I like miso soup and that sounds quick and easy for this - do you use fresh or dried mushrooms?

Thank you :flowerforyou:

Does anyone know about Hungry Girl? (hungrygirl.com). She has a lot of recipes using egg whites and tofu shirataki noodles that are very low calorie.

I'm settling into a routine of an egg white omelet for lunch with raw vegetables on the side, like celery or grape tomatoes for about 160 calories. Then I shoot for 300 calories at night, which tends to be some type of big salad with protein for a late night dinner. (My husband doesn't get home from work until 8:30 and we eat together.)

I always save 20 calories for half and half in my coffee -- I can't quite get to 100% black coffee. Here's my trick. My first cup of the morning has 1 T of half-and-half. Then, I keep topping it off from my 4-cup carafe w/o replenishing the cream. Eventually, I'm almost at black coffee. Maybe one day I'll get there!

I made the mistake on my first fast day of eating a 200 calorie meal replacement bar for my first meal, then putting dinner in the crock pot. Big mistake! The sugar in the energy bar made me hungry and the meat cooking all day drove me crazy (I work at home).

Live and learn.

I bought The Fast Diet Recipe Book by Mimi Spencer. It has lots of great recipes in it and I can't cook without a recipe! My last fast day dinner I had Turkey burgers (minus the bread), salsa, green salad leaves and a cob of corn. All totalled 333 calories and I could not eat it all! My hubby and 18 yo son loved it (although my son looked at it all on the plate and said "I thought you said we were having burgers!")

500g turkey mince
4 finely chopped spring/green/scallion onions
1 whole egg, beaten (you would of course lower the cals if you used say 2 or 3 egg whites)
2 small red chillis, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander (I didn't have any so used moroccan seasoning)
Salt and Pepper

Mix all together and make 8 rissoles (Serves 4)

The salsa was just some chopped tomato, chopped red onion, torn basil leaves, a little white wine vinegar, lime juice and a pinch of caster sugar. Next time I am going to add some avocado.

Cheats Chicken Paella

6-7 chicken drumsticks (skin on, but of course you can remove skin)
2 tbs olive oil
250g spanish chorizo, sliced
1 brown onion, chopped
1 red capsicum, de-seeded and diced
5 garlic cloves, minced (or chopped if you like it chunky)
3/4 tsp sweet smoked paprika
large pinch of saffron
2 cups of arborio rice (did you know you can also get brown arborio rice, but I had white in the cupboard to use up)
3 1/2 cups salt reduced chicken stock
1 tomato, de-seeded and chopped
2 tbs flat leaf parsley

Preheat oven to hot 200C. Season chicken with salt and pepper and pan fry in oil until browned on all sides (about 5 mins) (paella pan or 30cm fry pan). Transfer to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium and fry the chorizo until browned. Add the onion, capsicum, garlic, paprika and saffron. Cook stirring often for about 3 minutes or until veg soft.

Add the rice and stir until rice is coated with the oil and the mix looks dry. Stir in the stock, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 pepper. Return the chicken to the pan in a single layer and evenly spaced. Increase the heat to high and bring to a simmer.

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until rice is tender and chicken is cooked. Sprinkle with the fresh tomato and parsley. Serves 6-8


NB This was the first time I had cooked this recipe and found it a little plain. Next time I will add some more spices and you could also of course make it a true paella and add seafood but I would just keep the seafood warm and place on top once it is out of the oven. The thing I like about paella is you can add anything you like really. The crispiness on the base too is yummy. With this recipe its crispy on top though - not the bottom. Also I could fit it into normal eating and also a fast day by not having a full serve - just one drumstick and about 1 cup of the rice (roughly 1/2 a portion). Anyway, its a recipe you can play with but it does need something more - just saying (but I might have to get my chef daughter to tweak it somehow - I can't cook unless I have a recipe to follow!)

Enjoy,

Leonie