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.
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SMOKED CHICKEN CURRY

We loved this smoked CHICKEN CURRY recipe.
We couldn't be bothered to chop the chillies and garlic so we used what we had. It may not be authentic but it tasted great.
The dish was ready in under 30 minutes - and we would happily pay good money for it!
The secret ingredient surprised us - and turned the curry into something very special.
We would estimate this plateful at under 500 calories.
We both agree 'this is about the best curry we have ever made at home'. So forget the takeaway - give this a try.
Get creative in the kitchen, which means - for us at least - thinking outside the box and using what you have available. We just happened to have the following ingredients - and wanted to create a quick and easy curry. The resulting plate of food was unexpectedly and extremely tasty, and one we will be making again.

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.

Take a look at our recipe:

500 CALORIE BEEF STROGANOFF

This beef pasta recipe was made using double cream, rather than the usual sour cream used for a BEEF STROGANOFF. I didn't have any sour cream so to tone down the creaminess I added a tablespoon of full fat yoghurt.
The creamy mushroom sauce also goes very well with a whole steak.
I would estimate this dish (including the pasta) at around 500 calories per portion.

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.

Here's the RECIPE:

CARROT SOUP - THAI STYLE

Warm yourself up with this delicately spiced budget CARROT SOUP recipe, with ginger and coconut.
Our quick and easy recipe delivers so many levels of flavour, you may just forget the main ingredient is the humble carrot!
There are six generous portions of soup. Each portion working out at around 125 calories.
This recipe saves you having to buy and prepare lots of ingredients.
If you are 'time poor' this is an excellent recipe - with just a few easy steps to follow.
You can adapt the recipe to your liking. Peeling and chopping the carrots took the longest time, but you can cut down on this by buying the largest carrots you can find. Quite often the large carrots are the cheapest too.

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 weight loss story and find out how you can lose weight eating the food you love.

Here's our recipe:

BACON SANDWICH and CALORIES

What an excuse for a BACON, LETTUCE & TOMATO (BLT) sandwich. It's the Bank Holiday!! Who needs an excuse anyway, especially when the bacon is cooked in such a way you get to save around 150 calories. 

This sandwich is around 450 calories, yet it could have been more. We even weighed the fat that didn't go into the sandwich and were surprised at the results: For two bacon sandwiches today, we found there was 35g of bacon fat left in the frying pan - which, at 88 calories for 10g of bacon fat, saved around 150 calories per sandwich. Yet the resulting sandwich didn't suffer - it was as tasty as ever. 

This is our favourite way of cooking bacon and you'll get to enjoy all the flavour while eating less calories. 

First snip off the fat from the bacon slices and put this fat to one side. Most standard bacon is full of water, and the aim is to remove it.
Place the trimmed slices of bacon into an oiled saucepan. Now fry the lean bacon until you see the water escape - it looks like milky liquid. As soon as this starts happening - remove the bacon (which is only half cooked).  Wipe the pan to remove the liquid.
Next, put the fat pieces into the pan and fry these on a very LOW heat. This turns the fat pieces into oil. Once the oil starts to appear in the pan, add your half cooked bacon and fry to your liking.
This will give the bacon ALL the flavour you would want without overloading on calories. Don't forget to toast one side of the bread, which gives the sandwich that all important crunch!

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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).

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

Warm couscous and leftover chicken

Lunching on leftover chicken can often be a bland experience. So why not liven things up with WARM SPICY COUSCOUS, vegetables and salad. When food is more inviting, you'll feel much more satisfied and less inclined to 'reward' yourself with sweets and chocolate. We eat with all our senses so why not enjoy what you eat.
While roasting a small chicken last night, we cooked a tray of colourful vegetables too: green peppers, butternut squash and red onions. The vegetables were sprinkled with a little salt and pepper and sprayed with oil. After cooking for 45 minutes, they were cooled and refrigerated overnight.
Fry (or griddle) a few courgettes and reheat the vegetables at the same time. Then mix with the couscous - we chose to use giant couscous because of its texture. Once the couscous is cooked, drain and rinse with boiled water (to stop it sticking together). Add a teaspoon of oil, salt and pepper, half a teaspoon of turmeric and a quarter of a teaspoon of ground cumin. This gives the couscous mix a lovely warmth. Add the vegetables and serve.
Save money - cook double the quantity. It's really good for the lunchbox. We're saving ours for tomorrow, when we'll reheat it and add some feta cubes and pine nuts. Can't wait.
If you don't have any roasted vegetables, you could add peas, sultanas, sliced almonds etc along with your favourite herbs.
Couscous is low in calories. We used 50g of dried couscous per person, which was very filling. I roasted a small butternut squash, one large onion and a whole green pepper.

***

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).

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

HOME MADE POTATO GNOCCHI

With fresh tomatoes in season (and cheap too) this POTATO GNOCCHI recipe with fresh tomato and basil was bursting with flavour. Better still, this is a great budget meal - working out at around 50p per portion. The gnocchi is simple to make, and we think the easiest pasta dish we've made. Here's how we make ours:

GNOCCHI (serves 4)

500g floury potatoes

100g fine flour

1 egg yolk

salt/pepper

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.

Add the flour and egg yolk to the cooled potatoes and season. Use salt and pepper - and add any of your flavourings at this stage. Form into small squares -we made around 40.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and drop the potato gnocchi into the pan. When they rise to the top, fish them out - this takes around a minute or so.

Serve with your favourite tomato sauce - today we have chopped up a few fresh tomatoes, fried lightly for five minutes in a small amount of oil, added garlic and basil and cooked for a further couple of minutes.

