Hi All. I am looking to start the diet in a week or so, but when I started looking at the recipes, my heart plummeted. I am not a great cook, and was looking for a simple daily set of meals that I could just repeat. I don’t seem to need much variety in my food. If I like it, I am happy to eat it again tomorrow.

Did anyone else have this issue? Has anyone formulated a super-simple menu plan for non-cooks?

Yours feeling pathetic,

Ray

Hi there,
Super–simple breakfast: Greek yogurt, berries and nuts or 1 sausage with 1 slice bacon and 1 scrambled egg.
Super-simple lunch: An ounce of cheese with olives and a couple of cherry tomatoes, or a 2-egg ham omelette.
Super-simple dinner: protein and vegetables. A good steak and some garlic mushrooms, a chicken breast with broccoli, sea bass fillet with some peppers fried in butter, a piece of grilled goats cheese with dressed salad leaves, or beef stew with buttery carrots.
Not sure of exact counts as we do “bsd principles” rather than following the 800 kcals, but that works very well for us. We are so energised and alive on this way of eating!

Good luck!
P xx

Gosh! That is wonderful. Thank-you so much. Even if I do start branching out, as I will have to do in longer term, this is always a formula I can fall back on.

Yours much heartened,

Ray

The easiest thing I make is two chicken sausages (commercially produced, but with organic ingredients and no bread or sugar; check the label to be sure what you’re buying!) browned in a pan. Put 3-4 oz spinach with a teaspoon of water in the same pan, salt and pepper it then cover for a few minutes. Put the sausages on a plate, squash down the cooked spinach with a spatula to drain out the water, then add it to the plate. Crumble a quarter oz of feta cheese on top of the spinach. Add 30-60 grams raw, unpasteurized sauerkraut (also commercially produced, but not generic supermarket stuff; it has to be the raw kind) to the plate. The whole process takes 5 minutes at most. I have it at least once a week. Grand total in calories is 220, 3 grams of carbs.

Good luck!

Thanks. Very kind of you to take the time. I am sure I could manage that. I think what I will have to do is scout the neighbourhood to see what good ingredients I can get hold of. I have never bought sauerkraut in my life.

I can see an Earl Greybeard cookbook for dummies building up here :o)

I only do simple stuff and I batch cook to make life a bit simpler still.
My daily menu is similar to Pancita’s.
Breakfast: yogurt and fruit or bacon and eggs, or, if I’m late or lazy, a protein shake with vitamins
Lunch: home made soup, pea and ham, broccoli and stilton (no potato), Spanish chickpea and spinach, or if I’m feeling lazy, 50g smoked mackerel or cheese, and a fruit
Dinner: A portion of meat, sausages(good quality), burger, ham, bacon, fish, or eggs, and a portion of veggies, often mixed, sliced, and roast with olive oil, herbs and s&p, or stewed like ratatouille. Another favourite is fried/sweated onions and leeks: chop and fry the onion til it’s starting to golden, then add the sliced leeks, and lower the heat, and stir frequently with the lid on between times. (I’ve just realised I usually forget the salt and don’t notice!)
I’m also fond of steamed sprouts or broccoli. Sprouts with bacon is a really good combo, and broccoli is good in a pastryless quiche, too.
If I haven’t had my daily amount of protein I’ll have a protein shake for supper. I usually manage to get all this in 800 calories or a little over.
Myfitnesspal is a great help. I started out with my own spreadsheet, but now it’s just for back-up.

Thanks for that. I think I am beginning to build a mental picture of what I need to do. The basic ingredients look pretty straightforward (thanks to your help, and others on this thread). Just a case of my getting the portion size right.

This may seem ridiculous, but soup is a problem for me. I have a long beard and epic moustache. It doesn’t go well with soup. I lose half the soup in my beard, and need a bath afterwards. So, at the moment I am just avoiding soup.

Does Myfitnesspal help with working out portion sizes?

I weigh everything and put the weights into MyFitnessPal to ensure I’m keeping an accurate count of calories. This is especially important with proteins and fats were a couple of grams can make significant difference.

I am double-checking MyFitness Pal figures against the packet now though as I was discovering (particularly with Waitrose items) that they are not particularly good.

