I love chips and salsa, and I love to eat a lot at once. However its hard to find chips that are low calorie and do not break the bank. just looking for some alternatives,

I am not a fan of cucumbers, and popcorn isn't the best for dipping. I do not know if I like radish, I have only had it once in the past, so I would need to revisit.

Any suggestions would be great! Thank you!!

Seafood

This includes can or pouched tuna, salmon, sardines. Shrimp, tuna steaks, etc.

Cottage Cheese

Great protein source that gives your body satiety signals. Great for a lasagna, breads, etc.

Greek yogurt

I started replacing things that have mayo with greek yogurt and a good mustard, so tasty. Mediterranean and Indian foods have shown me the versatility in using yogurt for dishes.

My favorite easy snack go to is a salmon pouch or canned, pickles, peppers, onions, lemon or lime juice, seasonings, an herb like mint or cilantro, and greek yogurt. Mix it together and use your favorite low carb wrap.

Veggies

Classic broccoli, potatoes, celery, cucumbers, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, etc. Zucchini noodles. I have made sweet potato noodles. Roasted potatoes.

Carmalized sweet potatoes are so good! Just a little cinnamon, a small amount of sugar or honey, and let it carmalize in your oven! Or the purple ones. Those are delicious on their own.

Pico Salsa

Just limes, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, and jalapeños. The best part? It goes good with most food. If you use mint and parsley instead of cilantro, you get a good taste profile too!

Also, you can cook these ingredients for a different flavor and add chicken or beef.

Look up picadillo for beef recipes with similar ingredients. Or tinga chicken, using a lean cut or lean chicken.

Pickled and fermented food

Good for the gut and just tasty. Kimchi, sourcrout, pickled onions, olives blah blah.

Other things:

Beans and legumes in general to really fill up the tummy. Full of fiber. They might be more calorie dense depending on your recipe.

If you soak them for 8-24hrs, drain the water, and then cook them, they cook faster and helps significantly reduce the bloat. Or just buy canned I guess but they won't reduce the bloat. lol

Obviously eggs, poultry are a given. Lean beef etc.

What are your favorite go tos?

12 Oz Top round steak

16 Oz cut leaf spinach

8 Oz broccoli/cauliflower rice

Enough Montreal Steak Seasoning to fistfight the bland accusations

You can also add 15 more grams protein for only 50 more calories , with 100g more prawns. That makes it 36 grams protein for 310 calories!
Let me know if you want the recipe for the prawns, I cooked them in tomato, onion , garlic, chilli and soy sauce - all have minimal calories and added lots of flavour
Prawns are so underrated for the protein and calorie ratio

Today I forgot my meal prep. I stopped at Walmart. Got a 12 ounce bag of salad mix and a pound of shaved chicken, I call it salad in a bag. $8 btw also got mustard and hot sauce at the gas station.
12oz Salad mix 60 cal 12g carbs 4g protein
16oz Deli chicken 400 cal 8g fat 16g carbs 72g protein
Total 460 cal 8g fat 28g carbs 76g protein

Use this thread to share tips for economical volume meals or inexpensive food finds! You may also share coupon codes (even referral links) and any cool sales on huge foods that you may hear about.

I’ve been craving something like loaded potato tacos, but I want to make a big portion without the calories getting out of hand.

I’m thinking crispy roasted potatoes, seasoned ground chicken or turkey, lettuce, salsa, onions, maybe some Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and a little cheese.

Has anyone made something similar? I’d love to hear your version or any ingredients that make it more filling without adding a ton of calories.

My friend has diabetes and I'm trying to get her blood sugar under control. Today was full of fresh air and exercise and here's my keto-ish meal for her. Steamed Broccoli, Beef Tenderloin (w/ Rosemary and Shallots), and Large Shrimp. With how light the shrimp and broccoli are, this really felt like volume eating.

I melted some cheddar cheese to dip the broccoli in(but that was only for me), and used some raw crushed garlic, olive oil, salt, and a leftover chilli packet from pizza delivery I had for the shrimp dipping sauce. Sorry for the feet in the picture, my place is a dump and this is the only spot I could find to get a picture. It's only been 30 minutes since I finished and I'm already hungry even though my stomach is full.

Just discovered the most incredible soup. Recommended by a friend and just got around to making it now the weather has gotten a bit colder. Holy moly, I was not expecting it to taste that good and I am so so full! 204 cals a portion, this makes 3 at around 500ml each. I just threw everything in the pot roughly chopped, left it simmering for 15 mins and then blended. Heaven!

636g Tomatoes (approx six salad tomatoes)
80g Carrots
140g Red Peppers
200ml veg stock
6 garlic cloves
Large onion (I used 100g of frozen onion)
60g Tomato Puree
220g Piccolato Tomatoes
300g Pot fat free Cottage Cheese

(No photo cos I inhaled it so quickly)

Italian Antipasto Salad — Full Batch

• Roasted bell peppers — 588 g cooked (from 920 g raw): \~285 kcal | \~9 g P | \~55 g C | \~3 g F | \~19 g fiber
• Celery — 234 g: \~33 kcal | \~1.6 g P | \~7 g C | \~0.4 g F | \~3.7 g fiber
• Chickpeas — 200 g dry → 437 g cooked: \~686 kcal | 40 g P | \~126 g C | \~11.4 g F | \~34 g fiber
• Mozzarella pearls — 231 g: \~578 kcal | \~41.3 g P | \~8.3 g C | \~41.3 g F
• Armour hard salami — 164 g: \~703 kcal | \~35.1 g P | \~5.9 g C | \~64.4 g F
• Golden Greek pepperoncini — 83 g: \~14 kcal | 0 g P | \~2.8 g C | 0 g F
• Hillshire turkey smoked sausage — 373 g: \~666 kcal | \~53.3 g P | \~20 g C | \~40 g F
• Fresh lemon juice — 79 g: \~17 kcal | \~0.3 g P | \~5.5 g C | \~0.2 g F
• Black olives — 170 g: \~170 kcal | 0 g P | \~11.3 g C | \~17 g F
• Shredded provolone/mozzarella — 70 g: \~225 kcal | \~17.5 g P | \~5 g C | \~17.5 g F
• Red onion — 115 g: \~46 kcal | \~1.3 g P | \~10.7 g C | \~0.1 g F | \~2 g fiber

Add garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, oregano to taste

FULL BATCH TOTAL

~3,423 kcal

Protein: ~199 g
Carbs: ~258 g
Fat: ~195 g
Fiber: ~64 g
Net carbs: ~194 g

Macro distribution: ~23% protein | ~30% carbs | ~47% fat

Per 100 g
~135 kcal | ~7.8 g P | ~10.1 g C | ~7.7 g F | ~2.5 g fiber

since everyone was criticizing my protein ratio yesterday, here is a higher protein carbe diem recipe. volume eating cheat code!

This is my tastiest, easiest 15 min warm salad dinner I make most nights. Could probably save on kcal by using low fat feta but I prefer this one

Scroll for macros

I was on a steep cut from May to August, then spent most of August eating "normally". I was annoyed by how many calories are in typical foods, but what really threw me for a loop was the fresh tortilla I bought. La Abuela fresh tortillas that are packaged and you cook them at home, ONE tortilla had 150 calories.

I was so used to low carb tortillas being 50-80 calories, seeing 150 calories for one small tortilla just seemed absurd. I could easily inhale 4 of those tortillas in one go, 600 calories and it wouldn't even include the filling 😭

I've accepted that volume eating will be my routine for the rest of my life. Lots of veggies & leafy greens, lots of melon & berries, lots of lean protein and legumes, steamed potatoes, low cal sauces and fat free sauces, lots of lean soups and stews. Low carb wraps for sandwiches, bell pepper sandwiches, lots of konjac rice and noodles, sugar free everything, fat free when possible.

Being a small woman with a big appetite is such a paradox.

By light I mean high volume but quite low in calories. I usually save my big meal for dinner and have 2 lighter meals for breakfast and lunch.

My go to "light" meal is this Kale, Tomato, Red Onion, and Turkey Wrap on a low carb tortilla. I add mustard and Valentina as my sauce. It comes out to 215 calories for the whole thing. I eat this every single day.

PS. This is also 19g if Protein and 34g of Fiber!

5% minced pork, white cabbage, coconut milk, pineapple, kidney beans, jerk seasoning, peppers, onions and cilantro

I understand that they’re supposed to be number 1 in terms of satiety, but I really could eat a whole kg of potatoes in one sitting lol.

I cannot say the same for rice, oatmeal, beans… I might just love potatoes too much, I always end up overeating on the days I do eat them, to the point where I had to remove them from my diet completely lol.

I found roasted pumpkin / squash to be as filling but for half the calories (even tho potatoes taste so much better…).

I literally feel like I’m eating luxurious gourmet food right now and it’s crazy lol I know it might sound a little odd with the soy sauce vegetables and then chicken sausage with marinara but you really can’t taste the marinara at all. It’s just to keep the chicken sausage, moist cause I cooked a bunch of it at once and needed to use it up. All veggies cooked with nothing but soy sauce and salt and chicken sausage has a little bit of “Slap Yo Mama” sugar-free low-fat sensitive tomato sauce. HUGE amount of food (not sure on exact calories but I only use like 1/8 of the batch of cauliflower rice and 1/6 of the veggies and about 2 ounces of leftover chicken sausage. First time doing it without any spray oil because it’s a total lie about it being with 0 cal-that’s for like a 1/32 sec spray-it’s actually like 50 cal and 5 g of fat for a five second spray which is about how much you actually use minimum. Turned out fine😊 the whole secret to the texture of the rice is adding it completely frozen to a pan on medium high and only stirring every three or four minutes until golden. I added 2 tablespoons of soy sauce for each of the three batches of cauliflower fried rice (a 12 ounce frozen bag) and 2 tablespoons each for the bag of cauliflower florettea and broccoli florettes right before the end of cooking and that is where 99% of the flavor comes from. I cooked the egg whites separately last so that I didn’t have to scrub the hell out of the pan multiple times.

Cauliflower rice (36 ounces frozen cauliflower rice and 32 ounce egg whites (measured raw) 727 cals whole huge batch (I scooped out about 1/8 for this meal) so 90.875 calories

12 ounces each cauliflower and broccoli florettes 172 cal for entire thing and I used about 1/6 so 28.667 calories

10 tablespoons soy sauce for whole batch 100 cal so like 12 calories for this meal

2 ounces natures promise sweet Italian chicken sausage with kale 41.176 cal

1 TBS flap your mama sensitive marinara 5 calories

I'm obsessed with cookie dough stuff. It's recent. I've been going through cookie dough yassos but those aren't exactly high volume. Anyone have an actually good high volume low cal cookie dough recipe? I like that brown sugar taste.

Hello, I would like to share a very voluminous dinner I meal prepped this week for my calorie deficit.

This dish is a mix between low calorie Buldak noodles and one-pot beef and cabbage sauté.
It’s a stir fry with many vegetables - onions, shredded carrots, and cabbage, with a lower calorie buldak noodles of a mix of bean sprouts, miracle noodles, and some regular spaghetti noodles for satiety and texture.
The sauce is a mix of light and dark soy sauces, oyster sauce, Dijon mustard, sriracha, and most importantly buldak spicy sauce. There are also cuts of round flat steak for protein.

The entire cooked dish weighs 7.5 pounds (3.4kg), and I split it into 5 servings, each 1.5 pounds (680g) and less than 500 calories each!
(120 of the calories in each serving is from my optional additional spaghetti noodles for texture and carb satiety).

Nutrition facts for one serving:
Weight: 1.5lbs (680g)
494 calories
12.7g fat
79.5g carbs
28.6g protein

I plan on eating this with roasted chicken and egg on the side to get the protein up, I just didn’t end up putting it in this meal prep.

.Edit: I forgot to mention: there is no oil used in this recipe at all! 😁😁

Weird choice for breakfast, I know but I didn't have much food around the house.

I rarely see bulgur being talked around here but it's basically wheat and it's a great choice, it absorbs much more water than rice or pasta does and it has more fiber and protein than brown rice too.

Get a pot and add water equal to twice the weight of the bulgur you want to cook. Heat it to a rolling boil, add the bulgur and mix. Cover and cook for around 15 minutes (that's my preference you might like it tougher or softer though!) on low heat. In the meantime I usually mix 3-4 times.

I used chicken breast this time though chicken thighs might get you fuller for more calories, as they are fattier. Spice mix is salt, pepper, garlic powder, sweet paprika and spicy paprika.

Cut into cubes and fry for 10 minutes on medium-high heat. Here I cooked way more chicken than I should've but if you cook less of it, it will get a nice golden brown color.

Any veggie mix works as long as it doesn't have any added condiments. (Plenty of time they add oil which sometimes literally triples its calories). I just boiled them for 4 minutes but you can fry them too if you feel like it. Also I didn't use the brand in the picture just added something close to it.

Finally, mix some bulgur, chicken, veggies and some Worcester sauce and enjoy.

I felt like also having a cup of green tea to start my morning.

reupload because it got removed before

Quick and easy protein snack. This is the vegan version that uses a silken tofu instead of cottage cheese or Greek yogurt, PBfit, Isopure Rice and Pea chocolate protein instead of whey, and a serving of frozen bluerries.

395 calories, 11 grams of fat, 44.5 grams of protein, 37 grams of carbs of which 11 is fiber.

I can't do butter or coconut oil or flour, so I will use canola or light olive for the fat component.

Oats, oat fiber, and really really need psyllium (according to my doctor)

PB2 light to add bulk and flavor, maybe egg whites.

Sweeteners? I will go light on them...supertaster, so I can't really use any artificial sugars..

maybe a bit of honey or maple syrup or allulose.

Thoughts? suggestions? ideas? Thanks.

My two favourite volume foods combined (prawns and potatoes).. I can’t get over how tasty and low-calorie it is!

385 cal
49g protein
21g carbs
12g fat

——

Recipe:

Get 1 large potato and slice it into chips (I use a manual chip chopper thing that I got from Kmart)

Lightly spray with olive oil and chuck on a baking paper lined tray in a 375°F / 190°C oven/AF for 40 minutes

When they are ready, remove potatoes and crank the oven/AF to the highest heat possible

Add 330g peeled tail-on prawns to a plate, use a paper towel to dry it off and salt/season to your liking

Spread on the baking paper/sheet from before, lightly spray with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and put back into oven for about 6 minutes until fully cooked. I use a meat thermometer to make sure it’s around 65°C/155°F

Add herbs/spices/sauce to taste. I added chopped parsley and 2 tablespoons of hot salsa (which is included in the calories above)