Spicy Cabbage with Paneer

I  love Asian food. It's spicy, satisfying, tasty and has a lot of vegetarian options. Once a week I buy one or two cabbages at the local market. (Price per unit: KES20/US$.21!) Naomi shreds them and we store them in the fridge until I need them. I often serve it steamed with a knob of butter as a green vegetable. I also love coleslaw. Naomi used the cabbage in the lentil stew which she cooks for herself and Stanley.

But above all, I love Cabbage Curry. Recently I came across a recipe for spicy cabbage on the Internet. It's served with Paneer, a South Asian unsalted cheese made without using renette as a coagulating agent, and therefore suitable for vegetarians.

Top and bottom: Spicy Cabbage with Paneer

Spicy Cabbage with Paneer (Source: sulekha.com)
 (Serves 4-6)

1 Medium-sized green cabbage
200g Paneer cheese
1/4 tsp Chillie flakes
1/4 tsp Tumeric powder
1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Cumin (Jeera)
1 Small stick cinamon
1 tsp Salt
Curry leaves
1 tbs Vegetable oil
Bunch coriander/cilantro/dhania to garnish

Wash and shred cabbage finely. Set aside
Heat oil, add spices, except mustard seeds and fry gently
Cut paneer into blocks and add to spicy oil.
Fry until brown. Remove and drain on paper towel
Add mustard seeds to oil.
When seeds begin to pop, add cabbage
Fry for 10 minutes
Remove from pan. Arrange in serving dish.
Add paneer and garnish with coriander.
Serve hot

DE-LICIOUS!

Note: Never use olive oil in Asian cooking. Why? Because you don't see olive trees in India! Rather use vegetable oil or ghee, which is clarified butter.

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.

Blessings

Jo

Another quiet weekend in Kimwarer, Keirio Valley

On Friday morning Grant brought the carpenters to discuss fitting our screen doors. The cats were sleeping on the dining chairs and as they heard the booming male voices, the made for the interior of the house! A few minutes later I found them sleeping on their beds in respective guest rooms!

Pudding asleep and far away from the noise

In the next guest room, I found Shadow burrowed under the duvet. That is a cat under there.You can take my word for it. (these photos are fuzzy as I took them through the mosquito netting)

I'm not coming out until they leave, mum!

BTW, the carpenters left after checking what they need and said they'd be back. They didn't return on Friday, but that's Africa time for you...

While I sat at my desk a while later, I heard someone knocking just outside the window. I looked up and there, in the frangipani tree next to the house, was a woodpecker!

The Nubian Woodpecker

The Nubian Woodpecker male has a red moustachial stripe; while the female has a white-spotted black crown with a small red patch on the nape. This bird pecked at different branches for a while, then flew off

On Saturday I dowloaded my e-newsletter from Weigh-less Health and Wellness Club. This missal always arrives on Friday evening to provide motivation, tips and recipes to keep you on track for the weekend and the week ahead!  This week it featured a tasty soup which I quickly made for lunch. Roasted tomato soup (Recipe at end of post)

Roasted Tomato Soup served with freshly-baked homemade bread

Roasted Tomato Soup - Weigh-less

100g onion

20ml olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

900g tomatoes

100g red sweet pepper

200g carrots

600ml vegetable or chicken stock

Peel and chop carrots.

Chop tomatoes, onions, peppers into chunks

Add garlic and oil, toss

Place all in casserole

Season with salt and pepper

Roast in oven at 200◦C for 40 minutes

Remove from heat, scrape vegetables from bottom of casserole to loosen

Pour over the boiling stock

Spoon into blender and blend until smooth

Serve with crusty homemade bread

On Sunday we went out birding and spent another rewarding three hours prowling around the African bush enjoying the birds and nature.

Another peaceful weekend in the valley.

Tuna and Olive Pasta

Tuna and Olive Pasta - really easy

While flying up to the Sudan at the beginning of the month, I had brought a magazine to browse through on the flight.  I came across several delicious recipes. One was headed "Really easy" and when I showed it to Grant he groaned and said if only he had that to eat rather than the standard: "chicken or beef" he knew he'd be offered at dinnertime!

