Snacking – WeightWatchers Double Choc Chip Cookies

I seem to remember that in days gone by, dieting was something to be endured. No success without suffering. Pain is beauty. You are what you eat. Of course, it is still difficult. But nowadays there seems to be a proliferation of products, programmes, dedicated to helping you along the way. You’re not on a diet, you’re in a club, a sisterhood (yep, it’s always women), you’re safe here. We’re in this together.

I’m still not quite sure how I feel about all this. I’d much rather put in a shedload of effort to be proud enough of the results (come that fated day somewhere in the distant future) – equally, I want to make sure I am scared enough to never want to do it again, rather than relapse because “well, it’s okay, we can just go back into that fluffy friendly club afterwards anyway can’t we”.

Weight Watchers is of course the first make-dieting-fun lifestyle that springs to mind. It’s been around forever, but never has it seemed to hold such a grip on women. I don’t recall acquaintances describing food items as points until relatively recently, nor do I remember seeing these rather serious looking boxes of cookies sidling up to the Mr Kipling selection until a few days ago. Maybe I’ve been diet-blind. Anyway, in a fit of low-sugar-related despondency, coupled with a little desperation, I picked up a box. Fat girls can still eat cookies, right?

Hmmm.

We get off to an inauspicious start with the WW cookies. There’s no forgetting that herein lies cheating fat food, chubby, with the serious branding and constant reminders of just how low in bad stuff these little beauties are (that’s 1.5 points per two biscuits folks, or 98 calories for the more serious diet mathematicians amongst us). These are not bright-red-shiny-friendly-Marylands, not big-blokey-Boasters. Oh no, they most definitely are not.

These are, frankly, rubbish cookies. One weighs in at a measly 11 grams. The colour is disurbingly pale, not dissimilar to that hot drink beloved of female dieters everywhere, Options hot chocolate. The texture is somewhere between an oatcake and a ginger nut, yet successfully encompasses none of the positives of these two foods. The bottom of each cookie is smooth, like plastic. And the taste – well, it’s sweet, vaguely chocolatey, but not a chocolatey flavour I’d be able to pick out in a darkened room. There is no richness, no bite, nothing that usually makes chocolate cookies such a severe pleasure to eat. Things do take a turn for the better once you reach the saving grace, the selling point, real chocolate chips in each cookie. Of course however, there are only two per biscuit – it would be impossible to make a diet food any other way – however, it does lift the miserable thing a little.

As far as I am concerned, if you’re eating bad foods, they have to be bad. That is where the pleasure and the taste comes from. Fat means flavour. Too much fat equals getting fat, leads to the situation I find myself in now. Fighting the urge to be bad and indulge is the hugest challenge in any diet; any diet will be difficult and that is the way it must be. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but diet cookies are little more than delusion. If you want a cookie so much, break for a real cookie. Add it to your counter and enjoy it properly. Weight Watchers cookies are, unfortunately, just empty calories. And we all know how much I don’t need them.

Roasted aubergine by Ottolenghi

I’d clearly gone on enough about the column Yotam Ottolenghi writes in the Guardian Saturday magazine to provoke a gift of Ottolenghi: The Cookbook from my long-suffering boyfriend when I finally moved to London last year.

Since receiving said cooking bible I have waxed lyrical about it to, well, anyone who would listen really. The combinations of flavours are gutsy and imaginative, the colours bright. Ottolenghi really does, without wanting to sound terribly wanky, encourage a new thinking and approach to the simplest foods. Take steamed green beans and mangetout. They’ll do like that, for sure, but how about making a meal out of just them by adding orange zest and hazelnuts? Now we’re talking.

It is this kind of approach that makes me almost revel in my low calorie requirements. The book is crammed full of wonderful recipes that are full of veg, light on fat. Smug food. This roasted aubergine salad is just that. I think it’s rather exciting too, all the loud flavours and contrasting textures held together by the fragrant yoghurt. Of course, be minimal with the olive oil to keep it as light as poss.

Roasted aubergine with basil, pine nuts and pomegranate with saffron yoghurt by the utterly awesome Ottolenghi. Serves two dieting ladies, pretty well. I’ve adjusted the recipe here and there.

One large aubergine cut into wedges (leaving each piece with some skin)
Olive oil for brushing
A tablespoon of pine nuts
A mini handful of pomegranate seeds
A bunch of basil, leaves picked
Salt and pepper
A pinch of saffron
A few tablespoons of low fat natural yoghurt (I’ve replaced their greek yog here to keep the fat down)
1 clove of garlic
A squeeze of lemon juice
A tablespoon of good quality olive oil

Arrange the aubergine wedges on a baking tray and brush with a little olive oil. Place the aubergine into a preheated oven at about 190 degrees – they’ll take about 20 minutes to bake – they will shrivel slightly and take on a lovely golden brown colour.

