That's what happens when you try to be clever!

I imported the cats' report card from Word and then couldn't get out of it to type anything else! So, to see how the cats are getting on with the cat flap, you need to read the post below this one.

This is about food.

Yesterday's fast day was a bit hard - don't know why - but the Moroccan style potato bake was good, with a big salad as well. It would have been even better for having some chorizo in it, but that wasn't allowed. If you're 5:2-ing I really recommend it as a meal.



I'm trying a recipe I saw somewhere for lunch tomorrow - left over risotto, made into little breadcrumbed balls and fried. With salad they should be yummy. I think the recipe I saw had mozzarella hidden inside the balls which dutifully melted, but I haven't got any. I wonder if a bit of grated Cantal would work? Here is Nigel Slater's take on them
Not sure they're exactly low calorie but hey! We're fasting other days!! Today we're having bacon, black pudding and beans for lunch.

Mr FD found a bag of veggies on the doorstep yesterday. We assume they came from Richard, a friend of ours who often pops back over to the UK for a few days. We are guessing that he's gone, leaving us a gift of the vegetables he had hanging around in the fridge. So we have had a windfall of a couple of big mushrooms (we'll have them with the bacon today), a cauliflower, baby corn, mange tout, cherry tomatoes, salad potatoes, a couple of whopping big parsnips and a sweet potato. Thank you very much, Richard!

Meal plans for this week:
MONDAY: Breakfast: porridge + agave syrup (130 cals)
                    Lunch: Green salad + egg + yoghurt (150 cals)
                    Dinner: Savoury cauliflower rice + 80g fish (120 cals)

TUESDAY: Cauliflower & pasta cheese with ham. And possibly the mangetouts

WEDNESDAY: Hairy Italian Meatballs - I can't find a recipe online, but it's a basic meatball recipe - in place of breadcrumbs though, you use grated carrot. Otherwise, they seem fairly normal - no egg to bind them, so they might crumble...but if it's into the tomato sauce, it doesn't really matter, does it?!
THURSDAY: Lamb burgers, made with minced lamb and grated courgette, spiced up with some harissa. Served with sweet potato wedges, tzatziki (I need to find some mint!) and salad.

FRIDAY: Breakfast: banana + biscotte (approx 130 cals)
                 Lunch: cup-a-soup (57 cals)
                 Dinner: a version of the Hairy Dieter's Baked Haddock Pots . I'm using smoked salmon in this. My version of the recipe is as follows. It serves 2, and I worked it out as 226 cals per portion:

200g spinach leaves (25 cals)
100g smoked salmon (179 cals)
100g leek, finely chopped (28 cals)
1 tsp cornflour (10 cals - I think)
2 eggs (150 cals)
75g Bridelight very low fat creme fraiche (60 cals)

Cook spinach in a tbsp of water until wilted (about 3 minutes) Squeeze out as much water as possible. Transfer to a bowl, and add the chopped salmon, creme fraiche, leeks, cornflour, and lots of ground black pepper. Put into oven proof greased ramekins/ serving dishes. Cover each with lightly greased foil.
Bake at 220°C for 15 minutes until bubbling. Take dishes out, stir well, and then make a dip in the centre. Break an egg into the centre of each.  Recover and bake for about 8 minutes until egg white is cooked but the yolk is still runny. Take dishes out, let them stand for 2 minutes then serve. With bread if you have the calories. We won't.

SATURDAY: There's a vegetable tagine in the freezer that I've planned to eat several times and never quite got round to doing. So we'll have that tonight, with spiced couscous.

SUNDAY: I think I'll make a curry. Either following the Hairy Dieter's recipe for Chicken Jalfrezi or using a Pataks sauce that we bought in theUK. It depends on how lazy I feel! We've got some mini naans in the freezer so I'll use them as our starch with the curry. 


Our light meals will be of the soup-and-sandwich variety. I'll make a curried carrot & parsnip soup on Tuesday which should see us through till Friday, and we've got cheese and coppa to have as sandwich fillings, plus ham. I cooked this on Thursday, and it's been sliced and freezered for various meals (for example, Tuesday) in the future. We'll have some for sandwiches too.

Thank you for the comments on the last couple of posts, and the good wishes for my back recovery. A week on I am certainly much more mobile - I can walk, sit, lie without much pain, but with residual stiffness. Bending down, twisting or stretching is still painful, and I find if I sit for long it's difficult to get moving again. I'm taking a couple of painkillers a day, but not the über strong ones. I think today is the day when I need to venture out for more of a walk though (even though it's cold and grey and raw) (Maybe tomorrow instead...!!)

Interestingly, both Lesa and Left Handed Housewife thought that Alan Rickman (sigh) would help me in recovery. He could do my physio any day!! (Though to be fair, my kiné, Jean Claude, is quite cute too!)



Comments

  1. Hi Mouse! Cute kitties! I am campaigning for a kitten when we get back from Europe this summer. I want a fluffy yellow boy.

    Your meals look delish! Your neighbor is sweet and I bet he knows you are good economical cooks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a lovely neighbour you had. the cat flap report card made me smile. i miss having cats around

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  3. When I made the Hairy Meatballs, we found they did crumble quite a bit. Though if you stir carefully, not too bad. A friend recommended using finely chopped mushrooms in meatballs, as they have a high moisture content - might help them stick together better. I will probably try this next time I make a non-egg meatball... Anyway, they were tasty!

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  4. I always fry up my leftover risotto, it's my favorite leftovers :)

    ReplyDelete

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