Tuesdays are usually diet days for us, which often means soup for dinner. One of our favourites is minestrone – loads of veggies and beans, with a bit of bacon sneaked in for added flavour. I think this is one soup for which good homemade stock makes a real difference between something that is okay and something that is really yummy. I also dispense with the pasta – there are always leftovers and the pasta swells into a horrid flaccid lump and soaks up all the liquid. Instead, I use pearl barley – an inspired idea from our friend Marcus, who made us this soup for lunch when we went to visit the Kennedy family in Melbourne a few years ago. I’ve been making it this way ever since. Continue reading “Life is a minestrone”
Category: Vegan
Kind-of-healthy appetisers
We had friends over for dinner on Saturday evening and I was trying not to sabotage our weight loss efforts too much. I rarely serve a first course these days, but I wanted something we could have with drinks pre-dinner. We recently visited some friends in the UK, who served some delicious hummus varieties they’d bought from M&S. Continue reading “Kind-of-healthy appetisers”
Spicy soup for a cold day
First of all, a confession – I got so carried away with the need to eat this that I completely forgot to photograph what I was doing as I went along. But it is all pretty simple – I am sure you can visualise chopped veggies – so I’m going to give you the recipe anyway, as it is pretty yummy, particularly served with hot garlic bread.
Today has not only been extremely cold, but it is a diet day, so that’s a double whammy. Robin and I have been following the 5:2 diet, quite successfully, for about three years. We no longer count every calorie, as we’re really just concerned with maintaining our new weights rather than losing any more kilos, but we try to eat very lightly on 5:2 days and sneaky glasses of wine are strictly forbidden. Continue reading “Spicy soup for a cold day”
(Thank you Marcus Kennedy for the pearl barley idea)
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