fasting

The Elements: Earth

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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 sapient, who is now Following.

In Aristotle’s view, the 4 Elements are described by the 4 Properties.

A characteristic of humans is that we want to understand how things work and why. The Sicilian/Greek philosopher Empedocles in the fifth century BCE proposed that all things were made of 4 Roots: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Plato later called them ‘elements’, believing that the smallest unit of matter was an element. [Later, that smallest unit was called an ‘atom’.] In the fourth century BCE, the Athenian philosopher Aristotle [384-322 BCE] made careful observations of the natural world to try to figure out why things were as they were. He concluded that the natural world was composed of combinations of five basic elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Ether. The first four made up earthly things, while Ether made up celestial objects: the sun, planets, stars. Items that contained the Earth element had the properties of being cold and dry and solid and heavy. As a Platonic Solid, the Earth Element’s shape was a cube. Rocks and soil were made of 100% of the Earth Element. This is why a rock will fall to the ground if you throw it: the rock returns to its Element. Humans and land mammals were mostly Earth [they walked on the ground and decayed into soil upon death], although they also contained Fire, since they were warm-bodied. The Earth Element was associated with agriculture and fertility; with Autumn and melancholy; with goddesses such as Demeter and Ceres. This is how we got “Mother Earth”. Our planet is named after the Element, because agriculture depended on it. The 4 Elements were such a clever idea, that the concept endured for generations, until it was replaced by the thinking of Paracelsus (1493-1541). Eventually, scientists found out more about chemistry and biology, and the idea of the 4 Elements was discarded.

Foods are described as having an ‘earthy’ flavor. It is deep and rich and savory. Mushrooms and beets form the basis of our breakfast and our dinner, as we savor the flavor of the Earth Element.

Egg-Mushroom Galette/Crepe: 153 calories… 6 g fat… 2 g fiber… 9 g protein… 17 g carbs… 39 mg Calcium… NB: The food values given above are for the plated foods only, not the optional beverages… PB This is yummy. The eggs are creamy, the mushrooms are earthy, and the crepe is nutty. 

1 galette/savory crepe ++++ one 2-oz egg ++++ 1 oz mushrooms, chopped ++++ 1 Tbspchives, chopped ++++ 1 tsp thyme ++++ generous dash of granulated garlic ++++ 1 oz strawberry OR ½ oz apple ++++   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]

Warm the galette. Spritz the non-stick saute pan with oil or spray and gently cook the mushrooms. Put the chives, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper in with the egg and beat it up. Scramble lightly with the mushrooms, keeping the eggs moist. Turn egg out on the crepe and fold the galette over the egg. Plate the fruit. Sip your beverages and have a very fine day.

Baltic Dinner: 293 calories… 5.5 g fat… 7 g fiber… 6.6 g fiber … 13 g protein… 33 g carbs… 86.4 mg Calcium…  GF Believe it or not, this diet dinner is adapted from the book Two Fat Ladies Obsessions. The meal has wonderful Eastern European flavors and is so simple to prepare that once I assembled it in 16 minutes!! 

++ 1.5 low-fat hot dogs [I like Hebrew National reduced-fat] ++++ ½ cup canned sauerkraut ++++ ¼ c pickled beets, drained ++++ ¼ c sliced onions ++++ ½ tsp horseradish ++++ 2 Tbsp canned white beans, drained and rinsed ++

Put the hot dogs [frozen or thawed] and onions in a saucepan with a little water or some juice from the sauerkraut. Heat until the dogs are cooked and most of the liquid is evaporated. Remove the dogs and add remaining ingredients to the pan to heat. Cut hot dogs into 5-6 pieces and put them back in the pan until all ingredients are heated through.

Cleopatra

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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.

What do you know about Cleopatra? If you are basing it on Shakespeare’s play or the Elizabeth Taylor film, then you are perhaps under informed. Was she beautiful? Maybe. Did she sleep her way to the top? Nope. Was she just another pretty face? No way! Cleopatra VII was the descendant of a long line of pharaohs of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. They were really from Macedonia in Greece, but they had ruled Egypt for 10 generations. When her father died, 20-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother became co-rulers. Following tradition, the siblings married — to keep it all in the family. [He died a few years later, and another brother was co-ruler.] As pharaoh, Cleopatra was a shrewd politician and tactician, steering the country through famine and into a stable economy. Her undoing was the fault of the Roman Empire and its succession struggles. Julius Caesar’s government had been threatened by rival Pompey, until the latter was murdered in Egypt at the Ptolemaian palace. The Romans invaded Egypt, and Cleopatra decided to side with the winner. She flirted, and she won his heart. Cleopatra and Caesar ruled together, and had a son, Caesarion. On the side, her brother was challenging her rule, so Caesar disposed of him. After Caesar’s assassination, there was competition between the dead ruler’s son Octavian and his father’s protege, Mark Antony. They divided the empire, with Antony taking the East — and Cleopatra too. They had three children together. At last, Octavian attacked the pair, at sea and on land. Seeing the end was near, Antony killed himself. Cleopatra committed suicide on August 12, 30 BCE, no doubt with poison, rather than an asp. How do male historians deal with strong, capable women? By reviling them as evil, wanton temptresses who corrupt men. Now you know the truth. Take it as you will.

