LAMB CURRY with spinach

If you're dieting and fancy a curry in a hurry, we have just the recipe for you. We used leg of lamb for this quick cook LAMB CURRY WITH SPINACH.
Quite often we use budget cuts of meat and slow cook, but today we wanted to test out this quick (new) recipe using the half price leg of lamb that was on offer at the supermarket. We weren't disappointed.
Our recipe is an amalgamation - using what we had in the cupboard. Yoghurt gave the whole dish something special, and it was the first time we had used it.
Curries are often thought of as a no go area when

Tomatoes and mozzarella for 350 calories

A simple lunch of TOMATOES & MOZZARELLA at just 350 calories. This is one of our favourites. Today we used a little less cheese, making a lighter lunch/starter. This photograph shows 75g of mozzarella and 60g of ciabatta. We generally like to eat around 450-500 calories at lunch time as this seems to fill us up for longer and reduces the urge to pick.
The tomatoes are from our garden and deliciously sweet. If you have a spare tub - tomatoes are easy to grow, and you'll experience a flavour second to none.
If you can make toast, you can make this meal. Toast a few slices of ciabatta and pile on the tomatoes mixed with a little oil, basil, salt and pepper. Serve with your favourite mixed salad leaves and don't forget to season them too. We used an olive oil dressing and a little balsamic.

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.

Spicy lamb kebabs

Are you dieting? Dieting can often be so restrictive you never get to eat the foods you love. We devised our weight loss method to include everything.
If you are looking for an amazing LAMB KEBAB then look no further. We were so bowled over by the taste experience that we've put our usual Sunday lunch on hold to make another one today. It is so much better than any other kebab we have ever, ever tasted. We had thought there was a lot of faff involved in making the kebab and it may not be worth the effort. BUT... we were proved wrong! Our efforts were more than rewarded by the final outcome.
What more could you want after a few drinks relaxing with friends. Everything was prepared before we went out, so the meal was ready soon after we returned.
The predominant flavours were lamb, lemon and that subtle (building of) heat running through the whole experience.
We love spicy food, and the lamb was infused with a selection of spices - including SUMAC, a tart lemon spice, which we used for the first time today. If you can't find this spice, you could use the zest of a lemon instead. If you prefer to buy a ready made spice mix, this will certainly save you time.
We went the whole hog and made our own flatbreads (using yeast). But to save time you can always buy them ready made, or use tortilla wraps. I was impressed with the texture of these flatbreads - sort of deliciously chewy yet soft.
We estimate our late night kebab at around 600-650 calories. Not bad. I suspect if you compare this to a takeaway, you will be saving lots of calories. If you omit the flatbread (200 calories), and eat this as a salad you'll have a delicious lunch at around 400-450 calories. Here's our recipe:

Scallops and black pudding

If you've been dieting and missing out on your favourite foods then take a look at our weight loss method where all foods are permitted. BLACK PUDDING included.
We used our favourite of all black puddings for this lunch recipe. It has a high grain content and is very soft and tasty. Perfect partner for these very sweet scallops. This would make a fabulous starter too. In restaurants you'll get around 3 scallops as a starter and 6 for a main course. We were fortunate as we had some very large scallops which we could cut in half before cooking.
Occasionally we'll make a trip to the fishmonger but you can buy scallops in the supermarkets. This dish is around 200 calories - can you believe it (see below for ingredients).
We upped the calories with a buttered bread roll on the side. Although still quite low in calories - we've got a chocolate brownie to get through, so it'll all balance out in the end.
Here's our recipe - and budget tip!

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.

Curry and flatbreads

If, like us, you find yourself time poor, then here is a great CURRY & FLATBREAD recipe for you - without resorting to a full blown takeaway.
Controlling even half the ingredients gives us some idea of the calories.
The curry sauce was from our local takeaway, which doesn't come with the nutritional content listed on the pack! So all we can do is make a bold guess at the calories. It gives us some idea about what we are eating, and we would estimate this curry and rice (excluding the onion bhaji and flatbread) at under 500 calories. We tend to over estimate when we're not sure. If we are wrong, the scales will soon let us know. So what's in our curry, and how did we make it?

Chicken & bean wrap

You can eat these spicy CHICKEN & BEAN WRAPS either hot or cold, so they make a great lunch box choice.
We thought we would add a few extra ingredients to our usual CHICKEN FAJITA recipe. You can use whatever ingredients you have. I was attempting to use up a few bits and pieces in the fridge. Today I added spinach, fresh tomatoes, SALSA and kidney beans. It made a nice change, and I loved the addition of the beans - an interesting addition at just 45 calories (quarter of a 400g can).
So lunch was around 450 calories - deliciously filling and versatile. Why not experiment with your own flavours and fillings?
We are going to experiment with making our own FLATBREADS later.

