Those Pizza Express Legera Pizzas are pretty good actually

Ok so it is a bit odd ordering a pizza with the centre taken out but they do it well, it is presented nicely on a big black slate like thing and has a load of salad in the middle and you do not feel deprived or that you are eating something specifically weirdy for fatsos. 500 cals, can't remember how many WKSC points or grammes of sat fat but essentially it allows you to go out and eat something tasty without pigging out. Result.

Oh and by the way

I lost two pounds this week Yay! And my faithful friend who has valiantly agreed to endure the weekly risk of humiliation with me also dropped a considerable amount too!

Ok this is brilliant

So I saw a recipe today for celeriac rosti, mm I said to myself, I love rosti and it being celeriac, it would be (WKSC) point free. But then I remembered that Peter, my beloved, most hated thing is celeriac and so it was not a perfect option for dinner. But he loves butternut squash, and I do too so I thought I would try that instead. Reader it was FABULOUS and really, really easy.

Peel and grate half a medium sized butternut squash into a bowl, add three or four finely sliced spring onions, a finely diced red chili, lots of salt and pepper and two egg whites. I added half a packet of low fat feta cheese too but that is optional.

Then I sprayed a muffin tin with a little olive oil and put a large spoon of the mixture into each and pressed it down and baked them in the oven for about 25 minutes.

I served it with a piece of roasted cod and a mixed green salad so the whole point value was about 5 per portion.

Ugh, an uninspiring day

I did manage a long walk and even broke into a run occasionally so that was good and I didn't over eat at all which is good as I am to be weighed tomorrow.

Oh and top tip for a chocolate fix is that Options stuff with a spoon of Bournville cocoa stirred in. x

Um, I will need to get off my backside and burn some calories due to excessive consumption in the past 24 hours

We had a lovely dinner with friends last night and tons to drink but I probably stayed within my WKSC points as I had saved up loads knowing that I was going to indulge. However my hangover was my achilles heel and the Valentines day chocolates didn't help.

I did have a brisk walk in the rain (to collect the car) but it will take more than that to undo the damage. So if I am to claw back any weight loss this week (before being weighed at the WKSC on Tuesday) I will need to venture into the unfamiliar and not very popular realm of exercise. Ho Hum.

The thing about dieting....

Is that you just have to accept that not everything you eat is going to be delicious.

Dinner last night was baked salmon with cauliflower puree and a small amount of braised lentils. And it was nice but not amazing. Basically the cauliflower puree would have been delicious if I had used loads of butter and cream but I just used a little quark (very low fat cheese) and a tiny bit of grated parmesan and loads of seasoning. And it was nice and very low in fat (and WKSC points) but......

However the point of the exercise was that I am going out to dinner in a friends house tonight and intend on being able to enjoy myself without worrying.

In quest of fabulous drinks

So I recently got to go to St Lucia for work purposes. And the experience was greatly enhanced by the discovery of a delicious drink, Chairmans rum and Ginger, served over ice with a wedge of lime. This did not enhance my waistline much however so it occurred to me that i could try to make an approximation at home with the fabulous 'no point' Agave Nectar.

Agave Nectar is a natural fructose based sweetener from the agave plant and it has a low GI which means it releases the sugars slowly and is helpful in weight loss as it cuts down on peaks and troughs which lead to hunger pangs and unnecessary troffing.

So I grated a load (a large root) of fresh ginger into a pot, I added about a 1/4 of a bottle of Agave Nectar, the zest and juice of a lime and about 2 cups of water. I brought it to the boil and simmered it for about 20 mins and left it to cool.

Then I filled a glass with ice, poured over a measure of vodka (Grey Goose), a large table spoon of the ginger syrup and topped up the glass with sparkling water. Reader it was delicious, really delicious. And just one WKSC point.

So last nights dinner was.....

Ratatouille with Pasta and Parmesan.

Ratatouille is essentially a Mediterranean vegetable stew and as a peasant food it means that there is no fixed recipe and you can adjust it to suit whatever ingredients you have hanging about. So I like to include the basic six ingredients:
Aubergine, Courgettes, Peppers, Onions, Garlic and tinned Tomatoes

Quantities don't really matter that much to be honest. Just make sure the veg is cut to fairly evenly matched sizes, sautee them in a large pan over a medium heat in a spray of olive oil.
(handy hint - don't buy the weirdo low fat spray oils, just buy a pump spray bottle and fill with regular olive oil).

Add a tin on tomatoes or two depending on the quantities, a large pinch of dried oregano, a good pinch of salt and pepper and let it simmer for at least 30-40 mins.

Now that is the basic recipe and works well but I tend to mess with it frequently for a number of reasons. Namely because this is a brilliant low point dinner and I eat it regularly and ergo get BORED. So for example last night I added celery for crunch, a finely diced chilli for spice, a large handful of queen olives (roughly chopped) for savouryness and a whole punnet of mushrooms because they needed to be used up.

I served this with a little bit of fusilli pasta and a handful of grated parmesan cheese.

It was lovely.

What I am about

I was a chef. But I am not working as a chef now and my enthusiasm for cooking (and wine) means that I have beefed up considerably and I need to get back to being lovely, not lardy.

So I am doing fine, I have lost 17lbs with the aid of a Well Known Slimming Club, so far so good.

But food is really important to me and I can't countenance the revolting ready meals the Well Known Slimming Club (known henceforth as WKSC) push on their members so I have been wracking my brain for ways of cooking delicious foods with low fat (and 'points' from the WKSC) and relatively low carb content.

I thought a blog would be a good way of keeping note of these recipes and ideas and might even prove helpful to others who also face the depressing prospect of tasteless diet food. And so I created Slendertome.

I also would really welcome ideas from like-minded circumferentially challenged enthusiastic cooks.