HOW TO MAKE A QUICHE

This goat's cheese and watercress quiche was extremely light and fluffy. An occasional treat and delicious with a side salad. If you have a lot of weight to lose, like we did, why not lose it eating food you love? If you don't like goat's cheese you could make a quiche lorraine, using cooked bacon pieces and cheddar/gruyere. Experiment with your favourite flavours.

GOAT'S CHEESE AND WATERCRESS QUICHE

PASTRY BASE

175g plain flour

100g butter - room temperature

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp full fat milk (or water)

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FILLING

1 medium onion or 2 shallots, chopped

2 tbsp red onion chutney

60g watercress

100g soft crumbly goat's cheese

salt/pepper

4 medium eggs

100ml full fat milk

100ml double cream

****

Begin by making the pastry. Mix the flour and butter until it looks like breadcrumbs, then add the beaten egg. Instead of using water, I used full fat milk to bring the mixture together into a dough. You can use water if you prefer. I found the pastry was very 'short' using milk.

Line a 23cm lightly greased flan dish with the pastry, letting the pastry overlap the tin. Pierce the base using a fork.
Scrunch some greaseproof paper then open out and line the pastry case. Cover with CERAMIC BAKING BEANS then place in the oven at 180ºC for around 20 minutes. Leave to cool slightly and trim the edges of the pastry.
Brush base and sides with a little beaten egg. Brush the blind baked pastry case with red onion chutney. 

Lightly fry a chopped onion or shallots and spread these around the pastry base. Wilt the watercress in the frying pan and place into the flan, then crumble the goat's cheese on top. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix together the eggs,  milk and double cream. Season lightly with salt and pepper and pour into the flan.

Place in the oven at 180ºC until cooked - around 35-40 minutes. 

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Forget dieting. Lose weight eating the food YOU love!

REMEMBER: This is not a diet. 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 © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

SCALLOPS, BACON & EGGS

SCALLOPS & BACON

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

4 quail's eggs

One sweetcorn cob (we could use frozen - but fresh was on offer)

8 scallops

120g streaky bacon - about 8 very thin slices or 4 thicker slices

one shallot

one clove garlic

dash oil

water/stock for cooking the sweetcorn

side salad leaves dressed with a very small amount of oil

salt and pepper

****

I would roughly estimate this dish at 450 calories. Frying the streaky bacon until very crisp removed a lot of the fat - which we used to fry the scallops in, so there was very little added oil.

To make the sweetcorn puree, chop a shallot and fry gently in a small amount of oil until translucent and soft. Add a chopped garlic clove and fry. Take one sweetcorn cob (we used fresh) and remove kernels then place in a saucepan with the onion/garlic, and a little stock (we used chicken). Cook until soft (about 10 mins). Place in a blender with enough water to blend. (There was plenty left over).

Cook scallops to your liking. and top with the fried quail's eggs (yes fried).

* * * * 

We couldn't agree on lunch. I fancied some fish and my partner fancied bacon - so this was our compromise! Scallops, bacon, sweetcorn and quail's egg salad. We love trying new things and playing with flavours. This meal was adapted from a GORDON RAMSAY dish.

The total cost for this meal was under £4 per serving (the price of a supermarket salad) - and I'm fairly sure it would cost significantly more in a restaurant.

After spotting some quail's eggs in the supermarket, we thought we'd buy some as I've never eaten them before. Curious to know what they tasted like, they ended up in my basket. A flick through some recipes and we decided to make this dish. My partner headed for the fishmonger to get some fish for this evening's meal, and bought the beautiful scallops too.

****

Lose weight eating the food YOU love and forget dieting.

REMEMBER: This is not a diet. 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 © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

HOW TO MAKE GNOCCHI

Our home made GNOCCHI was simple to make - after our first attempt, we wondered why we had never made it before! Why not have a go at this over the weekend?

GNOCCHI (serves 2-4)

500g floury potatoes

100g fine flour

1 egg yolk

400g tin chopped tomatoes

60g mozzarella (or add your fav cheese or meat etc)

basil

garlic

olive oil

Peel 500g of floury type potatoes (such as King Edward) and boiled until very soft. Drain and let all the moisture come out of them, as that's an important step. We drained and let them steam in the pan then mashed until very very fine. Leave to cool.

