Did you know a waffle is like a having slice of bread?

In this Menu Inspiration 2,  I’m revealing a little known secret about those yummy waffles, showing you new ways with some of the ideas from Menu Inspiration No. 1 and stretching your dinner ideas with stuffed vegetables.

I do like to keep Menu Planning simple and I look for new ways to use similar ideas. That way I don’t need to remember a lot of recipes or shop for a lot of ingredients, and yet each meal or snack seems like something special.

Breakfast 

Toasted Muesli Topped Fruit and Cheesecake Cream Toast

This breakfast idea is similar to the Afternoon Snack idea from Menu Inspiration No.1 but it uses fruit toast instead of grain bread, different fruits, low fat Greek yogurt instead of Cheesecake Cream and tops it with a little toasted muesli.

This basic formula can easily be swapped from a snack to breakfast and does double duty.

It uses a 1&1/2 smaller carb serves (400kJ x 1&1/2) which is like one larger carb (600kJ), 1/4 dairy serve (2 Tbsp yogurt) and half a fruit serve (1/2 cup fruit) from the Food Lovers Dietitian Meal Planner.

Pro-tip

This is a great brekkie to have if you’re eating from a buffet. It’s a very creative use of some very basic ingredients.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbSZ_n1D2w8/

Here’s the detailed recipe…

https://foodloversdietitian.com/healthyweight/breakfast-cereal-creations/

Morning Snack

2/3 cup low sugar, low fat Yogurt

It doesn’t get easier than this for a snack. About 2/3 cup or 160g of a low sugar, low fat yogurt is one dairy serve on the Food Lovers Dietitian Meal Planner. It’s a good choice when other meals and snacks in the day don’t call for many serves of dairy.

If you’re on the road, take it as a small tub.

This is my favourite yogurt choice at the moment.

Lunch

Warm Prawn and Chickpea Salad 

This salad idea is very similar to the Warm Chicken Salad in Menu Inspiration No. 1 but I’ve used prawns instead of chicken. I’ve used 1 tsp of oil (1 fat serve) to fry the prawns with minced garlic in a non-stick pan and served these warm on top of the salad.

You’ll also notice that I’ve used the larger protein serve (120g raw weight) for lunch today, and the smaller protein serve for dinner.

As well as the larger protein serve, I used one fat serve (2 tsp) of my favourite dressing, 1/4 dairy serve (2 Tbsp low fat Greek yogurt), 1 smaller carb serve (1/2 cup chickpeas) and around 2 cups of salad (2 veg serves).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeCaBYLD28h/

Afternoon Snack

Waffle topped with Fruits and Cheesecake Cream 

Did you know that a waffle itself is very much like a slice of bread? It’s mainly made from flour with just a little butter, egg and sugar. It has similar kilojoules to a slice of bread and just like a slice of toast you can top it with 1/2 cup of summer fruits and a dollop (1&1/2Tbsp) of my Food Lovers’ Cheesecake Cream. So even though this snack looks luxurious, it is just 1 smaller carb serve, 1/2 serve fruit and 1/4 serve dairy using the Food Lovers Meal Planner.

Pro-tips

Also great for brekkie on a weekend. 

A small pancake or 1/2 small plain scone is also like a slice of bread. 

Dinner Middle Eastern Stuffed Eggplant

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbyWbhfD392/

My Middle Eastern Stuffed Eggplant dish is based on the recipe from @MelanieMcGrice but I added some pasta sauce and 2 cups of canned drained chickpeas to the mince and used just a few raisins, feta instead of Parmesan cheese and served four (not 2).

If serving four people, each serve is 1 smaller protein serve, one smaller carb serve, around 3 vegetable serves and 1/4 dairy serve (just a small crumble of feta)

Pro-tip

Feta cheese is easy to crumble and small amounts go a long way. It also tends to be tastier than Parmesan.

Evening Snack/Dessert

Poached Pear and Cheesecake Cream

This dessert actually uses the same Poached pear recipe and Cheesecake Cream recipe that was used in Menu Inspiration No. 1. However I left out the red wine to show you how any fruit can be used with the recipe. Since my morning snack didn’t use any fruit, I’ve used a whole serve of fruit (two pear halves) for this evening snack. So all together this snack is 1 serve fruit and 1/4 dairy serve (1& 1/2 Tbsp Cheesecake Cream). 

Pro-tip

For a fancier look, serve this is a glass.

Food Lovers Dietitian Meal Planner Checklist

Here’s how the day’s meals and snacks used the serves in the Meal Planner.

Key

You might also like to watch this article….

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