Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

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Assalam-o-alaikum all!

I have recently started counting my calories & lets just say its been horrible knowing that even after cooking in evoo & cutting oil as much as I can & cutting my rice & roti intake. It still exceeds the calories I am aiming for per meal.

For the past seven days I have just baked chicken & fish with Italian, American & once Desi masalas.

The day I made some pasta & I did take care of the oil & serving size it still came out to a whopping 1300 calories per serving. That’s way too much.

At this point it seems like either cut down on desi food or go beyond the calorie limit.

I need meal ideas. We are open to anything except salmon & shrimps. Other than that any sort of meat & any sort of seasoning.

Salads, soups, baked stuff. I need it all.

Also any ideas on how I can incorporate Desi food for those days when I am craving some mirch masala.

How can mix different types of salads so it doesn’t get boring.

I am also planning on making lots of chicken broth once a week & freezing it in smaller portions to take out & make different types of soups. So ideas on making different types of soups.

Mucho gracias in advance.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

What method you use for calorie counting. A pasta dish should not be that high in calories unless of course it has alferado or other cream based sause.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

A low calorie desi dish would be chicken seekh kabob.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

Really? what kind of pasta dish did you make that it was 1300 calories?

over the weekend, I made linguine (which was 800 calories cooked..half a package), with chicken in cream (the cream was 400 calories but I used only 3/4th so 300)...im guesstimating chicken at 400 calories... I had a really big portion and by calculations...it turned out to be like 750Cal?

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

a searchable database of foods and their calories … allows you to choose portion size.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

all desi food can be 400 calories or less if none/tiny amount of oil is used. the calories come from oil. additional calories are from the flour in roti or rice.

I have made desi food with no oil in a none stick pan. of course it does not taste the same but if your on a diet it still tastes good.

increase the amount of vegetables you add. that will reduce the calories.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

Desi meals under 400 calories

bowl of daal (or any lentils) + 1 whole wheat roti

chicken boti / chicken tikka with 1/4 cup yogurt/raita

any subzi cooked in less oil (sauteed) + whole wheat roti

dahi pholki minus the frined pholki - add chana, aloo, onions, tomatoes, all the vegetables you can think of

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

I can proudly say that my husband shed more then two stone in weight , in 2.5 months ... his diet is majorly desi and he will not compromise on it .... hence proven that desi food is not the culprit ...

This is what I did :
- cooked food ( 6 servings ) in two tablespoons oil
- Reduced bad carbs ... paper like roti and only steamed rice ... no biryani or pilau
- Controled the intake of oil .. only one tsp a day ...

The major effective step was controlling the portion ... he needed 2000 calories per day ... I gave him just 1500 calories .. and the rest 200 - 300 he lost via exercise ( mostly treadmill or fast pace walking )

He ate breakfast which would mount to 500 calories including an egg !
controlled his intake of tea and coffee through the day ...
Took fruits and salads only in the afternoon ( 300 calories)

Dinner time he would take about 500 calories .. very thin Chapati with loads of salan ... ( 500 calories )
followed by desi dessert ... small portion to lead upto 200 calories ...

as his weight dropped , I started increasing the protein content .. with red meat and chicken ...

Boiled rice do well too .. I used to give him just two cups with salan ... but I started with rice only after he started losing weight ... coz by then his appetite had reduced significantly.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

wowwwwww.... can you help me? i have three months old baby, i have to redused 20 lbs in 3 months.. is it possible. i m breastfeeding but its not helping... i cant control my food, i always feel hungrey. somebody help me.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

I'm not crazy about chawal...I prefer roti. And I try to eat roti only once a day. So, if I have roti with salan during lunch...I have a green smoothie for dinner, which is also filling and contains plenty of nutrients. Or vice versa.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

My husband went through the same thing he lost 4 sizes in pants in 3-4 months. He just did portion control, instead of second helping of rice he would munch on salads etc. He cut down on desserts too, so he eats couple of bites and be satisfied. As CB said my husband's appetite also went down, now he gets fuller sooner. We eat sorts of foods, indian, continental, north american kind. He didn't starve a single day :) I am hoping he will start swimming soon so tat he can tone his body. Thump up for husbands :)
oh one more thing we eat whole grain pastas, brown rice, roti made with this blend(whole wheat 50%, millet flour 10%, soy bean flour 10%, amranth 10%, besan 10%, and whatever other flour I have on hand, like spelt, brown rice flour etcsss) the roti doesn't taste 100% like regular roti, but we like it, we made the switch to while grains about 2 years ago, out 4 years old also eats all this. We cook a lot of vegetables, and beans/daals too.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

Wow that's a lot of replies. I just got a chance to check up on the thread now. I'll respond to everyone.

