I decided to give this diet a go as well, looking to shed a stone or so 😯 . Obvious and immediate problem is a lack of recipes that are easy, fairly quick and tasty. My biggest issue is lunch, I have no idea what to take to the office ❓

Thought I’d start a thread for inspiration…

I’ll kick off with a breakfast recipe, invented this morning as I searched the fridge looking for ideas;

Tuna and red pepper spiced omelet

3x Eggs
A dash of water
One can of Tuna (in water)
One small red pepper
Half an onion
Salt and Pepper
Chilli olive oil

Finely chop the onion and pepper, mix with tuna, add a healthy dash of chili oil and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. Whisk eggs with a little water (half an egg cup worth) and add to hot pan with a little chili oil. When almost done, add about half the tuna and pepper mixture and cover. After a minute serve.

Bloody lovely 😛 and I’ll do the same tomorrow with the left over mixture…

I’m in week two now (lost nearly half a stone in week one 🙂 ) and lunches are difficult, I’ve either been having a tuna and bean salad in or taking a fairly good sized portion of chilli/curry/whatever bean filled casserole thing I’ve had for the previous nights dinner and some chick pea flour chapattis.
I could do with some more quick ideas though.

I tended to google the ingredients that were compliant and go from there.

Tinned lentils and beans speed everything up.

Lunch is a microwaved or cold version of whatever you’ve cooked the previous evening or taken out the freezer from another mass cooking session… failing that a salad with tuna / smoked mackarel / falafels / humous / cured meats.

This weak I’ve eaten at work…

Oxtail casserole – Heston Blummentahl.
Hearty Lentil Stew – Rick Stein.
Cassoulet – the first recipe I found.

Most weeks I eat left over Sunday Roast meat and veg (excl. spuds) on a Monday and Tuesday.

Tagliata is a great evening meal.

Mike, any idea what to do with Chick peas? They seem a popular option.

ask1974 – they’re great in curries. Google chickpeas and curry.

Just had:

Gammon (proper butchers cut, not a pre-packed tiny one), 2 fried eggs, latice fries and peas 🙂

Well, I have done 40 miles in the Chiltern slop today.

Mike, any idea what to do with Chick peas?

There’s someone who comes on the iDiet threads that’s pretty enthusiastic about chickpeas, but I’m struggling to remember who. 😕

TSY, any ideas?

Ummmm, I know it’s not me Darcy. You’ll have to go it on your own to work that one out.

I think iDaithi knows.

I like chick peas

nearly as much as I like cakes and chips 🙁

iFat

iSearched the forum Darcy and in the last 6 months it’s a pretty close tie between you and hewhostillhasntpostedafterphotos.

iImagine that I’m about as dissapointed with him as you are with me.

Anyway, so as to not steer this thread the way it should go…

Tonight I’m having cassoulet that I made on Friday. Duck, beans, mushrooms… what’s not to like. Going to go for a run to justify the chips I’m eating with it.

I’ve been making chick pea flour chapattis;
150-200g of gram flour,
splosh of veg oil or ghee,
splosh of water,
pinch of salt,
sprinkle of cumin or carraway seeds.

Mix into a dough – it goes really really sticky to start with! then kneed for a few mins, split into roughly golf ball sized bits and roll out on a well floured surface – should get 6-8 from that much dough.
Cook in a hot frying pan for a bit less than a minute a side – they need to bubble up and colour but not burn, stack em up on a plate and use with curries/chilli/spag bol sauce etc.
They keep fine overnight wrapped in clingfilm and stuck in the fridge, no idea if they keep longer I always finish them by day 2.

I’m going to try some onion bhajis tonight, if they work I’ll bang the recipe up later.

I stuck a tin of chickpeas into most things I cooked last week, chilli is very nice with kidney beans and chick peas and I made a really good curry with lentils and chickpeas;

chop a couple of onions really finely (I bang them in the food processor and pulse it a few times – don’t go mad or they turn to mush and never cook through) and gently fry in some oil in a deep saute pan until they start to colour (5-8mins maybe)
add some mustard and cumin seeds, curry powder and maybe a chopped chilli or two, and cook until the spices start to really smell,
add a tin or two of lentils and a can of chick peas (rinse them 1st if you don’t want to be trumping all night) and a can of chopped tomatoes
cook down for 10-15 mins, check flavour and add more curry powder/chilli powder to taste.
If it’s too hot add some creamed coconut or yoghurt (not sure how icompliant this is though)
serve with cauli rice (grate or blitz a cauli into rice sized bits, put in covered bowl in microwave and nuke on full power for 3-4 mins) and the chapattis
Nom Nom

chilli is very nice with kidney beans and chick peas and I made a really good curry with lentils and chickpeas;

Tru dat.

