Weekday cajun chicken

This cajun chicken meal is one of our favourites. It's so quick and easy to put together. Serve with buttered new potatoes and you have a delicious meal at around 450 calories.
If you cut the chicken breast open and flatten it slightly, it should cook more evenly. We coated ours in cajun seasoning then fried in a little oil.
We're not afraid to use oil and butter in our meals, because we think this helps to fill us up. We're not talking of using large amounts (as you may have seen on television). A little goes a long way!

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. 

Here's our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss. Lose weight eating the food you enjoy most. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

Jacob's Ladder

Now this cut of beef is very cheap - JACOB'S LADDER is also known as short rib of beef. All it requires is long, slow cooking.
It's not a common cut and I've never seen it in the supermarket. We bought ours from the butcher, who generally supplies local restaurants with this particular cut.
It has to be one of the tastiest cuts of 'budget' beef you can possibly buy. The end result is slightly sweeter than the more well know 'shin' of beef.
I'm not sure if my Mum ate it or inhaled it, as it disappeared so quickly! Not bad on calories either!

Mini bread rolls

Have fun serving these delicious herby MINI BREAD ROLLS. We loved the shape of these, having used our mini muffin tins to achieve a playful shape.

Each bread roll weighed around 40g - and with butter that's equal to approx 100 calories each. But... can you stop at one? Suggest you make these when you are expecting guests... they will be delighted and your weight loss will not be compromised as they disappear. 

We think you should be able to bag these up and pop into the freezer. You can then remove them one at a time! 

We made plain rolls, and some were infused with fresh thyme, sage and black onion seeds. Our favourite was the onion seed rolls.

Here's our fab recipe:

CREAMY FISH PIE

There's nothing quite like a comforting CREAMY FISH PIE.  
Why load the pie with creme fraiche or cream, when you can halve the calories with this fabulous recipe. The creaminess is still there, you lose nothing in flavour, and the sauce can be used for other recipes - such as chicken pie etc. 

Depending on your appetite, this huge fish pie will serve between four and six people.
If you divide between four, then each portion works out at around 660 calories.
Divide between SIX people and each portion will be around 440 calories.
We loved everything about this dish - and you must give it a try! We chose a different kind of white fish than your normal COD. But you can choose whatever fish you fancy for this dish. Fish is extremely expensive, and you might want to shop for bits and pieces of fish when they are on offer - placing them in the freezer until you are ready. Alternatively, the supermarket offers bags of frozen fish - which seems relatively cheap in comparison to fresh fish. Here's our fabulous recipe:

Cheese & bacon

If you want to lose weight, it's always so much easier when eating food you actually enjoy.
At around 400 calories - this hot and cold salad proved to be a winner. This goat's cheese and bacon salad is a great way to serve bacon. Just add a few of your favourite salad items to a bag of salad and begin the assembly job!
We each ate 50g of goat's cheese and two large rashers of bacon. Cut out circles of bread (whatever you prefer) and toast one side. Place the slices of goat's cheese on the other side then grill. Our bread circles weighed around 25g per person - but looked so much more on the plate. Add your favourite relish.
We usually dress our salad leaves with a good oil as it helps to fill us up.
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.

Leftover chicken

The glorious colour of this CHICKEN & VEGETABLE SOUP comes from the home made stock. All natural ingredients. 
We enjoyed a roast chicken dinner yesterday, and used the carcass to make the stock for this soup. If you've never attempted to make stock before, you must give this a go. No amount of shop bought stock cubes could ever achieve the same depth flavour! 
The soup was around 250 calories per 300g serving and that includes the handful of pearl barley to boost the calories in the soup. I made six hearty portions - at very little cost. Here's our fab budget recipe:

Sausage rolls

Today we're having a bit of a get together. On the lunch menu we have one of our firm favourites - SAUSAGE ROLLS.
Calories in these sausage rolls are not as bad as I imagined because of the high meat content. Cooking from scratch means you take control of the ingredients. Quite often we'll end up with a lower calorie meal, compared to its ready made equivalent. 
We think these home made sausage rolls are brilliant - a bit of a cooking cheat, and just so easy and quick to make. Everyone will love coming to your house if you make these meaty sausage rolls, which will disappear in no time. Save time: double up on quantity and put some uncooked sausage rolls into the freezer. Here's our cheat's sausage roll recipe:

Lamb chops

Deliciously sweet and juicy, these LAMB CHOPS were just about perfect. They were huge so we cooked them for about 4 minutes each side (from room temperature) then let them rest for 8 minutes. Eat them with a side salad and new potatoes, or as we did today, with purple sprouting broccoli and carrots.
We usually enjoy English lamb, but spotted the Welsh lamb on offer. We think the lamb has a slightly different flavour - although both have their own uniqueness.
Most supermarkets sell packs of four lamb chops for around £5 - £6 depending on weight. Not much more than some ready meals - and you get a lot more meat for your money this way. The whole meal is ready in under 30 minutes too. At around 500 calories for this plateful, there is enough room for dessert.

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.

Steak, egg & potato wedges

Colourful steak, egg & potato wedges was our way of relaxing after almost a week away. We decided to share a steak with some oven baked wedges, fried egg and salad.
Weight loss doesn't have to mean giving up your favourite food.
We've lost lots of weight eating all types of food but generally avoiding processed food, especially low-fat processed food. Why not just enjoy fresh, honest food?
After our short break, we found our weight was the same before and after. We no longer think a holiday is an excuse to eat and drink everything in sight. Instead, we've learned to eat and drink whatever we fancy every day.
Our meal tonight was possibly around 650 calories, but it was very filling and a nice way to end some fabulous days away.
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 give you an idea of just how far calories can go! It's up to you what you eat.