Top with your favourite cheese. Today we used 10g of Parmesan each - bringing our meal to around 350 calories. This gave us plenty of room for the all important chunk of crusty bread to mop up all that wonderful sauce.

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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).

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

Cheese and mushroom omelette

Fast food couldn't be easier. A cheese and mushroom omelette is very satisfying and this was around 400 calories. I used three eggs, 10g strong cheddar and lightly fried mushrooms.
Today we used the freshest of eggs from a nearby farm. We were struck at how vibrant and yellow the egg yolks were, and the creamy texture of the omelette.
We tend to eat intuitively these days, and noticed it's been a while since we have eaten an omelette. Although the omelette contained just 10g of grated cheese plus the Parmesan on the salad, it's been a long time since we fancied a meal based on a lot of cheese or a 'cheese board'. After some thought, we wondered if this was down to the fact we have been eating more yoghurt (for breakfast). Perhaps our body is getting enough calcium from a regular dose of yoghurt. During the summer months, especially when it's hot, we usually opt for plain Greek yoghurt and fruit for breakfast, followed by toast. Having experienced an absence of cheese cravings of late, we wonder if your body can eliminate cravings - once you are eating a good balance of all food groups. We think this has helped us keep the weight off.

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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).

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

Baked fish with tangy beans

Baked fish with a breadcrumb topping was on the menu yesterday. Cod was on offer at our local supermarket and looked very fresh.
The haricot beans were cooked with tomatoes, garlic, herbs and lemon.
The whole recipe was quite simple to make. The fish topping involved making fresh breadcrumbs which took ten minutes and we made them up earlier in the afternoon.
The fish fillet we bought was long and quite thin, so we folded the whole thing in half prior to cooking. By doing this, we used less breadcrumbs and as the photograph shows, it came out looking like one chunky piece. Saves paying for cod loin - which can double the cost. You can ask the fishmonger to skin the fish for you - even in the supermarkets.
Our RECIPE for baked fish in breadcrumbs can be found here. We baked the fish at 190ºC for 15 minutes, then checked before cooking for a further 4 minutes, when the flakes were just starting to separate. Fish is low in calories yet very filling too.
We used haricot beans, but you could swap them for butter beans etc. Simply drain and add the rest of the ingredients. Here's our recipe for the tangy beans:

Tangy Beans

Ingredients

1 large tin of cooked haricot or butter beans

1 large crushed clove garlic

3-4 chopped tomatoes

juice of half a lemon

splash of red wine vinegar

salt/pepper

tablespoon of chopped herbs - we used basil and parsley

chilli flakes if you like a bit of heat

50ml white wine 

olive oil

drop of honey - if required

*

Put the oil into a frying pan and add the chopped tomatoes and garlic. Stir for a few minutes until tomatoes begin to break down.

Transfer the tomato mixture to a saucepan and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the beans are heated through and the liquid has reduced slightly.

Check the seasoning, add a drop of honey if necessary, although the acidity will compliment the fish. 

*

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).

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

QUICK PASTA

Here's a very quick and easy pasta dish using  store cupboard ingredients. Spaghetti with tomatoes, garlic and Parmesan - assembled in under 15 minutes.
After an unexpectedly hot day, we wandered out to the local pub for dinner. It soon became obvious many others had the same idea; the pub was packed and all the tables booked.
On returning home, we found a few ripe tomatoes, and used them to make a quick sauce for the spaghetti. The result was a quick and simple, refreshing pasta dish around 400 calories.
To make the dish:
Prepare the dried spaghetti (approx 60g per person) according to the instructions on the pack. While the pasta is cooking, take a couple of cloves of garlic and sprinkle with a little salt before crushing with the back of a knife. Chop a few ripe tomatoes. Put a small amount of olive oil into a frying pan and heat gently. Add the tomatoes and garlic, stirring all the time over a low heat for 2 - 3 minutes, then turn off the heat. When the pasta is cooked, add a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water to the tomatoes and garlic. Drain pasta and dress with a little oil and/or butter. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the tomatoes and sprinkle generously with cheese. We used Parmesan, which is less fatty than e.g. Cheddar. But use what you have. We added fresh chopped basil, which added a fragrant touch, and finished with a little olive oil and a fresh grating of black pepper before devouring.

***

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).

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

What a great way to use up leftover chicken.
I forget just how tasty CORONATION CHICKEN is. When I'm making a sandwich, this filling doesn't always spring to mind for some reason. But… what a great way to perk up leftover chicken.
Eat as a sandwich or use as a filling for a tortilla wrap or chapati. You could also pile it onto crunchy salad leaves and enjoy as a salad. Or use as a topping for a jacket potato.
For the Coronation Chicken, just mix together a tablespoon of mayonnaise (or yoghurt and mayonnaise) with a teaspoon of curry powder. Add a little salt and pepper if you wish. You could add sliced almonds, herbs, raisins - whatever you fancy. We added lettuce and chopped spring onions.
The sandwich (or wrap) is around 400 calories each.

***

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).

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 PORK & CHILLI BEAN STEW

The creamy texture of the black turtle beans was the star of this SPICY PORK & BEAN stew.
If you are in a hurry, you can buy the beans in tins or cartons, although I cooked mine in the pressure cooker.
I used a cheaper cut of meat - shoulder of pork, but again, if you don't have the time, you could use pork tenderloin, which is a very tender cut and requires little cooking time. It's not too expensive either.
This is a very economical meal, and will make 6-8 portions. Serve with rice and pittas.
We spiced ours up using this recipe: