Good. Oh so good.
Friday, 28 September 2012
Slow Food - Roast Lamb - Friday September 28th 2012
Sloooooooow roast shoulder of lamb. New potatoes. Carrots and peas. Gravy.
Good. Oh so good.
Good. Oh so good.
Mediterranean Vegetable Frittata - Thursday September 27th 2012
It wasn't a Monday. So this isn't a Meatfree Monday ... It is a Frittata Fursday.
Got to like a nice flat omelette with lots of Mediterranean vegetables. I have popped instructions for making this onto A Greedy Piglet, as it is so adaptable to what is in the fridge.
Got to like a nice flat omelette with lots of Mediterranean vegetables. I have popped instructions for making this onto A Greedy Piglet, as it is so adaptable to what is in the fridge.
With a bright crisp green salad, and some odd oven chips to use up from the freezer clear out the other day...
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Spanish Style Hake Cutlet - Weds 26th September 2012
So sorry to have been absent without leave.. I have been eating, but the art of being here left me for a short while.
Never mind, service will be resumed now, and we will start with a lovely piece of fish. Hake is a flaky white fish, similar to whiting, finer grained than cod or haddock, that we hardly ever ate when I was a child. We used to export nearly all of our hake (and we have plenty particularly in Cornwall, where this piece came from) to Spain and Portugal who are most partial to it. Fortunately, we can find it in the fishmongers here now, not always and not easily, but it is there to be grabbed when you see it. I like a cutlet (cut across the bone ) as it holds together really well.
In honour of the Spanish whose hake I have purloined, I chose to make a rough version of a Galician favourite, with potatoes, red peppers and smoked paprika. Very nice, and I doubt this is the only time I'll be making this.
If you fancy making it yourself, I've put the recipe onto A Greedy Piglet for you ..
(I apologise for the photo btw, I have a lovely new phone, and have been playing with using it for my photos. But it doesn't adjust enough for the lighting I have on in the dark evenings, so I think my camera will be brought back into play.
What do you think? Is this photo ok, or are earlier blog pictures more to your liking?)
Never mind, service will be resumed now, and we will start with a lovely piece of fish. Hake is a flaky white fish, similar to whiting, finer grained than cod or haddock, that we hardly ever ate when I was a child. We used to export nearly all of our hake (and we have plenty particularly in Cornwall, where this piece came from) to Spain and Portugal who are most partial to it. Fortunately, we can find it in the fishmongers here now, not always and not easily, but it is there to be grabbed when you see it. I like a cutlet (cut across the bone ) as it holds together really well.
In honour of the Spanish whose hake I have purloined, I chose to make a rough version of a Galician favourite, with potatoes, red peppers and smoked paprika. Very nice, and I doubt this is the only time I'll be making this.
If you fancy making it yourself, I've put the recipe onto A Greedy Piglet for you ..
(I apologise for the photo btw, I have a lovely new phone, and have been playing with using it for my photos. But it doesn't adjust enough for the lighting I have on in the dark evenings, so I think my camera will be brought back into play.
What do you think? Is this photo ok, or are earlier blog pictures more to your liking?)
Monday, 3 September 2012
5:2 Feast Day Roast Pork Belly Saturday September 1st 2012
Oh how can you hate dieting if your diet allows you to eat Roast Pork Belly with all its fat and crackling??? And real gravy made with the fatty juices?
I love pork belly.
This wasn't the best bit of pork I've ever had, just an ordinary supermarket pork belly, outdoor pork but not a good rare breed or anything. Still, slow cooked for about 4 hours, with a fiery furnace blast at the front and back ends to crisp and crunch up the crackling it was lovely.
I roasted it on a bed of onions with fresh thyme and bay leaves. Gave the pork a good rub on the underside with Toezapper's Urban Spiceman Tickety Boo spice (you could use any spice blend you fancy, TZ's blends aren't available commercially yet), and a nice slug of sherry vinegar for flavour.
I love pork belly.
This wasn't the best bit of pork I've ever had, just an ordinary supermarket pork belly, outdoor pork but not a good rare breed or anything. Still, slow cooked for about 4 hours, with a fiery furnace blast at the front and back ends to crisp and crunch up the crackling it was lovely.
I roasted it on a bed of onions with fresh thyme and bay leaves. Gave the pork a good rub on the underside with Toezapper's Urban Spiceman Tickety Boo spice (you could use any spice blend you fancy, TZ's blends aren't available commercially yet), and a nice slug of sherry vinegar for flavour.
5:2 Feast day Thursday August 30th 2012
“The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today"
"It must come sometime to jam today" Alice objected.