I’ve been adding a tin of chickpeas to my 3/4/5 bean chillies recently and they go in very nicely indeed.

I tried to think of something hummus to say, but failed.

Yes, you did. 😐

🙂

Lunch ? you say….

I’m desk bound during the week, with only a medium sized Tesco to sustain me…

At the moment, they are still stocking wild Alaskan Salmon, so a fair helping of that goes in the micro wave at work.
I’ll have cherry toms with that, in a vinegrette dressing.
Or I could throw in a courgette chopped into battons, and used to scoop hummous from the tub.
Some days the odd scotch egg finds its way into my carrier bag.

I once posted a good chilli reciepe for Dirty Girl.
perhaps she can re-post it ?.
Cold chilli in a tub, in the bag and taken to work is gonna be a winner.
Esp if you include some of that gram flour flatbread, imo.
😉

I also like a Spinach salad, leaves as you like them, with pepper, cherry toms, courgette, avocado, celery.
Along with a good portion of the salmon or some pork loin which I buy from the butcher and then carve up myself.
Freeze it and later cook a portion, as and when.
Mackerel with the salad too is a fav of mine.

I’ve sometimes, for a quick snack, emptied a tetra pack of chick peas into a boil, rinsed, etc.
Added tuna, mackerel, salmon, whatever your preferred / available meat is.
Then I’ve doused it with a quick oil, lemon juice, dijon, salt and black pepper dressing.
Only really done that when time is a factor.
But it travels Ok, jus stick in the fridge at work until lunch time.

In fact this one’s for all foodies, iDaver or reglear

Rioja-braised lamb shanks with chorizo and garlic
Once the initial faff of browning the meat is done, this dish requires very little effort and the resulting flavours are intense.

Ingredients
4 lamb shanks

salt and freshly ground black pepper

oil, for frying

350ml/12fl oz Rioja or 350ml/12fl oz good-quality beef stock

250ml/9fl oz balsamic vingear

1 garlic bulb, cut in half horizontally

2 bay leaves

1–2 tsp paprika

handful black peppercorns

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

300ml/10fl oz beef stock

125g/4oz chorizo

1 large red onion, peeled and cut into wedges

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

Preparation method
1.Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 3.

2.Season the lamb well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle oil into a heavy-based saucepan pan set over a high heat. Turn down the heat slightly and brown the lamb shanks all over.

3.Pour the wine and balsamic vinegar into a casserole dish and boil for five minutes. Add the lamb shanks, garlic, bay leaves, paprika, peppercorns, half the rosemary and the stock. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil.

4.Once boiling, place the dish into the oven and cook for two hours.

5.Remove the dish from the oven and add the chorizo, onion, carrots, honey to taste, if using, and the remaining rosemary, then return to the oven and cook for another hour, or until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.

6.Remove the meat and vegetables with a slotted spoon and keep warm.

7.Place the casserole dish onto a high heat and boil for 8–10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

8.Serve the meat and vegetables with creamy mashed parsnips and lashings of the sauce.

Just had roast parsnips and stuffed chicken breasts wrapped with bacon, covered with gravy and served with green beans, broccoli and peas.

Not particularly seasonal though, but delicious.

That sounds lovely tm.

Washed down with a Pape? 😛

Washed down with a Pape

Thats iEssential, I think.
😉

Washed down with a Pape?

yup that works.

we often drink the rest of the rioja if we’ve halved the quantities

for dinner i had scrambled eggs with mexican bean mix in (1/3 tin) with hot sauce & friend mushrooms. nom nom.

There’s a bunch of stuff you can eat from Tesco for lunch.

Chicken from the hot counter
Coleslaw
Chicken Pakora
Onion Bhaji
Four bean salad
Chorizo ring
Parsnip crisps
Bombay mix
Peanuts
Cooked prawns

washed down with V8 tomato & veg juice.

That should fill you up.

