Slow Food - Roast Lamb - Friday September 28th 2012

Sloooooooow roast shoulder of lamb. New potatoes. Carrots and peas. Gravy.

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.

With a bright crisp green salad, and some odd oven chips to use up from the freezer clear out the other day...

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?)

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.

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”

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

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.

Friday August 31st  - Fast Day
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.

This last week - Fast Days - Tuesday 21st and Friday 24th August 2012

Two fast days this week, Tuesday and Friday.  Breakfast was the same both days, a bowl (roughly 2 cups) of chopped fresh fruit.  If I have planned a very low dinner then some more fruit for lunch.  Dinner is my main meal, if I don't eat in the evening I am ravenous during the night so this suits me better.

Tuesday 21st

Sweet potato roasted with Frylight, with a green salad and a crumbling of feta cheese. 188 cals.

Friday 24th 

Poached chicken with runner beans, fresh peas, tomato and a couple of new potatoes. 359 cals. 

This last week - Feast days - Saturday to Saturday 18th-25th August 2012

Busy old week, and I've had raging face-ache for most of it, so feeling very sorry for myself.. ah well, a girl has still got to eat, hasn't she?

These are most of the feast day dinners this week (plus a couple of dead boring pasta ones...).  On the Horizon programme, they call them "feed" days against "fast" days for the limited calorie ones, but I like "feast" better. Gives me more of a sense of making up for the "starving" days...

Saturday 18th

Not in much of a mood for cooking today but I really did fancy something fresh and veggie based. So some of the cold griddled peppers from Thursday, some more fab Peruvian avocado, a few new potatoes and some green salad.

Sunday 19th

Still not cooking much. Poached Smoked haddock, new potatoes, carrots and peas.

ah, its Sunday. Pudding today.. I made individual creme caramels to have with some raspberries.

Monday 20th 

Another largely vegetarian day - avocados with bacon today, with a lovely heritage tomato and ridge cucumber salad, with fresh thyme and parsley.

and since that was very light and delicious, I rewarded myself with another creme caramel with raspberries... 

Thursday 23rd 

Noodle salad with shredded carrots, cauliflower and radish

Saturday 25th 

I really couldn't be bothered to cook anything interesting today. Griddled vegetables, some roast potatoes and sweet potato, and then I found some smoked mackerel and the rest of the feta in the fridge. So that got stuck on the plate. It didn't go. It was just food...

5:2 Diet - Fast Day BBQ Chicken Drumsticks & salad - Friday August 17th 2012

Did you happen to see the BBC Horizon programme on intermittent fasting, and how it can help your health?  Really interesting (video has been removed from YouTube and BBC but you may find it in an archive somewhere)

Anyways, I watched it. And, in the company of more than one food blogger, I decided to give it a go. As you will know if you have read my various blogs, I have battled with my weight since time immemorial. Certainly since I gave up smoking about 20 years ago. I have never been able to stick with a diet for long enough to make real inroads into my excess weight, because I feel so deprived all the time. I want to cook.  I want to bake. And I want to eat what I cook and bake. Because what is the fun in cooking and not eating it? None, I'm telling you.

So this idea that by cutting your calories right down to the bone (roughly 500 cals) on 2 "fast" days of the week, whilst eating what you want on the other days, sounds really attractive. I know that basically it is just averaging out to what you would be eating on any other diet, but to be able to say to myself "Don't worry about it, you can eat that tomorrow" is so inspiring to me. Not "you can eat that in around 4 years time" but "tomorrow" .  Wow!!! . 

I kicked off on Wednesday with a very simple salad with a small portion of left over Portuguese roast pork from Tuesday, no pics, cos I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep to it, and didn't want to announce to the world what I was doing if it lasted all of 14 hours. But it was really none too bad at all. So today I am repeating the experience.

I stripped the skin from some chicken drumsticks, pressure cooked them with some chicken stock and onions, and then roasted them with some Jack Daniels barbecue sance that I was lucky to win in a competition from Eat In magazine. With a measured quarter cup of basmati rice, and a green salad, the meal came to 266 cals (as calculated in My Fitness Pal). Added to the fruit salad I had for breakfast, with a spoonful of Total Greek Yoghurt and a few flaked almonds, the entire day totalled out at 443 cals.

And it was only 24 hours until the next day and eating whatever I wanted. Hurray!

Griddled Vegetables with Avocado - Thursday August 16th 2012

I was so delighted to receive a box of delicious Peruvian avocados.  I honestly think these are the best avocados at this time of year, and they are so good for you!

I like to taste the texture of the avocado, these are buttery and smooth, and I don't like mashing them to a pulp. So the trick is to discover what I like alongside them as much as mixed into them  One of the sandwiches I liked the most at the launch party at the Dorchester recently  was the one with roasted red peppers. So today I matched my avocado with roasted vegetables and a green salad.

I simply lightly oiled and seasoned sliced red peppers, aubergines (the large black ones and some smaller purple streaky ones), cherry tomatoes and courgettes, and griddled them until cooked through. I have a nice square Le Creuset griddle pan that works brilliantly for vegetables like this. You can also roast them in the oven, but then you don't get the smokiness that the charred stripes give.

When they are cooked let them cool to room temperature and then just arrange on the plate with green salad and the avocado scattered over. Yummy!

A Family Feast - the Puddings Tuesday August 14th 2012

A Family Feast wouldn't be a feast without puddings would it?

I've been on a bit of a retro vibe recently.

Treacle tart was requested by my husband (his favourite of choice at the moment...)

