Today's Lunch

With the summer heat on, I'm finding it difficult to prepare some of the foods that I came to rely on in less oppressive weather. In particular, I miss my homemade soup. Like many people, I'm going with what is cold and salads work pretty well in that regard.

When it comes to salad, I won't sacrifice flavor or textural improvements for calories. I won't do without full fat dressing nor will I exclude croutons. I love crunchy food, and I'll add in what I want and deal with the extra calories by cutting out a salty snack later if necessary. I'm sure many dieters who are more serious than me would be all over how this could be healthier or lower calorie, but I need to be satisfied with how my food tastes. I enjoy this salad immensely as is. That makes it easy to choose to have it rather than something I choke down because I think it's "good" for me to have vegetables.

Today's lunch came in two parts, both inspired by high humidity and temperatures over 90 degrees. First, I had this salad.

I always have croutons on the side so I can eat them proportionally with each bite. 

• 2 cups red leaf lettuce (9 calories)
• 1 whole small-medium tomato (22 calories)
• 2 thin slices onion (7 calories)
• 1 small hard-boiled egg (53 calories)
• 1 tsp. Parmesan cheese (7 calories)
• 1 1/2 tbsp. Caesar salad dressing (102 calories)
• 2 servings garlic butter croutons (70 calories)
• salt and pepper

total: 270 calories

I followed this up with a banana frappe drink. This is the sort of thing that you find recipes for all over the web. I don't think my preparation is in any way unique, but I'll include it anyway for those who haven't come across these recipes before or just don't want to look them up. The consistency of this is halfway between soft serve ice cream and a thick milk shake. In hot weather though, it melts fast so you have to eat in an air conditioned room or eat it a little fast.

Note that I tend to eyeball these measurements, but these are pretty close to what they are. This makes an immensely large drink, but a portion of it is essentially water.

Banana frappe

• 1/2 cup crushed ice
• 1 medium banana, cut into medium slices and frozen (flat, not stacked) (105 calories)
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• sweetener (to taste - I use two packets of Splenda - I like it sweet)
• 1/2 cup skim milk (40 calories)

total: 145 calories

Add all ingredients to your blender and frappe or mix on the highest setting for one and a half to two minutes. It should start to expand in size as air gets whipped into it. It's ready when it's light and evenly mixed and quite creamy. Garnish by sprinkling a little more cinnamon on top.

Cinnamon is supposed to aid in the metabolizing of sugars, so I like to include it where I can. It has the benefit of being very tasty with the banana and vanilla as well!

Today's lunch:
salad: 270 calories
banana frappe: 145 calories
total: 415 calories

Today's Lunch

In my plan, I've mentioned that I have the things I want, but plan for them and have them in moderation. Last night, I was craving pizza. I actually haven't had pizza for quite some time (at least 2 months, probably more). It just hasn't been on my radar. Today, I decided to act on my desires in a controlled fashion and purchased a tiny single-serving frozen pizza. The pizza is 5.5" in diameter. It's the perfect size for lunch.

The main problem with this pizza is that it doesn't have enough protein in its default state. It's mainly bread with a little sauce, cheese, and a few anemic slices of salami. To boost the protein, I added 1/4 of a can of water-packed tuna (seriously drained). I actually prefer to boost the protein with leftover chicken breast, but I didn't have any on hand today. I know that tuna on pizza sounds pretty disgusting to some people, but it's little different than having other types of seafood on pizza. I really enjoyed it with generous splashes of Tabasco and was very full after eating it. Because of the heat from the Tabasco, I had a full 16 oz. of Diet Coke with this lunch, which is more than usual.

I had the pizza with a bagged cabbage salad (green and red cabbage, a bit of cucumber and a little lettuce) and 2 tbsp. of oil-free Asian-style sesame dressing. I rarely buy bagged salads, but I was feeling lazy and I rarely eat cabbage so I didn't want to have too much on hand.

I consider my pizza craving satisfied for now, and at a very low "price". :-) Later, I figure I'll be having some fruit or avocado for a snack given the low calorie count on this meal.

Lunch:

pizza: 251 calories
tuna: 52 calories
cabbage salad: 20 calories
sesame dressing: 16 calories
total calories: 339 calories

Today's Lunch

Today's lunch is one that I tend to eat when I want to allow for more flexibility in later meals. It's the type of thing I eat when I want to have a bigger dinner (burrito, pizza, etc.). Usually, I have some sort of soup with this, but I didn't have any on hand and wasn't in the mood to take the time to make some before lunch. On the plus side, soup has more calories than broccoli and strawberries, which I had today. The broccoli was a leftover from dinner. I prepare the broccoli with freshly squeezed lemon juice and just the tiniest amount of reduced calorie fat spread. If you're a bigger eater than me, a second egg should do the trick, and add relatively little to the total calorie count of the meal.

