The FastDay Forum

Hello everybody. Forgive me if this repeats any old threads. I didn't see anything like it when I browsed through, but I could have missed something.

So I notice that on my fasting day, when I finally get to have my dinner, I am often clueless about what I should eat. When I do internet searches for 500 cal meal, I hit a bunch of sites with elaborate recipes for "delicious meals under 500 calories!". The thing is, I don't want to have to cook a lot when I'm fasting. It tempts me to taste stuff while I'm cooking, and cook too much and go over my limit. And frankly it's just a pain to get out a bunch of ingredients and do long minutes of food prep and clean up for a measly 500 cal meal. It just seems like too much trouble for very little return.

So here's my thought: can we share ideas for quick easy 500 cal meals? I'm talking about whole-food, minimal preparation, grab and eat stuff. Like: scramble an egg in 1 tablespoon of coconut oil with half an avocado chopped and a teaspoon of shredded cheese on top and one medium apple for dessert. Bam. You're done. Get on with life and go do something else so you don't sit there thinking about food.

Anyone? What's your favorite quick go-to fast day meal?

Dice eggplant or two to small cubes, fry them on a large non-stick pan untill the edges are brownish and the eggplant is soft.
Meanwhile, heat half of the tablespoon of lard in the saucepan, add diced onion and fry it untill it starts to golden. Ad tomato puree (content should be just tomatoes and salt) and spices like cumin, pepper, herbs, chilli, garlic... It depends if you want to go Italian or Indian or hot'n'spicy. Heat the sauce and add it to the eggplant. It's huge filling low-cal meal and thanks to spices very versatile and never boring.

I have found that making complicated meals that take a while to prepare actually helps me feel more satisfied on fast days. Stretching a meal over a cooked soup, salad, half hot sandwich and Greek yogurt can take 30-40 minutes and when its done I feel like I've eaten a meal.

I do plan ahead what I will eat, though, and measure portions on my food scale to avoid munching. Once I find a fast day meal that works, I eat it for a few months until I get tired of it. Keeping meals boring is supposed to aid weight loss.

I also eat only one meal with no snacks, though I have one coffee with a bit of half and half and a bit of cocoa made mostly with hot water and very little whitener and sweetener. The latter is an acquired taste.

Hi! My absolute favorite recipe is here -
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/membe ... a-50075831
All you need (that probably isn't in your cupboard or fridge already) is feta, green onions and a bag of spinach.
it's super quick cause you cook the spinach at the same time as the pasta, and it's SO good
enjoy!

I never skimp on flavour just because its fast day ..

500.jpg (81.12 KiB) Viewed 837 times

My "cheat" Chinese Beef noodle and veg soup made from scratch - only 290 calories leaving you room for a simple dessert/sweet.

It's cheat cause I prefer to make good beef stock from scratch but this is made with 2 stockcubes in water then i add five spice powder, garlic minced, minced ginger, soy sauce, chopped shallots, cinnamon sticks and star anise and cook for a good 30 minutes.

I actually measured out my ingredients today to see how many calories a serve. we served 4.. adjust to suit the number of serves you are making
2 cups stock with garlic/ginger minced (15 calories)
280 g fillet beef, sliced .. (500 calories)
120g sliced red onions. .. (50 calories)
160g green cabbage sliced thin (40 calories)
2 x baby bok choy (20 calories)
120g red capsicum (50 calories)
100g green capsicum (20 calories)
100g snow peas sliced vertically (or leave whole) 40 calories)
2 tablespoons hoi sin sauce (90 calories)
60 g vermicellie glass noodles (200 calories)
1 tablespoons peanut oil (120 calories)

total calories; 1145
per serve.. 290 calories

Method.. make Asian stock as noted best from scratch otherwise do wht i did.

Flash fry the beef in peanut oil.
Place in 4 bowls evenly.

Cook vermicilli in boiling water for 2 minutes, drain and keep warm

in the same pan as beef was cooked add vegetables and flash stir fry for a few minutes for each batch. Add vegetables to the hot stock gradually, add hoisin sauce and when complete cook till boiling hot, then pour over bowls of meat and noodles and serve. Yum!

Variation .. if you only use 150ml of stock you can make this into a simple noodle dish.

enjoy!

You all must be tired as xxx with me ranting about the Hairy Bikers diet cookbooks. I mean - why re-invent the wheel when someone has done all the work already
Never a portion more than 500kcal tasty and filling. You don't have to buy their books, there are plenty recipes on their website:https://www.hairybikersdietclub.com
I am not a member of their club, but for me this works just fine along with 5:2 and we seldom eat other dishes even on non fast days M-T.
Of my soap box

Never a portion more than 500kcal tasty and filling. You don't have to buy their books, there are plenty recipes on their website:https://www.hairybikersdietclub.com

Hiya
Teensy question, a lot of the recipes on there don't have the calorie counts, are they all under 500? or maybe they do and i'm just blind. dirstinct possibility!!

Never a portion more than 500kcal tasty and filling. You don't have to buy their books, there are plenty recipes on their website:https://www.hairybikersdietclub.com

Hiya
Teensy question, a lot of the recipes on there don't have the calorie counts, are they all under 500? or maybe they do and i'm just blind. dirstinct possibility!!

OK I have to edit this - the first book does give the calories per portion, it's not at the top though, but under the ingredients list. But I see that some of the web recipes don't give the kcal, so if there is any particular recipes you are interested in, I can see if they are in my books and tell you kalori wise.

Hi,
sorry, I missed the edit! I was wondering about the chili con carne, since it has wine and everything in it.
I made it regardlesss and it's lovely, but it'd still be nice to know, if it's not too much trouble
thanks!!

I have all Hairy Dieter books.As I am currently trying to stick to 400 cals in fast days not all their recipes are suitable, I sometimes cut out the oil to reduce the calorie count. Their quantities are also a bit vague eg a 'medium' onion. I also collect suitable recipes in a loose leaf binder. I find these in various places. There are lots on this forum if you follow the 'Food' link, if you go to BBC food recipes you can search on 'low calorie' for recipes and Fiona Maclean's London unattached website also has a 5:2 recipe section. Sometimes I just make up meals like stews by weighing everything I use .

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/23251/p ... nd+almonds
- this, but I use just bacon, brussel sprouts, garlic and spice (parsley, pepper, salt). From the bacon, there is enough fat to cover and flavour the sprouts. I buy bacon that is about 270 cals in 100 g, I use 100-125 g of bacon. 350 g brussel sprouts is 80 cals. All together is therefore around 400 cals. And it's yummy and filling.

Hi,
sorry, I missed the edit! I was wondering about the chili con carne, since it has wine and everything in it.
I made it regardlesss and it's lovely, but it'd still be nice to know, if it's not too much trouble
thanks!!

Sorry that I'm late in replying, but stuff with the kids (kids and kids, they are 16 and 19) plus my oldest RR Fionas health, has taken up most of my waking hours.
Well, I looked into the chili recipe on their web and I thin it's quite a like the one in the white cookbook, although the web recipe calls for a whole lot more minced meat. But he book recipe say 302 kcal per serving and both recipes serves 5. Hope this helped in any way

Last week I went out of my comfort zone and tried a new Hairy Biker recipe Prawn and Turkey balls from the green (No 3) cookbook. Couldn't find ground Turkey, so I used ground ecological hen instead and swapped the breadcrumbs for Panko. The only thing I added (I think many of their recipes need a bit of spice tweaking) was 2 tsp of Thai greeen curry paste in the broth. Youngest son though the balls was a bit bland, but I liked them the way they where. This will certainly be something I will cook again