Healthy Low Calorie Recipes

You can end your search for healthy low calorie recipes.

At the websites in this article you can find enough low calorie recipes to last you forever.

Read on for tips to improve any recipe or click here to go straight to the recipes.

The recipes are much healthier than your average fast food joint, but in all honesty some of them can use improvements.

You should always examine the ingredients and nutrition breakdown of any recipe to make small changes that may improve it.

1. Add more protein.

Some of the full meal recipes that I saw don’t have the 2 to 1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio that I like to see. If a meal contains 40 grams of carbs for example, it should have at least 20 grams of protein.

Protein boosts your metabolism and helps keep you satisfied for longer.

2. Watch the fat.

Some of the recipes had moderate-to-high fat content. This is something to look out for, especially if you’re following a low fat diet. Make changes to lower the fat or skip recipes that are too high in fat (saturated fat particularly).

3. Use 100% whole grain or whole wheat foods.

Whenever a recipe includes carbohydrates like pasta or bread, make sure to use whole wheat even if the recipe says different.

4. Watch the sodium.

Some recipes are a bit high in sodium.

I consider low sodium to be less than 400 mg, preferably closer to 300 mg. If you only eat three times a day (not good), those numbers can be a little higher.

This article has some sodium reduction tips.

One last thing. A “healthy” meal should have the following core components. It should be:

• low in saturated fat,
• low in sugar,
• low in sodium,
• high in fiber, and
• high in protein.

Many of the recipes that you’ll find at the following websites qualify as healthy low calorie recipes.

Recipes By Category

- General Recipe Collections

- Breakfast Recipes

- Lunch Recipes

- Dinner Recipes

- Dessert Recipes

General Recipe Collections

www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_low_calorie_recipes
Recipes that are 350 calories or less for main dishes and 250 calories or less for side dishes and desserts.

busycooks.about.com/od/healthycrockpotrecipes/a/healthycrockpot.htm
Crockpot recipes that are low in sodium, low in fat, and simple to make.

www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/recipeindex
A whole crap load of recipes broken down by many different categories.

recipes.sparkpeople.com/great-recipes.asp?food=low+calorie+high+protein+foods
These recipes are great, especially if you’re reducing your carb intake.

www.organicauthority.com/organic-food-recipes/
Lots of organic recipes.

www.lowsodiumcooking.com/free/BlackBeanTurkeyChili.htm
Just one recipe for black bean turkey chili, but I had to include it because it’s so healthy!

Breakfast

I found some great breakfast recipes at the following websites, but you can make some small changes to make some of them better.

For example, I found a breakfast sandwich recipe that had the following per-serving breakdown:

Calories 330; Fat 13 g; (Sat Fat 5 g) ; Protein 25 g; Carb 31 g; Fiber 5 g; Cholesterol 245 mg; Sodium 920 mg

I would make simple substitutions to cut the sodium and saturated fat. Always be on the lookout for improvements that you can make.

www.foodnetwork.com/topics/healthy-breakfast/index.html
There are some great breakfast recipes, but there are some fattening ones too. Skip or modify the recipes with high sodium and fat. Add protein to some recipes for better balance.

www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=60651
Some tasty looking recipes here.

www.bellybytes.com/recipe/breakfast/
Long list of recipes. Make sure to use whole wheat flour for the pancakes and whole grain/whole wheat bread for French toast.

Use sugar substitutes instead of regular table sugar.

Whenever necessary, add lean protein such as turkey bacon, turkey sausage or egg whites.

www.organicauthority.com/organic-food-recipes/breakfast/
Organic breakfast recipes.

www.diabetic-recipes.com/cat_breakfast.htm
I found these recipes on a diabetic website, but the recipes are good for non diabetics as well. The recipes are very low in calories, so boost the calories by adding some lean protein or essential fats.

www.dlife.com/diabetes/diabetic-recipes/category-Breakfast.html
More “diabetic” recipes. You need to add lean protein to them.

Lunch

lowfatcooking.about.com/od/salad1/Low_Fat_Salads.htm
Healthy low calorie salad recipes.

www.dlife.com/diabetes/diabetic-recipes/category-Lunch_Snacks.html
You need to add lean protein to some of these.

lowfatcooking.about.com/od/salad1/r/tunaspinachsala.htm

www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_lunch_recipes
Some of these look great but need to be skipped or modified.

www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/cheap-and-healthy-brown-bag-lunch-ideas-for-grownups?page=2
Lunch ideas that are cheap, healthy and very easy to make.

Dinner

www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/quick_healthy_low_calorie_recipes_menus

www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/quick_healthy_dinner_recipes
30 minute or less dinner recipes. Some good, some not so good. Skip some meals or be prepared to lower the fat and or sodium.

www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_low_sodium_recipes
Low sodium recipes. Watch the fat in some of these.

www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Healthy-Eating/Low-Sodium-Recipes/Low-Sodium-Dinner-Recipes
Low sodium and low calorie healthy dinner recipes.

lowfatcooking.about.com/od/poultrydishes/Low_Fat_Chicken_and_Turkey_Recipes.htm
A whole bunch of mouth watering low calorie chicken and turkey recipes.

lowfatcooking.about.com/od/meatdishes/Meat_Dishes.htm
Some very tasty looking, healthy low calorie recipes using lean beef and pork.

Dessert

www.cooksrecipes.com/diabetic-recipes/diabetic-dessert-recipes.html
A crap load of desserts lower in carbs and sugar.

lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/desserts/LowCarb_Desserts.htm
More lower carb desserts.

www.organicauthority.com/organic-food-recipes/desserts/
Organic desserts.

healthy.betterrecipes.com/healthydessertrecipes.html
Plenty of recipes to keep you busy for awhile.

www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/quick_healthy_dessert_recipes

It took me quite awhile to compile this list, so I hope you find plenty of good healthy, low calorie recipes that you can use.

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