Egyptian peasants ate bread and drank beer made from bread. The nobility ate a wide variety of fruits and dairy products, along with poultry and fish. Our breakfast is made entirely of foods known to ancient Egyp-tians, including the fruit and yogurt in the Berry Lassi. The dinner is similarly full of favorites of that era.

Cleopatra’s Breakfast: 187 calories… 8.5 g fat… 3.5 g fiber… 19 g protein… 33.5 g carbs… 301 mg Calcium…  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB  This meal is based on foods eaten by aristocrats in ancient Egypt. The salty cheese is a good foil to the sweet melon. Be sure to purchase whole-grain pita at 65-75 calories, or cut one to fit our requirements. To add some more Egyptian flavors, serve with the Berry Lassi, even thought that recipe is from India. 

Whole-grain pita bread [75 calories or less] ++++ 5 oz watermelon, rind removed ++++ 1 oz halloumi ++++  Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories] or or Berry Lassi [89 calories] ++++  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories]

Put the halloumi on a dry [ungreased] cast iron pan over medium-high heat and cook it until it is browned on both sides. Plate with the fruit and bread.

Cleopatra’s Supper: 292 calories… 7.6 g fat… 5 g fiber… 25.5 g protein… 30 g carbs… 59.4 mg Calcium…  PB GF Ancient Egyptian nobles partook of a variety of foods, and four of them appear in this simple but delicious meal.

++++ One 2-oz hard-cooked egg ++++ ½ c chickpeas, drained ++++ 2 deglet noor dates ++++ 2 oz chicken breast, cooked ++++

Dice the egg and chop the dates. Cube the chicken and put everything in a bowl. Dust lightly with salt, and gently mix it all together before serving

Medical Fasting

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How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Two days each week, eat meals with a calorie total of less than 600 for the entire day. 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!

The other week, there was a memorial service for our friend Suzy M. She was a lively, engaging woman who threw herself into living life — until her life was cut short by colon cancer. The best way to detect colorectal cancer is by getting periodic colonoscopies. Too many people avoid that proce-dure because they think it sounds horrible [hello! you are sound asleep for it and it does not hurt] or they dread ‘The Prep’ [the bowel-cleansing regime that precedes the process.] That Prep involves ‘fasting’ for medical purposes, and taking prepa-rations that hasten bowel evacuation. The first time I did this, it meant drinking a saline solution that made me want to vomit. Not useful. The second time, it involved drinking polypropoylene glycol in water, which is tasteless but boring. So I evolved my own method which is more palatable and spread over 3 days. My method is based on the doctors’ suggestions on how to Prep, but tweeked to make it more flavorful and less drastic.

First, I mix up some ‘Elixir’: 6 cups water, 1/4 cup honey + 1/4 cup cider vinegar. Set aside. Then, I make some Leek Broth: 2 cups cleaned, trimmed, sliced leeks cooked in 3.5 cups water. After the soup is cooked, strain out the leeks [save to top a pizza or as an add-in for eggs], divide the liquid into two portions, and refrigerate. This is from the book French Women Don’t Get Fat in which the author, Mireille Guiliano, describes how this soup helped her to lose weight when she was a pudgy, unhappy teen. The soup is very flavorful. We make it here not for weight loss but because it is ‘filling’.

On C-day minus 3, one eats foods very low in fiber: croissants or white toast with ham for breakfast, along with orange juice and coffee/tea. For dinner, a crab cake or broiled fish with summer squash and white rice or plain pasta.

On C-day minus 2, one again eats meals that are very low in fiber. An egg for breakfast, along with orange juice and coffee. For lunch, cottage cheese. For snack, cheese.

For C-day minus 2 dinner, 2.5 oz chicken breast meat, cubed + 2.5 oz cooked white rice + 1/2 cup chicken stock. Combine the rice, and the meat, and the stock and heat until warmed through. This produces a flavorful chicken-rice stew.

The reason for these days of low fiber, is so that when you get to the last day, when laxatives are taken, there is very little left in the bowel to get rid of.

After dinner, mix three different beverages and store them in quart jars in the ‘fridge: ………………………………….. A] Combine 32 oz White Cranberry or White Grape Juice with 60 g of Polyethylene Glycol …………………………….. B] Combine 32 oz of Elixir with 60 g of Polyethylene Glycol …………………………………………………………………………. C] Combine 32 oz water with 60 g of Polyethylene Glycol

C-Day minus 1: This is the true ‘Fasting Day’, since you will have no solid food, no caffeine, no dairy, and no alcohol. For “breakfast”, a cup or two of herbal tea with honey [but no dairy] plus one cup of Leek Broth, warmed with some added salt.

