Daphne Du Maurier

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier. Welcome to David Hildebrand who is now Following.

When your grandfather George was a famous writer and illustrator, your father Gerald was a famous actor-manager, and your mother Muriel Beaumont was an actress, what does life hold for you? When Daphne du Maurier was born on May 16, 1907, she could have been anything she wanted — except the son that her father wished for. She and her sisters were educated and cosseted by a warm, wealthy family. Their father was their hero and champion. As a child, Daphne was shy and lived a tom-boy country life. Her father encouraged her early efforts at writing, and her publisher uncle put her first story in print when she was 19 years old. At age 25, Daphne met an army officer, Frederick “Boy” Browning. He admired her writing, and she was informed that to live with him out of wedlock would ruin his career. So they married. Following a biography of her father, Du Maurier hit the best seller list with her 1936 novel Jamaica Inn. Two years later, Rebecca had everyone talking. The Brownings honeymooned in Cornwall, UK, and the family moved there in 1943. Daphne had been entranced by an estate called “Menabilly” and the family lived there for 20 years. It appears as the famous “Manderley” in Rebecca. Something about Cornwall urged du Maurier to write her Gothic stories about memorably evil people, set in the beautiful Cornish countryside. She lived in Cornwall until her death in 1989. I vividly remember seeing the 1940 film with Laurence Olivier, and reading the book. Absolutely gripping! Just as Rebecca de Winter ‘haunted’ Manderley, du Maurier’s characters and stories haunt the reader. Shiver deliciously.

In Rebecca, the narrator is intimidated by the magnificent spread provided for breakfast at Manderly. Our breakfast includes the eggs and ham and fruit, and leaves the other ingredients for another day. In My Cousin Rachel, the Christmas buffet table is laden with roasted meats. Left-over slices of beef are perfect for our dinner.

Ham-Cup Eggs: 143 calories… 7 g fat… 1.4 g fiber… 11.6 g protein… 9 g carbs… 68 mg Calcium…  NB: The food values given above are for the egg bake and fruit only, not the optional beverages.  PB GF Easy to prepare ahead and easy on the taste buds.

1 two-oz egg ++++ 1 Tbsp cottage cheese ++++ 1½ tsp Parmesan cheese, grated 1 slice “Cottage Ham” [4” diameter thin slice of ham] I used North Country Smoke House brand at 21 calories/slice  ++++ 2 oz pear or apple  ++++ Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories] ++++ Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]

Fit the ham into an oven-proof container that measures 3½” in diameter and 1¼ ” deep. [I used a cleaned 5-oz tuna can. It was perfect.] You will need to snip the ham on 2 sides and overlap the meat to make it fit better into the mold. Combine the cheeses and season with herbs/salt/pepper to taste. Whisk in the egg and pour into the ham cup.  HINT: I did this the night before and put it in the ‘fridge. Turn on the toaster oven to 350 F and bake the ham cups for 20+ minutes, until the filling is puffed and set. Prepare the beverages and the apple. Use a wide knife to loosten the ham cups from the mold before plating. Some of the egg will have oozed into the mold as it baked, but that is easy to remove too. This breakfast was a real hit.

Beef & Beet Salad: 243 calories… 8.5 g fat… 3 g fiber… 24 g protein… 17 g carbs… 24 mg Calcium…  PB GF This unusual salad was found in James Peterson’s Glorious French Food. Should you have left-over roast beef, this is the dish to try. It is crazy easy.

2¾ oz thinly-sliced roasted beef ++++ 3½ oz pickled beets, as thinly-sliced rounds ++++ a few leaves of spinach, cut as chiffonade ++++ dill pickle spear ++++ ++++ 1½ tsp dressing***

Slice the beef and the beets as matchsticks about 2-3” long. Put in the serving bowl/plate and drizzle the dressing over the top. Gently toss to coat the salad with the dressing. Plate it. Wonderfully simple.

***Dressing: makes 6 Tablespoons 2¼ tsp Dijon mustard ++++ 1 Tbsp chopped shallot ++++ 1½ tsp red wine vinegar ++++ 4½ tsp olive oil

Brendan the Navigator

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

Which European “discovered” the Americas? Was it Columbus, 1492? No. Was it Leif Erickson and his sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir, 1000? Nope. It was Brendan, an Irish monk, in 547 CE. Who??? Brendan, who lived from around 484 CE to c. 577, was born into an Ireland that was thrilled to hear the newly-arrived Christian message. After his ordination as a priest, Brendan was the abbot of a monastery with 3000 monks. He was eager to spread the Gospel, traveling to islands off the coast of Ireland and Scotland. Then Brendan heard of a paradisiacal island ‘in the Western ocean’ and he longed to travel there. He chose 16 companions who worked together to build a curragh, the wood-framed leather-hulled boats used by Irish fishermen in fresh and salt water. Around 512 CE, they set out and are said to have returned in 530. Centuries later, the story of the trip was widely circulated. In more modern times, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis was belittled as medieval fantasy. But in the 1970s, Tim Severin [channeling his inner Thor Heyerdahl] built a 36-foot curragh and successfully sailed it from Ireland to Iceland to Newfoundland, Canada. Did the Irish reach North America centuries before anyone else? There is no hard and fast archeological evidence to prove it, but it sure sounds plausible. Read The Brendan Voyage by Severin and see what you think.

