Day four: Starting the upwards curve

I had great expectations for today. Day four! The end of withdrawals! And then I was up twice in the night with one of the kids so my other half did the early start with our pre-dawn-waking children and all our good intentions of starting the day with our 10 minute workout flew out the window. I still felt irritable, although fortunately my muscle aches are much improved, I've had no headache and I've been less tired, so all in all it was an improvement, not just quite the magic 'feeling on top of the world' I'd hoped for.

So it was a glum start, and the only way to combat a glum start, especially on a Sunday in this house is with a really good breakfast. Fluffy cinnamon and raisin pancakes are one of my weekend breakfast staples but they are obviously not an option any more so I decided to give the cinnamon and banana omelette from the KSFL booklet a try. Thinking this wouldn't be enough to see me through the morning I made it into a two course breakfast with stir fried broccoli with lemon and garlic (one of my all time favourite ways to cook brocolli), tomatoes and avocado to start and the banana omelette to finish. How is that for indulgent?

 

 

And yes, we did have garlic for breakfast. At least we both ate it...

 

Fancy making that broccoli dish yourself? It makes for a great side dish to go with all kinds of things, is really quick and very tasty. I kept my lemon juice quantities lower than I might usually after Rachel advised us that a little lemon juice as a dressing is OK, but no more. The original recipe I lerned from my cousin, Kd, but here's my KSFL version:

 

Lemon and Garlic Broccoli

 

Serves 2-3 as a hearty side dish, 3-4 as a normal portion

Takes 5 minutes prep time and 5 minutes cook time

 

Ingredients:

 

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets (I slice the bigger ones but that's optional)

2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive or coconut oil

Water

 

Put all the ingredients except the water into a large non-stick frying pan and fry over a high heat, stirring regularly, until the broccoli is cooked through but still crunchy. Add in a splash (1-2 tablespoons) of water at intervals if the pan becomes too dry.

 

Serve!

 

Now, doesn't the banana omelette that followed look devine? It so is! It's definitely one to have in the back of your mind as a weekend treat.

 

 

 

For lunch I took the left over juices from the fabulous lamb dish that we'd had last night and used it as a stock for a soup. I added celery, mushrooms, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and five thick rashers of unsmoked bacon, plus some more water and left it to bubble away for a little while. It really worked!

 

 

That topped us up nicely for the afternoon and unlike yesterday when, in retrospect, the lack of protein in our butternut squash soup left us with a real energy dip in the afternoon, this most definitely did not. Protein in every meal folks - it's a must! That's our lesson learned!

 

Dinner was another real hit. The packs we were given when we started KSFL included a sample meal planner for the first week. One of the meal ideas was burgers, and it just had to be done, though I added an egg to the recipe to help the burger mix bind and a handful of herbs for extra flavour. We had them with a huge mixed salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and a roasted chicken thigh thrown in for good measure - I'd just cooked a big batch of thighs and drumsticks to use for lunches in the week. I also included pickled gerkins which are an essential element to any burger meal in my mind. They are a little cheat because although I read the ingredients on the jar and they are mostly just gerkins, vinegar, salt and mustard seeds (which I didn't eat) there are also 'flavourings' which I know could be hiding all kinds of nasties. So I throw my hands up now and admit I cheated, a little bit, with three gerkins. But in the greater scheme of things I think I can live with myself for this one.

 

The Four Ingredient Burger

 

It tasted even better than it looks, honest!

 

Here's the recipe:

 

The Five Ingredient Burger!

 

Serves 2 generously

 

1lb minced beef

1 large onion, finely chopped

Handful of fresh herbs (I used rosemary and thyme), finely chopped

1 egg, beaten

Olive or coconut oil

 

Throw the beef, onion, herbs and beaten egg into a mixing bowl and mix it up with your hand. Really give it a good squish about. Divide the mix into four equal parts and shape each into a burger shape.

 

Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan, add the burgers and cook for 3-4 minutes over a moderate high heat until they are nicely browned on the bottom, then turn them and give them the same amount of time to cook on the other side. The amount of time it will take your burgers to cook will depend on how thick you make them. I tend to squish them to no more than 1.5cm thick so that they'll cook through without burning the outside, though a slightly crispy crust can be very yummy too.

 

Serve with a mountain of salad and munch up!

 

After a day with that much tasty food in it, things had to start looking up eventually. After the kids were in bed we finally got a chance to do the 10 minute work out and immediately, our moods lifted. We chatted about how we were both finding the diet and realised that we were feeling less grouchy and that the cravings that we'd both struggled with for the first couple of days were pretty much gone.

 

I also rather naughtily stepped on the scales. In four days I appear to have dropped four pounds. If that's not an incentive to keep going then I don't know what is.