****

As the potato cooled, we made a simple TOMATO SAUCE using a 400g tin of tomatoes, some chopped garlic and a handful of basil. Fy the garlic in a little olive oil, add the can of tomatoes and basil then cook until thickened (about 8 minutes should be enough). This should give enough sauce for up to 4 portions.

****

Back to making the gnocchi - take the cold mashed potatoes and add an egg yolk plus 100g of very fine flour (one used for bread making or pasta). Mix together to form a dough. Roll out some sausage shapes, and cut into small pieces. Mark each piece with the back of a fork. (There are plenty of websites out there that give step by step instructions for making gnocchi and are useful if you are unsure).  

Just drop into salted boiling water until they rise to the surface (about 2 minutes) then add to the tomato sauce.

****

Gnocchi is surprisingly low in calories. This recipe made 35 large pieces - estimated at around 1200 calories for all of them. If you divide the mixture into four portions, this is a low calorie meal. 

Lose weight eating the food you love and forget dieting.

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

Copyright © forgetdietingforever, all rights reserved.

LOW CALORIE MEALS

CHEESE ON TOAST - using goat's cheese! Serve this delicious goat's cheese salad with hot bacon and red peppers for a low calorie lunch packed with flavour. I estimate this dish at around 400-450 calories.

GOAT'S CHEESE TOAST SALAD

Ingredients - serves one

60g goat's cheese 

3 slices french stick 

half a red pepper - cut into strips

2 slices of streaky bacon

salad leaves

tomatoes

slices of red onion 

olive oil (if using to dress salad)

balsamic vinegar or syrup - if using

salt and pepper

****

If you don't have a french stick, you could use ordinary white bread. Cut out some round shapes using a pastry cutter, and make them slightly larger than the diameter of the cheese.
Begin by heating up a dry frying pan and very slowly cook the bacon. Slow cooking will draw out most of the fat. Place the red pepper in the frying pan and cook until soft.
Toast one side of the bread then place the slices of goat's cheese on the other side and return to the grill. Cook just long enough for the cheese to begin to melt.
Season your salad/tomatoes/onion with salt and pepper, as it will enhance the flavours. Dress the salad with olive oil and balsamic (if using). You could top the cheese with a little red onion chutney too.
Arrange the bacon and peppers on the salad and serve.

EAT the food you love - like we do and forget dieting. You'll feel more satisfied and it may just stop you snacking or craving something you feel you deserve.

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

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!

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

Copyright © forgetdietingforever, all rights reserved.

CHICKEN CURRY... with a twist

This chicken curry soup was delicious. With some leftover chicken, I thought I would seek out a new SOUP recipe.
I suppose this is similar to a Mulligatawny soup.
We used leftover chicken, but you could always leave out the chicken and use e.g. butternut squash etc.
The soup scored ten out of ten in our kitchen - being one of the tastiest soups we have ever made.
If you are looking for a CURRY FIX but need something lighter - then you MUST try this.
It's packed with blended vegetables and very little fat, so you get all the curry flavour with around 250 calories.

Lamb & minted pea mousse

LAMB RUMP with a minted pea mousse.
This cut of meat gives you a lot more for your money. However, the lamb rump is not as sweet and tender as a lamb chop. We used around 180g of meat per person (of which there was 60g in the later discarded fat layer).
So where were the hidden calories? Despite having become quite adept at rough counting calories, we were served up with a little reminder on how 'calories' can hide in our food. If you take a look at some of the 'innocent' looking foods in your cupboard you might just be surprised too.
Having purchased a pouch of lamb stock some time ago, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to use it - for the sauce.
I never thought to look at the calories on the pack, believing stock wouldn't contain enough calories to take into account. Shock - horror! Unlike some other stocks you can buy, this 500ml pouch contained 290 calories!
We estimated this dish at around 750 calories in the end.
Awareness is the key - these hidden calories can make all the difference to your weight loss (or gain). It only takes an extra 100 calories per day above your recommended calorie allowance to add 10 lbs in weight per year.
LAMB SAUCE
Roughly chop a shallot and clove of garlic, add to the lamb stock with a glass of red wine and reduce down to a consistency you prefer. If you have a sprig of rosemary/thyme you could throw that in too. Strain out the garlic and shallot and herbs before serving. You could add a drop of port if you have any to sweeten it a little.
PEA & MINT MOUSSE
This is basically peas and chopped mint with the addition of whipped double cream and a setting agent (often gelatine). We used this recipe adjusting the portions to serve two.

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EAT the food you love - like we do and forget dieting. You'll feel more satisfied and it may just stop you snacking or craving something you feel you deserve.

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - why not find out what yours is? 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!

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

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

Weekend menu plan

Lunch was a refreshing mozzarella salad. If you can make toast you can make this. The lunch was around 450 calories, so plenty of room for later. Rub the ciabatta with a garlic clove before toasting.
Tonight we're having lamb rump. We're going to try something completely different so I can't wait to see how it all turns out.
Tomorrow we're having roast chicken.
Whatever you are eating - make it something you enjoy.
We've been keeping the weight off to the amazement of a lot of people. The most popular comment lately is "Oh, you've kept the weight off then". By following this method and losing the weight slowly, we have also learned a lot about the food we eat. It's the knowledge we have gained that's helped us to keep the weight off. Why not take a look at our method?

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.

Beef stir fry

Our beef stir fry was ready within minutes and gone in seconds. At approximately 450 calories (beef is higher in calories than pork tenderloin) it still failed to break the calorie bank. Here's our fabulous recipe:

Dieting? Choices and control

We have always said planning meals ahead will help you lose weight and keep the weight off. Once you get into the habit, it does become easier.
When you are busy socialising, it's all too easy to come home and say - there's nothing in the fridge... let's get a takeaway. Nowadays, we like to think we'll have something available, because we have planned ahead.
You never know what you might fancy, but if you are given a CHOICE, you may opt for the less calorific meal.
Just remember YOU are in control of what you eat - especially when you have something to choose from. If you decide you want that takeaway instead of something you've prepared - then eat it. If you don't want to think about calories, then don't. It's almost impossible to judge calories in a takeaway anyway. Losing weight takes time, and if you are too strict on yourself, you'll give up. If you have something prepared, then decide you would prefer the takeaway, all is not lost - you will have lunch ready to go the next day.

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.

OXTAIL SOUP

I was having a thrifty moment when I thought of making this old fashioned soup. The oxtail was on offer at half the usual price, so I tucked it away in the freezer until I was ready to cook. It's such a simple - and satisfying - soup to make, I wonder why I've never made it before? Most recipes refer to this tough cut of meat as 'cheap', but at around the same price as shin or skirt beef (£6 per kg), I think it's a little expensive. Hence my swift take-up of the half price offer.

OXTAIL SOUP

Ingredients to serve 4

1.5kg of oxtail

a few sprigs of thyme (use tsp of dried if necessary)

large tablespoon tomato puree

one onion - chopped

one celery stalk - chopped

one carrot - chopped

8-10 black peppercorns

1 piece of star anise

300ml red wine (if you have any)

enough beef/chicken stock to cover meat

plain flour to thicken (if you like)

****

Dust the pieces of oxtail in the flour and brown. Add the chopped vegetables to the frying pan and cook for a few minutes. Then, place all the ingredients into a large saucepan and simmer until the meat is soft - approx 3 hours. We used the slow cooker and left this to cook overnight.
Remove the meat and set aside to cool. Strain the stock through a sieve and press down on the vegetables to squeeze out the wonderful juices. I put this liquid into the fridge to cool and let the fat rise to the top, you can then lift it out in one go. Don't throw the fat away - store it in the fridge until you are ready to make roast potatoes; they will taste devine.
If you want a thick soup add a little flour to the stock, then add back the flaked pieces of meat (discard the bones). Heat and enjoy!
If you time this right, you can cook it overnight, cool it while you're at work, then return to complete the final stage.
Now, I'm not too sure of the calories in this. When that happens, I don't worry too much and remind myself it's only soup. Soup without cream too. Throughout our journey we haven't been too scrupulous about the number of calories in our food for items such as soup. As I've removed almost all of the unnecessary fat (visible to me) I would estimate a large portion to be around 350-400 calories (at most). But it is very filling, and you may find a small bowlful sufficient as it's also very rich.
Here's the QR code for the ingredients (text format) - let me know if this works and if you would prefer the URL format.

Lose weight eating 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 © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

CHICKEN SCRATCHINGS

Chicken scratchings, poached chicken breast and ballotine of chicken.  A refreshing change to our usual Sunday roast. We estimate this meal at around 500 calories, and found it surprisingly filling too.
Wondering how a restaurant could produce such a tasty piece of chicken as this, we set about trying to recreate it.
Here's what we did - and reproduced the succulent chicken and super crunchy scratchings.

HOW TO MAKE COD & CHIPS

SATURDAY NIGHT fish and chips. We had this instead of going to the chippy.
Outside the chippy - we think this is just about the easiest way to enjoy GOOD fish and chips.
The cod came from the supermarket - just look for  the whitest piece of fish you can see. It's worth hunting out, especially if you have never made fish and chips like this before.
We coated each 180g portion of (skinned) fish with a light dusting of flour, dipped it first in beaten egg, then breadcrumbs seasoned with a little salt and pepper. You may like to add lemon zest, or your favourite spice to the breadcrumbs.
We lightly pan fried the cod in a little oil, for about a minute just to get things going, before placing on a heated and oiled baking tray. Spray lightly with oil.
The chips were easy enough too. If you are going to use a FLOURY potato such as King Edwards, you will need to cut the chips a lot chunkier than you think. We par-boiled the chips for 5 minutes then let them steam dry before spraying with oil and putting on the baking sheet.
We found a floury potato like King Edward loses a lot of its moisture while oven cooking, and if you cut them too small, they will be dry. Ours shrunk by about a third, so the bigger you cut them the more moist they will be.
Set the oven to 180ºC. Pre-heat your cooking trays. Cook the chips on a separate tray - these take around 40 minutes, turning them once or twice. The 180g portion of fish will take around 25 minutes.
This is a great way to eat fish and chips with all the flavour but minus a lot of the calories. The delicate yet crispy fresh breadcrumbs is second to none - and this lighter version is something worth visiting if you are a confirmed chip shop fan. At around 550 calories, there's even room for dessert!
Here's the list of ingredients (in text format).

Lose weight eating 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.

PASTA with vegetables (pasta primavera)

Home made pasta with green vegetables - (pasta primavera). We ate this for lunch on Saturday and it was exceptional - the asparagus and courgette were so sweet. Depending on the vegetables you use, this dish can be as 'budget' as you like. If you have broad beans in the freezer, why not use them too. Just remove those leathery shells and use the sweet nuggets inside.
There are just a few ingredients and here's our recipe:

Weekend plan

A deciding weekend for rugby - leaves us undecided about food. We're not sure where we will be at any one time after lunch.
But, as we are in the kitchen at lunch time, we thought we would make our own pasta. This pasta primavera was very tasty, and you wouldn't believe it is so low in calories - as it's very creamy. We estimate the dish at around 350 calories. We'll use THIS RECIPE and be adding some asparagus too. As I've mentioned before, if you aren't making your own pasta, then use whatever dried pasta you prefer. If you don't mind paying a little extra, look for the 'bronze pasta' as the sauce sticks to it better.
When following our method of weight loss, you get to eat more at weekends and can enjoy a full calorie allowance. On days (like this) when we know

LUNCH - spicy soup with bacon

This quick and easy spicy soup was just what I needed after a busy morning. I added some chopped bacon for saltiness and this worked really nicely with the lentil and carrot. I ate mine with a cheese sandwich because I was hungry. Lunch came to around 500 calories - which is perfect for me. I can remember when I used to 'diet' and try surviving on a mean 300 calories at lunch time. It wasn't filling enough, and

MEN AND DIETING - can you see yourself here?

Hi, my name's TIM and I am sitting here writing my side of this journey through weight loss, over 4 stone lighter than I was knowing that if I can do this anybody can as it is simple and easy and to be honest with you I do not know why I did not know or was not told some of this easy life changing information.

I come from a family that is on the big side, both my parents and brothers are on the big side. Personally I know that I was obese all my adult life or at least the past 25 years. I have used all the excuses under the sun I am big boned, it’s in my genes, slow metabolism and of course for a lot of men it is the alcohol. Although I was obese I was also active with golf, skiing, playing refereeing and coaching rugby so I was fit but overweight. Some weekends I would even take part in two games of rugby and 18 holes of golf without too much bother, and I was, in fact doing significantly more exercise than I do now because I no longer play. The simple fact is I am now eating more food than I was two years ago and still enjoy those chips in the canteens when I choose to eat them but learning what I know has been a real lesson.

