Egg-free breakfasts for 5:2 diet

Sap Season

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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. Welcome to nycdesmond who is now Following.

Most people joke that Northern New England has only 2 weeks of Spring. Ha. Ha. Are they expecting the soft season of the deep South, filled with weeks of blossoms? Spring here begins in late February/early March when the Sugar Maple trees begin to wake up. The air is still cool but the sun is warm on your back. The sky is a brilliant blue and a light jacket is all you need. Present but silent all Winter, the Mourning Doves begin to sing, which tells us that the sap is running. Last Fall, the sap drained from the upper twigs and branches. Down into the roots it went, to be stored during the Winter. [That’s why the leaves turn colors and fall off: no sap to keep them alive.] When the days get longer in the late Winter and the sun sails higher in the sky, the sap begins to rise. When the night temperatures fall below freezing, the sap returns to the roots. The next day, it rises again. This is what we tap [literally] into by drilling holes in the bark [a 12″ diameter tree will have one tap, while a larger tree could have two or more], and hammering in a metal cone called a spile. A bucket is hung from the spile to catch the dripping sap. Such a sweet sound! The sap is collected, boiled down [we do it over a wood fire outside], filtered, and boiled some more until it turns to syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. After four to five weeks, the day and night temperatures equalize, the trees bloom, and the sap season is over. In late April, the daffodils flower; in May, the apple trees bloom; and in June, the lilacs. It takes more than flowering shrubs to make a Spring in northern New England.

During the sap run, we like to make our coffee with maple sap instead of water. Sweetens it just enough that you don’t need sugar! Since we have many jars of syrup in the Root Cellar, we can use it a lot: pancakes, of course, but also in porridge and some dinners.

10-Grain Pudding: 175 calories 1 g fat 5.4 g fiber 7.5 g protein 35 g carbs [29 g Complex] 39 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage. PB Here is delicious hot cereal for any day of the week. The applesauce and maple syrup give just the right sweetness.

¼ cup uncooked Bob’s Red Mill 10-Grain Cereal   1½ Tbsp cottage cheese 1 tsp maple syrup 1 Tbsp applesauce pinch of nutmeg + pinch of cinnamon   Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]   Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories]

Put the cereal in ¾ cup of boiling water, turn down to a simmer and cook, covered, for 8 minutes. HINT: Do this the night before. Cool the cereal, then mix in the cottage cheese, maple syrup, applesauce and spices until well-combined. Put into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave it until hot through. Pour the beverages and you will have a warm, filling start to your day.

Maple-Glazed Salmon: 249 calories 8.4 g fat 2.4 g fiber 26.5 g protein 18 g carbs 54 mg Calcium PB GF What’s not to love about maple syrup on salmon?! Served with mounds of asparagus, it is early Springtime on a plate. 

4 oz salmon fillet, skin removed 1 Tbsp maple syrup ½ tsp Dijon mustard 1 tsp soy sauce 1 tsp yellow Sriracha 4 oz asparagus, trimmed and sliced

30-40 minutes before dinner: whisk together the syrup, soy, mustard, and Sriracha, and pour over the salmon on a small pie plate. Marinate, turning frequently, for 20 minutes. NB: Be sure to save the marinade when you remove the fish from it. Trim and slice asparagus and put in a pan with some water, but not enough to cover. Turn heat on under asparagus to bring it to a simmer. Heat a non-stick or cast-iron skillet and spray it with cooking spray. Put salmon in the pan and cook 4 minutes on one side. Turn and cook 4 minutes on the other side. Remove fish to serving plate. Pour marinade into the hot pan from the fish and take off heat. It will foam and bubble up quickly as it thickens. With a plastic scraper, ease the sauce onto the fish. Drain the asparagus and put it into the now empty skillet to get all the sauce from it. Mound the asparagus around the fish, sprinkle with salt.

Flexible Flyer

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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.

As a child, I loved to go sledding. [That’s ‘coasting’ to some of you.] A prized Christmas gift was a Flexible Flyer sled and I used mine every chance I got. Some children liked the saucer-style sleds, but not I. Although I longed to have a sledding party for my birthday, mid-January always brought a thaw. Sigh. The Flexible Flyer sled was manufactured in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Samuel Leeds Allen in 1889. Since his company made farm equipment all winter, he wanted a product to keep his skilled employees busy in the summer. The design of the sled was innovative: the steel runners could be twisted by a steering bar, thus allowing control of the sled’s path. Initially the sled was not a good seller, but Allen wisely waited and interest picked up. During winters of the early 1900s, hundreds of sleds were sold daily. Sleds were made in many sizes and could be steered with the hands, while lying down, or with the feet, while sitting up. I have two Flexible Flyers, both in the ‘Airline’ model designed in 1935. One is the ‘Junior’ at 51 inches long and the other is the ‘Racer’ at 60 inches long, given to me by an aunt who sledded with her husband. In my Golden Years, I have rediscovered the joys of sledding, especially when the air is crisp and the full moon is making the snow sparkle. That’s a treat.

