Sushi, Sweets and back to the Med

Our long-awaited sushi making course on Sunday was just what we needed. A break from calorie counting and avoiding carbs like the plague. A cheat day essentially. But one that had been booked long before we had even discovered Dr Michael Mosley’s the fast 800 book. The sushi school, run by YO! Sushi came highly recommended – we covered California rolls, inside-out rolls, maki, nigiri and temaki. Friends who had previously attended on the course warned us of the vast amounts of sushi they ended up taking home with them, unable to finish their creations during the two-hour course. We came home with very little… 

Giz a job

That evening, we also indulged in drinks and a meal out. Ross, having stuck to 800 calories for the whole two weeks, definitely deserved a break and we vowed to allow ourselves fortnightly cheat days – after all we want to make sure we enjoy ourselves too. And we are actually human. Our main courses were not too terrible in terms of carbs – pork belly for me and steak for Ross. However, when Ross politely declined the dessert menu, I gave him a look which made him hastily call the waitress back. From wanting no desserts, we found ourselves contemplating ordering three... In the end we shared an extremely dense and rather delicious chocolate mousse on the recommendation of our waitress and a passionfruit pavlova. We resisted our third choice of a fresh crepe although I was adamant that I could have managed it.

Mouthwatering stuff. But that was that. Back to our Mediterranean ways. Surprisingly, Ross was still in ketosis after our little indulgence. 

We have both been rather adventurous of late, trying ingredients that made us somewhat nervous and our former selves would never have touched. For instance, we are now proud owners of a food processor and very much enjoyed the resulting coconut cauliflower rice. And my fingers and toes were still attached afterwards. So easy to make – cauliflower into the food processor and then fried in coconut oil with some desiccated coconut for around 12 minutes. I asked Ross whether he could believe he had just eaten half a cauliflower after the meal, considering that beforehand all he could say was that this poor old vegetable smelt like “farts.” Recipe from the fast 800 book.

Looks like rice, tastes like coconut...
Recipe from the fast 800 book

The other day I bravely ate some anchovies despite having been warned of their salty nature. They were part of a pepper and halloumi dish which seemed to largely mask their saltiness. Until the end when the salt finally broke through and I had to leave one sad little anchovy behind. Recipe available here.

Little salt monsters

We also both tried Puy lentils for the first time as part of a cucumber, pomegranate seed and feta salad. They looked suspiciously dark and slimy as I squeezed them out of their pouch, but turned out to be rather inoffensive. The salad scored average marks from us both – Ross wasn’t a fan of the cucumber (admittedly I had accidently doubled our portion sizes of this) and I poured far too much zesty lemon and olive oil dressing on mine causing me to wince slightly with each mouthful. Perhaps a future adaptation of this dish would be in order. Recipe from the fast 800 book. 

Other new dishes over the past couple of days included a breakfast of bacon, egg and parmesan cooked in cute little ramekin dishes. Recipe from the fast diet recipe book but there are loads of similar recipes online. I mean, it was just streaky bacon, eggs and a sprinkle of parmesan... 

Finally, our garlic prawn stir fry which allowed us to put our spiralizer to use for the first time deserves a mention. After an initial failed attempt and a mushed up courgette stuck in the blade, Ross soon put me right and had us producing courgette ribbons so good that you could wrap your Christmas presents with them. Recipe from the fast 800 book. 

And who said dieting had to be boring?