Tuesday 28 February - Diggybob Makes Soup

Another day in the Newbury office for me, so Diggybob was in charge of supper.
He didn't take photos as he went along, but I took some of the finished bread and split pea and ham soup

Monday 27 February - Chick Peas and Chorizo

I had bought a very cheap bag of chick peas in Akram stores a few weeks ago, so these were boiled and soaked yesterday and went into the slow cooker for a full day today.

I fried up onions, garlic, some chopped chorizo and some paprika  then added wine and tomato puree and reduced down before adding the chick peas.

I used my beautiful garlic crusher that came from my brother and  his wife from the USA

To serve with this - I'd bought this beautiful bunch of Kale at the weekend very cheaply, so I steamed this lightly, and then reheated with a drop of olive oil, some sea salt and a big squeeze of lemon juice and served the stew over the top of this, with a soft boiled egg to garnish.

Plenty of chick peas left over for the freezer, and rather a success - possibly not as low fat as it could be, but very nice indeed  - the bed of kale made it for me!

Saturday 25 February - Cheap Food

Using up the ingredients we were supposed to eat last night - so chicken liver ragu with polenta.  I normally do this with grilled polenta but decided to use the wet sort tonight for a change. This is a Sophie Grigson recipe that I have cooked many, many times.

It's similar to making a normal ragu, but using chopped chicken livers and fresh tomato.

I've discovered it's easier to make polenta if you it to cold water and heat all together rather than adding to boiling water. This was flavoured with some salt and a bit of butter and parmesan.

And served with another sprinkle of parmesan over the top.

We had made some pistachio icecream and a pear and chocolate pudding, but this was so filling that we are going to eat that tonight!

Friday 24 February - Sod The Diet....

Long day at work, followed by burning lots of brambles at the allotment.

We then set off to Asda to buy the ingredients to make supper.

We arrived home at 730, stinking of bonfires - so two showers required.

I looked at the pack of chicken livers that needed preparing, and the tomotoes that needed skinning once I'd cooked some polenta...........................and then picked up the phone and rang our local Indian Takeaway and requested a large amount of delicious greasy food to be delivered to our front door.

Wednesday 22 February -We Ate Our 5 A Day!

Stir fry tonight - was going to do noodles, but then the mention of special fried rice had me thinking.

So, the rice was thai rice, steamed, and then stir fried with dried mushrooms, peas, pancetta and a bit of onion, and finished off with egg mixed with soy sauce, and a dash of sesame oil

Turkey stir fry - marinaded strips of turkey breast with cornflour and soy sauce ( I always buy kikkoman) for around 10 mins, then stir fried. Bit of a stand off when a piece of turkey fell on the floor and Leonard grabbed it and did a runner - it was too hot to eat straight away, so three cats waited for it to cool..... he won out when Derek was distracted.

The veg were then stir fried - carrot, spring onion, courgette, mushrooms, sweetcorn, red and green peppers on a base of red onion with garlic and ginger paste.

Turkey went back in along with the sauce which was soy, oyster, a bit of chicken stock, some cornflour and some rice wine along with something I found in a tin in the cupboard - salted black beans

All was stir fried together, and served poured over the rice - definitely one we will be doing again, and George seems to have eaten some vegetables!!!

Tuesday 21 February - Non Pukka Piri Piri....

Based on the Jamie Oliver 30 minute meal recipe, but hating his marinade so much that Nandos sauce wins over again. Chicken portions have been marinading all day.

Sweet peppers and red onions fried in 1/2 tsp of olive oil,, then the chicken and marinade shoved on top and baked in the oven

To serve with this, mashed sweet and normal potatoes with added coriander, chilli and some nasty low fat feta cheese (this works sort of OK in this dish though) 

Not unpleasant, but very, very spicy. George is now on pudding - it is pancake day after all....................

Monday 20 February - Steak and Kidney

I started this off on Sunday, by frying off the meat and mushrooms and concocting a sauce from stock, wine, worcester sauce and onions and garlic. This then went in the fridge overnight and was then heated up and put in the slow cooker for the whole of the afternoon.

Found it quite difficult to work for the afternoon as it smelt wonderful!

This was served in a large bowl over the top of mash, and steamed beans and carrots

This probably doesn't look like low fat food, but this is still so much better than how I used to eat. A few months ago I would have added large numbers of dumplings to the stew, and the mash would have been loaded with butter and cream. I would also probably have added a large knob of butter to the beans and glazed the carrots in butter and sugar.

I used to get through a couple of packs of butter in a week - since January we have got through one pack, which we bought when George needed it for a school cookery lesson a few weeks ago - the last of this was used in the dal on Saturday - a couple of ounces in a whole pack of lentils that served 14 people.

