Mum reveals surprising ingredient changes that reduces hundreds of calories, helps weight loss

Health blogger Rhian Allen. Photo / Healthy Mummy

Eating healthier can be a struggle for a lot of people.

Whether it's cutting out our favourite foods or reducing yourself to salads, it's no easy task.

Now one mum has revealed the simple ingredient she removes from her meals in a bit to cut hundreds of calories - and it's something everyone can do.

Rhian Allen, the founder of The Healthy Mummy, says there's many hidden ingredients in meals that add calories.

She says a lot of these can be swapped out to reduce calories while still creating delicious meals, which has helped with people's weight loss.

Posting on her website, Allen says: "As a busy mum of two, I know how easy it can be to go overboard with your daily calorie requirements! You think you're being healthy and making great meals but the weight isn't shifting."

She continues: "When it comes to making meals and you're trying your best to make everyone in the family happy, sometimes you may not realise the portions are too large or you use ingredients that could be swapped with healthier options."

The Healthy Mummy blogger has published seven meals she has made minor tweaks to - dinners the whole family can enjoy.

Chicken Schnitzel fingers with sweet potato wedges. Photo / Healthy Mummy

CHICKEN SCHNITZEL FINGERS WITH SWEET POTATO WEDGES

Allen reduced the meal from 623 calories to 356 just by using a slightly smaller quantity of chicken and replacing white potato with sweet potato.

She also replaced the supermarket-purchased lemon aioli with yoghurt.

Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Ravioli. Photo / Healthy Mummy

CREAMY MUSHROOM & BACON RAVIOLI

The food blogger cut down the beef ravioli portion from 185g to 125g per person, used 50ml of reduced fat cream rather than 100ml of regular cream.

She also dropped one of the two bacon rashers by trimming one into smaller pieces to sprinkle.

Allen also used 1tsp of olive oil to cook the meal instead of two.

This gets the meal down from 797 calories to just 328.

Greek Beef Burgers. Photo / Healthy Mummy

GREEK BEEF BURGERS

Allen recommends changing from white buns to whole grain, as well as cutting down the amount of beef mince used.

Limiting cheese and reducing the amount of butter gets the meal from 690 calories down to 387 calories.

Mexican Lasagne. Photo / Healthy Mummy

MEXICAN LASAGNE

To cut this bad boy from 932 calories to just 505, Allen suggests cutting 800g of mince down to 400g and switched kidney beans for a can of salt-reduced kidney beans.

She used light sour cream and reduced full fat cheese from 150g to 130g reduced-fat cheese.

Removing 250g of white sauce from the lasagne was also a big helper in reducing calories.

Supreme Pizza. Photo / Healthy Mummy

HOMEMADE PIZZA

Everyone loves pizza. And you'll love it even more when you can reduce it from 836 calories to just 440.

Allen switched supermarket-purchased bases to a pita bread, and cut the amount of meat and cheese used by 40g.

Cherry Choc Slice. Photo / Healthy Mummy

CHERRY CHOC SLICE

Who wouldn't love a low-calorie dessert?

To make a lower-calorie sweet treat, Rhian used 60g of dark chocolate instead of 150g of milk chocolate.

She cut the amount of shredded coconut from 85g to 50g and instead added two tablespoons of chia seeds.

Allen also cut them into 10 squares instead of 6 to make a smaller portion size – enough.

After the small changes, the slice went from 314 calories to just 131.

Creamy mango and passionfruit ice blocks. Photo / Healthy Mummy

CREAMY MANGO & PASSIONFRUIT ICE BLOCKS

These summer delights carry 217 calories but can be cut to just 83.

It's unusual, but Allen cut 200g of full fat vanilla yoghurt and added 150g of silken tofu.

200g of thickened cream was replaced with 250g of almond milk.

She added 40ml of maple syrup instead of 60ml.

She then blended the tofu, 200g of mango, 240g passionfruit, almond milk and maple syrup before freezing overnight.