This week I decided to make it and it really is easy.

Tuna and Olive Pasta (Vrouekeur, July 2010)

(serves 4)

500g penne pasta

a dollop of oil for frying

1onion, chopped

2.5ml minced garlic

400g tinned whole tomatoes

170g (1 tin) tuna in brine. (I used in oil)

45ml black olives, sliced

Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente

Drain the pasta and add a little oil to keep it from clogging

Heat a little oil and sautee the garlic and onion until soft

Add tomatoes, salt and ground black pepper

Cook without a lid until all the juice is reduced

Add tuna and olives and heat through gently

Toss mixture into pasta and serve immediately

Delicious!

The Arabic for tuna is either twnh (pronounced too-naah) or smk pronounced samaka. The Arabic for tomatoes is țmãțm pronounced toemaatum

Khartoum Heat and Banana Splits

These past two weeks the temperature in Khartoum has been in the fifties /122 ° Farenheit (more about this in tomorrow's post).

Last night, following  another particularly hot day, I decided to serve a refreshing dessert after dinner. I paged through my weigh-loss magazine (now almost three months old!) and came across an old-fashioned sweet, albeit always a firm favorite in hotels when I was a child.

I always have a bunch of bananas in the house , mainly as a treat for the bulbuls who visit our birdfeeder on the balcony daily, and because they are only SDG1 / US$.43c for a dozen. I didn't have cherries, but used halved grapes which were just as delicious.

Sweet and simple banana split (Weigh-less magazine Feb/March 2010)
Serves 2
200g diet ice-cream
2 small bananas, peeled
4 black grapes (or cherries if available)
20g crushed almonds
2 ginger biscuits, crushed 
10ml honey

Cut the banana in half lengthwise and place in a serving bowl. (I used tumblers)
Place ice-cream between the two banana halves
Cover with crushed biscuit and almonds
Drizzle honey over
Serve immediately

Serves 2

Chickpea, tomato and eggplant casserole

Last week I decided to make a chickpea casserole. On occasion I've made falafels (recipe to follow) but I generally only use chickpeas in salads or pureed as hummus. I also only use use canned chickpeas; the dried variety takes far too long to soften.

Chickpeas are legumes. These edible pulses are high in dietary fibre, low in fat, contain a significant amount of calcium and are a valuable source of protein. Chickpeas are also knows as garbanzo beans.

I found an easy recipe on the Internet and tweaked it a little (I added corgettes/zucchinnis and pumpkin) It was delicious.

Baked Eggplant, Tomato and Chickpea Casserole – http://www.cooks.com/

3 cups cooked Chickpeas (I used canned, drained)
2 eggplants, unpeeled and cut into 2 ins/50mm cubes
3 onions, sliced
1 cup diced butternut or pumpkin of your choice
2 corgettes, sliced
2 tomatoes, thickly sliced
1 ½ cup vegetable stock
10ml olive oil for frying

Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C
Add a little olive oil to a pan and heat
Brown the eggplant and onion rings, remove and place in casserole
Brown the pumpkin and corgette, remove and add to casserole
Add the chickpeas and decorate with sliced tomatoes
Gently pour the stock over, cover and bake in oven for 30 minutes
Remove the cover and grill for a further 5-8 minutes
Serve immediately with rice and a green salad

Keeping Healthy in Khartoum

Greek Pasta Salad - delicious

Having arrived here in our first storey Khartoum flat during the early hours of Saturday morning, all good intentions of healthy eating and excersise were set aside for now. The stopover in Addis Ababa which you can read about here, took a heavy toll on my healthy eating plan. The salads and vegetables served in the hotel, albeit delicious, [the salads]were drenched in high-oil dressings and the vegetables were cooked with lashings of butter. There were also hot bread rolls to die for and I had more than my share of these. However, I did manage to take two oranges to my room which I ate later while watching Amharic television!