"No it can't" said the Queen. " It's jam every other day. Today isn't any other day, you know”
That was the old dieting days, and the main reason I could never stick them for very long. That sense that tomorrow would NEVER come. That I would never have jam again. But now on the 5:2 diet, I DO have jam tomorrow.
The feast days of tomorrow are what make the fast days bearable to be honest... Just to be able to say "don't worry, you can have that tomorrow" and "yes, you can make more cakes tomorrow" is amazing.
So what is surprising is that I don't go mad on my feast days. The mere fact that I CAN should I so wish is enough for me. I don't count on my feast days, so I have no idea how much I am eating, but the scales are going down (albeit slowly) which is more than has happened for many a month now.
I didn't take pics everyday this week for some reason (not been feeling very excited by life this week, so perhaps it was that) but I have found a couple for you.
Thursday August 30th
Home made quiche with cannellini beans salad and green salad
Simple quiche of chopped smokey bacon with cheddar and red onions in an egg and single cream custard. You will see that the custard is rather thin. That is because I forgot that my new oven has a ridge along the front of the hob, so when I took the blindbaked quiche case out to put the filling in, I put it on the top as I always have done. Poured the filling in. Which promptly flowed out the other side all over the hob. Oops. And no more cream left so no more filling to be made. Oh what the heck. I threw it in the oven and it was fine.
Just rather thin.
The cannellini beans are an old favourite salad. Runner beans or (as here) fine green beans cooked through, tossed in a vinaigrette with lots of shallots in, and then a drained can of cannellini beans added when they have cooled down.
5:2 Fast days week ending 31st August 2012
Oh it has been difficult finding any oomph this last week for some reason. I took the photos of my dinners but couldn't find the energy to write them up.
So yet again, it is a digest of faintly interesting bits. And there aren't that many of them either.
Sorry...
Tuesday 28th August - Fast Day
Home made Vegetable Soup with 0% yoghurt and herbs
Lemon Sole with Runner Beans and Cauliflower
Total 380 cals
Simple vegetable soup, carrots, celery, sweet potato, mushrooms, onions, cooked in vegetable stock and then blended into a thick puree. Swirled with a little 0% yoghurt and some chopped fresh herbs.
Plain and simple grilled lemon sole, sprayed with a little Fry Light, and served with plainly steamed cauliflower and runner beans.
Chili has been a staple in this house since student days. Easy, cheap and tasty. It can be gussied up to make it more elaborate, but I have a very soft spot for the basic student version.
This was cooked a low fat way to keep the calories in check - Chili can be quite oily and calorific if you aren't careful - the onions and garlic were dry fried in water with a spray of Frylight, before adding in the extra lean mince and browning. Cumin and Mild Chili spice added in and fried in with the meat, and then a carton of chopped tomatoes and a can of red kidney beans added and the whole simmered until nice and thick. A third of a cup of cooked basmati rice on the side, a good sprinkling of coriander and a goodly sized green salad. And a nice dollop of 0% Total yoghurt for extra yumminess.
So yet again, it is a digest of faintly interesting bits. And there aren't that many of them either.
Sorry...
Tuesday 28th August - Fast Day
Home made Vegetable Soup with 0% yoghurt and herbs
Lemon Sole with Runner Beans and Cauliflower
Total 380 cals
Simple vegetable soup, carrots, celery, sweet potato, mushrooms, onions, cooked in vegetable stock and then blended into a thick puree. Swirled with a little 0% yoghurt and some chopped fresh herbs.
Plain and simple grilled lemon sole, sprayed with a little Fry Light, and served with plainly steamed cauliflower and runner beans.
Friday August 31st - Fast Day
Vegetable Soup
Chili con carne, rice and salad
Vegetable Soup
Chili con carne, rice and salad
Total calories 489
I missed out on breakfast today, attempting to keep the calories down even further, but I was hungry by dinner time so used up ALL my 500 cal allowance on a substantial evening meal of Chili con carne with rice and salad, with another portion of my veggie soup beforehand.
Chili has been a staple in this house since student days. Easy, cheap and tasty. It can be gussied up to make it more elaborate, but I have a very soft spot for the basic student version.
This was cooked a low fat way to keep the calories in check - Chili can be quite oily and calorific if you aren't careful - the onions and garlic were dry fried in water with a spray of Frylight, before adding in the extra lean mince and browning. Cumin and Mild Chili spice added in and fried in with the meat, and then a carton of chopped tomatoes and a can of red kidney beans added and the whole simmered until nice and thick. A third of a cup of cooked basmati rice on the side, a good sprinkling of coriander and a goodly sized green salad. And a nice dollop of 0% Total yoghurt for extra yumminess.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)