The FastDay Forum

I've been looking for recipes to use on my fast day, but finding that since 5:2 is pretty much a UK/Commonwealth phenomenon, the recipes suggested invariably require ingredients that aren't easily found in the U.S., convenience items sold by grocery chains we don't have here, or involve foods that aren't things we commonly eat.

So I was wondering if some of the American fasters here would be so kind as to share recipes or food ideas they have found useful.

In particular, I'm looking for ways of making Dinners for One rather than 4 servings, and I prefer meals which take just a few minutes to cook and use just a few ingredients but have enough fresh veggies to provide healthy levels of nutrient. I also try to eat 7 to 10 ounces of protein on my fast days.

Here is what I have been eating on fast days.

Hot and Sour Soup with Rice (163 calories , 213 with 2 oz chicken, 243 with egg):

8 oz of Trader Joe's Miso soup (the kind in the tetrapak, NOT the other kinds they sell which are more calories.) I stir in the following:
1 oz carrot
3 oz romaine lettuce (I buy the ones with the darkest green leaves, which make a delicious soup green.)
mushrooms (dried Chinese shiritake or other varieties which I buy at an Asian store in the region. I soak a quarter ounce of the dry mushrooms for an hour and then slice them. (25 calories)
2 ounces brown rice. (100 calories)
2 drops Roland Hot oil
1.5 tbs rice vinegar

I may add 2 ounces of diced, cooked chicken tenderloin to this (50 calories), or I may stir in 1 egg (80 caloreis) to the broth before I add the veggies to make an egg drop version.

If you leave out the rice it is much less calories.

Asian Slaw Stir Fry (50 calories, 151 with chicken or tuna)

Dole Classic Cole Slaw which I steam in a little water in a frying pan. When the water cooks off, I add 1/2 tbs of Myron's Ponzu sauce (you can use teriyaki sauce instead) and 1/2 tbs of Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar. It's surprisingly good. Hubby loves this same slaw, not steamed, as the vegetable when we cook out.

On fast days, I top this steamed asian slaw with 4 ounces of chicken breast tenderloin (101 calories), or serve it as a side dish with a can of Skipjack or chunk light tuna (102 calories) which I douse in rice or apple cider vinegar (0 calories).

Dessert:
FAGE 0% yogurt for dessert with a dash of DaVinci Sugar free German Chocolate Cake Syrup for flavoring. (100)

Help me come up with some more things to eat!

Your recipes sound great . . better than mine!! I love Trader Joe's and will look out for the vinegar.

Have you checked out any of Hungry Girl's recipes? She mostly has meals for one or two. Although she doesn't always use plain, wholesome ingredients, many of her recent recipes from the Hungry Girl Diet book are simple with fresh ingredients and well within the calorie limits for a fast day. Good luck. You seem to be doing very well.

[carieoates]

You need to talk to @rawkaren who relocated to US and has talked about getting good ingredients there in order to eat well and fast.
Simplicity is the key in my opinion. Fish, decent lump of meat. Veggies, salad, soups. Broths, even though you said no batch cooking it's great as then you don't have to cook every day, win win. Vegetarian options like curries, chilli, bolognaise.
I really hope someone comes along to help, why not check out rawkaren a blog first.

@peebles One cookbook I could recommend is Bob Harper's (Biggest Loser trainer) Skinny Meals. All the recipes are for one person and less than 350 calories. His "Skinny Rules" are reasonable too, although there is that "don't skip breakfast" one again. I have made a couple of things from it and they were quite good, low carb'ish but not fanatically so. Have a look. I am always looking for recipes for one person and good books with them are hard to find.

Great suggestions. Keep them coming! But I'd love to hear of specific things you have found yourself eating more than once.

@carieoates, I actually like cooking on my fast days, as the time spent on the different things stretches out the perceived "meal time." But I have learned the hard way that it is VERY tough for me to eat 1 serving of 4 if something is really good. So I prefer to make one, and when it is gone, it's gone. Plus, I find it really tough to figure out the actual portion size with things that need to be divided. I freeze meat in the portion sizes I will use for the fast days, which simplifies matters, too.

Hi @peebles. I have struggled for six months but I bought Clean Eating magazine and got some inspiration back. I found a recipe of home-made zucchini noodles (use a julienne peeler or spiral maker). The dressing is lemon zest and lemon juice, garlic, seasoning and a dspn of olive oil. I put 10 shrimps in and half a cup of multicoloured tomatoes. Its 207calories. Have also made it with an asian dressign (soy, lime zest and juice and sesame oil).

The other thing that is very filling is quarter cup of oatmeal (I use Bob's Red Mill) with a whole egg and two egg whites. Beaten together, spray a pan with kelapo coconut spray and make a pancake. I have even taken this one travelling with me as it's nice cold and you can either make it savory with herbs and seasoning or stevia and cinnamon if you want it sweet.

Emergency rations are Think Thin bars as they have about 20g of protein and no sugar.

The US people that I know who ADF or IF all recommend the Joseph bread range, both the pita and lavash which seem to be low cal/low carb and can be used for wraps, pizza bases and such.

Orowheat Sandwich Thins appear to be popular as do Magic Pops (not a sweet item, necessarily, but a very low cal fresh popped grain snack).

Laughing Cow light wedges seem to be available in a variety of flavours in the US and melt well over a piece of white fish for a decent fast day meal.

Shirataki noodles seem to be available at many Asian shops in the US (aka Miracle Noodles in the UK). They seem to be used in Better than Bouillon broths/soups.

As per @rawkaren - zoodles seem to have caught the imagination as a good low cal option in the US (either cutting vegetables noodles by hand or passing it through a spiralizer).

@ssure, yes I use the shirataki too - the ones from House Foods, but not the tofu version. I put them in strong flavoured dishes like chicken curry to bulk it out a bit. Anyway they smell fishy here whereas the ones in the UK don't. I'm also using Julian's Bakery Paleo Bread. It's horrifically expensive but it's only 60 cals a slice a 6g of carbs. A loaf lasts me for ages and a good low carb treat on a fast day.

[carieoates]

Great suggestions. Keep them coming! But I'd love to hear of specific things you have found yourself eating more than once.

@carieoates, I actually like cooking on my fast days, as the time spent on the different things stretches out the perceived "meal time." But I have learned the hard way that it is VERY tough for me to eat 1 serving of 4 if something is really good. So I prefer to make one, and when it is gone, it's gone. Plus, I find it really tough to figure out the actual portion size with things that need to be divided. I freeze meat in the portion sizes I will use for the fast days, which simplifies matters, too.

Makes perfect sense to me. Peebles.

@rawkaren, Great suggestions. I have done the zucchini pasta in the past, but only with "crazy" alfredo sauce (with hot sausage or buffalo chicken) never with a low fat kind of dressing. That lemon garlic dressing and shrimp sounds very good. I will have to try it soon.

And I had not heard of the oatmeal/egg pancake, either. I used to make whey protein powder/egg pancakes when I was eating no grains, but whey protein is so fake-tasting, and those pancakes so rubbery, I have gone off them. I will have to give that oatmeal recipe a try. Thanks!

Shirataki noodles. Ugh. I tried the plain ones. I tried the ones with soy, and I tried the authentic ones that I schlepped down to the Asian grocery store to buy, which did not smell as fishy but still had that same squid-noodle texture. Even though they had no calories, I did not find them as filling as real noodles, And I never came up with anything to make with them that excited me. So I moved on.

@peebles. How about rice noodles? Half a cup of cooked noodles is 100 calories and bulks out a salad or a stir fry nicely.

Bagged broccoli slaw (found near the regular coleslaw mix) also makes a good noodle substitute in a stir-fry, there's no work and it can be microwaved right in the bag.

Rice noodles are not great for my blood sugar. If I eat enough to feel like I've eaten something, the blood sugar surges and I end up more hungry than I started. The brown rice digests more slowly so it works better for me. But that's a fine suggestion for people who have normal blood sugar.

I'll have to try that broccoli slaw. I was eating a bagged "rainbow" four color slaw that had a lot of cauliflower stem in it for a while, but decided the classic slaw was better.

Crab/Asparagus EggDrop Soup

1 chicken (stock) bouillon cube
1 egg
crab meat or sashimi (sp?)
1 or 2 asparagus spears

Dissolve the cube in a cup (250ml) of boiling water.
On highest heat, crack the egg into the soup and stir like mad with a fork.
Off heat (or on low heat for a minute or two) add the spears and crab meat.

Optional: pepper, parsley, pat of butter

[Tracieknits]

Here are a few recipes we make a LOT in the cooler months.

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/sout ... curry.aspx

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chili-w ... 001687650/

I also make a black bean soup from scratch with a bit of chicken chorizo (fresh chorizo) that I get from whole foods, but I don't really have a recipe for it.

In cooler months, I make a pot of something warm and yummy, and we eat it for that week's two fast day dinners. Bruce often likes a salad or something. and then there's leftover calories for yogurt or some other snack before bed.

In the summer, we do a lot of salads.