By Monday I had settled into life here in Khartoum, so no more excuses. I had been to the supermarket with my husband and bought all the necessary staples and salad vegetables to make healthy meal options for myself. Pasta is very cheap, salad vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers and lettuce are readily available at stalls on the banks of the Nile river. (I hope to do a post on this exciting excursion soon.) I made a deliciously crisp, tasty and low-calorie Greek Pasta Salad for lunch. It looked so fresh and tempting that my husband brought a plate and dished a portion for his lunch! I have posted the recipe below. It is delicious.

The flight of steps leading up from our flat

On Tuesday I had relocated my gym clothes which I'd left in the spare room before flying out to South Africa in September last year. At 6h30, while it was still dark, I was up, dressed and ready for my home-made excersises in lieu of my regular spinning classes back home. I run up and down four flights of steps inside our flat (forty steps); I do this five times. Then I go up onto the roof and do six laps of jogging around the top. I have to do this in the dark as it is not good for a woman to be seen in a tank top and cycling shorts out in the open. I use a hand-held torch.

Standing on the landing, I photograped the flight up to the roof and back down to the flat

I 'd like to treble my step routine in the next two months and do three times as many laps on the rooftop by then as well. I also have the skipping rope which my dear friend, Ida from South Africa blesssed me with last time I came up. I'll take it up to the roof tomorrow morning and do some skipping! I know that to real hardcore fitness fanatics this may not seem difficult. Yet for me who has been spinning for the past three years, it is quite a challenge to suddenly be pounding the surfaces by running up and down stairs and jogging on the roof.

Halfway up the flight of stairs to the door leading out onto the roof

Up on the roof - above and below

Herewith the pasta salad recipe.

Greek Pasta Salad (Weigh-Less Pasta Recipes)

Serves 1

100g Pasta, cooked weight

22.5g Olives

22,5ml Low Oil Dressing

30g Reduced Fat Feta Cheese
100g Cherry Tomatoes

50g Cucumber

25g Lettuce

25g Onion

Assemble the salad, drizzle the dressing over and serve.

Roast Vegetable Tart

This roast vegetable tart is healthy, tasty and so easy to make

Once again, I've made a delicious meal from a recipe in one of my favourite food magazines. I've posted about this before: a large food chain store publishes its own food magazine which contains ingredients and products sold on the shelves. Last week I served the above roast vegetable tart as light supper meal; it went down a treat.

Roast Vegetable Tart (PnP Fresh Living Magazine September 2009)

A fabulous light meal served with mashed potatoes and a crisp green salad.

(Serves 4)

1 roll puff pastry (defrosted)
1 extra large egg, beaten
1 cup ricotta cheese (I used fat-free cottage cheese)
1 bunch (200g) asparagus, washed and trimmed
1 packet (250g) cherry tomatoes, halved
½ packet back bacon, cut into strips (I omitted this; vegetarians were in the majority!)
Salt and ground black pepper
½ tub basil pesto
Rocket, for serving

Preheat oven to 200°C.
Trim edges of the pastry; this helps it to rise better
Use a butter knife to gently score a 2cm border onto pasty.
Take care not to cut all the way through.
Place the pastry on a greased baking tray
Lightly brush scored pastry border with egg
Roughly spread ricotta onto pastry, excluding border
Toss asparagus, tomatoes, bacon and seasoning into a bowl
Season and scatter on top of ricotta
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until cooked through and golden brown
Serve drizzled with pesto and top with rocket

Healthy Low GI Bread

Last month in the middle of the South African winter, I was asked to make sandwiches for our home cell/Bible study group. We always met at our home so I decided, instead of the standard sandwiches, I would make a huge pot of vegetable soup. I’d also come across a new bread recipe in a food magazine which is available at our large chain supermarket, Pick and Pay.

This easy, quick-mix yeast bread requires no kneading and turned out to be the most delicious Low GI bread I’d ever eaten. (I’d never baked one, so I was thrilled with the results)

If you’d like my vegetable soup recipe, click here.