At 10 am, take two [2] tablets of Ducolax  [bisa-codyl] laxative. At 11 am, Drink 8 oz of Mixture C [the water one]…. At 11:20 am, Drink 8 oz of Mixture A [the juice one] …. At 11:40 am, Drink 8 oz of Mixture B [the Elixir one] …. At 12 noon, Drink 8 oz of Mixture C …. At 12:20 pm, Drink 8 oz of Mixture A …. At 12:40 pm, Drink 8 oz of Mixture B …. At 1:00 pm, Drink 8 oz of Mixture C …. At 1:20 pm, Drink 8 oz of Mixture A …. At 1:40 pm, Drink 8 oz of Mixture B …. At 2:00 pm, Drink 8 oz of Mixture C …. At 2:20 pm, Drink 8 oz of Mixture A …. At 2:40 pm, Drink 8 oz of Mixture B……………………. C-day minus 1 dinner: one cup of Leek Broth mixed with 1 cup Beef Bouillon from a bouillon cube.

And you are done with the Prep. I have had very good success with this method: a cleaned bowel, with no explosive diarrhea, no abdominal cramps. At least, that is how it works for me. Good luck. If you are over 40 years old, haven’t had a colonoscopy ever or in more than 10 years, please, schedule one now.

Decoration Day

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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.

The Civil War in the US devastating. From April 1861-April 1865, cemeteries filled up — battlefield cemeteries — such as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania — and small town cemeteries, as remains of the Honored Dead came home to rest. In the Spring following the end of the war, women in towns and villages in both the North and South put flowers on graves. These were not stiff, formal arrangements from a florist, but garden and meadow blossoms strewn over the ground. This custom was fostered by Mary Ann Williams, a war widow from Columbus, Georgia who wrote letters urging women to decorate the graves, and that one day be set aside to honor the war dead. The idea caught on and in 1866, it was a holiday in Georgia. The head of the the G.A.R. [veterans organization in the North] promoted the idea too. In 1868, Decoration Day — the day to decorate the graves — was observed in the North. By 1890, all states had adopted the custom, observing it on May 30. After World War I, the observance was for all war dead, the name became “Memorial Day”, and so it is today — except that the day is now the last Monday in May. That way the dead can have a three-day weekend, and everyone can eat more hot dogs.

For Mary Ann Williams, a breakfast from the South, who’s rebellion started the Civil War. For dinner, a meal with bison meat. Settlers in the Plains States [where the bison lived] precipitated the debate as to whether those states should be Free or slave-holding, another factor that catapulted the nation into war.

Hoe Cakes with Fruit & Egg: 183 calories… 5.6 g fat… 5.4 g fiber… 9.5 g protein… 23 g carbs… 44 mg Calcium…  NB: Food values given are for the main meal only, and do not include the optional beverage. PB GF  This recipe harks back to Colonial Days in the American South. Everyone from enslaved people to President George Washington ate hoe cakes.  HINT: This recipe makes 6 hoecakes – enough for 2 servings of 3 each. Originally this would be made with white cornmeal, but the yellow has more nutrition. NB: Hoe cakes were never ‘cooked on a hoe’ by farm workers. Silly notion. Dear Husband enjoyed this very much and so will you.

3 Tbsp yellow cornmeal – even polenta meal would do  ++++++++ 2.5 Tbsp hot water  ++++++++++Combine by stirring well to make a mush. Let sit for 15 minutes
1 oz egg white +++++++++++ ¼ tsp yeast +++++++++++Stir into the warm cornmeal mush and let sit for 1 – 12 hours. This was 125 ml in volume
2 Tbsp cornmeal +++++++ 2 Tbsp water ++++++++ ¼ tsp salt ++++++++Mix into the cornmeal mush. If you take some up on a fork, it will sit on top with a little batter dribbling through. If it is not like this, add more cornmeal or more water. This was ½ cup in volume.
Using 2 tbsp of batter per cake, drop onto a hot griddle sprayed with non-stick spray. This should make 6 cakes. Cook on both sides. Best if eaten while fresh.
¼ cup raspberries ++++++ 1 tsp honey +++++++++++ one 2-oz egg +++++++++Put the fruit and honey in a small dish and microwave for 30 seconds. Fry the egg.
Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] Plate 2 of the Hoecakes with the egg and the other with the berry syrup. Pour your beverage of choice.

