The South Beach Diet Regime

South Beach Diet

For the past 14 days I’ve been manfully following the South beach diet regime. That’s phase one nearly over, because of a few slips I’ll carry phase 1 on to Friday. It’s been quite painful for me. I love my bread and potatoes. The lack of fresh carb power has made me irritable and gave me a slight headache. Especially trying to keep up my exercise sessions at the gym.

It made it quite difficult for me to adjust my eating habits. You have to ditch the carbs for two weeks. No sugar or starchy foods, no alcohol of any kind. I did wonder if you could use beer or wine in the recipes. As the alcohol is burnt of during cooking.

Eating five times a day is hard to adjust to. That’s five prescribed types of meal. No carbs. I felt I was preparing food all day long, as I was not used to preparing food the South Beach way.

Like now I only had lunch a little while ago and I’m hungry already.  I could have my afternoon snack of ½ a cup of dry roasted soy nuts and a glass of 1% or fat free milk, which has no taste at all.

Have you ever eaten Ricotta cream, I hadn’t on it’s own before or in a cheesecake. Never again, I’ll have to find another way to eat it, without it touching my mouth. The same with avocados, I can’t eat those if I feel their texture. No doughnuts or sugary cakes as a quick snack.

I could just kill a couple of English scones (home made) strawberry jam and Devonshire clotted cream, available from Whole food markets, a  typical English cream tea. www.wholefoodsmarket.com.

But besides all the grumbling I have lost between 6 and 8 lbs. and my waist, where ever that is, has diminished nearly an inch. Only 12 more pounds and 6 inches to go, losing the inches, is more important than the pounds.

The South beach diet book gives you a suggested daily meal plain and the recipes to go with it.

Most of them are quite tasty if you add a few embellishments. No extra fat or sugars, starchy food though, a few tastier vegetables and spices.

Here are a couple recipes I used and modified to my liking.

Cod with tomato and peppers;

Ingredients;

Extra-virgin olive                                                Can of diced tomatoes

A medium zucchini cut into ¼ inch slices

2 pequillo peppers sliced thinly. Buy them in a jar.

1 small sliced onion
6 oz cod fillet per person

3 garlic cloves minced                                    2 Tbsp chopped parsley

Fresh lemon zest                                                asparagus

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

I also added Sundried tomatoes and fire roasted red peppers. These were from a jar; 2 sticks of celery; a can of anchovies. These were wrapped around a caper. What a job to have on your CV! Plain anchovies work fine drain them from the oil. I didn’t but a handful of capers would give a nice touch of taste, as would some pitted olives.

I used fresh pequillo peppers the first time I made this dish, I didn’t feel they added any taste. The second time I didn’t have pequillo peppers, I’ll have to buy a jar they maybe tastier.

Method

In a large enough frying pan or your electric wok, on a medium heat, heat the olive oil with some ground black pepper, I have this thing about putting in fresh ground pepper in with the oil. Add the garlic for a few minutes to cook the flavour into the oil. Add the onions to slightly soften then add the zucchini, celery, peppers and sun dried tomatoes. Add the anchovies being careful while stirring trying not to break them up. Fry these together for a few minutes to blend the flavours, stirring to make sure nothing burns then add the tinned tomatoes. Stir everything in together and simmer for about 10 minutes. Do a taste test to see if you need to season with salt and pepper.

Nestle in the cod fillets into the sauce, covering the fish with some of the mixture. Let the dish simmer for about 10 minutes or until the fish is looking opaque and cooked through.

Serve on a warmed plate.

Make a gremalata with the lemon zest and parsley, squeeze a little lemon juice in with gremalata. Sprinkle over the dish when served.

This would be great with wholemeal pasta, sweet potato fries, boiled new potatoes or brown rice.

With South beach diet, just a side salad and asparagus.

To cook the asparagus, heat a little extra-virgin (I love that phrase) olive oil, grind in some black pepper, fry the asparagus just enough to soften.
I learnt last night one of the American chefs, Rachael Domenica Ray, I think, I've never seen her show calls Extra-virgin olive oil "EVOO". Would she like me to call her "RaDaR?
Why can't they just speak English?

Grilled Salmon with Tomatoes, Spinach and Capers

Ingredients

6oz salmon fillet per person                                    3ozs baby spinach 3 cups

1 pound plum tomatoes                                           1 medium onion

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil                                    1 Tbsp washed drain capers

2 minced garlic cloves                                             4 Lemon wedges

2 sticks of celery Optional, I like to add celery to almost anything.

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

While you were preparing the ingredients have the grill/broiler on to heat up to maximum heat. Cover the grill pan with kitchen foil and brush with olive oil. You could spray with that awful cooking spray stuff.

Place the salmon flesh side up in the grill pan, season with salt and pepper to your taste. Grill without turning until salmon is cooked through, 8-10 minutes depending on your grill.

While the salmon is grilling in a large frying pan or saucepan or even better your wok. Heat the oil; add the onion and garlic and celery if using, stirring occasionally until softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, spinach and capers. Cook for a few minutes, being careful not to over cook the spinach.

The salmon should be ready now. Transfer to warmed plates and spoon over the tomato mixture, squeeze over the lemon juice and serve warm.

The fried asparagus goes well with salmon.

Serve with a green and red leave salad, remember this a South beach diet meal and a blue cheese dressing.

Blue cheese dressing: Blend together ½ cup of low fat mayonnaise, 2 Tbsp of crumbled blue cheese, 1 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice and few dashes Tabasco sauce. Whisk in ¼ cup of fat-free buttermilk, season to taste with salt and black pepper.

One very thing about the South Beach diet book it has some very good recipes for quick salad dressings.

These are just a few of the meal ideas, there are plenty of meat dishes you can try.


These meals can be easily cooked in your electric wok.