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.

The early 1800s, were a time of religious ‘awakening’ around the world. In North America: Adventists, Shakers, and Latter-Day Saints. In Europe: Revival movements occurred. In Persia [modern Iran], Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad was a merchant who might well have been unaware of religious stirrings in other lands. In the spring of 1844, he met a traveler at the gates of his city of Shiraz, and invited him home for dinner. They talked all night, delighted to find in each other a kindred spirit in their views of life and spirituality. The next morning, Siyyid declared that he was the “gate [‘Bab’] to God”, that soon 17 other people would spontaneously recognize him as such, and that this would be the start of a new phase of religion. To them, he preached about the unifying of all the world’s religions and that people would live in peace, prosperity, and spiritual harmony. The words of “The Bab” spread widely. He was not the one to lead the people to this new world, but another would arise. Clerics all over Persia called for his death, which happened by firing squad in 1850. After the Bab’s death, his disciple, a young nobleman named Mírzá Husayn ‘Alí, declared himself to be the one who would manifest the teachings of the new religion. He was given the name Bahá’u’lláh (“the Glory of God” in Arabic], and he is the founder of the Bahá’í Faith. The founder was imprisoned in turn, then exiled from Iran. He spent the rest of his life writing and teaching while in an out of prisons. Bahá’u’lláh’s many writings set forth the new religion’s laws and beliefs: unity of the races; equality of men and women; elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth; harmony of science and religion; and several other ideas. Despite pogroms in the past which killed tens of thousands of Bahá’ís, today there are 5 million faith members world-wide, and they are the largest religious minority in Iran.

On July 25, 1942, the Bahá’í Faith arrived in Jamaica in the person of Dr. Malcolm King. Since 2003, that date is celebrated as Bahá’í Day. To celebrate, we feature the flavors of the Caribbean at breakfast, and a traditional Persian meal at dinner.

Caribbean Breakfast: 228 calories… 7.4 g fat… 4.4 g fiber… 5 g protein… 40 g carbs… 24.6 mg Calcium…  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB  Although the protein values are low, this makes for a lovely little tropical meal.

1.8 oz mango ++++ 1.5 oz roasted plantain slices ++++ 1.5 oz pineapple ++++ ½ oz goat cheese ++++ 1 coconut dumpling** ++++  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] ++++ 

**COCONUT DUMPLINGS: makes 9   A Caribbean favorite.   Each: 73 calories…. 4 g fat…. 2 g fiber…. 1.6 g protein…. 9 g carbs…. 3.6 mg Calcium ½ cup [37 g] coconut, grated, unsweetened +++ 1½ cups white whole wheat flour ++++ 1 Tbsp vegetable oil ++++ 1 Tbsp butter ++++ ¼ tsp salt ++++ 125 ml water [NB: that’s correct: there is NO leavening. I think there should be… Use your judgement]

Put everything except the water in a bowl and work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers. Once it is all incorporated, stir in the water with a fork. Knead slightly on a work surface and roll into a cylinder which is about 1½“ in diameter. Slice off equal pieces. To cook them, bring a pan of heavily salted water to a strong simmer. Add several of the dumplings. They will sink to the bottom and stay there. After 10-15 minutes, remove them and put on a cloth towel to dry and cool. Cook remaining dumplings.

Persian Chicken Kababs: 282 calories… 9 g fat… 4 g fiber… 24.5 g protein… 27 g carbs… 69 mg Calcium…  PB GF – if using GF bread or none When served as a street food, ‘Jujeh Kabab’ is popular in Iran. The recipe is adapted from one found at tappersia.com.  HINT: serves 2 [two].

Sv 2
2 T. saffron in ¼ c hot water	steep saffron in a bowl with water until cool.
6 oz chicken breast	cut chicken in 1” pieces, add to saffron
1 onions, cut in large chunks +++++ salt	Sprinkle salt on cut onion. In a bowl, knead onion chunks with hands until softened. Add to chicken.
¼ tsp red pepper ++++ ¼ tsp black pepper ++++ 1 tsp turmeric +++ 1 tsp paprika ++2 T. plain, nonfat yogurt	Add spices to yogurt, and toss well with chicken pieces. Put in ‘fridge 1 hour
1 T. olive oil ++++	Add to chicken, stir it all, refrigerate 4-12 hrs.
1 bell pepper, cut in 1” chunks	Put chicken on skewers, alternating with bell pepper and onion chunks, until all are used.
	Grill over charcoal or gas or broil.
1 oz lavash bread per serving	Use lavash to nudge the foods off the skewers, then eat it all.

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

1 hard-boiled two-oz egg = US large	1.5 two-oz eggs
Holland Rusk  or 50 calories whole grain bread	broccoli + tomato
3%-fat ham + Jarlsberg cheese	black olive + 2%-fat cottage cheese
melon or apple	Parmesan cheese + strawberries
optional smoothie	optional smoothie
optional hot beverage	optional hot beverage

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

rice vermicelli + raw shrimp	eggplant + oregano + red onion + capers
dried shiitake mushrooms + peanut oil	Italian parsley + garlic + black olives
shallot + carrot + cabbage + 2-oz egg	herb vinegar + 1# ripe tomatoes
soy sauce + pepper + cilantro/parsley	slivered almonds + artisan whole-grain bread/pasta
Sparkling water	Sparkling water