The bread turned out beautifully and tasted divine

Low GI Bread Fresh Living PnP Magazine July 2009

3/4 cup (187ml) sunflower seeds
1 cup (200g) crusted wheat (plus extra tbs for garnish)
3 cups (420g) whole-wheat flour
1 cup (120g) white bread flour
1 ½ tsp (7g) salt
1 x 10g packet instant yeast
1 cup (42g) All-bran flakes (e.g. Kellogg’s)
2 tbs (30ml) milk
3 tbs (45ml) molasses or honey
1 tbs (15ml) olive oil
1 tbs (15ml) lemon juice
2 ¼ - 2 ½ cups (560ml – 625ml) lukewarm water

Toast sunflower seeds in dry, hot, non-stick pan until golden(Set aside ¼ cup (60ml) for garnishing)
Sift together flours, yeast, salt, All Bran flakes and yeast.
Mix seeds with molasses/honey, oil, milk and lemon juice
Add water and stir well
Add to dry ingredients and mix well
Pour dough into loaf pan of your choice; (I used 28 x 10 ½ x 9 ½)
Sprinkle top with reserved seeds and crushed wheat
Leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes
Preheat oven to 200°C and bake for 45 minutes
Remove loaf from tin and bake on rack for 10 minutes. (For a crisp bottom crust)

Makes 7 mini loaves, 3 round, or 1 large loaf

Dimensions of alternative tins:
Round tin: 12 ½ x 4 ½
Mini loaf tins: 11 x 6 ½ cm
Note: Quick tips for baking bread:
Hot humid air gives the best baking results. Place a small metal dish of hot water in the oven while the bread is baking. Using a spray bottle, spray a fine mist of water into the oven 2 - 3 times.

Upmarket Cheese on Toast

On Sunday evening I felt like a light supper. I wanted something cheesy but couldn’t face cheese on toast. Then I remembered how, while at boarding school all 40 years ago, we often had Welsh Rarebit as Sunday night supper.

I popped onto Google and within minutes I had the perfect recipe. I've posted the original recipe below but also adapted it to make it diet-friendly. My ingredients are in brackets. Welsh Rarebit is traditionally made with strong cheddar cheese but I dispensed with tradition in order to make this recipe user-friendly to anyone following a healthy, weight-reducing lifestyle.

Enjoy.

Welsh Rarebit (Courtesy Avocado Magazine)

(Serves 2 – 2 Slices each)

30ml flour (I used whole-wheat flour)
30g butter (I used lite/reduced fat margarine)
200ml milk (I used skimmed milk)
150g strong cheddar cheese (I used low-fat hard cheese)
2.5ml Hot English Mustard powder
Salt and ground black pepper

Method:
Preheat the grill
Melt the butter and add the flour to make a roux
Add the milk and stir
Allow mixture to cook until thickened
Tip in the cheese with the mustard and stir vigorously
Spoon mixture onto slices of freshly made whole wheat toast
Season with salt and ground black pepper
Brown for a few minutes under the grill

Veg on the Side

“So often emphasis is placed on the meat and starch of a meal. Vegetables are invariably seen as an afterthought and you end up with tasteless, steamed mixed veg every night. It's enough to make even the most faithful slimmer give up. No more! Below are mouth-watering options to compliment your meal tonight. “

The above paragraph is quoted from my latest weight loss magazine in the recipe section called Food for Life.

While visiting John and Debbie last month, my husband and I prepared dinner while our children put their children to bed! We used the following recipes and as accompaniment, we served grilled pork bangers and boiled baby potatoes.

The vegetables arranged on a serving plate and ready for diners to help themselves . Doesn't it look scrumptious? I challenge anyone to make this meal and tell me it was not enjoyed by all you served it to!

(All three recipes respectively serve 4 and are taken from Weigh Less Magazine May/June 2009)

Sesame Green Beans
400g green beans
20g sesame seeds
¼ teaspoon chilli flakes, dried
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce

Parboil the green beans in salted water until cooked, but still crispy
Heat the oil in a large pan, roast sesame seeds
Add all the remaining ingredients and toss until beans are well coated

Oven roasted butternut
400g butternut, peeled and diced
10ml olive oil
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
Non-stick cooking spray

Place the butternut pieces on a tray that has been coated with non-stick spray
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with cinnamon, salt and pepper
Place in a 200°C oven for 40 minutes, turning every 10 minutes
Serve
(Tip: this recipe works well with sweet potato and gem squash)

Grilled baby marrows (courgettes)
300g baby marrows, sliced into rounds
100g onion, sliced
10ml olive oil
½ tsp garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in large pan and add the onions and garlic
Fry for 3 minutes and then add baby marrows
Stir-fry all the ingredients together for 5 minutes
The baby marrows should start browning but remain fairly firm
Season and serve
(Tip: Add baby mushrooms and red peppers for extra flavour)

Quinoa - a Different Kind of Carbohydrate

Quinoa, a different kind of carbohydrate is versatile, tasty and good for the waistline. Here I served it with my Potato and Bean Bake

I first tasted quinoa in 2005 in West Africa when my friend, Morag brought a packet back for me from the UK. I fell in love with it and for the remainder of my stay there, Morag would bring me this delicious grain when she returned from her break.

Quinoa became available in South Africa in 2007; I always keep a packet in the grocery cupboard.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wha) is light and easily digested. It also has the most complete nutrition and highest protein content of any grain, making it an ideal food for vegetarians and vegans.

Quinoa is simple to make, cooks very much like rice, and is absolutely delicious all by itself. When cooked, quinoa is similar to couscous, but more substantial, tasty and nourishing.

Quinoa goes well with a variety of dishes: with spicy vegetarian stews, with potato dishes, in a veggie pilaf, or salad. It loves to be sautéed and spiced.

According to the recipes I found on Google, the cooking method is very long and involved. I have never bothered to use these instructions. I merely heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan, add the quinoa and stir all the time. I add a little water (about ½ cup), cover the saucepan and once the liquid has been reduced, the quinoa is ready to eat.

A few weeks ago I felt like a change of carbohydrate (starch). So I cooked some quinoa to enjoy with my Potato and Bean bake which recipe you can find here.

And yes, you guessed it: quinoa is easy on the waist!

To carb or not to carb...

Whole wheat kernels as a carbohydrate accompaniment to Roasted Vegetables and Grilled Haloumi Cheese
Season with a dash of Balsamic vinegar if desired

A few months ago I posted about the many diet-friendly recipes I was placing on my blog. I had rejoined a weight loss club in August last year and achieved my goal weight by mid-September when my husband came home from Zambia. He stayed home until 4th March when his new contract, this time in the Sudan began. I then returned to my weekly weight loss classes and found that I’d maintained my weight during the six months I could not attend. The reason for this is that I do NOT follow a drastic diet of self-denial, starvation or gimmicks. The diet I follow with this weight loss club is a lifestyle and can be incorporated into every day life.

I ran the weight loss club in our town from 2000 – 2004. I handed over my group to a successful member of my team because I went up to Guinea to be with my husband and at the same time was employed by the gold mine company for three years. Many people achieved their goal weight in my group and have maintained their weight over the years. They applied the correct principles and today they are reaping the benefits. Those who used the group as a quick-fix and followed their own rules of starvation and special diets either never lost any significant weight or regained their weight and a bit more on top of that.

I regularly come across people (especially those in my age group) who are trying to lose weight. Some of them attended my weight loss classes and know the correct way to lose weight, yet now they try every imaginable weight loss gimmick on the market. They also follow the starvation diet or the cabbage soup diet or the apple vinegar diet...

Many of them (mainly men!) come and see me privately and ask me to help them lose weight again. Every time I go through the formula and plan with them and give them diet-friendly recipes and tips. (I’m not a group leader any longer, but I don't mind helping people) Yet when I show them that they have to incorporate enough carbohydrates into their daily eating plan, they immediately tell me that this food group makes them fat! So it’s back to square one with them; they leave here having forgotten everything I shared with them and they decide follow the latest fad diet published in that weeks’ magazine.

