Goat's cheese, spinach and tomato quiche

Today I decided to make a quiche. Here's the basic recipe goat's cheese and watercress quiche which I made last time. Instead of watercress, today I used 160g of spinach and added some cherry tomatoes. Why not experiment with different ingredients - according to what you have in the fridge.
For this quiche, when you pre-cook the spinach, let it cool, then squeeze out the moisture. The cherry tomatoes went into the oven (while it was heating up) for 10 minutes to extract a bit of moisture.
I noticed a lot of the recipes mix the finely chopped spinach in with the egg/cream mixture. I decided to arrange the spinach over the base, alternating with the goat's cheese as I didn't fancy the look of a speckled green quiche. So what's the verdict?

Fish in breadcrumbs

Another busy day and I fancied fish and chips. It would have been so easy to nip over to the chip shop and resolve the issue. But we've already had a couple of takeaways recently, so I thought I would make my own fish.
A trip to the supermarket was the deciding factor - fresh looking haddock fillets at an attractive price!This photograph shows around 120g of haddock, which I cut into four pieces. Once coated in breadcrumbs and baked, that equates to around 250 calories. I had some pre-prepared frozen breadcrumbs sitting in the freezer, which helped to make this fish in breadcrumb recipe very quick and easy to prepare. Note: As I cut my fish into four pieces, it took less time to cook in the oven - around 15 minutes in total (turn half way).
Instead of lemon zest,

Crispy potato wedges with chicken

We've had a bit of an eclectic weekend with our food due to decorating the house. Although our motto is to be prepared - we found it easier to dial a takeaway. So our weekend has been peppered with snatched meals.

After a chinese takeaway on Friday evening, our weight was significantly higher (than the amount of calories consumed would suggest) the next morning. It's happened before, so we weren't too bothered and 24 hours later, our weight had adjusted back to normal. We can only put this down to water retention and a salty meal. Weight does fluctuate (see what we think about this here), and we've learned this, so no longer panic.
After a couple of hours painting, it's nice to be waited on. The exercise will offset the additional calories consumed, and as takeaways are something of an occasional treat, we tucked in. I suspect we are 'calorie neutral' after all our efforts. Today we cooked a small whole chicken, eating one hot meal with crispy wedges, using this quick potato wedges recipe, and the other meal as a salad.
As you can see, we eat everything and anything. Our weight loss was never dependent upon 'special' foods or meals. We lost weight eating the food we love.

REMEMBER: YOU have a daily calorie allowance - do you know what that is?

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.

Mozzarella with tomato and pepper sauce

Surveying the fridge for inspiration... one left over red pepper and some tomatoes that were going over. Perfect for a quick lunch. Preparation time about 25 minutes, but it was well worth it. You could prepare the sauce the night before.
We were able to warm our sauce through, but it would work well cold. The sauce worked nicely with mozzarella on toasted ciabatta. We sliced the mozzarella first and added it to the warm sauce to marinate for a few minutes.
You may like to cube some feta cheese and add it to the sauce, warm through then pile onto toast. The lunch in this photograph was quite low in calories too (see below).

Lambs' kidneys on brioche

We've been waiting to cook LAMBS' KIDNEYS in port sauce ever since eating something similar in a restaurant.
The dish is very easy to make, and despite its budget status, the lambs kidneys were extremely more-ish. We served ours on sweet toasted brioche with a few pieces of grilled sweet bacon and a sticky port sauce.
Did you know kidneys contain approximately one calorie per gram, making this tasty starter very low in calories. Here's our easy recipe:

RHUBARB AND CUSTARD

RHUBARB AND CUSTARD - what a classic. How about trying it this way? Is it a rhubarb crumble or is it rhubarb and custard... or is it rhubarb jelly? The combination of textures and flavours create a good talking point.
Most people eat this type of dessert hot - but once you've tried it this way (cold) you'll experience a new dimension. Something new, something exciting yet traditional.
You won't believe the number of calories considering the luxurious taste.
Home made custard is a treat, but you could always top the rhubarb with a shop bought variety. The last time I made custard I ended up with scrambled egg. It's not that easy (in my opinion). But, after trawling a few recipes I came across this ALL IN ONE CUSTARD recipe, which was so easy and very, very creamy. However, the custard didn't 'set' to the level we expected - but this didn't detract from the final creation - which was unexpectedly refreshing.
I used HALF the ingredients stated in the custard recipe which divided nicely into four servings (thus reducing the calories a little).
We roasted the rhubarb, after a friend suggested the idea. The fruit kept its shape and helped us to create the dessert. A great dinner party idea - can be made well ahead of time and will surely wow your guests!

