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. Simple way to lose weight and be healthier.

Toussaint Louverture was born enslaved on the Saint-Domingue, the French part of the island Hispaniola.  By age 33 he had been freed and was a paid employee of the same plantation where he was born.  Eventually he owned his own coffee farm [and his own slaves], becoming quite wealthy.  Inspired by the French Revolution, people of color rose up, seeking at least the Liberté which they had been denied. In 1791, Toussaint was a negotiator between the two sides. Later he became an important leader of the Haïtian Revolution.  He was a man of contradictions: born enslaved, yet he was versed in the writings of Machiavelli and Caesar;  a Royalist, yet espousing the ideals of the French Revolution;  a leader of the rebellion, yet one who had himself kept people enslaved;  a farmer, yet a wily military commander; a loyal French citizen, yet he sought to establish an independent nation. After dealings with Spain, the United States, England, and France, on May 6 1802, Toussaint struck a deal with Napoleon’s General Leclerc to end the fighting and to gain amnesty for the rebel leaders.  Toussaint hoped to return to his farm to live in peace, but by the end of May he had been captured by the French and was transported to France for trial.  He died in 1803.  The rebellion lived on and in 1804, the French were defeated and withdrew from Hispaniola.  The nation of Haïti was born.

The cuisine of Haïti is part French, part African, part Spanish, part Arabic, and part Taino [the indigenous people].  The ingredients are seafood, native plants, naturalized plants [plantains, melon, pineapple], and domestic animals [poultry, pigs, goats].  But the way they put it all together is unique. Breakfast is based on the spicy filling used in the ubiquitous ‘pates’, made with seasoned meat.  Dinner is seafood, plantains, and fruit: a very typical combination                                                                                           .

Haitian Chicken Bake:   131 calories  5 g fat   1 g fiber  13 g protein   8 g carbs [6 g Complex]  43 mg Calcium  NB: The calorie count shown is for the egg bake and the fruit only, and does not include the optional beverages.   PB GF  The Haitians love to eat their ‘pates’ [pronounced ‘patty’]: spicy fillings in puff paste dough. Here is the filling alone is used to jazz up some eggs at breakfast.

1 two-oz egg                                                                                                                                          2 Tbsp chicken pate filling [see Food In Wrappers, 2  posted 7-April-2019]                             2 oz melon   OR  1 oz melon + 3/4 oz pineapple                                                                                                                           Optional: 5-6 oz berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories] or fruit smoothie                           Optional: blackish coffee, Haitian of course [53 calories] or tea or lemon in hot water

NB: Prepare the chicken pate filling in advance and freeze or refrigerate it. Whisk the egg, then whisk again with the meat filling. Pour into an oven-safe dish which has been spritzed with non-stick spray. Bake at 350° F for 12-15 minutes. Portion the fruit and brew that Haitian coffee. Done! An easy, savory taste of Hispaniola!