Before I head to the Farmer’s Market I get a plan together. My meal plans may not suit you, but they are devised for how I like to eat. I’m not big on breakfast. A cup of coffee is sufficient until lunch time. My lunches are normally at my desk, so I go for simple salads or bowls. My big meal is in the evening.
“If you fail to plan you plan to fail”
Benjamin Franklin
What’s Cookin’ this week?
Yes, I know. The most important meal of the day is breakfast. We should eat breakfast like a king and dinner like a pauper. It just doesn’t work for me.
Breakfast
For me, all I want in the morning is coffee. My no-muss, no-fluff start to the day is a cup of coffee with Vital Protiens and Half and Half.
Lunch
Lunches are not varied much either. Basic lunch is a spinach salad with chicken, strawberries (or mandarin orange, or blueberries), nuts (walnuts or pecans), a bit of Feta and a low cal dressing.
Dinner
Dinner is where I get my variety. This week I’m cooking two entries and two side dishes that can be mixed and matched.
This weeks’ recipes
Roasted Sea Bass
Baked Tuna Steaks
Roasted Mixed Veggies
Carrots & Leeks
Before this week, the roasted mixed veggies was the only recipie I had done before. The other three were variations on previous recipies. In the posts for the recipies, I’ll give you my opinion of the dish and any changes planned for the next time I make it.
Before I get too involved in this post, let me state for the record:
1. I am not a trained chef or nutritionist.
2. I am not a medical professional.
3. I am not a professional photographer.
Nutritional analysis
The main questions are:
1. Is this a healthy meal plan?
2. Would it be possible to loose a few ounces off my mid-section with this plan?
No matter what the newest fangled diet there is out there, loosing weight — for the most part — comes down to eating less calories than you need to keep the home fires burning. In otherwords, you use up some of that spare storage. Unlike your household budget or retirement plan, where you want to continually build up the storage, with a weight loss plan, you want to spend those savings!
Breakfast
The only redeaming factor of my breakfast is the protien and low fat. I get to save up my calories for dinner!
Lunch
This week my main lunch will be a spinach salad with chicken breast, pecans, strawberries, feta and Champagne Vinaigrette. For the chicken breast, I purchase a package of skinless boneless chicken breasts, approx 1 to 1 1/2 lbs. I bake the chickent breasts then pre-slice into 3 oz servings. If I’m taking my salad to the office, I pre-measure the nuts, fruit, spinach, feta and dressing.
Not all salads are created equal. I’ve found the cheese and dressings can make or break the calories and fat content.
Main Dinner Courses
Both of the main dinner courses have the benefit of being lean protien. They are also low in Cholesterol and Sodium. Overall, if they taste good, I think I got a couple of recipies that will work for me.
Dinner Side Dishes
Again we have some low fat dishes. I could go lighter on the salt in the Carrots & Leeks, but overall both dishes appear healty and should make a good pairing with the main course.
Other food for thought
Along with the main course and side dish, I’ll add a half cup of the Near East Toasted Pine Nut Couscous. One package make 3 servings, but I only use 1/2 serving per dinner.
I’m a snacker, therefore I’ve added Mandarin oranges, No Sugar Greek Yogurt, and a couple table spoons of nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds) for when I get the munchies. Averaging out the mix and match, on a daily basis I should hit aroud 1,315 calories with macronutrient mix of 30% Fat, 55% Carbohydrate, and 15% Protein. This is very close to what Women’s health recommends for weight loss. So let’s see how it goes!
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/food/healthy-eating/a705352/best-macros-for-fat-loss/
Thoughts 