After what can only be called a disaster of a winter, weight-loss wise, I am indulged enough now and ready to keep on track. Big birthdays, holidays and Christmas all conspired against me, but to be quiet honest, I didn’t need much of a lure to tempt me. Last year I tried the 5 -2 diet, eat normally for 5 days and for 2 days a week eat only 500 calories. It worked up to a point but as you can imagine it’s quite difficult to fit in two 500 calorie days into a busy week. I ended up dreading the 500 kcal days and I think this starvation only heightened carvings, which I needless to say satisfied on my non-diet days. I ate a lot of additives filled foodstuffs to keep under the 500kcal and stave off hunger, like sugar-free sweets which are full of artificial sweeteners and not something I like to have in my diet. This year I will try to stick to 3 healthy main meals a day and only two healthy snacks. I think this will suit me better as I like to eat 3 healthy main meals every day already. Only two healthy snacks a day will be hard, I’m a bit of a grazer. I think this is where I am falling down so I am very excited to see the results.
Today as a healthy lunch I had miso and vegetable soup. For 2 people it had only 1 meat portion, 1 carbohydrate portion and a tsp of oil, so I’m confident I’m on the right side of healthy. I think it was a weight watchers recipe I adapted. I lost the booklet it came in so I am writing it from memory but as with all soups it’s very loose as to what you add.
Miso and Vegetable Soup – yields 2 portions
| Sauce: | ||
| 2 tsp miso paste | 1 tsp sesame oil | 1 tbsp soy sauce |
| 1 tsp ginger minced | ||
| Other ingredients: | ||
| 1 x chicken fillet | ¼ courgette grated | ¼ fresh chilli finely sliced |
| Small handful dried seaweed | ½ carrot peeled and grated | Mushroom finely sliced |
| 150g Straight to wok noodles | 2 tbsp frozen sweetcorn | 2 tablespoons frozen peas |
| A handful of spinach | 1 spring onion sliced | 1/8 bell pepper finely sliced |
Method: Boil the chicken breast and dried seaweed in about 1litre of hot water. I think the chicken comes out a lot moister and more tender if cooked on a medium heat, let it simmer for 25 minutes. This is your stock. If you would like a vegetarian miso, make 800ml of veg stock at this point instead and add diced tofu, you can make the stock at half strength as there is quite a lot of flavour in the sauce ingredients. While the chicken is cooking prep your veg. You can add any veg you like, this dish is great to use up fridge leftovers.
Remove the cooked chicken from the stock and dice into small pieces. Turn up the heat to a medium boil, add the sauce ingredients as well as the finely prepped veg and boil for eight minutes. Add back in the diced chicken for the last two minutes. It is now ready, I normally leave it two minutes to cool down before eating.
The important things about this recipe are:
- I find the miso in a jar far less messy than in a packet
- use any veg, just ensure that it is finely prepped, as it needs to cook in a short time
- the seaweed and spring onions, in particular, add a real authentic flavour.
- I do religiously stick to the sauce ingredients, I think they are a good mix.
- cook the chicken slowly as it stays moister and more tender
- You can bring this to work with you in a sealed jar. Finish the recipe at the point of adding all the veg to the stock, let it cool, pour it into a sealed jar, at lunchtime microwave the soup or cook it on a hob.
- I serve this dish in a deep pasta bowl rather than a soup bowl, I think it looks like a fuller meal served like this.
I’m looking forward to the year ahead.
Good post.