Can't compare myself to men. My hubby loses weight faster than I do so I know I can't compare to that. We do whole grains & double fiber stuff wherever we can as well.

Will respond properly tomorrow.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

Bint, try out Flax Seed if you can ... if you make really small roti but add about a spoon full of flax seed powder into the roti and ... believe me you wont feel hungry for half the day and at the same time flaxseed doesnt have alot of calories and it gets digested well ...

But before doing this take a little flaxseed and observe incase your body rejects flaxseed ..

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

CB - do you put the flaxseed into the ball of roti before rolling it out or into the atta?

can you have it everyday in roti? hope it doesnt taste like ajwain :bummer:

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

hi Jatti, I use it everyday , but only in one meal ... Normally the breakfast... and the days I dont feel like it in the morning I add some in my roti ...

I used to mix it in the atta initially but the the roti would come out stiff ... then I started rolling out the roti like a paratha and spread some flax seed into it , roll it , flatten it and make the roti .. came out perfect ..

It has no taste ...they are just seeds .. you wont even notice them ...

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

thanks cb :hugz:

i will try it :slight_smile:

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

Bebo I am using sparkpeople, food.com & online search to count my calories. Thanks for the suggestion of seekh kababs.

**
Sara **I used to guestimate a lot in the past & lets just say I was underestmiating everything. Since I have actually started counting every single calorie I swear it adds up to a lot.

Thank you much for the suggestion.

Even a roma tomato has 25 calories. Heck even garlic powder has 2 calories. As I mentioned above if we really start counting every thing eventually adds up. I already make my salans with less oil. They don’t have any “shakal” but as long as its a little healthier I am all for it.

Thank you much njgal. I am excited to try the last option.

**
CB** Can you tell how you were able to count the calories on the desi food you were giving him? So far the only way I know is to manually enter each recipe & find out the nutritional values.

Also you mentioned 1 teaspoon oil a day. How were you able to bhoonify or fry your onions or salan in 1 teaspoon oil. Any tips would be really appreciated. I use minimum 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons of olive oil for 8 servings. Heck I use 1 teaspoon oil just for plain boiled rice. (put it in the bottom of the pan before giving them dum so they don’t stick in the pan)

And the 200 calories desi desserts? I would love to know about those as well. I have tamed my sweet tooth but I am sure hubby jee would appreciate the extra effort.

I’ll also try the flax seeds that you mentioned. I rarely make roti at home. Have electric stoves. It doesn’t turn out right. Can I add the flax seeds in anything else? My morning cereal perhaps?

What’s a green smoothie?

Dosa Chick that’s awesome that your husband was able to lose that many sizes. We incorporate a lot of healthy things in our meals & snacks whenever we can. We including our 18 months old daughter eat double fiber bread & whole wheat buns & other breads. Wherever there is a lighter version available for things we substitute the fatty or more calorie ones with the lighter ones. Since I am counting my calories I have figured I need to do more than that.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food


You can most definitely lose 20 lbs in 3 months. Look at it this way. 20 lbs in 3 months meaning 6.5 lbs a month that means 1.5 lbs in a week. Since you are breastfeeding as well make sure you consult with your doctor so your milk supply doesn't get affected.

Drink at least 10-15 cups of water a day.

Eat 5-6 times a day but eat less. Choose your meals & snacks wisely.

Avoid soda pop.

Avoid sweet things as well. Maybe once a week or so.

Add some sort of exercise/cardio to your daily schedule. Walking, dancing anything.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

Since I am counting my calories & tracking my food. This is what my daily intake looks like. This is for today. Note there is no rice or roti involved yet I still have the carbs & calories taken care of. I actually had to snack tonight to do the minimum hence the chocolate chips & almonds. Usually I don’t do that. Just have some sort of salad with my meals & that covers up the calories so where the heck do I make place for even half roti or minimum amount of rice.

Also lunch usually looks like something I had for dinner not cereal. Today was just a bad day. Didn’t feel like making lunch for just myself so ate cereal.

Just so you guys know I am aiming to lose 125 lbs by next year November. At the moment I am also aiming for a high protein diet. That does not mean I want to cut all my carbs but want to keep them at the bare minimum my body needs to be healthy, energized & function properly.

Also I am working out as well & drinking at least 10-12 cups of water a day.

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Re: Ideas for 150-400 calories per serving Desi Food

Hey CB I am still waiting for the cooking tips.

Hope to see them soon :)