Need ideas for Lunch and Dinner

First and foremost, I'm a male in college currently living in an apartment.

Currently 195-200lbs at 5,11".

I am trying to eat better, but find it hard to find healthy, good stuff to eat.  I'm not really into salads.  I also would like stuff that doesn't take that long at all to fix for lunch since I have limited amount of time.  I was turkey/swiss sandwhiches but it's getting old.  For Dinner, I've been eating Lipton's Rice Sides or Pasta Sides with 2 fillets of Tilapia.  Even that though is getting old.  I would like something different every now and then ;)  So I'm hoping some people here can inform me on some good foods for any meal or snack of the day.  I drink water all day except for grape juice with raisin bran in the morning also.  The simpler the better BUT I don't mind have to do a couple steps to fix something up.  Thanks for all the help.

Dinner Ideas

Meat that's been grilled, baked, etc.

I like to do sweet potatoes as a starch and then fresh veggies (Asparagus, squash, eggplant, bell peppers, etc) for an additional veggie.

Lunch--

Healthy Choice or progresso soups are always good for a 'change'.

I like the pouches of tuna for a quick lunch too.

Salads can be done with slices of steak, blue cheese crumbles and it's filling. 

Those are a start...

 

Thanks I'm gonna look for some different types of meats I think.  I also forgot to mention that I do the soup thing every now and then for lunch.  It's nice! ;)

 

I also love vegetables!  Unlike everyone else I know, but whatever I'll eat some broccoli they're loss.  If anyone else has any more ideas I'm all ears!  I'd get way more fruit, but they seem to go bad before I get to them :(  Any ideas?

 

Thanks again abedal.

Grilled anything is always good and it usually doesn't take long.  If you don't have a grill, when I was in college, I ate a lot of Progresso Hearty Tomato Soup.  It is super yummy with a grilled cheese sandwich.  Now that takes very little time to make.  I always like Hobo dinners too.  Just throw some potatoes, meat, veggies and seasoning in some aluminum foil and pop it into the oven till the potatoes are tender.  This works especially well with left overs.  I hope that helps!  If I think of anything else I shall post again.

Oh on the fruit thing.  I have the same problem.  I usually freeze the fruit if I don't get to it quickly enough and then make it into a smoothy for a great breakfast or snack.  Wraps and lazy Quseadillas (tortillas placed in the microwave with cheese, black beans, salsa, whatever in them) make a tasty and easy lunch too.

Homemade pizzas - buy the pre-made crusts, sauce, shredded cheese and topppings - it takes like 10 minutes and is so much healthier than pizza you'd order

Baked Chicken - just sprinkle with a little oil & seasonings

Haddock/Cod/Flounder - I sprinkle with chili powder and garlic or use lemon juice and lemon pepper seasoning and put it in a little tin foil pouch I make and either bake it or grill it until its flaky

Jenny O Turkey Burgers or Laura's Lean Beef Burgeres are great and are premade.  they're in the frozen foods aisle - just defrost in the microwave & cook.

Salads - I add the pouches of salmon or tuna or Ground Boca w/ salsa, or occassionally Santa Fe Chicken Smart Ones frozen meals and add it to my salads.  Or you could use lunch meat, grilled chicken (you can buy the precooked stuff or cook ahead of time), Quorn, etc.

Pasta

Eggs - I like Egg Beaters on whole Wheat toast with salsa or I make a breakfast burrito with them or eat them on toast with cream cheese.

Veggies - You can get the pre cut kinds or the Steam Fresh kind if you really want to be quick.  Otherwise you can cut it all up when you buy it and then use it as needed.  Steaming veggies takes about 5 minutes and is delicious.  I eat TONS of broccoli, cauliflower, summer squash, and I'll throw in some eggplant or spaghettu squash every so often. 

Brown Rice - I get the Boil in the bag kind.   I usually add some cumin or garlic or chili powder or all or whatever I feel like adding as well as a little bit of butter or butter spray.  Its extremely easy to prepare and take about 15 minutes.  And you have 2 servings so there's left overs for later in the week.

Bulgur - Also takes about 15 minutes.  I make it the same way as I make my rice.

There are so many easy optionsout there...the best thing to do is take a free day to go walk around the grocery store and explore.

Wow... this has been extremely helpful. Thanks alot. Also I must apologize I didn't really read down too many forum topics to see what else was posted because I was in a rush to the gym with a friend.  This has worked out nicely though and again thanks for all the suggestions.  Looks like I'll be able to have much more variety :)

Since you are in school this is an excellent choice to save some money and some time. Go out and buy a spiral ham. You can get non-glazed ones right now for about 15 bucks. Eat the ham plain of with some sandwiches until you have about 6 ounces of ham left and the ham bone. Toss the ham bone, and 6 ounces of cuben ham in a pot with some Nazy beans ( or any beans of your choice). Throw in some onions and any other vegetable or spices that you like and bring it all to a boil and let it simmer for a day. At the end of the day you will have very tasty soup that took literally 8 minutes of your time to prepare ( do it on a Sunday or a late night of studying or drinking) Make sure to pull the bone at when you are done and pick the last of the meat off of it.

The key to this all is that the spiral ham costs 15 bucks, and the navy beans at about 3 bucks. so you toss in some veggies and you litearlly fed your self for 15 to 20 meals ( that includes when you eat just the ham) for under 25 bucks. I have done this the past two weeks and it has been AMAZING. plus you get tons of fiber thrown in the mix and since you are already drinking tons of water you are really excellerating the weight loss. It works for me!

I eat spaghetti for dinner sometimes, or just some low cal noodles with butter and a bit of parm cheese on it. (fibergourmet.com sells a low cal pasta)

I also LOVE to make my 'stir fry' with tons of broccoli, cauliflower, water chestnuts, carrots, etc. Whatever you can find, throw it in. Then I use a few tablespoons of light teriyaki sauce and heat it in a pan.

Chicken and brown rice with veggies is a good deal

SBD frozen pizzas. I love these.

Hamburgers w/ sweet potatoe fries. I normally use chicken, or have a morning star burger, warm it in the microwave and throw it on a 80 cal wonder bread bun. mmm.

Lunches are the standard sandwich, fruit, and popcorn.

I'm super simple for a chick. I only deal with a few ingredients at a time.

Kraft.com has a ton of low cal recipes

Hungry-girl.com sends out newsletters and has recipes.

You can also wonder through the recipe finder on here and find good things.

Hope I helped.

I don't like salad either, you can lose weight without it! Some of my staple foods are Fiber One bars, Kashi cereal, 1% milk, egg beaters, Boca breakfast wraps, oatmeal, Sara Lee 45 calorie per slice wheat bread, tuna with light mayo, carrot sticks, bananas, fish, those steam in the bag microwaveable mixed veggies, and chicken breasts. You can bake chicken breasts in the oven with some Mrs. Dash marinade on it and you've got a pretty easy meal.

I tend to cook for just me, which means I detest cooking at all really. However, in order for me to not get the humdrums on foods, I generally allot one day of the week in which I do nothing but. I pick out a few recipes which may involve baked salmon or tillapia, put on a crock pot of turkey chili (one of the simplest and high fiber as well as low cal tasks you can imagine), several veggies of choice for the week (or two if I'm particularly lazy) and usually I use this recipe tool in order to figure out how much each serving will be so I can plan it out.

Point being, I have a freezer full of choices I then only need to pop in the microwave when I get home (or take to work for lunch) and I did not then need to cook on a daily basis. I am a salad person, but I love dicing up chicken, tossing half a breast in each freezer bag, then I can just grab and go if I want to toss it on my salad (cold and thawed by lunchtime) or throw in a wrap. Since I do several meals (tillapia with green beans, turkey chili and say baked chicken with spinach/collards/asparagus/whatever) I am less likely to get bored.

For a quick cooking session, I am really falling head over heels over my wok.

omelets are great for dinner, one whole egg w/ 3 whites, a little cheese, veggies and salsa.

- Baked Potato or Sweet potato! With salad, Salsa or dressing

- Salmon, Salad and a wedge of melon canteloupe for afters :)

- I second omelets theres so much you can add to them.

- Salad, Beetroots, lettuce spinach, chopped mushrooms, red onions, spring onions and whatever dressing you like.

- Sweet salad, add things like canned mandarins, grapes, lettuce, and a sweet dressing

- Canned tuna mix with onions and a low call dressing and make a sandwich.

Try to snack on fruit i find they keep me really full, specially Melons as they're full of water :)

For dinners, I enjoy cooking up some low carb pasta (Dreamfield's Linguini is my favorite), and then I'll sautee up some chicken and mushrooms and throw in the occasional cauliflower.  I'll spice the chicken and mushrooms and stuff with lemon juice, garlic, oregano, and a drizzle of olive oil and mix it all together.  Sometimes I sprinkle on some crumbled feta cheese too (:

 

Delicious and good for you :)

I am on the road for business and was finding it VERY difficult to find a place to eat out that had something healthly so since I only had a Microwave in the Hotel room, I hit the supermarket last night!

Frozen Weight Watchers Mac and Cheese over a Bag of StreamFresh Veggies!  The steamFresh veggies come in these great bags that you just pop into the microwave and they steam up!  No mess and dinner was made in about 5 minutes with just a microwave!  Doesn't get much easier than that.  :)

 

I think the Veggies were about 175 calories for the bag and the WW Mac and cheese was about 300 - 400.. Not bad for a VERY filling dinner.

CARLO.