3rd Meal Plan

I was busy for few weeks hence couldn't update the blog. Trust me, I came with an awesome recipe. I am sure you will love this to the core if you like Indian chats and street food. Sumptuous and healthy and the best so far in my recipe index ( according to me ). I am writing it as a dinner plan.

As usual start your day with Honey water. Luke warm water and one spoon of honey 30 cal

Breakfast

Have fat free or skimmed milk curds ( yogurt ), if not a glass of very light butter milk with half a banana.
yogurt fat free half cup is 40 cal ( even glass of light butter milk)
Half a banana is 60 cal

Lunch

Half a cucumber, sliced and with peel is 8 calories

Dinner

Misal pav (spicy curry with bread - "pav" is the Indian colloquial for bread) is a traditional Indian dish. It consists of spicy curry usually made of sprout of Mataki and chilly powder gravy called 'Kutt'. The final dish is topped with Punjabi mix, Farsan or Sev (Indian noodles), onions, lemon and coriander (cilantro). It is usually served with bread toasted with butter and buttermilk or curd and papad.
It is made of a particular variety of sprouted lentil called "Matki" or moth bean which has a sweet aroma. Misal in its original form is prepared using onion, ginger, garlic and other spices. It has two parts, a thick curry of matki called "Ussal" which has less water content and a watery and spicy "cut" or "bite". Usually people mix these two according to their taste and requirement. In most restaurants which serve misal-pav, usal and cut are served together. Later on, only cut will be served. It is basically a spicy recipe but very tasty. One can see red chilli powder and oil floating over ..source Wikipedia..

I tried making the healthier version and am able to do it within our calorie count.

100 grams of mixed sprouts(moong or green lentils, chickpeas and moth beans)  .....  169 cal
One medium sized onion                                                                                             46 cal
One medium sized beetroot                                                                                          6 cal
One medium sized carrot                                                                                             20 cal
Two medium sized tomatoes                                                                                        32 cal
One spoon oil                                                                                                               30
One green chilli                                                                                                              6 cal
One spoon of corriander leaves                                                                                      6 cal
Gingergarlic paster 1tsp
Kitchen king 1 tsp
Corriander pdr 1 tsp                                                           all of them                          20 cal
Cumin powder
chilli powder
The whole count is 363cal, I tried to put more to be on safer side.
Farsan or the mixtire is just 2spoons Poha (rice falkes),1 spoons of roasted chana and 1spoon of oats, with a spoon of lemon juice and pinch of salt. ............................................................................................20 cal
cucumber half 8 cal

Method
It is very simple to make this misal cucumber. We replace pav*bread with cucumber.
In a pressure cooker or a pan, heat oil. Add half an onion and saute. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for a little longer. Add in half grated beetroot and half of grated carrot. Add tomatoes and masala powders. Add in the sprouts. Add 2 cups of water. Add salt to taste and corriander and just wait till one whistle. Till the sprouts become tender.

For the mixture, add poha,oats,dried chana dal (putana) and one spoon of lime juice and microwave till they become crisp or dry roast till they become crisp.

Assemble with layer of sprouts gravy, rest of the onions and veggies and mixture on top. Please check the video below. I followed the recipe and the measurements too.

I was not able to eat the whole portion. Even 50 grams of the sprouts also work.

The whole meal plan is 501 calories.

Enjoy..:)

2nd Meal Plan for 5:2

Hello again. Once bitten and twice shy. I can never go back to my old eating habits or leave this 5:2. It is so easy to maintain it for your life. Eat right and choose well.
Breakfast:

Buckwheat Flour ( kuttu ki aata) or 
Water chestnut Flour(singhare ki aata) or
Bajre ki aata(pearl millet flour)  Dosas with toppings :

Buckwheat flour is consumed during Navrathri fasting days in Gujarat. Some of my Gujarati friends complain that they put on weight during fasting days. The fasting days recipes in Gujarat mostly are Buckwheat puris, or pakodas, or Singhare aata ki samosas. All are deep fried.

Buckwheat has so much nutritional value
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=11

 One can have a slimmer waist by consuming baajre ki aata or Pearl Millet flour, ancient wisdom claims. Water chestnut flour reduces heat in the body.


I will just share this amazing video of making buckwheat dosas from Mallika Vishwanathan from Easycooking123. 

50 Gms of Buckwheat flour is 172 calories for women
80 gms of Buckwheat flour is 274 calories for men
Oil one tsp 3 calories
Toppings of your choice,
Carrots,ginger, onions, beetroots,peppers, corriander, curry leaves.
Half a Medium sized carrot grated is 15 cal
" " " """"""""""""""""""" beetroot is 15 cal
Half a pepper is 12 cal
Onion is 4 cal
one chilli is 3
Total calories is 250.

I can't make dosas like Mallika in the video. My toppings simply fall. I try to make dosas and add the vegetables later. It is easy to make with buckwheat flour as it has some binding agent compared to other flours. Please try to add two tsp of flax seed powder or 1 spoon of Besan ( chick pea flour) for other flours. Flax seed powder or besan acts as an amazing binding agent. Put flax seeds in a blender to get powder.

A fruit for lunch is 90 calories ( banana)

Dinner:
Mixed Vegetable Soup: 150 cal

250 grams of  three mixed vegetables is 150 cal
Carrots, Beans, beetroots or
carrots, peppers, broccoli
or your choice,

Boil all the vegetable in enough water ( pressure cooker can be used, one whistle ). Add salt and pepper or spices of your choice. We are not adding any butter or oil. I use sambar powder sometimes.

Total count is 250+90+150 is 490 calories

Bon appetite..
Happy Fasting

I will be back with more meal plans. Sambar powder and chutneys to be followed.

1st Meal plan for fast day

As we already discussed earlier. Numbers are the key.  We count calories for every recipe posted here. I try to add nutritional value for the things I know. I look forward for some comments to improve.

I fast on Sundays and Wednesdays. Choose any two days in the week. Try to choose busy days as you tend to be busy and don't think about the hunger pangs. You have to skip one meal, either breakfast or lunch or dinner to give starving period of 12 hours twice. Personally, I reserve my calories for one big meal in the evening. I skip both breakfast and lunch and have 500 calorie dinner. Choose which is suitable for you.

1 .Start your day with a lukewarm Honey water. 2 tsp is 30 calories. Honey helps you not to feel hungry for a long time.

Ragi flour or finger millet is very rich in calciuim and iron. Try to include it in your daily diet. It makes you feel full for a longer time. It is recommended for diabetic patients and also it is rich in calcium it is good for bones. The nutritional chart with details if you are keen to know more about it.
http://vegweightlossdiets.com/good-diet/ragi-flour-nutritional-value-and-benefits/
In the flour I brought the calories are 336 cal for 100 gms. Let us follow this count.FYI Sprouted ragi flour is available in stores. I use normal ragi flour. It is available in Indian stores.

2. Ragi flour or Finger Millet dosas ( French crepes) for breakfast
Ingredients
50 gms for women is roughly two table spoon of flour 168 cal
80 gms for men is 268 cal
1 green chilli or according to your taste 2 cal
A bunch of mint leaves 6 cal
cumin seeds a pinch 3 cal
salt to taste
thinly sliced onion, grated ginger,1 grated carrot, 1 grated beet root add as topping.
Grind green chilli, mint leaves with cumin and add to the flour. Take a non stick tawa and make dosas. Add toppings according to your choice. We are not using oil for this recipe.

I am sharing this amazing you tube video of making ragi dosa from Guru's channel.

 I am just omitting the coconut part for the fast day and for the numbers sake. It can be made on regular days.
100 gms chillies are 40,
    "         onions are 40
    "         carrots are 40
     "       beetroots are 37


3.Eat a clementine orange ( small ) 35 calories with your breakfast or fruit of your choice. Avoid sugary fruits like pine apple.

4. Dinner..Amaranth delight

Amaranth is so good and very high in nutritional value. It is so easily available in India. It is called thotakura in telugu, dantinsappu in kannada, dantukeere in tamil. 100 gms of amaranth is just 23 calories. It is better than spinach and used extensively in Indian cuisine. Spinach can be replaced. Any colour of amaranth will do for this recipe. It is traditionally made with tour dal. We try to make it nutitionally rich so we cook it faster

200 gms of amaranth leaves 46 calories
1 Onion 7 calories
4 to 5 green chillies 10 calories
1 table spoon of masoor dal (orange lentils) or moong dal ( yellow lentils)30 calories
1 spoon oil 30 calories
2 big or 6 small garlic cloves 10 calories
1 tsp mustard seeds 3 calories
1 tsp cumin seeds 3 calories
1 spoon chilli powder
salt to taste
Soak the dal for 10 minutes. Wash and cut the amaranth leaves. take a cooking bowl. Add leaves, half an onion, half of the garlic, soaked dal and cook it covered for 2 minutes. Amaranth leaves water. Squeeze the water out and proceed to season it mustard and cumin, the other half of the onion and garlic, green chillies ,the other half onion,garlic, and add chilli powder. The whole procedure shouldn't take more than 3 minutes. That way it doesn't lose some of the valuable nutrients.

Don't throw the water out. Traditionally it is made into bassaru or a soup . If you can drink it, drink it or mix with chapati following day keeping in the refrigerator.

End the day with a glass of very light butter milk. Half cup of cucumbers and half a carrot.

Add a fruit every day. It is like giving natural sugar to the body and reduces the psychological cravings for sugar.


