EASY SUMMER SALAD

If you can chop vegetables you can make this EASY SUMMER SALAD in no time at all.  It's tasty, cheap and colourful…  as well as cheerful.
If you have time why not try this simple dressing, otherwise pick up a ready made dressing.
We love summer tomatoes as they are so juicy and flavoursome, plus they are quite cheap compared to the rest of the year when they are out of season.
The basic salad is tomato and red onion.  We chose to add FETA CHEESE which is also inexpensive, but use your own favourite cheese! Omit the cheese and you have a great side salad that will go with many dishes, especially spicy ones.
The onions took the longest - as we soaked them for 10 minutes while we prepared the rest of the ingredients.
Serve with some crusty bread and you have a very easy, simple summer salad.

TOMATO AND ONION SALAD

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 large tomato per person

Large red (or white) onion

For the dressing:

3 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

half teaspoon mustard

sugar or honey (add to your preferred taste)

chopped fresh herbs such as basil and oregano (or dried provencal herbs)

salt/pepper
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Slice the tomatoes and onion very thinly. We used a mandolin for our wafer thin onion slices.

Place the sliced onions into cold water for around 10 minutes, remove and pat dry.

Whisk the dressing ingredients together (double up on the quantity if you think you'll be using this again soon). Use whatever herbs you have - either dried or fresh. We used fresh basil and dried oregano today.  We love oregano for its sweetness, and if we usually have this dried herb to hand.

Arrange the tomatoes on a plate and top with the onions. Drizzle with the dressing and season with salt and pepper if needed.

Leave to infuse for 5-10 minutes. 

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WARM FIG & GOAT'S CHEESE SALAD

Feast your eyes on this colourful warm fig, goat's cheese and sweet red pepper salad. Add fresh crunchy croutons for texture. The secret ingredient is temperature - warming the figs through in the oven to bring out their full flavour.
To make this salad for two you will need:

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1 bag of mixed salad leaves

4 figs

one sweet pointed red pepper

soft goat's cheese

day old bread cut into cubes

pine nuts

olive oil

vegetable oil

a sprinkle of dried herbs - use whatever you have

salt/pepper

optional - chilli flakes

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Turn oven to 160ºC. Cut figs in half and lay on an oiled baking tray and drizzle lightly with melted butter. Cut the bread into cubes and coat with vegetable oil and a sprinkle of mixed dried herbs. Place the bread onto the same tray as the figs. Slice the pepper and coat lightly with oil. Put the red pepper into a separate oven proof dish and place in oven at the same time as the figs and croutons. When figs have warmed through (around 15 minutes), remove from oven.  Turn the croutons over. Keep the croutons and red pepper in the oven while you assemble the salad (you can turn the oven off). Take a handful of pine nuts and fry lightly for a few minutes in a little vegetable oil - if you like a little heat, add a few chilli flakes to the pan. Dress the salad leaves with your preferred dressing. We used a little olive oil, lemon juice and salt/pepper. Add the rest of the salad ingredients and enjoy.

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Do you know how many calories you are allowed each day?

Here's a link to our very first blog post about our weight loss journey, which we began in January 2011. We started this blog as a way of recording what we ate while losing weight. The blog is a food diary, and contains lots of recipes, tips and ideas about losing weight.

Copyright © all rights reserved. Please do not copy any of this material without my express permission.

EGG RAVIOLO (whole egg yolk inside)

EGG RAVIOLO contains a whole soft egg yolk inside the pasta. If cooked for the right amount of time the egg yolk will be runny. It's very more-ish especially when served with fresh seasonal asparagus.
Making pasta isn't that difficult but we think you'll need a pasta roller to achieve the very thin pasta required. We tried rolling it out by hand once and never did it again. You could try bought pasta sheets, but they should be pliable enough to seal totally to stop the egg escaping.
Our recipe serves two - making two raviolos per person, which is quite filling and would make a light meal at around 450 calories per serving.
This is one of our more technical dishes but worth the effort. There's nothing quite like your own fresh pasta if you can make it. We're only amateur cooks who like to try out different dishes and techniques. Here's the recipe:

