Lose fat, save time and save money with my weekly January healthy eating plan
6 January 2014
Well I don’t know about you but my December record wasn’t exactly flawless, and that’s on a number of fronts: dietary (I ate too much), exercise (I did too little) and monetary (I over-spent). So all in all January is going to be a lean month but definitely not a mean month! My challenge to myself is to clean up on all fronts and make it a pleasurable experience because, let’s face it, I’m unlikely to stick at it beyond the month of January if it leaves both me and the rest of the family feeling miserable and deprived.
I’m not going to talk about the fitness side of things – that’s another story and anyway, exercise is always a pleasure, even when it hurts! – but the food and financial aspects. Given the December excesses my January goal is to feed the whole family on a weekly budget of £100. Now that might sound a lot but there are 5 of us, including three strapping boys, and that comes to exactly £2.85 per person, per day. Hmm, not a lot, is it?
The second part of this goal is to keep everyone happy on the food front, all whilst making the meals varied, balanced and super-healthy. The biggest challenge is going to be creating vegetarian meals that keep my highly carnivorous oldest son happy. Being a teenager he’s not shy about voicing his views… Meat and fish is going to have to be used sparingly, given how expensive it is.
The final part of this goal is to get my own eating habits back on track, leading to a steady process of fat loss. Although my body fat percentage is not particularly high at 21.5%, I want to eventually get it back down to 17% which is what it was 18 months ago.
So what’s the fat-loss-cum-financial-prudence plan?
Breakfasts: oats, fresh fruit (eg grated apple, blueberries, clementine, banana etc), seeds and nuts, all mixed with hot water because I prefer warm food in Winter.
Lunches: Prepare a large soup on Sundays for my week day lunches when I am working. Create variety with this soup by adding a different steamed green vegetable to my bowl of soup every day and different chopped herbs.
Evening meals: Sunday batch cooks that are largely vegetarian whilst still being balanced, varied, healthy and yummy.
Use large quantities of steamed green vegetables as a basis for all my evening meals, rather than the pasta/rice/bread/other starch that everyone else is having as an accompaniment.
Eat an egg or two every day – something I do anyway – to give me protein and keep me feeling satiated.
Keep very well hydrated during the day by drinking lots of herbal infusions (as well as my beloved coffees!).
This Week’s Frugal-But-Yummy Big Batch Cook
So what’s on the menu for this week?
- Mexican Bean Stew with a Cornbread Topping
- Root vegetable, Green Lentil and Slow Cook Beef Stew with Dumplings
- Chickpea, Spinach and New Potato Curry with Naan Bread or Chapattis
- Soup of the Week: Sweet Potato with Red Lentil
Mexican Bean Stew with a Cornbread Topping
Ingredients
- A variety of 4 or 5 types of tinned beans (in water with no added salt or sugar)
- Frozen sweetcorn
- 1 finely chopped onion
- 3 crushed garlic cloves
- 1-2 cartons of tomato passata
- Lots of Mexican seasoning – whichever you prefer
For the topping:
- 250g cornmeal (polenta)
- 2-4 tbs of wholemeal flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- A few pinches of smoked paprika.
- 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
- 275ml milk
- Finely grated parmesan
Step 1
Throw all the ingredients for the stew (except the cornbread topping) into a heavy based saucepan or – even better – a slow cooker. Leave it to cook and simmer with a lid on.
Step 2
Mix the cornmeal, baking powder, smoked paprika and wholemeal flour in a bowl.
Step 3
Add the eggs and milk and stir to a smooth-ish consistency.
Step 4
Once the bean stew is well cooked, spoon the cornbread topping over the top, cover with a lid and leave it to cook for an hour.
Step 5
Once the topping is cooked, sprinkle with parmesan and brown under a hot grill.
Root vegetable, Green Lentil and Slow Cook Beef Stew with Dumplings
Ingredients
- 1 finely chopped onion
- A few crushed cloves of garlic
- A couple of sprigs of rosemary, or thyme, or both! Some bay leaves - whatever you have in your herb patch.
- A slosh or two of red wine or dry fortified wine
- A carton of tomato passata
- Some diced slow cook beef – finances permitting!
- Lots of green lentils
- Chunks of mixed root vegetables eg parsnips, carrots, sweet potato, swede.
For the dumplings:
- 125g vegetable suet
- 250g self raising flour
- Salt to taste
- Cold water – enough to form a rough dough
Step 1
Throw all the ingredients for the stew (except the dumplings) into a heavy based saucepan or – even better – a slow cooker. Leave it to cook and simmer with a lid on. It needs a good while.
Step 2
Combine the suet, flour and salt. Then add enough water to make a rough dough that isn’t too sticky. If you add to much, don’t worry – just add some more flour.
Step 3
Once the stew is basically ready, form the dough into dumplings and place on the top of the stew. Cook for about an hour, or until the dumplings are fluffy.
Chickpea, Spinach and Potato Curry with Naan Bread or Chapattis
Ingredients
- Some sunflower oil
- 1 finely chopped onion
- A few cloves of crushed garlic
- A few tbs of curry paste – whichever you happen to like.
- Half a tin of coconut cream or milk.
- 3 tins of chickpeas, drained.
- Fresh or frozen leaf spinach. If using frozen I would suggest defrosting it in a colander the night before. Remember to put the colander in a bowl to catch any liquid that comes out.
- 750g small waxy potatoes. Other potatoes are fine if you don’t mind them breaking up into a mush!
- Coriander and cumin seeds
- A bunch of chopped fresh coriander
Step 1
Boil the potatoes until cooked through.
Step 2
Fry the onions in the sunflower oil and add the garlic once the onion is tender
Step 3
Add the curry paste, cumin and coriander seeds and stir.
Step 4
Add the coconut milk or cream, and some water if necessary.
Step 5
Throw in the chickpeas and mix thoroughly.
Step 6
Cut the potatoes into large chunks and then add them to the chickpea mix. Stir carefully using a wide spatula so as not to break the potatoes up too much
Step 7
Stir in the spinach carefully, put the lid on the pot and let everything cook through until piping hot.
Step 8
The freshly chopped coriander is best added when serving the dish.
Soup of the Week: Sweet Potato with red Lentils
Ingredients
- 1 finely chopped onion
- Lots of roughly chopped, peeled sweet potatoes
- Lots of red lentils
Step 1
Throw all the ingredients into a large, heavy based saucepan with lots of water (or vegetable stock if you have any) and simmer until everything is throughly cooked.
Step 2
Use a hand held blender to puree to a smooth consistency.
For variety over the week:
1) Add different veg to your bowl of soup – a handful of peas, sweetcorn, chopped French beans, shredded curly kales, sliced runner beans etc.
2) Add different chopped herbs: parsley, coriander, chives etc.
3) Add a dollop of whole plain yogurt or strained Greek yogurt.
4) Try sprinkling some finely grated parmesan or pecorino onto the soup
Top tips for fat loss
- Don’t skip breakfast and DO make it oat-based.
- Don’t skimp on food at lunchtime, otherwise you will snack at 4pm and have cravings. So make that bowl of soup substantial.
- If you get a 4 o’clock slump, then have a bit more soup and then a herbal infusion.
- Instead of eating the cornbread topping, pile the Mexican bean stew over a mountain of greens.
- Similarly, don’t have the dumplings – or keep them to a minimum as they have a high GI – but spoon your root veg and beef stew over a plateful of steaming vegetables.
Keep moving, keep exercising, keep smiling and check-in with me on Wednesdays on Facebook where we will all be logging our health and fitness successes. Hurrah for 2014!