The FastDay Forum

nursebean wrote: That looks delish thats for sure! Did it have coconut in it? I found with the last couple of Hairy dishes I cooked up that they lacked flavour. Was this pretty spicy then?
I really must cook another Hairy meal some time. Hmmm what shall I create?
Bean

No coconut and it was spicy in itself. Agree than many Hairy recipes need a bit extra oump, but this was not one of them. Never thought butternut could taste that good

Ok, so I know no-ones written anything here for about 6 months, but I just wanted to join in the Hairy Dieters love. Since properly getting into 5:2 and realising that there's more to it than eating tiny portions a couple of days a week I've been using their recipe books a lot. I love that there are so many things I can make quickly and easily after work, and I usually freeze the leftovers to make an even easier meal a fortnight or so later. And it helps that my fiance's a Hairy Bikers fan anyway, so it means he's always excited about what we eat on my fasting days.

I also realised yesterday, that they have led to me cooking a lot more than I was before I started this diet - I used to cook a lot more processed food along the lines of: something from the freezer section, chips and veg. But now the freezer has lots of fasting-friendly meals, pre-divided into the right portion sizes, and ready to be paired with whatever vegetable or salad I've got that week, which is making food shopping healthier and cheaper - good news all round! Obviously the Hairy Ones can't take all the credit, it's just my life adapting to becoming a 5:2 life, but they're certainly helping along the way!

That's great to hear how much the Hairys are helping. What would you say was your favourite recipe?

Those words are music to my ears @Ilexaquifolium, I believe that all us fasters are foodies. There are not many who come here that exist only on fast foods or ready meals, Even though the odd ready meal is often necessary for some. I batch cook and have my own ready meals waiting on the freezer.
Even if you don't lose weight as fast as you wanted at least you're now putting wholesome, healthy unprocessed foods into you, well done you. And yes I need to get my hairy book out again too.

@nursebean, a of my new favourite discovery from their books is pan haggerty lite. I hadn't had/heard of pan haggerty before, but I got very excited that I could have bacon on a fasting day! Another thing I hadn't had before seeing it in their books is tabbouleh salad, which I now make regularly to put with various different things, but particularly the harissa chicken they pair it with in the first book. My fiance's favourite are the transylvanian meatballs with garlic sauce, which I make with turkey mince rather than beef as this is a substitute I've been making whenever cooking with mince recently.

Definitely going to have more of a look through previous posts here to get some ideas of which recipes to try out next!

@carieoates, I think fasting is actually making me into more of a foodie! I've always liked food (obviously), and enjoyed cooking, but this is making me think so much more about what I'm actually eating. Because I'm limited it means I'm putting more consideration into what will go best together to leave me most satisfied. And like you say, I've got my goals, but that's just because find it useful to have a target in mind, but weight loss or not I know I'm healthier from doing this