Label of an authentic ‘Planet Jr. Sled’ and how it is best put to use.

The smooth mound of white dairy products in the breakfast is like a sledder’s dream hill on a snowy day. And after a long day of sledding, there is nothing like a warming bowl of home-made soup for dinner.

Citrus Breakfast: 149 calories 1.5 g fat 1.5 g fiber 15.5 g protein 19 g carbs [5.5 g Complex] 118 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage. PB GF  Banish any thoughts that this classic ‘diet meal’ will leave you hungry. Delicious, nutritious, and filling, this is a great breakfast for anyone, any day. And it has tons of Vitamin C and A and D.

½ cup reduced-fat cottage cheese 2 Tbsp fat-free French Vanilla yogurt 1 clementine, peeled and sectioned OR 2 oz orange segments 2 Tbsp black currants OR blueberries Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]   Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie  [88 calories]

TIP: Sometimes the cottage cheese and yogurt can benefit from sitting in a sieve for 20 minutes to drain off extra whey. Combine all the dairy and scoop it onto the plate. Pour fruit on top and watch it roll down the snowy hill. If you plan for a busy morning, combine everything the night before and refrigerate it. Great for a grab-and-go meal. It is a vitamin-blast.

‘Therapeutic’ Chicken Soup: 278 calories 3.4 g fat 5 g fiber 18.5 g protein 36 g carbs [26 g Complex Carbs] 78 mg Calcium   PB  The recipe is from It’s All American Food by David Rosengarten. Simple, filling, and Granma says it is good for you.  NB: Food values are for one serving of 2 cups of soup! One cup is a very hearty serving.

1½ cups excellent chicken broth, homemade or purchased 2 oz [½ cup] parsnips, diced 1 oz [¼ cup] carrots, in coins ¼ cup celery 2 oz cooked chicken breast, cut in ½” cubes ½ oz Pennsylvania Dutch noodles   3 Tbsp parsley

Prepare the vegetables. Cook the noodles in water until just underdone. Heat the stock to a simmer and add 3-4 Tbsp water, which will boil away as you cook. I added the parsnips first and cooked for about 5 minutes, then added the carrots. After another 5 minutes, I put the celery in the soup. Cook until all the vegetables are tender, then adjust the seasoning of the broth. Add the pasta and chicken. It will need extra flavor now since the pasta will have used it up. Add the parsley and cook about 5 minutes longer.

Airline Series:  The Airline sleds came out in 1935 with the ends of the runners turned back to the top of the last cross support.  This major change was meant to prevent other sledders from impaling themselves on the sharp end of another’s sled when running into them.  There were numerous Airline models, each with its own name: Ace (37″); Pilot (41″); Patrol (44″); Pursuit (47″); Junior (51″); Chief (55″); Racer (60″); Cruiser (65″); and (108″).  The Airline names were eventually dropped with a number/letter replacing them, but with the same lengths as before, and the length being the model number.

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

whole-grain bread, 70-calories/slice1.5 two-oz eggs 
applesauce + almond flour/mealtomato sauce
ham slice/Canadian Bacon/back baconbell pepper + garlic
0% fat French Vanilla yogurt + fresh fruitparsley + apple or pear
Optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

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

1.5 two-oz eggs + uncured bacon2 buckwheat galettes
fingerling potatoes, purple or red-fleshed 3%-fat ham
chèvre + chives or green onionsbechamel sauce, no cheese
side salad with blueberriesJarlsberg cheese + side salad
Sparkling waterSparkling water

Lucas Cranach, Pere & Fils            

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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 Henrietta Watson and pkpostpage who are now Following.

Lucas Maler was born on October 4, 1472 in the town of Kronach in Franken, now Germany. He studied art with his father Hans, learning wood-cutting, printing, and painting. Thirty years later, he turned up in Vienna, Austria, as a popular portraitist. This lands him a life-time gig with Frederick the Wise, as artist and style maven in charge of everything visual in the court at Wittenberg. By this time, the Protestant Reformation is just beginning. Lucas, now with the last name ‘Cranach’ after his birthplace, became great friends with Martin Luther, the leader of the German protestants. Cranach is known as the ‘Painter of the Reformation’ for his many portraits of Luther, making the reformer look human and humble. He established a studio with a large staff trained in his style. This left him free for his many other interests: local politics, local businesses. His studio cranked out work quickly, producing some 1500 existing works. One of his best is Adam and Eve: lovely to behold and filled with symbolic animals. Good psychology too — you can see Eve saying, “Here, Honey, try this fruit.” while Adam says, “Well, I don’t know…” Compare to the work of his rival and friend, Albrecht Durer. Cranach trained his sons in his workshop and Lucas, aka ‘The Younger,’ became known in his own right. He produced many works, perpetuating his father’s style and influence well into the 1500s.

