Читать книгу Elly Pear’s Let’s Eat: Simple, Delicious Food for Everyone, Every Day - Elly Curshen - Страница 10

I am much more adept at making dinner quickly without sacrificing deliciousness – by far the most important factor in any meal.

I’m sitting at my kitchen table in Bristol and the last few months have been full of cooking, recipe development, eating, writing, washing up and endless trips to the greengrocer. My thoughts have been dominated by applying the learning from my first book, Fast Days & Feast Days, and all my readers’ feedback and making this the best, most useful book possible. Let’s Eat! is the next step for anyone who has enjoyed Fast Days & Feast Days, but this book will also stand alone for those of you who didn’t buy it. (What the hell? – sort that out right away.)

Although you won’t find any recipes labelled as ‘fast day’ dishes in this book, if you are following the 5:2, you can use the skills you learnt from my first book to calculate the calorie counts, if you want to* The recipes in the first chapter of this book, with all the various serving suggestions provided, are particularly well suited to this, meaning you can cook for yourself and others at the same time and use a calorie-counted component as part of a bigger meal for all.

I want to show you how a little advance prep can mean dinner on the table really quickly and easily, any day of the week.

This has been one of the best bits of feedback from Fast Days & Feast Days; following the 5:2 but being able to eat the same food as others is key to keeping the diet up. Who wants to sit and eat a sad ‘diet dinner’, entirely different from your family or housemates?

While doing the 5:2, I recalibrated my ideas about what it meant to really feel full or hungry. I curbed my tendency to mindlessly eat and got a grip of what a sensible portion size was. I also became much more experienced in finding ways to make dishes more interesting, textured and exciting. My garnish game was strong. Crucially, too, I’d discovered the benefits of batch cooking. I’d started using my freezer for more than ice and peas. I’d sorted out my dry stores and was much more adept at making dinner quickly without sacrificing deliciousness – by far the most important factor in any meal. I’d become an expert in using up bits and pieces after the fast days had created an abundance of half-used packets and produce. Now, I want to show you how a little advance prep can mean dinner on the table really quickly and easily, any day of the week.

*A ‘fast day’, for those who don’t know, is the ‘2’ bit of the 5:2 way of eating – two days a week when you restrict your calorie intake to 500 calories.