I would say I was a fairly typical bloke

Beef casserole

This is how my beef casserole looks - using beef skirt steak. Not only did I make our favourite LAZY BEEF CURRY, but I just couldn't resist making this.
The casserole reminds me of the inside of a pasty. I've used turnip, carrots, leek, onions, celery and garlic. A few herbs - rosemary and thyme, a large spoonful of

Omelette

We haven't eaten an omelette for some time. It's one of our 'can't think of anything to eat' dishes.
This three egg cheese and mushroom omelette with a tasty side salad was around 400 calories, and to bulk it out I ate mine with a crusty roll.
We like to dress our salad - because the dressing helps fill us up for longer. Use whatever you prefer - oil, mayo or salad cream.
I have saved the soup I made earlier today for tomorrow's lunch. It always tastes better after it has had time for the flavours to infuse.
Lose weight eating 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.

Midweek meals

Today I'll be making a batch of this delicious carrot and spicy lentil soup - it's one of my favourites. Not only is it so quick and simple to make, it is earthy and warming on a cold, grey day.
If I have mine with some toasted cheese sandwiches then lunch will cost me around 500 calories. Here's just how simple it is to make:

Grate 600g carrot, add 150g red lentils, cover ingredients with stock and 200ml of milk, sprinkle in chilli flakes (and any other warm spices you fancy e.g. cumin) season and cook until softened. Taste then adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, then blend and taste again. Make a large batch and freeze if you can.

I've made another large batch of LAZY BEEF CURRY. It's so easy to make and freeze.

We like to use BEEF SKIRT, which is not only economical, but once slow cooked, it practically melts in your mouth. This curry is also quite low in calories and fat, unlike some takeaways and shop bought equivalents.
Here's what (1 kg of) beef skirt looks like, as you can see, it has a distinctive texture.
This cut of meat can be quick fried, as they do in France - with the bevette steak.
You will also find this cut of meat used to make Cornish pasties.
Lose weight eating the food YOU 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 the UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever, all rights reserved.

Slow braised pig's cheek

Pig's cheek - a succulent nugget of pork, so rich you just wouldn't want more. We think this is one of the best pork dishes we've cooked so far. The flavour exceeded our expectations, and it was not difficult to make. Just time consuming. The sauce was incredibly intense and a perfect partner for the pork.
We were inspired by a recent meal at a fine dining establishment (see our review). With a little imagination and a few ingredients, we came up with our own version. Here's our recipe.

Smoked haddock soufflé - recipe Michel Roux

Result - our Smoked Haddock Soufflé.
We used this Michel Roux recipe, and followed it to the letter - with only a slight adjustment to the cooking time. We cooked ours for around 10 minutes (instead of the suggested 7-8 minutes). This is probably down to our oven temperature. So, so delicious. We ate ours as a starter, but it would make a very nice light lunch - served with a small green salad.
Losing weight eating the food YOU 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 the UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever, all rights reserved.

PORK - quick and easy recipe

Pork tenderloin is a great meat to use for stir frying. As its name suggests, it is very tender and cooks quickly. We usually buy a ready chopped pack of stir fry vegetables, because you get water chestnuts and bamboo shoots which are expensive to buy on their own. If you think you're going to be really hungry, add some egg noodles too.
As we were going out we grabbed a quick sandwich beforehand, and on our return we cooked this. No need to stop at the fish and chip shop on the way home!
Here's our pork stir fry recipe. It may stop you heading for the take away too. This plateful comes to around 300 calories - here's our recipe:

TAKE ONE CHICKEN ...

Chicken, leek & potato bake

Planning ahead allows us to budget wisely. Food is ever more expensive - but weight loss doesn't have to be!
One chicken has gone a long way this week - we spent £4.50 and have enjoyed lots of main meals.
We took the chicken apart, using a sharp knife and created lots of meals. It's surprising just how much breast meat (650g) we found on our chicken.
See just how many main meals we made from a single whole chicken:

Lunch - wheat grain, giant couscous and feta

This was a very easy salad to make - the most difficult part was finding the wheat grain! After trawling the supermarkets without success, I eventually found the wheat grain in a whole food shop. It's nutty texture works perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. Admittedly it does take at least 45 minutes to cook, so it's worth making a large quantity. Great for lunch boxes. Here's our tasty recipe:

