Lately, I concocted a personalized meal plan based on a few diets that I’ve tried that never worked and were always missing something. I have very few rules for myself and I have dessert every night…sometimes two helpings!
I’m going to start this article with my rules and breakfast options. I don’t have very many recipes for breakfast (I like to experiment) but I’ll include the recipes that I do use.
Rules
- One one small alcoholic drink/day
- Between meals eat only fruit, carrots or celery with a little bit of homemade Ranch dressing
- The only beverages allowed are Splenda or Stevia sweetened beverages and water.
- Limit of 4 eggs/week
- No more than 2 pieces of bread/day
- No Peanut butter allowed (This is because my husband uses peanut butter like it’s going out of style)
Recipe for Ranch Dressing
(Based on “Buttermilk Ranch Dressing” from Eatingwell.com)
- ½ cup of milk
- ¼ cup of Helmann’s Canola Mayonnaise
- a splash of vinegar
- a dash of garlic powder (my best friend)
- a dash of salt
- a dash of black pepper
- as much fresh or dried herbs as you like (I used dried dill and it worked great)
Breakfast
- Banana and Dark Chocolate Smoothies (1 cup) (melt the dark chocolate before you mix)
- Kiwi and Pomegranate Smoothies (1 cup) fresh fruit works best for this one
- Blueberry and Pineapple Smoothies (1 cup)
For my smoothies I just like to mix and match things. I usually end up putting fat free greek yogurt or low-fat milk in there. Because fruit spoils so fast, I usually buy frozen fruit but I make sure that there’s no sugar added.
- Original Cheerios (1 cup) and Low-fat milk (¾ cup)
- 2 eggs any style w/ ½ cup veggies or fruit and one piece of toast
- 2 Blueberry Oat Pancakes. I make mine with whole wheat flour and frozen blueberries. If you’re trying to make this a fast meal, try Hungry Jack‘s Whole Wheat Pancake mix and add the blueberries before you cook them.
- Fiber Yogurt w/ Cheerios (1 cup)
- 1 Grapefruit (I’m eating this exclusively now because it’s helped me shed most of my pounds)
- 3 regular sized or 5 mini Southwestern mini frittatas (These can be made with Southwestern Eggbeaters in a regular sized or mini muffin pan. Just cut up some turkey sausage and throw it in the mix. Baked for 25-30 minutes at 350*)
Feel free to leave or take any of these steps! It’s very personalized to my taste buds so there were lots of recipes that I passed up while I was making this. My basic plan is to have under 1,200 calories a day but in order for the annoying calorie counting to be thrown out the window, I decided to compile recipes that were under 300 calories per serving and add a dessert that was less than 200 calories. All this food leaves me feeling full (most of the time) and definitely satisfied!
Something that leaves me even more satisfied is that I only use $60 every week for all of this food. I usually pick 2 things from each category and make sure that I won’t get bored of them after a few days. It’s enough food for my husband and I to be fed well and still eat healthy.
Stay tuned for part 2 of my series where I share my lunch and dessert recipes!
By Marisa Ryniak | My name is Marisa and I loooove to cook! I’ll be writing a series of articles on how to lose 50 pounds (without going broke) by following my personalized meal plan and doing light cardio exercise. I love to make up healthy concoctions based on food that I eat at restaurants and see on cooking shows.
