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 mybookeyes who is now Following.

October 31 is Hallowe’en, which is short for ‘All Hallows Eve.’ That means ‘the day before the Day of all the Holy Ones.’ The official churchy name for November 1 is ‘All Saints Day.’ So what is a ‘saint’? In the early days of Christianity, the term was used to include all believers. St Paul addressed a letter [Romans I:7] to “all that be in Rome, called to be saints…” to say that every member of the community of believers was a saint. Years passed and when Roman Emperors grew tired of Christians, a saint was synonymous with ‘martyr,’ one who died because of his/her faith [ex: St Perpetua; St Lawrence]. Centuries passed and Christians mostly thought of saints as dead people, though they often hailed the living as saints if they were holy hermits or seemed to perform miracles [ex: St Clair; St Robert]. Then there are saints who’s stories are used to explain or illustrate a certain point [St Wilgefort; St Veronica; St Christopher], but who never lived at all! Today the Roman Catholic Church has a vigorous vetting process for prospective saints — it is not as easy as it used to be. But when I think of saints, I start singing a hymn written by Lesbia Scott and put to music by John H. Hopkins. It sweetly goes back to the original idea of Paul to tell us that saints are everywhere and that even we can aspire to sainthood. Here’s the end of the hymn. Amen.

You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store, 
in church, by the sea, in the house next door; 
they are saints of God, whether rich or poor, 
and I mean to be one too. 

Lest one think of saints only as ‘dead Europeans,’ our meals will honor saints from other parts of the world. Many of the Caribbean Islands are named for saints, but oddly, there are no native saints. There are many ‘blesseds’ and ‘venerables’ from the Caribbean, and maybe they once enjoyed a breakfast like our’s. From India, there are several native-born Christian saints, so our dinner might have been familiar to them. If we each resolve to be more kindly, the world would be a better place. If you resolve to eat less, your weight will be in a better place.

Caribbean Breakfast: 228 calories 7.4 g fat 4.4 g fiber 5 g protein 40 g carbs [27 g Complex] 24.6 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB  Although the protein values are low, this makes for a lovely little tropical meal.

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

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

Put everything except the water in a bowl and work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers. Once it is all incorporated, stir in the water with a fork. Knead slightly on a work surface and roll into a cylinder which is about 1-½“ in diameter. Slice off equal pieces. To cook them, bring a pan of heavily salted water to a strong simmer. Add several of the dumplings. They will sink to the bottom and stay there. After 10-15 minutes, remove them and put on a cloth towel to dry and cool. Cook remaining dumplings.

Tandoori Fish Curry w/ Naan: 294 calories 12 g fat 5.5 g fiber 18.6 g protein 29 g carbs [10 g Complex] 69 mg Calcium  PB An easy recipe, made from some off-the-shelf ingredients, that packs a lot of flavor into a meal. The naan is fun to make at home. If you have access to purchased naans, pay attention to the calorie count so it ‘fits’ our needs – cut the naan smaller if needed.

3 Tbsp ‘tandoori simmer sauce,’ purchased 3 Tbsp low-fat coconut milk, purchased 2.5 oz haddock or other firm-fleshed fish ½ cup small broccoli florets 1.6 oz carrots, sliced as coins 1 oz red bell pepper, sliced 1 naan bread @ 92 calories 

Put the sauce and coconut milk in a saucepan with a little water. Add the vegetables, cover the pan, and simmer until almost cooked. Break the fish into pieces and lay it on top of the vegetables. Cover and continue to simmer another 5 minutes until the fish is cooked. Warm the naan and serve. Delicious.