Joggers never smile

[caddyman]

So is it porage or porridge or are they interchangeable? I suspect that like whisky, the former only applies to the stuff if it's made north of the border in Jocko-Gilly Land. Either way, I have eaten the stuff twice now on consecutive days after a gap of about 30 years, give or take.

The experiment, such as it is, is to see if it really does keep you full and lessen the temptation to snack for most of the day, so that a good breakfast need only be followed by a good dinner late on. I'm not sure that it worked yesterday per se as a banana, some chicken bits and a crisp bread with peanut butter all happened at various times. We'll see if today works better; I maple syrup-ed it today whereas yesterday I sultana-ed it. Both tasty, but one may work better than the other.

I guess the real trial would be if I can somehow drag myself out of my pit earlier on week days and make some porridge for breakfast before going to work. Breakfast during the week rarely happens as I have long since traded it for an extra half hour in bed, though I have recently managed an entire cup of coffee before heading for the tube.

Frankly, eating for a healthier life-style is arse. Though I have rediscovered the aforementioned porridge, which is a bonus. Fruit is something you eat only occasionally and vegetables are largely decorative. I love fish, but chips are out (except oven chips maybe once a week). I can see myself trying to survive on orange juice, chicken, Greek salads, porridge and coffee (thank God for coffee); it's either that or cardboard. Everything with flavour seems to be verboten.

All the decent cheeses: stilton, cheddar, wensleydale etc, are also supposed to be avoided. I can live without mayo, but Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce are similarly out. Too much salt apparently, so it is difficult to flavour the cardboard that is good for you.

I now see why 'healthy' people are so miserable; they eat bland cardboard and run around grimacing a lot looking unhappy and stressed. Hardly surprising with that life style, is it?

Comments

[boglin.livejournal.com]

http://walkers.corpex.com/cr15p5/trade06/quaker/cereals_portfolio.asp

Oats so Simple and Scott's So Easy.

Tear open sachet, pour into bowl, add milk, stick in microwave, take out, eat.

As for healthy food, I just pour olive oil over everything. Do you not like any vegetables at all? Asparagus roasted in olive oil and garlic? Sweet potato wedges with pepper and rosemary? Braised red cabbage with apples? Roasted pepper strips with cumin and tumeric? Grilled artichokes drizzled with basil infulsed olive oil? Sweetcorn relish? Damn, have made myself hungry...

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I like broccoli, cauliflower, parsnips and peas. Carrots are OK but bland. Trouble is, I have never been a fan of fruit; I like the idea more than the reality.

The diet sheet handed out by the NHS puts olive opil on the 2-3 times a week list. Not a fan of asparagus, but the roaster sweet tater wedges with pepper & rosemary sounds like a goer. I shall have to try that, thanks.

Cabbage? Not fond - though it's OK in coleslaw. Trouble is, that involves the mayo, which I'm supposed to avoid like the plague. Grumble.

I'll sort sommat out, I'm sure.

[phil99.livejournal.com]

But that's an easy way to cook porridge oats - open pack, pour in milk/water, put in microwave. Don't pay over the odds for repackaged oats...

Healthy chips

[velvet-the-cat.livejournal.com]

A variation on the other suggestion:

Not sure if you're supposed to avoid excesses of potato, but if it's the fat from chippin' 'em that's the problem, this is definitely a healthy alternative.

Heat an oven to 200C (or whatever that translates to for your oven). Peel (or scrub if you like skin) the spuds and cut into wedges.

Apply a few squirts of spray oil to a baking sheet and put the wedges on it (don't overlap). Couple more sprays of oil and then liberally coat in whatever herbs/spices take your fancy. Black pepper, rosemary and thyme is good. Paprika and most herbs is also very nice and makes them a really pretty colour! You could add salt, but I'm guessing that's a no no.

Pop in the oven for about 20 mins, turn once and return for a further 15 mins or until they look done. The same can be done for roast potatoes, they just take longer to cook.

If the outside seems to be a bit hard, turn the oven off and leave them for 3-5 minutes after which they soften a bit. It tends to depend on the spuds and the time of year. They are particularly good now.

Like you, I'm no fan of carrots, but cooked like this with the chips I'm actually rather fond of them now. They taste of *more*. They don't need quite so long though 25-30 mins tops.

