Baked fish & curly fries

This is a light and delicious combination - COD IN BREADCRUMBS with curly fries. Everything was baked, making the dish extremely low in calories too. A great alternative to the fish and chip takeaway.
We cut a 300g piece of COD into four centimetre chunks, then dipped in seasoned flour, egg and white breadcrumbs. This makes the fish go a lot further - and 100g of fish is ample for one portion.  These were then baked for just 10 minutes in a hot oven (180ºC).
The curly fries were made using a Japanese mandolin. We used one large potato per person. They were seasoned with bbq spice and placed onto a greased tray, sprayed with oil and baked for 30 minutes until golden brown.
If you need a little more information about this dish, here's a link to our previous more detailed recipe - cod and chips. You'll be amazed at just how moist and delicious the fish is when baked like this.
So how many calories in this baked cod and curly fries? Well, we would estimate this dish at around 450 calories.

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.

2000 CALORIES ON A PLATE

This is what 2000 calories looks like (excluding the bread). We bought this large bag of chip shop chips from  a new chip shop and found it weighed 800g. We couldn't believe it. Not all chip shops dish up such a generous portion, so next time you're buying some why not weigh them and see for yourself.
Our philosophy is to eat the food you love - and we've certainly done that - while losing weight.
If you ate all these chips, you would be eating the equivalent of ONE whole day's calorie allowance for the average woman.

Chip shop fish and chips

After spending the afternoon decorating, we were ravenous. We were going to have a BBQ and salad, but for some reason we fancied fish and chips.
We must have been looking for the carbs after all our exercise. Even while we were losing weight we continued to eat food we really wanted rather than a lack lustre alternative. This was a lovely treat, and perfect after a hard day working on the house.
Had I realised we would have preferred a meal with carbohydrates like this, I could have

Fish fingers

This is what we ate tonight.
We used left over fish for our fish fingers.
Tip: When we buy any white fish we trim it to the size we want, and store the leftovers in the freezer. Then… wait until we have enough to make something like this.
Simply defrost the leftover pieces of fish and dust with plain flour, dip in egg then breadcrumbs. If making oven chips too, put these in the oven first - about 20 minutes before the breadcrumbed fish.
We found 300g of left over fish in the freezer - and this is what they look like ready to go in the oven. Enough for two good servings!
The chips were made using a floury potato - King Edward. We left them nice and chunky and par boiled them for 5 minutes before coating in oil.
There is no food combining on our weight loss method, we eat whatever we choose to eat. We've continued to lose and/or maintain weight without altering the types of food we eat.
Forget dieting and eat the food YOU love.

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - (see our page on calories) and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about the UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever, all rights reserved.

After the weekend

We ate quite a lot of pork over the weekend. So today it's been good to eat something different. Lunch was a quick sandwich. For dinner I didn't fancy the (frozen) turkey curry and rice which my partner ate.  I was after something plain and simple so instead, I had a fried egg and these fabulous home made oven chips, with a slice of bread and butter.
Our home made chips are unlike any frozen oven chip, easy to make and delicious. I can't understand why frozen oven chips are so high in calories either - perhaps it's because they are reconstituted potatoes?
Here's our favourite CURRY RECIPE - which can be used with meat and fish. It's light and fresh tasting and low in calories. We made the turkey curry using this recipe and froze a number of portions.
FOR THE CHIPS. I use around 220g of Maris Piper potatoes.  Either parboil for 5 mins or put them in the microwave for a minute on medium.  Then coat the potatoes in just one teaspoon (yes, that's all I use) of oil and sprinkle with salt.  Cook in the oven for 25 minutes on 200 degrees.

At just 230 calories - my home made chip wins. Looking on the back of a pack of oven chips, I can have 135g of chips for 220 calories.  The beauty of making these yourself is that a) they taste superb, b) you can have more than their frozen equivalent c) you know what ingredients are being used and best of all d) they are so cheap to make!!
TOMORROW I'm going to make my favourite lasagne dish for dinner.

If you would like to know more about how we have achieved over 6.5 stone weight loss eating all this wonderful food - see OUR IDEA

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2013, all rights reserved.

Chip shop

I often wonder if just thinking or talking about a certain food, switches on a light and before you know it you're eating it?
After the mention of fish and chips today, the seed was planted. We were rushing around, and ended up ... at the fish and chip shop. We don't have these very often, so we enjoy them when we do. The difference now, is that we SHARE a large portion. As you can see the plate is still full - with around 180g of battered cod which is plenty. It was certainly filling enough.
We've experienced this phenomena before - and would imagine this is one of the reasons many restrictive 'diets' fail: because the food on your mind is not allowed.
A little of what you fancy is surely OK? We haven't given anything up, so we can make a choice to eat this if we want to. That freedom has helped us continue following our unique method of eating which has taught us a lot about food and how we eat it. Owning up to enjoying this - why not!
Find out how we have achieved over 6.5 stone weight loss eating all this wonderful food - see OUR UNIQUE METHOD.

