/crock-pot-chicken-taco-chili-4-pts.html

It's delicious, (really good with cheese and sour cream, but you can omit if you're watching calories) and seriously, all you have to do is chop an onion and open up some cans.

adorebella · September 2012

hijoi:
I am a big fan of stir fry. You can get tons of veggies in you, but by making it at home, you control the fat in it. I serve it over minute brown rice. You can spend hours on pinterest finding crock pot recipes too. (not that I've done that recently ) I don't even know what I've pinned, but I will check it and give you some links.

ETA: Here is a link to my "after" board (things I will do/make after the baby was born).

https://pinterest.com/hijoi/after/

Thanks! I repinned a bunch .

adorebella · September 2012

katybug499:
I have an eye of round rump roast that I got the butcher to trim in the crock pot right now. It's in there with potatoes, celery, mushrooms, onions, carrots, white wine, beef broth, and two bay leaves. Took all of ten minutes to sear off the roast, chop the veggies, deglaze the pan, and get it all in the crock pot. All in all about 10g of fat per large serving and tons of veggies.
Tomorrow it's roast chicken stuffed with garlic and lemon, roasted parsnips, and flash-boiled brussels sprouts sauteed at the last few minutes with one slice of bacon. I prepped last time she took a nap and it all just needs to be popped into the oven tomorrow.
Pretty excited to lose my last 15 pounds too!! But I love to cook and don't want to lose our home-cooked dinners we're used to, so I just go for quick prep and long cook time now.

On second thought, I'd much prefer if you could cook for me Sounds delish!

adorebella · September 2012

stephaniefine:
one of my favorites: chicken sausage w/ pasta.

onions and garlic with a little olive oil and the sausages in a pan. while that is cooking make the pasta. once everything is done put the onions,garlic and sausage in the pot with the pasta add some parmagian (sp) cheese and mix it up. yummy and super fast.

also just made crock pot honey sesame chicken over rice. so easy and so yummy

https://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/04/crock-pot-honey-sesame-chicken/

I'm feeling so hungry over here... thanks for the link and recipe!

oncoRN · September 2012

I'm loving this thread...maybe I can stop keeping our local pizza place in business, or stop just heating up chicken tenders and french fries for dinner haha Loving my crock pot, so I need to rediscover that this week...

For a quick chicken recipe just take chicken breasts, dip them in lowfat ranch dressing, and then bread them with whole wheat bread crumbs or panko crumbs! I bake them, and they are delicious! Another variation of that is to use the lowfat ranch and the fried onion things you put on green bean casserole...yum!

Bucks County Newlywed 808 · September 2012

One easy dinner that I haven't made in awhile but bought the ingredients today to make are turkey meatballs. I buy lean, ground turkey and mix in a bowl w/ some bread crumbs, egg, and chopped up spinach and/or mushrooms. The spinach makes them moist. Then roll them, and drop them raw into a simmering pot of marinara (I like the Paul Newman brand) and let them cook until done.....no need to brown or fry beforehand. Easy, and usually makes enough for 2 days.

I have a lot of recipes on my Pinterest, too.....

https://pinterest.com/katiec808/

Check out "Clean Eating" or "Recipes to Try" for some veggie burgers and crock pot soups!

ryan5827 · September 2012

i love doing tacos/taco salad with ground turkey, fat free refried beans and light cheese....i would also make a bunch of grilled chicken tenders at once then reheat them as needed for wraps, quick stir fries, salads for a few days.....and tuna melts with light mayo!

christieep · September 2012

We make normal recipes light by bulking them up with vegetables or substituting veggies for higher calorie items (like pasta). DH is on weight watchers and most vegetables don't have points so we try to use a lot of them. Here are a few favorite recipes we've tried recently (and made multiple times).

Black Bean Burgers (these are to die for):

https://www.motherthyme.com/2012/02/black-bean-sliders-with-avocado.html

I mix up some chipotle peppers with light mayo to top them.

Zucchini Pizzas (also amazing): https://www.slenderkitchen.com/zucchini-pepperoni-pizza/#more-809