I need help ... Food Ideas

Hiya!! I'm on stage 5 of my diet. Which basically is regular food but not everything. I can have chicken or turkey but not beef or pork. Here's the thing .. for the better part of this past month I've been having Chili for lunch and dinner and although I have an awesome recipe (thanks to Dame Tooter) , I would like to eat other things. So ... I need ideas. Everytime I go to the supermarket I make my way over to the frozen food section and I wonder if I'm "allowed" to eat the lean cuisine items. My nutritionist said I can't have rice yet so I wouldn't buy anything with that in it but what about the other stuff. Please give me ideas ...

Hi Jenn, When I was at where you are now was starting to eat things like those frozen grilled fish fillets . One with a little vegtable was plenty. Was eating chicken salad that I made in my food chopper. The chopper comes in handy because you can put just about anything into it to make it easier to eat. Those eggbeaters come in handy for omlettes. Remember they make everything out of turkey now, be it hot dogs to bologna. I ate cooked shrimp, a bag of frozen ones lasts a long time. just take 3 or 4 out at a time. Soup came in handy as well. Jus****ch thecalories as some are worse than others. I stayed with the progresso brands. Hope I was able to give you a few idea's, Take care and good luck! Julio

Hey Jen, If you go on bariatriceating.com you can get alot of recipes from their along with their products too. There is also a recipe site called bariatricbytes. Give those a try, they have great ideas. Good Luck sweetie, I can send you what I have to if you would like. Email me your address and I will send you some of my recipes. Hugs KimC

Julio is right on. Get the chopper, chop up some canned tuna or canned chicken, Add a little low fat mayonaise which helps it go down. Also, shrimp seems to work well, I ate those little frozen ones. I'd take out a half-dozen and keep them in a container in the refrigerator. I found those "lean" items to be anything but. They are often high in salt and fat, and sometimes a lot of carbs. I know what you're going through, I wanted a wider variety myself. Have you tried the Jello sugar-free pudding? Cottage cheese (I hate the stuff)? Low salt vegetarian beans? Soup - start with broth and slowly work up to something with substance, perhaps small noodles. Campbell makes a Healthy Request chicken noodle soup which is very low in calories, and the noodles are thin. Take it slow though, as you don't want to be spending too much time praying to the porcelin goddess. --Steve

Jennifer, At this point, it is trial and error of the things you might be able to have or might not be able to have. If you do go for the frozen meals - just keep in mind the nutritional value on the back - but as far as being able to have it, you won't know until you try - which is what my doctor told me when I was afraid to move to from pureed foods because I was afraid of getting sick!! One idea that I did/still do is buy when on sale, boneless, skinless chicken breast. I cut them into 2oz portions and freeze them. In the morning when I think I am going to have it, I take it out to thaw. It is so small, that it doesn't take long to thaw. Anyway, I just throw some spices on it and bake for 20 mins. Just an idea! Have a good day.