Our breakfast contains ingredients known to Irish descendants living in the US, and our dinner features a fish that Brendan and his crew would have encountered everywhere they stopped: the Faeroe Islands, the Orkneys, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland.

Corned Beef & Cabbage ScrOmelette: 154 calories… 7.6 g fat… 1 g fiber… 14 g protein… 6.5 g carbs… 65 mg Calcium…  NB: Food values shown are for the ScrOmelette and fruit only, and do not include the optional beverages. PB GF  Of course, Brendan never ate corned-beef-and-cabbage, but the Irish who later swarmed to the Americas and stayed there made the combination popular.

1½ two-oz eggs  HINT: If you are serving one person, crack three 2-oz eggs into a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Whip up those eggs and pour half of their volume into a jar with a lid and put it in the ‘fridge for next week….  ½ oz uncooked corned beef……………. 1/3 cup cabbage, very thinly sliced ………….. ½ Tbsp cottage cheese ……….. ……..pinch caraway seed + pinch thyme ……………….. 1 oz apple ……………  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] …….  Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories]

Mince the beef and put in into a pan with ¼ cup water. Simmer until beef is cooked, then remove it to a small bowl. Put the cabbage in the water in the pan and simmer that until the cabbage is cooked – add more water as needed. Put the cabbage in the bowl with the cottage cheese and seasonings. Add some pepper, but you probably will NOT need to add salt, due to the corned beef. Mix the ingredients together. Heat a non-stick pan with some cooking spray and whisk the eggs. Put the beef/cabbage in the pan and distribute it over the surface. Quickly pour the eggs in and tip the pan to cover all the cabbage. Cook on one side, then flip and cook it some more. Fold and plate with the apple. ‘Tis a fine breakfast you’ll be having.

Salmon & Broccoli:  256 calories… 7 g fat… 5 g fiber… 29 g protein… 20.5 g carbs… 82 mg Calcium…  PB GF This is a meal that is so simple to prepare and so delicious that it seems impossible that it can be so good for you. Indulge yourself often.

4 oz filet wild Pacific salmon +++ 5 oz broccoli florets +++ ¼ c pearled barley, cooked +++ dab of salsa

Cook the pearled barley. Cut broccoli into florets and put into a pan with some water, and set on medium-high heat uncovered. Spray either a cast iron skillet or on a stove-top grill pan with non-stick spray and heat it over medium-high. [You could also broil or bake the fish. If you bake it, go for 9-10 minutes at 400F] Salt and pepper the fish all around. Cook about 4-5 minutes on each side, then take off the heat. Test the broccoli for tenderness, then plate with the barley, and enjoy.

Ingredients for next week: Breakfast, single portion for Monday …………………. single portion for Thursday:

1 two-oz egg = US large1 two-oz egg + crushed tomatoes 
4″-diameter thin slice of hamlots of fresh herbs + anchovy + pear
Parmesan cheese + apple2%-fat cottage cheese
2%-fat cottage cheesebits of cooked chicken
optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

Dinner, single portion for Monday:……………………… single portion for Thursday:

Roast beef, cooked + olive oilmackerel fillets, fresh or frozen
pickled beets, sliced in roundsgooseberry jelly or jam
Dijon mustard + shallotzucchini
red wine vinegar
Sparkling waterSparkling water

Thoreau

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

David Henry Thoreau was born in 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts, USA. His father owned a factory that manufactured pencils, thin graphite rods sur-rounded by wooden cylinders. They were not wealthy, but young David studied at Harvard University. He was an individualist even then: he reversed his names to become ‘Henry David’ — just for fun — and he refused to accept his sheep-skin diploma, declaring, “Let every sheep keep its own skin.” For a few years he worked at the pencil factory, developing the idea of mixing clay with graphite so that the pencil ‘lead’ was harder and lasted longer. For a bit he taught school. One of the Thoreau’s neighbors was Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry visited often, joining in philosophical and literary discussions. Thus, he came in contact with the Transcendentalists. Thoreau wrote for the group’s newsletter and did odd jobs around the place. In 1845, he built a small cabin in Emerson’s woods, on the shore of Walden Pond, and lived there for two years in an effort to escape the conformity of society. Yet while he was “living deep and sucking out all the marrow of life”, Thoreau would walk into town every day to get his mail or dine with friends. Not exactly the ‘hermit who rejects the world’ that one imagines him to have been. In those years, he developed his most important environmental works: Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Thoreau did urge readers to live with nature, and he continued to rail against societal norms in his famous essay Civil Disobedience, which influenced political and social leaders well into the 20th century. He died in Concord on May 6, 1867. In 1872, the first tourist visited the cabin site, and proposed that visitors each place a stone on a cairn there. Although Thoreau wanted to live off the beaten path, people now beat a path to his doorstep at the Walden Pond State Reservation. He would have hated it.

Our breakfast is simple enough to cook over a fire in a cabin, and sustaining enough to take you on a hike into town for the mail. The dinner represents Thoreau’s adult preference for a non-meat diet. He pooh-poohed hunting as a ‘youthful pursuit’.

