PORK WITH BEANS AND GREENS

This is an adaptation of a recipe in one of my slimming club cook books.  Now that we're back in France my membership has officially lapsed but I'm sticking to the plan as much as is possible in a country where the fat free versions of some things are hard to find.  I brought with me several bottles of low fat cooking spray as I had no idea whether or not you could get that kind of thing here.  I would like to lose a few more pounds but at least put none back on!

The recipe calls for cavolo nero or kale as the greens but I used broccoli as that's what I had.  Now that we're chez nous the supermarkets and other shops are some distance away and you can't guarantee the availability of anything, so cooking what you have in is the way to go.  Another adaptation from the original include using haricots blancs instead of borlotti beans as I had a tin of them in the cupboard.

In the book the recipe is cooked in a slow cooker but also includes instructions for cooking it on the hob.  We had the little French Aga-style of wood burner going to heat the house so I cooked it in that.  The hotplates were boiling it too fast so I transferred it to the oven for the cooking time.  To be honest, cooking anything in the woodburner oven is rather hit and miss as the temperature is not very controllable but if anything a casserole of some kind is what cooks best.  At a push I can cook a shepherd's pie or crumble in it but anything requiring accurate temperature control is a no-no.  I certainly wouldn’t attempt pastry or a cake in it!

It was delicious.  Cooking without lots of oil, or flour to thicken the sauce, is a revelation and definitely the key to losing (or not gaining) weight.  We had ours with no extra veg as there were already plenty in it.  Using just three slim pork steaks it made four generous portions but with a few more veg on the side it would have satisfied the hungriest appetite!  You could of course add other herbs or spices according to how adventurous you feel!

As an aside, I noticed that to use the right kind of tinned tomatoes for the recipe I had to look for "dés" or diced tomatoes.  Diced means chopped and anything else is literally pulp.  You can also get whole tomatoes - entières - just like you would have with your fried breakfast - and chop them yourself.  

Ingredients

3 pork loin steaks or chops, cut into large chunks

a small pack of smoked bacon lardons or 2-3 slices smoked bacon, chopped

low calorie cooking spray (or olive oil)

2 large carrots, peeled and thickly sliced

1 large leek, cleaned and thickly sliced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves plucked and chopped

2 bay leaves

1 vegetable stock pot or cube made up to about 1 pint with boiling water

4-5 medium waxy potatoes

1 200g can chopped tomatoes

1 400g can borlotti beans (or cannellini or any other beans you like) drained and rinsed

1 head of broccoli, cut into medium florets

Method

In a large metal casserole dish or ovenproof saucepan fry the bacon and pork in the oil or spray until brown.  

Add the carrots, leeks, potatoes, herbs and stock, season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil.  Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour (or transfer to the oven at 170C for 1 hour).  Check after 30 minutes that it is not boiling dry - if so add more hot water.

Stir in the broccoli, tomatoes and beans and cook for a further 30 minutes.

Check for seasoning, remove the bay leaves and serve as it is in bowls or with bread, rice, pasta or more veg.

Serves 4.

BRUSSELS SPROUT OVEN BAKED FRITTATA

The sprout is not everybody's favourite vegetable but in this house we love them!  We even loved them before they were genetically modified (or whatever they did to them) to be less bitter.  As a child I was brought up on home grown veg and sprouts were a favourite back then.

The recipe came about because I found an unopened bag of sprouts in the fridge when Christmas was well and truly over and just fancied doing something different with them.  We enjoyed it so much that I have made it several times since then.

You could substitute broccoli,  asparagus or green beans instead.  You could, if you feel inclined, also add a teaspoon of chilli flakes to add a bit of punch.  Personally I can't take the heat so would add some herbs instead.  I also added a sliced Matteson's smoked sausage for a bit of extra flavour, which added not too many calories to each serving and was well worth it!

Ingredients

a good handful of sprouts, trimmed, washed and each one cut in half (unless they are already very small).

1 large leek, trimmed and finely sliced

2 peppers from a jar of roasted peppers in brine, sliced (those in oil will add more calories)

1 Matteson's light smoked sausage (or similar), thinly sliced

4-6 medium eggs (depends on the size of your dish)

a little semi skimmed milk

a tsp or two of dried herbs

Method

Preheat the oven to 180° C / 160° fan / gas mk 6.

Cook the sprouts in boiling water for a few minutes until just tender.

Spray a frying pan with 1-cal cooking spray and cook the leeks until soft and beginning to colour.  (Alternatively, cook them in water with the sprouts.)

