By Judy Davie
So you want to lose weight but still want to eat well? You haven’t got a lot of time to prepare meals from scratch and you know fast food isn’t going to help with your goal.
This week we take you zig-zagging around the supermarket so you can fill your basket with yummy, healthy, low-kilojoules foods that taste good and will help you lose weight.
Natural muesli with no added sugar
Low GI, no-added-sugar wheat cereals
High fibre bran cereal
Skimmed milk
Reduced fat milk
Low fat natural yogurt
Did you know?
‘Extra creamy’ yogurt has 400kj more than ‘reduced fat’ which has an extra 200kj more than ‘no fat’. It’s worth getting used to losing the fat.
Soy and linseed grain bread
Flat barley mountain bread (avoid wheat, it has a higher GI)
Multigrain rye bread
Read our tips for making healthy, delicious sandwiches. Plus, if you can’t eat bread — we’ve got some tasty alternatives.
‘Full of fruit’ spicy biscuits (eat one)
Dried apricot halves (eat two)
Apples (eat one)
Dark 70 percent chocolate (eat two pieces)
Corn thins (eat a maximum of four)
Eggplant dip (it’s much lower in kilojoules than hummus)
Raw almonds
Fruit
Low fat unsweetened yogurt
Veggie sticks
You’ll have to weave your way all over the supermarket to get these things but the exercise is good for you anyway!
Chilli sauce (1 tbsp equals 98kJ)
Serve it with a lean beef patty and salad. It’s better than anything you can buy from a fast food burger chain.
Tomato salsa (1 tbsp equals 33kJ)
Mix it with some canned chickpeas and serve it over grilled veal scaloppini.
Mint sauce (1 tbsp equals 84kJ)
It’s delicious with grilled lamb.
Eggplant dip (1 tbsp equals 30kJ)
Try this with grilled lamb, mushrooms, eggplant and steamed spinach — delicious. And it’s got far less kJ than hummus so you could have it with your corn thins or veggie sticks as a snack.
Cranberry sauce (1 tbsp equals 150kJ)
Turkey on its own is dry — serve it with steamed green beans.
Soy sauce (1 tbsp equals 34kJ)
It’s the stir fry staple and when combined with lemon juice and garlic makes a terrific low energy sauce. Buy the sodium reduced kind.
Tomato sauce for pasta (1 tbsp equals 51kJ)
There are so many things you can do with this but I love turning it into a meat and veggies bolognese and serving it with a little wholemeal pasta.
Balsamic vinegar (1 tbsp equals 20kJ)
Yummy through lentils, salad greens and steamed veggies.
Fresh fruit
Fresh veggies
Frozen veggies (in case you run out of fresh veggies or you’re strapped for time)
Lean protein, including chicken, lamb, fish, tofu, eggs
Wholegrain carbohydrates, including grain bread, legumes, wholegrain pasta
Good fats, including olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado
Flavoursome condiments
Low fat dairy
The occasional sweet treat
And some tea, coffee and sparking mineral water if you like
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