I am of the "plan meals ahead" type of people and today I made some lovely lamb Rogan Josh following my trusted old recipe. This time, however, I did something different..... wait for it......drumroll.... I counted every calorie that I put in. Shocker!!!! This normally would have been a 6-7 portion/pot of lamb, but after counting all the calories I am now going to have to portion it into at least 10 portions to get it into the colorie count for my meals per day
Lesson learnt: Go back to all recipes and when making it COUNT CALORIES, CHANGE PORTION SIZES and add some more veggies to make it more filling.
OK now for a chicken casserole to put into the freezer. I will keep you updated re my portion/calorie count for this recipe:))
Have a great weekend all
Written by
Mammou
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Aha, I can see how that would do it! Luckily I don't like lamb.
I also find it a stretch to lower the meat content of recipes (I'm an American) as I always thought you could never have too much meat!
Another thing I had never really considered was the amount of oil I used in the pan when cooking off all that meat. It would have been obvious to me if I had ever really thought about it before, but it's crazy the amount of calories cooking oil will add to a recipe.
Good luck with your lighter recipes, I look forward to hearing how they turn out.
It is a shocker, isn't it Mammou! I've been there too. I discovered I was eating enough for about 4 men! Yikes!
Not to worry, we got there in the end
When you get it all worked out, maybe you'd like to share the recipes with us?
Keep up the great work
Blimey! Well done for counting those calories. I know what you mean, I look at the packaging very carefully and it's shocking how fattening and loaded in calories a lot of every day items are! Has it always been this way or is our food more unhealthy these days by adding salt/sugar/fat/additives etc? It has me thinking and I am very suspicious of these food packages that have a massive 'Healthy' logo on it and how it counts to one of your five a day because 9 times out of 10 when I take a closer look the amount of salt or sugar or saturated fat is in these things is crazy!
You are right, it is no wonder so many of the population is over weight when you look at the calorie amount for one meal...makes me more determined to make my own food and count my calories. I always go a little over just in case the packaging is wrong and there's more calories in there than it states! I watched something ages ago when they cracked down on false dietary information on food packaging as it turned out a lot of food was higher calories, fat, sugar and salt than the packaging stated!
Another thing that has really started to annoy me is the amount of fast food establishments there are now. In my little town alone there is two Chinese, a chippy and kebab/burger restaurant as well as a cafe and a shop that sells loads of sweets/junk food. Now my town is very small but it's slap bang in between bigger towns and the town next to me has well over 30, possible 40, fast food establishments. That's not counting all the restaurants that are sit in, there is loads of them plus cafes and pubs. I could eat out every day of the year somewhere different in just three near by towns alone!
My point was not money but the amount of food (and a lot of junk food like chips, burgers and kebabs come relatively cheap) there is available to the public and especially young people. You don't have to travel far for a greasy food fix in this day and age. And that sort of food can be addictive, look how hard it is for a lot of people; they struggle to eat healthily. They have to really try and work at it before they can do it with confidence.
It's also the convenience of places like that too, no cooking, probably drive there so not even any walking and if eaten out of packaging no need to wash up either. It encourages laziness!
You are right, it's much easier to get junky, bad for you food than it is to eat healthy. There are places in the US where it is literally impossible for them to eat anything but junk take out food because they don't have access to a grocery store, a "food desert": nationalgeographic.com/food...
I hadn't thought about it much before you pointed it out, but there are loads of fast food type places as well as restaurants/cafes/pubs and such around here as well.
Thanks for the rant, it was very interesting and definitely got me thinking!
lol no problem, it's more a problem now that I am trying to be healthy and not stray but it is not made easier by all these establishments. I think it's shocking that in a lot of places, like where you just mentioned, that it is easier and cheaper to eat foods that are unhealthy. It's a sad state of affairs.
Wow, You do live in a fast food and cafe heaven then. Luckily the village that I live has one cafe/deli and the closest fast food (M) is about 10km away. The problem is that it is very easy these days of online shopping to just order in as well. I also try and round up the calories to make sure I stay on the safeside. I have a planning list on my computer and can tell you what I will have and how much it counts for everyday. That does not say that I am not over some days, but I try and then exercise to help with those. If you followed my PokemonGo post, you wil see that I have two grandsons that keep my quite busy Love them for it.
Yes, I was amazed as well. I think I am very lucky in that i do not like fast food that much, so I have always end up making my own from scratch.... well I do use some easy short cuts like Rogan Josh curry paste and things like that.
I am also a creature of habit, so my breakfasts always consists of fruit salad(100cal) and egg on corn thins(120cals), Lunch normally would be a salad and then supper is when I fill up on meat and veggies. I have to always set aside some calories for my tea..... I am a great tea-lover and a little for snacking inbetween
Another "easy" on my diet is that I am not a big partaker of any alcoholic drinks (had a bad experience 50odd years ago when I overdid it once and said never again!! I will have a taste of my hubby's wine and a little watered down Pims when it is really hot, but that is about it for me
As moreless and VickyDLM said, at least we are made aware of our intake and output when we join this forum and everybody is so helpful and has such good advice
Have a great weekend and enjoy your new exercise regime.... boxercise.. wow!
That's true but I think something should be done about the amount of establishments in one given area. There are a lot of people who are addicted to that sort of diet. If you think of it like an alcoholic living next door to a pub you would think it's crazy but I often find that we're surrounded by fast food chains and it's costing us more than money but also our health.
Yes, we're very lucky as we are educating ourselves and have found a great place of support but loads are not so lucky. I live in a tourist area so I guess that might go some way to explaining why there are so many food establishments around but it gets worse each year.
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was there any one ingredient that really bumped up the calorie count?
Complaint from my daughter! 
Todays activities... keeping busy and cooking!
No weight loss this week 
First day and enough calories left for a G&T: Happy Days! 
