Wanda51

I've been on this diet now for almost 3 weeks and so far have done very good. I have done things to make sure my foods taste good, fill me up and helps me stay within my diet.

First is salad. Boring I know but I put Perdue short cuts chicken (90-100 cal/ 1/4 cup) on a bed of mixed greens (30 cal/3 cups) with 2% shredded cheddar (110 cal./2 oz) and fat free blue cheese dressing (70 cal/2 TBS). Not only does it fill me up but it tastes good. You can always add cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and croutons for just a few calories more. Perdue shortcuts are fresh baked or grilled chicken in different flavors (honey roasted, plain, southwestern, Italian) and you can use it in fajita, stir fry or anything else.

My downfall in food though is mashed potatoes. Even though I use promise light margarine and herbs to help flavor it without using a lot of fat, I found that I still want to eat more and more. So now I mash up cauliflower and boil it, then add a little Promise, season and to thicken it so that it tastes like mashed potatoes I put in just a little of instant mashed potatoes. A medium potato is 160 calories and 37 carbs whereas cauliflower 14 calories for a half cup with only 3 carbs. The instant mashed potatoes are only 70 calories for 1/2 cup but I don't usually even use that much.

So now I have found ways to eat the foods I love with a little more pizzazz and not feel guilty.

Kumochi

Great tip on the mashed potaoes/cauliflower. I use salads with chicken etc quite often, I use a little crumbled feta cheese to perk them up. Mary

Rubystars

Try radishes, either regular or Daikon. They're very low in calories and taste really wonderful in soup or roasted and I think a little on your salad would be good too. If you don't like the bite of them don't worry, they don't have much of it when they're cooked, and yet they still taste good and are very low in calories.

new_wave

Good recipe, healthy as well as tasty, anyone got any tips on making oats tasty, my dietitian says I gotta take oats for breakfast but I find it horrible..

Rubystars

I usually put in sweet and low packages and cinnamon nowadays but you could also try adding in some fruit. They have sugar free jelly/jam that's really low in calories per serving too.

There's sugar free chocolate syrup maybe you could try that.

dear_abby

That mashed cauilflower is a regular on our menus - add greek yogurt and you sneak in a little protein, and it makes for nice creamy texture (I steam the cauliflower, then put it in the food processor, and add the yogurt, it's very guesswork).

Spaghetti Squash is another great find - we have it under red sauce with chicken or shrimp - it isn't much like pasta, but it's yummy!