Bitter salad leaves (herb salad, rocket, spinach, etc)
Spring onions
Red onions
Bacon
Coriander
Mint
Garlic
Red chillies
A couple of large ripe mangos, sliced.

Fry up the onions, spring onions, garlic, chillies and bacon in some olive oil. Add to the mixed leaves with lots of torn coriander and mint. Add the sliced mango and stir it up with oil and vinegar (salt and pepper to taste). Add feta cheese if you fancy, and serve with some crusty bread.

Serves 1 (or however many mackerels you buy)

1 mackerel, filleted, with the skin on
Juice of half a lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Salad leaves

Marinate the mackerel in the lemon juice for a bit (15 minutes should be fine). Then pour over some olive oil and salt (be generous) and spread over the fish using a spoon. Finally, fan the filleted mackerel out and put under the grill, with the skin sides facing the heat. Cook until the skin is browning and going crispy (exactly how crisp is up to you, but be careful it doesn’t get too burnt). Arrange the salad leaves on a plate, pour over the juices and put the mackerel on top. Serve with some good bread.

Serves 4 (maybe more)

Ingredients.
1 packet pancetta (or smoked bacon) (100g)
1 regular onion – chopped fine
1 medium carton double cream or whipping cream
3 egg yolks
Fresh parmesan cheese (1 small block 50g)
1 packet spaghetti (500g)

Method
1/. Fry the pancetta in olive oil until it starts to brown (medium heat) – about 5-8 minutes.
2/. Put on a large pan of water to boil and add 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of salt.
2/. Add the onion and fry for a further 5-8 minutes – until the onion is soft and translucent (keep stirring all the time – if it looks like is starting to burn, turn the heat down and add a little water .
3/. While the bacon and onion is cooking, pour the cream into a bowl and add the 3 egg yolks (not the white – throw this away or make some handy meringues while you are waiting) – beat the eggs and cream together. Grate the parmesan and add 75% of the grated cheese to the bowl – keep the rest of the parmesan to sprinkle on top of the finished dish.
4/. Add the spaghetti to the boiling water – stir to soften and make sure the water stays boiling.
5/. Turn down the heat under the bacon and onion – but keep it on very low.
6/. After 5 minutes of cooking the spaghetti, add the cream egg & cheese mixture to the bacon and onion and stir through – turn off the heat (take it off the heat now if you have an electric hob).
7/. Keep testing the spaghetti – usually takes about 8 minutes – once it is cooked, strain it and put it back into the pan it was boiled in keeping a little water in it. Pour in the bacon, egg, cheese and cream mixture and stir through – it is ready.
8/. Serve on warm plates and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and some freshly ground black pepper.

So I’ve been on this diet recently. It’s been MISERABLE, but this simple little meal is a winner to perk you up at the end of a day of rubbish snacks and treadmills. And it helped me lose a stone and a half, so everyone’s a winner.

Made this meal for a wee impromptu dinner party for myself and 4 others – went down a treat I made this all up with whatever I had in my fridge, so the measurements are a bit slapdash.

Chunky spicy lentil and tomato soup (serves 4) – 20 mins

2 small handfuls of red split lentils per person (the sort you DON’T have to soak)
1 large red onion, chopped into tiny cubes
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1 or 2 veg stock cubes
Sprinkles of cumin powder, ground coriander, dried chilli flakes, salt and pepper

(1) Fry up the onion with a tiny bit of olive oil. Put to one side.
(2) Cover the lentils with about twice as much boiling water as there is lentil (the more water you use the more watery the soup will be). Bring to boil and simmer at full pelt for 10 minutes. Then turn down the heat, crumble in the stock cube and simmer for about another 10 minutes. Once done, the lentils should be nice and sloppy
(3) Add the tomatoes and onion and spices, plus a good sprinkle of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.
(4) Simmer through until piping hot, and serve to your happy guests.

Whilst the lentils are cooking, you can sort out the main course.

Tasty roast veg and baked chicken breast stuffed with spinach

4 chicken breasts
1/4 bag of fresh washed baby spinach
LOADS of veg (this was enough for 4 people: 2 medium courgettes, 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 2 big handfuls of mushrooms, 1 large red onion, 2 big handfuls of cherry tomato)
Balsamic vinegar, mixed herbs, salt and pepper

(1) Cut a pocket down the length of each chicken breast. Crunch up and flatten a handful of spinach leaves for each chicken breast pocket and stuff it right in there (you can hold it together with a cocktail stick, or a metal chopstick, which is what I used). Rub with some mixed herbs and season with LOADS of salt of pepper. Put to one side.
(2) Chop up all the veg into bite-size chunks (leave the mushrooms whole, they’re awesome when they’re all juicy on the inside). Drizzle a TEENY bit of olive oil over everything, and drizzle considerably more balsamic over everything as well. Add a hefty handful of mixed herbs and tons of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
(3) Stick all the veg in a big dish, and plonk the chicken on top. Leave it all in a preheated oven at 200*C (or whatever that is in Farenheit or gas marks). No need to check it or anything, just leave it be, it’ll be fine, promise.

It’ll all be done in half a hour. Job, as they say, is a good’un

The chicken and veg combo has endless variations, I think. Bit of ricotta in with the spinach? Buternut squash in the with the veg? Whatever you want really, it’ll all cook in half an hour just the same.

Enjoy! And good luck with the diet

Adam