Bison Chili: per cup – 136 calories… 3 g fat… 5 g fiber… 13 g protein… 14.5 g carbs… 57 mg Calcium… PB GF  This chili is based on my mother’s recipe. Using bison meat gives good flavor to this classic. HINT: makes 4 [four] one-cup servings

4 oz ground bison ++++ 15 oz canned tomatoes – in chunks or diced drained in a sieve [save the juice] ++++ ++ 1 clove garlic, chopped ++++ 1 cup red onion, chopped ++++ ½ cup green pepper, chopped ++ ¾ cup canned red or black beans, drained and rinsed ++++ 2-4 tsp chili powder ++++ ¾ tsp salt ++++ +++ ½ – 1 tsp ground cumin ++++ 2 oz melon +++

Cook the venison, onion, garlic, and green pepper in some of the tomato juices until vegetables are tender. Add remaining ingredients and cook gently until the chili is hot throughout. Taste to see if it needs more seasoning.  Serve garnished with melon.

Franklin Expedition

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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.

Sir John Franklin had been a member of several expeditions to the polar seas, but he was the last choice to head up the voyage in 1845, to find the fabled North-West Passage. European navies had long supposed that one could sail from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific by going north of Canada instead of the long way around the tip of South America. Many attempts had been made, but all failed due to the cold, the frozen sea, and lack of know-ledge of the water routes. Franklin’s expedition had two stout ships, Terror and Erebus, built for sailing through ice. The ships had a rudimentary heating system, and a 3-year supply of a new invention: tinned food, neatly sealed with lead solder — all set for an Arctic voyage. The last anyone saw of the ship, it was off Greenland in late July, 1845. After two years without a word, Lady Jane Griffin Franklin, went to the Admiralty to ask where her husband was. Several search parties were sent out, but no trace was found, until 1859, when a cached message was found saying that the crew had abandoned ship. A more complete picture emerged from archeology in the 1990s, aided by ancestral memories of the Inuit people. Bodies were located where the Indigenous People indicated, remains that told of scurvy, starvation, lead poisoning that would have caused poor reasoning, and cannibalism. The ships were finally located in 2014 and 2016. Thus ended the story of a very ill-fated expedition.

A galley full of tinned food sealed in lead was like a death sentence waiting to be carried out. So we will have a breakfast that evokes death sentences of that era. The dinner is made of fresh fish and potatoes, which might have prevented scurvy.

Hangtown Bake: 135 calories… 7 g fat… 1 g fiber… 8 g protein… 5.4 g carbs… 46.5 mg Calcium…  NB: The food values given above are for the egg bake and fruit only, not the optional beverages. PB GF  The grim name for this California Gold Rush Era meal comes from the moniker of Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California. Since it was the county seat, justice was meted out there — including capital punishment.

1 two-oz egg ++++ 2 oysters, raw and out of the shell ++++ ½ oz bacon, un-cured is preferable ++++ 1 Tbsp scallion greens, chopped ++++ 2 oz strawberries ++++  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]

Set the oven at 350 F. Cook the bacon until it is a little underdone, then chop it up. Chop the scallion and oysters and stir in a little bacon fat, along with the bacon. Whisk the egg, add the other ingredients and whisk again. Pour into a baking dish lightly-spritzed with non-stick spray and bake for 12-15 minutes. Prepare the beverages and plate the baked egg along with the fruit.

Chowdah: 294 calories… 7 g fat… 2 g fiber… 33.6 g protein… 17 g carbs… 114 mg Calcium…  PB GF  Here in Northern New England, chowder is king. Cod or haddock is traditional but hake is more flavorful and lower in calories. HINT: This recipe makes one BIG bowl of chowdah, but if you double the recipe, you can freeze the remainder or enjoy it for lunch another day. If you can, make it one day and eat it the next day for richer flavor.

½ slice bacon ++++ ¼ cup onion, chopped ++++ 2 oz potatoes, ½” dice ++++ 1½ cups fish stock ++++ 4 oz cod or hake fillets, cut into 1½” pieces ++++ ¼ cup 2% milk ++++ salt + pepper + parsley + turmeric

Cook the bacon until it is almost crispy, remove from the pan, blot dry of fat, and chop coarsely. Pour most of the fat from the pan and add the onions. Cook slowly until soft and transluscent. In another pan, boil the potatoes in water until tender. Drain and salt the potatoes. Put the fish stock, cod, potatoes, and milk in the pan with the onions. Heat slowly until warm. Add the bacon, parsley, and seasonings to taste. [TIP: Best if held in the ‘fridge for 8-24 hours before you heat slowly [do NOT boil] and taste for seasonings again.]

Charles Perrault

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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.

What did a clerk for King Louis XIV have to do with Puss in Boots? Everything. Charles Perrault was born in 1628, into a well-placed Parisian family. His father wished him to be a lawyer, so Charles sat for the exam. Although he passed, he never practiced law. Charles drifted a bit, then became a civil servant at court. He seemed to have an affinity for ‘academies’: he helped to found the Academy of Sciences, and resurrected the defunct Academy of Painting. As a side hustle, he was the secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions, which put mottos on monuments. One of his major contributions to Parisian life was that he convinced the government to open the Tuileries Garden, next to the Louvre Palace, to the public. At age 56, Perrault was forced to retire, so he devoted himself to his children. For some reason, he wrote a book containing popular folktales which he called “Tales of Mother Goose.” It was a huge hit, beloved by children and adults alike, each story followed by two morals. Although Perrault did not call them ‘fairy tales’, he made the genre popular. Five years later, he died on May 16, 1703, but his stories took on a life of their own. They were retold by the Brothers Grimm [who made them rather violent] in Germany in the 1800s, and, of course, reinvented by Walt Disney [who, well, Disneyfied them] in the 1900s. The best way I can think of to honor the Father of the Fairy Tale, would be to relax in the Tuileries Garden while reading Perrault’s Cinderella.

