I made this Mediterranean style salad for lunch today with 1/2 serving of Carbé Diem pasta to bulk it up. Thanks to everyone who recommended this pasta brand! I didn’t take a pic of my lunch, but it was fresh and colorful and filled a 1 quart sized Pyrex bowl. Low calorie salad dressings are heroes, and the dressing I listed here is a favorite that’s always on hand in my house. (And I pack some when I go to restaurants. Hold the dressing, I’m using my own.)
I pride myself on volume eating and not suffering through calorie deficit eating. Sooo, for the folks who are newer at this, you should be satisfied after every meal. A good way to make this dish even more filling is to do a full serving of Carbé Diem pasta for an extra 50 calories. Or do the full pasta serving and cut out the cheese and you will be 20 calories less than my version. (Plus 50 calories pasta, but minus 70 calories in cheese.) If you’re making it without meat, you can math out even more pasta if you want to, or switch the chicken for a hard boiled egg.
I game out my meals as 300 (breakfast), 350 (lunch), and 550 (dinner). I find it’s easier to hit my daily goal this way. Sometimes I skip breakfast in favor of a more caloric dinner.
All meals that people post can be inspiration to do your own thing with. Replace the feta with more chicken if you want. You can eat a lot of food if you put some thought into it and diet at the grocery store. Have the lowest calorie versions of the foods you love in your kitchen. This lunch would’ve been 200 calories higher with regular pasta and most other salad dressings. Seriously, my 336 calorie lunch is the exact same amount of food as a 536 calorie lunch made with regular pasta and a typical salad dressing. You can easily shave off hundreds of calories from most or all of your normal meals by reading labels when you grocery shop and finding the lower calorie option. Be full and be happy! You got this!
by Crazy_Law_5730