Last night I did a stir fry with
Salmon
Prawns
Pak Choi
Leek
Spring Onions
Celery
Mushrooms
Spinach
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil

It was flippin great. Mrs BigJohn had noodles with it, I didn’t.

Tried iCauliflower rice with a 3 bean and vegetable chilli last night before I start proper on Monday. Absolutely lovely it was. 😀

Cheese. Lots of it. Masses of diary tastiness.

Spam, surely?
😀

Last night was roast ham, beetroots and roast veg. I think I ate too many nuts whilst I was cooking though as I was up on weight this morning.

I make a Big beef Stew on sunday Afternoon, and have that for lunch all week, loads of veg, couple of tins of Aduki beans in there too, does me all week.

Breakfast is scrambled eggs, with a selection of the following depending on Time / how I`m feeling
bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, cottage cheese, leftover veg, (Bubble n Squeak)

Evening will be venison Burgers / Piri Piri or Jerk chicken / stirfry prawns, all with Veg / Salad / Celeriac root Mash / Homemade guacamole / homemade salsa etc

Tuna & bean salad

Often sweat some onions, add a tin of Aduki / Borlotti beans and Tin of Tomatoes, seasoning etc, and then eat this with Main meals / breakfast as I find I can`t eat beans on their own ?

EDIT: and I`m down 10 3/4lbs so far 😉

Cheese. Lots of it. Masses of diary tastiness.

Nah, I strongly suspect cheese gives me eczema.
After months without cheese, I had some over Xmad and the skin played up again.

I love the taste of cheese, but I’ve learnt that there is life after cheese.
😀

**Thinks someone has hack’d iDave’s user log-in**

I make a big moroccan stew/soup and have it for a few days.

fry off two onions and three or four chicken breasts
add a tin of chopped tomatoes, garlic, a teaspoon of tumeric,coriander,
chilli, cumin and chilli. Add a litre or so of chicken stock and a spoon of honey (naughty, but worth it.)
Then throw in a couple of tins of chickpeas, peas, celery, mixed beans, peppers or whatever you fancy really, oh and sliced carrots.

Slow cook for around three hours and serve on it’s own or with gram flour flat breads. My wife loves it and eats it cold at work, but I always heat mine.

Bagstard that sounds great and has got me thinking. I’m going to cook a bloody great big stew in the slow cooker and feed of it next week…

Excellent!

Hey guys probably a very stupid question but I’m food illiterate!

Is porridge ok?

Is porridge ok?

Ok? It’s delicious!

…not allowed though.

I’m dead on 13stone now, my ideal weight – that’s 2 stone gone! 🙂

I don’t follow it strictly, i.e. I have sugar, milk, fruit a few choc bars here ‘n there. I don’t go mad on the cheat-day because it tends to make me feel like crap 🙂

Here’s some easy meals I have:

1) Chicken wrapped in bacon

Wrap a chicken breast in bacon and sprinkle some green chilli in there. Drizzle a little oil on top.

Chuck it in the oven till the bacon goes all crispy.

Meanwhile whack some diced carrot/celery/onion/garlic into a pan with a little oil. Cook it up, add in a little chicken stock, along with some lentils.

Eat it all 🙂

2) Chilli with lentils

Cook some red peppers/onions/garlic in a pan. Add in 1 tablespoon of paprika, chilli powder, cumin powder, and a splash of water.

Cook up the beef and transfer it to the other pan, pour in some beef stock, tomatos, kidney beans and lentils. Add a bit of thyme,oregano and a few bayleaves.

I get about 4 meals out of this one, so it’s one of my favs.

3) Chorizo stew.

Basically the same as the chilli, but with Chorizo sausage chopped up into thick chunks and just paprika. I’ll also use chickpeas instead of lentils and kidney beans.

Meat + salad + dressing + fried egg

Thanks Defydude, thought as much.

Nickname those are outstanding sounding ideas. Will give the chicken a go tomorrow me thinks.

Another daft question. Are Peanuts OK? Nuts and Seeds stated as OK but I thought Peanuts were the anti-Christ of nuts!

Just a heads up, as this is one of my staples:

Was shopping at the weekend and my Local Sainsburys have their Venison Burgers on offer @ 3 packs for £6 thats £1 / burger for some very lean Protein 😀

Goes lovely with Veg Mash, Salsa, beans, Guacamole, Cottage Cheese etc