Ham & Egg & Toast: 149 calories… 7.4 g fat… 1.5 g fiber… 14.5 g protein… 7 g carbs… 40 mg Calcium  NB: The food values given above are for the egg bake and fruit only, not the optional beverages. PB GF – if using GF bread  What could be a more classic combination at breakfast! This is a diner meal, scaled down to fit into a Fast Day menu. It sure is good.

1 two-oz egg + 1 oz ham + ½ slice whole grain bread @ 35 calories for the ½ slice

Heat the ham in a non-stick pan while the bread toasts. Take out the ham and cook the egg in the same pan — over-medium works for me. Plate to your taste and partake.

Spinach or Swiss Chard Fritatta: 284 calories… 12.5 g fat… 4 g fiber… 18.5 g protein… 24 g carbs… 166 mg Calcium  PB GF  Susan Loomis is the source of this recipe, which also can be a wonderful breakfast, scaled down to suit. HINT: this recipe serves 2 as a main course. Could serve 4-6 as an appetizer.

3 oz Swiss chard or fresh spinach + 1/3 tsp olive oil + 8 oz eggs = 4 two-oz eggs in their shells + 3 pinches granulated garlic + 3 pinches salt + large pinch paprika + 3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese  per serving: 1 oz 7-grain sour-dough bread, or something similarly hearty + ¼ cup pickled beets 

Clean the chard by holding the leaf and pulling off the stem. Chop the leaves. Put olive oil in an oven-proof pan that can also be used on the stove-top. Turn on the broiler and move the upper oven rack to the top. Cook the chopped leaves in the oil until the leaves are limp, adding water as necessary to prevent sticking. Be sure to cook off the water/liquid in the pan. Spray the pan and its contents with non-stick spray. Stir and distribute the cooked chard evenly in the pan. Combine the eggs, cheese and seasonings. Whisk well and pour over the chard in the pan. Cook over medium heat until the bottom is well set, 4-5 minutes. Put under the broiler until the top is cooked. Serve from the pan or slide the fritatta out onto a serving plate, along with the toasted bread and the vegetables.

Slow Days: Chicken in Morel Sauce

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

Gosh we are lucky! Our little homestead was carved from a mixed pine-hardwood forest that grew up from an apple orchard planted in the early 1800s. We cut down enough trees to create a lawn, a site for the house and for the barn, saving as many of the old apple trees as possible. We had been told to look for morel mushrooms, since they grow “where the apple meets the pine.” And then, after 20 years of searching, the first mushroom appeared. True Morels [Morchella esculenta] are easy for the novice to recognize and are prized in cookery. Every year, we start looking in one spot on the lawn around May 1st. If there had been enough snow the previous winter, we will find as many as 20 mushrooms over their two-week ‘blooming’ span! We eat them with eggs in the morning and we particularly enjoy them in a cream sauce with chicken. Often that is dinner on Mother’s Day [in USA, 2nd Sunday in May]. Here is a recipe that we developed to serve two people:

One 6-8 oz chicken breast, boneless, skinless, and with the ‘tenderloin’ removed. Put the breast flat on the cutting surface, put one hand flat on top of it and slice the breast in half parallel to the surface, creating two equal fillets.

Cook the fillets slowly in a little butter and olive oil until the fillets are cooked through, or mostly cooked. Set aside on a plate [they will continue to cook].

To the pan, add 1 minced clove of garlic and 1/4 cup white wine. Cook garlic until wine is mostly evaporated.

To the pan, add 3-4 morels, sliced lengthwise and 2 oz/1/4 cup heavy cream. Simmer until it thickens a bit and the morels are tender.

Stir in 1 Tbsp grainy Dijon and 2 tsp chopped chives/scallion, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

Return chicken fillets to the pan and simmer until everything is warm. Plate with peas [a springtime vegetable] and a short pasta, mixed with a bit of the sauce.

If morels are on the menu, then Spring must have arrived.

Floralie!!

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

Roman statue of Flora, artist unknown.

Here it is — my favorite ‘holiday’ from the classical era: Floralie! My maternal grand-mother was a teacher of latin, so my mother grew up with stories and poems of ancient Greece and Rome. I grew up learning classical mythology, and stories in the Baldwin Reader about Rome. So I guess it would be natural for me to be quite taken with Flora, the goddess of Flowers. [of course any tales of prosti-tutes in ancient Rome, often associated with Flora’s festival, were omitted from my education] What really tickles me is that her holiday, April 28 to May 3, is still honored 2238 years later in southern France, Italy, and England. There, towns have flower shows and decorate the houses with blooms. As I write this in New Hampshire, the first daffodils are blooming, along with the Pulmanaria, Scilla, and a few dandelions. Elsewhere, Forsythia is showing its golden flowers. Spring has arrived and nature is ready to celebrate Flora. Weave a floral wreath to wear in your hair.

For the goddess of Spring, we will eat flower buds in the form of asparagus at breakfast. For dinner, a delightful salad that can be composed to look like a giant blossom.

