Fast Diet Recipe: Green Pea Hummus

I thought I would provide a slightly healthy relief from my recent Bunny Party recipes with a Fast Diet recipe idea... 

Green Pea Hummus. 

After the past few weeks/months of indulging a little too much, travelling and trying new foods, and working my butt off with wholesale orders, I've kind of let my eating habits suffer a little. 

And I have felt the impact on my hips!! So, hello Fast Diet, I am back! 

If you read A Cup of Jo you would have seen this one listed a few months back, and I pinned it and have basically waited for a rainy day! Well, that rainy day was yesterday. 

My Favourite 5 Fast Diet Recipes

The Fast Diet Recipe Files - Thai Pumpkin Soup (with carrot and sweet potato)

Happy Tuesday!!! I hope your week is off to a great start! The sun is shining in London, so everything is automatically much brighter, without even trying!!!

I have been trying out lots of new recipe ideas for the Fast Diet lately and some have been rather bland but others just bursting with flavour. This soup is of course the latter, I'm not going to share the rubbish ones that will make you want to feast instead!!! Whilst things are starting to warm up in London, I am still sneaking some soups in before the salad season really begins. 

Pumpkin soup was always my go-to meal when I was sick, it was like a hug from the inside. I still love it so much, but pumpkin is not as readily available in the UK as Australia so I don't tend to make it so often. 

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This Thai Pumpkin soup is perfect for the Fast Diet because it is low calorie but intensely flavourful! I was expecting red curry paste to be high in calories, but when you are only adding 1 tablespoon, the mere 17 calories are exceptionally effective. Stay tuned for a world of curries coming to the Fast Diet Recipe Files!!

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With only 195 calories per serve, it is chocked full with vegetables and being nice and thick it is perfectly filling. I made this for lunch and then had it for dinner I loved it so much!!! 

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How to Picnic : BLT Frittata

It's PICNIC SEASON!!! Hooray!! The weather in London has finally improved and sunshine is upon us! And this picnic season, its Playdate Picnics!

If you follow along on Instagram or if we've ever met, you'd know I love my picnics! I don't really understand why anyone wouldn't like picnics. I believe they are the art of enjoying the best of life!! 

After dedicating many, many hours to the art, I feel like I am somewhat of a picnicking aficionado! I love a quick impromptu picnic, but the best picnics require just a little planning.

Here's what you need for my Perfect Picnic:

 A sunny day, it doesn't have to be terribly warm, just not raining!!

A cute picnic blanket, and in London, one with a waterproof backing helps so that you don't        get soggy! We have the Anorak Kissing Rabbits picnic blanket, and I want the Kissing Robbins next!

 Lots of scrumptious food to share, my picnic fav - frittatas

Refreshments - a crisp white is our indulgence, but even just sparkling water is fun! 

 Sunglasses, see point one

Reading material, or if you've got a little one in tow, a ball! It makes us more relaxed if we read an actual book or magazine, kick the ball around and just be offline for a while.

But my new favourite aspect of a picnic is the company I keep! 

Playdate picnics are my new favourite way to catch up with Maddie's friends, and their mama's! We may or may not have wine, but we definitely have yummy food, and a ball. The little ones enjoy running around and playing in the fresh air, and well, we enjoy the sunshine (and wine).

Having been on the Fast Diet for a while now, I have been discovering some delicious foods that are actually pretty good for you as well. And one of these such foods is the Spanish Omelette, the Frittata. I made this delicious one recently, and so decided to create a new one for our picnic.

Frittata's are the perfect food to take on a picnic, because they can be made from whatever ingredients you have at home already, and are best served at room temperature. 

BLT Frittata 

Ingredients

3 rashers of bacon, cut into small pieces and browned 

4cm of the stem of a leek, sliced finely and added to the bacon to brown slightly

3-4 new potatoes, cooked and sliced finely

2 medium/large eggs, beaten

Tomato, the bigger the better, sliced finely

Parsley, chopped finely, 1 tablespoon

Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Once the bacon and leek are cooked, add the potato and let brown ever so slightly. Take off the heat and let cool a little.

2. Beat the eggs and season well. Mix the cooked bacon/leek/potato with the eggs and pour into a saucepan. Spread evenly around the pan until it is all well distributed and mixed. 

3. Sprinkle parsley and then place the tomato on top.

4. Cook on a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until slightly browned on bottom, but not quite set on top.

5. Place under the grill for a further 3-5 minutes until the egg has cooked through and the tomato well cooked.

6. Allow to come to room temperature and only then slice it. A frittata should always be sliced when it has cooled and settled.

And then sit back and relax and enjoy the fresh air, good company and the finer things in life!

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

The Fast Diet Recipe Files: Mixed Berry Milk Pops

Well hello there! It's #TrimTuesday again so I thought I'd check in, share a delicious Fast Diet recipe and let you know how the past fortnight has been on the Fast Diet. 

I am still Fasting twice a week, and exercising little and often and am finally starting to feel like I am winning the war on my flab!! I don't feel like I look all that different, but I feel different in my own skin. I definitely still have a way to go, but I at least feel like I'm starting to get somewhere with it all again, so I feel more motivated to continue on. 

Its a constant battle for me not to be hard on myself, I am truly my own worst enemy, and I think part of it is self-preservation, in that if I think/say it about myself, then nobody else can possibly think worse. Its a terrible quality that my Husband, bless him, has been trying to change in me ever since he met me. But there is something to be said for changing yourself from the inside out, as I find that as I am feeling more healthy and strong, I am thinking with a stronger mind too. My motivation is my little girl, she's picking up on so much right now, and I don't want her to even be aware of negative thoughts and body image, I want to try and shield her from all of that as long as I can, and I know it starts with me. This is part of the reason I have dropped these posts back to fortnightly, because I was feeling that if I didn't have a good week on the scales, I would be so hard on myself, and that is so counterproductive to what I am doing, that I had to make a change. 

So, I have taken some pressure off myself and as a consequence, feel so much better in myself. 

I am off to Jersey tomorrow and so my second Fast Day is likely to be a bit of a challenge, but you know what, I get to play with my niece and nephews for a few days, and that makes me happier than any possible shift on the scales. Some weeks things like this will happen, I'm okay with that!

I saw this published on the Fast Diet's Facebook page of a BBC Good Food recipe for homemade milk pops as part of a Fast Day recipe plan. Umm... more information please! 

I made some almost immediately (after hunting down the low fat condensed milk of course). I quite often have 100 or so spare calories at the end of the day and spend them on a small bowl of porridge, as a bit of a treat after dinner. Well hold the phone, not anymore! 

I made a variation of the recipe and used both blackberries and raspberries instead of strawberries, and the flavour was sensational. I do of course have a bit of a battle ahead of me at the Pearly Gates when I am challenged over my "giving up ice-cream for Lent" and yet eating "milk pops", but I can argue my way out of (in to?) that one, it's a technicality! 

Anyway, enough nattering on, here's the very simple recipe...

Ingredients (makes 12, 107 calories per serve)

400g strawberries, or any berries
400g light condensed milk
200g light milk

Method:

1. Puree the berries until smooth.

2. Add the two milks and combine well.

3. Fill ice block moulds and allow to freeze over 4-6 hours

Frozen condensed milk ON a Fast Day, amazing.


Oh and I am guest posting today over on Adventures of a London Kiwi, with a book review of It's All Good (by Gwyneth Paltrow). You'll love Emma, come say hi!



Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

Fast Diet - Week 13 - #LoseDayTuesday

I can't believe its week 13 of the 5:2 Fast Diet!! To find out more about it, read my original post here. 

Thirteen weeks, and whilst I've had some good weight loss, I'd like to see more! My original end point was my 30th birthday, but as that goalpost comes hurtling towards me next month, it seems I need to reevaluate my goals. In general I am happy that I am back to the weight I was at 3 years ago when we first got to the UK, but I want to get back to "wedding weight" now! Its funny, I caught up with a friend last week that I hadn't seen since July and I realised that I had lost 8kg since then (18lbs). So whilst I get myself down about these last few kilos that are taking their sweet time to vacate the premises, when I reflect on the bigger picture, its's really good and I need to focus on that more!!

I've had a bit of a flip-floppy week again with some migraines and emotional eating situations that I wish didn't happen. As much as I generally don't emotionally indulge as much these days, there are some situations that only a hot caramel creama will soothe! But Fast Diet days looked pretty tasted this week too, I got a little more creative with my calories!

Lunch - Roasted Rosemary Veggies

I was craving something warm and decided to break out of my soup addiction, so went with roast veggies instead! This was such a satisfying afternoon lunch and surprisingly, kept me full for quite a while.

The Fast Diet meg-made

Ingredients and Method

135g pumpkin (butternut squash) 

65g zucchini (courgette)

95g red capsicum (red pepper)

Garlic

Rosemary

Sea salt

Combine all ingredients and bake in a moderately hot oven (200C/400F) for 45 minutes until crisp on the outside and soft and comforting on the inside!

Dinner - O'Kelly Salmon

It was hard not to want to cook this one as soon as I saw a photo, it just looks so pretty! I still haven't mastered salmon and seem to cook it too quickly and get the little white bits appear (any tips??) but aesthetics aside, this was delicious and a massive dinner!

The Fast Diet meg-mad

Recipe from Mimi Spencer HERE.

Snacks - Gingerbread Cottage

Sounds too good to be true...yeah it kind of is! This was a bit of creative name for cottage cheese sprinkled with ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon, but hey, if it makes you more excited about a low calorie snack on a Fast Day, then creativity be mine!

The Fast Diet meg-made

Simply combine 1/2 cup of cottage cheese sprinkled with a dash of each of the spices, to your liking!

Drinks - Just water, of different temperatures

I had a stonking big headache all day long, so just kept drinking and drinking and drinking! I feel so very lame for saying so, but I really "Shook things up a little" by altering the temperature of my water today. Boring? Yes definitely. Effective? Actually yes! At its most basic, ice cold water tastes different to room temperature water, but it is also suggested to slow your rate of digestion down too, so its not entirely crazy to reach for a few glasses of warmer water throughout the day (particularly at meal time).

Total calories for the day = 490

Exercise

I love my Reformer Pilates class. Even when I go to my class with very heavy feet and a heavy heart, I always bound out of the class filled with energy and a clear and settled mind. And then for the next three days, I have gloriously aching muscles, in places I never knew muscles existed! 

In addition to my Reformer Pilates class, I went for a few decent walks (with the pram) and continued my planks! 

My 30 to 30 Plank Challenge was gaining momentum, and then I had my form corrected, and so had to re-start the momentum with a new (and improved) form!! I'll be posting on my technique training session with one of the UK's (and the world's) most qualified coach, who just so happens to be my cousin, Joanne Elphinston. 

Weight loss?

Total loss to date = 3.4kg (7.5lbs)

Come on Meg, what's going on!?! Cue Snoop Dogg.... Drop it like it's hotttttttttt... I really want to drop another kilo before I wrap up my 20's, so for the coming week, I'll track each day and see how close I am hitting the 2,000 calorie suggestion. Surely that's where the other calories are hiding!! 

Goals for the coming week

My goals for this coming week are:

• Continue Plank Challenge
• Track calories each day, not just Fast Days
• Get to the pool and do some laps again, I've missed it over the past few weeks
• Research some more migraine-fighting foods to try 

So a few things to work on this coming week, but all in all, I am really proud of my progress. I don't think of myself as devastatingly unfit anymore, and I really enjoy that confidence. 

For a lot of new joiners to the Fast Diet, it's now most likely around week 3, I'd love to hear how it's going?? Any meal suggestions that are delicious and filling that you'd like to share? I am in a bit of an experimental cooking phase now so would love some new ideas!!!! 

And its my Mum's birthday today, so Happy Birthday Amma, we hope you feel better quickly! xx

Wishing you a wonderful week!



Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!