Forget dieting forever: July 2015

Monday, 20 July 2015

Pan fried mackerel and tomato salsa

The fisherman on the quay had super fresh mackerel impossible to resist. Even I could tell it was very very fresh.
The price - what price! The fisherman sold us the mackerel at 50p per fish. After pan frying we just couldn't understand why this fish isn't more popular. The simplest of dishes are often the best and this is no exception.
We test drove one fillet with a coating of egg and porridge oats. The nutty texture of the oats worked very well against the soft creamy flesh. Perfect if you want to make the fillets go even further!
You need a bit of acidity to complement the oily fish and beetroot/apple is a popular combination. We served our mackerel with tomatoes, which was very refreshing. We mixed chopped tomatoes with red onion, basil, olive oil and lemon juice. Don't forget to season well. The mackerel took just minutes in the frying pan. If you want a crispy skin you'll need to rack up the heat in the pan. We didn't do this as we decided to flavour the oil in the pan with bay leaves and garlic which we removed before pan frying the fish. Serve with fresh crusty bread or some earthy Cornish new potatoes. 100g of mackerel is around 170 calories.
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.

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

HERB CHICKEN

HERB CHICKEN. This quick and easy recipe will give bland chicken a lift. The recipe was an instant hit in our household and took very little effort to achieve a wonderful balance of flavours. We love the pattern created by the herbs! Serve it with potatoes and salad or as we did - with crushed new potatoes sprayed with oil and crisped up in the oven.
For this recipe take one large chicken breast around 250g (this will serve two) and slice it lengthways into three. Flatten the chicken slightly with a rolling pin. Place sage leaves on top of each slice of chicken. Season with salt and pepper as you go, although less salt is required because of the ham. Wrap the whole chicken breast in parma ham (around 3 slices per chicken breast). Briefly fry for one minute either side then place in a hot oven (180ºC) for around 15 minutes. We placed the chicken breast on the same baking tray as the potatoes, which took up the flavour of the parma ham. We used a thermometer to check it was thoroughly cooked. Serve with salad or vegetables. Chicken is low in calories (around 1 calorie per gram uncooked weight), so 250g of chicken would work out at 250 calories. Add 100 calories for 3 slices of parma ham. The herb chicken breast would be around 350 calories - and that's between two! It was certainly very filling and would be lovely eaten cold - perhaps as part of a sandwich or salad lunch box.
Do you know how many calories you are allowed each day?