400 CALORIE BUTTERNUT QUESADILLA

What a lovely way to eat butternut squash! This quesadilla recipe is full of satisfying textures and very, very filling.
We made ours nice and spicy, using a whole red chilli, but you can leave this out if you wish. I like to use what I have available and you can add other vegetables and herbs if you wish.
This quesadilla serves two and I would estimate one serving - that is - half (or three slices) is around 400 calories.
Begin by roasting 200g of butternut squash (or squash and carrot mix) together with some chopped red onion and one sliced red pepper. We used a pointed red pepper which is slightly sweeter.  Add a few whole garlic cloves to the roasting tin if you love the flavour.
If you are busy and don't want to fiddle with a whole squash, you can buy packs of ready chopped vegetables.
To make the quesadilla, place one of the tortillas into a pre-heated frying pan. Keep the heat low, and top the tortilla with: 25g grated strong cheddar, the roasted butternut squash, pepper and red onion, one finely diced red chilli (or some chilli flakes), and two or three chopped spring onions.
At this stage, add seasoning such as salt and pepper, and a sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley if you have any.
Finally, top with more grated cheese, we used another 25g of grated strong cheddar. If you prefer you could use goat's cheese which works really well with butternut squash. Place the second tortilla on top and push down with a spatula.
Turning the quesadilla takes precision - we had to use a combined effort with this method: place a plate on top of the quesadilla, turn everything over so the quesadilla is on the plate, then slide it back into the frying pan. Phew! Heat gently for a few minutes while pressing down with a spatula. Slide back onto the plate, allow to cool slightly (while the cheese cools), slice and serve. I think I would eat this cold in a lunch box too, although it didn't last long enough!

***

Be who you want to be.

Do you know how many calories you can eat each day?

Our very first blog post about our weight loss journey - back in 2011.

You'll find our successful weight loss method and a few tips and tricks here: WEIGHT LOSS STORY.
Tweak what you eat and lose weight.

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2014), all rights reserved.

New Year's pepperoni pizza

A homemade spicy pepperoni pizza is becoming a bit of a tradition for us on New Year's day. Perhaps after all the rich fare over the festive season, we just want something simple. I've missed crunchy salad vegetables too, and we made a large salad to serve with the pizza. What a great budget meal this is too - one large pizza costs around £2! Each pizza works out at around 750 calories - great for sharing.
As we return to our normal eating habits we will continue to eat whatever we choose to eat. Most diet constraints revolve around limiting or avoiding certain types of food. By not limiting the types of food we can eat, we've found this aspect of our weight loss method helps make it so much easier to lose weight and keep the weight off. We recognised eating is a habit, and drastic changes can be difficult to sustain so why not start with the idea you can eat whatever you want and watch the quantity instead.

PEPPERONI PIZZA

Ingredients (makes two 12" pizzas)

Base:

300g strong bread flour

175ml luke warm water

1 tsp sugar

5g dried yeast

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

Topping:

Passata

Garlic clove - crushed

Large red chilli (with seeds if you like heat)

Pepperoni slices (we used Sainsbury's Try Me £1 pack - 12 slices 42g)

125g mozzarella (or use your favourite cheese)
other vegetables e.g. sliced red onion, red & green pepper, mushrooms

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Mix the pizza base ingredients together: water, sugar and yeast. Leave to activate (5-10 mins). Follow the directions on the pack.

Put the salt and flour into a bowl with the olive oil. Add the pizza base mix and stir thoroughly. Knead for up to 10 minutes. This is the difficult bit if you do not have a food mixer with a dough hook. But, it's a great workout that burns a few calories....

Leave the dough to rise for around an hour, or until double the original size. Knock the air out of it - ie knead it again until it returns to its original size. This will take a minute or so. 

Divide into two equal amounts and form into whatever shape you would like your pizza to be. 

Heat the oven to 200ºC.  Put your pizza tray in the oven to heat up too. TIP: We use an upside down (pre-heated) baking tray, lightly dusted with semolina to stop it sticking. 

If you want a thinner crust (as in our photo), then prick the base all over with a fork. 

Add the crushed garlic to the passata (plus any other flavourings you like). Spread the base with this passata mix.

Place all the other toppings onto the base - everything EXCEPT the mozzarella. 

Cook in the hot oven for 5 minutes.

Remove then add the mozzarella.

Cook for a further 5 minutes or so until the crust is nice and brown.

***

Each pizza works out roughly at 750 calories each. 

****

REMEMBER:  - Do you know how many calories you are allowed each day?

Here's a link to our very first blog post in 2011 about our weight loss journey. We started this blog as a way of recording what we ate while losing weight. The blog is a food diary, and contains lots of recipes, tips and ideas about losing weight.

