My girlfriend in her infinite wisdom has decided to join Slimming World. Now, I’ve seen this movie before. There’s loads of recipes in her little books and online, but whilst they look good on paper they always seem to me not to have been tested properly. Like, I made a paella (ella, ella) the other day and it turned out OK but it needed an extra pint of stock over what the book said. Or a sausage casserole, again mostly fine and tasty but it said 25 minutes in the oven (which I was sceptical about from the start, what casserole ever takes 25 minutes?) and it took like two and a half hours and still wasn’t properly done.

So, anyone here have any experiences (directly / partners / whatever) and can recommend tried and tested recipes rather than me having to have a freezerful of emergency Iceland ready meals on standby for when something goes South after I’ve spent two hours in the kitchen?

Cheers in advance, etc.

Oh, vegetarian preferred. She’s not veggie, but she will be if I’m cooking (-: Anything I can substitute with Quorn etc is fine.

Take previously successful culinary output.
Remove 1/3.
Job done.

sorry in advance

Veggie Biryani is pretty good also from the same book Chana Masala.
Pulled pork done in the slow cooker.
Harissa chickpea something or other, really good as you poach eggs in the sauce whilst cooking.

Take previously successful culinary output.
Remove 1/3.
Job done.

Yeah, it doesn’t work like that unfortunately. It mostly seems to be about cutting out oils and restricting stuff like bread and Mars bars, you can eat as much of (most) veg as you like.

That does seem to be the Weight Watchers way though. Back when my ex was going through all this stuff, the WW meals you can buy ready made wouldn’t feed a hamster. The Slimming World ones by comparison we were like “are you sure this is supposed to be for one person?”

The Hairy Dieters (aka Si King and Dave Myers of Hairy Bikers) books are very good. I have never slimmed or felt the need to eat low fat food thankfully but we often cook meals out of a couple of their books and they are always good.

Are you able to leave feedback on their website? I take the view that unless nobody tells them that their cooking recipe times are wrong, too dry etc then they’ll be none the wiser. Or is that part of their plan?

I guess most of your problems will come from the veg soaking things up, or not as the case now is.

TBH I’d play it by ear and make extra stock/sauce/jus-de-cranberry or whatever, you can always freeze that kind of thing for later.

Stuff like sausage casserole, make it the day before, have it on hand, microwave it up to temp

You’re in IT, de-risk it in advance. 🙂

Sometimes it’s easier to spend a day batch cooking for the freezer and mrmonk’s suggestion of making extra stock etc is a good one.

Are you able to leave feedback on their website? I take the view that unless nobody tells them that their cooking recipe times are wrong, too dry etc then they’ll be none the wiser.

Well, I don’t have access to the website as I’m not a member, but all this has been out of books so far. But as I said, I’ve been down this road before with my ex and it was exactly the same a few years ago.

You’re in IT, de-risk it in advance.

🤣 Yeah, in hindsight attempting a casserole halfway through the evening was probably a bit ambitious. She’s only just started on the programme though, so we’re still getting set up.

It doesn’t help that I’m trying to empty the freezer cos it needs defrosting badly. Or rather, it badly needs defrosting well.

Stick at it, you’re probably used to a certain type of cooking.

It ain’t for everyone, but it should work out over a few weeks.

My mate did the SW diet, not sure which one, but he stuck with it and dropped form 16stone to 13.6stone in under 6mths, he looks flipping amazing. It’s done wonders for his mental and physical well being.. Downsides, well he totally changed the way he ate meals and prepared them, became a bore at the pub (no alcohol, but introduced us lot to lime/soda/angustra-bitters pints (which are fab has to be said)) but stuck with it and he’s really happy in himself and back to being Tim.

Or

If it don’t work, try another diet.

River Cottage “Ribollita” is delicious, I would add a little extra salt when frying the veg.

https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/leftover-ribollita

I was pleasantly surprised by slimming world when my wife was on it for a while. We still use lots of the recipes. The currys are particularly good.

We’ve had plenty of nice stuff from slimming world. Singapore Noodles is a favourite, as is the steak chilli. Currently enjoying the pinch of nom books.

Ive done the whole Slimming Word thing.

The plan does work, the weight will fall off if you stick with it.
But Sliming word recipies are crap. as you said the timings are all way off and a lot of it comes out as vegetable slop.

The best thing i found is Pinch of Nom’s website

Home

I used to prep several meals over the weekend, then portion it up and freeze them.
Then if one of your other recipies fail, you can reheat your pre-preped meal.

It mostly seems to be about cutting out oils and restricting stuff like bread and Mars bars, you can eat as much of (most) veg as you like.

So a bit like eating sensibly? Except you don’t need to cut out oils. Fair enough, reduce, but the big culprit is carbs. That’s the bread and Mars bars.

Last year I retired and as a result of eating 3 meals a day at home with my other half, not going for currys, pastries, Greggs, beers I ate much more healthily. Even I, a bit of a (slow) whippet, lost a few pounds.

The newer recipe books are better than the old SW books from a taste point of view, but there are many good websites out there. The Hairy Dieter books don’t quite seem to fit the SW plan though. If you don’t mind a bit of “fruity” language then check out Two Chubby Cubs, they have a lot of interesting recipes which seem to work.

My partner spent some time on SW, some of the recipes are good. I would definitely recommend the Pinch of Nom cook books.

But overall I wasn’t a fan of the system, it seemed to be designed more around it being a business (which I know it is). But the rules made progress slow, and kept people around to earn money off.

A calorie counting app like MyFitnessPal is better in my opinion, learnt much more about nutrition from a couple of months on that, than a lot longer on SW.

SW is shit.
Ex did it for years. Got slimmer if the year after dropping 5st. Found it all back and more as it’s a “lifestyle “ not a diet.
It works because it’s about portions and food combining to an extent:
The food is still shit

The recipies from the magazines are pretty good – the ones from pinch of nom are better (although they’ve apparently fallen out with slimming world so can’t tell you the syns anymore)
Cut out any crap (ie booze, crisps etc).

If you really want to lose weight look at things like carb cycling.

Found it all back and more as it’s a “lifestyle “ not a diet.

Well naturally if the person consumes more calories than they use they may put weight back on – it doesn’t work miracles.

Point her at Noom instead… Much more sustainable way of losing weight and reprogramming to change eating habits.

the ones from pinch of nom are better (although they’ve apparently fallen out with slimming world so can’t tell you the syns anymore)

I tenuously know one of the authors of PoN – she’s the sister of one of my mate’s ex-wife.

If you look at the Amazon reviews for the latest book, one of the reviewers there has calculated all the recipe syn values and posted them in a review.

OH is going to do the “eat nothing but 3 x 200 calorie milkshakes a day for 12 weeks and cure diabetes” diet. Which means I’ll be doing it for support!

At least you’ll be allowed food…….

On the upside, variations on it that aren’t sponsored by milkshake companies allow real food, just with the same restricted 200 calories. And that can actually go a really long way with soup, stir fry, raw veg etc. Just no added fat, carbs and very little meat or dairy. Apparently the first 36h is miserable, the first week is difficult, but after that it’s just routine and you get used to just burning through fat reserves day to day. I’m quite looking forward to flying up hills by Easter 2 stone lighter!

Mrs. Slow found some very nice recipes in one if Michael Mosley’s books last spring/summer. He has a particular interest in diabetes.

The Blood Sugar Diet

The Fast 800

Buy a ‘pinch of nom’, make coca-cola chicken, use quorn. Brilliant.