Most people think that you poach eggs to avoid the fat from frying them, but the truth is that very little fat sticks to fried eggs. Unless you're lovingly bathing the egg in butter, you're unlikely to add many calories through frying. The main reason to choose poaching rather than frying is that the result has a different texture and you have much better control over the yolk's thickness and liquidity. The white is also softer and less prone to be rubbery if you properly poach the egg.

To poach an egg effectively, you can follow these steps:

1. Fill a small pan (I use a skillet as its easier to handle a shallow pan) with water and heat until bubbles start to form (a pre-boiling stage). Do not allow the water to actually boil or your egg will be rubbery.
2. Break your egg into a small, shallow bowl (this is so you can handle placing it into the water more precisely).
3. Add about 1 tbsp. vinegar to the water (this helps the white coagulate and stay together). Stir the vinegar around a bit.
4. Set a timer or note the time on the clock and gently add your egg into the water. I usually try to get the yolk to fall in first and pour the white on top of that. I also use an egg ring which helps keep it together. You can use a tuna can, cookie cutter, or other metal form or simply not worry about the shape.
5. Allow the egg to simmer in the near-boiling water (it's okay if it starts to boil after the egg has been put in the water). Depending on how cooked you want it to be, poach for 3-6 minutes. 
6. Drain the egg on a paper towel, add salt and pepper as desired.

medium poached egg = 63 calories
broccoli = 22 calories
strawberries = 20 calories
whole wheat toast = 80 calories
margarine = 35 calories
total calories: 220 calories

Today's Lunch

I love grilled cheese, as do most people, I imagine. Even when I successfully lost weight in college so long ago, I never stopped eating things like grilled cheese. The only difference was that I ate it on whole wheat in college and now I eat it on whole wheat and eat about half as much as I did back then. I had tuna salad around from earlier in the week, so I made this into a tuna-melt-style sandwich instead of straight grilled cheese, though it's common for me to make a cheese sandwich with 2 ounces of cheese. The soup and the pickle help make this more filling, though it is a small meal. Ironically, I've found that reduced calorie margarine actually grills whole wheat sandwiches better than real butter, so I get lower calories and a nicely browned sandwich.

This tomato soup is one of my absolute favorite things to have around to snack on  or accompany meals because it is warm, filling, savory, and low in calories. It's also cheap to make. Note that not all bouillon cubes are the same so you may have to experiment with the number and type that you use. You may need more or fewer depending on the size and flavor intensity of the cubes and your tastes. I prefer to use chicken-flavored cubes, but beef is okay as well. Generally speaking, I use cubes intended for making soup by dissolving one cube in 8 oz. of water. I usually use Knorr brand.

tomato soup:

• 1 tsp. oil (40 calories)
• 1 medium onion, diced (44 calories)
• 2 small garlic cloves, cut into quarters lengthwise (9 calories)
• 1/3 large carrot sliced, chopped (10 calories)
• 1 large tomato, roughly chopped (33 calories)
• 1 can diced tomatoes (77 calories)
• 2 chicken (or beef) bouillon cubes (20 calories)
• dried parsley, salt, coarse black pepper to taste (I use 3/4 tsp. parsley, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1/2 tsp. salt)
• 3 cups water

total for entire batch: 233 calories

Heat a medium-size soup pot over medium heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat. Warming the pan first then adding the oil allows you to get more coverage with less oil. Add the onions and garlic clove pieces to the oil and cook until the onion is softened. If it starts to brown too quickly, lower the heat to medium-low. Stir in carrot pieces, parsley, pepper, and salt and allow to cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped fresh tomato and cook for a further 5 minutes. Finally, add the canned tomato, bouillon cubes, and water. Cover and cook at a vigorous simmer for 30 minutes or at a normal simmer for an hour. The soup is done when the carrots are tender. Cooking it longer just develops the flavors more, but isn't absolutely necessary. Puree the soup with an immersion blender and taste to see if it needs more seasoning (usually, you'll need to adjust the salt). This makes about five 8-ounce (1 cup) servings at 47 calories per serving.

grilled sandwich of (1/2 serving) tuna salad, 1 oz. Colby Jack cheese on (1 slice) whole wheat bread: (71 + 110 + 80) = 261
1 cup tomato soup = 47 calories
reduced fat margarine (for grilling) = 30 calories
pickle = 0
total = 338

This was obviously a very tiny meal, and is not really an uncommon choice for me. Later, I had a banana and full fat yogurt (with sugar) as a snack. This is a fairly classic example of my meal splitting to eat my calories spread out throughout the day more in order to not feel as hungry.