I always thought that the story “Blue Beard” took place in southern France, whence comes our breakfast. The dinner is a riff on a popular meal, just as subsequent authors riffed on Perrault’s tales, to make them their own.

Chicken Provincal Bake: 139 calories… 5 g fat… 2 g fiber… 10.7 g protein… 10.5 g carbs… 47.5 mg Calcium…  NB: The food values given above are for the egg bake and fruit only, not the optional beverages.  PB GF  What wonderful flavors! Based on the dinner of the same name. 

++++ 1 two-oz egg ++++ 2 Tbsp crushed tomatoes, slightly drained ++++ ++++ ½ anchovy, canned fillets, rinsed and chopped ++++ 1 Tbsp low-fat cottage cheese ++++ ¼ oz cooked chicken breast, minced ++++ thyme, rosemary, pinch red pepper flakes ++++ 1 oz pear ++++  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]

Spritz an oven-proof dish with non-stick spray and set the toaster oven for 350 degrees F. Whisk together the first 6 ingredients [not the pear!] and pour into the dish. Bake for about 15 minutes while you slice the pear and prepare your optional beverages. Great way to start the day.

Mackerel with Gooseberry Glaze: 276 calories… 16 g fat… 1 g fat… 22 g protein… 7 g carbs… 27 mg Calcium…  PB GF This popular dish from Normandy usually features fresh gooseberries. Here in the USA, those are less common so we make a glaze of gooseberry jelly. The zucchini picks up the color of green gooseberries.

++++ 3 oz mackerel, frozen or fresh fillets ++++ 2 tsp gooseberry jelly/jam ++++ ++++ 4 oz zucchini ribbons ++++

Thaw the fish if frozen. Heat the oven to 400 F. Put fish on a baking tray and brush with melted jelly. Using a potato peeler, carve long, thin slices from the length of the zucchini until you have 3 oz. Toss the ribbons with salt and pepper. Place the ribbons on the baking tray in a heap [if they are in a thin layer, they will over-cook]. Bake the pan with the fish and zucchini for 5 minutes. Rearrange the zucchini so that the bottom of the heap is now on top. Bake 5 minutes more, or until the fish is cooked. Plate the fish with the zucchini ribbons. Sheet-pan dinners are so trendy these days.

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

1 two-oz egg = US large1.5 two-oz eggs 
2 oystersground cumin
scallion + strawberriesground paprika
American streaky baconGolden Berries
optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

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

bacon + onion6 felafel patties
potato + fish stock2 servings of Side Salad 
cod or haketomato
2%-fat milk + parsleycarrot + beets + feta cheese
Sparkling waterSparkling water

Brendan the Navigator

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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.

Which European “discovered” the Americas? Was it Columbus, 1492? No. Was it Leif Erickson and his sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir, 1000? Nope. It was Brendan, an Irish monk, in 547 CE. Who??? Brendan, who lived from around 484 CE to c. 577, was born into an Ireland that was thrilled to hear the newly-arrived Christian message. After his ordination as a priest, Brendan was the abbot of a monastery with 3000 monks. He was eager to spread the Gospel, traveling to islands off the coast of Ireland and Scotland. Then Brendan heard of a paradisiacal island ‘in the Western ocean’ and he longed to travel there. He chose 16 companions who worked together to build a curragh, the wood-framed leather-hulled boats used by Irish fishermen in fresh and salt water. Around 512 CE, they set out and are said to have returned in 530. Centuries later, the story of the trip was widely circulated. In more modern times, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis was belittled as medieval fantasy. But in the 1970s, Tim Severin [channeling his inner Thor Heyerdahl] built a 36-foot curragh and successfully sailed it from Ireland to Iceland to Newfoundland, Canada. Did the Irish reach North America centuries before anyone else? There is no hard and fast archeological evidence to prove it, but it sure sounds plausible. Read The Brendan Voyage by Severin and see what you think.

Our breakfast contains ingredients known to Irish descendants living in the US, and our dinner features a fish that Brendan and his crew would have encountered everywhere they stopped: the Faeroe Islands, the Orkneys, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland.

Corned Beef & Cabbage ScrOmelette: 154 calories… 7.6 g fat… 1 g fiber… 14 g protein… 6.5 g carbs… 65 mg Calcium…  NB: Food values shown are for the ScrOmelette and fruit only, and do not include the optional beverages. PB GF  Of course, Brendan never ate corned-beef-and-cabbage, but the Irish who later swarmed to the Americas and stayed there made the combination popular.

1½ two-oz eggs  HINT: If you are serving one person, crack three 2-oz eggs into a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Whip up those eggs and pour half of their volume into a jar with a lid and put it in the ‘fridge for next week….  ½ oz uncooked corned beef……………. 1/3 cup cabbage, very thinly sliced ………….. ½ Tbsp cottage cheese ……….. ……..pinch caraway seed + pinch thyme ……………….. 1 oz apple ……………  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]

Mince the beef and put in into a pan with ¼ cup water. Simmer until beef is cooked, then remove it to a small bowl. Put the cabbage in the water in the pan and simmer that until the cabbage is cooked – add more water as needed. Put the cabbage in the bowl with the cottage cheese and seasonings. Add some pepper, but you probably will NOT need to add salt, due to the corned beef. Mix the ingredients together. Heat a non-stick pan with some cooking spray and whisk the eggs. Put the beef/cabbage in the pan and distribute it over the surface. Quickly pour the eggs in and tip the pan to cover all the cabbage. Cook on one side, then flip and cook it some more. Fold and plate with the apple. ‘Tis a fine breakfast you’ll be having.

Salmon & Broccoli:  256 calories… 7 g fat… 5 g fiber… 29 g protein… 20.5 g carbs… 82 mg Calcium…  PB GF This is a meal that is so simple to prepare and so delicious that it seems impossible that it can be so good for you. Indulge yourself often.

4 oz filet wild Pacific salmon +++ 5 oz broccoli florets +++ ¼ c pearled barley, cooked +++ dab of salsa

Cook the pearled barley. Cut broccoli into florets and put into a pan with some water, and set on medium-high heat uncovered. Spray either a cast iron skillet or on a stove-top grill pan with non-stick spray and heat it over medium-high. [You could also broil or bake the fish. If you bake it, go for 9-10 minutes at 400F] Salt and pepper the fish all around. Cook about 4-5 minutes on each side, then take off the heat. Test the broccoli for tenderness, then plate with the barley, and enjoy.

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

1 two-oz egg = US large1 two-oz egg + crushed tomatoes 
4″-diameter thin slice of hamlots of fresh herbs + anchovy + pear
Parmesan cheese + apple2%-fat cottage cheese
2%-fat cottage cheesebits of cooked chicken
optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

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

Roast beef, cooked + olive oilmackerel fillets, fresh or frozen
pickled beets, sliced in roundsgooseberry jelly or jam
Dijon mustard + shallotzucchini
red wine vinegar
Sparkling waterSparkling water

Thoreau

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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.

David Henry Thoreau was born in 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts, USA. His father owned a factory that manufactured pencils, thin graphite rods sur-rounded by wooden cylinders. They were not wealthy, but young David studied at Harvard University. He was an individualist even then: he reversed his names to become ‘Henry David’ — just for fun — and he refused to accept his sheep-skin diploma, declaring, “Let every sheep keep its own skin.” For a few years he worked at the pencil factory, developing the idea of mixing clay with graphite so that the pencil ‘lead’ was harder and lasted longer. For a bit he taught school. One of the Thoreau’s neighbors was Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry visited often, joining in philosophical and literary discussions. Thus, he came in contact with the Transcendentalists. Thoreau wrote for the group’s newsletter and did odd jobs around the place. In 1845, he built a small cabin in Emerson’s woods, on the shore of Walden Pond, and lived there for two years in an effort to escape the conformity of society. Yet while he was “living deep and sucking out all the marrow of life”, Thoreau would walk into town every day to get his mail or dine with friends. Not exactly the ‘hermit who rejects the world’ that one imagines him to have been. In those years, he developed his most important environmental works: Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Thoreau did urge readers to live with nature, and he continued to rail against societal norms in his famous essay Civil Disobedience, which influenced political and social leaders well into the 20th century. He died in Concord on May 6, 1867. In 1872, the first tourist visited the cabin site, and proposed that visitors each place a stone on a cairn there. Although Thoreau wanted to live off the beaten path, people now beat a path to his doorstep at the Walden Pond State Reservation. He would have hated it.

Our breakfast is simple enough to cook over a fire in a cabin, and sustaining enough to take you on a hike into town for the mail. The dinner represents Thoreau’s adult preference for a non-meat diet. He pooh-poohed hunting as a ‘youthful pursuit’.

Ham & Egg & Toast: 149 calories… 7.4 g fat… 1.5 g fiber… 14.5 g protein… 7 g carbs… 40 mg Calcium  NB: The food values given above are for the egg bake and fruit only, not the optional beverages. PB GF – if using GF bread  What could be a more classic combination at breakfast! This is a diner meal, scaled down to fit into a Fast Day menu. It sure is good.