Struggling a bit now to think of different things to eat, and the same meals keep coming round and round - I've just popped some chicken fillets into some piri piri sauce to marinade for tonight. In the meantime a bit of reading up of some of my books to try and find inspiration to keep me going!

17-19 February - A Hectic Weekend

No photography took place regretably as rather a hectic weekend .....

Friday night a lovely fish pie and far too much wine were consumed.

Saturday was Dads 75th Birthday party, so all day was spent concocting a curry feast for lots of people. Again the low fat curry book was used, and a lamb and aubergine and a creamy chicken curry were the main meat dishes, served with all the usual bits and pieces - naan, salad etc and also a dal and a potato and mustard seed dish.

Last night a piece of roast pork leg, with all the trimmings - didn't enjoy this too much though - and the smell and taste of roasting pork hung around the house all night!!

Update however, and a picture of the Indian feast has been received:

Wednesday 15 February - Risotto and Med Bread

Never ending quest to get the boy to eat green things resulted in saffron, rocket and tomato risotto - and it worked - he actually had seconds! A Sophie Grigson recipe, just for a change... reduced the amount of butter in the recipe, and thought 2oz parmesan for 3 people not an issue

To go with this, some bread with sun dried tomatoes and olives mixed in - I fear this wasn't cooked for quite long enough - I would have been chucked off that programme with the grey  beardy man with too much hair product if I had entered.

One for a repeat, although the bread needs some work (perhaps ensuring the oven door is shut is the way forward) . Most chuffed that George ate green stuff though .

Tuesday 14 February - A Day Off Dieting

A day off work today, Valentines Day, and a day off dieting ....

We are going to do homemade pizza - I have bought light mozarella, but my favourite pizza also has some gorgonzola on it, so I will do a mixture of the two, along with perhaps some parma ham and whatever else I can find that I like the look of!

We started the dough in the bread machine, then rolled it out by hand:

I did use my gorgonzola and parma ham, but also found this low fat mozarella to add some additional cheesiness!

The crust rose somewhat more than expected - tasty toppings though!

Back to the diet food on Wednesday.......

Monday 13 February - More Repetition

Last nights beef was not all that we had hoped it would be. I'm afraid we are not Raymond Blanc, as his recipe looked delicious. Ours was OK, but not quite what I was expecting. Maybe one that is worth going to a proper butchers for and demanding a specific cut of meat, rather than using Asda braising steak!

Tonight we have decided to use up things from the freezer again, so it's another chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine, served with cous cous. I'm afraid I had another trip to my favourite shop yesterday - Akram Stores This shop mainly  sells Indian ingredients, but also sells ethnic produce from most countries - my trip for a jar of preserved lemons resulted in rather a lot of other purchases too . Everyone needs dried broad beans, red bean curd, and 5 packs of wonton skins, tins of houmous and a strange sieve with interchangeable meshes  in case of a zombie attack don't they.......

Friday 10 and Saturday 11 February - Curry and Chinese

Friday evening  we had chickpea and chicken curry. I prefer the taste of dried chick peas to tinned, and have found you can cook them in the slow cooker as long as they are boiled thoroughly first. I cook 500g at a time, and then freeze portions for later use.
We also experimented with cooking popadums in the microwave - they are a bit dry, but not unpleasant.

Saturday night we had guests for dinner, so no photographs. We did a home made wonton starter, followed by char siu - Sophie Grigsons recipe means a bit of searching specialist shops for ingredients but is well worth the result. Served with stir fried pak choi and mushrooms, and some steamed rice.

Just for a change we finished the meal with homemade mango and passionfruit sorbet, but also served home made vanilla ice cream for those not on diets.

Great excitement this week, as we have booked a holiday for August - we are off to Burgundy to a gite for two weeks. this coincided with Raymond Blanc visiting the region and cooking the local dishes on his TV show. Inspired by this we are having Boeuf  Bourguignon tonight. So yesterday the beef was put to marinade in a whole bottle of red wine along with some carrot, celery, onion and herbs.

This is now in the oven, having been flamed with some brandy, and some shallots and onions added to it. Smelling great, but a while to go until we can eat!

Thursday 9 February - Fish Pie

Trying to use up a few things from the freezer, and also in a quest to eat less red meat and more fish, I decided on fish pie for tonight. I had some lovely smoked haddock purchased on our last visit to the fish sheds, and also a bag of ordinary frozen prawns, and some cheap cod fillets.
Poached the cod and haddock in bit of wine and water flavoured with onion, carrot, celery, bay leaves for about 4 minutes, then flaked it.
The poaching liquid was made into a sauce with a tiny bit of marg and flour, and a spoonful of half fat creme fraiche some parsley, dried dill and capers were added. Then the fish was stirred in, and it was all placed in my favourite piece of kitchenware - my enamel pie dish.