Today's Lunch

It may seem from these lunches that I eat a lot of bagels, but that's not true most of the time. I just happened to buy one of those big bags with 12 bagels at Costco and it takes me a long time to eat them since I only eat half at a time. Usually, I have whole wheat bread, and later lunches should reflect this. Using bagels means that these lunches are about 80 calories more than my usual, but that's okay. I enjoy the bagels and they're more filling than thin slices of wheat bread. I simply have to adjust later snacks so that I eat a bit less on days when I'm having these bagels.

Today, I had one of my more filling lunches. Tuna always keeps me full longer than any other type of protein. I also had a bit of avocado, which is often hard to squeeze in because it's so high in calories. Finally, I had the last of some carrot soup I had lying around. I had this with half of a bottle of Coke Zero.

Tuna salad (2 servings):

• 1 can of water-packed Albacore tuna, drained (210 calories)
• 2 tbsp. reduced calorie mayonnaise (60 calories) or 1 tbsp. regular mayonnaise with 1 tbsp. yogurt (100 calories)
• 1 tbsp. plain, low-fat yogurt (10 calories)
• 1 thin slice large onion, finely chopped (4 calories)
• seasoning to taste - garlic powder, celery salt, pepper are my favorites

total for all: 284 calories

If you like moister tuna salad, it's not going to cost much in calories just to put more yogurt in it and I can't taste it much. If you're sensitive to yogurt flavors, it may be best to go with reduced calorie mayo and add more of it.

1/2 bagel = 160 calories
tuna salad (1/2 the above) = 142 calories (add 20 more if you use full fat mayo and yogurt)
tomato (1 small) and avocado salad (1 thin slice) = 16 + 32 = 48 calories
10 oz. carrot soup = 100 calories
total: 450 calories

Today's Lunch

Today's lunch was super simple because I was in a hurry. I was also in the mood for cheese so I took half of an onion poppy seed bagel from the freezer, thawed it a bit in the microwave (but left it still a bit cold), topped with Colby Jack cheese, and stuck it in the toaster oven just enough to soften the cheese. It's amazing how something so simple can be so good when you really crave it. I had it with carrot soup that I had already made and just a few strawberries. I had more strawberries later as a snack, but wanted a few as a sweet finish to this small lunch.

carrot soup:

• 1 tsp. oil (40 calories)
• 1 tsp. fennel seed (7 calories)
• 1 medium onion, diced (44 calories)
• 1 semi-heaping tsp. curry powder (9 calories)
• 2 small whole garlic cloves, peeled (9 calories)
• 3 large carrots, scrubbed with tips removed, sliced (90 calories)
• 1 can (2 cups) chicken or vegetable stock (20 calories for chicken)
• 1 1/2 cups low fat milk (135 calories)
• 1/2-1 cup water
• salt and coarse black pepper to taste (I use 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper)

total (entire batch): 354 calories

Heat a medium soup pot (that you have a lid for) under low heat. Add the oil to the hot pan and tip it around to coat the bottom evenly. Add the fennel seeds and allow them to cook for about a minute. Add the diced onion and garlic cloves and stir it around in the oil and fennel. Cook the onions over low or medium heat until they become translucent. If they start to stick or brown too quickly, lower the heat and stir more frequently. It should take 5-10 minutes to cook the onions. It's important to do this to remove the "raw" or harsh flavors from the onion.

Add the curry powder to the onions and stir it around. Cook the curry powder for 2-3 minutes with the onions. Add the carrots and stir around to coat with seasonings. Add the soup stock, salt, pepper, water and milk. Note that the amount of water you use depends on how thin you want the soup to be. I prefer mine thick, so I use a half cup, but the size of the vegetables plays into this as well. Stir to mix, cover with a lid, and allow to cook over low to medium-low heat at a vigorous simmer. A vigorous simmer means it is boiling a little, but not at a point where the pot might boil over. Stir the soup occasionally (about every 10 minutes or so).

Cook until the carrots are tender. The time this takes depends on how you slice or cut up your carrots. Smaller pieces take less time. Generally speaking, between 30-45 minutes is good. It's okay to overcook the soup, but not to cook too little as the carrots need to be very tender. Test the carrots with a fork to see if they are done. If you can cut one of the thicker or larger pieces in half easily with a fork, it is cooked well enough. When the carrots are thoroughly cooked, use an immersion blender to puree it well. Serve hot or cold.

This makes between 4-5 one-cup (8 oz.) servings of soup. The volume varies slightly depending on the size of your vegetables and whether or not you make the soup thinner or thicker. For my FitDay logging, I just place one serving at 80 calories which I believe is going to be within 10 calories one way or another if I have a one cup serving.

bagel = 160 calories
1.6 oz. cheese = 174 calories
8 oz. carrot soup = 80 calories
4 strawberries = 16 calories
total = 430

Because of the low amount of protein, I was hungry about 2 hours later, but I rather expected that. I had a half cup of (full fat, with sugar) yogurt with the second serving of strawberries about two hours after this.