The FastDay Forum

Hi,

I was just wondering if people try to experiment with new meals on fast days or do you stick to a few tried and true meals?

[janeg]

I can spend ages on fast days looking at food porn, but invariably end up with two poached eggs on two slices of bread. I think 8've varied it about twice and 8've been doing this for fifteen months! And for the past six months I've been doing 4:3.
That's a lot of eggs

Spinach omlette, or mushroom omlette. Anything else is a tease and always ends up going over! I still haven't trained myself not to have my endless tea, boiled egg late breakfast and zero noodles lunch, so I only have about 200 calories to spend

Chicken breast covered with either
Cajun/piri-piri/or tandoori with a very large salad was very regular in my early days but soon changed to whatever meat of the day was and do hubby a dinner and I have smaller version with little or none potato plus extra veggies to bulk up my meals so nowadays anything goes to quickness and ease.

[carieoates]

Good question....
My fast day main meal, and all going well my only meal is usually :
Chicken or fish with salad, or veg.
Today I'm having chicken breast stir fried with, cabbage, leek, red pepper, mushrooms and courgette.
Monday it was baked salmon and cod with salad.
Sometimes I add half a jacket potato or a few homemade wedges.
As I'm cooking for the family as well it's usually roughly based around what everyone else is having .. Moogies fast day fry up is lovely. I also sometimes go veggie with some quorn or veg sausages.
Others, eg @minigill like the m and s fuller for longer as they are a quick easy cal controlled fix.
Check out moogies blog And the recipe forum at the bottom of the home page,

Varies. Alot of the same meal is eaten on two days whether that is a batch freeze of say veg curries or cooked fresh like fish, chicken. Living apart from the OH, its difficult to cook fresh food for one person, hence its does two meals !

I do look through 5/2 recipes and some of the Hairy Bikers diet ones so I do change it a bit and not stick to the same thing all the time, well, apart form homemade soup, then I have that twice a week until it runs out ! I am currently loving Sweet & Sour Chicken Hairy Bikers, came in at 212 cals per portion, then I add salad, cauliflower rice or some steamed veg. Yum Taken to eating this dish on feast days!

Then slot in Count on Us range M&S or fuller longer for emergencies. Sometimes I have migraine so these are great standbys' oven to dish to mouth

I have a few favourites but like trying new things. I don't mind cooking while I am fasting - it helps to pass the time.My hubby reckons we have nicer dinners on my fast days. I use the Hairy Dieter books and I also have a ring binder where I collect any recipes that people recommend. Usually one ckicken day and one fish day but a couple of times recently I have baked a pork loin - very lean. I find having something really tasty to look forward to also helps. I sometimes jig the recipes around a little ie leaving out some of the fat to leave enough spare calories for a big pile of veg. Cauliflower rice, shiratake noodles and sometimes mashed celeriac make good bases for 'saucy' recipes

These are my favourite three recipes for hubby and me.
1. Chicken breast & lots of green veg. Plain but tasty with a chicken oxo jus.
2. Vegetable patties made with grated courgette,two flat field mushrooms, grated onion, garlic, tablespoon of strong cheese & herbs mixed up with an egg, then cooked in small non-stick flan dishes. Makes 4 so that's 2 each for hubby & me with a salad.
3. I also make a batch of meal balls (lean meat approx.500g & some herbs with half a chopped onion) then halve the quantity,(freeze the other half) and cook in a tomato/garlic/onion based sauce. You get about four each that way. I serve it with broccoli.
I have a few books too that I riffle through and pick from and there are recipes on here too....
p.s. I have 100 or less calories at lunchtime...an egg

Thanks everyone! I've been trying to experiment a bit each week. Also, being single, I do usually have the same thing for both fasting days during the week. But, I try to change it up a bit each week. Sometimes though it's easiest just to go with something I have done before, know the calories for and know is satisfying! My meals are definitely healthier than usual on fast days!

I got stuck on stirfries for a while or my favourite pinto bean chilli. I'm trying to get creative again so tonight I'm doing a veggie moussaka. Comes from a Women's Weekly cook book that has all the calorie counts which makes things easier.

With me it's a mixture of the two, some tried and tested and some experiments.
I also set myself a challenge to see just how many portions of fruit and veg I can get on a fast day because I'm notoriously bad at that. Current record, while still being fairly nutritionally balanced, was eight.

Tried and tested is mostly soups (either homemade or tinned or New Covent Garden with added veg), salads with some variety of meat (prawns or bacon or grilled turkey on chicken breast) and/or avocado, two fried eggs on bread if I'm feeling really lazy or that Waitrose meat pasta and a tomato and veg sauce.

Experiments involve different and new homemade soups, marinades for the meat, and pre occasional ready meal.

At the moment I'm living off soup and salad on fast days which isn't a bad thing. My boyfriend's flatmate is also doing 5:2 which is a great help. we often eat together so we plan meals and pool money so it works out cheaper. I've saved so much money on this diet. I'm not buying nearly as much junk food as I used to and now that I'm aware just how many calories are in a macaroni cheese ready meal l hardly ever buy them. A chunk of the money I saved went on new clothes as nothing fitted! Tomorrow we're going to an Indian restaurant. I can't wait!

I picked up a kindle Fast diet cookbook by Lisa Correll. Quick easy recipes that have (so far) tasted very good. Tonight it was bagel & lox w/cream cheese & capers w/a blood orange for 465 calories. Sadly, I can't eat eggs anymore, they make me very sick - too bad because I love them, but (TMI alert) if you've ever had to prep for a colonoscopy, you know what I'm going through, just not worth it!
Anyway, love grilled chicken sausage over sauteed spinach with garlic & lemon too (409). Thanks for all the new good ideas. Really cool to think I'll have twice a week for the rest of my life to try them all

I'm such a creature of habit. I've had the same 3 fast meals every fast from the start: chicken and veg stir fry, Mexican pizza, and sashimi. I have the stir fry most, because it seems the healthiest and most filling. But sometimes, I need a change. The half a ball of mozzarella on the Mexican pizza is a bit decadent, but so gorgeous. I live in Japan, so even the grocery store sashimi is amazing, but not particularly ethical, and I worry about safety (heavy metal accumulation…)

I try and ring the changes, but usually end up with a veg curry, since I prefer to only have <150 calories on a fast day. I know I can have up to 600, but honestly, I find that a real hassle.

If I make anything above 200 cals I then have to make it up to 600 - with a glass of stout, a little wine, an Alpro pud with half a banana. Or I might make a 5:2 vegan chocolate cake, which only takes 5 minutes - 50g of this is only 170 cals.

Here's a list of my 5:2 recipes:

http://nobreadisanisland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/52-vegan-cookery.html