In the old days I would have used twice as much fish, and also a whole pot of cream, so in comparison this is pretty good! 

A layer of spinach flavoured with a squeeze of lemon went on top of this.

Then the mash for topping. I'm finding mash without butter a bit hard work, so this was pushed through the ricer, and some hot skimmed milk beaten into it, before piping over the pie filling. A little sprinkle of half fat cheddar went over the top, and then into the oven. To be served with broad beans, as I can't find the peas in my freezer.....

It's still in the oven at the moment, but smelling pretty good.

Wednesday 8 February - Soup and CHEESE!!!!

Mulligatawny soup today - thanks to Andy for this soup recipe, that even George will eat. The only things I have changed is to use about a quarter of the oil specified, and to use skinless chicken breast rather than leg/thigh portions (mainly as these were what I had in the freezer)
The recipe starts with chopped turnip, carrot, and onion fried - then in go the spices - curry powder, cloves and cracked peppercorns, stock, red lentils, sultantas ( I used raisins) and the chicken breasts. All simmered for around an hour, then shred the chicken, season and serve.

This was served with my version of ciabatta - 500g of flour and one pack of easy action yeast, plus some salt and a dash of olive oil - mixed in the Kenwood with a dough hook with about twice as much water as you would imagine it could ever need. It needs to almost be a batter. Leave to rise and then scrape out onto some semolina sprinkled on a board. Sprinkle more over the top, and gently shape to a square and divide into rolls or loaves - try not to knock the air out. Leave to rise again, then bake for about 20 mins in a very hot oven.

The soup and bread were perfect for a very chilly evening, but not quite filling enough - so my first cheese course for a month or so followed. Weight watchers crackers - (the rest of  these have gone to the chickens, they were absolutely revolting!) with low fat cambembert (very very nice!!). I also had some half fat cheddar in the fridge, but this didn't end up being opened.

Tuesday 7 February - Perhaps Too Much Spice!

Chilli tonight, but made with Quorn.

Did the usual, but I think perhaps a bit much of the chilli flakes fell in the pan. With quorn you cook the sauce first, so onions, garlic, spices, then tomatoes and kidney beans (out of a tin) and a couple of squares of plain chocolate.
I cooked this for about 40 minutes, then added the pack of quorn and simmered for another 15 mins before stirring in some frozen chopped coriander - I love this, as I find the packs of coriander from supermarkets go slimy very quickly, so I always keep some in the freezer for emergencies.

This was served with plain boiled long grain rice, and some sliced jalapeno peppers. I would have served soured cream normally, but today we used 0% fat fromage frais, and there was not really any noticeable difference, so that's one to remember for future reference.

In chilli, I find quorn mince as good, if not better than using meat mince - I don't like it in bolognese sauce much, but when it's got lots of strong flavours I don't think many people would realise that they are not actually eating meat.

Two spare portions to go in the freezer too as an added bonus!!!

Monday 6 February - Liver and Mash

When investigating the new butcher in town at the weekend, I had bought some thinly sliced lambs liver.
Liver needs bacon with it, so my concession was to buy smoked back in place of the smoked streaky that we all prefer.
I oven baked the bacon along with some sausages for George, and the thinly sliced liver was quickly fried in a little bit of butter and oil then a spoonful of balsamic vinegar thrown in at the end.
Served with mashed potatoes, some steamed purple sprouting and some onion gravy.
I don't really know how fatty liver is - I had presumed it was low fat, but I now believe this actually isn't the case, so I was quite mean with my portion!

Sunday 5 February Brisket and Breast Implants....

Sunday lunch - we bought a small piece of brisket from a new butchers yesterday, so this was popped in a casserole dish with some parsnip, carrot, onions, wine and stock. We cooked this for three hours - could have done with another three as even the cats struggled to bite though it!

Yorkshire puddings - I had read somewhere that you can cook them in silicon tins with no fat - you can't! They were still completely solid like little silicon breast implants while the six  I'd cooked in goose fat for the boys had risen beautifully - I moved them into the metal tin, and they half redeemed themselves. On the left are the silicon cooked ones, and on the right are the nice goose fatty tasty ones....

We also got round to eating the pudding from last night - banana/oat bran brownies - not horrible but they tasted rather 'virtuous' and won't be on my list of favourite things. The ice cream, made from a tub of Asda 'Good for You' Custard and some chopped apricots was again ok, not unpleasant but a million miles from ice cream made with proper cream.

I have to adjust my tastebuds if this is going to succeed - good news is that I have lost half a stone in three weeks, not a massive loss, but a nice steady and I think a realistic one.