A small breakfast, a medium sized lunch and a large dinner – does this sound familiar? This uneven distribution of food is the way many of us eat, but it’s not the best approach. If anything, the largest meal of the day should be breakfast. We need to replenish our fuel reserves first thing in the morning so as to get us up and running. Less fuel is required at the end of the day, because this is when we wind down in preparation for our overnight rest. A medium sized meal that is rich in nutrients (but not kilojoules) is what your body needs in the evening.
If your evening meal is much larger than your breakfast and lunch meal, it’s time to do some shuffling. The best way to go about this is to slowly reduce the size of your evening meal (but not the vegies) while slowly increasing the size of your breakfast meal. This strategy is likely to give you more energy throughout the day and prevent you from feeling overly full at bedtime.
Here are some tasty and nutritious dinner ideas:
- Chicken, vegetable and cashew stir fry with steamed rice.
- Lean beef chilli con carne (with red kidney beans), boiled rice and a side salad.
- Vegetable lasagne with a Greek salad and no-oil salad dressing.
- Spinach and ricotta cannelloni with steamed or microwaved seasonal vegetables.
- A fillet of fish baked in foil with lemon pepper, served with cous cous and an Italian salad.
- Barbequed chicken (skin removed) with sweet corn cobs and a mixed bean salad.
- Grilled or barbequed lean steak with jacket potatoes, peas, carrots and squash.
- 97% fat free frozen dinner (for those late nights when it’s too late to cook).
- Canned flavoured tuna or salmon tossed through low fat 2 minute noodles, served with a ready-made garden salad (available from most supermarkets).
For more nutritious and delicious food ideas and fool proof recipes, ´Survival for the Fittest´ and ´Survival from the Fittest´ are a must! Simply click on the links to find out more about these two fantastic cookbooks from the Australian Institute of Sport.