I managed to fast on Monday and Thursday this week, which is my ideal spacing of the 2 low days.
On Monday I had Scottish Dancing in the evening – having something to go to which requires me to drive is a great way to take my mind off fasting. I munched my way through half a bag of dulse during the day – that’s a local dried seaweed, which is full of mineral goodness but only about 20 calories per bag. Must get some more of this for next week. I defrosted a portion of my chicky-leeky soup as a quick meal before I went out.
On Tuesday, even though it was a normal day, I tried one of the Hairy Dieters recipes – the parma wrapped cod on roast veg. Husband thought it delicious and he’s keen to try other recipes from the book. It seems to be a great source of ideas when sharing meals with family. We went to see the guys at their stage show on Sunday, so I’d bought a signed copy of the book there.
Thursday I took a different approach – I knew I’d be having a sandwich lunch through work, so I made myself a typical under 100 cal breakfast, and was amazed that I had a choice of several meals in mind for under 100 cals for dinner. I could have made a big fruit salad with melon, blueberries, grapefruit and pears. I could have used those zero noodles and done a tomato based sauce to go with. I had an aubergine which I could have turned into a sort of dip to eat with celery sticks. In the end, I went to the gym first, ran for 30 minutes without any problems, and wasn’t that hungry when I got home at 8. I made a small salad with half a tin of mushrooms, spinach leaves, 2 anchovies, 5 black olives and a splash of balsamic. Finished off the evening with 2 strawberries and an options hot chocolate, feeling really upbeat and positive. I might use this approach again in future, though it doesn’t get the “fasting” benefits.
At the weekend I experimented with a low cal dessert recipe that was in the grauniad – lavender and banana ice-cream in parsnip tuile baskets. I had to hunt for lavender, but I got it in Sawers delicatessen eventually. As my daughter would comment “Mum, you always order the most random thing on the menu!” The ice cream bit was lovely – I always stick my over-ripe banananananas in the freezer, and they’re very easy to squish out of their skins and mix with a flavouring. I’ll definitely be doing more of that. But I didn’t get the tuile biscuits right, maybe the oven wasn’t hot enough.
And since husband couldn’t believe that their were pies in the book, I made the Hairy Dieter’s chicken and ham tangle pie for Saturday dinner. This was very tasty – full of flavoursome chunks of chicken, and I used a pack of ham hock from Sainsburys as the ham element. I’m now poring over the mouthwatering photographs wondering which to try next!
Filed under: Food, recipes | Tagged: 5and2, hairy dieters |
Dancing At Lunacy 
That pie looks lovely! So the book is worth a look then?!
Many on the various 5and2 forums are raving about this book – it’s handy to have if you share your fast meals with others, though I’m usually only cooking for one or 2, so I need to cut down the quantities, or have leftovers.