400 calories is a little low, but you might be interested in checking out the Skillet Gnocchi with white beans and spinach from Eating Well - think it's 500 calories for the dinner -- very filling, very easy, and very delicious! Good luck!

I think most of the things you could make that are tasty don't have a recipe...grilled chicken -skinless boneless breasts and wilted spinach in a tiny bit of oil with lots of garlic. Grill some red peppers too and have a tiny bit of brown rice to go with everything.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup
I made a few additions to this recipe, such as roasting a few cloves of garlic along with the cauliflower, leaving out the garlic powder and nutmeg. Also, I didnt have any onion, so I used a large shallot, also chopped a lg. carrot up and sweated that along with the shallot. I hit it with my stick blender a few times, but left it chunky. This soup was very healthy and very filling. Very good too!

Original Recipe Yield 6 servings
Ingredients
1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon dry sherry
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Place the cauliflower in a small roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and season with nutmeg, garlic powder, salt, and pepper; toss to coat.
Roast the cauliflower in the preheated oven stirring every 10 minutes until golden brown and tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook and stir until lightly golden brown, about 10 minutes.
Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir to coat. Slowly pour the chicken broth and milk into the pan. Mix with a wire whisk until all of the flour is dissolved. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously until it thickens, then reduce heat to low. Stir in the sherry and the roasted cauliflower. Serve as is, or blend half and recombine with the rest of the soup for a thicker consistency.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 135
Total Fat: 7.6g
Cholesterol: 10mg
Sodium: 969mg
Total Carbs: 13.2g
Dietary Fiber: 3g

Tons of meals fit your criteria--there's even a cook book called The 1200 Calorie a Day cookbook; it takes your 1200 cals and divides them into 350 each for breakfast a lunch, 400 for supper, and 100 for either dessert or snacks. I don't have the book at hand right now, but I'll try to post some recipes soon.

Meanwhile, google "very low calorie recipes." You should be rolling in great recipes very soon--and please report back with your successful recipes. I, for one, am always looking for that kind of thing.

Here is one I came up with trying to replicate a dish I had this summer at a restaurant in St. Paul. You could easily skip the dill butter and sprinkle with some fresh dill or other herb or seasoning of your choice. Or even some infused olive oil would be nice.

It is really good if I do say so myself! LOL

Salut Salmon

Zucchini, sliced
Yellow Squash, sliced
Grape Tomatoes, halved
Fresh Spinach, rough chopped

Salmon Filet

Dill Butter

Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper and sear in hot frying pan in a small amount of olive oil.

Drizzle another saut� pan with about 1 tsp olive oil and 1 tsp dill butter, when hot, lightly saut� the vegetables. Remove to serving plate and top with salmon filet. Top hot salmon with a dollop of dill butter and serve.

Dill Butter: Mix fresh or dried dill weed with soft butter and a pinch of salt. Serve at room temperature.

Linda

Here's a recipe I copied from a Cook's Illustrated "Healthy" Cooking magazine. It's really not bad, and I'd load it up with a bunch of steamed vegetables, probably some broccoli, red peppers, maybe peas or peapods, some mushrooms. Use whatever you like and that sounds good, the vegetables will add lots of bulk and few calories to the final dish. The notes included in the recipe are not mine, they were included in the original recipe.

Low-Fat Fettuccine Alfredo

Most standard recipes for Fettuccine Alfredo call for copious amounts of cream, butter and cheese. We wondered if a slimmed-down version of this decadent dish would be worth attempting and, most importantly, worth eating. Much to our excitement, we found we could cut three-quarters of the fat from our original recipe and still produce an Alfredo big on creamy, rich flavor and texture. Here are some of the ways we did it.

Test Kitchen Discoveries
Instead of heavy cream, we used a combination of whole milk and half-and-half to create a reduced-fat sauce that was both creamy and rich-tasting. To replicate the thickening effect of heavy cream, we settled on a roux made with just 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter and 2 teaspoons of flour. This combination thickened our sauce effectively.

By adding just a pinch of nutmeg and a lot of fresh-ground pepper, we were able to give our sauce a robust savory flavor. Simmering a crushed garlic clove in the sauce added an even deeper level of flavor.

Traditional fettuccine alfredo has 580 calories, 43 grams of fat, and 27 grams of saturated fat per main-course serving. Our Low-Fat Fettuccine Alfredo has 320 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 6 grams of saturated fat per main-course serving.

1 tbls unsalted butter
2 tsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup half and half
1 garlic clove, peeled and lightly crushed
Salt and pepper
Pinch nutmeg
1 cup grated parmesan
1 9 oz. package fresh fettuccine

Cook pasta in 4 quarts water

Heat butter over medium heat in large saucepan until foaming. Whisk in flour until mixture is smooth and golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Wisk in milk, half and half, garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and nutmeg and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until sauce is slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Discard garlic, stir in parmesan and remove from heat.

Add 1/3 cup pasta water and cooked past; toss until evenly coated. Cook until sauce has thickened slightly, about 1 minute. Add more cooking water as needed to thin sauce to proper consistency and adjust seasoning.

Serve immediately in warmed bowls.

Annie

I'll suggest a whole cookbook that will keep your meal planning covered for quite awhile. Better Homes and Gardens - NEW DIETER'S COOKBOOK - copyright 1992. I've seen any number of them at used book stores, and it has been revised a couple times with new covers and in a paperback form. I believe all the recipes are under 400 calories, and they are tasty, easy-to-fix recipes. You'll never think you are dieting. You can still find it at Amazon.com in it's many renditions. You may even find a copy at your local library, along with any number of low-cal cookbooks.

Burritos - 386 calories
Ham & Vegetable Soup - 172 calories
Caesar-Style Chicken Salad - 207 calories
Mushroom-Stuffed Flank Steak Roll - 313 calories
Pork Medallions with vegetables - 154 calories
Broiled Chops with Italian Vegetables - 248 calories
Fettuccine with Creamy Ham Sauce - 344 calories
Spinach and Ham Lasagna - 265 calories
Mustard and Honey Chicken - 153 calories
Chicken Fingers - 217 calories
Spinach Lasagna Roll-ups - 214 calories
Herbed Pot Roast with Onions/Peppers - 275 calories

-Grainlady

One of our favorites is a stir-fry recipe that I've developed over the years. It may be a bit over 400 calories, but is very healthy and low in fat.

Heat up a little bit of olive oil in the wok. Add a pound of chicken breast (boneless, skinless) that has been cut into bite-sized pieces. Stir fry until meat has turned completely white. Remove from wok. Douse with a little bit of reduced-sodium soy sauce.

In the meantime, you are making your favorite rice. We still use white rice, but daughter #2 has switched to brown rice.

Keeping the wok hot from cooking the meat, add another tbsp or so of olive oil, heat. Then, add two 12-oz bags of your favorite frozen stir-fry vegetables. (We've used "California Blend," "Winter Blend", "Stir Fry Blend", and many other different blends over the years.) Stir, add a tbsp of water, cover and steam for about 10 minutes. Uncover, stir again to make sure all vegies are steamed, then add the meat back in. Stir fry.

In a gravy shaker, mix 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce with a tbsp of flour. Shake. Pour over the vegie-chicken mixture, stir until thick. Add cashews if desired (about 1/4 cup)- we don't usually.

Serve over rice. Get more chicken-vegies on your plate than the rice to maintain lower calories.

Donna

Thought of a couple more T&T recipes for you. These are from a BH&G cookbook called "Eat and Stay Slim". The book uses dietary exchenges similar to what WW used to use. I went online and calculated the calories for you.

Quick Chicken Cacciatore
From "Eat and Stay Slim" cookbook
per serving: cal. 149, fat 1.6g, carb. 4.8g, fiber 1.2g

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 7-1/2 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
3/4 c sliced fresh mushrooms
1/4 c chopped onion
1/4 c chopped green pepper
3 T dry red wine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
Dash pepper
1 T cold water
2 tsp cornstarch

Rinse chicken, pat dry. In a medium skillet combine tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, green pepper, wine garlic, oregano, salt and pepper; place chicken on top of vegetables. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Transfer chicken to serving platter, keep warm.

