TEMPURA ONION RINGS

These TEMPURA BATTERED ONION RINGS were so crunchy and light; the perfect accompaniment to any meal. They add texture and crunch when needed, for example, with sausage and mash.
In keeping with our weight loss philosophy - paying attention to what we eat, being honest about how much - we get to explore some fabulous recipes without any guilt. This weight loss method is the only one we and others have found fits into our daily (real) life, is easy to follow and most importantly, helps keep the weight off. Eating food like this!!
We were looking for lots of 'crunch' to go with this steak, because we ditched chips in preference to gnocchi. You can buy gnocchi ready made, and as we did with this meal, it can be boiled then lightly fried. It's a good alternative to chips, especially if you are indulging with these amazing onion rings.
We served ours with cavolo nero - an deliciously interesting vegetable to be recommended. This link will show you how we cooked it.
The batter was lighter than a standard batter and therefore saves on calories.
We didn't use bicarbonate soda either, as some recipes do, and they still turned out perfectly light and crunchy.
For the tempura batter (serves 4): 60g plain flour, 40g cornflour, salt and pepper, cold fizzy water. Mix the dry ingredients and slowly add enough water to a thin consistency that will stay on the back of a spoon. Dip raw onion rings into the batter and then into hot oil. You could use a small saucepan with enough oil to submerge the onion rings. Heat to around 170ºC - drop a little batter into the oil and if it rises to the surface and bubbles, that's about the right temperature.

****

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.

QUICK ONION BHAJI RECIPE

This onion bhaji recipe was an instant hit in our household despite having no gram flour. The spicy snack went well with refreshing raita and a small side salad. A squeeze of lemon was all that was needed for a delicious starter. 

Onion bhajis are usually made with gram and/or rice flour which we didn't have. But… the overriding spicy crunch more than compensated for the lack of authentic ingredients. Buying ingredients can soon become an expensive pastime, and we try to use what we have available. 

Take a look at how we made these tasty morsels:

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

Sweet onion puree

I've made chilli con carne for later - it's easy enough to make and very economical. I usually make a large quantity and freeze the rest. If you want something faster than a jacket potato - why not make these quick potato wedges instead?
The weather has turned brighter, so we'll probably take a slow walk to the pub, about a mile away and burn around 80 calories. It all helps keep the weight off. By not dwelling on every last calorie and keeping a rough count has certainly become second nature to us now.
I'm also making a batch of onion puree to use up the rest of the double cream in the fridge. This puree is deliciously creamy, goes well with roast beef, and freezes well (if there's any left over …).

BREAD & WEIGHT LOSS

Lunch was a tasty BEEF, EGG & ONION sandwich, and it certainly hit the spot. (See how we made it below).
If you love bread, why give it up to lose weight? We carried on eating bread and believe this actually helped us. If you stop eating foods you are likely to crave, you might just find you eat more of it. Perhaps you'll find yourself skulking around the bread bin, sneaking a slice of bread here or there? Why go through the torture.
Embrace bread and try different flavours, like we do. Just keep a balanced approach, vary your diet and enjoy your food.
We counted the calories in this tasty sandwich

Tomato and onion salad

There is nothing quite like tomatoes when they are IN SEASON. Not only are they much cheaper, but they are generally sweeter and more juicy.
I cannot understand why we've never eaten this simple TOMATO AND ONION SALAD before! It was absolutely delicious. We usually have these two main ingredients lurking in the kitchen, but never realised just how well they worked together.
I love red onion, even when it's quite strong, and I was worried that soaking them would take something away. Fear not - the end result speaks for itself.
In my 'yo-yo dieting' days, I used to avoid oils and opt for low-calorie dressings which often contained more sugar. Now I always use good oils in my dressings - not only do they fill me up for much longer, but they taste so good. If you don't have time to make this dressing, then buy ready made. My dressing uses 3 teaspoons of oil between two - that's 60 calories per person, so it's hardly going to break the Calorie Bank.
You could eat this on its own as a first course with some crusty bread to mop up all those wonderful juices. We ate ours with a tandoori chicken breast. It was so delicious we're having it again this week. Here's how we made ours with that all important, colourful dressing.