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.

Broad beans & feta

This was lunch. Seasonal broad beans (and peas) are much sweeter and go really well with salty feta cheese. The toasted ciabatta adds a welcome crunch to the experience.
Very filling considering it's approximately 350-400 calories.
What struck us most was just how full we were after eating this - considering the low calorie content. Not only that, the fullness lasted much longer than we expected.
You could use frozen beans and peas if you are on a tight budget. We made our own zesty dressing too. Anyway, here's our very tasty BROAD BEAN & FETA CHEESE recipe:

BBQ side dishes & ideas

Here are FOUR of our favourite BBQ sauces. It'll give you some idea of what we're eating this weekend too.
It's usually the little bits on the side that make a great barbeque.
1)  This easy GUACAMOLE was so refreshing and made good use of my over ripe avocado.
GUACAMOLE Ingredients: Blend one avocado, juice of half a lime, half a small red chilli and a little red onion. Season with salt and pepper and add a little olive oil to loosen the mixture. Love that hint of spice!
2)  Or what about this cooling RAITA?

Easy tandoori style chicken recipe

They do say spicy food helps cool you down - and we definitely agree!
The heatwave is official so we turned up the heat in the kitchen and made this delicious TANDOORI CHICKEN. A great budget option using chicken leg which is so much cheaper than breast. You would pay a lot more at your local takeaway.
I cooked it in the oven, but it would work equally as well on the BBQ, which I suspect we'll be have at the weekend.
When you are too busy and don't have time to make your own marinade, why not use a ready made one like this (see below)?
You could double up on quantities too, save time and enjoy spicy cold chicken in tomorrow's lunch box.
I served the chicken with a mixed salad and this very EASY and very tasty RAITA. We would estimate the calories at somewhere around 400 calories for what you see in this picture. A little crusty bread is all you need to increase the calories in your meal - and fill yourself up. Or why not make our fabulous CHIPS - and make full use of the oven while it's on. Anyway, enough of that, here's our easy recipe:

Feta salad with croutons

The weather calls for more salads, which are very hydrating and as we near a heat wave - very welcoming.
This simple flavour packed FETA SALAD with CROUTONS is around 400 calories. I forgot to add the avocado, which would have increased the number of calories and been more filling. We generally like to eat around 450-500 calories at lunch time.
You have the garlic crunch of the croutons balancing nicely with the juicy tomatoes and peppery leaves.
I was given some broad beans today, and these go really well with feta.  We can vouch for that, as we really enjoyed this delicious BROAD BEAN, FETA & MINT TOAST recipe.
Since trying various oil based salads, we have become a fan of this type of dressing. But, if you prefer something else, then use that instead - just take a moment to find out the calorific value of your dressing. You are in control of your own weight loss, we are here to hopefully give you some great recipe ideas. Here's our feta salad recipe:

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.

TERIYAKI SALMON

In a hurry and just want to eat great fast food without the cost of a ready meal or takeaway? Why not try this quick and easy TERIYAKI SALMON with a refreshing bean sprout and noodle salad. Everything works well together and the salmon had a lovely sticky sweet flavour.
This HOT weather has changed what we fancy eating, and we are enjoying the oriental flavours at the moment.
Earlier this week, we ate TERIYAKI BEEF with egg fried rice. We enjoyed it so much, we couldn't resist trying the same marinade with salmon.
Lunch is ready in no time, once you've prepared a few vegetables.
The salad on its own is so refreshing and spicy - at around 150 calories per portion.  It would make a great lunch box side salad. Make more of the dressing and keep it in the fridge for a few days and add to your salads. We used the dressing for our prawn noodle salad last week.
This is fast food with big flavours, and so much cheaper than buying ready meal equivalents. You can always buy a ready made teriyaki sauce if you don't have all the ingredients. Here's our delicious recipe:

Egg fried rice with teriyaki beef

Wouldn't it be nice to open the fridge and have all the ingredients waiting to be transformed into this tasty TERIYAKI BEEF dish, without having to resort to a takeaway.
Our home grown peas are bursting out of their pods, and every time we walk past them we end up picking one or two. So, before they disappear entirely, I thought I'd add them to this delicate EGG FRIED RICE recipe. You can always use frozen peas of course.
TIP: The trick with egg fried rice is to use cold rice, which will stop the rice sticking together.
If you just want to try this without splashing out too much on the more expensive ingredients, I've suggested some cheaper alternatives.
Despite a little bit of preparation beforehand, the rest of the dish will take just minutes to rustle up, and you won't believe just how tasty it is. We served ours with pak choi on the side.
The dish is around 400 calories and 100g of beef was enough to satisfy the largest of appetites - in our opinion! So why not have a go at this dish and forget that takeaway. Here's our easy recipe:

