Asparagus season is here ...

There's nothing quite as tasty as really fresh, new season asparagus! Thanks to the exceptionally warm spring weather, we are enjoying our first pick of the season. The flavour and texture is something you have to savour.
Lunch then was poached eggs, bacon and a few asparagus spears for luxury. A slice of warm toast on the side adds a nice bit of crunch.
Asparagus this fresh takes very little cooking - we boiled ours in salted water for 3 minutes.
Perfect poached eggs are quite easy to make, although you'll need really fresh eggs. Just add a dash of vinegar to the water and bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and add your eggs. Simple as that. Lose weight eating delicious food.

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Our very first blog post about our weight loss journey - back in 2011.

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POTATO ROSTI WITH AN UNUSUAL HINT OF SPICE

POTATO & BACON ROSTI with an interesting spicy twist.
While making these potato cakes, we experimented with the flavours and were more than pleasantly surprised with the results.
The combination of ingredients is not something that instantly springs to mind when thinking of savoury dishes using potatoes. However our tastebuds were delighted with the outcome.
You often see cinnamon and bacon paired together in a savoury bread roll, and this was partly our inspiration. You also see similar spices used to flavour ham.
The gentle warmth from the Speculaas Spice mix certainly livened up the whole dish in an unusual and surprising way. The spice mix contains nine different spices including cinnamon, cloves and ginger, all contributing a subtle depth of flavour to the potato.
Our recipe below would make a perfect breakfast or a light supper meal with the addition of eggs.

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

Turkey, bacon & lettuce

Here's a lovely combination - turkey, bacon & lettuce. The turkey was exceptionally moist and goes perfectly with the salty bacon. Soft fluffy white bread, toasted on one side gives a chewy, crunchy bite.
We spread the toasted side of the bread with cranberry sauce, topped with turkey, bacon and finally lettuce. Add a dollop of good mayonnaise on the other slice of bread.
To achieve tender, moist slices of turkey breast we used this method:

BACON & AVOCADO

Wow - when avocados are ripe, there is nothing quite like it. If you're after some lunch time conversation, you may be disappointed. And, if silence is the true measure of 'deliciousness', then this dish scores 10 out of 10.
Bacon and avocado - are perfect together; a salty, creamy fusion balanced with the crunch of the lightly fried ciabatta.
I added a few pea shoots (from the garden) to the spinach. The dressing gave it the 'final touch'. We are experimenting more and more with fresh, home made salad dressings (which really make a dish) and here's the one we used today:

Goat's cheese, avocado and bacon

This was a really satisfying lunch - goat's cheese with avocado and bacon bits. The lemon dressing recipe is here.
Using 50g each of goat's cheese and avocado, 2 rashers of streaky bacon (crumbled) plus the lemon dressing, our salad works out around 450 calories. All that flavour for so few calories is amazing. We served ours with some rye bread on the side.
The type of GOAT"S CHEESE we used has a rind and one of the large discount supermarkets has a very tasty one!
Buying a ripe AVOCADO can be hit and miss for me, so now I buy them a few days ahead. Today we enjoyed a perfectly ripe Fuerte avocado (pale green) - after it had been sitting on my kitchen windowsill for a while. Sometimes we will buy a Hass (nobbly) avocado, and found the darker the skin the more ripe it is.
Cook the rashers through until all the fat has drained out. You may find one rasher is enough as it is quite salty.
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.

SCALLOPS, BACON & EGGS

SCALLOPS & BACON

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

4 quail's eggs

One sweetcorn cob (we could use frozen - but fresh was on offer)

8 scallops

120g streaky bacon - about 8 very thin slices or 4 thicker slices

one shallot

one clove garlic

dash oil

water/stock for cooking the sweetcorn

side salad leaves dressed with a very small amount of oil

salt and pepper

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I would roughly estimate this dish at 450 calories. Frying the streaky bacon until very crisp removed a lot of the fat - which we used to fry the scallops in, so there was very little added oil.

To make the sweetcorn puree, chop a shallot and fry gently in a small amount of oil until translucent and soft. Add a chopped garlic clove and fry. Take one sweetcorn cob (we used fresh) and remove kernels then place in a saucepan with the onion/garlic, and a little stock (we used chicken). Cook until soft (about 10 mins). Place in a blender with enough water to blend. (There was plenty left over).

Cook scallops to your liking. and top with the fried quail's eggs (yes fried).

* * * * 

We couldn't agree on lunch. I fancied some fish and my partner fancied bacon - so this was our compromise! Scallops, bacon, sweetcorn and quail's egg salad. We love trying new things and playing with flavours. This meal was adapted from a GORDON RAMSAY dish.