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

SPICY PASTA WITH FETA

Pasta with feta with a refreshing yoghurt and pea dressing. 

Losing weight eating great food is also our secret to keeping the weight off. 

Give you body a good balance of everything to help eliminate cravings. 

Eat regularly, but most of all enjoy what you are eating. 

Calories in - calories out may sound too simplistic (and boring), but at the beginning of 2011we developed this simple equation into a very simple and successful WEIGHT LOSS PLAN, which helped us to lose over 7 stone between us. We learned there is no need to starve and no special foods are required.

Maintaining the weight seems to have surprised a lot of people - and almost 4 years later, we've continued to keep the weight off. Unlike lots of diets where the weight just piles back on once the diet is over.

To make this pasta dish, there are two stages - the yoghurt dressing can be made first and you can set it aside until you are ready to make the rest. We doubled up on the yoghurt dressing so we can use it again. In fact, you can double up on all the ingredients, as this is delicious eaten cold. Take it to work and your friends will be jealous of your tasty salad bowl.

Here's how we made this dish, adapted from an Ottolenghi recipe.

SPICY PASTA - serves TWO
Yoghurt dressing

60g natural yoghurt

25ml olive oil

50g frozen and defrosted peas

crushed clove garlic

salt/pepper

Blend yoghurt with 25ml of the olive oil, 50g of the peas and crushed garlic. Add salt and pepper.Mix until you have a pale green sauce. Set aside until later.

Spicy pasta

120g dried pasta

100g frozen peas

15g pine nuts (or chopped hazelnuts)

20 ml olive oil

1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes (if you like it hot, use half teaspoon)

15g fresh basil leaves

50g feta cheese 

salt/pepper

Cook the pasta according to the instructions.  Add the frozen peas for the last couple of minutes.Drain well because the shells fill up with water, then very slowly, add the pasta to the sauce (so it doesn't split). 

Place the 20ml oil into a small frying pan. Add your chilli flakes and pine nuts. Cook gently until golden brown - 4-5 minutes.

Tear basil, crumble the feta and mix into the pasta. Top with the pine nuts and drizzle with the chilli/oil.

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Be who you want to be.

Eat great and lose weight. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2014), all rights reserved.

Please do not copy any of this material without our express permission.

PASTA SHELLS WITH PEAS & CHILLI

So how many calories are there in "Conchiglie pasta with yoghurt, peas and chilli"?
The original recipe for this dish is from Yotam Ottolenghi.
I adjusted the ingredients to make two portions. With a few further adjustments, e.g. using a little less oil, pasta and Feta, we estimate each portion at around 600 calories.
The pasta was satisfying enough using less Feta, yet we could easily have eaten it without cheese. The heat from the chilli lifted the whole dish to a new level and contrasted well with the creamy dressing.
We've lost over seven stone in weight between us, making small changes like this to our diet.
Keeping an eye on what goes into your food can add up to a BIG difference in your weight. If you carry on eating food you feel comfortable with, you'll find it easier to lose weight. Once upon a time I thought I had to go on a specific 'diet' to lose weight, but as you'll see (throughout this blog), we just carried on eating our usual food - while paying attention to the small details.

REMEMBER:  - Do you know how many calories you are allowed each day?

Here's a link to our very first blog post about our weight loss journey, which we began in January 2011. We started this blog as a way of recording what we ate while losing weight. The blog is a food diary, and contains lots of recipes, tips and ideas about losing weight.

Take a look at the recipe:

Italian mozzarella and tomato salad

A simple Italian mozzarella, tomato and onion salad.
So easy to put together and so very tasty. We've made a similar tomato and onion salad before, using a different dressing.
For this salad, we kept it simple: fresh tomatoes, basil, onion and mozzarella (from Aldi). The dressing was just olive oil, salt and pepper - can't get simpler than that.
The secret with the onions, is to thinly slice then put them into some water to remove some of the heat. We didn't want to overpower the rest of the salad. The onions remain nice and crisp.

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - do you know yours?

We began our weight loss journey in January 2011 - and began this blog in June 2011.
You'll find our first post (about our successful weight loss method here).

