Medifast and Cheese: How to Eat It

Dear readers, after about two months of being on the Medifast plan, I heard some blessed news. I was allowed to eat cheese on the Medifast plan! Yes, it's true. I thought I was prohibited from eating one of my favorite things until I had lost the weight, but if you choose cheese with low enough fat, it counts as a meatless protein.

I tell you, what I love about Medifast is that is flexible. There is a box of limitations, but once you find the walls of the box, you can run around in them and climb them to your heart's content.

To choose the right cheese, check the nutrition information. If you choose cheese that has less than 3 grams of fat per ounce, you can have up to 1 1/2 cups of cheese. If you choose cheese that has from 3-6 grams of fat per ounce, you can have up to 1 cup of cheese. So far, I have only made use of shredded cheese.

Here are the uses I have found for cheese so far:

Broccoli with cheese: If you want a truly simple meatless lean and green meal, you can have it all with broccoli and cheese. Three servings of broccoli comes to 1 1/2 cups. One serving of protein is 1 cup of shredded low fat cheese. Steam your broccoli and drain. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the broccoli. There you have it, a simple, delicious lean and green meal.

Meatless spaghetti and meatballs. I shared this recipe recently. Play with your proportions so you have the perfect combination of vegetarian meatballs and cheese to make your full protein serving. This is a fun recipe because you can mix and match proteins and vegetables.

As a salad topping. Who doesn't love a little shredded cheese on their salad? If you don't have enough time to cook meat, you can go completely meatless and use 1 cup- 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese as a substitute for your protein. Today I had arugula, tomatoes, cheese, and low-fat, low-carb salad dressing.

As a garnish for your Medifast soups. If you are trying to divide up your lean and green stuff to make it last longer, you can add cheese to the top of your Medifast chili or cream of broccoli soup. Just make sure you subtract it from your lean and green allowance for that day. For instance, if you have half a cup of cheese on your soup and you want to have a Boca Burger for the rest of your protein, you would only have one Boca Burger instead of the usual two you could eat.

Have you found some other great uses for low-fat cheese on the Medifast plan? Why not share?