Cheap diet food swaps: meatless, high protein recipes for weight loss

 Hello my friends! We here at GreatFoods4U are all about healthy eating on shoestring, or as economical as possible. Currently, it's Lent in the Catholic church and we are focusing on budget-friendly meatless, vegetarian high protein food swaps to follow our Lenten fast. And value added, these cheap diet foods are great for weight loss. Eating them was part of how I lost 100 pounds without weight loss drugs or gastric bypass surgery. And one of the complaints I hear, ironically, is how expensive weight loss is. Well, the good news is that weight loss doesn't have to break the bank if you use these cheap diet food swaps. 

Split peas or canned peas. You don't have to buy the costly pea protein powder. Just use these cheap diet food swaps. Just blend a cheap bag of split peas in a food processor and swap these for pea protein powder. Or make meatless, vegetarian split pea soup with carrots, onions, celery, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Or, drain, rinse and eat canned peas. You get up to 15 grams per serving in split pea soup. 

Dried beans. Soybeans or edamame are the highest protein beans with 30 grams per serving. Other beans for high protein diet food swaps are lentils, cannellini, black beans, garbanzo or chickpeas. You can grind these and use for gluten-free breadless flour food swaps. You can mash and fry canned beans as pancakes. Or  make homemade gluten-free falafel with besan (chickpea flour). All of these diet food swaps are super cheap. Eating this way is how I lost 100 pounds. 

Pumpkin seeds or pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds). 1/4 cup serving give 7-9 grams of protein. You can find cheap pepitas for under $2 at Aldi. So that's about $.30 a serving for these cheap meatless, high protein food swaps. You can make these into any of your favorite vegetarian dishes such. 

Nut Roast. (or Nut Loaf). Mill gluten-free dried beans or peas. Grind up leftover nuts, any kind. Then sauté leftover bits of onions, celery, garlic, peppers and mushrooms, seasoned with sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Blend in nuts and milled beans. Add eggs if desired, oil loaf pan and bake as you would meatloaf. These vegetarian food swaps substitute for pot roast or meatloaf and can have up to 30 grams of protein for 500 calories. The beauty of this economical diet food swap is that it's also a leftover use-up recipe. 

Parmesan Reggiano cheese. This superfood is lactose free, high protein, filling, curbs cravings and good for weight loss if eaten in moderation. One ounce gives 10 grams of protein. This isn't as cheap a diet food swap but if you buy on sale, a one ounce serving is about $.75. I eat parmesan cheese wedges as a snack and it fills me up. Swapping Parmesan Reggiano cheese for other cheeses is part of how I lost 100 pounds. 

Barilla Protein+ Pasta. So you pay a little more than regular pasta but if you buy on sale, it's under $.30 a serving. You get 10 grams of protein for 190 which is fewer calories and more protein than regular pasta. Plus this cheap meatless diet food swap fills me up and curbs cravings. 

Mushrooms. Believe it or not, these meatless food swaps can have as much protein as meat per calorie. Mushrooms make great vegetarian high protein food swaps in all recipes. I love veggie mushroom burgers with white or baby bella mushrooms, garlic, onions, oatmeal, eggs and Parmesan Reggiano cheese. 

National Pizza Day: Lenten Kitchen diet food swap recipes for weight loss

Hello my friends! Happy National Pizza Day! I'll admit, I love pizza but the way it's made traditionally, at least in the US, it's calorie dense and not diet friendly. So here are some diet food swap pizza recipes and pizza-making tips for weight loss. I'll include some gluten-free pizza recipes too. Eating lighter and with healthier diet food swaps was part of how I lost 100 pounds. 

Homemade pizza tops restaurant or store-bought pizza food swaps. You'll cut calories in pizza just by making your own pizza at home. Restaurant foods are always more calorie dense because they use more salt, fats (including less optimal transfats and saturated fats) flavor additives and other hidden calorie boosts. Using homemade pizza food swaps you'll get a heartier more filling pizza with a fraction of the calories. 

Diet food swap pizza crust recipes. Pizza crust is the single biggest calorie booster in the dish. We don't even like the thick breadier Detroit style pizza crusts anyway, so that a good thing. We buy thin or cracker style pizza crusts from Dollar Tree and cut calories and cost. I could also make my own but in the interest of a quick, nutritious meal, I'll opt for pre-made thin pizza crusts. And I'm saving money over pizza take-out or store bought. And we're talking serious calorie cutting here. And entire thin crust pizza crust is only 320 calories compared to 960 per refrigerated pizza crust and a whopping 1,080 for regular Boboli. 

Breadless gluten-free pizza crust recipes. Cauliflower pizza crusts are a popular gluten-free food swap to wheat flour crusts. You can make your own using riced cauliflower (just make sure to extract as much liquid as possible to avoid soggy crusts). 

Besam or gram flour pizza crust. My preferred diet pizza option is to use besam or gram flour (ckickpea flour) as a protein rich gluten-free pizza crust option. This flatbread style is made similar to naan pizza using a greased skillet. Besam pizza crust recipe is simple, using 1 cup ground chickpea flour, one T. avocado or olive oil, tapioca flour or milled flaxseed, garlic, fennel and celery salt to taste--celery salt is my go-to for all savory recipes. For a more Indian flavor, add cumin and for Italian, add rosemary and thyme. 

Carb free Keto diet Spinach pizza crust. The breadless pizza crust alternative is amazingly delicious. Oil a pan with high heat oil like avocado or light olive oil. Arrange a mat of spinach leaves about 3-5 thick. Alternate layers of spinach leaves with shredded parmesan which when baked, acts as a binder. Next, top your spinach crust with favorite toppings, omitting cheese as it's in the crust. 

Diet pizza food swaps for cheese.  Cheese is another big calorie add. Parmesan cheese is keto-friendly as it is a low lactose (milk sugar) and high protein cheese with CLA (fat burning conjugated linolenic acid) Eating keto was part of how I lost 100 pounds. Goat cheese, brie and feta cheese is lower in calories than most hard cheeses so it makes a good diet food swap. Just plan on it not melting well. For a good low calorie cheese to melt, try lowfat mozzarella.  Although for me, the jury's still out on full fat vs. lowfat cheese. Full fat curbs hunger better and sometimes has less junk in it than "light" options. 

Diet meat pizza toppings food swaps.  Diet food swaps for meat toppings include pre-cooked crumbled bacon. One T. has only 25 calories. Turkey pepperoni or sausage is lower fat and calories.  Both are low fat but also suuuper salty. So I just use less or omit. My diet food swap preference is shrimp pizza. Cooked shrimp has a protein punch with almost no fat. My husband loves anchovies too. 

Diet food swaps for pizza topping. Here's where the creativity comes in because there are so many vegetable combinations to enjoy on your pizza. Our must-haves are baby bella mushrooms, onions, multi-colored peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, fennel seed and just a few black olives. 

Lenten kitchen pizza recipes. Our rainbow vegetarian pizza for lent (when we Catholics don't eat meat) features a thin pizza crust (or spinach pizza crust) with a light spread of marinara sauce. We top with fresh mushrooms, diced red (purple) onion, colored peppers (green, red, yellow and orange), garlic, sliced grape tomatoes, fresh basil and spicy sprouts andshrimp for me and anchovies for him. We add generous portions of oregano and fennel seed and drizzle with truffle oil. 

Fun food swap pizza recipes. Our son introduced us to bacon, fig and goat cheese pizza and I loved it. Figs add a high protein kick and that little bit of sweet counteracts the saltiness of pizza. I'd also use dates or reduced sugar dried cranberries. I add fresh mushrooms, just because, well, mushrooms. You could add Greek olives too. 

Stay tuned for more upcoming Lenten Kitchen vegetarian food swap recipes as Ash Wednesday approaches! Making food swaps like these was part of how I lost 100 pounds without drugs or weight loss surgery.