I know that Izzy likes fresh fruit and icecream, if she doesn't like anything else, so we had fresh Pakistani honey mangoes with lime.

and my retro fancy was for a proper crème caramel, made in one large dish, rather than in little dariole moulds. 

I just caught it in time, it was starting to inflate and bubble a little at the edges, but the centre was still ok, just the odd bubble here and there to spoil things, but beautifully  smooth and unctuous. 

A Family Feast - Portuguese Citrus Roast Pork, with Roast Veggies - Tuesday August 15th 2012

I love to cook for the family when they come over, Rebekah and Clinton love my food, and it is truly delightful to feed them, to force-feed the poor souls in fact.. I wonder if they ever feel like a goose being crammed for foie gras?

I unearthed a favourite way of cooking pork I haven't made for a while now.  This is a Portuguese method using lemon and orange juice with white wine to tenderise and flavour the pork, the marinade also makes a delicious gravy.  Roast Mediterranean vegetables and olive oil roast potatoes with rosemary, and roast sweet potatoes complete the plateful.   Oh, and Dan Lepard's Semolina Buns to soak up any runaway juices..

Seconds anyone?

Pudding - Clemengold in Caramel with Clementine cake and a fat dollop of Yoghurt..Monday August 14th 2012

Delicious leftovers for pudding today... Clementines in Caramel, some Clementine cake and a very fat dollop of Total Greek Yoghurt with Clementine zest. mmmm

Frugal! Reduced Steak Pie - Dirty but Delicious! Monday August 14th 2012

Dirty but delicious ... a bought steak pie, from my precious Sainsbury cheaps counter, down to 99p for a family size.  With cauliflower from the International Supermarket, who seem somehow to be able to sell me a GINORMOUS cauli for £1.15 where Sainsbury's want £1 for one a quarter of the size..

With some very healthy spinach...to counteract all that lovely puff pastry...

Retro Dessert time! Caramel Clementines with vanilla icecream. Saturday August 11th 2012

First dessert using Clemengold clementines (there will be several in the days to come, there are a LOT of clementines in my box..) I decided on a retro classic I haven't had for years.

Clementines in Caramel Sauce

It used to be a stalwart of Italian restaurant dessert trolleys - and for all I know, may still be in the lovely old fashioned Italian restaurants where the waiters brandish braggadocio pepper grinders and drag you to your feet to dance just as your dinner arrives at the table.

They are not difficult to make. The zest is stripped from them first, either using a zester or by peeling them, paring the soft pith from the inside of the zesty outside and finely shredding the zest. Then peel all the pith and stringy bits away from the fruit. Put the fruit into a serving bowl.

Blanch the shredded zest by boiling in water to cover for about 5 minutes until softened, and then make a caramel using a splash of the zesty water and caster sugar - I use about 200g of sugar for 5-6 fruit. The caramel wants to be quite dark, the colour of good maple syrup. This is then diluted with a little more of the zesty water (be careful, wrap your hand in a teatowel and add slowly, it will froth and may splash), the juice of a couple more clementines,  maybe a little alcohol of your choice, a little orange flower water. Add the zest back into the syrup and cook for 5 minutes or so, then pour the hot syrup over the little peeled clementines. piling the zest up on top of each one.

Chill and serve with vanilla icecream, greek yoghurt or whipped cream as you prefer.

Clementine Glazed Carrots with Chicken and Roast Potatoes - Saturday August 11th 2012

On Friday I received an amazing gift of South African ClemenGold clementines to use in various recipes.

Stunning shiny golden orbs, I love clementines. More acid yet sweeter than a lot of the small citrus in the shops, I think they lend themselves to lots of different uses.

Apart from scarfing half a dozen of them in the half hour after they arrived, I decided that the zest would work beautifully with some salty butter and a splash of orange vinegar to make a sticky glaze for the carrots to serve with simple roast chicken thighs and crunchy olive oil roast potatoes.

Chorizo Paella - Friday August 10th 2012

I love a plate of savoury, sticky ricey goodness. This is a kinda paella, with chorizo and pancetta, peas, broad beans and mushrooms. Made in the paella way in a frying pan as I don't have a paella pan..

Anyone for seconds?

Lovely Lamb Chops & Runner Beans - Thursday August 9th 2012

It is probably my favourite dinner.

Lamb chops. Runner beans and peas. New potatoes. Madeira gravy. Mint sauce.

yumyumyum

Fish Pie and Runner Beans - Wednesday August 8th 2012

It is so hard to make a fish pie look attractive when it is on the plate.  It just looks like a creamy slushy mushy thing. But honestly , this was delicious.

I made it low fat, as I had watched The Hairy Bikers new diet programme The Hairy Dieters, and thought, they are right you know, it shouldn't be that hard to just keep things lighter, and maybe end up less "lardy" as they put it.. Not everyday, I mean tomorrow I have lamb chops. I'm not likely to be stripping off the fatty yumminess of them, but there are certainly some things that can stand a little tweaking.

So I made the sauce with skimmed milk and without butter, no butter in the mashed potato topping, lots of herbs and spicy seasoning from TZ., no cheese on the top. And it was good!

Crispy OliveOil Roast potatoes and Avocado Salad - Tuesday August 7th 2012

For some reason I wasn't in the mood for any meat today. Nor eggs, cheese or anything proteinaceous.

So just crispy, mouthwatering roast potatoes with a nice crunchy lettuce and carrot salad, and a smooth, silky Hass avocado (my current faves) , tomato, cucumber and lime juice salsa alongside.

Fresh doesn't come much fresher..