Prawn sandwich

We ate a prawn sandwich for lunch. During our weight loss, we never gave up bread - or any food group for that matter. Bread and potatoes are often seen as the guilty party when it comes to weight gain. Sticking to our tried and tested method of weight loss, using calories as the one true measure, we've successfully lost weight and kept it off.
This sandwich contains around 100g of prawns - 75 calories worth. The bread is around 200 calories and the spread/mayonnaise adds up to around 100 calories. Just be careful when adding the spread/mayo - as these can be pretty high in calories. Measure out the amount you need - don't guess (until you get used to how the quantity looks on the plate). This is quite a hefty sandwich, yet still fairly low in calories giving us lots of 'calories' to play with later.
Tonight we are having three courses and I'll be posting the results later. Look out for our twist on rhubarb and custard. Can't wait.
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.

Chicken & avocado pasta with a mint and lemon dressing

Wondering what to have for a solo lunch and needing a little inspiration? Why not take a look around the kitchen and see what you have. Here's what I found around the kitchen/garden!
We like to grow vegetables in pots, and the peas were just shooting so I picked a few pods. There was a pot of mint. Some leftover chicken breast and a couple of asparagus spears.
Here's what I made - which will also make a great lunchbox alternative.
For my recipe below I've estimated the calories in this dish, which are incredibly low.
Our long term strategy for maintaining weight loss is to keep applying the knowledge we have built up while following our simple METHOD. Especially about CALORIES (see below), and what they mean to us. This has worked remarkably well, and we continue to eat whatever we want yet keep the weight off.
I am aiming to lose a little bit more because (annoyingly) I seem to be

RAITA SAUCE

A cool, fresh RAITA sauce is delicious with barbecued meat (as well as curry). Why not try our quick and easy recipe? Despite its creamy texture, this raita is low in calories too.
This weekend we ate mostly outdoors. It's been a long time since we've enjoyed a whole weekend of sunshine.
The raita was perfect for our home made beef burgers. If you want a meaty burger why not make your own. Our RECIPE is very quick and easy.
Or why not take try our SMOKY BBQ SAUCE recipe. These sauces only take a few minutes to put together, and we're sure you'll enjoy them just as much as we do.
Here's our recipe for RAITA:

RICOTTA FRITTATA

RICOTTA FRITTATA is a very easy lunch option - make more than you need and put some in your lunchbox?
The recipe below made two good servings - at just 250 calories per person! This photo is one serving. We had some ricotta to use up, and this is a great way to eat it.
This is a BUDGET meal too - as ricotta can be bought in 250ml tubs at around £1 each. A great way to use up the odd bits and pieces you may have lurking in your fridge. If you don't like ricotta, just add your favourite cheese. Keep it vegetarian or add bacon/ham.
We ate ours with an avocado salad to help increase the number of calories and fill us up. I thought some cubed ciabatta (toasted) would have added a nice crunch too.

How to cook BEEF CHEEKS

These succulent BEEF CHEEKS were a result of overnight cooking in our slow cooker. We served with celeriac mash, spring cabbage and our home made WILD GARLIC GNOCCHI. This would be equally as tasty served with plain mash and your favourite vegetables.
We ate the leftovers in a roll at lunch time today.
The beef has more depth of flavour than shin of beef. So if you are after a rich meaty dish, then this is one for you.
Are the restaurants keeping this tasty budget cut of meat to themselves? At around £6 per kilo I've yet to see it on the supermarket shelves. Our butcher was very obliging though, and we ordered four whole beef cheeks, believing one per person was correct. We soon realised we were wrong - and one beef cheek would serve two. Fortunately, they were vacuum packed in pairs. Like most beef casseroles, this is not too high in calories. Here's our very easy recipe: