JF13 Weeknights Meal Plan

Eat More, Weigh Less If you’re tired of hearing diet advice to eat less, we have news you’re going to love.“By picking foods that are naturally lower in calories but larger in volume, you can eat a lot more food without worrying about what it will do to your waistline,” says Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., author of The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet (William Morrow, 2012). In fact, we tend to choose our food based on volume—not calorie count—and the quantity of food we eat each day stays remarkably consistent even though the number of calories we wolf down can vary. So, “lowering your food’s calorie density,” as researchers call it, is a smart—and healthy—way to satisfy your appetite and cut calories. These five quick recipes and research-tested tips let you put this concept into practice. Try the big, hearty Buffalo chicken salad (page 6) or the robust spice-rubbed flank steak with mushrooms (page 7), which you’ll swear has more than just 309 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat. (It doesn’t!) To help you keep calories in check the rest of the day, turn to our handy 5-day slim-down meal plan (page 2). —Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D. 5-Day Slim-Down Meal Plan Morning Snack Lunch Afternoon Snack Dinner Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Blue indicates a recipe in this plan. indicates leftovers. daily totals

If you want to lose weight, following a meal plan is the simplest way to start. This 1,500-calorie-a-day plan (a level at which most people will lose weight) was designed by EatingWell’s Test Kitchen team and registered dietitians, using the 5 Weeknights dinners (pages 3-7) plus suggestions for rounding out the day. An added bonus: this plan ensures you’re getting enough calcium and fiber and it limits sodium and saturated fat. Plus the menus balance variety and convenience—it keeps your grocery list in check (you buy one bag of clementines and eat them all week; see page 8) and the amount of cooking to a minimum (for instance, on Tuesday you make homemade black-eyed pea dip for a snack and then eat