Great tasting, easy to prepare, healthy AND low calorie recipes are essential to succeed with weight loss. Why? If you don’t like what you’re eating you aren’t going to stick with it! I genuinely LIKE healthy low calorie food IF it’s tasty, appealing and won’t require me to spend too much time cooking.

Adding new recipes to my collection keeps things fun. Thank goodness for a computer and the Internet because my home would otherwise be overflowing with recipes! It’s hard to not get carried away with either clipping recipes or using up reams of paper to print off online recipes that I just HAVE to try. What does get clipped or printed I put into a couple of very large notebooks. One is for recipes to test and the other is for recipes I’ve made and liked. The margins of the tested recipes are scribbled with notes.

I remind myself when a recipe cooks up too much for my husband and me to finish in a reasonable amount of time, unless I can freeze the extra. I jot down when I’ve substituted one ingredient for another. I make notes if I decide to change the cooking process. My husband is gifted with the ability to throw in just the right seasoning to jazz up a dish taking it from so-so to fabulous! But then I need to do my best to figure out what he added and how much so I can jot down specifics.

Cooking can be fun but not all the time and certainly not everyday! I like to create great tasting recipes that we can eat more than once. I love tasty leftovers. Believe it or not certain dishes actually taste better the second time around. Maybe that’s because I don’t have to cook!

Just for fun I’m going to share 10 recipes with you that are in my collection of recipes I would like to TRY. These recipes have not been tested yet seem to be healthy for the most part. However, you may need to go easy on the salt, sugar, or butter/oil called for in some of the recipes to make them a bit healthier and lower calorie. Being cognizant of the ingredients you use matters. Second to that watch your portion size.

All of these recipes have the potential to fit into a healthy low calorie diet. See if any appeal to you. If you are not yet creating a small collection of your own well-liked recipes, you need to look for some YOU like that include healthy ingredients.

Find recipes that you would be willing to prepare. Find recipes that will make you smile because the calorie count for a serving is reasonable AND the recipe is not difficult or time-consuming to make AND it just might taste great! Find recipes that are as good or BETTER than what you can order at a restaurant.

Trust me not every recipe you try will be a winner. Even so, I challenge you to go on a treasure hunt to see what you discover. Healthy low calorie eating does not have to be about deprivation at all!!!

List of Recipes I hope to try soon:

1. Healthy Dinner: Quinoa Salad with Dried Apricots and Tofu

Doesn’t this dish look fabulous? Quinoa, tofu, and fresh veggies seasoned with cumin, fresh ginger, and dried apricots. Hmm…I’m not particularly a fan of tofu but I think I’d like to give this one a try. You could always substitute the tofu with a little pre-cooked chicken or turkey. If apricots don’t agree with you, how about substituting craisins? or raisins?

2. Beetroot and Avocado Salad Recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi

Wow! What a great idea for a combination of healthy veggies – beets, avocados, and broad beans. I think I would use edamame beans instead of broad beans and skip the pea shoots. What are pea shoots???? (Food is endlessly fascinating!) I’d also recommend making the recipe with less oil. Half or less would be plenty!

3. Southwest Egg Scramble

This recipe offers a way to prepare a great breakfast to eat at home or a breakfast burrito you can wrap up and take with you. The scrambled eggs dish includes healthy bell pepper, corn kernels, eggs of course, and freshly prepared salsa. Fresh may taste best but there are lots of healthy commercially prepared salsas you could consider as well. Check out what’s on the shelves of your local grocery stores.

4. Easy Baked Apple Oatmeal

Here’s a healthy recipe that could be enjoyed as either a breakfast or a dessert. Although I may wait for cooler weather, I can’t wait to give this one a try! I suggest making the recipe with nonfat milk and skipping the whipped cream if you want to reign in the calories and saturated fat.

5. Grilled Turkey Shawarma

An Israeli recipe made with seasoned and grilled turkey and served in pita bread with grilled onions and hummus.

6. Vegetable Pancakes (served on a bed of greens for lunch or supper)

These delicious looking pancakes should be relatively low calorie if you go easy on the oil used for pan frying ( a nonstick skillet will help.)

7. 50 Salmon Recipes

Did you miss this on MarthStewart.com? If you like salmon you’re going to love exploring the 50 suggested ways to prepare it.  I would think you will find at least one new healthy recipe to add to your collection. (Note: I haven’t looked at each one closely.  The recipes seem to be healthy and many if not most may go easy on the calories.)

8. Blueberry-Stuffed French Toast

This seems to be a super easy recipe to prepare if you are comfortable with planning ahead. To make this recipe a bit healthier I would use a whole grain bread rather than brioche or white bread. I bet it would be just as good.

9. French Bread Pizza with a Veggie Topping

This recipe will give you a very quick and easy way to enjoy a healthful, low calorie pizza with lots of nutritious veggies to fill you up.

10. Whole Wheat, Oatmeal, and Raisin Muffins

Would you believe this recipe has received 66 5-star reviews? The muffins must be good! Make up a batch to freeze and you’ve got a quick to defrost and eat healthy breakfast choice.

O.K. there you have it. These are ten of the recipes I would like to try in the upcoming months. If you are inspired to try one or more please let me know how the recipe turned out for you and what if any ingredient substitutions you made. OR if you have healthy low calorie recipe ideas to share please do!!

For more low calorie healthy recipes you may want to read:

Healthy Low Calorie Recipes: 8 Super Sites to See

Till next time, dine on healthy low calorie and tasty food!

{ 1 comment }