5:2 diet – Vegeterian fast days 5&6

Another 2 fast days done (and I’m writing this at the end of the 7th one) so you could say my diet is still going strong. And now I’m definitely not giving up – besides noticing my tummy getting smaller and my boyfriend claiming that it’s obvious I lost weight (which are both arbitrary and I don’t trust all the time), the progress is starting to show on the scale. I have lost somewhere around 2 kg since I started the diet and I think that’s quite great. I’m now at the lowest weight point in the last 4 or 5 years and I feel amazing. There’s still a bit to go to reach my goal weight, but I’m really confident I’m going to get there, for the first time in any of my weight loss experiments (and trust me, there have been quite a few).

I’ve decided I’m going to do these reports for 2 days together from now on. The recipes will start to repeat themselves and I’m just not really fascinated by the amount of food that goes into 500 calories and have stopped taking pictures :).

So here goes, fast day 5 and 6.

Breakfast 5 : milk gritz (no idea what the English word really is) and plum – 150 cal

25 g uncooked semolina (or gritz?) (80 cal) +100 ml semi skimmed milk (50 cal) + 1 plum (20 cal)

On fast day 6, I slept extremely long and decided to do an experiment, and not eat breakfast. Not a great idea, because I actually had trouble getting the 500 calories in and did something rather stupid, but fun, at the end. You’ll see:))

Lunch 5: Tuscan soup 145 cal

35 g onion (15 cal) + 80 g savoy cabbage (25 cal) + 65 g celery sticks (6 cal)+ 50 g carrot (22 cal) + 100g chopped tomatoes (22 cal) + 1 clove garlic (5 cal) + 50 g butter beans (50 cal)

This is a really nice atumn soup and so easy to make. Just chop everything, throw in a pan and cook for 30 minutes with a bit of thyme, salt and pepper.

Lunch 6: Tomato lentil soup: 171 cal

230 g Chopped tomatoes (51 cal) + 40 g lentils (120 cal)

This was just leftover pizza sauce cooked with lentils. Not glamours, but tasty:)

Dinner 5: roasted veggies 208 cal

125 g butter nut squash ( 52 cal) +130 g cauliflower (50 cal) + 1 tsp olive oil (40 cal) 5 g mayo (35 cal) + 50 g low fat yoghurt (30 cal)

Cut the vegetables, sprinkle with olive oil and bake on 200°C for 20 minutes. In the mean time mix mayo, yoghurt and some herb salt for the dip.

Dinner 6: Turnip gratin and vegetables: 236 cal

250 g turnips (73 cal) small egg (54 cal) + 70 ml semi skimmed milk (16 cal) + 10 g light cheddar (23 cal) +1 clove garlic (4 cal) +130 g mushrooms (21 cal) + 10 green beans ( 36 cal)

For the gratin cut the turnips into thin slices. Mix the egg, milk and chopped garlic, add salt, pepper a bit of cayenne, a bit of fresh thyme. Place the turnips in an oven-proof dish, pour over the egg and milk mixture, grate the cheese on top and bake on 180°C for around 45 minutes. If it starts getting brown, cover with tin foil.

aaaaand then there was the stupid thing: 16 g dark chocolate with hazelnuts- 91 cal

Wholegrain Pasta with Romanesco

Romanesco is my favourite vegetable in the world. Not only is it a combination of two of my top 5 veggies taste vise (broccoli+cauliflower), it is the most perfect vegetable fractal. As a child of a theory of chaos professor, I learned about fractals at a very young age and instantaneously fell in love with them. Staring at snowflakes on windows is still one of my favourite winter past times. (I do hope it snows here this year…). Isn’t it great how the whole vegetable looks just like a floret, and if you look at a floret – it’s made out of numerous smaller florets, that look just the same and are made out of numerous even smaller florets? Isn’t it? We had this head of romanesco for a week, because I felt it was to precious to cut for any old recipe. But then Norb brought this delicious young cheese from Slovenia and I finally thought of a recipe worthy of destroying the beauty for. (I did cut just the lower rings of the florets off, so technically, the leftover romanesco is still perfect:)) The best part of this recipe is the fact that it’s extremely easy to make. It takes 15 minutes, uses just a few ingredients and one pot and it tastes heavenly.

(Sorry for the crappy picture. I couldn’t be bothered taking one with a camera, I had to eat this as fast as I could)

You’ll need (per person):

• handful of wholegrain fussili/simmilar pasta
• 3/4 cup romanesco florets (you could also use broccoli or even cauliflower)
• 2 tbsp crumbled young cheese (ricotta would work too)
• 1 tbsp hight quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leafs
• salt to taste

1. Boil a pot of water with salt and put in the pasta. 5 minutes before the pasta is done, add the florets.

2. Drain the pasta and romanesco and return to pot.

3. Add all of the other ingredients and mix well

4. Dober tek!