1 two-oz egg + 1 oz ham + ½ slice whole grain bread @ 35 calories for the ½ slice

Heat the ham in a non-stick pan while the bread toasts. Take out the ham and cook the egg in the same pan — over-medium works for me. Plate to your taste and partake.

Spinach or Swiss Chard Fritatta: 284 calories… 12.5 g fat… 4 g fiber… 18.5 g protein… 24 g carbs… 166 mg Calcium  PB GF  Susan Loomis is the source of this recipe, which also can be a wonderful breakfast, scaled down to suit. HINT: this recipe serves 2 as a main course. Could serve 4-6 as an appetizer.

3 oz Swiss chard or fresh spinach + 1/3 tsp olive oil + 8 oz eggs = 4 two-oz eggs in their shells + 3 pinches granulated garlic + 3 pinches salt + large pinch paprika + 3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese  per serving: 1 oz 7-grain sour-dough bread, or something similarly hearty + ¼ cup pickled beets 

Clean the chard by holding the leaf and pulling off the stem. Chop the leaves. Put olive oil in an oven-proof pan that can also be used on the stove-top. Turn on the broiler and move the upper oven rack to the top. Cook the chopped leaves in the oil until the leaves are limp, adding water as necessary to prevent sticking. Be sure to cook off the water/liquid in the pan. Spray the pan and its contents with non-stick spray. Stir and distribute the cooked chard evenly in the pan. Combine the eggs, cheese and seasonings. Whisk well and pour over the chard in the pan. Cook over medium heat until the bottom is well set, 4-5 minutes. Put under the broiler until the top is cooked. Serve from the pan or slide the fritatta out onto a serving plate, along with the toasted bread and the vegetables.

Floralie!!

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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.

Roman statue of Flora, artist unknown.

Here it is — my favorite ‘holiday’ from the classical era: Floralie! My maternal grand-mother was a teacher of latin, so my mother grew up with stories and poems of ancient Greece and Rome. I grew up learning classical mythology, and stories in the Baldwin Reader about Rome. So I guess it would be natural for me to be quite taken with Flora, the goddess of Flowers. [of course any tales of prosti-tutes in ancient Rome, often associated with Flora’s festival, were omitted from my education] What really tickles me is that her holiday, April 28 to May 3, is still honored 2238 years later in southern France, Italy, and England. There, towns have flower shows and decorate the houses with blooms. As I write this in New Hampshire, the first daffodils are blooming, along with the Pulmanaria, Scilla, and a few dandelions. Elsewhere, Forsythia is showing its golden flowers. Spring has arrived and nature is ready to celebrate Flora. Weave a floral wreath to wear in your hair.

For the goddess of Spring, we will eat flower buds in the form of asparagus at breakfast. For dinner, a delightful salad that can be composed to look like a giant blossom.

Asparagus Roll-ups: 117 calories… 7 g fat… 1.3 g fiber… 8 g protein… 2.6 g carbs… 51.5 mg Calcium…  NB: The food values shown are for the egg bake and the fruit, not for the optional beverages. PB GF Pretty on the plate and a delight to eat.

1 two-oz egg + 2 oz asparagus spears, tough lower stalks removed + 1 Tbsp whipped cream cheese + tarragon, chopped  + 4 Golden Berries or 2 strawberries  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]

Break the tough lower part of the asparagus stalks, wash, and steam or cook in minimal water until tender. Drain, salt lightly, and set aside. HINT: You could do this the night before. Whisk the eggs with the cream cheese and tarragon, along with a pinch of sea salt. Heat an 8”-9” skillet and spritz it with non-stick spray. Pour in the eggs and tilt the pan so that the eggs form a thin, even layer over the bottom of the pan. Without stirring or moving the eggs, cook until the eggs are set and as your like them – this will not take long. Remove the egg to your plate, like a big pancake. Put the cooked asparagus in the pan and shake it a bit over heat to re-warm. Lay the spears on the eggs so that the blossom ends hang over the edge. Roll the egg so that the asparagus is inside and plate attractively. With your optional beverages, you are set for a Spring-time breakfast treat.

Senegal Tuna-Avocado Salad: 264 calories 14.6 g fat 6.4 g fiber 13 g protein 18 g carbs 30 mg Calcium  PB GF  This is my version of Avocat Creole which I enjoyed at Bissap Baobab, an excellent Senegalese restaurant in Oakland, CA, now closed.

2½ oz white/Albacore tuna + 2 Tbsp celery, minced + 1-2 pinches ground ginger + ½ tsp lime juice + Sriracha sauce + ¾ oz apple, diced  + ½ tsp mayonnaise made with olive oil + 2 oz avocado + 2 Tbsp radish/alfalfa sprouts + 4 oz cherry tomatoes + ¼ oz [½ cup] baby spinach leaves   + aioli: 1 tsp mayonnaise made with olive oil + Sriracha

Lightly combine the tuna with the celery, ginger, dash of Sriracha, lime juice, apple, and ½ tsp mayonnaise. Arrange the spinach leaves in the center of the plate and mound the tuna on top. Slice the avocado and layer on top of the tuna. Mix remaining mayonnaise with Sriracha to taste and drizzle the aioli over the avocado. If the cherry tomatoes are not bite-sized, cut in half. Place tomatoes around the edge of the plate and enjoy a meal that is blooming with flavor.

