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.

Your name is Cornelis Joppenszoon and you are starving. Not the usual hunger of a young teenage boy – you and your family are literally starving. The year is 1574, and you have lived in Leiden, Holland all your life, under the rule of the hated Spaniards. For the past year, your city has been beseiged by the Spanish army under the cruel Duke of Alva/Alba in an effort to break the Dutch Resistance efforts. Thousands of your fellow-townspeople have died and many begged the mayor to yield. He offered to cut off his right arm to provide food for the people instead! But help is on the way: the dikes were breached to flood the polders around the city and brave William the Silent is on his way with a fleet of rebel soldiers. When they arrive, they hand out white bread and herring to the people. What a relief to have something to eat again! That evening, when part of the city wall collapses, you sneak out to scout around. The Spaniards had left in a hurry: their camps intact and the fires still burning. In a pot over a fire, you find a sort of stew made of vegetables. Hooray! You take it back home and that night your family and friends eat ‘hutspot’ for the first time. The seige is lifted, Spain is in retreat, and Holland might regain her freedom. Now to find more food…. 

Today’s meals reflect the food events of the Relief of Leiden, celebrated every October 3: herring for breakfast and hutspot for dinner. Young Cornelis would be satisfied.

Herring Plate: 195 calories 8 g fat 4.4 g fiber 8 g protein 13.7 g carbs [11.7 g Complex] 33 mg Calcium  PB If you like herring, this is the breakfast for you. It makes a nice change from morning eggs and it is prepared in no-time-flat. NB: Do NOT eat herring if you are taking MOAI antidepressent medicine, as herring is high in tyramine.

3 Finn Crisp crackers 1.25 oz herring marinated in wine [not sour cream] 2 Tbsp whipped cream cheese 4 Bing cherries OR ½ cup strawberries, sliced  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]

Do I need to describe this preparation? Spread the cream cheese on the crackers and pile on the herring. Delicious and so satisfying.

Hutspot with Dutch Meatballs: 243 calories 8 g fat 4 g fiber 16.8 g protein 31 g carbs [21 g Complex] 82 mg Calcium  PB GF – if using GF rye bread This recipe from Holland was a hit at our house. The sweet carrots really add something to the potatoes. 

Hutspot: makes 1 cup 2 oz potato, peeled 2 oz carrots, peeled 2 oz onion, sliced salt and pepper to taste Cube the potatoes and put into a sauce pan with water half-way up. Cut the carrots in coins and put on top of potatoes. Slice the onions and put them on top of the carrots. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat. Cover and cook for 20 minutes or until all vegetables are soft. Drain, reserving the liquid. Mash the vegetables, adding reserved liquid if needed. Season to taste.

Dutch Meatballs: makes 6 you will need 2 per person ½ pound ground turkey, 3% fat 1 oz rye bread, crust removed if very hard ¼ cup skim milk 1 shallot [1 Tbsp chopped] 1 egg white ¼ tsp nutmeg + ¼ tsp salt + ¼ tsp black pepper Chop or tear the bread into 1/2” pieces. Put in a small dish and pour in enough milk to wet the bread – you will have some left over. You could cook the meat and shallot or leave them raw [which is what I did] Add the seasonings and egg white. Squeeze the extra milk out of the bread and add it to the meat/seasonings. Heat a non-stick pan and spray with non-stick spray. Measure the meat mixture into ¼ cup portions and gently form into balls. Place in hot pan and cook until brown on one side. Turn and cook further. Turn onto another side and cook until done.

Plating: Plate two meatballs per person, along with the hutspot vegetables and a bit of grainy mustard, if you like.

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

1 two-oz egg	no breakfast, but two dinners
scallion	1.5 hardboiled eggs
smoked salmon	canned tomatoes
melon	garbanzo beans
Optional smoothie	Swiss or Gruyere cheese
optional hot beverage	onion + garlic

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

corned beef	purchased Asian meat dumplings
cabbage	bok choi
swiss cheese	hoisin sauce
Bechamel sauce	black vinegar + soy sauce
Sparkling water	Sparkling water