Asparagus Roll-ups: 117 calories… 7 g fat… 1.3 g fiber… 8 g protein… 2.6 g carbs… 51.5 mg Calcium…  NB: The food values shown are for the egg bake and the fruit, not for the optional beverages. PB GF Pretty on the plate and a delight to eat.

1 two-oz egg + 2 oz asparagus spears, tough lower stalks removed + 1 Tbsp whipped cream cheese + tarragon, chopped  + 4 Golden Berries or 2 strawberries  Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories] Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]

Break the tough lower part of the asparagus stalks, wash, and steam or cook in minimal water until tender. Drain, salt lightly, and set aside. HINT: You could do this the night before. Whisk the eggs with the cream cheese and tarragon, along with a pinch of sea salt. Heat an 8”-9” skillet and spritz it with non-stick spray. Pour in the eggs and tilt the pan so that the eggs form a thin, even layer over the bottom of the pan. Without stirring or moving the eggs, cook until the eggs are set and as your like them – this will not take long. Remove the egg to your plate, like a big pancake. Put the cooked asparagus in the pan and shake it a bit over heat to re-warm. Lay the spears on the eggs so that the blossom ends hang over the edge. Roll the egg so that the asparagus is inside and plate attractively. With your optional beverages, you are set for a Spring-time breakfast treat.

Senegal Tuna-Avocado Salad: 264 calories 14.6 g fat 6.4 g fiber 13 g protein 18 g carbs 30 mg Calcium  PB GF  This is my version of Avocat Creole which I enjoyed at Bissap Baobab, an excellent Senegalese restaurant in Oakland, CA, now closed.

2½ oz white/Albacore tuna + 2 Tbsp celery, minced + 1-2 pinches ground ginger + ½ tsp lime juice + Sriracha sauce + ¾ oz apple, diced  + ½ tsp mayonnaise made with olive oil + 2 oz avocado + 2 Tbsp radish/alfalfa sprouts + 4 oz cherry tomatoes + ¼ oz [½ cup] baby spinach leaves   + aioli: 1 tsp mayonnaise made with olive oil + Sriracha

Lightly combine the tuna with the celery, ginger, dash of Sriracha, lime juice, apple, and ½ tsp mayonnaise. Arrange the spinach leaves in the center of the plate and mound the tuna on top. Slice the avocado and layer on top of the tuna. Mix remaining mayonnaise with Sriracha to taste and drizzle the aioli over the avocado. If the cherry tomatoes are not bite-sized, cut in half. Place tomatoes around the edge of the plate and enjoy a meal that is blooming with flavor.

Ingredients for next week: Breakfast, single portion for Monday …………………………… single portion for Thursday:

1 two-oz egg = US large1.5 two-oz eggs + apple
1 oz roast hamcorned beef + cabbage
1/2 slice whole-grain bread [35 calories]2%-fat cottage cheese
thyme + caraway seed
optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

Dinner, single portion for Monday:………………………….. single portion for Thursday:

4 two-oz eggs + Parmesan cheese4 oz wild Pacific salmon
Swiss chard or spinach + garlic powder 4 oz broccoli
garlic powder + paprika + pickled beetspearled barley
1 oz whole-grain sourdough bread
Sparkling waterSparkling water

Chelsea Morning

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

When I first heard Joni Mitchell’s song Chelsea* Morning in 1969, I was delighted by visual images of warm orange/yellow items, seen in an early morning light. It was so cheerful! Honey, oranges, butterscotch — deliciously lovely. I described it to my mother, who dismissed it a sounding “sticky.” Oh dear. The color orange makes one optimistic, happy, enthusiastic, and thinking of ‘youthful connections’, according to a paint company in North America. To Buddhists, who wear orange robes, the color signifies transfor-mation. Orange is the color of Autumn, from leaves to pumpkins and squashes. One of the seven colors that make up visible light, orange’s wavelength is slightly shorter than that of red: 590-625 nanometers. Prior to the 1600s, Europeans had no word for the color orange. To describe it, they said ‘yellow-red’, since the color orange is made by combining various amounts of red and yellow pigments. When sweet orange trees were introduced into Europe by Portuguese traders, the fruit gave the color its name: laranja, in Portuguese; naranja, in Spanish; arancia, to the Italians; while the English took the French word: ‘orange’. The color can be associated with aggression and impulsiveness. And then there are the orange jumpsuits that prisoners wear in court… which lead to Orange Is the New Black on TV. Be mindful of wearing orange in Northern Ireland. That was the color of the Protestant minority rulers of colonized Ireland, in honor of the Dutchman William of Orange who became the England’s protestant king in 1689. Thus, green-wearing Catholics might take umbrage. Do you wear orange or eat oranges? Look around to see how and where you encounter orange in your life. *Joni Mitchell’s ‘Chelsea’ is from New York City, not Chelsea in London as many people think.

Our breakfast is made up of items from the song, so hum along as you eat it. The dinner is of the color orange, from the butternut squash. Does eating it make you optimistic, happy, enthusiastic? I hope so!