For Cranach the Elder’s birthplace in Franken, aka Franconia, a breakfast of favorite flavors of that State. The dinner is popular in Franconia, but variations of pork-and-onion dishes are found all over Germany. I wish I could have included a winged serpent somehow… That was Cranach’s heraldic emblem with which he signed his work after 1508. That was useful in art history class when we were shown a work we had not seen before and had to identify the artist, style, and date. I could say, “Winged snake! Cranach! 1530!”

Franconian Breakfast: 163 calories 4.4 g fat 4 g. fiber 13 g protein 22.5 g carbs 117 mg Calcium  NB: These values are for the plated items only, and do not include the optional beverages. PB GF– if using GF bread  Here some favorite flavors of the German State of Franconia come together for breakfast. My stars!! This is delicious!

1 slice 70-calorie whole-grain bread 1 oz smoked trout 2 oz plum 2 Tbsp small-curd cottage cheese + 1 Tbsp snipped chives   Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]   Optional: 3 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie  [44 calories]

Lightly toast the bread. Stir together the cottage cheese and chives, and spread on the toast. Plate along with the trout and plum. Some might prefer to place the trout on the bread and eat it thus, which is a great way to do it.

Zweibel, the Bamberg Onion: 282 calories 8 g fat 6.5 g fiber 24 g protein 37 g carbs 91 mg Calcium Onion and pork are a fine combination, and very popular across Germany. This unusual recipe is from Bamberg, Franconia.  HINT: Serves two [2] people.  Recipe is adapted from one offered by Bamberg’s historic Schlenkerla Brewery.

2 large onions, 6 oz each after trimming + peelingPeel onions, cut off both ends. Scoop out the onion until the sides are two layers thick.
112 g/4 oz raw pork   44 g/1½ oz cooked smoked pork/ham Put pork and smoked pork/ham with the insides of the onion through meat grinder/processor.
Salt & pepper ½ tsp each mace & marjoram
1½ ounce egg
1 slice 70-calorie whole-grain bread
chopped parsley		Mix meat-onion with the eggs, bread, spices and parsley to form a stuffing/filling.
Fill onions with stuffing. NB: I had stuffing left over.** Roast in a skillet with some water, uncovered ~25 mins at 200C./400F.
1 slice smoked baconFry bacon in another skillet until partially cooked — not crisp. Remove from frypan and cut in half. Put a ½-slice on each onion and return to oven. Bake 20 mins.
**left-over stuffingMeanwhile, form remaining meat filling into two equal patties, and cook gently in the bacon fat until done. Place in center of serving plate. Add the drippings from this skillet to the next step.
4 Tbsp brown meat stock
2-4 tsp whole-wheat flour pinch mace + pinch cloves		Remove onions from skillet and place on top of the meat patties. Add stock, flour, spices to drippings from both skillets. Heat on stovetop, stirring, to form a thick gravy.
2 oz carrot coins per personServe surrounded with carrots and topped with gravy.

The Canaries

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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 Breaking habits support who is now Following.

The Canary Islands lie off the NW shoulder of Africa, 71 miles out to sea. They were first settled in pre-history by unknown people, perhaps fisherman blown off course. The Romans, venturing beyond the Pillars of Hercules, arrived in the 1st century CE and found ruins built by previous settlers. They also found lots of ‘dogs of great size.’ Pliny said that the islands were thus named “Island of Dogs,” or “Canariae Insulae.” Berbers from Morocco called on the islands in 999 CE, but departed. When the Spaniards came in the 1400s, they found a native population living a stone-age life. Eventually the eight islands became the last port of call for Spanish ships headed across the Atlantic or down the coast of Africa. Columbus stopped there on September 6 before sailing West to ‘the Indies.’ Spanish sailors took as pets the little yellow birds that lived on the islands, calling them “canaries.” Back in Europe, the Canary Birds were bred for color and singing ability, and they became the status pet of the rich and famous. In the 1800s, the birds were a fad pet for the masses. Around 1913, John Scott Haldane proposed that small mammals or birds could detect deadly Carbon Monoxide gasses in the air of coal mines. The small animals would sicken or die when the air quality was degraded by undetectable toxic gasses, hence the ‘canary in the coal mine’ as an early-warning system. Today the islands are an autonomous region of Spain. Although the indigenous Guanche language is extinct, Silbo Gomero, a whistled communication method of the Island La Gomera, is being taught in some schools.

The Romans would have recognized the ingredients of our breakfast, and the dinner reflects the tastes of Morocco.

Roman Breakfast: 149 calories 3 g fat 3 g fiber 9 g protein 28 g carbs [21 g Complex Carbs] 35 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB  Though my Roman Breakfast is not the morning meal, this is a very good plate of breakfast food. It is based on ingredients available to Romans in the 1st century BCE. The meal is satisfying and flavorful. Try it.

