Recipes or tips following yesterday’s post.

I said I would share the recipes from yesterday’s post. They are detailed below.

Scrambled Egg, smoked salmon and mushrooms.

Eggs and most fish are a great addition and staple for a permanent diet. Smoke Mackerel appears to be the only one to be careful with. I am not sure yet what the entire reason is but I think it is oils used in the smoking process. Plain mackerel is not an issue.

Scrambled eggs are an easy one to produce. The only change is to swap the milk with a dollop of ‘no fat’ creme fraiche. You can season and flavour as you would do normally. When having it with smoke salmon I just sprinkle the lemon juice after everything is plated up.

I did not have any toast but a little wholemeal bread a day is a good source of fibre in a daily menu. When losing weight limit this to two small slices a day but if you are maintaining or increasing weight you can add some more on.

The mushrooms in this dish were sautéed in a pan with a little 1 calorie spray and then moistened with a splash of water. You can add garlic, salt, pepper or even chillis to either the eggs or the mushrooms of you want a stronger flavour.

Tomato Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

• A small red onion (chopped)
• 1 carrot (chopped)
• 1 celery stick (chopped)
• I can chopped tomatoes
• 600ml veg stock
• 1 tablespoon Sweetener
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée

Method:

1. Soften the onions, carrots and celery in a saucepan spray with 1 calorie spray oil for five minutes.
2. Add the other ingredients and cook for 15 minutes.
3. Blend with a blender stick or food processor.
4. Return to the pan and cook for another five minutes.
5. Serve with a dollop on ‘no fat’ quark.

(You can add Worcestershire sauce, marmite or other things you like to add already to soup)

Chicken, Tomato and Bean Stew

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts, cut into smallish pieces
• 1 courgette halved lengthways and then sliced
• 1 carrot halved lengthways and then sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds
• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes
• 1 drained can of beans of your choice. I used kidney beans as I had them in. The original recipe used cannellini beans.

Method:

1. Brown the chicken pieces in a large pan and a few squirts of 1 calorie oil spray.
2. Add the courgette and carrot and fry for two minutes.
3. Add the fennel seeds, tinned tomatoes and the beans.
4. Cover and simmer for ten minutes.
5. Eat now or leave and reheat later.
6. If you want to slow cook this it will also work well. I would just chuck all the ingredients in and leave it for the day to do its thing.

I served this with purple broccoli and mashed potato. The mash is coloured by the veg stock used (as an alternative to milk and/or butter). This was a stock pot that coloured the mash more than a cube but it still tasted very good.