Assembling a balanced, quick, healthy meal that's high in flavor and low in calories

A tasty quick lunch of balanced macronutrient ratios: weight-loss meal, high protein, low calorie.
50% carbs, 30% fat, 20% protein

Forget cooking. Sometimes we're just too busy.
That's when we need the art of food assembly. 
The picture above shows a food assembly: a balanced, easy-to-throw-together meal that hits 100% on all targets: it's simple, quick, flavorful, and balanced in terms of macronutrient ratios. Plus the whole plate clocks in at about 330 calories: a lot of food for the caloric price.

I first heard of macronutrient ratios from my personal trainer at Myogenics Fitness, and online you'll find many different opinions about what ratio is best. But for me, at least, 50-30-20 ratio is ideal for weight loss or weight maintenance.  The 50-30-20 ratio means: 50% carbohydrate (low-glycemic, unrefined, or "good") carbs, 30% fat and 20% protein.

(If you're not doing moderate to intense cardio exercise every day, you might want to bump the carbs down to 40% and the protein up to 30%, and that's the same ratio popularized in The Zone Diet. But experiment and see what works for you.)

Fat Myth: A lot of people think a healthy diet means: avoid fat like the plague. If you think 30% fat seems like a lot for weight loss, the undisputed truth is that most Americans eat too much refined carbs and that's why we're a fat nation. So keeping refined carbs in check using ratios is a good strategy.
But! It's actually hard to get 20% protein without some fat, so you'll probably have to pay attention to your assembly's added fat sources. Watch out for added cheese, nuts and dressings.


More about this picture:
20% Protein: one whole egg + one egg white scrambled and seasoned with citrusy Asian ponzu sauce.
Plus 3/4 cup of low-fat cottage cheese.
There is also protein in the steamed organic purple potato and the steamed broccoli jazzed up with some low-fat, high-flavor Galeo's Miso dressing.  Love that stuff!
50% Carbohydrate: The potato and broccoli, and there's also carbs in the low-fat cottage cheese.
30% Fat: Half a pat of butter for scrambling the egg; and the yolk in the whole egg, which is a good source of amino acids like tyrosine.

Did you know that broccoli and potatoes contain a lot of protein per gram?
This pile of broccoli -- (5.75 oz or about one whole stalk) -- has more protein than one large egg white.