1 Pan Muffin** OR 0.75 oz whole wheat bread 1 oz pear 1 oz cooked chicken 1 oz radish 1 oz cucumber [optional: ½ medjool date = ¼ oz]   Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]   Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories]

Dice all the fruits and vegetables. Add a good finishing salt and gently stir to combine.  HINT: I did this the night before and refrigerated the mixture. Prepare the pan muffin or take from freezer with time to thaw/heat. In the time it takes to brew the coffee, you can plate the muffin and the fruit-veg mixture. Romans did not drink smoothies or coffee, but we will. Hope you’ll enjoy your throw-back breakfast.

**PAN MUFFIN each: 71 calories 2.5 g fat 1 g fiber 2 g protein 11 g carbs 8.5 mg Calcium 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill 10-grain hot cereal mix  1 and 1/4 cup buttermilk [combine cereal + milk and let sit while preparing other ingredients. 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup sugar 1 cup unbleached flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda Cream the butter and sugar; mix in the egg. Add the dry ingredients and the cereal/milk mixture. Stir until just combined. Use 2 Tbsp batter for each griddlecake/pan muffin.  [use 4 Tbsp batter to bake in a muffin tin for Slow Days]

Moroccan Tuna: 278 calories 1.4 g fat 7 g fiber 34 g protein 20.4 g carbs  129 mg Calcium  PB GF  Moroccan spice blend can really add zest to a simple meal. 

4 oz tuna steak [frozen tuna steaks at the supermarket are good]  Moroccan spice blend  or ground cumin or mint 1/3 cup white beans, rinsed and drained   1 slice preserved lemon OR 1 slice fresh lemon per person: 1/3 cup peas with mint OR ½ cup broccoli florets sprinkled with cumin OR 1/3 cup green beans sprinkled with cilantro AND  ½ of a clementine

Rub tuna generously on both sides with Moroccan spices. Chop the lemon and stir into the beans. Bake the tuna on a cast iron skillet for 4-5 minutes per side in a 400F oven. When the vegetable is cooked, drain and stir in the seasoning. Section the clementine and plate it all as pleases your eye.

Hieronymus Bosch

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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 1981lluciana and Healthy Desire who are now Following.

On August 8, 1516, Hieronymus Bosch died and the legends began. So did the forgeries. Bosch [not his real surname, but he chose it to honor his hometown ‘s-Hertogenbosch] was the most famous painter of his time. While he drew from the compositions of his predecessors, Bosch was the most copied artist for the next century — with many of those works ‘signed’ with his name. His ‘surreal’ style of art struck a real chord with his contemporaries. The late 1400s was a time of pessimism and the church preached that people should fear Divine Retribution. Savonarola with his bonfires was on the same wave-length. Bosch took this to heart since he was a religious conservative who thought that some clergy were part of the problem. His art spotlighted the sins of humankind, constantly repeating that repentance would help us to avoid a horrible punishment in Hell. Few artists were so inventive in their depictions of the netherworld as Hieronymus. One of Bosch’s most famous works is the Garden of Earthly Delights, a triptych begun in 1490. The left-hand panel shows the totally innocent Adam and Eve in Eden, while demons fall from Heaven as Lucifer is thrown out. The middle panel depicts a landscape with rather sex-less, nude, White and Black Barbie-doll figures disporting in all sorts of merriment — activities that will land them in the Hell depicted in the right-hand panel. There, those Barbie-dolls experience the horror of dreadful demons and cruel punishments. The artist was not all about monsters: he produced works on Biblical themes, such as Christ Carrying the Cross [in Vienna]; the Adoration of the Magi; and St Christopher Carrying the Christ Child which show his command of landscape perspective, color use, and depicting the human form. There are only about 20 works which have been attributed to Bosch and many more by his students and copiers.

To me, an hilarious aspect of the Garden of Earthly Delights painting is the giant fruit. In our house, if one picks a particularly large strawberry, it is dubbed ‘an Hieronymus Bosch berry.’ Our breakfast features strawberries and other fruits. To Bosch those represented lust and gluttony — to me, they represent a healthy breakfast. Our dinner involves good ingredients roasted under high heat, but no Fires of Hell are involved.

Red White and Blue: 150 calories 1 g fat 2.6 g fiber 14.5 g protein 20 g carbs [10.5 g Complex] 331 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage. PB GF – if using GF bread Ricotta is higher in protein and Calcium than cottage cheese, but you could substitute that if you wish.

½ cup fat-free ricotta ¼ cup blueberries, fresh or frozen [if frozen, keep frozen until ready to use] ½ cup sliced strawberries, fresh or frozen [after slicing, put into a strainer to let the juices drain] 1 slice of 70-calorie multi-grain bread [Nature’s Own/ Dave’s Thin-Sliced] 2 large pinches of cinnamon sugar  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]  Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie  [88 calories]

Fish Roasted with Vegetables: 290 calories 5 g fat 5 g fiber 29 g protein 16 g carbs 180 mg Calcium  PB GF Delicious one-pan meal. AND it is low in calories and fat. Can you believe that a women’s magazine had a similar recipe for 425 calories!!

