SPICY PASTA WITH FETA

Pasta with feta with a refreshing yoghurt and pea dressing. 

Losing weight eating great food is also our secret to keeping the weight off. 

Give you body a good balance of everything to help eliminate cravings. 

Eat regularly, but most of all enjoy what you are eating. 

Calories in - calories out may sound too simplistic (and boring), but at the beginning of 2011we developed this simple equation into a very simple and successful WEIGHT LOSS PLAN, which helped us to lose over 7 stone between us. We learned there is no need to starve and no special foods are required.

Maintaining the weight seems to have surprised a lot of people - and almost 4 years later, we've continued to keep the weight off. Unlike lots of diets where the weight just piles back on once the diet is over.

To make this pasta dish, there are two stages - the yoghurt dressing can be made first and you can set it aside until you are ready to make the rest. We doubled up on the yoghurt dressing so we can use it again. In fact, you can double up on all the ingredients, as this is delicious eaten cold. Take it to work and your friends will be jealous of your tasty salad bowl.

Here's how we made this dish, adapted from an Ottolenghi recipe.

SPICY PASTA - serves TWO
Yoghurt dressing

60g natural yoghurt

25ml olive oil

50g frozen and defrosted peas

crushed clove garlic

salt/pepper

Blend yoghurt with 25ml of the olive oil, 50g of the peas and crushed garlic. Add salt and pepper.Mix until you have a pale green sauce. Set aside until later.

Spicy pasta

120g dried pasta

100g frozen peas

15g pine nuts (or chopped hazelnuts)

20 ml olive oil

1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes (if you like it hot, use half teaspoon)

15g fresh basil leaves

50g feta cheese 

salt/pepper

Cook the pasta according to the instructions.  Add the frozen peas for the last couple of minutes.Drain well because the shells fill up with water, then very slowly, add the pasta to the sauce (so it doesn't split). 

Place the 20ml oil into a small frying pan. Add your chilli flakes and pine nuts. Cook gently until golden brown - 4-5 minutes.

Tear basil, crumble the feta and mix into the pasta. Top with the pine nuts and drizzle with the chilli/oil.

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Be who you want to be.

Eat great and lose weight. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2014), all rights reserved.

Please do not copy any of this material without our express permission.

What to do with CARROTS

When carrots take centre stage, they just have to be good. These were no exception.
Roasted spicy carrots on a bed of cool yoghurt was a hit.
If you are stuck for a simple but very tasty vegetarian dish and love spice as we do, then why not give this recipe a try?
Not only is it satisfying, but it will suit all budgets and be ready in no time at all.
We served ours with home made couscous and a rocket salad. If you don't have time, why not buy a ready made pot of couscous for convenience.
This would make a great starter or light lunch.
Here's how we made this dish:

SPICY CARROTS

Ingredients - serves 2

400g carrots

half teaspoon of Harissa - dry spice mix (not the paste)

two teaspoons of oil 

a pot of plain yoghurt (we used full-fat Greek yoghurt)

half lemon, zested

handful of chopped flat leaf parsley and/or mint

optional: za'atar spice (see my note below) or paprika 

salt and black pepper

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NOTE: We had the za'atar spice in the cupboard and used this to sprinkle over the yoghurt. If we hadn't had that spice, we would have sprinkled a few pinches of paprika instead. The flavour is essentially in the marinated carrots. 

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Mix the Harissa spice with the oil and place into a plastic bag. 

Cut the carrots in half, lengthways. Place into the bag and distribute the spice mix. Leave for at least half an hour. 

Heat the oven to 180ºC. Place carrots onto a lightly oiled baking sheet and roast, covered with foil for 30 minutes. Remove foil, turn carrots over and continue to cook for a further 10-20 minutes until soft.

Spread the yoghurt onto a plate and sprinkle with a little salt, pepper and a few pinches of either paprika or za'atar. 

Place carrots onto yoghurt. Sprinkle the lemon zest and scatter chopped herbs - we used parsley today, as that's all we had. You could use mint and/or coriander. Why not experiment. 

Drizzle with a little olive oil and serve with rocket salad. Add couscous if you like or perhaps crumble some salty feta cheese. 

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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 STORY here. Tweak what you eat and lose weight.

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2014), all rights reserved.
Please do not copy any of this material without our express permission.

Hot smoked salmon salad

This hot smoked salmon salad is very quick and easy to assemble. 

So simple yet so tasty. 

The zesty yoghurt dressing is perhaps our favourite component. If you are looking for a simple, low calorie potato salad recipe, this dressing is a must. 

We bought chilli flavoured hot smoked salmon today. Alternatively you could use smoked trout, as we have done in the past. 

The potatoes work well warm or cold, so why not make a large batch of potato salad? A great lunchbox idea too. Here's the recipe: