My father is on a severe restrictive diet for diabetes and kidney....he's watching blood pressure.
I had my step mother get a prescription for ED consulting and had them write up what he needed each day with lists of great, good, awful....foods. what came out of it was, portion is so important...nominal amounts of awful are ok, he needs to eat what is on that day's list for balance.
So I spent a day making various flavored turkey breast meatballs rolled in 1oz balls and portioning them in crovac for lunch and dinner. Asian had waterchestnuts, scallions, hoisin, orange zest, sesame oil, sirachi,garlic, breadcrumbs, egg......Italian had oregano, thyme, basil, garlic, onion, breadcrumbs, egg.....another had lemon, tarragon, pecans, porcini mushrooms....
they could then add rice or rice stick noodles.....add vegetables & stock (which I made while there).
Hit up Penzey's for herbs & spices that will alter the same components dramatically. Weigh your food, prepackage so that you don't have to continally fuss with weighing and measuring everything.
Now is a super time to shop local farmers' markets.....lots of great produce is available right now.