Stir together water and cornstarch; stir into skillet mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more; spoon sauce over chicken. Makes 4 servings

(3 lean meat and 1 vegetable exchange)

My notes: this is really good served over rotini or penne pasta!

Lentils are delicious and great served with a grilled chicken breast. Cooked with onion, carrot, garlic and seasoning.

The best way that I've found is weight watchers on line - you can work out the points of any recipe or jiggle the ingredients to get them right and you eat so well on their plan. I'm 1.3 kg down this week ;)

Rivkadr, I've not been exactly in the habit of counting calories at dinner time that much. For a while I did, and kinda learned just how many calories certain ingredients had that I used a lot. For instance, and these are from memory, and are approximations, pepper jack cheese has 110 calories an ounce, or 28 grams. Almonds have an astounding 180 calories an ounce. I think an egg with yolk is around 70 calories? You can look up calories either on the package label or on Caloriecount.com. Or just do a search for how many calories are in whatever you're interested in. Then, you can keep in mind what's going into the dish you're preparing. A lot of the people on this forum use a website like the one I mentioned, but there are others, too. You can even enter in a recipe and it will give you an analysis of the calories and nutrients.

Here's a recipe for Spiced Lentil Soup I found in my recipe file on my computer. I don't remember how many servings it makes, nor where I got the recipe. (I wish I could give credit where credit is due.) Anyway, I ran it through the calorie count recipe thing, and the whole pot of soup is 2026 calories. So, you could divide it into 6 servings, have a salad and some low fat crackers with it, and call it a meal, I hope.

Spiced Lentil Soup

2 onions, minced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 cardamom pods
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 1/3 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained
3 3/4 cps water
14-ounce can coconut milk
1 tablespoon lime juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
cumin seeds, to garnish

Put the onions, garlic, tomatoes, turmeric, cumin, cardamom pods, cinnamon, lentils, and water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are soft.

Remove the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor (or with an immersion blender). Press the soup through a strainer into the rinsed pan.

Reserve a little of the coconut milk for the garnish and add the remainder to the pan with the lime juice. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Reheat the soup slowly without boiling. Swirl in the reserved coconut milk and garnish with cumin seeds. Serve piping hot.

Good luck,

Sally

Linda, I made your salmon recipe multiple times after you posted it on the What's for Dinner thread. It was fantastic!

I would suggest checking Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven cookbook out of the library and reading her Introduction. She outlines a cooking philosophy that fits right in with the way you'd like to eat.

CHICKEN THIGHS WITH LEEKS & SHITAKES (2 servings � 330 calories each)

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
1 Tbs. flour
3 tsp. olive oil, divided
1 large leek, white and light green parts only, trimmed and sliced
4 oz. shitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/8 tsp. salt
Sprinkle of ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp. minced fresh tarragon or 1/2 tsp. dried

Place chicken on a plate and sprinkle all over with flour. Reserve the excess flour.

Heat 2 tsp. oil in nonstick skillet over med-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, 4 to 6 minutes total. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add the remaining 1 tsp. of oil, leek and mushrooms to the pan. Cook over med-high heat, stirring often, until the vegetables are tender.

Sprinkle the reserved flour over the vegetables and stir to coat. Add broth, wine, coriander and salt and bring to a simmer. Return the chicken to the pan and simmer, turning the chicken occasionally, until it is cooked through, about 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in tarragon and add salt and pepper to taste, if needed.

Thanks Ruthanna! I am glad you liked it. The restaurant I was served this dish used "ivory salmon" It was a very light fleshed salmon that I had never heard of and have never seen it in any of the markets around here.

If you ever see it I would recommend trying it. The flavor was very mild and buttery....really good!

Linda

I don't have a specific recipe in mind right now, as others said, try searching online. But, I'll give some advice that has worked well for my wife and I (when I actually follow my advice!)

Try buying all your meat, whatever you use, from grass fed local farms. Some are organic, some use organic methods, others just practice natural processes. However, the point is that grass fed animals are naturally lower in fat, cholesterol, and calories.

I personally purchase bison from one farm, pork from another, beef from a third, and chickens and turkeys from a fourth. It take a bit more work and planning, but I truly enjoy the taste of the food better, and it is really much healthier.

I will note, though, that the prices are at least marginally, and many times considerably, higher.