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

CHASSEUR SAUCE with steak and chips

We were experimenting with a new way of cooking the steak. Alas, it was a bit overcooked because we took our eye off the ball. When we've perfected the technique we will post it. Luckily there was our fabulous chasseur sauce to make things better.
Rump steak with chasseur sauce and a mound of chips. We cooked our chips in the oven and saved on the calories. The chasseur sauce which will also go well with chicken, was simply mushrooms cooked in white wine and beef stock, with some chopped shallots, tarragon and parsley. The flavour was intense and fragrant - and I preferred this to a sauce with cream. We added just a small amount of butter to our sauce (while many recipes out there call for lots of butter). At around 650 calories this was a really filling dinner.
We managed a stroll and we have been keeping some records relating to exercise and weight loss. It's all very interesting, and we'll post that up at the appropriate time.

Losing weight eating the food we love!

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about OUR UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Chasseur sauce, steak and chips

Steak with chasseur sauce and a mound of chips. We cooked our chips in the oven and saved on the calories. The steak was perfectly cooked and the chasseur sauce was simply mushrooms cooked in white wine and beef stock, with some chopped shallots, tarragon and parsley. The flavour was intense and fragrant - and I preferred this to a sauce with cream. We added just a small amount of butter to our sauce (while many recipes out there call for lots of butter). A watercress and parmesan salad was all that was needed to make the dish more colourful.
The fillet steak weighed 160g and is around 260 calories. We would estimate this meal at somewhere around 600 calories - certainly no more than 700 calories.
Now I'm looking forward to the Gordon Ramsey 'Pineapple and chilli soup with fromage frais foam'. A bit of a mean feat, but I'm sure it will taste fantastic.

Why not search our blog for other meals and their calorie count. Just type in the number of calories and the meals will be listed. Or type in an ingredient, and the recipes will come up.

Losing weight eating the food we love!

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about OUR UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

We keep mentioning CALORIES - see why!

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Time poor - steak and chips

The last few days have been hectic. However, I've managed to steer my way through what's on offer in the high street. I've kept to my 'good day' allowance (that's 1500 calories for anyone who is new here). My lunches have been supermarket sandwiches and my main meal has been anything I fancy around 600 calories.
Tonight is a full calories allowance for me - that's 2000 calories - and we had a small steak (150g) with chips (frozen) and a watercress salad with parmesan and couscous.
As it's FRIDAY we are not strictly counting the calories - but we've eaten a meal that stops us booking a takeaway curry!

If you would like to know more about how we achieved our fabulous weight loss see OUR IDEA

Read how we put our idea to the test  -  Our Experiment

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

BAG OF CHIP SHOP CHIPS

Here is one good reason for being prepared - this large bag of chip shop chips weighed a whopping 650 grams. At apparently 240 calories per 100g this innocent looking bag of chips worked out at about 1500 calories! Had I realised I would have ordered a regular portion. But.... we were very good and only ate 180g each (430 calories). This still added quite a bit to our meal - a quickly defrosted home made chilli which we piled onto the chips. Our evening meal was about 750 calories in the end. We just 'fancied' some chip shop chips! It was very difficult throwing out the rest of the bag. The great thing about our way of losing weight is that it's so flexible. We aim for 4 good days, but if something crops up (like tonight) then we just go with the flow. At the end of today we will have eaten closer to a normal day's calorie allowance, but still not overeaten. All that happens is weightloss is slightly slower while we've done something we enjoy!

Losing weight eating the food we love!

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about OUR UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Gammon, egg and chips

This was lunch - GAMMON, EGG AND CHIPS.
The gammon slice from the butcher was so big, that we decided to share! This half slice of gammon was around 150g in weight - plenty for a good lunch.
The chips were our own - cooked in the oven. I didn't fancy beans, so a little side salad completed the dish.
For our fabulous method of cooking the chips, see our homemade chip recipe.
We estimate this meal at around 600 calories.

Losing weight eating the food you love! Yes, it's possible - we lost 7 stone in weight with our method.