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how you can have the food and drink you love while losing weight. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

BEEF BOLOGNESE

I made this BEEF LASAGNE (new recipe) after cooking a batch of bolognese sauce with the intention of making a spaghetti bolognese.
Unfortunately, I used cheaper pre-packed minced beef, but found the grainy texture of the meat disappointing, and I didn't want to use it in a spaghetti bolognese.
Without wishing to waste all my hard work, I reasoned the bolognese would benefit from further slow cooking. And... I wasn't disappointed either; the resulting lasagne, slow cooked in the oven yesterday, proved to be a hit and was devoured in minutes. What a great rescue plan.
Making meals from scratch takes effort and time - both can be in short supply! Then if things go wrong, it can be very frustrating. So, as I've just learned, it makes sense to start with good ingredients. They may cost a bit more, but the end result will be worth it.
I'm experimenting with garlic too - and found this smoked garlic (front of pic) in Morrisons supermarket at just 59p. I wish I could 'attach' the wonderful smoky aroma to this post!
We love pasta, and have eaten it right from the start of our fabulous weight loss. It's filling, tasty and this lasagne for example is under 500 calories! What more can you ask? Oh, and egg pasta is more filling because it contains egg (protein).
If you are going to turn this beef bolognese into a LASAGNE here's a link to how we achieved the perfectly smooth white sauce - it never fails!!
Here's the NEW bolognese recipe I was trying out - experimenting with smoked garlic and other vegetables. The sauce was positively bursting with so much flavour.

PRAWNS

A quick and easy lunch - PRAWN COCKTAIL salad. The prawns were sweet, juicy and very low in calories at just 80 calories per 100g (about the amount in this picture). Just watch for the calories in the sauce!
I ate mine with half an avocado today (165 calories per 100g). The sauce was the most calorific item at 495 calories per 100g, and I used approximately 20g. Despite the sauce, my salad was still around 350 calories - so I had a nice crusty roll with butter.
Not eating enough will result in hunger which leads to unnecessary snacking and can break your resolve if you are following a strict diet. Be kind to yourself. Take time to lose weight and enjoy eating your favourite foods. If you love certain foods, don't deny yourself them; find out the nutritional value and make up your own mind whether you'll eat it. Take control of your food choices and you'll soon discover (like us) you can lose weight.
OUR MOTTO is to EAT GREAT AND LOSE WEIGHT.
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.

Midweek chicken salad

Our midweek CHICKEN SALAD was made all the tastier with roasted tomatoes in balsamic vinegar. We are trying to use up our bumper crop of tomatoes - which were even more sweet when roasted alongside the chicken.
Here's our BUDGET tip - just roast half the chicken. Much nicer than roasting the whole lot then looking for recipes. See more here.
Our butcher cut the whole bird down the middle. We rubbed piri-piri seasoning all over then roasted. Each half took around 40 minutes to cook and we we enjoyed two fresh, hot roast meals. We crisped up the skin under the grill for 5 minutes. A very tasty meal cooked in under 45 minutes - with hardly any effort and under 500 calories. What more could you want?  Total cost per meal for two was around £2.50 each (£1.25 per person).
We are in our THIRD year - having lost lots of weight and kept it off. We've noticed now that if we eat ENOUGH at a meal, we don't feel hungry until 4 or 5 hours later. We love eating 3 meals per day, but say you preferred to eat 4 smaller meals per day, then go ahead. The gap between meals is less, so you just need to eat a little less at each meal time. Simply divide your calorie allowance between the number of meals you prefer to eat.
I'm currently sorting out a mountain of old clothes - all far too big. We won't be putting the weight back on - because we know how to keep it off. That's a far cry from my old 'traditional dieting' days, when I would always put the weight (and more) back on.

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 give you an idea of just how far calories can go! It's up to you what you eat.

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how you can have the food and drink you love while losing weight. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

COD in breadcrumbs

I was really hankering after some fish - so we made this delicious cod in breadcrumbs again. Once you've made this yourself, you'll probably wonder why you've never thought to make it before. It's so easy, and so much tastier than its processed, frozen friend.
Tonight we served ours with potato wedges - cooked in the oven in a piri-piri seasoning.
My 180g portion of raw cod is around 150 calories.
After bread crumbing and serving with spicy oven cooked potato wedges, and a little side salad, the whole dish is still only around 600 calories.
Take a look at our truly succulent lemony cod recipe:

BRISKET OF BEEF

BRISKET of beef is a great cut of meat for slow-cooking. We cooked ours in the SLOW-COOKER which we turned on in the morning before going out to work. All that was needed was to steam the veg and pop a few Yorkshire puddings into the oven... It was a lovely mid-week treat, with enough meat for another couple of meals. Our kilo of brisket was very economical too at just under £6.
Let your kitchen gadgets do the work for you: add stock vegetables to the slow-cooker, place the meat on top and fill with around a litre of hot water. The meat falls apart and has a really meaty taste. It's also low in calories and this plateful is around 450 calories - including the Yorkshire pudding (see recipe below)!

Butternut squash

BUTTERNUT SQUASH is coming into season now. 
Do you know which shape butternut squash is the most economical, yielding the most flesh? 

The more we eat food with lots of FLAVOUR, the more we are convinced this helps our weightloss. Whether it's because we are more satisfied, and subsequently end up eating less, I'm not sure. It could just be that we feel as if we've eaten something fantastic, and therefore feel less deprived? Lots of flavour doesn't have to mean lots of calories either - and this soup is around 180 calories - including the bacon and crouton garnish. We had ours with some cheese toasties. Here's our recipe and tip for buying butternut squash: