Fast Diet recipes – day 10

Breakfast: Poached eggs with chilli and soy (175 calories)

Lunch: Green bean, courgette and samphire salad (177 calories)

Dinner: Chicken meatball broth (198 calories)

= 550 calories

Add 150 g fresh strawberries (50 cal) to make it up to a 600 man calorie day.

Due to various foodie engagements, we had to do 2 fast days back-to-back this week which also coincided with our swimming days. I tried to pick the most filling and sustaining recipes for fast day 10 to keep us going and I’m relieved to say, they did the trick.

For breakfast we went back to one of our fast diet favs, the poached eggs with chilli and soy.

Green bean, courgette and samphire salad

Samphire is one of my all-time favourite foods and although it isn’t the lowest calorie vegetable out there, it adds a touch a luxury to this salad. I love the texture of courgettes cooked on the griddle and it was quite surprising how little oil you actually need. Earlier in the season I used local asparagus in place of the green beans, and I think it would work really well with mange tout as well.

177 calories per serving

Serves 2

400 g (3 medium) courgettes (66 cal)

2 tsp olive oil (80 cal)

300 g green beans, trimmed (93 cal)

100 g samphire (100 cal)

1 garlic clove, crushed (8 cal)

½ lemon, juiced (6 cal)

• Slice the courgettes lengthways into very thin strips with a mandolin or vegetable peeler.
• Put a griddle pan on to heat until smoking hot while you drizzle the courgette with half of the oil and season with salt and pepper.
• Griddle the courgette slices in batches for a minute or two on each side or until nicely marked.
• Meanwhile, cook the beans in boiling salted water for 3 – 4 minutes or until al dente.
• Combine the cooked courgettes and beans in a bowl, then toss the samphire around in the hot griddle pan for a couple of minutes just to heat through.
• Add the samphire to the rest of the vegetables and dress with the rest of the oil, the lemon juice and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
• Either serve warm straight away, leave to marinate at room temperature for a few hours or make the night before and refrigerate ready for lunch the following day.

We had a couple of hours of weeding to do at the allotment after work, so for dinner we went back to the chicken meatball broth. When I made it before I froze the two leftover portions of meatballs and next time I make it, I’ll probably double or triple the recipe so there’s always some ready to defrost. When we got in it took less than 8 minutes to get dinner on the table – perfect for busy fast days.