The perfect meal

Danielle has been dieting since the first of the year, and has lost seven pounds. One of the ways she's been successful is by eating pretty much the same thing for each meal each day.

Not all of her meals will work for me; I don't like oatmeal and soymilk, which is her breakfast, and she's eating nuts for a source of fat and I can't have nuts because I have trouble controlling my portions with that kind of food.

But her dinner really does work for me - and it's SO FAST to prepare!

Here's what I did last night: I cut up a lot of vegetables (and weighed each type individually, then looked up the calories per ounce and added them together), then steamed them. I cooked the Uncle Ben's brown rice 90-second microwave stuff, and put one serving (one cup) on a plate. I put the steamed veggies over the rice, then low-fat salad dressing over all of it. It was delicious, under 400 calories, and completely filling! In fact, hours after dinner I still wasn't hungry or craving anything sweet.

Danielle also puts tofu in hers, but I didn't have any. So the only modification I'd suggest would be to add a little more protein - but at the same time, since I didn't get hungry later, it's probably not crucial.

So I've had a couple of days of pretty good eating. Which is good, because I didn't work out yesterday (I did set up the new bike on the trainer, but I opted to cuddle with my hubby while watching TV instead of riding the new bike).