4 oz pollock, halibut, or other white fish 1½ slice [0.2 oz] American/streaky bacon 2 oz carrots in ½” chunks 2 oz Brussel sprouts cut in half 2 oz cauliflower florets, cut in half or quarters 3 oz cherry tomatoes, cut in half 1 Tbsp Parmesan cheese 

Set the oven at 450 degrees F. Cook the bacon in an 8” oven-proof pan, such as cast iron. Remove the bacon, chop it and set aside. Put the prepared vegetables in the pan and toss to coat with the bacon fat. Salt and pepper to taste. Roast for 10 minutes. Remove the pan of vegetables from the oven. If you think they will need more than 10 minutes more of cooking, put them back in for 2-3 minutes. They will not be cooked through at this point. Turn oven down to 400 degrees F. Move the vegetables aside so the fish will sit on the hot pan, with the vegetables nest to it. Salt and pepper the fish. Return the pan to the oven and bake 5-10 minutes more, depending on the thickness of the fish. Sprinkle the entire contents of the pan with Parmesan cheese and bacon. You could eat it right from the pan.

Bunsen Burner

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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 mrinspire and Diets & Weight Loss Plans who are now Following.

The Bunsen burner is the work-horse of the laboratory. Except for a beaker or flask, no piece of equipment is as universally recognized. It was invented in 1855 by the German Chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. He had been investigating the fact that different elements [Copper, Strontium, Potassium] gave off distinctive colors [blue-green, hot pink, lilac] when heated, known now as the Flame Test. To pursue this study, he needed a reliable source of flame that would burn with no color of its own. With the assistance of the mechanic Peter Desaga, he developed the method for delivering a controllable, compact, safe jet of flame. Perhaps his quest for a safe lab flame grew from an early science experiment that exploded, blinding him in one eye. Bunsen went on from there to analyze sunlight, drawing the accurate conclusion that the sun was made of Hydrogen and Helium gasses. With Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, Professor Bunsen invented the spectroscope. They were co-discoverers of the elements Cesium [Cs] and Rubidium [Rb].

Our German Breakfast might have been familiar to the professors and mechanics at the University of Heidelberg. When I was a young teacher, I often would rush to work in the morning with a raw egg in my pocket. During the class prior to lunch, I would boil it in a beaker of water over the Bunsen Burner on the lab bench. However you cook your eggs, you will need one for our dinner.

German Breakfast: 136 calories 3 g fat 4.4 g fiber 9 g protein 15 g carbs [3.5 g Complex] 104.4 mg Calcium Sturdy whole-grain bread, some curd cheese with chives and a slice of ham or turkey will get you going in the morning, just as it does for the Germans.

1 slice whole-grain bread [we like Dave’s ‘Good Seed‘] 2 Tbsp small-curd cottage cheese, reduced fat [similar to ‘quark cheese’ in Germany] 1-2 Tbsp chopped chives ½ oz slice of 3%-fat ham** from the deli, thinly-sliced 1 oz pear   Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [85 calories] or lemon in hot water  Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie  [88 calories] **you could substitute 1 oz turkey breast from the deli, thinly sliced

Toast the bread lightly or not. Spread with the cheese and sprinkle with chives. Top the cheese with the ham and plate with the pear. So nice. This would be a fine lunch for a Slow Day.

Herring Salad:  278 calories 6 g fat 7 g fiber 16 g protein 24 g carbs 103 mg Calcium   PB GF  Luchöw’s Restaurant in New York will live in memory as long as a certain generation yet breathes. And there was a lot to remember about it: the decor, the old-world service, the menu. Not a hokey tourist trap – it was the genuine German article. This is one of their fine Old World recipes. NB: if you take a MOIA anti-depressent, be aware that herring has high amounts of tyramine. 

1½ oz herring marinated in wine, drained ¼ cup beets, cooked, cooled and diced 1½ oz apple, peeled and diced ¼ cup white beans, drained and rinsed ½ hard-boiled egg, sliced 2 Tbsp onion, minced 1/2 oz dill pickle, chopped pinch sugar 2 tsp vinegar, or more 1 cup lettuce, shredded

Put the vinegar and sugar in a bowl and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Add remaining ingredients and toss gently until everything is well-incorporated. Taste to see if it needs more sugar or more vinegar. A herring-lover’s delight.

Industrial Revolution

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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.