Chelsea Morning: 210 calories… 1.5 g fat… 4.5 g fiber… 10.5 g protein… 41.5 g carbs… 267 mg Calcium   NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB GF – if using GF bread  Inspired by the Joni Mitchel song, these ingredients make for a cheerful breakfast and may give you an ear-worm for the rest of the day. The song mentions milk, but I substituted yogurt. Put the milk in your coffee, if you wish.

1 slice whole-grain + 70-calorie bread + 2 tsp honey + 1 clementine + ½ c plain yogurt   Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories] Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]

Lightly toast the bread and drizzle with honey. Eat the fruit and yogurt separately, or mix clementine slices into the yogurt.

Thai Butternut Squash Soup:  253 calories…  9 g fat… 4 g fiber… 19.4 g protein… 24 g carbs… 112 mg Calcium  GF PB  Found in the Toronto Globe & Mail, this recipe makes a lot of delicious soup. It freezes beautifully, so you can enjoy it often. Don’t forget to add the shrimp and spinach to each serving at the end. HINT: makes 6 cups of soup. Save out one cup for dinner and freeze the rest in portion-sized containers.

2 Tbsp vegetable oil + 2 cups onion
2 cloves garlic + 1 tsp salt		Heat oil in large soup pot over medium-low heat. Chop onions + garlic, add to pan with salt. Cook 10 mins, until onions have softened.
1 Tbsp fresh ginger + 4 tsp Thai red curry pastePeel, grate ginger. Add these to pot. Cook 1-2 mins
2½# butternut squash, peeled
3 c. water or unsalted chicken broth		Slice squash ½” thick, deseed it. Add these, take to a boil. Lower heat, simmer until tender, 15-20 mins.
1 tsp lime zest 
1 Tbsp lime juice		Add these, saving remaining zest and juice.
½ cup ‘lite’ unsweetened coconut milkStir in ‘milk’. Puree until smooth in blender.
Return to pot, reheat, adjust flavor with more lime juice and/or curry paste.
per bowl: 3 oz chopped shrimp 
¼ cup baby spinach cut as chiffonade		For each serving, stir spinach + shrimp into hot soup. Serve when spinach is just wilted.

Diane de Poitiers

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

Diane de Poitiers’ name is forever linked with that of her lover, King Henri II of France. Literally linked, since the chateau that he gave her has their entwined initials carved on every surface. We might think: “that tart is the ‘other woman’ ruining someone’s marriage.” But wait! There is more to the story. Diane was the daughter of a country gentleman who taught his little girl to ride and hunt at an early age. She was, after all, named for the Roman goddess of the hunt. Life in the queen’s retinue provided her with an excellent education. As a 15-year-old, Diane was married to a middle-aged man with lots of money but homely looks. After he died, she wore black [and white] for the rest of her life — it looked good on her. Her husband’s nobility earned her a place at the court of Francois I, in Paris. There Diane learned the gentle arts of court life, and her beauty was widely admired. When little Prince Henri was sent to Spain as a ransom for his father’s loss of a war with Spain, Lady Diane was the only one who hugged the child good-bye. When he returned to France in his teens, Henri needed a tutor to relearn the princely arts. He was 17 and Diane, at age 37, was his coach. Although Henri was married to Catherine di Medici, he fell in love with Diane and the two were inseparable for 26 years. [Makes me think of Emmanuel Macron of France who married his high school drama teacher. She is first lady of France.] Catherine was extremely jealous, but Diane held her own and even assisted Catherine with her children. A brilliant economist and wily diplomat, Diane advised King Henri in all things. Indeed in all things, she was the ‘acting queen’ of France. She kept her enviable good looks by daily exercise and healthy eating, while encouraging her husband to appreciate art and literature. Diane’s most lasting achievements were the house and gardens at Chenonceau, the most beautiful chateau of the French Renaissance. When Henri II died from a dreadful jousting accident, Diane was forbidden to be at his death-bed and the petty Catherine made Diane give back the chateau and her jewelry. Diane retired to Normandie and did acts of charity until her death on 25 April 1566. On the whole, I think that Diane de Poitiers had many good qualities, even if she was ‘the other woman’.

Diane is buried at her Chateau d’Anet in Normandie. Our breakfast consists of healthy vegetables served on a galette, the rustic crepes popular in North-Western France. The dinner is fit for a queen — or a king’s favorite.

Ratatouille-Egg Galette: 151 calories… 5.5 g fat… 2 g fiber… 10 g protein… 14 g carbs… 44 mg Calcium   NB: The food values given above are for the egg bake and fruit only, not the optional beverages. PB GF – if using GF crepes  A meal direct from Brittany – if it weren’t for the ratatouille! A perfect blend of Northern and Southern France.

1 crepe one + 2-oz egg ¼ cup Mediterranean Vegetables, drained of excess liquids [reserve the liquid] ½ oz fresh mushrooms  + Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] +  Optional: 5-6 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories]

Drain the vegetables of excess liquids. Use the liquids to cook the mushrooms. Combine the vegetables and mushrooms and heat them. Warm the crepe and plate it. Poach or fry the egg. Spoon the vegetables over the crepe and top it all with the egg. Pick it up with your hands or eat with a fork.

Filet Mignon with Tarragon: 278 calories… 14 g fat… 2 g fiber… 28.6 g protein… 7 g carbs… 49 mg Calcium  GF We have enjoyed this sumptuious Joanne Harris recipe for years and we still turn back to her My French Kitchen to make it again. HINT: This recipe is enough for two. Worth sharing with a special friend. If serving one diner, prepare all of the sauce and save it to put in eggs at breakfast or to use at dinner.

2 tsp butter + 2 portobello mushroom caps + ½ tsp olive oil + 1 Tbsp shallot , minced 2 Tbsp white wine + 1 Tbsp heavy cream + 1 tsp grainy mustard + ½ tsp minced garlic 2-3 Tbsp fresh tarragon + two 4-oz filet mignon + 10 spears asparagus

Cook the mushrooms on both sides in butter and a spritz of cooking spray. Keep warm off the stove. Heat the oil with a spritz of cooking spray, and cook the shallots until softened. Add the wine to the pan, then simmer for 3 minutes. Lower the heat, add the cream, mustard, garlic, and tarragon. Heat long enough to warm the sauce but do not let it boil. Cook the asparagus. In a separate heavy skillet, heat a drizzle of oil and a spritz of non-stick spray over high. Cook the meat 1½ minutes/side if you like it rare or 2 minutes/side for medium. Place the cooked steak on the mushroom cap, surround it with asparagus, and top it with the sauce. This is easy to prepare and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients for next week: Breakfast, single portion for Monday …………………………… single portion for Thursday:

70-calorie whole-grain bread1 two-oz egg  + tarragon
honeyasparagus spears
clementineGolden Berries or strawberries
plain fat-free yogurtwhipped cream cheese
optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

Dinner, single portion for Monday:………………………….. single portion for Thursday:

vegetable oil + 2 onions + garlic+ shrimpalbacore tuna + avocado + celery
fresh ginger + Thai red curry paste ground ginger + lime juice + Sriracha
2.5 pounds butternut squash + baby spinachmayonnaise made with olive oil + apple + baby spinach leaves
lime + ‘lite’ unsweetened coconut milkradish/alfalfa sprouts + cherry tomatoes
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Seeing Red

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

To be ‘seeing red’ means that you are very angry. Even if we are not angry, we can see [perceive] the color we call ‘red’ because red light travels through space and the atmosphere with a particular wave-length [620 to 750 nanometers]. It is the longest wave-lengths of all the seven colors of visible light. When a red light wave hits certain surfaces, instead of going into that surface, the wave reflects back to enter our eyes. If our eyes are working properly, special ‘cone cells’ in our retina detect that wavelength and our brain interprets that surface as being red. The color red has long been associated with hostility and danger: bloody banners in war, stop signs, the ‘Red Wedding’. The color red is used in pictorial advertising because it elevates the heart-rate of the observer, generating excitement and approval of what is being shown. Red roses stand for passion. What would Valentine’s Day be without the color red to make us think of love? Red runs the gamut from prostitute’s garb in the Red Light District to the Red Hat of feisty older women. The “Reds” were the communists who overthrew the Tzar of Russia. Their first leader was Vladimir Lenin who was born on  April 22, 1870. On that same day in 1954, televised hearings began as McCarthyism’s “Red Scare” upended peoples’ lives when they were accused of being Russian sympathizers. Love or hate; passion or anger, the color red punches above its weight when it comes to symbolism.

Our foods today are red in hue — not because they are dangerous, but because of their delicious red ingredients: strawberries at breakfast and red beets at dinner.

Cholermüs: 211 calories… 14 g fat… 4.5 g fiber… 18 g protein… 40 g carbs… 380 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB  A Swiss pancake topped with fruit is a wonderful breakfast. The batter can be prepared ahead for a quick and special morning meal.  NB: above food values are for a 35 calorie sausage. The photo shows a 60 calorie sausage. You decide.

Sv 1: 1 pancake6” nonstick skillet with lid**
1 two-oz egg + pinch salt + ¼ c fat-free milk ¼ c cottage cheese + 3 Tbsp white whole wheat flour + 1 tsp maple syrup + 1 tsp canola oilCombine these with an electric mixer until smooth.
Smear of Butter + PAMSmear butter in skillet, spray with oil and heat pan to medium. Pour in batter, cover and cook until top sets. Flip and cook other side until lightly browned. The pancakes are fragile, so handle carefully.
½ c Strawberries + ½ tsp butter + 1 tsp maple syrupSlice fruit. Combine with other ingredients in a small pan. Heat over medium until fruit is soft. OR microwave in a glass jar in short increments until berries are softened. OR Heat syrup and butter together. Put raw berries on the pancake and drizzle with syrup-butter.
Put one pancake on serving dish. Top with fruit syrup. 
1 chicken breakfast sausage + mocha cafe au laitCook breakfast sausage [35-60 calories] to serve along side. Mocha cafe au lait is a perfect beverage

Red Flannel Hash & Egg: 249 calories… 9 g fat… 2 g fiber… 12.6 g protein… 18 g carbs… 43 mg Calcium  PB GF  This is a venerable New England farm meal, with the recipe coming from Hayden Pearson’s  Country Flavors Cookbook.

