Recipe: Smoky Butternut Squash Stew - 143 calories per portion

A friend of ours went on holiday last week for a fortnight and dropped off a carrier bag with a few fresh bits in that they hadn't managed to use up before going away.

It contained a butternut squash - how lovely! I used half of it in a chicken & butternut squash red Thai curry at the weekend, and decided to use up the other half tonight in a veg-tastic stew.

I served about a third of the pan of stew with a portion of Cauliflower 'Rice' (blog post to follow), and I've blitzed the rest with my stick blender into a delicious soup which I'm really looking forward to taking into work for lunch

Smoky Butternut Squash & Pepper Stew (makes three generous portions)

Ingredients:

Few sprays 1-cal olive oil

Half a butternut squash, peeled and diced (450g)

1 onion, diced

1 tsp frozen chopped garlic

2 small red peppers, sliced

2 small yellow peppers, sliced

Tin chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 veg stock cube, made up in 250ml boiling water

Method:

Fry off the onions garlic and butternut squash in the spray oil over a low heat for 5-10 mins

Add the tin of chopped tomatoes, stock and paprika and simmer for 5 mins.

Next add the sliced peppers and simmer for another 5-10 mins until the butternut squash is nice and soft

I served it with Cauliflower 'Rice' which gave me a mountainous plateful of yum for only 200 calories. A perfect fast day meal!

Nutritional Info per serving:

Calories: 153
Fat: 1g
Carbs: 34g
Protein: 5g
Sugar: 14g

Recipe: Roasted Veg with Quinoa - 309 calories per portion

I've been a bit naughty this week and I'm actually doing my two fast days back to back, as I'm doing Stuff that involves food every day for the rest of this week. It's my birthday tomorrow, which involves cake, sushi and cocktails. I'm on a work's away day on Thursday which will involve a nice lunch. And it's my & OH's 10th anniversary on Friday so we're off out for a meal and a few drinks.

So I decided to do Monday and Tuesday this week. I thought it would be harder than it was actually, but today's been fine. I was *really* hungry first thing when I got to work at 7am, but decided to try and power through to 10am to have some muesli breakfast biscuits, then I'd try and get through to tea time. As it goes, I got really absorbed in the work I was doing and before I knew it it was 12.30 and I wasn't actually feeling hungry anymore. I was leaving at 2pm to pick the kids up from school so thought I'd hang on until then and have a cereal bar on the bus. Of course I forgot to pick up a cereal bar so found myself quite growly-tummied waiting in the playground for the kiddlies!

I wanted something filling, so decided to go with quinoa, and it's pretty light on calories for the amount that ends up on your plate. I'd picked up some veg on the way home too so decided to keep it simple and just roast them in a few sprays of oil.

It was quite nice but a bit bland. To be honest It could have done with a good slug of garlic infused olive oil over the veg in the roasting tin, but hey ho, that's the trouble with trying to keep a whole plateful under 400 cals!

Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa (makes one generous portion)

Ingredients:

10 sprays One-Cal olive oil

1 red pepper

1 Aubergine

130g mushrooms

60g quinoa (dry weight)

Method:

Pop a large pan of water on to boil. Then chop all the veg into bite sized chunks and place in a roasting tin. Spray with the oil, then pop in the oven at 200C for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, rinse your quinoa in cold water in a sieve, then chuck it into the boiling water for 20 mins. Wen it's done, drain it in the sieve.

Chuck it all on a plate and season well with a chilli, garlic & salt grinder

Nutritional Info per serving:

Calories: 309
Fat: 5g
Carbs: 45g
Protein: 10g
Sugar: 4g

Recipe: Scrummy Stuffed Peppers - 271 calories per portion

So I used a portion of the leftover Quorn Pasta Sauce that OH made last night to make a filling but low calorie fast day tea tonight.

Yes that's right that's even CHEESE on the top - cheese on a fast day is the height of luxury! Pictured with a side of Chilli & Garlic Mushrooms to give a total calorie count of 312 calories for my evening meal - perfect for a fast day!

Scrummy Stuffed Peppers (makes one portion)

Ingredients:

1 red pepper, halved & seeds removed
25g (dry weight) easy cook rice
1 portion Quorn Pasta Sauce
10g mature cheese, grated

Method:

Place the pepper halves on a baking sheet and put in a preheated 200ºC oven for 15 mins

Meanwhile, cook the rice in plenty of boiling water, until it is just under done, still with a slight bite.

Drain the rice and return to the pan, adding in a portion of the Quorn Pasta Sauce. Heat through until simmering.

By now the pepper halves should be ready to fill so remove them from the oven and stuff with the rice/sauce mix. Top with grated cheese and return to the oven for another 10-15 mins until the cheese is all melty and golden and the pepper is soft and sweet.

Nutritional Information (per portion):

Calories: 271
Fat: 5g
Carbs: 41g
Protein: 13g
Sugar: 14g

Recipe: Quorn Pasta Sauce - 88 calories per portion

My lovely Other Half is brilliant, and super supportive of my efforts to lose weight. He's been on a bit of a weight loss journey of his own and has become really conscious of calorie content, getting more veg into our diets, and generally eating more healthily.

His 'thing' with cooking is creating one-pot pan-fulls of tasty stews and casseroles. I've convinced him more recently to switch to lean cuts of meat, up the veg content, and bulk out with beans and chickpeas and the like to get more for our budget - both financial and in terms of calories.

Yesterday he made a cracking pan of pasta sauce with Quorn and veg and it was lovely. We ate it with pasta (75g dry weight) giving a total calorie count for the meal of 353 calories. Four portions left over too - 2 for the fridge and 2 for the freezer. A pretty versatile sauce too, plenty of different ways to use it, in fact I used it in a different way for my tea tonight too, but more on that later!

Anyway here's the recipe....

Quorn Pasta Sauce (makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

20 sprays One-Cal olive oil spray
1 red onion, diced
1 tsp frozen chopped garlic
100g frozen sliced mixed peppers
250g frozen chargrilled mediterranean vegetables
130g frozen quorn mince
1 tin chopped tomoatoes
1/3 tube tomato puree
2 veg stock cubes, made up with boiling water
1 tsp paprika

Method:

In a big saucepan, fry off the diced red onion and garlic. Chuck in the rest of the ingredients and simmer until delicious. Season with plenty of turns of the Salt Chilli & Garlic grinder, and a few turns from the pepper mill

Nutritional Info per serving:

Calories: 88
Fat: 2g
Carbs: 12g
Protein: 6g
Sugar: 8g