Topic: Healthy Option section?

[Razor]

Ok, finally realising that my diet in general is pretty poor, and not just down to the BIR style food, I plucked up the courage and joined 'Slimming World'.

I knew that I was weighty because all my clothes that fitted me perfectly a few months ago, was now all very snug.  I've used every excuse in the book, from blaming the wife for shrinking them, to accusing the manufacturer of labelling the items incorrectly.  Alas, the inevitable was nigh, and accepting the fact that I am the best part of 3 stone overweight is upon me.

Here is the dilemma.  Not for one minute do I want to cut out my BIR style cooking, and my family back me up with that.  So I need to make a few changes to the recipes eg; reduce the oil content, perhaps cut down on portion size and so on?  Is this going to dramatically impact on the required flavour of the dish? I suspect that it will!

Not suggesting that any of you guy's are as poorly disciplined as me but how many of you would crave for a BIR type dish but omitting the unhealthy aspects of the dish?  Is it indeed possible to recreate an healthy BIR dish such as Chicken Madras and retain a good amount of BIR flavour?

Going through my starter pack I would say, that it doesn't look completely out of the question.  Anyone familiar to Slimming world will know that there are three different diet plans that you can follow; The Extra Easy Choice, The Green Choice or The Original Choice.  I've opted to follow the Extra Easy choice plan.  This plan allows me to eat as much rice, meat and veg as I want but does mark you down for the amount of oil you can use in the form of 'syns'.  Now, I am allowed to have upto 15 syns a day but oil for instance, 1 tbs = 6 syns. So, before I even add my base sauce, I'm already upto 24 syns in one of my curries.

Over the next coming months, I'm going to try to develop some dishes that fit in with my diet plan, and if they are successful I would love to publish them on here but would any of you guy's be interested?

I think that the forum would benefit from an 'Healthy Options' section even for those not following any kind of diet plan.  Has any of you guy's got an 'Healthy Option' style dish that you haven't posted because it doesn't follow the theme of the forum but is very good nonetheless?

IF any of you guy's are following a diet plan such as Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Fat Fighters, it would be very easy for you to cross reference the recipes and see how they fit with your diet plan.

It could be formated something like:

Chicken Madras, SW

Meaning, a Chicken Madras, following the Slimming World (SW) guidelines?

It doesn't have to be curry either, it could be Chinese, English, Thai, Italian....

Do you guy's think that there would be much mileage in such a section, or am I just trying to 'indulge' myself

Be great to have some feedback on this before I put it to Admin.

Thanks for reading,

Ray

[currymonster]

Hi Ray,

I'd certainly be interested in any recipes that taste good and are relatively healthy. I've spent my entire life fighting with my weight and am always looking for ways to reduce the calories 

[Razor]

Hi CM,

Thanks for the support mate.  I've been really lucky with my weight as I've always been very active but about 4 years ago, I had a serious break to my ankle, whereby I had to have a lot of metal work fitted.  Ever since then, I have virtually been inactive, certainly from a sporting perspective.  Slowly but surely, the pounds piled on.  In the last 12 months though, it really has caught up with me, so I think it's about time I acted, sharpish.

Hopefully, we will get a few more in support, I will then ask Admin/Stew, if he could dedicate a section to it.  If it's not possible, I will still post the recipes but not quite sure as to where to post them at this stage?

Ray

[commis]

Hi
Excellent idea Mr R, A quick look at the Chinese stir fry, little oil then after adding the first batch add a little water to maintain the frying. Saut

[loveitspicy]

great idea

best, Rich

[coogan]

Yes. Brilliant idea Razor. Plenty of mileage I would say with a healthy option section and a new challenge. To keep in keep with the rest of the site I do think that it should be limited to just Indian or Chinese cuisine and in particular the recreation of healthy BIR style dishes. Must say I had a rare take away Indian as a birthday treat the other day and was horrified at the amount of unnecessary oil in it. And the whole lot of it was inferior in taste and texture to what I can produce using probably a gallon or two less oil. Excessive oil is just lazy cooking - shocking. I certainly have got a few recipes and ideas up my sleeve to input into this and on another plus side Mrs Coogan could certainly do with loosing a few pounds. Good luck with your shrinkage.