I hate dieting and exercise, this way of cooking potato is a boon.

[irdm.livejournal.com]

Cheese may be fatty but the main purpose of "a good breakfast" is to kickstart you metabolism early on. You're going to follow it by the torture sweatbox of the Tube. Risk it if it floats you boat.

Cornflakes are Fast; the cheap ones are nasty.

I have recently experimented with Jordan's Special Fruit muesli, NOT with milk which is a but GAH but with fruit juice (of whichever flavour is on offer) and this is a yummy, sweet(*) snack which, allegedly, counts towards 5 a day. Not fast to eat, tho'

(* - I am told... holy fructose not evil sucrose ???)

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Healthy can be yummy with very little difficulty. Home made soups and stews are really easy and good way of stuffing veg into you - even ones you're not keen on because they soak up the falvours of the other ingredients (I don't like carrots but had a gorgeous carrot and spinach soup last night). I find that the way to make the 'filling breakfast' thing work is A) to eat it as late as you can get away with and B) to stuff yourself (after all, even if you eat a bit much as long as it stops you eating lunch or having naughty snacks you'll have a net healthiness gain over all). Porridge is great for that as it's so filling.
Oh and as I said before vege pasta with home made suace is great and easy (we can suggest some recipies if you'd like).

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

Life's too short to eat fruit and the only vegetable I like is chips. My doctor - who is never wrong, the b*****d, - told me that the ONLY way to lose weight and get fit is to eat less and exercise more. As someone who overeats all the time I have begun to reduce my portions of food and increase the intake of water - ok with added apple juice cos I hate the taste of water - and it is working. 3lbs off the first week 1lb the second and 1 the third so it is slow but continuous - so far.
I am also walking faster when I go into town, kind of power walking cos I haven't really run for thirty years.
I do so agree that starting to be healthy sucks and in miserable I am just hoping that by Christmas this year I will be grinning about it.
OH and I quit smoking three years ago so it has taken me that long to get around to phase two LOL

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

When I lived rather a long way north of the border it was certainly porridge. In fact, I've never heard it called porage. That's just weird. Either way, it should certainly be made with salt not sugar. In fact, in a strange quirk of fate, this is the third time I find myself discussing porridge today: the last time involved my complaining to ephraim about how bloody awful the porridge at the Hilton was, and the first started by asking Derek Bell what was in the big silver terrine. The moral of the story? Never ask a racing driver about porridge - they may well not have a clue.

On a slightly different note, I am dead fussy about my porridge, but would recommend Oatso Simple as a quick and easy way of making it in the morning.

...and don't skip lunch - believe it or not, it'll probably have the net effect of causing you to put on weight.

[fredlums.livejournal.com]

I'm led to believe that there low salt versions available for both soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce- although advisable to check the salt level against the ordinary one.

Another way to do chips is to cut the potatoes into wedges and paint them with vegetable stock and pop them in the oven for 20-30 mins or so- quite tasty. Carrots are very boring but they can be roasted in the oven with olive oil, black pepper and fresh orange juice or with olive oil and a sprig of rosemary. Butternut squash is nice if mashed up with cummin seeds and low fat creme fraiche. Just go canny on the amount of olive oil as it is still an oil.

[boredinsomniac.livejournal.com]

Garlic is a wonderful healthy way to add flavor to things. Tomatos also, although you seem to go for bolder flavors.

I am an ardent fan of the garlic.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Garlic is spiffy, but consumption thereof has to be co-ordinated with the Good Lady!

[boredinsomniac.livejournal.com]

That is quite gentlemanly of you (and in the opinion of this garlic lover, said Lady should be flattered). I guess the same could be said of onions, wasabi, mustard, and horseradish. There are many healthy if occasionally offensive flavoring options! You don't need to resign yourself to cardboard.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Only yesterday my smarty-pants stepdaughter was telling me that a decent breakfast and dinner, and regular small snacks during the day, is the way to go, to avoid gaining weight. I have something substantial (if anything at all) in the morning and then feel good 'n' full so I go all day before eating something equally filling in the evening. I think it's silly to graze during the day if I am not hungry, but she further informed me that your body thinks you are starving it if you eat nothing for hours after breakfast, so it stores up the nosh you consumed.

As I dislike exercise of any sort, except walking, I am truly buggered.