Carbohydrates (or starches) are a very important part of losing weight and maintaining that weight loss.. You need to eat five portions of carbohydrates per day. The secret is: WHAT carbohydrates can you eat? No use consuming a cream donut or a meat pie and expecting to lose weight. The ideal carbohydrates are made from unrefined products such as whole wheat, maize grits and rye flour, to name but a few.

In order to avoid boredom with my meals, I have a variety of carbohydrates which I enjoy with my vegetables, lentil stews and tomato and onion relishes. The list is endless: pastas, all types; couscous, wild and brown rice, polenta, coarsely ground maize meal, whole wheat kernels and quinoa, pronounced keen-wa and on which I have a post coming up.

In the vegetable realm you have sweet potato (similar to a yam), potatoes, amadumbe (also yam-like), whole kernel maize or baby corn or sweet corn, potato or baby potato and parsnips. These are just starches to be eaten at the midday or evening meal. I’m not even touching on the wide variety of healthy choices of carbohydrates in breakfast foods (cereals and porridges) or light lunch/snacks: breads and crackers.

So the bottom line is, enjoy a variety healthy carbohydrates daily. Take care to apportion them on your plate – between 50-70g, two to three heaped tablespoons or 1/3 cup when cooked.

Last weekend I cooked a portion of whole wheat kernels instead of the pita I normally have when enjoying my Roasted Vegetable and Grilled Halloumi Cheese.

What is whole wheat?
Modern wheat is descended from two ancient grains, Emmer and Einkorn. These early wheats hybridised with wild grasses to form spelt wheat and bread wheat. Spelt wheat is easier to hand thresh, so it was the more popular variety before the advent of mechanisation. Modern wheat is more suited to mechanisation because once the initial threshing is complete, no further processing is required.

What are the benefits of whole wheat kernels?
A nutty flavour and high nutrient density make it an excellent base for vegetarian meals as well as a substitute for rice.
It is cholesterol free
Low in fat
Slow release carbohydrate food
Excellent food source for diabetics, sportsmen and people on cholesterol lowering diets.
Very high in fibre
Sugar free
Preservative free

Cooking tips:
It needs to be soaked overnight to soften the grain. Then boil in enough salted water until soft and plumped up.

What are its uses?
Whole wheat kernels can be used in place of rice. It can also be sprouted by placing in a jar and covering with warm water. I have a bean sprouter and have sprouted these kernels with great success.

So I urge you. If you’re trying to follow a healthy eating plan, opt for a large variety of carbohydrates to enjoy with your meat and vegetables. You’ll be surprised how much energy you’ll have and how healthy you will feel. Just ensure you practice portion control and that your accompanying food is also low- fat, unrefined and sugar free.

Pomegranates

My prolific pomegranate tree (above) yielded plenty of delicious fruit this year

The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to between five and eight meters tall. The pomegranate is native to Southwest Asia and has been cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean region since ancient times. It is widely cultivated throughout other parts of the world and is used typically in Arizona for juice.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the fruit is typically in season from September to February. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is in season from March to May.

Pomegranates ripening in the late summer sun

The edible fruit is a berry (believe it or not) and is between a lemon and a grapefruit in size, and has thick reddish skin and contains around 600 seeds. (I wonder who counted?) The seeds and surrounding pulp, ranging in color from white to deep red and even purple, are called arils.

As the fruit bursts open, you know it's ready to pick and enjoy. (Just make sure you're there before the birds!)

Why am I posting all this? Because I have two mature pomegranate trees in my garden which always yield plenty of fruit at the end of summer. Pomegranates, which became the vogue in our fresh produce shops last summer, are delicious but messy. I always don an apron when I scoop the pips from the pomegranate else I find I have pink spots all over my face, clothes, hair...
Pomegranates are only ripe and ready to pick, when they burst open. Then it's a mad dash to collect the fruit before the birds, such as this Cape White-eye above, get to them first.

A piquant and colourful salad made with pomegranate, cucumber and feta cheese

Apart from using these succulent pips in my health breakfast, which you can read about here, and enjoying them as a fruit, I also discovered a salad using pomegranate pips.