BEST EVER HARISSA CHICKEN with GIANT COUSCOUS

Harissa Chicken with giant couscous and mediterranean vegetables. This plateful is around 500 calories.
How to turn a few bland ingredients into something quite special, without spending a fortune.
Coat the chicken with harissa paste mixed with full fat greek yoghurt. Marinate for a few hours (overnight if possible) place in the oven at 180ºC for around 45 minutes or until cooked.
Chop your favourite vegetables (we used butternut squash, carrot, red onion, red pepper and courgette), coat lightly with oil and place in the oven at the same time as the chicken. Season with salt and pepper.
For the couscous, we cooked according to the packet, then added some of the juices from the chicken and roasted vegetables.
TIP: How did I make this more economical? I cooked twice as much couscous as required and roasted double the amount of vegetables. The cold couscous and vegetables can be mixed together with the addition of a little olive oil and seasoned as you prefer. It will make a great LUNCHBOX meal to which you can add your favourite cheese - I would crumble feta or goat's cheese on mine.
AND.... we cooked 4 legs of chicken - and we're eating the rest of it tonight. We'll place the chicken legs into an oven proof dish, cover with foil and heat thoroughly. Serving with potatoes and a green salad just to ring the changes.

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Lose weight eating the food you 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 2013, all rights reserved.

Pepperoni pizza

We just couldn't resist making these again... Pepperoni pizza at around 550 calories made for a very filling lunch. We made our own pizza dough because we think the taste is exceptional.
Dinner is going to be a little less heavy - harissa chicken with giant couscous salad.
Some people gasp when we suggest pizza. Why? It's not an unhealthy food - unless of course it comes laden with lots of high fat cheese.
This home made pizza was delicious. For our pizza today we made less dough than previously. We used a basic pizza dough and added our own toppings. You can buy small packs of pepperoni and salami in supermarkets now - we share a £1 pack of pepperoni. Get the kids involved - be creative and add your favourite toppings - sausages, minced spicy chicken/pork etc.

We spread the base with a little passata (mixed with minced garlic) before adding the rest of the toppings. Depending on the toppings used, and particularly the amount of cheese, will depend on the calories.

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 2013, all rights reserved.

Pork meatballs and pasta

Here's how our Saturday night pork meatballs and spaghetti turned out.
We loved how the pasta sauce stuck to the
spaghetti, because we used dried 'BRONZE' pasta. Look out for it in your supermarket - it does make a difference in our opinion. The sauce sticks well and doesn't end up on the plate or down your shirt and, generally, the pasta is less slippery.
To make the pork meatballs, we used some good quality sausages, one with a high meat content, full of flavour without too much fat.
If you prefer you could buy pork mince and use your own herbs/flavourings.
But, you may find you have a few sausages lying around and this is a great way to use them up. We suggest two spicy sausages per person - which was more than enough for us. As they were full of flavour there was no need to add additional spices/seasoning.
METHOD
Simply remove skins from sausages and roll into little balls, then fry gently.

FOR THE EASY TOMATO SAUCE

Sauté a large onion, add garlic and cook for a minute. Add a large tin of chopped tomatoes and heat through. We used some herbs to flavour - and chose what we had available. We added basil, thyme and rosemary.  Dried herbs are fine too.  Finally add a spoonful of tomato puree and some salt and pepper.  After slowly simmering this mixture so the water would evaporate, we ended up with a thick, rich and tasty sauce - without fat.  Depending on the tinned tomatoes you use you may fin you need to add a very small amount of honey or sugar. Add this sparingly and keep tasting.

I sprinkled mine with lots of parmesan. Just use whatever cheese you prefer - cheddar, brie, gruyere etc.

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EAT the food you love - like we do. It may just stop you snacking and craving!
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.

You'll find our WEIGHT LOSS PLAN here. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2013), all rights reserved. Please do not copy any of this material without my express permission.

Easy weekend menu plan

Delivering sustainable weight loss - see how OUR UNIQUE METHOD has worked to help us lose 7 stone.
After a gourmet break - eating so much fabulous food, it's nice to sit back, relax and eat something which is simple and quick to make. We're off out to see friends for a few hours, and on return, we'll be tucking into something similar to this. Got 10-20 minutes to spare? Why not try this!
Instead of beef, we've decided to use SAUSAGES. We like to use a good quality sausage of course - one where you can really taste the flavours rather than the fat. Our quick and easy method, saves you buying pork mince. But, if you want to do that, try our recipe below, but substitute the beef for pork.  If you go for the sausages, why no buy your favourite flavours. Simply remove skins and roll into little balls, then fry gently; that's all we'll be doing later! We're making the easy tomato sauce (see recipe below). I'll be sprinkling mine with lots of parmesan, but cheddar (or whatever you have) will do.
Tomorrow, we're going to be doing something different - harissa chicken with giant couscous, and maybe a pizza for lunch. We'll post the pictures later - here's the recipe for the meatballs: