QUICK & EASY DHANSAK CURRY RECIPE

One of our favourite takeaway meals is a dhansak curry. Today we decided to have a go at making it for the first time. The result was a very fresh tasting spicy curry that tasted… very similar to our    takeaway.
Curries and weightloss - they do mix.
We love the simplicity of this recipe without the need to use a million different ingredients to achieve a satisfying meal. The beauty of this curry sauce is that you can make it and add whatever protein or vegetable you like to it. 

We chose king prawns as a treat. You can stir in some fresh spinach at the end too if you like. Obviously using lentils gives it a healthy twist - and not only that it's a tasty way to eat them! The calories were good too - this dish worked out (excluding rice) at around 350 calories. Who would have thought that curry was this low in calories! Here's how we made it:

PRAWN PUREE

A spicy prawn puree is something you will find at an Indian restaurant, usually served as a starter, and it's one we normally tend to order. I suppose it's the equivalent of hot spicy wrap, and low in calories.
We decided to make our own which was much easier than you might at first think.
The following will make three nice sized prawn purees - as you see in the photograph. This size is very filling and a little bigger than a starter, so would make a light lunch served with salad. Divide the mixture into four and you'll probably have just the right sized starter similar to what you would get in the restaurant.
Seriously, have a go at making the flatbread, as it is relatively easy and so much cheaper than buying. You'll also more than likely have the ingredients already at home, but if you don't have the spices then just leave them out and make plain flatbreads or even add a little curry powder! You'll find the link to the recipes below!

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Be who you want to be.

Do you know how many calories you can eat each day?

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

You'll find our successful weight loss method and a few tips and tricks here: WEIGHT LOSS STORY.

Tweak what you eat and lose weight.

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2015), all rights reserved.

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Here's the recipes:

Weight loss with pasta and breadcrumbs

A CRUNCHY BREADCRUMB topping adds a lovely texture to any pasta dish, and it's a great way to use up stale bread.
It is also a very quick and easy recipe to make - taking us around 15 minutes from start to finish. It's a fabulous way to use store cupboard (and frozen) ingredients: dried pasta, tinned tomatoes, stale bread, garlic and frozen prawns. Swap prawns with chicken, cheese or spinach.
A single portion (75g) of dried spaghetti works out at 270 calories with the whole dish, as you see here, working out at around 400 calories.
Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions, and while this is cooking you can prepare the rest of the ingredients.
The ingredients below will serve two:
For the sauce we used half a tin of chopped tomatoes, one clove of crushed garlic, a sprinkle of dried chilli flakes, salt/pepper and warmed this through in a dry frying pan. I added half a small teaspoon of sugar to take the bitterness out of the sauce.
For the breadcrumbs weigh out 50g of stale bread (crust removed) and either roughly chop or put into a blender. Add a clove of crushed garlic, a twist of salt and pepper and a teaspoon of oil. If you have any lemons, you can add lemon zest if you like. Put this mixture into a small, lightly oiled frying pan and fry until browned (around 5 minutes).
We used 100g of raw prawns between the two of us. The prawns take just a few minutes to go pink, and you can add these to the sauce mixture towards the end of cooking.

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Be who you want to be.

Do you know how many calories you can eat each day?

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

You'll find our successful weight loss method and a few tips and tricks here: WEIGHT LOSS STORY.

Tweak what you eat and lose weight.

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2015), all rights reserved.

How to cook crispy fried king prawns

We cooked one of our favourite starters - CRISPY FRIED KING PRAWNS. You can use either fresh or (defrosted) frozen king prawns. There is just a slight texture difference between the two, with the FRESH prawns being slightly softer. 

Why not try using PANKO breadcrumbs as we did here - the resulting prawns were so much crunchier than normal.  Despite being deep fried, these were quite low in calories. The Panko is so much crispier and seems to soak up less oil. Weight loss needn't be about depriving yourself, because once that starts happening, you invariably give up. So if you do fancy something, then include it and you'll feel a whole lot happier. These crispy prawns certainly made us smile. Take a look at our easy recipe:

JAMBALAYA

Tonight we're having a JAMBALAYA - it's an easy, spicy dish to make, and always disappears fast.  We estimate each portion at around 500 calories per serving. This is a good alternative to a curry, and for using up bits and pieces in the fridge. Our version was more a case of what was available in the fridge - rather than following an authentic recipe. 

 JAMBALAYA

Ingredients to serve 4 

50g chorizo - sliced

300g chicken breast - cubed

large tin of chopped tomatoes (400g)

2 peppers - we only had green ones, so used those

1 large onion (finely chopped)

stick of chopped celery

2 cloves garlic

1 large chilli - we used a red one and removed seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

3 tsp cajun powder

250g basmati rice

750g chicken stock / water

dessertspoon olive oil

150g of prawns if using them

handful of peas (that's all we had to hand)

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Fry the onion and celery in a little oil for 5 minutes, then add the sliced peppers, garlic and chilli. Continue frying for couple of minutes. 

Add chicken & chorizo slices and fry for a further 5 minutes. 

Add tomatoes, rice, cajun, turmeric and stock/water. Cook until tender, but not dry. 

When almost ready to serve, add the peas and prawns (if using) and heat through for a couple more minutes. Don't forget to taste and season with salt and pepper!

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EAT GREAT AND LOSE WEIGHT.

Do you know how many calories you can eat 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.

You'll find our WEIGHT LOSS PLAN here. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2013), all rights reserved. Please do not copy any of this material without our express permission.

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.

CRISPY FRIED PRAWNS

We ate these CRISPY FRIED PRAWNS as a starter this evening. This time we used fresh, raw prawns which were soft and juicy. The last time we ate these, we used FROZEN prawns, which were equally delicious although they were not quite as soft. 

Seek out Panko breadcrumbs, often hiding in the spice aisle of the supermarket, for exceptionally crunchy prawns. We were surprised at how low in calories this dish is too. Take a look at 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:

Prawn sandwich

We ate a prawn sandwich for lunch. During our weight loss, we never gave up bread - or any food group for that matter. Bread and potatoes are often seen as the guilty party when it comes to weight gain. Sticking to our tried and tested method of weight loss, using calories as the one true measure, we've successfully lost weight and kept it off.
This sandwich contains around 100g of prawns - 75 calories worth. The bread is around 200 calories and the spread/mayonnaise adds up to around 100 calories. Just be careful when adding the spread/mayo - as these can be pretty high in calories. Measure out the amount you need - don't guess (until you get used to how the quantity looks on the plate). This is quite a hefty sandwich, yet still fairly low in calories giving us lots of 'calories' to play with later.
Tonight we are having three courses and I'll be posting the results later. Look out for our twist on rhubarb and custard. Can't wait.
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.

PRAWN COCKTAIL

Prawn cocktail is very low in calories - as long as you measure out the sauce! You can buy a ready made cocktail sauce or make your own using half tomato sauce and half mayonnaise.
Instead of putting this in a cocktail glass, I plated it up. It looks bigger, and I included boiled egg.
As this salad is under 300 calories, I added some bread and butter. I prefer to eat a good lunch between 400 and 500 calories because I know if I don't, I'll be heading for a snack mid afternoon. We prefer to cut back just a little when we've over indulged and the weight has always disappeared after a few days.
After a long weekend away, enjoying ourselves and relaxing, we need to be pretty vigilant about what we are eating for just a few days. But, that doesn't mean we can't eat great food. Good nutrition will reward you in the end. Food cravings (so we have found) are our body's way of telling us to eat a particular food - perhaps a missing nutrient or two!
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.