My wife and myself have started the fast 800 diet which is great, however, she cannot eat a lot of tomatoes, so can anyone suggest a good tasty alternative please

Welcome Larry and wife, and best of luck with the new plan.
My recommendation would be to focus on the things you can eat and already eat, so if she doesn’t currently eat tomatoes leave it that way. My experience is that you’re more likely to succeed if you don’t radically change too may things at once or try to force yourself to eat foods you don’t like.
There are many vegetable options which are low cal and low carb, dietdoctor.com has a good visual representation of this.
I’m not sure what your aims are for the Fast800 – weight loss, reverse Type 2 diabetes or pe-diabetes, reduce blood pressure or other blood markers?
If you’re aiming to reduce your carb intake as well as your calorie intake, then logging what you eat on an app like MyFitnessPal or MyFatSecret will show you the carb content in all the vegetables you eat.
Feel free to ask questions, there are many very knowledgeable people on these forums.

Thank you RubyG for your prompt reply
In answer to your questions, I want to lose weight, and try to reduce the level of my non medication type2 borderline diabetes.
My wife suffers from Diverticulosis, so tinned chopped tomatoes are not very good for her condition, but most of the recipes use tomatoes in them, which is why we need to find an alternative that will offer liquid content

Hi Larry

I think I’m right in saying usually with diverticulitis it’s the seeds rather than the flesh of the tomatoes that are the problem, so could you use either tomato purée slacked down with some water or stock, or passata (which is sieved tomatoes, no seeds) or just use fresh tomatoes and remove the skin and seeds? Or otherwise just as Ruby said choose recipes with no tomatoes, no need to follow the recipes from the book, just eat what you normally eat but substitute the carbs- so have extra green veg instead of potatoes, or salad, courgette or cauliflower instead of pasta and rice etc.

Lauren x

Hi Lauren
Thank you for your advice, yes we have tried substituting with various veg, the problem is tomatoes give my wife heartburn but we realise that in moderation its possible to have a small amount of tomatoe based sauces.
We are ideally looking for a creamy non tomatoe based sauce, like a creamy chicken type sauce or similar, as a lot of the recipes would be quite dry on their own
Larry x

Hi Larry, the problem I have found with “creamy” sauces is that they are very often thickened with flour or cornflour so not suitable for low-carb. I have yet to make a successful keto white sauce, from a multitude of recipes posted online, so I have mostly given up. Double cream is not a problem from a carb perspective, but won’t go far on 800 cals 🙂
Other options could be Greek yoghurt or coconut milk for creamy sauces, but both are still calorific.
You could also look at using more stocks in your cooking for stews etc. but as I don’t buy stock I don’t know if they add stuff to it (I make my own from bones, special mention for Lauren there).

Hi all, I hope you don’t mind me jumping in here. On the odd occasion I have felt like a creamy sauce, I have had some success with melting a small amount of cream cheese in a pan, and then adding some chicken stock to turn it into a liquid (whisk it to get rid of any lumps), and any herbs or flavourings or veges you might like (I like to add mushrooms and thyme). Of course it all has to be counted for calories, carbs etc, but for one person you can get a decent amount of sauce using this method. I don;t use this specific recipe, but it gives you an axample of how to do it – https://www.familyfoodonthetable.com/easy-cream-cheese-chicken/
Best of luck with it . 🙂

Hi Larry

I’m your girl for “creamy” sauces! I basically use either Greek yoghurt or creme fraiche or cream cheese (obviously calorific but a little goes a long way) – usually with some stock and then flavourings of choice – it’s not really a white sauce like you’d see on lasagne (although those are also possible using ricotta) but it’s creamy

My basic steps are:

Sweat an onion, garlic and usually some mushrooms but that’s cos I love mushrooms in a pan
Add protein of choice – usually diced chicken for me but could be bacon or beef or tofu or quorn or whatever you fancy and brown it
Add stock of choice – again usually chicken for me, with some flavours like whole grain mustard or paprika or sun dried tomato or herbs or pesto or anything you fancy and salt/pepper
Reduce down the stock until barely anything left and protein is gently poached
Stir in Greek yoghurt or creme fraiche or cream cheese and usually some more pepper for me, fresh herbs if you fancy, then just heat it all through and reduce down to your preferred consistency

I usually have these with cauliflower rice or veg, and I have a variation of this probably three times a week. I agree with what Ruby says that they are more calorific choices, but I know Ruby eats quite a lot of more calorific protein than I do (she’s more adventurous!!) – I stick to chicken breast or quorn because I’m super picky with meat! You can also bulk it out with loads of veg etc to make it go further, so it is doable

Some

Hi Larry, I find that cooked liquidised cauliflower gives a thin creamy consistency. Verano’s recipe on here for red pepper and cauliflower soup is a lovely combination. Worth a go if you are looking for new ideas.