Christmas is never a good time for my weight. It is quite common that I gain a few kilos during this time, what with having two Christmas celebrations (one in Malta and one in Denmark, both places where we normally eat a lot), and especially because we are visiting family who we don’t see that regularly who all want to feed us up. Not immediately trying to tackle it last year meant that it took quite a while for all the extra weight to be shed.
This year I thought that something needed to be done earlier. So when Michael saw a menu plan for the week when we first returned to London thanks to BBC Good Food’s Facebook page, we decided to try and follow it (within limits of course :)).
So what have we had so far?
Tue 4th: Red Lentil, Chickpea and Chilli Soup
We both liked the soup. Had the kick we were looking for, while not being a watery soup which means you feel quite empty afterwards (often my complaint with soups). Will definitely make again
Wed 5th: Chicken and White Bean Stew
Not the most interesting. The fact that we used dry haricot beans which we tried to substitute for canned ones definitely was a failure (we did soak them overnight, but though package says to cook for around 1.5hrs, we cooked for around 5mins as recipe suggested – not good!). The chicken however was really really tender. Have never made a soup with chicken before myself, but this chicken was delicious. Verdict? Not a fantastic dish but good enough
Thurs 6th: Spiced Pepper Pilafs
Not as bland as the stew the day before, but definitely would not call them spicy. We decided that we would cook them again probably, but add a bit more zing to them. We did use normal rice though as opposed to basmati rice. But would that have made much of a difference on taste? I don’t think so!
Fri 7th: Ann’s couscous 🙂
The 4th recipe for the week (yes, their week started on Tuesday) was Ginger Lemon Sole with Chinese Greens. As we didn’t find the lemon sole, or the Chinese greens (though to be honest we didn’t look too hard), and as Michael was eating at an event he was going to, I opted for the easy option: couscous with chicken, tomato and onion. Nothing complicated, but tasty (enough).
Will update you about this week’s menu (and what we cooked from it) later on this week.
Rantings from Afar 
[…] Healthy Eating – Week 2 As I wrote on Thursday, I am currently on a mission – to eat healthily, and hopefully lose weight. As on Saturday we […]
By: Mission: Healthy Eating – Week 2 « Rantings from Afar on January 14, 2011
at 7:12 pm
[…] on the Brain As you probably have figured out from my previous posts, the start of this year has been very much focussed on food. For a while now I have been […]
By: Food on the Brain « Rantings from Afar on January 15, 2011
at 6:49 pm
[…] had peppers in the house which we needed to make use of, we decided on a repeat of this recipe from week 1. This time round though Michael added much more spices than the first time, when he limited that to […]
By: Mission: Healthy Eating – Week 3 « Rantings from Afar on January 24, 2011
at 12:43 am
[…] Healthy Eating Continues Remember my mission to healthy eating a few months back? I haven’t written about it recently, but not because I have abandoned it! I […]
By: Mission Healthy Eating Continues « Rantings from Afar on April 6, 2011
at 10:55 am