Filling meals always seem tricky to me, healthy or otherwise, so I’m always on the lookout for more things to try.
Oven roasted vegetables are a phenomenal way to add variety to your plate, and are very filling. They can all be roasted at 400⁰ F, so you can prep them simultaneously. Cauliflower, broccoli, beets, carrots and squash are all great options. If you select thin-skinned squash you don’t even have to peel it.
Even easier, you can just take a bag of frozen mixed veg and roast it. I open the bag, toss in some olive oil and an herb of choice then spread on a baking sheet and roast at 450 until done. Crazy fast and easy.
Agree with this, but as someone else commented I would crank it up to 450. You can get more roasty parts and less steamed parts.
If you oven does air fryer you can try frying veggies too it’s awesome
I like bean curries as a healthful and satisfying meal. Kidney beans curry, dal, curried chickpeas, mung bean curry, etc.
Lots of vitamins and fiber, they’re one pot meals, the spices are very satisfying to the senses and can be adjusted to different moods, and you can eat them as is, or with a starch of choice. Rice or flatbread are good, but also over a baked potato or jacket potato is great too!
I make a large casserole dish of green beans, broccoli, and cauliflower, another dish with 8 corn on the cob, a small dish with ~4lbs of chicken or beef over a sliced onion and occasionally a sliced baking potato with a nut/dry-fruit trailmix and the meat laying in a solid layer on top with a spice on top of that. I also have a covered glass bowl that makes 2 cups of rice in the oven. I cook all of that in the oven every 8-12 days and it is my only solid meal each day. I just cook at 450F for an hour and fifteen minutes.
The plain rice is good for a couple of days, but then I use the rest with a couple bags of instant brown rice, 3 eggs, soy, fish, and oyster sauces, a bit of raw sugar, and the following combo I run through a food processor, large onion, bundle of green onions, 10 cloves garlic and an equivalent amount of ginger, and a carrot. All of this I saute for a few minutes with a small amount of organic canola oil, (organic is important for canola bc of concentrated toxin potential). Once it is nearly sautéed, I run the stocks of the broccoli I cooked with my veggies through the food processor, add these, then add a bag of frozen peas. Set this aside, do the eggs, add the rice, soy to wet everything and unstick the eggs, 1 or 2 tablespoons worth of fish and oyster sauces, a small single handful-ish of raw sugar, and mix, then add the sauté mix in and stir under heat until it is well mixed. I cook and fill a large wok. That is enough for every meal and snacking or breakfast.
My main meal is all the above on a plate with the secret being the final sauce. Mix 1 part spicy mayo with 1 part teriyaki sauce and ~1/5 part Worcestershire sauce. Get the best stuff you can manage for the spicy mayo and teriyaki sauces, but especially the mayo. Alternatively mix regular mayo and sriracha to taste. Skip anything with chemistry lab like ingredients or anything that is not primarily eggs and vinegar for mayo.
Fried rice is a misnomer in “healthy” food. It is not fried like all the bad stuff. You can even skip the canola oil for some chicken or other stock.
That is all real food that is filling and relatively cheap. I’m partially disabled and so cooking is hard on me physically. This is my best solution for healthy, low effort in total, and avoiding all processed foods. For additional context, I was 350lbs in 2009, was 190lbs in 2013, and even with my chronic health issues now I am 220lbs at 6’1". There are not a lot of people that lose that kind of weight and keep it off. I only drink a black coffee, water, and 1 beer max per night, I eat a vegan cookie, 1 avocado in guacamole and a small bowl of simple ingredients corn chips made with sunflower oil. Breakfast is usually black coffee and a couple pieces of whole grain simple ingredient toast with nothing on them. I never touch dairy or anything made with cheap omega 4 oils like palm oil that are major intestinal irritants.
That is my daily. I recommend it.
Have you tried porridge? Oat, rye, barley, buckwehat etc. are good. If the taste of just one of those isn’t to your liking, try mixing two different types together.
There is a breakfast pooridge that a French place server that is fantastic. I swear it has quinoa in it.
I generally find rice or potatoes most filling, so I plan meals around those. Jacket potatoes are amazing with almost anything (and plenty of cheese). Curries are great on both (and are a great vehicle for tons of veg), but flavoured rice with beans or lentils (mejadra) are a really filling side to meat/substitute/roast veg (or even on its own, though a little boring). Less healthy but filling is the classic (veggie) burger/sausages-chips-beans (of the baked variety) combo. Make a simple salad to go with it to make it more “healthy” (my go to is sweetcorn and red jalapenos with simple dressing, or store bought coleslaw).
I’m disabled so prep and cooking are a lot for me, so I mostly use frozen and tinned products which a lot of people discount as a bad choice, but find a way to flavour them nicely and they’re super versatile (and still perfectly nutritious).
I’m just waiting for my dinner to cook and figured I should also mention some of the ingredients I use (on top of whatever seasoning the dish requires) that are guaranteed to boost almost any dish - maggie liquid seasoning (basically MSG) especially when combined with butter (I use plant based), dried fried onions, and nutritional yeast flakes.
I also roast a load of garlic cloves all at once (little bit of olive oil, wrap in foil, low heat for about half an hour - there are more precise recipes online) then freeze, then you can have a mushy clove (or 5) to use whenever you need it (every meal lol).
Oatmeal with milk and fruit. Or sub fruit for peanut butter. Pretty filling, and keeps you full for longer than expected. Peanut butter and banana/jam sandwiches are very filling too. I think bananas have less sugar do I try to use that.
Shukshuka is my go to; I make big batches of the spicy tomato stuff and then warm that and then add egg whites and cheese
Roast some vegetables. One on my favorite recipes for this is cauliflower fries: https://summertomato.com/2012/07/30/roasted-curried-cauliflower-to-die-for/
I only use the cauliflower and olive oil and it tastes great. I also evolved to roasting other vegetables at the same time, most often carrots and broccoli but any vegetable can be roasted… I think.
Mediterranean chickpea salad, like this one. I usually have it as a side but it’s really filling on its own. I like to sub one can of chickpeas for beans sometimes.
All sorts of bean stew. Legumes are filling, rich in protein and fiber, and really easy to prepare. Make them with coconut cream and curry, olive oil and garlic, in a veggie broth … cheap, tasty and loads of variety.
I just make a lot of goulash or stews/soups.
A protein, a lot of veg to give it some filler, and a lot of liquid to fill me up.
Jackfruit goulash. Super easy to make, rich on fiber and delicious
#1 Beans and rice and greens in all their myriad variations.
#2 Here are my healthy work from home lunches:
Eggs and potatoes and beans in a burrito.
Avocado, onion, and sprouts on whole grain toast, with cream cheese is also good.
Goat cheese and pumpkin seeds in a baked purple sweet potato.
Chili paste, egg, avocado and pork fu on leftover rice.
But mostly - beans and rice and greens.
I’m intensely monitoring this thread…
Healthy, Filling, and Enjoy… Pick any two, and I’ll tell you something from my diet, but all three? Nope…The quality of ingredients matters a lot.
Chicken breasts from my grocery store are pretty bland, regardless of how I prepare them, because their source isn’t good. If I get chicken breasts from Costco (they come vacuum sealed in their juices), I can oven bake with just some salt and olive oil and they’re still really good.
But also, learn some spice blends (or find some). The same chicken and rice can provide a bunch of different feeling meals with different seasonings.
My unpopular opinion: Chicken in general is bland.
Take ANY chicken-based dish that tastes good, and it’s because of the seasoning and the sause. Now, if you take the exact same recipe, but substitute chicken for pork, it instantly transforms the dish into something so much better.
But that’s my point. Good chicken doesn’t need seasoning.
If your chicken is bland, you’re probably getting ones bred/raised for fast mass at all costs. Chicken broth is used for flavor in other dishes just as much as beef or pork is, because chicken can have plenty of flavor.
It also tends to be leaner and better for you, though. I eat my share of beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, and occasionally various fish. I’m not bashing any of them. But cheap beef and pork can be just as bland as cheap chicken. It’s all about finding a reasonable source.
Snake river chicken. It’s staple comfort food in our home. Get a Dutch oven chop up several carrots, some onions and potatoes. Fill the Dutch oven about half way with veg, coat with lawrys season salt. Add a layer of chicken thighs skin up add more lawrys. do another layer of chicken thighs and more lawrys. Cover and put in the oven 375 ~1.5 hrs. Check temp of chicken at an hour. Once they are all >=165 it’s done.
Simple, easy, cheap, healthy so long as you don’t care about sodium
