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. Join me in the Fasting Lifestyle. 

Tomorrow, November 3rd, is the feast day of St. Hubert.  He was born into a noble family in Aquitaine in 657 CE. As was common, he was sent to the court of the Neustrian ruler of the Franks at Paris. There he learned courtly graces and a love of hunting. After a move to the court of Austrasia, the Mayor of the Palace was so impressed by Hubert that he was promoted to rank of Grand Master of the Household. Although Christianity had taken hold among the Franks, Hubert was not especially religious. When his wife Floribanne died after childbirth, Hubert renounced the life of the court and retreated to the Ardennes forest. There he hunted and lived as he wished, without thought to what society might say. On Good Friday, so the story goes, when he might have been in church, Hubert went hunting. He chased a large stag but when he was close enough to kill it, the stag turned and looked at him. Hubert was astonished to see a glowing crucifix between the stag’s antlers. A Voice told him to mend his ways or he would be bound for hell. Hubert threw himself to the ground and asked what he should do to change. The Voice told him to find Lambert, Bishop of Maastricht. Hubert was welcomed by Lambert, who trained him and ordained him as a priest. After a pilgrimage to Rome, Hubert replaced the assassinated Lambert as Bishop. He was a popular preacher and spiritual leader, going back into the Ardennes to convert the inhabitants. Hubert is the patron saint of hunters and the faithful prayed to him to cure rabies.

Breakfast is from the Romans who had left a cultural legacy in France before the fall of their empire. The dinner is something the Germanic Franks might have eaten. Or eat venison, a traditional meal for Hubert, since November 3 marks the start of hunting season.

Roman Porridge: 146 calories… 1 g fat… 4 g fiber… 4 g protein… 29.4 g carbs… 14 mg Calcium…  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.PB Farro is an ancient grain which was enjoyed by citizens of the Roman Empire for breakfast as a porridge. Here I have included a pear, which the Romans loved.

++ ½ c cooked farro [do ahead] ++++ 1 oz pear, unpeeled, chopped ++++ 1 tsp honey ++++  Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie  [88 calories] ++++ Optional:  blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] ++

Warm the cooked farro. Stir in the honey until incorporated, then add the pear: stir it in or leave the fruit on top. This will keep a Roman on his/her feet for hours.

Senfeier (Eggs in Mustard Sauce): 323 calories… 15.5 g fat… 2 g fat … 17 g protein… 12 g carbs… 158 mg Calcium…  PB GF – if using GF flour in the sauce + GF bread or omitting  This recipe represents ‘comfort food’ in Germany: simple, homey, the sort of meal your Grossmutti would serve you for lunch or supper. TIP: prepare the bechamel before-hand [handy to have in freezer] and boil the eggs the day before. Very easy to prepare, this is a meal for a busy day.  HINT: This recipe serves two [2] people. 

++ 4 hard-boiled eggs ++++ ½ c Bechamel sauce, no cheese ++++  1 Tbsp grainy mustard ++++ 2 fl oz/¼ c white wine ++++ 1 oz sour-dough rye bread [optional: omit to save 35 calories] ++++ ¾ c frozen, chopped spinach ++++ nutmeg ++

Combine the bechamel, mustard and wine in a saute pan and warm them gently, stirring to combine. Warm the spinach with a little water and many pinches of nutmeg in a covered pan. Peel and halve the eggs and put them in the sauce, cut-side up. Cover and keep over low until eggs and sauce are warm. Warm the optional bread. Either plate the spinach along side of the eggs, or under the eggs, or combine the spinach with the sauce. Delicious any way you plate it, with or without the bread.