These days, when people discuss climate change or atmospheric pollution, the Industrial Revolution is often mentioned. Before that time, factories were a cottage industry. Literally. A woman might make hats or butter to sell from home. A man might be a weaver, right in the front room of his cottage. In the 1760s, textile making was speeded up by the invention of spinning and weaving machines in Northern England. Larger manufacturing spaces were built and people were lured from subsistence farming by higher wages. Once, machines were powered by water; now steam engines, perfected by James Watt of Scotland, powered factories by burning coal. Some people decried smoke-stacks belching black coal smoke into the once-pristine country air, but locals said, “It smelled like money.” Now instead of being made one-by-one, items were mass-produced. Improvements in steel-making lead to railroads and their speeding trains. Factories became larger as manufacturing became mechanized. Cities grew in population as the countryside emptied. Fortunes were made, and work life ran by the clock instead of the sun. Modern life as we know it began with the Industrial Revolution, and our use of fossil fuels has grown over the years because of it. Early on, the new factories were seen as a blessing to areas with marginal farmland. Young men and women could work for a few years in a factory, then return to the farm with modest wealth. Were there benefits from mechanization? Yes. Did it create problems that are still with us? Decidedly. Now we must deal with the unintended consequences of industrial expansion and the use of fossil fuels. We must balance production of goods with quality of life for humans and other life on our planet. We can do it.

Our meals go back to pre-Industrial days, when most people lived on and from the land, even if they lived in a small town. Oatmeal and shepherd’s pie would have been very familiar foods to an agricultural family in Northern England.

Oatmeal Pudding:  258 calories 4 g fat 5 g fiber 14 g protein 36 g carb [34 g Complex] 55.6 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the pudding only, and do not include the optional beverage.  GF PB  A riff on a recipe found in Marion Cunningham’s Breakfast Book, this can easily be prepared the night before. HINT: MAKES ENOUGH FOR TWO [2] SERVINGS.  Make them both, since two are as easy as one, and freeze the other.

½ cup rolled oats, cooked in 1 cup water 2 tsp maple syrup ½ cup fat-free cottage cheese pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon 4 Tbsp. blueberries [fresh or frozen]   Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea  

Cook the oatmeal in the water. Take off the heat, stir in the maple syrup and nutmeg. While it is still a little warm, stir in the cottage cheese. Let sit to cool.  HINT: I did this part the night before while cleaning up after dinner.  If cooking for one, pour half of the pudding into a freezer container and top with 2 Tbsp blueberries. Freeze it. HINT: make the entire batch, eat half of it today and freeze the rest for a really simple-to-prepare breakfast for another day. With the remainder, stir in 2 Tbsp blueberries and pour the pudding into a ramekin. Nuke it for a minute to heat through – longer than that and it will bubble over. Serve with the hot beverage of your choice for a hearty, healthy meal.

Shepherd’s Pie:  276 calories 12 g fat 2 g fiber 21.6 g protein 21.6 g carbs 53 mg Calcium  PB GF  The addition of mashed cauliflower is a great trick to lessen the carb count of mashed potatoes. Some people like to top this pie with mashed cauliflower only, but I enjoy the combo for a more authentic taste.  HINT: serves 2. Freeze leftovers for another dinner or invite a guest.

1 cup roast lamb, ground or minced 1 two-oz egg, separated ½ cup mashed potatoes ½ cup mashed cauliflower ½ cup lamb gravy, as fat free as you can make it 1 cup lettuce ½ tsp olive oil + ½ tsp lemon juice OR cider vinegar 1 oz tomatoes

Add the egg yolk and gravy to the roast lamb, along with salt and pepper to taste. Whip the eggwhite until stiff and fold into the mashed vegetables with salt and pepper to taste. Put the lamb mixture into an oil-spritzed oven-proof dish [2-3 cup capacity] and spread it out evenly. Smooth the mashed vegetables on top and ruffle it with a fork or spoon. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes or until the top begins to brown a bit and the inside is hot. Whisk the oil and lemon juice in a wide bowl, add the lettuce and tomatoes, and toss gently.

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

1 two-oz egg1 cup plain fat-free Greek-style yogurt 
scrapple + scallionrolled oats + vanilla extract
raspberriesrhubarb + turbinado sugar
fat-free French-vanilla yogurtslice of 3%-fat ham
Optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

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

3# chicken + onion + celery4 oz halibut per person + side salad
carrot + Worcestershire saucerhubarb + onion
white whole wheat flour + peascider vinegar + brown sugar
dumplingsground cloves + allspice + cinnamon
Sparkling waterSparkling water

That Wonderful Wizard

~ me ~ Leave a comment

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.

Which came first for you: reading the Wizard of Oz or seeing the 1939 movie? When I was three years old, my parents took me to my first movie: “The Wizard of Oz.” I loved it, though I was terrified of the green-faced Wicked Witch of the West! The movie was of course based on the book by L. Frank Baum, published on May 17, 1900. Lyman F. Baum was born in upstate New York in 1856. Tutored at home as a child, he dropped out of high school due to a heart problem. Baum kicked around in several different jobs — actor, salesman, newspaper man — and married a suffragette’s daughter in 1882. Frank [he hated the name Lyman] enjoyed telling stories to his four children and found his calling. In 1897 and 1899, he published best-selling children’s books: Mother Goose in Prose and Father Goose, His Book. Then came the big pay-off with an orphan girl from Kansas: on May 17, 1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published. Baum said the book “was written solely to pleasure children today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.” [The Flying Monkeys did not get that memo!!] It was a runaway best seller, the first in a series of Oz books. The book turned into movies and Broadway plays [one by Baum, then The Wiz and Wicked] and spawned a debate over whether or not the Wizard of Oz is a populist allegory. In some places, the books are banned due to the presence of witches, good and wicked alike. You can decide for yourself.

