We used to eat a lot of vegetarian food but somehow we have gotten out of the practice of 5 days vege so I signed up for No Meat May There are lots of reasons to eat less meat as you will be aware, my main reason at present is to lose a few pounds and get back to feeling more fit and healthy.
My breakfast consists of banana and low fat Greek yoghurt with a teaspoon of honey. Lunches are homemade soups, or salad with avocado, egg, or cottage cheese. Eggs on toast or Marmite mushrooms from Pinch of Nom are firm favourites, I’m cutting carbs so I served marmite mushrooms in half a roasted pepper instead of on toast. Also cutting out alcohol.
I’ve decided to use my new Ninja 9 in 1 and my slow cooker as much as possible for our main meals, I’m trying to save on the gas and electric bills. Also doubling up a recipe will give us meals for the freezer and save energy too, I did this with the chilli.
Monday.
I took a look in the fridge to see what veg needed using up, I hate food waste. There was a tagine spice mix from The Spicery leftover from Christmas so a tagine was on the menu. I roasted the root veg in the Ninja first, then added everything else and simmered until done.
Tuesday
It was cold so we had 2 bean and sweet potato chilli, with beans I had cooked from dried in the Ninja pressure cooker and frozen. I make this a lot and don’t follow a recipe.
Wednesday
When I’m calorie counting ( I’m eating about 800 to 900 calories a day) I often use a diet recipe from a cookbook or website so I know the calorie count, but I don’t usually weigh anything or follow the recipe exactly. This is Cheesy Aubergine Bake from Pinch of Nom. It looks dark but it was lovely and thick, that’s how we like it.
Thursday
Today I wanted something I could prepare in the morning and cook without much fuss in the evening. I have 3 caulis in the fridge so l made roasted cauliflower with vegan bacon seasoning, a slaw with fennel, carrot, cabbage and apple, with white wine vinegar and a little olive oil dressing. We had sweet potato chips which were air fried, as was the cauliflower. I served this with a roasted red pepper sauce that I had in the freezer. I get a veg box delivery every week and there’s usually a pepper in it, as I’m the only one who eats them I often make them into a sauce and freeze it in an ice cube tray.
Friday
We usually eat fish on a Friday but today we had something different. I made quick seitan yesterday from It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken. I’ve never made or even eaten seitan before so I didn’t know what to expect. It was very easy to make, I steamed it in the Ninja. This was used to make Hairy Dieters lemon chicken, only without the chicken, served with cauliflower fried rice. I told you I had a lot of cauliflowers.
Saturday
We have curry on a Saturday, but today there’s no meat, rice or breads. Once again I looked at the veg from my box delivery to decide what to make. I opted for a beetroot and coconut curry from The Spicery, ‘How To be A Curry Legend’ book and spice kit. I used their spices in all my curries. The cabbage curry was inspired by a Youtube video. The creamy vegetable curry is based on Pinch of Nom ‘Oven Baked Pasanda’ but I changed things up a bit using vegies, and my own mix of spices. The sauce is from the book, it’s good, and low calorie. All my curries were made in the Ninja.
I made some chickpea tofu yesterday from Delicious Every Day I wanted this to be crispy so I marinated it in a little oil and spices,with ginger and garlic then air fried in the Ninja. I don’t really like tofu but I love this, they were light and fluffy.
Sunday
I was going to make a roast dinner today with vegetarian sausages and onion gravy but as the other half of the aubergine bake is sitting in the fridge we will be having that with salad. Next week I won’t need to cook every day as there are meals in the freezer.
I said at the beginning of this post that I was taking part in No Meat May for several reasons, two being to lose some weight and get fitter. With that in mind I have been exercising every day, gym twice a week, at least a 3 mile walk every day, and 10 minutes on the exercise bike when I can fit it in. I’ve also been drinking 6 or 7 glasses of water a day too.
We have enjoyed all our meals very much, even OH said he was loving our dinners. I feel great, have more energy and I was amazed when I got on the scales this morning and saw that I’ve lost 6 pounds. I never thought that would be possible in just a week, maybe I can reach my target of losing 12 pounds by the end of the month. I’ll get back to you then and tell you how No Meat May went.
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