All you do is to scoop out the required amount of pips into a salad bowl, add chopped cucumber and a few blocks of feta. Viola! A different, colourful and piquant salad to enjoy with any main dish.

Butternut and Feta Soup with Croutons

This was the scrummiest soup I've ever tasted!
I was so impressed I took several photos

Once again, I look back on my weekend with Debbie with great longing. Not only was it such a blessed time to be with my daughter-in-law and grandchildren, but the meals were exquisite.

On Saturday night Debbie took out The Weigh-less Best Choices Recipe Book again and whipped up a scrumptious soup. Apart from being filled with recipes for every taste, this book contains many tips and ideas on how to store spices, make your own stock, how to choose fresh fish and more.

At the top of the first page which is titled Starters, snacks, and soups, I read the following:

Just because you are on a restricted meal plan, it does not mean that you have to sacrifice flavour or taste. All the meals below are easy on the waistline whilst still tickling your taste buds.

Butternut and Feta Soup with Croutons (The Weigh- Less Best Choices Recipe Book)
Serves 6
1 clove garlic, crushed
5ml ginger, crushed
1 cinnamon stick
5 ml olive oil
600g butternut, peeled and roughly chopped
1.5L vegetable stock
6 slices white bread (Debbie used brown)
30ml low fat spread (margarine)
180g feta, crumbled
Salt and ground black pepper

Sauté the garlic, ginger and cinnamon stick in the olive oil till soft
Add butternut and warm stock
Leave to boil until soft, approximately 30 minutes
Butter the bread both sides, cut into 1cm cubes. Bake in slow oven until golden brown
Remove the cinnamon stick and puree the butternut and stock until smooth
Serve with crumbled feta and croutons

Mediterranean Veg Stack

Last weekend when I visited my d.i.l., Debbie in Kwa-Zulu Natal, she made every dinner-time special. She also made sure the meals were diet-friendly. The first night we had a Mediterranean Veg Stack taken from The Weigh-less Best Choices Recipe Book. I have previously posted a very similar recipe which you can see here, but Debbie’s dish was even more scrumptious because of the guacamole and cottage cheese accompaniment.

Mediterranean Veg Stack (Serves 2)

110g fat free plain smooth cottage cheese
100g baby marrows (courgettes/zucchinis)
100g aubergine
120g tomato
100g yellow pepper (or red pepper)
40g avocado pear
20g lentil sprouts
½ teaspoon lemon juice
6 basil leaves, torn
Non-stick spray for cooking

Mash the avocado with a fork and mix in the lemon juice. Set aside
Slice the vegetables into large flat pieces, sprinkle with salt.
Spray a skillet with non-stick cooking spray
Grill vegetables on hot skillet until done
Assemble stack by placing alternative layers of grilled vegetables, avocado and cottage cheese.
Garnish with basil leaves, ground black pepper and lentil sprouts.

Note: we didn’t have lentil sprouts or basil leaves, but the meal was delicious all the same.

Wholewheat Pita Stuffed with Roasted Vegetables Accompanied by Pan Fried Halloumi

A selection of vegetables, drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt, black pepper and fresh herbs

When you eat a solitary meal and one sans meat, you make every effort to make it tasty, colourful and appetising.

Last weekend I felt like roasted vegetables in a pita with pan fried halloumi.

This is exactly what I had.

A toasted wholewheat pita bread stuffed with oven roasted vegetables accompanied by pan fried Halloumi cheese

Nothing could be simpler than this meal.

Wash, pat dry and cut into pieces/wedges/quarters the vegetables of your choice. Place in a casserole dish. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and ground black pepper. Cover the dish and bake in preheated oven (200°C/375°F) for about 45 minutes. When the vegetables are cooked, remove the lid and grill for about 7-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, add 5ml olive oil to a non-stick pan, blot strips of halloumi cheese with kitchen towel. Place cheese in pan, turning after thirty seconds; fry the other side until brown and crisp as well.

Serve in a toasted pita bread, adding a little balsamic vinegar if desired.

