Another Halfway Day
Posted by Sylvia
As I was not trying to be completely strict about calories, I thought this would be a good chance to use up the unlabelled tuna tins that I have in the cupboard. I have been avoiding them as calorie count on tinned tuna seems to vary a lot and I have no idea how much these have.
As I started making the salad, though, I found myself thinking – well, if I’m not counting exactly anyway, then I could add some more stuff, a bit of mayo, that kind of thing. I realised I was feeling very tempted to say to hell with keeping it low fat at all. In the end, I decided to take a photograph to motivate me into behaving. It worked.
(although I did drizzle a tiny bit of oil onto the courgette)
During the afternoon I kept thinking how much I’d like a snack and whether there was anything “quick and easy” in the kitchen that I could nibble on. I think this is again related to not having a daily total – the snacks “wouldn’t count”. I had a handful of walnuts.
There was a recipe in the BBC Good Food magazine for Easiest-ever paella with chorizo which they said was 518 calories/portion. I was deeply suspicious of this and thought it might be due to tiny portions or just bad counting.
I made the full recipe – four servings – so that I could make the portions bigger if need be or else just save it for a quick lunch later.
I dropped the additional oil (the chorizo has plenty!), increased the vegetables and replaced the seafood with some poached chicken breast.
| 100g chorizo | 455 |
| 180g onion | 72 |
| 125g leek | 76 |
| 300g rice | 777 |
| 1 litre stock | 19 |
| 50g asparagus | 10 |
| 77g red pepper | 24 |
| 140g corn | 126 |
| 190g chicken | 385 |
| Total (Four Servings) | 1,944 |
|---|
Total weight: 2246g
Served: 520g per person
It was a HUGE portion, a big plate full. The flavour was so-so, somewhat boring. I’d be tempted to add some salt and maybe even chiles (ok, I admit it, I am tempted to add chiles to EVERYTHING) to spice it up a bit. The chicken didn’t really add much so I would probably leave that out.
I guess the main problem is that living in Spain, we have really nice paella locally and so this doesn’t really compare. However, as a filling meal it was definitely a winner. Not quite sure how to reheat the remaining two portions, though. I’ll try steaming them.
Paola said,
7 June 2009 at 5:30 pm
That salad looks really good. I’m glad you’re taking photos. It helps you think twice and lets us vicariously enjoy your food. Are you eating off small plates?
Sylvia said,
7 June 2009 at 10:45 pm
Intermittantly. Often I use the big plates because I just can’t stand to be cramped while trying to cut my food. With the salads, I’ve been using big plates to encourage myself to put more vegetables and lettuce on.
On the other hand today (non-calorie counting day) we had scrambled eggs with chorizo, onions and green pepper which I served on a small plate to make it feel like more.
One of the problems with my photos is that I want to make it look pretty, which doesn’t always make for the best shot to see what I ate. I’m trying to do more top-down views. :)