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.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was the son of a strict minister. Born in Massachusetts in 1791, he did not distinguish himself as a student at Yale College. Morse’s interest lay in art — he made money on the side at college by painting portraits — and electricity. Upon graduation, he went to London to study art. When Morse returned to the USA, he found that his art was not in demand, so he became an itinerant portraitist. His wife died while he was away from home painting his portrait of Lafayette, and by the time he got there, the funeral was over. That started Morse thinking about rapid, long-distance communication. Another trip to Europe resulted in a conversation with inventor Charles Thomas Jackson. They discussed the idea of electric impulses being sent as messages over wires. The sticking point was a way to ‘push’ the pulses over long distances. A partner-ship 1n 1838 with Alfred Vail gave Morse the financial backing he needed to solve the problem. Vail also collaborated on an alphabet of dots and dashes to spell out messages. On June 20, 1840, Morse applied for a patent to improve his new mode of communication: the telegraph. His famous message, to test his ability to send a long distance message, was “What Hath God Wrought,” sent from Washington, DC to Baltimore in 1844. Litigation followed, but the inventor was finally declared to be the first person to develop a working system. By 1861, telegraph wires reached coast to coast, and in 1866 an undersea cable linked Europe to North America. Morse is not an easy man for contemporary people to like: his views on the human race were heavily influenced by his father’s strict Calvinism. This narrow world view held that the only worthy people were White, Protestant, American, and probably men. But we appreciate the invention of the telegraph, which lead to all the means of electronic communication that we have today.

For Morse’s European sojourns, a breakfast from France. Although Morse had fierce “America First” ideas, we will offer a dinner inspired by the real first Americans — the Indigenous People.

Roasted Grapes & Sausage: 212 calories… 8 g fat… 2 g fiber… 5.4 g protein… 4 g carbs… 14 mg Calcium…  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB GF  Unusual flavors at breakfast. Delicious. HINT: This serves two [2].

Serves 2	Heat oven to 450 degrees. Large cast iron pan.
½ c onion, sliced ++++++ ½ tsp oil +++++ ¼ tsp salt +++++  ¼ tsp pepper	Toss these together + spread in an even layer on a rimmed baking pan or cast iron pan . Roast 8 mins, until onions turn translucent and thinnest pieces are pale gold at edges.
10 oz grapes +++++ ½ tsp fennel seed +++++ 2 oz sausage, sliced	Add grapes, seeds, and sausage to pan with onions, and toss well. Spread in an even layer and spray with cooking spray or oil.
	Roast 10 mins. Sausage slices will be browned on bottom and grapes will be wrinkled but still plump.
Parsley + chives +++++ 0.05 oz Parmesan, shaved	Plate grapes, sausage, and onions. Top with parsley, chives + Parmesan.
1 tsp rice vinegar	Add vinegar to baking sheet and scrape up any browned bits. Drizzle pan juices on top, taste. Add salt or vinegar , if desired.

Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]  

‘Original’ Succotash: 270 calories… 2.6 g fat… 9.5 g fiber… 18 g protein… 50 g carbs… 71 mg Calcium…  PB GF The Mystic Seaport Cookbook contains many quaint and curious old recipes. What follows is my combination of two of them. It is ‘original’ because it gets us back to what succotash once was [a main dish, not a side] and because it is my own version.  HINT: This recipe makes 3 cups of succotash, which could be 3 servings. 

½ cup lima beans [Green Giant frozen Fordhook] ++++ ½ cup green/snap beans ++++ ½ cup corn kernels ++++ ¼ cup canned navy beans ++++ 2 oz corned beef [New England style is grey because it contains no nitrates] ++++ 1 slice cornmeal mush aka: polenta ++++sage ++ pepper ++ salt to taste [mind that the corned beef might be salty] 

Cook the vegetables until they are tender. Drain the cooking water and reserve ½ cup. Mash the navy beans and whisk into ¼ cup vegetable water. Put all vegetables and the meat into a pan along with the mashed beans. Add sage and pepper to taste and more vegetable broth if you wish. If it needs more salt, add it too. In a non-stick pan, saute the corn mush on each side until it is warm. Plate the mush with one cup of succotash. It is very filling.

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

4 two-oz egg = US large Olive oil + oregano	1 two-oz egg + onion
sweet paprika + baking powder + frozen spinach	sweet potato + white whole wheat flour
onion + parsley + mint leaves + garlic	applesauce, unsweetened
feta cheese + brined black olives + strawberries	white whole wheat flour OR brown rice flour
optional smoothie	optional smoothie
optional hot beverage	optional hot beverage

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

cinnamon + cumin + cayenne	yeast + white flour + white whole wheat flour
turmeric pearl couscous + tomato	cornstarch + sugar + canola oil + baking powder
olive oil + eggplant + onions	Chinese pork BBQ filling + garlic
garlic + tomato paste + parsley	cabbage + soy sauce + fish sauce
Sparkling water	Sparkling water