Bon health

[solarsplace]

Hi Ray

Great idea!

Cheers

Russ

[Panpot]

Good for you Razor. I suspect most of us face this issue. Portion control is my big thing especially ad I love to cook and indeed cook all the food at home. So by the time he Pakora gets to the table the extra portion has been scoffed in the kitchen. The same with the prawn crackers or my other trick of leaving a half portion of everything in the pans that I can scoff when I do the dishes.

I do know what works for me and I have lost ten pounds in just over two weeks by going low carb and having a walk or two most days. I have also enjoyed excellent curry meals, Chinese, chili and pasta dishes and even low carb bread. The big thing is while I have my perfect Ashoka Bhuna Karahi or Abdul's based Madras without reducing the oil I have my rice even pilou made from cauliflower and my pasta is made from courgette.

Believe it or not the rice substitute feels like the same thing in the mouth, looks the part and the taste is thankfully drowned by the curries.

I kicked the diet off with the usual protein only meals for about five days then just enjoyed experimenting with the countless low carb dishes found on you tube or on google while still fitting in my favourites.

So looking forward to this section hopefully being established provided too that it's just Indian, Chinese, Thai etc. Cheers PP

[Ramirez]

I think this idea definitely has legs, Ray. Go for it I say! 

Good for you Razor. I suspect most of us face this issue. Portion control is my big thing especially ad I love to cook and indeed cook all the food at home. So by the time he Pakora gets to the table the extra portion has been scoffed in the kitchen. The same with the prawn crackers or my other trick of leaving a half portion of everything in the pans that I can scoff when I do the dishes.

I do know what works for me and I have lost ten pounds in just over two weeks by going low carb and having a walk or two most days. I have also enjoyed excellent curry meals, Chinese, chili and pasta dishes and even low carb bread. The big thing is while I have my perfect Ashoka Bhuna Karahi or Abdul's based Madras without reducing the oil I have my rice even pilou made from cauliflower and my pasta is made from courgette.

Believe it or not the rice substitute feels like the same thing in the mouth, looks the part and the taste is thankfully drowned by the curries.

I kicked the diet off with the usual protein only meals for about five days then just enjoyed experimenting with the countless low carb dishes found on you tube or on google while still fitting in my favourites.

So looking forward to this section hopefully being established provided too that it's just Indian, Chinese, Thai etc. Cheers PP

Portion control is also my downfall. My diet tends to be pretty balanced - good amount of veg, fruit, protein, etc, but I like large portions.

Would you mind sharing how you substitute rice for cauliflower? I think this new section (if it goes ahead) should be all-encompassing - side dishes, starters, etc,  and what can be changed/substituted to make them healthier/low calorie.

[Razor]

Hi Guy's and thanks for the support.

It does seem that portion control is the 'biggie' along with way too much oil.  I have actually been out and bought smaller plates (typical restaurant size) and got rid of my 'bin lid' sized ones.

I actually bought a Slimming world Curry cook book, and to be honest, some of the dishes look really nice.  I've got a Pork Vindaloo marinating in the fridge as I type.  It seems that the focus here is to rid the recipes of oil and replace with chicken stock?  I guess I will report back later on how good it was. 

Being a member of this forum as helped me understand what flavours are definitely required to achieve that BIR flavour and in this recipe, I have already identified what I need to replace in it to achieve that eg; 1 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp madras curry powder, 1 clove ground, 2 cardamoms ground, 1 tsp of cinnamon. These have all been replaced with, 1 heaped tbs kashmiri mirch, 2 tsp of mixed powder and 1 tsp of garam masala.  Simple replacements but we all know that they will work.  The oil on the other hand is going to be the tricky one.  Interested to see what using stock will bring to a dish.

Let me give it some thought on how best to put the idea to Stew, and see if he is up for it.

Ray