1 cup cooked diced beets (1/3” dice) + 1/3 cup diced potatoes (1/3” dice) + ¼ cup diced onions 2 slices Canadian Bacon/back bacon, diced + one 2-oz egg + lots of salt and pepper to taste

Cook, peel, and dice the beets and set aside to cool. [HINT: do this the day before] Peel and dice the potatoes. Put into a pan of tap water and put the pan on the burner. Turn on the heat and let the pan sit, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until the water starts to boil around the edges. Take off the heat and leave potatoes to cool in the water. Then drain and set aside. Dice the onions and bacon. Spray a saute pan with non-stick spray and add the Canadian bacon. Cook it as crisp as you wish, or not so crisp. Remove the bacon and set aside. Add the onions with 2-3 Tbsp water, and cook until the onions are transluscent and the water is mostly gone. Now put the potatoes in the pan with the onions, add salt and pepper to taste. Stir until the potatoes are cooked. Add the beets and bacon to the pan and continue to cook until heated through. Meanwhile, fry the egg: sunnyside-up or over easy as you prefer. Plate the hash and top with the egg. Country dining.

Slow Days: Springtime Cookies

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People who are new to Fasting often pose the questions: “Can I really eat ‘anything I want’ on a Slow Day?” and “What should I eat on Slow Days?” To answer those questions, I have decided to add some blog posts to show some of the foods we eat on what the world calls NFDs [non-fast days] but which, in our house, we call ‘Slow Days.’ This feature will appear sporadically. 

Now for the answers. Can you really eat ANYTHING you want on a Slow Day? Not really. If you eat too many calories every Slow Day, you will not lose weight. There are many questions asked on the Fast Diet Forum which attest to that. Once in a while you can splurge, as long as it isn’t everyday. For what to eat on Slow Days, Dr. Mosley recommends a Mediterranean Diet. As for how we eat, an example follows.

Who doesn’t like a good cookie? [The Brits call cookies biscuits. The French call cookies bisquits secs. The Germans call them kekse.] Oh, all right, eating cookies year-’round is an American thing, and the Toll House Cookie is now ubiquitous. The trend of cookies the size of a salad plate has no doubt lead to the obesity epidemic. There are specialty cookies — think Christmas Cookies! — and there are everyday cookies. The cookies that I propose today are the ones that I save for Springtime. One is Mary Berry‘s recipe for Easter Biscuits, which I cut out as flowers and butterflies. The other is an Italian confection that looks so cheery that it must be the herald of Springtime temperatures and flowers.

24 Easter Biscuits, 2.5” diameter Preheat oven 400F/200C/180C Fan. Line 2 baking trays w/ parchment 
100g/ 3½ oz unsalted butter 75g/ 2¾ oz caster sugar** egg yolk finely grated lemon zest Let butter soften at room temperature. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until well combined and fluffy. Add the yolk and zest.
100g/ 3.5oz plain flour 100g/ 3.5oz white whole wheat flour 50g/ 1¾ oz currants/raisins 1–2 Tbsp milkSift in flour and mix well. Stir in currants and enough milk to make a fairly soft dough.
Knead dough on a floured surface + roll out 5mm/ ¼” thick. Cut out using a 6cm/ 2½” fluted cutter. Work quickly in a cool area of the kitchen lest dough becomes too soft. If soft after mixing, chill 10 mins or until easier to handle.
Put on baking trays and bake 8 mins.
Egg whiteLightly beat egg white with a fork until frothy. Take biscuits from oven and brush tops with beaten egg white. 
Caster sugarSprinkle with caster sugar and bake 5 mins, or until pale golden brown and cooked though. Cool on trays for a few mins, then longer on a wire rack.
96 Ricotta cookies48 Ricotta cookies350 F/175 C. Cover baking sheet with parchment.
1 cup butter 1¾ cup sugar½ cup butter ¾ cup sugarAdd softened butter and sugar to a stand mixer. Mix together until combined.
2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract1 egg 1 tsp vanillaAdd eggs and vanilla extract. Continue to mix.
2 cups ricotta cheese1 cup ricottaAdd ricotta cheese. Mix again and scrape off bowl sides to be sure that all ingredients are combined.
1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda  4 cups white flour½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda 1 c white flour  1 c almond mealPour in flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix to form a dough.
Portion dough with a 1.5 tsp scoop and put on the baking sheet. Bake 15-20 mins, until bottoms are golden brown.
Take from oven and cool 10 mins.
1 cup 10X sugar   1 T milk  rainbow sprinkles½ cup confectioners sugar 1.5 tsp milk rainbow sprinklesCombine sugar and milk in small bowl, Stirring until smooth. Dip each cookie into frosting and top off with rainbow sprinkles. Let frosting dry, then enjoy.
69 calories… 3 g fat… 0 g fiber… 1 g protein… 10 g carbs… 18 mg Calcium

