The great thing about Medifast is that it removes the need to think a lot about what you're going to eat. You eat 5 pre-packaged Medifast foods and then prepare one Lean and Green meal.

When you first start out, I recommend keeping it as simple as possible. Just eat the food, drink the shakes and keep your Lean and Green meal as simple as possible. The first few weeks will be exciting/stressful/confusing enough. You need to give your body time to get with the program.

But after a few weeks, it's easy to get into a rut. You'll get tired of eating the same things every day. But by this point, you'll know that Medifast is working. When you get to this stage, it's time to try enhancing your weight loss journey with some Medifast Recipes.

Once a day, Medifast calls for a Lean and Green meal. This is pretty simple. Your Lean and Green meal will consist of a portion of lean meat and a portion of greens. You can also use certain condiments in limited quantities.

The amount of meat to use varies depending on the "lean-ness" of the meat. I lean towards a lot of chicken, turkey, tuna and salmon. Be careful to limit the amount of tuna because you don't want to end up with too much mercury in your system.

For the greens, I normally keep it simple with baby spinach and romaine lettuce. Broccoli is great too, but it's a little higher in carbohydrates, so limit your intake accordingly.

I love spicy foods, particularly Mexican-style. That's why I was happy to find this recipe for a Lean and Green taco salad. At first I thought it would be bland without the cheese, sour cream and guacamole that is associated with Tex-Mex. But I was wrong. This has become one of my all time favorite Medifast recipes.

Ingredients:

• 5 oz. Ground Turkey
• 1 Tbsp. Taco Seasoning
• 2 Tbsp. Salsa
• 1 cup romaine lettuce
• 1 cup iceberg lettuce
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp. Water

People who are losing weight with Medifast often get pretty passionate about it. This has resulted in an explosion of recipes designed to "hack" the pre-packaged Medifast foods. When the shakes and oatmeals were  created, I'll bet the food scientists never thought that avid Medifast-ers would be turning them into muffins and cookies. Here are a few recipes that use the pre-packaged foods. You can find more of them all over the internet. There are new "hacks" being created every day!

INGREDIENTS

• Medifast Scrambled eggs
• Medifast Multigrain Snack Crackers
• Italian spices and Garlic
• Spices to taste (suggest used garlic, salt, basil, black pepper, oregan)
• 2 1⁄2 to 3 Tbsp.
• 1-2 Tbspn WF Marinara
• 1 oz Fat Free Mozzarella

Grind MF eggs and crackers with mortar/pestle, Magic Bullet or good spice grinder. Add water and mix tomake a dough. Spread it on a Pam sprayed baking sheet to make a crust about 1⁄4 inch thick, then bake at 375 degrees until firm (about 3 minutes). It will rise a bit, which is the eggs at work. Once firmed up, top with marinara and cheese, then put it back into the oven until the cheese is melted.

This pizza counts as a meal, a snack, and 1 oz of your Lean and Green meal.

Variations would include topping with some ground chicken/turkey that has been browned with rosemary and sage for sausage or topping with peppers/onions, etc. Remember to take whatever your toppings are form your Lean and Green meal as appropriate.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pk MF maple brown sugar oatmeal
• 1 pk MF vanilla pudding
  
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
  
• 2 pks splenda
  
• 1 tbsp Davinci sf peanut butter syrup
  
• 1 capful vanilla extract
  
• 1 tbsp crunch peanut butter
  
• good sprinkle of cinnamon
  

Mix your wet and dry ingredients individually. Combine them and the batter will become quite thick. Roll the batter into 6 ball and flatten them into cookie shapes. Put them on a cookie sheet - optional - spray the cookie sheet with non-stick PAM or other cooking spray. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 12 min.
 
The peanut butter cookies count as as 2 Medifast meals and 1 snack.