r/LowCalorieCooking

I wanted to celebrate the 250th birthday of America with a Macro Friendly tres leches that all my macro conscious friends can enjoy. I used Claude to iterate a recipe that turned out fabulous. Here it is:

Macros
Whole 9 x 13 Cake
Calories 3570
Protein 201 g
Carbs 332 g
Fat 129 g
Fiber 16 g

Per 1/12
Calories 298
Protein 16.8 g
Carbs 27.7 g
Fat 10.8 g
Fiber 1.3 g

Per 1/16
Calories 223
Protein 12.6 g
Carbs 20.8 g
Fat 8.1 g
Fiber 1 g

Ingredients

Cake
1 box Pillsbury Zero Sugar Yellow Cake Mix
3 whole eggs
3 egg whites
60 g melted unsalted butter
240 g Fairlife Whole Milk
18 g freeze dried strawberry powder
2 drops pink gel food coloring
1 tsp vanilla extract

Tres Leches Soak
2 Core Power Elite Strawberry shakes
170 g regular evaporated milk
20 g freeze dried strawberry powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Whipped Topping
240 g heavy whipping cream
120 g Fairlife Whole Milk
4 g unflavored gelatin
15 g powdered allulose monk fruit blend
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Decoration
200 g strawberries sliced lengthwise
60 g blueberries

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease a 9 x 13 pan.
Separate egg yolks and whites.
Whip the egg whites (6 egg whites) til soft peaks
Mix together the cake mix, 3 egg yolk, butter, Fairlife milk, vanilla, strawberry powder, and food coloring until smooth.
Fold in egg whites in thirds

Bake for 28 min (shorter time due to our alterations) or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool for about 20 minutes.
Poke holes every half inch across the cake.
Whisk together the Core Power, evaporated milk, strawberry powder, vanilla, and salt.
Slowly pour the soak over the cake in 3 to 4 additions, allowing each addition to absorb before adding the next. I recommend 5 min gaps between additions.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Bloom the gelatin in a small amount of the Fairlife milk.
Warm the remaining milk and dissolve the gelatin.
Chill until very cold and just beginning to thicken.
Whip the heavy cream with the sweetener, vanilla, and salt to soft peaks.
Slowly stream in the chilled gelatin milk while mixing.
Continue whipping until medium peaks form.
Spread evenly over the chilled cake.
Decorate with the blueberries and strawberry slices.

Arrange the blueberries in the upper left corner.
Arrange the strawberry slices into horizontal rows with the whipped topping showing between them to create an American flag.

Serve cold.

Three hard-boiled eggs: 215 cal

91g sunrise smoked tofu (that I marinated in tamari and a bit of maple syrup. Already had a strip when this pic was taken): 70cal

230g (raw) potato: 177cal…

…that I cooked with 1tbsp olive oil: 120cal

Tomato: 10cal

Everything was so good. I’m satisfied and incredibly full. Was gonna pick up breakfast but instead I cut out about 800 cal by making it myself!

I’m lazy in the kitchen so I didn’t bother blending anything, just mixed it all in a bowl . First time trying cottage cheese pancakes and thought it might be lumpy but once cooked I Couldn’t taste the cottage cheese! Made about 4-5 large fluffy pancakes per serve.

Not listed in the ingredients was about 3G baking powder, pinch of salt, vanilla essence + sweetener drops (I would probably use a bit more next time or granulated sweetener as well)

Cooked on a pre heated non stick pan with no added butter/oil. Really impressed!

One full bottle of the french vanilla creamer, and a splash of each of the rest. Actually pretty decent

For those who like a sweet treat, you can make this for breakfast, like I usually do, or any time you have a sweet craving. This tastes like pie, but with way less calories.

1/2 serving of Bonne Mamman Apple Pie Filling (45 cal) or Pumpkin Pie Filling (50 cal)

1/2 serving of Trader Joe's Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt (90 cal)

1 serving of Trader Joe's Ancient Grain Granola (130 cal)

1/2 serving of raw blueberries (47 cal)

1 serving of light whipped cream (15 calories)

All the cinnamon you want

Total: 327 calories with the apple filling, 332 calories if you go with the pumpkin.

You can also substitute the granola for anything else, it's just that it gives it a good "crust" crunch. Bonne Mamman also makes other fruit fillings and jams so you can experiment with different "pie" flavors. Also, I do half servings because I'm 4'10 so I have a high calorie deficit, but feel free to use full servings of it works for you!

Macros in pic 2, cooked 1lb chicken with 1-2 tablespoons avocado oil so I’d round up to 300 cals per cheesesteak to be safe. All cooked weights.. pretty filling but with no sides (oven baked fries) I probs would’ve had 2 servings

May not look thaaattt pretty but it does taste really good and it was filllllling!!! (ofc add seasonings. Salt/seasoning salt, adobo, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder)

(Ingredients/ calories on the last slide)

Indian and very simple home made kidney beans recipe

Sorry in advance for the length. My mind is blown, and I want to give as much detail as possible to learn if I'm getting something wrong here.

I've always been led to believe that eating healthy is difficult / you don't get to eat good food. Always been overweight. Didn't even feel like I ate that badly (like quality, don't do much fast food/soda/junk food), I just ate a lot. Big appetite.

Learned a little while ago that it's as simple as calories in vs calories out. Yes, there are other important things, but just down to basics, if you're in a deficit, you will lose weight. It's worked pretty well for me, down about 15 pounds in three-ish months w/ no exercise (can't, injury/surgery, getting back to it soon). Learned some ways to eat a large quantity of food but for lower calories. Guess that's "volume eating," but I don't go crazy, just enough to feel full. And often eat a whole box of lettuce with a little GHughes w/ most meals lol.

But with new cooking there were still types of meals I haven't been able to replicate well. A lot of my meals are ground chicken + some starch (potato, rice) made in a bunch of different styles. Also mixing in Nature's Promise grass-fed 10 oz steaks and Heritage shaved rib-eye (both cheat codes). But doing 2 meals of chicken for every 1 meal of red meat to not go crazy with cholesterol. Anywayyyyyy, been making some crazy stuff lately that all feels too good to be true. Is it?

Also, important to note imo, I really value the effort-to-goodness scale. Love stuff that tastes good, is filling, and takes me like 15-20 minutes start to finish. Like, for example, the first pic, might be better if I made my own sauce from scratch using cottage cheese or something like that ... or I can just use this jar that's tasty and low-ish cal.

Pic 1: Ground Chicken gnocchi w/ vodka sauce. Ingredients:

• Cara Mama Basil Potato Gnocchi, 1/2 lb = 315 calories
• Bell & Evans Ground Chicken, 1/2 lb = 240 calories
• Yo Mama's Vodka Sauce, 1 cup = 160 calories
• TOTAL: 715 calories

Pic 2: Ground chicken smash burgers and lemon pepper fries (air fryer). Ingredients:

• Bell & Evans Ground Chicken, 1/2 lb = 240 calories
• Nature's Own Keto Soft White Burger Buns, 2 = 120 calories
• Russett Potato, 0.8-1.0 lb (varies each time) = 285-360 calories
• Sargento reduced-fat shredded mozzarella, 1/2 cup = 140 calories
• GHughes Thousand Island on bun, 1-ish tbs? not totally measured, just dabbed on = 25-ish calories
• TOTAL: 800-875 calories ish

Pic 3: Shaved steak on a big ole potato. Ingredients:

• Heritage Shaved Ribeye, 1 package: 410 calories
• Soy Sauce/Hoisin/Minced Ginger/Minced Garlic mix, measured out to roughly 100 calories
• Batata (Japanese Sweet Potato), 1-1.25 lb: 415-525 cals
• TOTAL: 925-1025 calories ish
  • Also want to note on this one I threw the shaved steak on 3 of those burger buns from pic 2 tonight and cut the calories by a decent bit, 3 of those are 180, down big from the potato. But the Japanese sweet potato is so damn good

These three are common ones in the rotation. Well, the last two are. Just made the Gnocchi yesterday and will be making it again tomorrow because it was so good and so filling. I'm especially blown away by that one, I mean, it's vodka sauce pasta! Not a small serving either! I'm Many other meals in the rotation, too. Often do this, too (not pictured). Usually once a week.

• Nature's Promise Grass-fed 10 oz ny strip or ribeye, 325-350 cals
• One ear of corn, 100 ish cals
• TOTAL: 425-450 cals 😂

I generally eat one big meal per day. I've been eating a ton of egg drop soup for lunch (weird thing to fixate on, but it's so good and easy to make) that I make for about 275 calories per bowl. And I have a nice selection of healthy snacks:

• Mighty Spark Sea Salt & Pepper Snack Stick, 50 calories per stick
• Babybell PRO, 50 calories per piece
• Dole No Sugar Added Mandarin Oranges, 35 calories per cup
• Dole No Sugar Added Pear Cubes, 40 calories per cup
• Quaker Buttermilk Ranch Rice Crisps, 120 calories per serving (16 crisps), 3 servings per pag
• Some others in the rotation but these are the main ones at this point. Other ones in the rotation are in the "same spirit" as these, all solid calorie numbers

And then I bought myself a Ninja Creami. I make pints that all end up at roughly 250-300 calories, but when adding up I just count them all as 300. Don't eat them every night, but 2-3 nights a week.

And, lastly, started drinking diet soda. Wasn't even a soda drinker before, not because I didn't enjoy it but cause I knew it was bad. But gave up on the "fear" of artificial sweeteners I'd been taught cause apparently you're only in danger if you have a cartoonish amount. Use it as a way to satisfy "cravings" for sweet stuff or general snacks throughout the day.

So, for example, here was yesterday:

• Egg Drop Soup: 275
• Chicken Stick: 50
• 2 Babybell: 50
• 1 orange, 1 pear cup: 75
• Ground Chicken gnocchi w/ vodka sauce: 715
• 1 Creami (didn't even finish, was too full): 300
• TOTAL: 1515. And I was so full by the end of the day, I couldn't even finish the ice cream.

I'm (M) 6-1 about 272 rn, at my peak hit 291. I'll usually eat between 1400-1800 a day, most of the time closest to 1500 or 1600. This feels like it's working. Especially happy cause I've done zero exercise with this. AND I've had days like once a week where I'll eat like crap. Go to Buffalo Wild Wings and demolish some boneless, stuff like that. I'm not even being super strict and it feels like it's working. But like, what am I missing? Always told that if it feels too good to be true, it usually is. This feels too good to be true.

TLDR: Found a way to eat good food for good calorie numbers, including pasta w/ cream-based sauce and stuff like that. Is this too good to be true?

80 grams of chobani protein vanilla yogurt (20 grams of protein!!)
50 grams of fresh cut strawberries
20 grams of a crushed up cinnamon toast rice cake

summer is still in full swing and honestly my calorie deficit was fighting for its life with all the weekend patio drinks. i decided to try a "damp" lifestyle taper to cut back on the alcohol bloat, and i've been having so much fun making these zero proof craft cocktails instead.

actually seeing the math of the empty liquid calories and money i'm saving just by making these healthy swaps at home is literally the only thing keeping me motivated right now.

I swear it tastes so so much better then w just water

The pork tenderloin was seasoned and grilled on the BBQ, I microwaved an entire butternut squash and head of cauliflower then mashed them together batch for a few days) and finally, microwaved the broccoli and chopped it up with 25 g of Cheez Whiz (because why not?)