Meanwhile make the saffron yoghurt. Infuse the strands in a small amount of warm water (about three tablespoons) for about five minutes, until the water has turned a deep yellow. Pour this mixture into another bowl containing the garlic and a touch of salt. Add all the yoghurt and whisk together. Now add lemon juice and olive oil a little at a time and continue to whisk together until you reach the consistency and flavour you like (this part is a little different to the original recipe – using low fat yoghurt means the dressing will be thinner than using greek yoghurt. If you’d like to use greek, you can add more oil and lemon).

Once the aubergine is baked and smelling delicious (after about 20 minutes), take it out and arrange the slices on two plates. Quickly sprinkle the pine nuts over the baking tray the aubergines have just vacated and whack back in the oven. Arrange the basil across the aubergine and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds. Take the just-toasted pine nuts back out and sprinkle over too. Now drizzle with the saffron yoghurt and eat as quickly as possible.

Picture by my lovely co-dieter.

Yumsoup – carrot, lentil and spinach

When I first announced (to Twitter – so to make it official and have no backout) that I had enforced the 1200-per-day limit I was reminded of the key elements to any low-cal diet by Kat. A diet any toothless hag would be proud of.

I’ve always been a massive fan of soups – something fed (literally and metaphorically, like) into me by my marvellous cooking mother. Truth be told I’m more than a little bit excited about the calorie limitation pushing me towards soup. Cheap, tasty, filling wondrous soup. Something you can more or less make up as you go along, something that even the most novice cook can have a decent bash at, something that competes with the best stuff you can get out in a restaurant for nowhere near the price.

I’ve been a spice fiend since a four year stint in the Balti capital Birmingham – cumin is a great warming spice here, especially as without any butter (sigh) the lentils could fall a bit flat. I made the batch the night before without the spinach and it didn’t have enough interest, so the second night I stirred some young leaf spinach through as I rewarmed it and added a pinch of roasted cumin seeds to finish.

Yumsoup the first – spicy carrot, lentil and spinach

Note – I only ever measure ingredients for cake. I imagine I will not be enjoying too much of that in the coming months, so please do enjoy my rough cooking measurements (it’s the best way as eny fule no!)

About half a kilo of carrots (a few big fat ones) cut into circles
About 150g red split lentils
Around a tablespoon of cumin seeds
A fat pinch of chilli flakes
A teeny bit of your favourite oil (oil is one of the biggest sinners – I am testing out Carotino at present – very much enjoy it but still not sure whether it’s all in the mind)
Enough water to cover your veg, and a bit more. This is usually about a litre, but I tend to use less as I’m quite the fan of the stand-your-spoon-up-in-it soup (loads more warming!). I don’t use pre-prepared stock cubes as they are so high in salt and come with non-descript bits floating around in them. Ideally, of course, I’d use any leftover water from steaming veg.
As much spinach as you fancy (about half a bag)
Enough salt and pepper for you to enjoy (no salt for me, but I’m the odd one here).
Coriander for the top.

Heat a splash of your oil in a flat saucepan, then chuck in most of the cumin seeds and all of the chilli. Heat until the seeds are poppin’ and smell great. Now, throw in your carrot rounds for a couple of minutes, and follow quickly with the lentils and then the water. Bring it to the boil quicksmart, then reduce to a simmer and cover for 15 minutes or so. The lentils should have gone mushy, the carrots softened. Toast some more cumin seeds in a small frying pan with no oil, once they start to smell good turn off the head. Hand-blend the soup together then stir in the spinach. Keep stirring until it wilts – not for too long as it will all but disappear. Get it into a bowl and sprinkle the top with cumin seeds. Consume. Bravo.

Hunger starts

I have struck fear into my own heart and started what will be perhaps my biggest challenge ever. This is no no-alcohol-Jan or no-bread-Feb (though the latter did punish me hard – I suspect it will be the proverbial walk in the park compared to the next one I have in store).

I am going on a diet.

I have done several before – but never anything too regimented – I have only attempted cut downs. This has of course led to miserable failure time after time – the simple fact is that I just like food too much and as such have become adept at convincing myself that no slimness could possibly feel as good as butter, bread, bacon, whatever tastes. And bloody hell I DESERVE to eat because I LOVE it and WHY would I be putting myself through the pain of dieting when the simple fact is that food is my passion, seeking out new restaurants gives me major thrills?

Well the reason is that I’ve finally worked out that my body makes me a bit sad. A while ago I was running every other day and looked loads better and felt great. Then along came shin splints and a job that encouraged me to try every new eatery in Soho. Then along came another job – one that sometimes depressed me so much I ended up eating far too much for the release from the drudgery. And well, now, once again I find myself too fat. I’ve always been a bit too fat really. But now I’m getting older and fat. Well hell-o-o early-life-crisis.

I have decided to start a low-calorie diet. 1200 per day allowed. I’ve even got an app for it. I can minus any running I do to give me a higher calorie buffer, but on a horribly dismal day like this when I’d rather sit in bed for the whole day (and who wouldn’t), I’ve only got those 1200 to play with.

Here I shall chart my adventures with the calorie counter – that is, my dinners, rather than the touchy-feely self-loathing crap that usually comes with dieting. Here starts my quest for feeling pleasantly full and warmed through.