Read about our successful weight loss story and find out how you can lose weight eating the food you love.
Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved

Cheese and mushroom omelette

Fast food couldn't be easier. A cheese and mushroom omelette is very satisfying and this was around 400 calories. I used three eggs, 10g strong cheddar and lightly fried mushrooms.
Today we used the freshest of eggs from a nearby farm. We were struck at how vibrant and yellow the egg yolks were, and the creamy texture of the omelette.
We tend to eat intuitively these days, and noticed it's been a while since we have eaten an omelette. Although the omelette contained just 10g of grated cheese plus the Parmesan on the salad, it's been a long time since we fancied a meal based on a lot of cheese or a 'cheese board'. After some thought, we wondered if this was down to the fact we have been eating more yoghurt (for breakfast). Perhaps our body is getting enough calcium from a regular dose of yoghurt. During the summer months, especially when it's hot, we usually opt for plain Greek yoghurt and fruit for breakfast, followed by toast. Having experienced an absence of cheese cravings of late, we wonder if your body can eliminate cravings - once you are eating a good balance of all food groups. We think this has helped us keep the weight off.

***

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - do you know yours?

We began our weight loss journey in January 2011 - and began our blog in June 2011. Here's a link to the first post. (here's the link).

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how you can lose weight eating the food you love.

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved

Savoury cheesecake

This SAVOURY CHEESECAKE recipe with honey and thyme, turned out to be very light and fluffy.
At around 275 calories per portion - it's not as calorific as you may think, and certainly has less than many shop bought varieties. 

A citrus side salad and pickled beetroot completed a very satisfying lunch. 

I used a 20cm loose based sandwich tin for this recipe and cut a long strip of greaseproof paper about 3cm taller than the sides to line the tin. I wasn't sure how much it was going to rise… and rise it did.
The cheesecake resurrected very well the following day; withstanding 20 minutes reheating in the oven. It was also very nice served cold - slicing was easier and you could cut very small slices - especially when no one was looking ;o).

Everyone loved this as much as we did. Take a look at our recipe:

Cheese & pasta salad

A warm green salad with pasta and cheese, can be ready to eat within half an hour.
For this type of salad we tend to use Pecorino - but we came across an interesting looking cheese in the supermarket called YORKSHIRE FETTLE. We thought we would give this a try, as it's a crumbly, feta style cheese. We weren't disappointed - and a little went a long way.
You can buy a ready made dressing, or make your own. We tend to make a few servings of our favourite (lemon & mustard) dressing and store in the fridge.
Here's how we made it.

Harissa roasted sweet peppers

Spicy Harissa ROASTED SWEET RED PEPPERS - lunch was ready within the hour.
At around 380 calories this was very satisfying and packed full of flavour.
Look out for the pointed red peppers - their sweetness compliments the earthy lentils.
My new pressure cooker came in handy too, as I was able to pre-cook the lentils while the oven was heating up. They were ready in under 10 minutes, compared to 25 minutes using the conventional method.
Which ever method you use, this meal will be ready within the hour. Here's our quick and easy spicy recipe:

New potato and asparagus salad

If you love new potatoes - as we do - why not add them to a warm green salad.
These lovely Pembrokeshire new potatoes added a new dimension to one of our favourite green salads. They are very similar to a Jersey Royal.
A few crushed walnuts added extra texture. The Pecorino shavings adding a salty touch, although you could use Parmesan.
This plate contains 150g of boiled potatoes and works out at around 300 calories. That includes the chopped walnuts, Pecorino, lemon dressing (see below) and cooking oil for the vegetables. Here's the recipe for the lemon dressing:

Cheese and biscuits

Goat’s cheese biscuits with chilli relish are very quick to assemble, and a favourite in our kitchen.  Cheese and biscuits are great party snacks, and soft goat’s cheese has a deliciously tangy note. The chilli relish worked well because it was tangy (like the cheese) rather than sweet. All together your guests could easily crunch their way through a plateful of these. They look quite striking on the plate too.

Cheese and biscuits make perfect partners yet would not be allowed on certain diets – eg food combining.  Being free to choose whatever you prefer to eat while losing weight on this weight loss system means you need never feel left out at any party gathering.
Do you know how many calories you are allowed each day?

Here's a link to our very first blog post about our weight loss journey, which we began in January 2011. We started this blog as a way of recording what we ate while losing weight. The blog is a food diary, and contains lots of recipes, tips and ideas about losing weight.

You'll find our WEIGHT LOSS PLAN here. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2014), all rights reserved. Please do not copy any of this material without my express permission.

ASPARAGUS & COURGETTE SALAD

We're making the most of the English asparagus season, with this warm ASPARAGUS & COURGETTE SALAD.
The zesty dressing and Pecorino turned the salad into a lunch time treat. We made enough dressing for several salads/meals.
We served ours with a little watercress although pea shoots would work really well.
This warm salad is versatile - served as a starter, side, or main with pasta.
HERBS can be costly, so here's my tip for keeping your mint going. Buy a small mint plant from the supermarket and repot into a bigger container to fit balcony or garden. Do this when the weather is warmer. The mint should spread nicely and keep going for months to come. Our mint survived quite nicely outside, disappearing over winter and returning in full glory.
Here's the recipe for the lemon dressing:

Stuffed mushrooms

STUFFED MUSHROOMS are so satisfying - and would make a fabulous starter, or light lunch served with a salad. They also go well with a good steak, or served on the side with many dishes.
Mushrooms are very low in calories - around 16 calories per 100g.
We estimate each mushroom - using the ingredients below - will set you back about 50 calories, much lower than prepared stuffed mushrooms. If eating these as a light lunch, you'll probably want more than just one!
You can ring the changes using different herbs and cheese to compliment any dish. Gruyere cheese is quite often used, but we didn't have any, so we cooked with what we had. Here's how we made ours:

Cauliflower cheese

Unfortunately I haven't got a good picture of our fabulous CAULIFLOWER CHEESE recipe ...yet, but I'll be making this next week. In any case, the dish is not the most photogenic…. As a temporary measure, I've found this lovely (unusual for our area) snowy winter scene from January last year, which is the view from our front window.
Cauliflower cheese is a great dish which you can make the day before and forget about. It can be eaten on its own or accompany lots of dishes.
At around 830 calories for the whole dish this will serve up to eight people. It's delicious and creamy - but without cream - and will add just over 100 calories to your Christmas dinner.  We love this 'no cream' version:

Cheese & bacon

If you want to lose weight, it's always so much easier when eating food you actually enjoy.
At around 400 calories - this hot and cold salad proved to be a winner. This goat's cheese and bacon salad is a great way to serve bacon. Just add a few of your favourite salad items to a bag of salad and begin the assembly job!
We each ate 50g of goat's cheese and two large rashers of bacon. Cut out circles of bread (whatever you prefer) and toast one side. Place the slices of goat's cheese on the other side then grill. Our bread circles weighed around 25g per person - but looked so much more on the plate. Add your favourite relish.
We usually dress our salad leaves with a good oil as it helps to fill us up.
REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - do you know yours?

We began our weight loss journey in January 2011 - and began our blog in June 2011. Here's a link to the first post. (here's the link).

We like to post our main meals to show you what CAN be eaten. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go! I'm currently going through the photographs and replacing them with more website friendly versions which will allow the blog to load quickly. 

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how you can lose weight eating the food you love.

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

Ribeye steak

RIBEYE STEAK is very flavoursome and can also be very tender. Don't be put off by the fat you can see in the steak either. One of our steaks had more fat (marbling) running through it, and it was the most tender of the two.
There is no sauce with this meal, because the flavour of the steak itself is something to savour.
Sweetcorn is in season at the moment, and it is very sweet and crispy. The cheesy mushrooms were cooked in the frying pan, but you can cook them on the BBQ too.
Put some colour onto your plate - eat great food and lose weight.

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - do you know yours?

We began our weight loss journey in January 2011 - and began our blog in June 2011. Here's a link to the first post. (here's the link).

We like to post our main meals to show you what CAN be eaten. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go! I'm currently going through the photographs and replacing them with more website friendly versions which will allow the blog to load quickly. 

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how you can lose weight eating all of your favourite food and drink. Put hunger to rest.

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

CHEESE & HAM TOASTIES

LUNCH. Mmmm these cheese and ham toasties were delicious. We served ours with .... courgette soup.
The soup was very filling and low in calories which offset its higher calorie accompaniment. When making the toastie you'll need less cheese than you think - we used about 25g each (approx 100 cals) of strong cheddar.
The glut of courgettes (zucchini) goes on in our small flower bed. I'm not complaining, as they are all being eaten - friends and family love the round courgettes too.
This recipe was slightly different to my previous attempt at courgette soup (see below). A tablespoon of single cream (15g - just 30 cals) added a luxurious touch, and gave the soup a more velvety texture. The whole lunch came to around 450 calories! Here's the recipe: