Day 3 of my 3 week diet dawned with the good news that I'd now lost 2 pounds. A pound a day isn't bad, hopfully I'll be able to keep it up. Although I have to say that I'm not sure I could do more than 7 days on this very restricted choice of food and cooking methods.
In fact I did feel it was so restrictive that I decided to add cooking methods, so long as they were low in fat and calories. I was feeling quite pathetic and a little irritable, presumably because of the unusual lack of sugar so I felt that something comforting was required.
So for lunch I had soup. Normally I would have sweated the vegetables down in butter to really release the flavour and then added chicken stock, but this time I just put them in plain water and cooked them until soft. Then a quick blitz with the stick blender and a load of seasoning and we're done. It tasted a bit thin, but was warming and more satisfying than a cold salad would have been.
Dinner was another cheat of Turkey Stirfry. This worked really well. In a stirfry a little meat goes a long way and turkey is a stronger flavoured meat than chicken so it made for a tastier stirfry without marinading the meat ahead of time. There is also another cheat here in the form of the liquid, but I really felt it was necessary to optimise the flavour.
The method is based on a cookery demo I saw by chinese chef Ken Hom. He prefried the meat then drained off all the oil while the vegetables were cooking, he also did the steaming trick with the liquid to make sure the vegetables were all cooked correctly.
Turkey Stirfry Recipe
Ingredients
Serves 2
6 ounces turkey steak , sliced into smallish pieces.
Two large carrots sliced
4 large mushrooms sliced
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 onion sliced
A handful of broccoli spears or calabrese florets
2 handfuls of spinach leaves well washed
A handful of kale sprouts, with the ends trimmed
1 stick of celary finely sliced
A few french beans, trimmed and cut into small pieces (not on the plan but I had some in the fridge that I wasn’t going to waste!)
[flavouring] liquid. I used a mix of half rice wine and half light soy, but you could just use plain water. If you do make sure to season well with salt and pepper.
Method
Stirfry the turkey in a tablespoon of oil in a wok. When the turkey is white all over transfer to a seive over a bowl so that the oil can drain away.
Wipe the wok clean put it back on the heat and add a couple of teaspoons of oil. At the onion and stirfry for a couple of minutes then add the carrots fry for another couple of minutes. Add the broccoli, kale sprouts, celery, garlic and French beans and fry for another minute before adding the mushrooms.
After another minute return the turkey to the wok, pour in the liquid and put the lid on the wok. Allow it to steam fry for about two minutes before stiring, and putting the lid back on for another couple of minutes.
When the vegetables are cooked to the level that you like them, remove the wok lid, add the spinach and turn the spinach into the vegetables so it wilts in the heat of the pan this only takes a few seconds.
Serve on preheated plates
In fact I did feel it was so restrictive that I decided to add cooking methods, so long as they were low in fat and calories. I was feeling quite pathetic and a little irritable, presumably because of the unusual lack of sugar so I felt that something comforting was required.
So for lunch I had soup. Normally I would have sweated the vegetables down in butter to really release the flavour and then added chicken stock, but this time I just put them in plain water and cooked them until soft. Then a quick blitz with the stick blender and a load of seasoning and we're done. It tasted a bit thin, but was warming and more satisfying than a cold salad would have been.
Dinner was another cheat of Turkey Stirfry. This worked really well. In a stirfry a little meat goes a long way and turkey is a stronger flavoured meat than chicken so it made for a tastier stirfry without marinading the meat ahead of time. There is also another cheat here in the form of the liquid, but I really felt it was necessary to optimise the flavour.
The method is based on a cookery demo I saw by chinese chef Ken Hom. He prefried the meat then drained off all the oil while the vegetables were cooking, he also did the steaming trick with the liquid to make sure the vegetables were all cooked correctly.
Turkey Stirfry Recipe
Ingredients
Serves 2
6 ounces turkey steak , sliced into smallish pieces.
Two large carrots sliced
4 large mushrooms sliced
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 onion sliced
A handful of broccoli spears or calabrese florets
2 handfuls of spinach leaves well washed
A handful of kale sprouts, with the ends trimmed
1 stick of celary finely sliced
A few french beans, trimmed and cut into small pieces (not on the plan but I had some in the fridge that I wasn’t going to waste!)
[flavouring] liquid. I used a mix of half rice wine and half light soy, but you could just use plain water. If you do make sure to season well with salt and pepper.
Method
Stirfry the turkey in a tablespoon of oil in a wok. When the turkey is white all over transfer to a seive over a bowl so that the oil can drain away.
Wipe the wok clean put it back on the heat and add a couple of teaspoons of oil. At the onion and stirfry for a couple of minutes then add the carrots fry for another couple of minutes. Add the broccoli, kale sprouts, celery, garlic and French beans and fry for another minute before adding the mushrooms.
After another minute return the turkey to the wok, pour in the liquid and put the lid on the wok. Allow it to steam fry for about two minutes before stiring, and putting the lid back on for another couple of minutes.
When the vegetables are cooked to the level that you like them, remove the wok lid, add the spinach and turn the spinach into the vegetables so it wilts in the heat of the pan this only takes a few seconds.
Serve on preheated plates