Honey water            30 cal
Ragi dosa                200 *with toppings
Fruit                           90 *Banana * maximum cal ..clementine has fewer cal
Amarath delight       136
Butter Milk                40 *Very thin consistency and only a glass                  
cucumber and carrot    7
Total Count is 500 cal for women and 600 for men.
If clementine is taken, eat half a carrot more. The whole plan is within 500 calories.

Hope this helps you. Coming out with more meal plans. Any types of permutations and combinations can be taken.
Happy Fasting.

5:2 explained

Hi Again as promised I am with the new formula of the Indian recipes for 500 calorie recipes.

Disclaimer:
I am neither a doctor nor a chef etc etc, but yes researched a lot ( Thanks to Internet ) as a necessity.

To start with, just to inspire I will tell my story with weight loss. I was 75 kilos 8 months ago and heard about the 5:2 diet from a friend. I am 59 kilos now. I still have to reduce a few more kilos.But now I am confident of reducing and maintaining for my life. Trust me, I tried everything under this planet Earth to reduce my weight from Atkins to weight watchers to GM. Weight remained like a hole in my head till this miracle happened. I call this 5:2 Simply A MIRACLE. Thanks to my very good friend Jayne who told me about it. I am having lot of energy. I  followed the time zones to get quick results. 16 hours fasting and 8 hour eating window and on these fasting days, I counted calories.

 As 5:2 is just not a weight loss program but a health program. Whoever has no patience to watch the videos I posted earlier, I will explain 5:2 in a nutshell. Our bodies are used to fasting and feasting. Feast for several days and fast till you get your next meal. It is not a new concept. Every religion advises of fasting for their religious or pious reasons. If Muslims do Ramadan, Hindus have Karthik maas and Karthik Somvars, Ekadashis, Shivrathris etc. Our ancient wisdom has been proved right again by Science. BOTTOM LINE IS FASTING IS GOOD FOR YOUR BODY. Eat normally for 5 days and fast for 2 days. Can numbers do the trick? yes, numbers are the key on these fast days.  Men are allowed 600 calories and women 500 calories on fast days.. One can always assure themselves about heavy, lovely meal the following day. Buy the book and it is a small book. Dr.Mosely is a medical journalist and never did this for profit.

Would this limited amount of calories be sufficient for us? Surprisingly yes..with the right choice we can go to sleep feeling full.

Making regular habits:

a. Drink one glass of Luke warm water with 2 tea spoons of honey.  ( ancient Ayurvedic wisdom). Try getting good quality of honey like Dabur (India). The honey not only reduces weight but also reduces the cravings for sweets. Body needs sweet and giving good nutrition to the body is the key.

b. Eat an inch piece of ginger with a pinch of sea salt and one drop of lemon half an hour before every meal. Ginger is natural detoxification and helps in digestion. ( Ayurveda again)

c. Doing some kind of exercise ( boy oh boy, a cliche ) but simple walking to regular simple pranayamas will work. Kapalbhati helps in good digestion and even to reduce weight.

d. Reflect your weakness. Give this health program or weight loss a holistic approach. I am a big binge eater. I always used to nibble some thing especially when I was low. With this time zone, I reduced binge eating to 8 hours. It is such an improvement in my daily habit.

e. Go organic. I know it puts a big dent in your wallet but reflect upon the medical bills you might be saving later.

f. Replace white rice with brown or red rice. Include Ragi flour or finger millet flour in your diet. If you can get buckwheat flour, it is amazing. More about it in my next posts.

g. If you are a vegetarian, eat  two spoons of  flax seed powder every day. Best source of Omega 3 and omega 6 which can be only found in fish.

Eating is an escape for problems we have to face or even worse, eating without any purpose. As I constantly put on weight, I was attracted to unhealthy food and unhealthy life style. My body is nutritionally starved when I was fat. With this 5:2, eating right food, I stopped craving for puris, samosas. Body needs fat too. A tea spoon of ghee or clarified butter every day is much healthier than eating french fries or puris or samosas. One of my cousin who is an Ayurvedic Doctor said ghee is good for eyes in the long run.

I thought I will post recipes but this post seems to be too lengthy. I will post it in my next post.

The Introduction to the 5:2 Fast diet

This Diet has phenomenal success and hence it doesn't need any introduction. If you haven't heard of it, the links are below for detailed explanations.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms

Dr.Mosely, who popularized it as a health program for his own health during his projects at BBC. As they say, the rest is history or to be more precise THE FUTURE. The benefits of fasting and body going into repair mode and eventually to a recovering one is the key and weight loss is additional bonus. I don't want to bore the readers with the nitty gritties. My aim is to give Indian vegetarian recipes for 500 calories  . Surprisingly there are not many blogs with Indian recipes.  I will provide several links for you to decide the importance of Fast Diet and if you decide to do it, you can check for my future posts.

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/  is their blog.

This is another brief summary of the Fast diet. Just watch this video to understand the gist of it all.

Michael Mosley's interviews..