A couple of great frugal blogs
I don't want you to think I've entirely forgotten the main point of this blog which is about eating frugally, not just fasting on the 5:2. And I've recently discovered a couple of blogs that do that...
View Article5:2 Easy spicy 5 vegetable stew
Looking at the arctic scene out of the window this morning I must admit the last thing I wanted to do was fast but having worked out today was the only day I could fit in over the next 3 days I...
View ArticleKatie Stewart's apricot teabread
I was particularly sad to hear of the death of cookery writer Katie Stewart the other day as her books were a bible as I was learning to cook. (No, please don't work out how old that makes me.) Other...
View Article5:2 diet: Cutting down portion sizes
It is, of course, not just what you eat on a fast day but how much you eat of it. 500 calories a day (or 600 if you’re a lucky male) is not a lot so every calorie counts.Surprisingly one of the easiest...
View Article5:2: Quick red lentil and carrot dal
After 24 hours of eating pure protein* I was gagging for something veggie tonight and hit on the notion of trying to make a low calorie version of my favourite dal. I found a couple of packs of...
View ArticleSpiced root vegetable soup
I know I've been banging on a lot about 5:2 lately so here's a recipe which isn't part of the diet or that you could run up after a fast day on which you've made yesterday's dal.The only ingredient you...
View Article5:2 A 100 calorie lunch (near as . . .)
Although I find I can skip lunch more readily than I used to when I started the 5:2 diet there are days when the hunger pangs just won’t go away - particularly if I’ve eaten lightly the night before....
View Article5:2 How I learned to love (or at least like) cottage cheese
Sooner or later everyone on a diet turns to cottage cheese. Everyone except me, up to now. I’ve always loathed the stuff. But with ordinary cheese ruled out, on fast days at least, and feeling equally...
View ArticleBrown shrimps: a 5:2 diet treat
Fellow 5:2 dieters will almost certainly have discovered prawns are a great fast day food. What you might not know is that brown shrimps even tastier.Not that they’re cheap - a 90g packet will cost you...
View ArticleDoes the 5:2 diet work?
The question I get asked most often (mainly on Twitter) is whether the 5:2 diet actually works. And the answer is? Absolutely, yes it does. In the three months I've been on it I've lost almost a stone...
View ArticleWhy Frenchwomen don't get fat - mark II
After 9 days in Paris (it should have been 7 but we got marooned when Eurostar services were suspended) I was dreading getting on the scales. What would the damage be from a week's solid eating - the...
View ArticleDo you really need a 5:2 cookbook?
Given the success of the 5:2 diet it was inevitable that there would be a rash of cookbooks cashing in on it but having looked through a few I’m wondering how useful they really are. I mean how much do...
View ArticleCould you live below the line?
On Monday a major campaign kicks off called Live Below the Line to show that it is possible to feed yourself on £1 a day for 5 days - i.e. £5 for the whole week.As I'm not taking the challenge (a...
View ArticleBristol’s 'feedingthe5000' and some thoughts on street cooks
How do you make people - enough people - care about an issue like poverty? The answer might seem superficial but it’s to give them a good time as yesterday’s #feedingthe5000 event on Bristol’s College...
View Article3 meals for two from a £1 bag of veg
Having bought a £1 bag of veg at the Feeding the 5000 event last Saturday I decided to make it the basis for the next day's meals - fortunately a quiet Sunday at home with just me and my husband to...
View Article5:2 Hot smoked salmon, avocado and asparagus salad
You might well have wondered what happened to the 5:2 diet which has been conspicuously absent from the blog lately?Well, I'm still on it. Sort of. Six months on it's not as regular as it was - I've...
View ArticleHugely versatile broad bean and herb salad
I love recipes you rustle up from what you have in the fridge, freezer and storecupboard. It lends a creative edge to cooking that you never get when you've gone out to buy exactly the right...
View ArticleApricot and cardamom jam
I can't believe I've got to the age I have (don't ask!) without ever having made a pot of jam. Marmalade, yes, as regulars may recall from this post but jam and chutney, never. Which makes no sense...
View ArticleAre fritters the way to get fussy kids to eat veg?
Coincidentally I came across fritters twice last week - once in Caroline Conran's superb 'Sud de France' which I've been working my way through down in the Languedoc, the other at a neighbour's house...
View ArticleThe tomato salad that turned into an aubergine bake
You'll have to allow me the pleasure of crowing about this dish - a rescue remedy for a leftover tomato salad.I'd always taken the view that salads were unrescuable. Of course you could finish off the...
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