Note:You eat this delicious fare in your hand!

Vegetarian Stir Fry

The chunky wok / stew strips brown easily and cook in minutes

People often ask me if it isn’t boring to be a vegetarian. I always answer them honestly: It’s anything but...

I remember during the hippie era in the sixties, there was a “weird” guy at our school who was a vegetarian. He wore his black wavy hair longer than regulations allowed, always had a far-away look in his eyes and hardly ever spoke; when he did, his speech was laced with expressions like: “hey man, it's groovy, dude”. We were too nervous to ask him what he ate (modern vegetarian fare, as we know it today, was non-existent) but we heard via the grapevine that all he ate was mushy cereal called muesli!

These days the supermarket shelves and freezers display a great variety of vegetarian products. I, for one, always buy the protam meat alternative, which is a specially developed vegetable protein derived from natural ingredients. I regularly enjoy hamburgers made with protam burger patties, hot dogs with protam Vienna’s and or braai (BBQ) sausages under the same brand name.

Last week I found a packet of protam chunky wok or stew strips. If I didn’t know any better, once cooked, I could have been conned into thinking they were beef strips from the butchers.

All the above products contain no meat, milk or dairy, no preservatives, no colorants and no cholesterol.

A healthy, colourful and tasty selection of stir fry vegetables

Over the Easter weekend, I was alone after having many visitors in and around the house for the past six weeks. I decided to treat myself on Thursday night and have stir fry for dinner.

Once the vegetables are done to your taste, add the chunky wok/stew strips and the cooked rice

A truly oriental meal

The following recipe is my own creation. You can add fried chicken strips or chunks of pork sausages to turn it into a meaty meal.

Vegetarian Stir Fry
Serves 4
190g vegetarian chunky wok or stew strips
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into strips
3 – 4 courgettes, topped and tailed and cut into strips
150g mushrooms, stalks removed and sliced
I large onion, peeled and sliced
½ green pepper, deseeded, cut into rings
½ cup frozen peas
30 ml olive oil
1 cup Wild and Brown rice

Boil rice in lightly salted water, until soft. Drain and set aside
Heat half the oil in a wok and fry vegetarian strips for 6 minutes
Remove from pan and set aside
Heat the rest of the oil and fry the onions until transparent
Add carrots, courgettes, mushrooms and green pepper
Add peas; stir fry for about 10 minutes
Add a little hot water to prevent vegetables sticking to pan
Simmer until vegetables are soft and all liquid is reduced
Add chunky strips and rice and carefully turn over to mix
Heat through gently and serve with Soy sauce

Easy, Tasty Vegetable Soup

A punnet of crisp soup vegetables

Even though the cold weather has not yet set in, the supermarkets and fruiterers are displaying soup packs on their shelves already. What can be more comforting than a steaming bowl of soup? The bonus is that this recipe is satisfying as well as being diet-friendly so you don’t compromise your weight loss efforts.

I regularly make a pot of this soup, enjoy a bowl for lunch and refrigerate the rest for the next day.

Once the onions are browned, add all other fresh vegetables and simmer...
Add tomato and vegetable stock and simmer...
Place soup in a processor for a smooth consistency

Vegetable Soup (www.weighless.co.za)
(Serves 4)
100g carrots, washed and chopped
100g onions, peeled and sliced
100g turnip, peeled and chopped
100g potato, peeled and quartered
2 leeks cut into slices
4 celery stick with tops, chopped
Parsley, finely chopped
410g tin of whole tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper
1 vegetable stock cube
750ml of boiling water

Heat oil in heavy bottom saucepan; add onion and fry gently until brown
Add carrots, turnips, potatoes, leeks and celery sticks
Dissolve the stock cube in boiling water and add to vegetables
Turn down the heat, cover saucepan and simmer for about 25 minutes
When vegetables are soft, add tinned tomatoes and parsley

Simmer gently for a further ten minutes
Place soup in food processor and liquidize to desired consistency
Serve in a warmed soup bowl with a swirl of plain yoghurt for garnishing