So we have been on holiday – eating, drinking and being merry! We did walk a lot, so that may be our saving grace. However, I am still planning a low fat meal plan this week. I will focus on light, healthy meals to try to lose a few pounds. You can’t tell when Mr S puts on weight as he is so tall but it tends to sit around my middle and make all my clothes feel tight.
I will be shopping mostly at Aldi, but will top up at Asda. Asda sell their own brand low fat lactose free Greek yogurt, which is delicious. It will be good with fruit for snacks and puddings. The plain variety adds a little low fat creaminess to savoury dishes too.
My low fat meal plan
Saturday
I bought a soft taco meal kit from Aldi to take on holiday with us. We didn’t use it so we shall have it with some chicken strips for Mr S, plus lots of peppers, sweetcorn and what ever other chopped vegetables look good. I will have a little cheese on top but will buy the reduced fat variety. My daughter left a bag of salad in the fridge so we will be using that up.
Sunday
Roast chicken pieces for Mr S and a Quorn fillet for me, with some garlic and chilli to spice them up. We will have lots of veg with this and some sweet potato wedges baked with some cooking spray.
Monday
Brown rice with Mediterranean vegetables. Another easy dinner as I’m not sure what we are doing on the bank holiday.
Tuesday
Chick pea curry with basmati rice. This is so easy and simple. I am back to work on Tuesday after a week and a half and it will be a busy day. This takes just minutes to make.
Wednesday
I thought I would try this salsa spaghetti with sardines from the BBC Good Food website. I am not sure it is super low fat, but it is full of healthy omega 3s. I will keep the spaghetti portions small and make a carrot salad to go with it.
Thursday
Just me at home on Thursday, so I will keep it simple and have a Spanish omelette with whatever vegetables we have lying around. I will use tinned potatoes in the omelette but won’t have any more carbs with it.
Friday
Salmon and vegetables. Frozen salmon from Aldi with lots of veg, stir-fried with soya sauce.
To supplement my low fat meal plan, I intend to make a big bucket of vegetable soup over the weekend, which we can have for lunch most days.
I am a devil for snacking in the evenings. This is where I gain weight. A bag of crisps, cheese and biscuits or a bar of chocolate whilst I am chilling on the sofa soon increases your waistline! I will be buying some low fat hummus to have with carrot sticks and some fat reduced cheese triangles to have on my rice cakes. I know they are processed rubbish, but they won’t kill me!
So this is my low fat meal plan. Anyone else trying to shed the pounds? Please share your ideas for easy, budget friendly low fat meals. I have another couple of ideas here.
This week I am linking up with Katy Kicker and the Organised Life Project. If you want more ideas on meal planning and saving money, take a look at their blogs. For more of my tips on meal planning, try this post.
Your meal plan looks delicious! I try to eat Vegan/plant-based as much as possible. It’s very affordable (you can buy a lot of veggies for the same price as one piece of meat), veggies cook quickly (great for working people), and I seem to stay lean by eating this way. I, too, have the urge to snack at night, so I just don’t keep those foods in the house. I tell myself that the ‘kitchen is closed’ after the dinner dishes are done. I will allow myself one glass of wine with a little TV watching, but that’s it! Enjoy your week.
My problem is that I can’t seem to have a glass of wine without a snack. Might need to give up both! Agree with you about plant based food being generally cheaper.
For me, carbs are the problem and a lot of vegetarian dishes, especially those with beans & legumes seem to be quite high in carbs, so I’m trying to mitigate the damage by having smaller portions of wholewheat pasta or brown rice with them.
I was pleased to discover recently that apparently the amount of fibre in something reduces the amount of carbs in it- you can subtract the fibre from the total carbs because it is less soluble! So another good reason to make sure you’re getting plenty of fibre!
The idea of the chick peas reminds me of my favourite meatless dish to cook. It’s a lentil curry which is so quick to make and so flavoursome too!
I won’t say I’ve given up on trying to lose weight but I try to do some walking in the morning now. I snack a lot too, sometimes preferring what tastes nice rather than what’s better for me!
All the best with your plans and have a lovely Bank Holiday.
Those recipes all sound nourishing, healthy, and delicious. I rather fancy trying a chick pea curry as I’ve never cooked using chick peas. I like veggie food although we’re not vegetarian. Today we had one of my own favourite meals, a simple tomato salad to which I added some spring onions and one rasher of bacon, chopped up and fried to crispy pieces and then shared between the two of us, and some home made croutons. Delicious!
I use the smallest amount of oil cd pressed rapeseed oil during any frying, almost dry-frying, and then draining anything fried on kitchen paper to absorb any excess. We really do try and have a very healthy diet, restricting sugar and fat and salt to a minimum, but not ruling out anything, just trying to keep a well-balanced diet. No sugar on cereal, no sugar in tea or coffee, chocolate (only two small cubes when we have any) is always dark-high-in-cocoa-solids chocolate. I can’t eat cheap milk chocolate (which doesn’t deserve the name “chocolate”!) now as it’s so sickly-sweet.
Margaret P
PS I’m with your Mum on the chick pea curry, Jane: I often add a dollop of low-fat crème fraiche to a dish which has canned tomatoes, just to soften the taste a little (and I add a smidgen of sugar to dishes which contained tomatoes as they can be to tangy for our taste). So I’d be adding rather than sour cream or yoghurt, a little crème fraiche to the chick pea curry. Indeed, I’ve found a small dollop of crème fraiche is nice in almost any curry.
Margaret P
I’m afraid that I’m “high fat” and low carb – Doctor’s orders. I find that this works best for me when losing weight as carbs are my real problem. But while it is Whole Milk, butter and meat that doesn’t mean that I’m stuffing myself – I watch portion sizes (1 large chicken breast will last me 3 meals when added to a daily salad) and I eat lots of vegetables to balance it out.
I am always trying to shed pounds, Jane! A favourite evening snack is frozen grapes. They take ages to dissolve in the mouth….well not ages but a lot longer than chocolate (which I confess….I would prefer but there you go)!
Fab meal plan. Everything sounds so healthy and tasty.
I love the sound of the Chick pea curry x
It’s really interesting to see what other people eat when trying to lose weight. Your plan is great, really healthy! I am also currently trying to lose some weight but my approach is not low-fat, instead I count calories to make sure I don’t exceed a specific number and I am also more active. This really works for me. I am also trying to eat more protein so I feel fuller for longer and this helps me to eat less calories.
I love chickpea curry! Also, I’m going to look out for that soft taco kit in Aldi now! x