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

1 two-oz egg = US large1.5 two-oz eggs + apple
1 oz roast hamcorned beef + cabbage
1/2 slice whole-grain bread [35 calories]2%-fat cottage cheese
thyme + caraway seed
optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage

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

4 two-oz eggs + Parmesan cheese4 oz wild Pacific salmon
Swiss chard or spinach + garlic powder 4 oz broccoli
garlic powder + paprika + pickled beetspearled barley
1 oz whole-grain sourdough bread
Sparkling waterSparkling water

Chelsea Morning

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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.

When I first heard Joni Mitchell’s song Chelsea* Morning in 1969, I was delighted by visual images of warm orange/yellow items, seen in an early morning light. It was so cheerful! Honey, oranges, butterscotch — deliciously lovely. I described it to my mother, who dismissed it a sounding “sticky.” Oh dear. The color orange makes one optimistic, happy, enthusiastic, and thinking of ‘youthful connections’, according to a paint company in North America. To Buddhists, who wear orange robes, the color signifies transfor-mation. Orange is the color of Autumn, from leaves to pumpkins and squashes. One of the seven colors that make up visible light, orange’s wavelength is slightly shorter than that of red: 590-625 nanometers. Prior to the 1600s, Europeans had no word for the color orange. To describe it, they said ‘yellow-red’, since the color orange is made by combining various amounts of red and yellow pigments. When sweet orange trees were introduced into Europe by Portuguese traders, the fruit gave the color its name: laranja, in Portuguese; naranja, in Spanish; arancia, to the Italians; while the English took the French word: ‘orange’. The color can be associated with aggression and impulsiveness. And then there are the orange jumpsuits that prisoners wear in court… which lead to Orange Is the New Black on TV. Be mindful of wearing orange in Northern Ireland. That was the color of the Protestant minority rulers of colonized Ireland, in honor of the Dutchman William of Orange who became the England’s protestant king in 1689. Thus, green-wearing Catholics might take umbrage. Do you wear orange or eat oranges? Look around to see how and where you encounter orange in your life. *Joni Mitchell’s ‘Chelsea’ is from New York City, not Chelsea in London as many people think.

Our breakfast is made up of items from the song, so hum along as you eat it. The dinner is of the color orange, from the butternut squash. Does eating it make you optimistic, happy, enthusiastic? I hope so!

Chelsea Morning: 210 calories… 1.5 g fat… 4.5 g fiber… 10.5 g protein… 41.5 g carbs… 267 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  Inspired by the Joni Mitchel song, these ingredients make for a cheerful breakfast and may give you an ear-worm for the rest of the day. The song mentions milk, but I substituted yogurt. Put the milk in your coffee, if you wish.

1 slice whole-grain + 70-calorie bread + 2 tsp honey + 1 clementine + ½ c plain yogurt   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]

Lightly toast the bread and drizzle with honey. Eat the fruit and yogurt separately, or mix clementine slices into the yogurt.

Thai Butternut Squash Soup:  253 calories…  9 g fat… 4 g fiber… 19.4 g protein… 24 g carbs… 112 mg Calcium  GF PB  Found in the Toronto Globe & Mail, this recipe makes a lot of delicious soup. It freezes beautifully, so you can enjoy it often. Don’t forget to add the shrimp and spinach to each serving at the end. HINT: makes 6 cups of soup. Save out one cup for dinner and freeze the rest in portion-sized containers.

2 Tbsp vegetable oil + 2 cups onion
2 cloves garlic + 1 tsp salt		Heat oil in large soup pot over medium-low heat. Chop onions + garlic, add to pan with salt. Cook 10 mins, until onions have softened.
1 Tbsp fresh ginger + 4 tsp Thai red curry pastePeel, grate ginger. Add these to pot. Cook 1-2 mins
2½# butternut squash, peeled
3 c. water or unsalted chicken broth		Slice squash ½” thick, deseed it. Add these, take to a boil. Lower heat, simmer until tender, 15-20 mins.
1 tsp lime zest 
1 Tbsp lime juice		Add these, saving remaining zest and juice.
½ cup ‘lite’ unsweetened coconut milkStir in ‘milk’. Puree until smooth in blender.
Return to pot, reheat, adjust flavor with more lime juice and/or curry paste.
per bowl: 3 oz chopped shrimp 
¼ cup baby spinach cut as chiffonade		For each serving, stir spinach + shrimp into hot soup. Serve when spinach is just wilted.