As for simple recipes… at lunch I often do a couple of handfuls of salad from a pre-prepped bag. Like babyleaf salad, or bistro salad. Then I add some protein – so a precooked chicken breast, or a tin of fish or cooked prawns or cottage cheese. usually comes to above 200 calories if you get your portions right.

For dinner – try meat and two or three non-root veg. So a venison steak is good if you’re missing beef steak (because of the number of calories) or any meat really but remember to weigh. Then add veg (the greener the better). I throw leeks, spinach, broccoli, kale etc into a steamer. Or I grill a mushroom or aubergine steaks.

Or for really simple – get a bag of stirfry from the shops – pick the one with the lowest carbs (some of them have secret sugars) and add that to some chicken or prawns that you’ve cooked in a wok. Add a splash of soy – or if you want more of a sauce, add chinese spice, water and then coconut flour to thicken. It takes about 7 mins to cook through the chicken and then usually an extra five mins for the veg.

Thanks for that. It is clear that I need to explore the app and get familiar with it.

And thanks also for the recipes. Some of those are just so simple, but sound really tasty. Love the idea of the Chinese stir fry. My kind of food :o)

Chinese stir fry is my go to. Also if you’re missing noodles – try ‘zero noodles’ (http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/zero-noodles-gluten-free-noodles-60003907 or on Amazon). They work quite well. I tend to cook them in stock to give them a little flavour. Just make sure you drink lots of water with anything konjac based though.

If you are missing rice, try cauliflower rice from Sainsburys – just microwave. Both work well to bulk up a meal with low calories/carbs but I find it’s best to have a strong tasting meal as they don’t have much in the way flavour.

Good luck 🙂

Hi there,

There is recipe for foil steamed fish in the book. Forget the foil and the oven. I found these great Zip ‘n Steam bags (Morrisons) you can just put all the ingredients in there, or any combo of fish and veggies, chuck it all in the bag and microwave for 2 minutes. Voila! Healthy, quick and delicious. 🙂

“If you are missing rice, try cauliflower rice from Sainsburys – just microwave. Both work well to bulk up a meal with low calories/carbs but I find it’s best to have a strong tasting meal as they don’t have much in the way flavour.”

I did read about cauliflower rice from the BSD book, but didn’t realise that Sainsbury’s sold it ready made. That’s really useful.

“There is recipe for foil steamed fish in the book. Forget the foil and the oven. I found these great Zip ‘n Steam bags (Morrisons) you can just put all the ingredients in there, or any combo of fish and veggies, chuck it all in the bag and microwave for 2 minutes. Voila! Healthy, quick and delicious.”

Good tip. Thanks. we have used steam bags before, especially for asparagus. I will give it a go with the fish. Many thanks.

Hey, Ray, what a great idea for a thread for non cooks! I couldn’t
help but get a giggle from your description of eating soup with the
challenge of managing a beard and mustache. You could always
tuck your facial hair into your shirt, and purchase a glass straw from
Amazon to solve your transport dilemma. Very best wishes for
your continuing success! 🙂

Allie

I am vegetarian and have been eating simple food since starting in January. Here are some simple ideas

Breakfast – Greek Yoghurt with raspberries or passion fruit and chia seeds or scrambled eggs or quorn sausage and mushrooms

Lunch – full fat cottage cheese with walnuts with celery, hummus with roasted peppers and pine nuts on little gem lettuce leaves with pine nuts or hard boiled eggs and spinach, cheese with nuts and olives.

Evening meal- omelettes mushroom or cheese, roasted vegetables with halloumi, chickpea and spinach curry with cauliflower rice.

If you eat meat and fish I am sure you will find this way of eating quite simple. I have made some of the vegetarian recipes from the cook book and they have been really simple and lovely. Look in the recipe section here on the forum too as they’re are some great ones to choose.

Wow! Thanks everyone. I was joking earlier about starting a cookbook for non-cooks, but this thread is rapidly becoming just that. Even down to tips for bearded brethren who want to eat soup!

” I have made some of the vegetarian recipes from the cook book…”
Thanks for that advice, Cathy. I have now ordered the cookbook with a view to gradually introducing recipes once I have got myself
over the starting line.

You guys are so supportive. Many thanks indeed.

MFP has a neat recipe section so you can weigh all your ingredients, add them in, then divide by however many portions is appropriate.

Thank you for sharing the recipe.