107 cal Zoodles w/Mushrooms

Zucchini noodles (aka zoodles), spaghetti sauce, and mushrooms is a quick and easy dinner. There are 17 calories in every 100 grams of zucchini, which leaves a ton of room for your favorite sauce and healthy extras.

To make zoodles, you first need a spiralizer similar to these here. I picked the Vegetti up at Walmart for $10 to $15.

Once you have your spiralizer, you will need zucchini, your favorite spaghetti sauce (I use Prego – 100% Natural Italian Sauce – Fresh Mushroom at 70 cals per serving), and mushrooms (optional). I get the sliced baby bella packages in the produce section. This was for a single serving of zoodles. I used a medium to large sized zucchini that measured to 164 grams in weight.

Instructions:.

1. Rinse zucchini and mushrooms
2. Bring a pot of water to boil
3. Spiralize zucchini into zoodles.
1. You can break the zoodles at your desired length while spiralizing.
4. Boil zoodles for 3 to 5 mins
1. You can add salt and seasoning to taste if you life
5. Mix with spaghetti sauce and mushrooms, and serve

173 cal Shirataki Spaghetti!

If you haven't heard of or tried shiratiki noodles, I definitely recommend trying it at least once. Upon opening the bag, they do have an earthy smell (I did not experience this) but it fades once you drain and rinse them. They have a neutral flavor so they can be paired with just about anything. 

This would have been a slightly higher in calorie meal if I had a full serving of Prego sauce left when I made this meal. As it happened, I had less than half a cup so I used my scale to determine the amount I used. 

Shirataki noodles are so low in calories, I used the entire bag for one serving. The entire bag itself was only thirty calories and practically filled the bowl. Due to how low in calories they are, I added cheese and mushrooms to the sauce to make it even more delicious. 

I added the Prego sauce to the bowl, followed by the mushrooms, and then added as much cheese as I wanted. I rinsed the shirataki noodles in hot water to heat them a little and then drained them. I added those to the top of the cheese and then added some garlic seasoning and oregano. Then I heated the bowl in the microwave for one to two minutes (until the cheese melted), and that was it. It took less than ten minutes to make the entire thing. 

Pizza bites for 226 calories!

So this recipe can be altered to fit your likes and wants. I stuck with the Flatbread Light Italian Herb that I used for the Chicken & Brocolli Burrito from the last post. The flatbread is fragile coming out, so tortillas can also be used if you prefer the taste, just adjust your calories accordingly. 

Things you'll need outside of the ingredients listed above:

• Muffin Tin
• Oven or Toaster Oven
• Soup can, tuna can, or pizza cutter

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Layout the flatbread (or tortilla) on a flat hard surface, such as a cutting board. 
3. Use a soup can, or tuna can to press out circles of the flatbread. 
1. Alternatively, you can use a pizza cutter to cut out your circles
4. Stick one tortilla circle into each muffin slot in the muffin tin. It does not need to fill the entire cup, but it does need to cover each side of the cup evenly.
5. Fill each tortilla cup with pizza sauce, followed by a sprinkle of cheese, and a pepperoni. 
6. Bake at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until cheese melts and slightly browns. 

When removing the pizza bites from the muffin tin, use either a fork or a scraper to gently remove it. If you use the flatbread, it may tear and cause a spill of pizza sauce into the cup. Once removed, let cool and then enjoy! 

250 cal Chicken, Broccoli, Rice, and Cheese burrito!

250 calories for a filling lunch (or dinner!) burrito. It only took five minutes to prepare this yummy treat!

Ingredients:

To finish it off I did add a V8 V Fusion, bringing the entire lunch to 300 calories. 

To start, I took one flatbread (Light Italian Herb) and laid it out on a plate. Then I took one serving of Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast Strips, and microwaved it for a minute and half. Then a took one single serve tray of Cheesy Rice and Broccoli by Green Giant and microwaved it for 3 minutes. Combined the chicken and cheesy rice and broccoli, and rolled it up. 

This specific flatbread, found with the tortillas on the bread aisle at Walmart, was easily torn so be gentle when rolling your burrito! 

#1200isplenty

So, I've been on a kicker lately focusing on a diet that consists of only 1200 calories. Sounds crazy, right? May even sound like too few calories for an adult when everywhere you turn 2000 calories is spouted as the amount of calories you should consume.

Well, in fact, the amount of calories that you should consume is actually different for everyone based on your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) and your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Your TDEE is the amount of calories your body is burning in a 24 hour period. These are the calories you are burning while sleeping, eating, showering, working, exercising, watching tv, etc. Your BMR is the amount of calories you would burn in a 24 hour period, if you did absolutely nothing all day long (essentially staying in bed).

For example, a 1200 cal diet for a male over 6ft tall would not be a good fit. However, standing at 5'6" a 1200 cal diet for me is fine. I adjust accordingly on the days I workout, landing at a net of 1200 calories. So for example, if I burn 300 calories during a workout, I will consume 1500 calories that day.

Now on to the next tidbit. How do you survive on only 1200 calories? It seems like so little, especially when everything we eat has such high calorie counts for such small portions! It's called substitution. We all know that trying to change an eating habit is hard. Changing your entire diet seems almost impossible! I also know that for myself, I will not succeed if I change everything or cut out my favorites foods. So instead, I have resorted to substitution.

I'll be posting pictures and recipes of meals made for one, along with their calorie count.