Spray a suitable baking tray or dish with cooking spray and tip in all the veg along with the slices of sausage.  Stir to make sure they are level and evenly distributed (so that nobody gets most of the sausage!).

Crack the eggs into a jug and add a splash of milk and salt and pepper.  Beat well and pour evenly over the filling.  Sprinkle the dried herbs over.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the frittata is just set.

Serve hot, warm or cold, with veg, or salad.

Serves four generously.

SIN FREE MEATBALLS

The diet I have been following is very effective.  It cuts out most fat, sugar and some of the carbs from my daily intake, allowing plenty of veg, fruit and protein.  Pasta, potatoes and rice can be eaten freely, which seemed odd at first but I can understand the reasoning behind it.  There is a limit to how much of that stuff I can eat at a meal and if I'm full on those I'm then less likely to snack on fattening foods between meals.  I have never once felt hungry during the fourteen weeks I have been following the plan and so far have lost 1 stone 9 lb, i.e. 23 lb or roughly 11 kilos.  I feel immensely better for it, in so many ways.

Success lies in planning meals, not being caught out when eating out and, above all, changing the way we cook.  I say we because Nick does about the same amount of cooking as I do and we are eating the same things.  He does not need to lose any weight so fills up on bread, toast, extra potatoes or pasta or whatever.  We always had what I thought was a healthy diet but without a doubt there were too many treats, snacks and wine.  (Reducing our wine intake has been the hardest part.)

We have both adapted to the new way of cooking which is basically with virtually no fat.  It's true that a certain amount of butter or oil in cooking adds flavour to the food (and realistically we never had that much of either of them) but we have got used to not having them, to the extent that we no longer feel the need to use them.  It's an interesting process of change.  Understanding that you can cook tasty food without fattening ingredients is key to the process.

I personally make meatballs very infrequently, probably about once every ten years!  I always thought they were a bit of a faff but this recipe is very quick to prepare if much slower to cook.  The original gives courgettes and aubergine as the veg part of the dish but I used some bits and pieces of other veg instead of the aubergine, as that's what I had in the fridge.

The quantity serves four so we had the first half served separately with pasta, then turned it into a pasta traybake the next day.  Delicious and very un-fattening!

Ingredients

For the meatballs

500g very lean minced beef, 5% fat or less

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

For the sauce

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tsp dried oregano

1 large can chopped tomatoes

1 400g carton passata 

1 veg stock pot made up to 150 ml with boiling water (or home made stock)

1 large courgette, cut into large chunks

Root veg such as parsnip, swede, butternut squash, celeriac, trimmed and cut into chunks

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.

Put the tomatoes, passata and stock into a large roasting tin or casserole dish, add the veg, oregano and one of the chopped onions and stir together.  Cover with foil or a lid and bake in the oven for 50 minutes

While the veg are cooking make the meatballs by putting the minced beef, the other chopped onion and the crushed garlic into a large bowl.  With your hands mix it all well together.

Divide the mixture into 20 roughly equal portions and roll each one into a ball.  Place them on a tray of some kind and put in the fridge to chill.

After the 50 minutes cooking time, stir the meatballs into the mixture and bake with the lid on for another 40 minutes.

Serve with pasta or veg.

Serves 4.

WILL THERE EVER BE CAKE AGAIN?

There are still no cakes being made chez nous.  It's now nine weeks since I had cake, bread, biscuits or puddings of any kind and my weight is steadily falling.  I remember the wonderful Terry Wogan and his slogan "fight the flab" and I have to say that I am winning the battle and feeling much better for it.

I haven't felt hungry at all over the last nine weeks, not ever.  Filling up on fruit, veg and lean meat definitely seems to work and I have felt no desire to dive into the biscuit tin or raid the fridge for slabs of cheese.  (Although I have hankered after the occasional slap-up roast dinner.)  Nick and I are eating the same meals and his weight remains steady because he fills up on buttered toast with marmalade or cheese and patés. Watching him devour all the extras while I enjoy a nice, juicy orange has turned out to be easier than I thought!  I've even been making apple crumbles, just for him.  He's not much of a fan of cake so the temptation to have just one slice (it's impossible to have just the one) has been avoided.

At the back of my mind is my huge collection of cook books, cake tins and cake stands, all gathering dust from lack of use, and the worry that I might never get to need of them again - for fear of putting the weight back on.  

We'll have to wait and see but in the meantime I shall re-post some of my favourite recipes, some from years ago.

You can see this coconut and lemon cake if you click here.