The total cost for this meal was under £4 per serving (the price of a supermarket salad) - and I'm fairly sure it would cost significantly more in a restaurant.

After spotting some quail's eggs in the supermarket, we thought we'd buy some as I've never eaten them before. Curious to know what they tasted like, they ended up in my basket. A flick through some recipes and we decided to make this dish. My partner headed for the fishmonger to get some fish for this evening's meal, and bought the beautiful scallops too.

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Lose weight eating the food YOU love and forget dieting.

REMEMBER: This is not a diet. We all have a calorie allowance - (see our page on calories) and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about the UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

Chicken & bacon sandwich

Well it's Friday and what better way to celebrate than this hot chicken and bacon sandwich? You can pick up ready cooked chicken breasts if you are busy, then add a couple of slices of fried bacon.
We used 40g of chicken and 30g of hot fried crispy bacon. See our TIP on cooking bacon. Cooking most of the fat out of the bacon, and spreading the bread with mayo brings this sandwich to around 400 calories. Why not add something extra, and bring the calories up to a more respectable number - fill up and you will be less likely to snack later.
This is a popular sandwich and you can buy them everywhere - just look at the number of calories. You'll probably find those higher in calories contain a lot more mayo. Our full fat mayo was lightly spread onto both slices. But... if you are at home and want to make this more special, do what we did, and add the hot crispy bacon. EAT the food you love. And whenever possible make it taste irresistible.

If you would like to know more about how we have our fantastic weight loss eating all the food we love - see the UNIQUE METHOD

Read how we put 'our idea' to the test  -  Our Experiment

We keep mentioning CALORIES - see why!

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2013, all rights reserved.

Our TIP for a great bacon sandwich

This was lunch - very simple (why do the simple things always taste so good). A quick bacon sandwich at somewhere around 400 calories (if that). As we don't know the exact number of calories we actually need, we usually estimate. It's not an exact science, and we're not scientists. But, we have implemented our system and successfully lost lots weight - so something is working. At least we get to eat the food we love.
TIP: This is how we love to cook our bacon and get to enjoy all the flavour without too much of the fat and 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 get this out. 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). Next, put the fat pieces into the pan and fry these on a very LOW heat to render out all the fat. Once the fat starts to appear in the pan, replace the bacon into the pan and continue to cook to your liking. I like it nice and crisp. This will give the bacon ALL the flavour you would want without the calories.

If you would like to know more about how we have lost so much weight - see OUR IDEA

Read how we put our idea to the test  -  Our Experiment

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Bacon and brie salad...with avocado

I can't wait to eat this. As the bacon cooks, the aroma in the kitchen is inviting. The brie was taken out of the fridge about an hour beforehand, as it needs to reach room temperature before the full flavour impact can be witnessed.
Sorting through my vegetable drawer I spotted some stray avocados. I don't like to waste anything, and although these were a bit squidgy, I was sure they would taste great. A small avocado weighed 90g, and by the time I had prepared it we are left with just 40g to share at just 32 calories each. This will give the salad a lovely twist. The lettuce was good old cheap and cheerful ENGLISH ROUND LETTUCE. It always seems to me that this little lettuce is a supermarket apology, in favour of other exotic versions. It's got a wonderful subtle flavour and the texture is perfect for this dish. At 60p, bypass those bags of convenient salad leaves, as these round lettuces take just moments to prepare. I'm sure there are local lettuces everywhere that are equally as tasty. Season with salt, pepper and toss in olive oil.

There were 4 rashers of butchers bacon, quite thick - unlike the pre-packed stuff. Trim all the fat off and put to one side. Place the trimmed bacon rashers in the pan to draw out the water, use a low heat and remove after just a couple of minutes. You will see all the white bacon water. Pour this out,then place the fat pieces in the pan and heat. You'll see the fat start to come out, and this rendered fat will be used to cook the bacon rashers in. Put the bacon rashers back in the pan and cook until crisp. They should crisp up nicely now all that water has gone, and the taste will have intensified.
All there is left to do is to assemble! The brie sits on top of the hot bacon and melts into it. If you don't like brie then use some other cheese, just weigh it out. See how our finished product looked.
CALORIES: Approximately 400 calories depending on the amount of bacon and brie. We used 20g avocado, 40g brie and 70g bacon. Interestingly, by removing the rind/fat from the bacon and taking out the water, then cooking out as much more fat as possible, 100g of uncooked bacon reduced to just 37g of cooked bacon!!

Eating whatever we want while losing weight with OUR UNIQUE METHOD.
Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2011, all rights reserved.