I’ve successfully lost about 40 pounds (I’m a 6’ mid-30s man, currently weigh ~225 lbs) over 6 months by doing almost nothing aside from abiding by the following two rules:
– 80% of lunches and dinners are either soup or salad
and
– 80% of the snacks I eat between meals (or dessert after meals) are unaccompanied fresh fruit
I think this works because even relatively unhealthy soups or salads (and sweet fruits) have a lot fewer calories, and fill me up a lot faster, than unhealthy other foods (platters of meat and potatoes, burgers/pizza/sandwiches/junk food, etc.).
I’m still going strong, and haven’t lost interest in the new way of eating yet – probably because this rule still allows a lot of variety, plus once or twice a week of eating anything else I feel like, as long as I don’t gorge myself. I understand that diets fail because people don’t stick to them, so I plan to stick with this way of eating for the rest of my life.
That being said, I always like to expand my options within these rules. So what are some relatively simple to prepare soups and salads (or, alternately, stuff that’s easy to find at the cafeterias and buffets and the like on my lunch break)?
I like just about everything. Right now, I eat a lot of homemade Caesar salad, cafeteria bought chili con carne, chicken tortilla soup, Maryland crab soup (being in DC), and salad combinations from Sweetgreen (salad chain). I love spicy and flavorful foods.
African peanut soup, hatch chili and pork soup, gumbo, bouillabaisse or cioppino or something tomatoey and seafoodey like that, minestrone, Italian wedding soup, pumpkin curry soup, pho, tom kha gai, infinite varieties of jjigae.
For salads, I particularly like hard boiled eggs on green salad with Italian dressing. Also rotini, yellow tomatoes, and walnuts on green salad dressed with pressed garlic, oil, and salt. Then there’s panzanella, zucchini ribbon salad, shredded carrots with vinaigrette (omg so good, add some shredded beets for variety), all sorts of Middle Eastern salads with bulgur wheat/chickpeas/mint/feta/olives. There’s the classic Greek peasant salad. Salade Nicoise.
I recently purchased this Mediterranean Diet cookbook.
I made their Greek bean soup that was the best bean soup I’ve ever had. Seriously good. I plan on making it again tonight.
I have made Salad Nicoise several times.
Yesterday I made a bulgur salad with carrots, almonds and scallions.
So far I’m really pleased with the book.
Second on a lot of these. African peanut soup is terrific. Another good one is a butternut squash soup with star anise and ginger shrimp; hearty and lo-cal.
Good French Onion soup is very delicious and very easy.
Get a big pot, preferably cast iron.
Melt 3 tbsp of butter. Add a bit of peanut oil.
Throw in six large onions, chopped into quarter rings 1/8" thick
Heat on medium until onions are dark golden or brown. Stir occasionally.
Scrape bottom of pot several times with wooden spoon as needed.
Add 1 tbsp flour and 1 tsp salt, stir, cook onions another 15 mins.
Add 2 quarts beef stock and slowly simmer.
After reducing, add lots of black pepper to taste.
Add a glass or two of red wine or sherry.
Keep hearing for another 30 mins.
Finish with port or crusty bread or Gruyere if desired.