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. Welcome to weewritinglassie who is now Following.

Saint Swithin is one of my favorites. He is one of the ‘obscure saints’ [my terminology] who’s Feast Day does not make it onto the modern lists. It is his story that captivates me. Ethnically, he was a Saxon and he lived in the Kingdom of Wessex in England in the 800s. He was chaplain to King Egbert and tutor to his son. Swithin was still alive when the future King Alfred was a child and no doubt he assisted in his education as well. Swithin loved God’s Good Green Earth. Before he died, he asked that his grave be outside, where it could be sprinkled by the ‘gentle rains.’ For about 90 years, it was outside. Then an abbott decided he wanted to make the church a tourist destination by building a fancy shrine for Swithin inside. On the 15th of July, the body was dug up and moved. And it rained. No, it poured! For 40 days! Folks said that St Swithin was angered, and so, posthumously, he became a weather prophet. People still say, “If on St Swithin’s it should rain, for 40 days it will remain. If on St Swithin’s it be fair, for 40 days shall rain nae mair.”

By Robin Hood’s time [he is first mentioned in a ballad in 1370], St Swithin’s ability to cause rain was common knowledge. Thus, for breakfast, we have Robin Hood Eggs. [Swithin is credited with restoring broken eggs] For dinner, a meal with many vegetables, grown in the sun and washed by the rain. Keep an eye on the weather.

Robin Hood Egg: 150 calories 6 g fat 1 g fiber 15 g protein 26 g carbs [7 g Complex] 111 mg Calcium  NB: The food values given above are for the egg bake and fruit only, not the optional beverages. What this breakfast has to do with the legendary outlaw, I don’t know. At least no robbery is involved – you can keep your wallet and your waistline.

½ Arnold multi-grain Sandwich Thin, or similar round bread at 50 calories one 2-oz egg 1 slice Jones-brand “Canadian bacon” [round, 1 oz = 20 calories] 2 oz sliced tomato

Lightly toast the sandwich thin and plate it. Broil the tomato slice and briefly warm the Canadian bacon while you fry the egg in a pan spritzed with non-cook spray. Assemble the layers in your order of preference and pour the optional beverages. Tuck [not Friar Tuck] in with knife and fork.

Fish Kabobs: 236 calories 8 g fat 4.3 g fiber 27 g protein 22 g carbs [all Complex] 77 mg Calcium PB GF Any firm fish will work for this simple meal. The Fresh Polenta is from Jacques Pepin and it is a keeper.

3.6 g firm fish [swordfish, tuna, halibut], cut in 1-2” cubes 1 oz eggplant cut in 1” chunks, skin left on 1 oz cherry tomatoes 3/4 oz red or yellow bell pepper, cut in 1” squares 2 tsp Pimenta do Queilo or other red pepper sauce ½ cup fresh polenta *** Second Fiddles I-9-’19 ½ cup side salad

Combine the pepper sauce with 2 tsp water in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Toss the eggplant and bell pepper in the pepper sauce and microwave for 30 seconds. Remove the bell peppers and microwave the eggplant 45 seconds longer. Cool the vegetables and save the marinade. Prepare the polenta. Assemble the kabobs on skewers and brush with remaining marinade. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Broil 4 minutes, then turn the kabobs, brush with marinade, and broil for 4 minutes more. Prepare the side salad and plate to applause.