Low-cal pancake supper, and lasagne

Sunday

It’s been a bit of an odd week really. After last weekend’s spectacular casting of myself off the wagon of healthful living into the pits of far too much wine where neither nutritious meals nor exercise exist, I started Sunday with a hangover, a fear and loathing (mostly loathing) experience on the scales and a cheese croissant and a hot chocolate for breakfast. Nor did things improve much from there; a team lunch of Middle Eastern food sounds healthful until you realise that the only Middle Eastern dishes I eat are the meat, the cheese and the bread I ate fried halloumi, pizza, a cheese wrap and kebab meat. At least this cured my hangover, you might think, but sadly it morphed seamlessly into a head cold. 

I wasn’t trying to fast on Sunday (thank heavens) as we’d booked to eat at Okku as part of Dubai Restaurants Week, so my head cold and I went out for Japanese food which was delicious but calorific, although I appeared to have finally learnt my lesson and failed to imbibe a cask of wine (baby steps Lee, baby steps).

Monday

Monday was a fast day, and I coddled my cold by working from home to keep warm and avoid infecting my colleagues. I started well with a grapefruit for lunch, but mid-afternoon was forced to concede that I really did not feel well enough for yoga. By now it feels like my routine is shot to bits, and I am a person who REALLY needs routine (apparently it is key to a healthy life), and I cannot summon the energy to make something nutritional, balanced and with optional/optimal leafy greens. Not to mention that I haven’t done my (routine) weekend shop where I fill the fridge with the life-giving ingredients for carefully planned fast and non-fast meals.

So I ate pancakes with dulce de leche, on the sofa, watching approximately seven episodes of the Gilmore Girls and occasionally snorting some eucalyptus oil (no, not literally). However I didn’t completely lose control and actually managed to make this recipe fit in with the calorie restrictions of a fast day, below is my recipe for my help-I’m-meant-to-be-fasting-but-I-can’t even-adult-today-pancake-supper, Gilmore Girls optional. 

Tuesday

By Tuesday I clearly need to get a grip. I’m not fasting but feel that some nutritionally dense food would be a clever plan and would probably help me over my cold, which is receding, but slowly. Access to good food is facilitated (remember I still have no food in the house) by going in to work which thankfully has outlets from a Subway to an every-second-dish-contains-quinoa salad bar. I have a smoked salmon and cream cheese multi-grain bagel for breakfast and an enormous salad with chicken and goats’ cheese for lunch. I’m helped back on track further as my husband both does the grocery shopping, and starts off the slow-cooker chicken pho (planned as a fast night supper before the week imploded) allowing me to go for a short run after work (my first exercise since Friday). The pho is absolutely stupendous and will be featured here in the coming weeks without a doubt.

I also cancel social plans for the weekend, identifying that sleep, cooking and eating well and getting some yoga classes in are probably best for fighting the cold off. All these things make me feel more in control and like my life is not destined to be a train wreck from now until the end of time.

Wednesday

Wednesday, and it’s my second fast day of the week (I couldn’t fast on Tuesday as I had nothing in the house to have for a fast day breakfast; and yes, I do recognise the irony there). Scrambled eggs with cottage cheese for (a late) breakfast, and a portion of last night’s pho for an early supper. As I have both personal training and hen pub quiz on Wednesday, the trick is that supper must be early enough that I don’t throw up during personal training, and late enough that I don’t go crazy and order a plate of chips at pub quiz. I’m pretty smug about the idea of fasting on a Wednesday, as I moan about ‘having’ to eat at the pub quiz every week as the food (shhh) isn’t that good. In reality I do come pretty close to throwing up whilst doing burpees and I’m very grumpy about not being able to eat or have a glass of wine at pub quiz, However I think that fasting non-consecutive days might actually have given me better results so I think I’ll be trying it again.

Thursday

Thursday and we are down with this week. Riding lesson at 0700, bagel for breakfast, salad for lunch and lasagne for supper. If you’ve been paying attention (and if not, why not) you’ll notice that the lasagne is the only non-fast night supper I’ve actually cooked at home this week and to be honest my version is a big plate of Garfield-fuel but only 505 calories so worth sharing I think. It can’t really be done as a quick after work supper, and in this instance the ragu/Bolognaise was made the weekend before last meaning that all I have to do tonight is make the béchamel, layer it up and bake it. Yum.

Now if next week could be a little bit less of a (completely self-inflicted, what was I thinking) struggle, that’d be great.

Help-I’m-meant-to-be-fasting-but-I-can’t even-adult-today-pancake-supper

(Feeds one, 357 calories)

• ¼ cup of all purpose flour (114 cals)
• ½ cup unsweetened almond milk (15 cals)
• 1 medium egg (72 cals)
• 1 tsp butter (for cooking) (35 cals)
• 2 tbsp dulce de leche for serving (121 cals)

1. Make batter (I like to do mine in a jug), flour first adding milk gradually and stirring so batter in smooth, then whisking in egg
2. Heat part of the butter in a frying pan (I divided my butter into four and made four small pancakes, you could do three slightly larger ones or two dinner plate size-ish ones)
3. Add part of the batter to the hot buttered pan (again, divide into however many pancakes you want to cook) turn once it is cooked on top and cook the reverse side for 30 seconds to a minute
4. Spread with dulce de leche and eat in front of the TV

Lasagna (no pics I’m afraid as this is being posted as it’s finishing cooking!)

(Feeds 6, 505 calories)

Ragu/Bolognaise

• 1.5 tbsn olive oil
• 0.5 cup diced onions
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 400g lean minced beef
• 3 carrots, crated
• 4 stalks of celery (diced)
• 500g pasatta
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• Beef stock (0.25 cup fresh/1 cube or tub, no needs to add water)
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• Red wine 1 glass

Béchamel

• 125g butter
• 100 g all-purpose flour
• 1 cup almond milk

Lasagne

• 1 pack fresh lasagne sheets
• 200g fresh mozzarella (the now in the liquid, not the semi solid one)

Ragu/Bolognese

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan, we use our wok
2. Add onions and sauté until translucent
3. Add garlic and sauté for another 30 seconds to a minute
4. Add beef and brown, breaking up large lumps with a wooden spoon
5. Once the beef is browned add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for between 30 minutes and an hour, until it reaches the desired consistency which is not too liquid (this stage can be done well ahead)

Béchamel

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan
2. Add the flour a tablespoon at a time, stirring so it is fully combined with the butter
3. Whisk in the milk a little at a time, stirring to create a thick paste/lump less sauce before adding the next batch
4. Carry on cooking, stirring constantly until the sauce is thick enough to make up the lasagne
5. You can add cheese at this point if you like, though I have left it out of the recipe to save calories (100g of cheese added to the béchamel adds 62 calories to each portion). Please don’t tell the Italians, but we like cheddar added which is also much less calorific than parmesan*

Lasagna

1. Drain the mozzarella and wrap in kitchen roll to sit
2. Assemble the lasagne in a Pyrex or other oven proof rectangular dish: ragu/pasta/bechemel/pasta/ragu/pasta/bechemel/pasta/ragu/pasta/bechemel/pasta/Bechemel
3. Pinch pieces off the mozzarella and arrange over the top
4. Oven-bake until brown and bubbling on top

*My best Italian friend had her second baby this morning, so I’m not too worried about her stumbling across this :-) if she does, congratulations, and I might like cheddar in my white sauce, but please observe that I do offer the correct name for the meat sauce that all Brits call Bolognase