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about OUR UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Cod and chips for 500 cals

This same meal at the fish and chip shop would cost around 800 calories. We were going to pick some up, but decided that as today was a 'good' day, we would make our own. We used 500g of Estima potatoes, and cut them into chips. These were then microwaved for one minute, just to start the cooking process. Then we coated them in a couple of teaspoons of oil and put them in the oven for around 40 mins on about 200 degrees C. The cod was about 150g each. We took the skin off and coated it with a light dusting of flour, then dipped in egg, coated them in fresh breadcrumbs and sprayed lightly with oil. The fish took about 10 minutes to cook in the oven.
A tasty alternative to the takeaway - deciding to make the effort and saving 300 calories was, for us, worth it. The fish was so light and delicate, and we think it's much lighter than fish from the chip shop.  It also tastes so much better than the frozen ready meal equivalent too.

Losing weight eating the food we love!

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about OUR UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Simply tasty

A simple meal is sometimes the best.  This one certainly hit the spot.  With a few Maris Piper potatoes that needed to be used up, we decided to make our own oven chips again.  A short blast in the microwave before coating in a teaspoon of olive oil, cooking in the oven for 30 minutes was all that was required.

We would estimate this dish to be around 500 calories.  We added a thick slice of bread and butter to mop up all the tomato sauce!  Filling up is important - as it helps stop us nibbling unnecessarily later.

Find out how we lose weight eating all this wonderful food - see OUR UNIQUE METHOD.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

The mighty chip

I cooked myself some wonderful home made chips in the oven.  I used Maris Piper potatoes, and weighed out 220g.  Normally I would parboil for 5 mins, but instead, I put them in the microwave for a minute.  Then I coated the potatoes in one teaspoon (yes, that's all I needed) of olive oil (any oil will do) and sprinkled with salt.  These went into the oven to cook for 25 minutes on 200 degrees.

At just 230 calories - this is where my home made chip wins.  That's 230 calories for 220g of potato.  Looking on the back of a pack of oven chips, I can have 135g of chips for 220 calories.  The beauty of making these yourself is that a) they taste brilliant, b) you can have more c) you know the ingredients being used and best of all d) they are so cheap to make!!

Losing weight eating the food we love!

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about OUR UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Steak & chips

Our meal was fantastic. We cooked our own oven chips too.  Simply boil the chipped potatoes for a few minutes, drain, then coat in olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  The maris piper potato was delicious and although they took a while to cook through, they were worth the wait.

For the mushroom sauce, we soaked a small bowlful of dried mushrooms for a few hours, then used the liquid to make the sauce.  We added some mustard, brandy, salt/pepper and a little beef stock and simmered the mixture and added some sliced fresh mushrooms.

The carrots were cooked in orange juice & zest.  They took on the flavour of the oranges and were sweet and delicious too.

The calories in this meal would probably add up to around 700-800.  We eat more at the weekends in general,  and tend not to be too strict about our calorie intake.  We've been following our "formula" for weight loss for just over a year now, and have found this casual approach is more natural and sustainable.  The weight took a long time to pile on, so if it takes us a couple of years to get rid of the excess - while eating this sort of food - then that's what we'll do.  I have a sneaky feeling that we might get a nice drop in weight at our next weigh in.

Saturday lunch

We had a lovely meal last night. Just the humble potato and onion bake. It was hearty and rustic, and went perfect with mushy peas. This is how it looked once cooked:

Today is another day when we can eat our full energy allowance. We choose to lose weight this way, as it makes for a great social life. In fact, we're off to a party later, so those additional calories will be useful. We've been for a walk between the showers, and worked off around 300 calories doing just that.

Saturday lunch was simple fish and chips. Usually we don't keep a close tab on our calorie consumption, as it can all get a bit overdone. Curiously though, we found it difficult to work out how many calories were in our fish and chips and what a "normal" portion is supposed to be. So I resorted to weighing the amount of fish and chips we brought back home. We asked for a LARGE cod and a STANDARD chips. The large piece of battered cod was 360g - it was huge. I'm not sure anyone could eat a piece of fish this size!!

We cut the fish into 2 portions. Buying the large fish means there is less batter and more fish generally. The bag of standard chips weighed in at 350g! We stopped buying the large bag, as we just threw too many away. Again, we shared the chips. The meal was plentiful. It was the silence that made me smile. The appreciation of good food - total silence. We devoured it before you could say pass the salt. It was heavenly. Crisp, fresh and delicious. After trawling the internet I believe the calorie content would be: 180g battered cod - 425 cals, 170g chips 425 cals. Total for the meal 850 calories. Yes that's quite a lot, but it is Saturday, and we are here to have fun and enjoy life. Here's what our portion looked like, and remember - we SHARED a single portion! What if you ate the whole lot?

Now that was lunch - and 4 hours later, we are not even hungry. So the food may be quite high in calories, and with its fat content, it is sustaining us for longer.