Day 6
This picture is for all those out there who think I’m starving…
Hardly starvation stuff is it?

Starting at bottom left, that’s slices of cottage cheese, just sprinkled with salt and pepper, and topped with a kalamata olive, and a few cucumber slices.
Clockwise and up from there, an edited version of a Greek Salad, but without the cucumber and peppers, and definitely no feta cheese, and just a teaspoon of olive oil, for taste.

Then a huge steaming mug of my Vegetable Soup, the last of my stock.

And finally Beef Mince Balls with boiled cauliflower and french beans and topped with Thai Chili Sauce, – probably not on the ‘ok’ list, but what the hell. The mince balls were made before hand, and pre-frozen to use in another dish ( Swedish MeatBalls )later this week. I just used 2 and boiled them, rather than frying.

I feel good. And full. And I’ll feel even better if I’ve lost something. Plan to stand on the scales tomorrow.

The cool thing about this is I’ve actually liked all this stuff, or I really wouldn’t have it. The problem is I like deep-fried, oily, spiced food even better. Ha!

Onward to Day 7

A lovely, quick and healthy fish dish.
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DRUNKEN POMFRET Serves 6
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INGREDIENTS
6 large slices Pomfret or Surmai (King Fish)
1 green chili, chopped fine
2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp dhana-jeera powder (coriander seed-cumin powder)
1/2 lime juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp mustard powder
3 cups red wine
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp sugar
500 gms cottage cheese / tofu
3 tbsp olive oil
few sprigs parsley

PREPARATION
Apply the lime juice all over the fish slices and set aside for at least 20 minutes.

Mix the mustard vigorously into 2 tablespoons of water and let stand.

Now marinate the slices in the mustard, green chillies, chili powder, dhana-jeera powder, salt and pepper. Cover ant let stand for 30 minutes at least.

Pour the red wine and vinegar into a saucepan and heat slightly. Add the fish slices gently and cover. Let them cook on medium heat. Fish doesn’t take long to cook.

After 5 minutes open up, turn over the fish slices gently and add the sugar. Add a little more wine if it has turned too dry. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes.

Slice the cottage cheese / tofu into thin slices, laying them on individual plates, enough to make a bed for the fish. Check for salt, or else sprinkle a little salt and pepper.

Check with a fork that the fish has cooked through. Remove onto individual plates.

Quickly replace the saucepan on the heat, add half a cup of water and 3 tablespoons olive oil and mix all the remains.

Pour all over the fish slices. Serve.

Day 7
Well, I’ve come to the end of my week of diet, and I have to admit I’m pretty thrilled. For one, that I finished it at all without too much ‘cheating’, and two, that I have actually lost upwards of one and a half kilograms. Unfortunately, I didn’t actually weigh myself just before, because I wanted this to be more about self-control, but naturally now I wish I had.
There’s no doubt about it, keeping this blog helped me stick through with it.

Today though is Sunday, and my diet says, fruit juices, vegetables and brown rice. I decided to forget about the brown rice (I couldn’t get it in my vicinity today) and just concentrate on the healthy route.

So I had some orange juice, but not a great deal. Lots of boiled veggies. And fish. I decided to try something new and I must say it turned out pretty interesting. Fish marinated in lots of masala powders and cooked in lots of wine, what can I call it but Drunken Fish?

Now we’ve got guests for dinner so thats the end of healthy, but well, I will try.

More fish recipes

I was on a strict diet when I tried this one out, so of course you can use oil to fry the onions, but really, I discovered no real difference in taste.

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OIL-FREE MARINARA PANEER ( Cottage Cheese ) Serves 6
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I was on a strict diet when I tried this one out, so of course you can use oil to fry the onions, but really, I discovered no real difference in taste

INGREDIENTS
6 onions, chopped fine
6 tomatoes, chopped fine
1 green pepper
2 pods garlic, chopped fine
2 chillies, slit
350 gms Cottage Cheese (Paneer)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp brown vinegar
1 tsp oregano

PREPARATION
Heat a non-stick pan with about 1/2 cup of water. When it starts boiling put in the onions and keep stirring while they turn pale golden.

Add the tomatoes, chilies and garlic and keep stirring occasionally. Add water if they seem to be sticking too much.

After about 10 minutes, add the green peppers and the vinegar, and saute some more. Feel free to add water as you please to get the right consistency.

Ten minutes later add the cottage cheese chopped into 1 cm cubes. You can even crumble it up with your hands. Simmer for 3 minutes.

Add sugar, pepper and oregano. Simmer for another minute or so and take off the heat. Serve hot with garlic bread.

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Day 5
My printout about the GM diet announces “Today is feast day!” Ha ha, all I can say is we differ a bit on what exactly a ‘feast’ is, but anyway. Certainly with todays allowances you shouldn’t feel like you’re on diet.

The great thing is I don’t seem to be feeling very hungry any more. Though I was allowed a huge amount of food by the ‘rules’ I don’t think I ate much more than a quarter.
Rules say, upto 20 oz. of lean beef and 6 tomatoes. Or on the vegetarian option, sprouts, cottage cheese and tomatoes. And lots and lots of water to clean out the uric acid formed.

Because I’m ’sharing’ the diet with a vegetarian colleague, I made us a cottage cheese concoction that tasted great. I’ve christened it Oil-free Marinara Paneer and it really didn’t taste any different from if I had used oil to saute the various ingredients. Had that for lunch with another cup of Vegetable soup, which was allowed.
Our other colleagues ordered fat, mayo-dripping burgers and mmmm I could have really done with some of that, but I managed to keep off.

Couldn’t get sprouts anywhere in the vicinity, but I’m not much or a fan anyway. By about 6 pm I was hungry but surprisingly not anywhere near my usual ravenous self. Had another cup of my veggie soup, and that settled me till past 11pm. Had left-over ‘Oil-free Marinara Cottage Cheese’ and some more soup ( I know, you’re probably more sick of it that I am ), because I was too tired to bother about anything else, and went straight to bed. Unhealthy, I know, but with all the healthiness this week it shouldn’t matter.

Am home today, should be able to get a little more creative.