Thor Heyerdahl

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

In 1950, the book Kon-Tiki made a big splash. Detailing his voyage on a balsa-wood raft from Peru to Polynesia, the book and subsequent movie [Oscar winner, 1951] made Thor Heyerdahl well-known around the world. He was born in 1914 in Larvik, Norway, and studied zoology and geography at university. In his spare time, Hey-erdahl studied Polynesian culture and history. On their wedding day, Thor and his 1st wife Liv Coucheron-Torp set off for the island of Fatu Hiva. Supposed to be a sponsored expedition to study how plants from other places ended up on isolated islands, the newly-weds were seeking a forever-home, a pre-industrial refuge from modern life. Unprepared for the realities of subsistence survival, they lasted one year. But what they learned about plants and Polynesian lore convinced Heyerdahl that there had been a link between the people of South America and of the Polynesian islands. No one believed him, despite the fact that sweet potatoes from the Americas grow also in Fatu Hiva, and that there is a Polynesian legend of ‘white men with beards’ arriving from the East. Such curiosities intrigued Heyerdahl, and he set out to prove his theory. Hence the Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947. Fascinated now with the idea that pre-contact, Stone Age cultures could have traveled long distances by sea, Heyerdahl pursued his dreams with further expe-ditions: 1955, archeology in Easter Island/Rapa Nui; 1970, Ra II voyage from Morocco to Barbados; 1977, Tigris expedition from western India to the Red Sea. Although nations and universities showered Heyerdahl with honors, ethnographers and archeologists were leery of his ideas. He might have gotten some things right: although modern DNA shows that Polynesians came from Asia, not South America, there is a link between Easter Islanders and the natives of the Americas. Heyerdahl died of brain cancer on April 18, 2002. His many books still inspire those who dream of adventure.

Since the Kon-Tiki set sail from Peru, our day will begin with food from there. Tahiti was settled by the Polynesians — from Asia, not Bolivia. Our dinner shows the influence of colonization on the food of Tahiti, just what Heyerdahl was studying in Fatu Hiva.

Peruvian ScrOmelette: 143 calories…. 8 g fat… 1 g fiber… 12 g protein… 8 g carbs… 70 mg Calcium   NB: Food values shown are for the ScrOmelette and fruit only, and do not include the optional beverages.  PB GF  Traditional foods of Peru from land and sea combine with the new taste of coffee, now grown in the Andes Mountains.

1½ two-oz eggs  HINT: If you are serving one person, crack three 2-oz eggs into a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Whip up those eggs and pour half of their volume into a jar with a lid and put it in the ‘fridge for next week  2 oz diced tomato ¼ oz [2 tsp] anchovies canned in olive oil, drained but not rinsed 2 oz melon OR mango  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]  Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories]

Night before: After you dice the tomato, put it in a strainer over a bowl to reduce the moisture. In the morning: Chop the anchovies and add to the eggs. Spritz a non-stick pan with non-stick spray and add the tomatoes. This will cook them a bit and warm them. Whisk the egg/anchovy and pour into the warm pan. Scramble or cook as an omelette. Plate with the fruit, pour the beverages, and dream of the Andes.

Chicken and Limes: 283 calories… 7.6 g fat… 3.5 g fiber… 23 g protein… 35 g carbs… 61 mg Calcium   PB  GF  Limes, chicken, and pineapple were added to the ecosystem of Tahiti by various visitors, and were promptly incorporated into the cuisine. We served this at a dinner party and no one would have guessed that it was a Fasting meal. Here is the one-serving method for <Poulet avec Limettes.>

3 oz chicken breast, boneless, skinless, and cut in 2 pieces across the width + 1 lime: ½ of it zested and juiced; ½ of it sliced + ¼ cup chicken stock + ½ tsp sugar + 1 tsp cornstarch [cornflour] + ½ fl. oz heavy cream + thyme 3 oz slice of pineapple, fresh or canned + salt + pepper + ¼ cup brown rice, cooked

Marinate the chicken in the lime juice, zest, salt, pepper, and thyme in the ‘fridge for at least 2 hours. Remove the chicken from the marinade, and put 1/3 of the liquid into one small container and the remainder into a sauce pan. We grilled the chicken briefly and then removed it to a plate while the pineapple and lime slices were grilled. If you are not grilling today, put the pineapple and lime under the broiler until slightly charred and hot all the way through. Meanwhile, add the stock and chicken to the pan with the marinade and heat it until the chicken is mostly cooked. Remove the chicken and keep warm. Bring the liquids to a boil and reduce by 1/3 of the volume. Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and remaining marinade. Reduce the heat and stir until thickened. [this happens rather quickly] Return the chicken to the pan, add the cream, and stir to combine and to coat the chicken with the sauce. Plate with the rice and pineapple and lime slices for a taste of Tahiti.

Ingredients for next week: Breakfast, single portion for Monday …………………………… single portion for Thursday:

1 two-oz egg + canola oil + maple syrup1 two-oz egg 
skimmed milk + 2%-fat cottage cheese1/2 oz mushrooms
white whole wheat flour + strawberriesone Buckwheat Crepe/Galette 
butter + 35 calorie chicken breakfast sausageMediterranean Vegetables
optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

Dinner, single portion for Monday:………………………….. single portion for Thursday:

red beets + red potatobutter + portobello cap + asparagus
back bacon or Canadian bacon4 oz filet mignon + olive oil
onionshallot + white wine + heavy cream
one 2-oz egggrainy mustard + fresh tarragon
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