Thai inspired chilli prawns with noodles

Today I was inspired by the freshness of the Bang Bang Chicken salad (peanut butter chicken) we ate last week.
I thought these PRAWNS would go well with a chilli and lime dressing. I added an avocado to the salad, as I had some ripe and ready to eat.
It's unusual for us to have such lovely hot weather, and this lunch went down particularly well.
The ingredients provide enough for two good portions, which I estimate at around 350 calories each! Omit the avocado and you have a spicy salad around 250 calories.
To bulk out our meal, we ate some buttered rolls on the side. We still prefer to eat a good lunch around 450-500 calories, as it fills us up and we're not left feeling too hungry before our next meal. So if you often find yourself snacking mid-afternoon, the cure could be to eat a little more for your lunch. Here's my deliciously spicy recipe:

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

Smoked haddock with poached egg

This was the perfect dinner - quick and easy to prepare and ready in less than 15 minutes. Fast food using fresh ingredients.
The smoked haddock was served with barely wilted watercress, spinach and rocket, toasted croutons and a mustard dressing (which was very tangy and cut through the creamy egg yolk nicely).
Usually we would cook some spinach thoroughly for this dish, but I fancied a salad rather than a 'mush' of greens, so we enjoyed the meal as a warm salad instead.
I would roughly estimate this dish at around 500 calories per portion. We tend to estimate the calories in all of our meals now, because we believe that calories count - yet we prefer not to be obsessive about them!
You have to remember, this is a lifestyle, not a 'diet' and roughly calculating each meal is enough for us to keep the weight off. Even if you just get to grips with the calories in the main part of your meal - you will begin to recognise what it is you are eating that can affect your weight.
Back to this delicious recipe - now if you love strong flavours then this is one for you to try. Here's our recipe:

Peanut butter chicken - 400 calories

I was inspired by this tasty looking peanut butter noodle salad called BANG BANG CHICKEN.
My first thought though was - what about all those calories in PEANUT BUTTER. A quick search on the internet and I was assured that two tablespoonfuls would cost me around 190 calories. I then realised I could offset this with the other main ingredient - chicken.
There are lots of recipes out there, all very similar, but here is my version, based on what I had available. I've estimated my list of ingredients at around 400 calories per portion too, which is excellent considering the peanut butter. So what was our verdict? Here's what we think, along with our list of ingredients:

Fresh fruit salad

A FRESH FRUIT SALAD is one of the reasons I love summer! There's nothing more refreshing than a cool scoop of fruit, especially for BREAKFAST. We believe eating fruit and yoghurt was a great contributor to our weight loss (see what we think here).
Buying fruit when it's cheaper should mean it's at its sweetest, and you shouldn't need to add a lot of sugar.
This huge bowlful contains strawberries, melon, cherries, nectarines and mango. There's plenty here for our favourite summer breakfast - full fat Greek yoghurt topped with fresh fruit. It also goes well with cheese - something like Gouda, Jarlsberg or soft Brie.
RECIPE TIP: If you find the strawberries just a little too 'tart', sprinkle with a small teaspoon of sugar and just leave this to marinate for 10 minutes before stirring into the rest of the fruit. You could also make a SUGAR SYRUP: place 2 large tablespoons of castor sugar into a saucepan, add about 50ml of water and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool, then mix into the fruit. Keep chilled.
And just because fruit is deemed as 'healthy' doesn't mean you can eat as much as you like. Find out how many calories are in your bowlful and work out how much you want to include in your daily calorie allowance. Watching the number of calories will soon become second nature.
We relaxed happily into our weight loss regime - of eating 4 days 'on' and 3 days 'off' - which soon became second nature. We realised calories do count, and over a period of time, just a small amount of overeating can add up to weight gain. It was that little voice in my head which kept me from over eating; because I was eating what I wanted and could have ANYTHING I fancied I was in control. A small psychological twist that has (in the end) stopped me thinking about food all the time. Unlike most 'diets' out there, where you can't eat this or that and you end up eating it anyway - once you find an excuse or feel grumpy.
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.

HAM & EGG SALAD

After a weekend of BBQs and eating out - a simple lunch - HAM AND EGG SALAD was most welcome. We ate this with a few buttered new potatoes. Just be careful about the number of calories in the dressing you use. We tend not to use artificial low-fat dressings. Make your salads look enticing and you'll feel very satisfied.
Strolling through the local fruit and vegetable market I was delighted at the fresh produce on offer. The fruit was very tempting too, so I'll be making up a fruit salad later. As the weather remains warm, this week we'll be eating quite a lot of salad. I've also made lots of this spaghetti bolognese recipe (see below), and we'll be eating that later with pasta. The basic recipe can be used in a lasagne too. It's economical to make more than you need, then freeze into portions.