Need food ideas!

Hi! I am having some eating issues. I am sick of everything. I hate the thought of food! I know it is just because I'm tired of eating the same old thing day in and day out. The main thing I eat is chicken. Everyday for lunch I have a chicken breast with sauteed mushrooms and swiss cheese. For dinner, I usually eat what I have left over from lunch, or I scrounge up something, and it's not always something I should be eating. I'm not quite three months out, and I'm afraid I'm not getting the most of my tool, so I need to get back to basics. So, what I need help with is ideas of what I can start eating. I know first, I need to add breakfast. My doctor said a protein shake in the morning is fine, as he knows some people just aren't breakfast eaters. So breakfast is covered. Now I need some variety. Here's what I'm allowed to have at this point: Chicken, turkey, fish, seafood, cheese & Eggs. Then for my low carb veggies, I can have squash, mushrooms, spinach, turnip greens, green beans, and beets (not that I would eat beets.) Then for my moderate carbs I can have creamed corn, milk, yogurt and a few other things I'm not sure of right now. I usually never have enough room left to get to this point, as I'm supposed to eat protein, low carbs and then moderate carbs if I still have room. Here's what I'm not allowed to have: Beef, Pork, and fresh fruits and veggies up until I'm six months out. After that, I can eat those things and the only things that I am to avoid until goal is breads, pastas and potatoes. I get so frustrated because I've tried potatoes and other stuff I shouldn't have and they go down good, but I know it's going to hinder my weight loss. So, I need some food ideas. I've thought of one recipe that could help with the rut. I was going to get some crab meat, add a small bit of ff cream cheese and cover with ff cheddar and make a melt of it. It's a variation of something they have at the chinese buffet that I used to go to. Does anyone else have any ideas? I must add, I'm not much of a cook. My hubby always did the cooking, but since I eat like I do now, he's gone on his own diet using Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice meals, to help with his problem, portion control. So he refuses to cook because he knows I'll only eat a little and he'll eat the rest and put his lost weight back on. I guess what I'm saying is I like convenience food...I'm sure that's why I'm in a rut! Thanks! Kim 359/292/150

Hey Kim - one thing that does good for me is Taco Bell's side order of bean and cheese - I don't get the red sauce because I don't like it...but it is 1/2 cup and about 10 grams of protein and tastes pretty good! I also buy refried beans (fat free) and mix it with hamburger crumbled and cheese - but you can't eat beef so you could fix it without the beef. (My nutritionist released us for all types of meat - funny how they are all different!) Also many lunch time meals consist of tuna, hard boiled egg and low fat mayonnaise mixed together. I fold it between lettuce leafs and "pretend" it is a sandwich! I throw in a couple of dill pickles with it also. How about natural peanut butter on a banana? That is also easy going down and the peanut butter has protein in it. OOPS just saw where you can't have fruit...so much for the banana. Have you tried the soy crisps??? You could put peanut butter on that. Maybe you could boil some chicken - cut it into bites and put fat free gravy on it...with some green beans - might be a bit different. That's about all the ideas I have...good luck...you have 3 more months of not having a lot of different type of foods. Barbara

I posted a recipe for salmon, you could look at that. Darlene ALWAYS has good ideas. i know you said youre not much of a cook, but there are lots of easy recipes. Try shrimp kabobs, lots of protein there. I have began just trying various fish recipes. Here are some recipe sites I use regularly. http://allrecipes.com http://www.fabulousfoods.com http://meals.com http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/ Courtney only 10 lbs from the ONEDERLANDS!

Kim, I am in almost the same boat as you are. I'm not allowed beef, pork, raw vegetables or anything with tomatoes until 4 months out. Are you allowed to have soy products? What about seasonings? If so, our nutritionist told us about an awesome product called soy taco meat. Did you know that Taco Bell's Beef Burritos are made with 1/2 soy meat and half beef? So, if you like Taco Bell's burritos, you should like the soy taco meat. It's already cooked and seasoned so you just microwave it, then I put some shredded cheese and some sour cream on it. It's so good that you won't even miss the tortilla. You can usually find it in the produce area of the supermarket where the meatless products are. I have found that some grocery stores carry it and some don't, so you may have to search a little but it's worth it. The other thing that is an easy meal is Chi Chi's makes shredded chicken taco meat in a one pound tub. It's already seasoned, so you can just heat some of that up and add whatever toppings you want. Another one I like: Jennie-O makes Turkey Italian Sausage. If you like Italian sausage, you will like this. It tastes like the real thing but it's made with turkey. It's not already cooked, so you will have to cook it, but it doesn't take very long. That's all I can think of for now. If I think of anything else, I will post it. Joanne

here are a few ideas I eat - chicken salad made with either plain nf yogurt or lf cream cheese, egg whites (ditch the yolks and you can save like 55 calories per egg and it salad it is ok tasting) onions, relish, apple, radishes, carrots, celery. I like it cottage cheese with spagetti sauce on it melt it and call it lassona - add tvp or other soy meat if you can - add a tiny bite of chopped onion and galic salt too south beach diet breakfast burttios - relize I make 3 meals from each one soy crisps with lf cream cheese or laughing cow lf flavored cheese wedges chicken patty with melted cheese garden burger with bbq sauce (find one you like with out to much sugar) a small scoop of refried beans with a soft poached egg on top and a tiny bit of salsa and /or cheese go though the frozen food isle and read all the labels and find any and eveything you can eat portions - try buying frozen saug. turkey of course and cutting that up in an egg plain yogurt with protien powder cottage cheese with protien powder or salt and pepper meat rolls - get deli turkey or whatever you can eat and low fat cheese and roll them up - I add a tiny smear of avacado and sliver of onion but you could do a similar flavor with lf flavored cream cheese ok that is all the ideas off of the top of my head - hope someone comes up with soemthing that will work for you - it amazes me how differnt all our docs and nuts are and we all had basically the same surgery!! danni 372/297/170 ENJOYING THE JOURNEY

I eat a lot of soups. The Chicken Enchilada one by Progresso is SO good! It's a bit spicy, if you like that sort of thing. Also the Southwestern Eggbeaters are tasty (have bits of red and green pepper in them and don't need added salt) with a slice of cheese on top, string cheese with turkey wrapped around it and nuked til soft, Carb Master yogurt from Kroger (12g protein and 3g of sugar, I think), shrimp grilled, boiled or minced with green onion, mayo and a touch of lemon. Also, egg salad (boiled egg, mayo, brown mustard, SF relish), tuna salad with boiled egg in it.. There are really tons of things that you can have and enjoy. Your crabmeat recipe sounds DELISH!

I wi**** was. I tried it today for lunch and I just couldn't eat it. I've also found that I am much more picky since surgery than I was before. I don't like egg salad since I can't put it on bread. I don't like deviled eggs anymore. They make me want to barf. I haven't thought about the turkey around a cheese stick. That doesn't sound too bad. I've only tried soup once and it was just vegetable soup. No protein. I got really tired of eggs. Had them for the first time in about a month yesterday for breakfast and didn't mind them too much. Thanks for your suggestions!

Kim, How weird, we had our surgery on the EXACT same day and I can have EVERYTHING that you can't have.... The dietitician said to get in lots of fresh fruit, beef and pork in moderation, and as many veggies as I want. The doc said that I can have bread as long as it goes down fine and I asked him about salads and he said if it doesn't get stuck go for it. So, I don't know what's up with your nutritional staff, but all the things you can't have are really good for you!! I tried baked chicken the other day and it wouldn't stay down for me so I kinda nixed that Idea for now, I love ground turkey, to me it's much better than ground beef, and in my eyes it's a lot healthier too. even in my first stages I could have veggies and fruit. Can you have Ham? I have a few good recipes that my doc gave me, I have one for a turkey meatloaf with sundried tomatoes, but I'm sure you can take out the tomatoes if you wish to, let me know. Sondra, 315/245/150 70lbs. gone forever!!!!

If you like shrimp heres a good non cook food. Get the babys shrimp andsome resurant style salsa Not the jar kind!!! and some imatation crab if you like it. shred the crab a little and mix the salsa shrimp and all together and enjoy! So yummey and itscool for summer!!!