Fast Diet recipes – day 8

Breakfast: Apricot and ginger porridge (201 calories)

Lunch: Asian omelette rolls (193 calories)

Dinner: Vegetable stir fry (160 calories)

= 554 calories (plus mandarin jelly for Justin – 39 calories)

Today was the last fast day before a much-anticipated trip to France to see my folks. This is where those feast days really come into their own! Whether my resolve to continue the fast days remains after a couple of days of beautiful bread, rillettes and wine, we’ll just have to wait and see…

We both had a busy morning ahead of us, so I decided to re-visit the hearty apricot and ginger porridge from our first ever fast day. Still tasty (for porridge made with water, at least) and still filling.

Asian omelette rolls

This dish has snuck into first place as Justin’s favourite fasting lunch! Using a thin omelette as a sort of Asian tortilla works really well and the combination of prawns, coriander and beansprouts in the centre made for a satisfyingly munchy snack.

Serves 2

193 calories per serving

1 tsp sunflower oil (40 cal)

3 medium eggs (234 cal)

40 g beansprouts (12 cal)

2 spring onions, thinly sliced (8 cal)

a few sprigs of fresh coriander (1 cal)

100 g cooked, peeled king prawns (67 cal)

¼ of the Vietnamese dressing below for dipping (24 cal)

For the Vietnamese dressing (4 servings):

3 tbsp fresh lime juice (from 1-2 limes) (12 cal)

1 tbsp caster sugar (60 cal)

1 tbsp fish sauce (16 cal)

½ garlic clove, crushed (4 cal)

½ red chilli, finely chopped (2 cal)

• First make the dressing: mix the lime juice with the sugar and fish sauce, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
• Stir in the garlic and chilli, then store in a sealed container in the fridge until ready to use.
• Brush a small non-stick frying pan with half the oil. Gently beat the eggs together, then pour half of it into the pan and swirl to coat the base. Cook over a low heat until the surface has set, then transfer to a plate. Repeat to make the second omelette.
• Add the beansprouts to the hot pan and stir-fry until just cooked. If you’re eating straight away, add the spring onions, coriander and prawns to the pan and heat through for a couple of minutes. Roll up half of the mixture inside one of the omelettes and serve warm with the dipping sauce.
• If you’re making it as a packed lunch, leave the beansprouts to cool completely before mixing with the rest of the ingredients. Roll up inside the cooled omelettes, then wrap them tightly with clingfilm and refrigerate until needed. Serve chilled with the dipping sauce.

Vegetable stir-fry

Apologies for using similar flavours for both lunch and dinner, but this is a good way of using up the leftover beansprouts and dressing from the lunch recipe. The vegetables could easily be varied depending on what you have in the fridge, especially as most fast day recipes tend to call for quite small amounts of each ingredient.

160 calories per serving

Serves 2

2 tsp olive oil (80 cal)

75 g (1 small) red onion, sliced (28 cal)

1 (80 g) carrot, julienned (20 cal)

100 g red cabbage, finely shredded (30 cal)

175 g beansprouts (53 cal)

10 g salted peanuts or cashews, roughly chopped (60 cal)

2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped (1 cal)

½ of the Vietnamese dressing below (48 cal)

For the Vietnamese dressing (4 servings):

3 tbsp fresh lime juice (from 1-2 limes) (12 cal)

1 tbsp caster sugar (60 cal)

1 tbsp fish sauce (16 cal)

½ garlic clove, crushed (4 cal)

½ red chilli, finely chopped (2 cal)

• To make the dressing, combine all of the ingredients and stir to dissolve the sugar.
• Heat the olive oil in a wok and stir-fry the onion, carrot and cabbage for 2 – 3 minutes.
• Add the beansprouts and stir-fry for a further 2 minutes.
• Take the wok off the heat and stir in the dressing, then divide between 2 bowls and sprinkle with the nuts and coriander.