If you like pulses get dried ones but also tins of chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils are best vacuum packed (lunor make them) for when you can’t wait for them to soak. Red lentils are good because no soaking.
Here’s a simple staple, a nice little salady OR cooked thing you can spiv up as much as you like
Chop up a bit of celery a clove of garlic and an onion (red is best) a pepper (any colour you like) and half a cucumber. You want the bits about the size of a chickpea. Except for the garlic which should be virtually pulp. You can put in a courgette if you like. Or mushrooms.
Put some cooked chickpeas in a bowl and add salt pepper a teaspoon of ground coriander and half a teaspoon of ground cumin, a bit of tahina if you have it, lemon juice and olive oil. Give it a good stir. Add chilli if you like it.
Mix the two together and voilà.
The cunning thing is you can fry up the vegetables then when the onion has gone see-through add the chickpea mixture and a tin of chopped tomato and that is also very good. If you make it in a shallow pan you can make dents in it add crack eggs into them shakshouka style. Or you can put a bit of chopped up chicken or lamb or whatever in it if you cook it.
Chuck a handful of chopped coriander or parsley or both over it before serving, add a spoonful of greek yoghurt in the plate, you could eat it with bulghur or quinoa or couscous or rice.
In recent years I have spent (too) much time in Hospital (in France) following issues concerning : cardiology, urology, nephrology, neurology and endocrinology and have been dished up some excellent meals suited to all these conditions but what I have not experienced is a meal of this calibre served up to a heart patient (can you believe) in a world class beating NHS establishment
For me, every meal (apart from le p’tit-déj) was served with a comprehensive itemised descriptive of content, weight, salt, sugar content etc addressed personally… so you know what you’re getting.
Yummy.
I don’t miss fish and chips any more.
I now see a nutritionist every month, she advised me that a heavy meal in the evening is a bad idea, so I am very French and eat very well at midday. She also said tea was my big problem, which I knew, but I am now rapidly getting used to other drinks and lots of water as I was very dehydrated. They have these machines that can tell you a huge amount about a person’s body after a minute of being plugged into electrodes.
I live on the fruit and veg from the garden at the moment, jacket potatoes, peas, beans, vegetable stir frys, fruit of all kinds. It’s good.
I used to be a chain drinker of tea from starting work at 0700 until 1830/1900 when I finished. In a bored moment I added up how much semi-skimmed and one small sugar added up to in a day and was shocked at the result.
In the end I got a rowing machine that counted calories and if I worked hard enough I could just burn the 500 calories in 30mins.
Still love a good strong hot tea though
I am still coming out of my tea with milk and sugar addiction, down to a few cups a day , but as soon as I have a cup, I crave another, and I have to drink something else in order to calm the cravings. Quite liking low calorie iced tea and also green peppermint tea, but it is still a battle. I also sip water whenever I get cravings.
Simply that the quicker food goes through, the less nutrition your body will be able to adsorb - to some extent.
Astronauts were given “low residue” food packs, because toilet arrangements were fairly complicated in zero gravity.
Nope Annajayne, my choice = 2 x pack of biscottes (sans sel) soit 4 total, scraping of margarine, compote and a cup of tepid water with a tea bag (the coffee is disgusting!)
ugh!
There’s only one way to drink tea - black, no sugar - like wot miner’s drink Too many memories of stewed milk in Primary School kept in crates by the radiator
'ere, oo yah calling a ponce?
I’ll 'ave yer know I’ve supped tea wiv the best of 'em
and Yorkshire tea too at that - like tea used to be but I won’t mention the PG Tips monkeys
Too many memories of stewed milk in Primary School kept in crates by the radiator 