When Dorothy leaves her ruined farmhouse to go explore Munchkin Land, she fills her basket with food from the kitchen. Bread, apples, and cheese are fine foods for the road. Our breakfast is made of apples and cheese. Dinner shows what you can do with sandwich bread on a Fast Day.

Apple-Cheese Pancake Plate:  142 calories 4 g fat 2 g fiber 11 g protein 17.5 g carbs 31 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the main meal only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB GF – if using GF flour  The preparation is so simple – if the pancakes were already made. I cooked the batch the night before. Fine for a Fast Day breakfast or, on a Slow Day, serve with a bit of peanut butter.

2 Apple-Cheese pancakes ** 1 slice Canadian bacon [back bacon] 2 oz melon   Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]  Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie  [88 calories]

Cook the bacon, warm the pancakes, and plate with the melon. Perfect.

**Apple-Cheese Pancakes  makes 10 From Molly Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook. ½ cottage cheese ½ c grated apple  1/3 cup white whole wheat flour 1½ tsp honey 1 ½ tsp almond meal 2 eggs, separated 2 tsp Parmesan lemon juice cinnamon Stir together everything except the egg whites. Whip the whites until they are stiff and fold them gently into the batter. Heat a griddle or heavy skillet a bit warmer than ‘medium’. Spray it with cooking spray. Meter out the batter using a 3-Tbsp scoop or something similar, and place batter on the hot griddle. Flatten out a bit. Be careful not to cook too fast, lest the inside not be cooked. When brown on the bottom, flip them over. Serve hot or let them cool to store. They reheat very nicely.

Chicken Salad Sandwich: 292 calories 7 g fat 7 g fiber 28 g protein 35 g carbs 145 mg Calcium   PB GF – if using GF bread  If you bought a chicken salad sandwich, it might ‘cost you’ 500 calories and 16 g fat. This sandwich is much less ‘expensive’ and tastes great.

2½ oz cooked chicken breast 2 Tbsp part-skim ricotta cheese 1 tsp yellow Sriracha, or more 2 tsp chopped onion 2 tsp chopped celery 2 tsp chopped cilantro leaves salt and pepper to taste 2 slices 70-calorie whole-grain bread with seeds [such as Dave’s Killer ‘Good Seed’] lettuce + 1 oz tomato slices ½ cup Swedish Cucumber Salad

Shred or chop the chicken. Mix with the ricotta and flavorings, including Sriracha. Add more Sriracha if the mixture needs to be moistened further. Toast the bread, if you like. Spread the chicken salad on one slice of bread, add the lettuce and tomato. Top with the other piece of bread and plate with the Cucumber Salad. A good ‘on-the-go’ meal.

Peasants

~ me ~ Leave a comment

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.

OLD JOKE: The agitated servant, singed and battered, runs pell-mell into the presence of the Lord of the Manor. “Sire,” he pants, “the peasants are revolting!” His master, looking bored and missing his meaning, lifts a perfumed handkerchief to his nose and sighs, “Of course they are.” People [read: the privileged classes] have been making disparaging comments about the ‘lower classes’ for so many centuries that we have a mental picture: loutish, stupid, unwashed. But what is a peasant, really? The word is from the latin, meaning ‘from a canton,’ thus: someone from the provinces far from the sophistication of the city. Called ‘serfs’ in Russia and medieval Europe; ‘contadino’ in Italy; ‘paysan’ in France; ‘subsistence farmers’ in the US, they have gotten a bad rap. Until the rise of Big Agra, peasants grew all the food that fed the world — in many places, they still do. Their lives were difficult but sometimes their close-to-the-land lifestyle had appeal: Marie Antoinette would retire to her ‘petit hameau’ on the grounds of Versaille to live a simpler life. Breugal painted peasants at work and play while the Limbourg Brothers often showed the turn of the seasons via the work of peasants.

The adage “Eat breakfast like a king and dine like a peasant” is often given as a formula for a healthy diet. This implies eating fewer calories at night. In addition, ‘peasant’ foods were home-grown and/or foraged, low in animal protein, unprocessed and unadulterated. And in small portions. To eat like a peasant also means eating at a lower trophic level. Our breakfast of fruit and grains and our dinner of grains and beans fit the requirements of wholesome, inexpensive, simple food.

Fruited Porridge:  183 calories 1.4 g fat 9 g fiber 7 g protein 38 g carbs [38 g Complex] 36 mg Calcium  PB Here is a delicious way to get your superfoods in one meal. Berries and whole-grain cereal are unbeateble together and easy to prepare as well.

¼ cup Bob’s Red Mill 10-Grain Cereal ¾ cup water ¼ cup diced strawberries ¼ cup blueberries ¼ cup raspberries   Optional: a few tablespoonsful of milk   Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [85 calories]  or lemon in hot water

If the fruit is frozen, as mine was: place in a sieve over a small bowl the night before to thaw. Save the juice to add to a smoothie. Cook the cereal in the water for 8 minutes, stiring twice. Take off heat and add the fruit. Stir gently and serve with a little milk, if you wish.

Red Beans & Rice:  295 calories 1 g fat 13 g protein 57.5 g carb   PB GF  This is the old classic recipe for the ‘perfect protein’. Once we were afraid that we wouldn’t like it, since it sounds bland, but we do like it. Yeah, you’re right, the carbs are way out of control, but these complex carbs are really good for you. HINT: This is enough for 4 servings! Either have a gathering or cut the recipe or freeze for later.

1¾ cups brown rice, cooked ½ cup celery, chopped ½ cup sweet yellow or other color pepper, diced 1 cup onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced ¾ cup crushed tomato oregano + black pepper 1¾ cups red beans, drained and rinsed ½ cup green beans or peas

Cook the rice. Saute the celery, pepper, and onions for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 5 minutes more. Add the tomato sauce and seasonings. Stir in the red beans and heat through. When the rice is done, add 1 and 3/4 cups to the mixture.  HINT: if there is extra rice, it freezes well. Serve with the cooked green vegetable. 

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

1 two-oz egg + soy sauce1.5 two-oz eggs 
ginger + bean sproutsapple or unsweetened applesauce
crab meat + scallionscooked spinach
garlic powder +pear chèvre
Optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

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

4-oz bison burger + mushroomstilapia fish + sweet potato
curried catsupegg + white whole wheat flour
choices from a variety of vegetablescanola oil + garlic powder
asparagus + paprika + lime juice
Sparkling waterSparkling water

Flora, Goddess of Flowers

~ me ~ Leave a comment

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 Health Specialist who is now Following.

The Romans were pantheistic. There was a diety for everything in the natural world and the political, since deceased emperors were made into gods. One of my favorites is Flora, the goddess of flowers and flowering plants. She was originally a goddess of the Sabine People, who introduced her to Roman culture. In the Greek legend, the nymph Chloris attracted the love of Zehpyrus, the Springtime wind. He married her and granted her dominion over all blooming things: plants, nubile teenagers, and pregnant women. In 238 BCE, a festival called Floralia was instituted in her honor. Today, towns and cities throughout southern France there are floral festivals in early May and it is traditional to give a nosegay of Lily of the Valley/Muguet du Bois to someone to express your love or wish good luck. I like the idea of celebrating the blooms of Spring, so early in May I honor Flora with food and flowers.

The famous Roman Cato the Elder, 234–149 BC, in his agriculture book tried to promote traditional practices of farming and eating. He describes the tradition of baking Libum to leave in the household shrine to the gods. It is made with honey, which Flora is said to have given to the world. There’s our breakfast. Dinner is a modern salad with all sorts of Springtime ingredients: eggs, asparagus, young greens, and flowers. Food for the gods.

Cato’s Breakfast:  235 calories 4 g fat 2 g fiber 13 g protein 47 g carbs 89 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB  Cato, the Roman orator and senator, included Libum in his book de Agricultura. The other elements of the meal were popular foods in ancient Rome.

225 g/1 cup light ricotta cheese
113 g/1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 oz = ½ egg
2 Tbsp honey		Combine these ingredients to a Play-Doh consistency.
0.2 oz pine nuts, about 45 pinonsForm dough into 11 balls, each made with 2 Tbsp dough [33-g]. Top each ball with 4-5 pine nuts.
11 bay leaves TIP: you can do all this the night before and bake in the morning.Lightly spritz a baking pan with non-stick spray and lay the bay leaves on it. Place one dough ball on each leaf.
Warm honeyBake at 350 F for 20 minutes. While still warm, brush with honey.

2 Libum [33-grams of dough each] 2 oz pear 1 deglet noor date 1 oz chicken breast meat  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] or lemon in hot water  

Bake the Libum and plate with the other ingredients. Although Cato probably would have served wine with breakfast, that would not be a good option.

Springtime Shrimp Salad: 192 calories 7 g fat 3.6 g fiber 17 g protein 17 g carbs 114 mg Calcium   PB GF  In Spring, the clementines are decreasing in the markets and the asparagus is increasing. A salad with shrimp is delightfully delicious.

2 cups mesclun OR baby greens 2.5 oz small shrimp 8-9 sections clementine 1¾ oz asparagus edible flowers for garnish ¾ oz mango ½ hard-boiled egg 2 tsp Spicy Aioli Dressing 

Prepare all the ingredients, cutting or cooking as necessary. Combine the Dressing and measure 2 tsp into a large bowl. Toss the salad greens with the dressing and a pinch of salt. Turn onto the serving plate and arrange the other ingredients atop the greens. Enjoy the colors and flavors of Spring.