Filling & Healthy | Fat Fighting Foodie

A tasty twist on an otherwise plain side dish.

Servings: 1

Pro Points: 7pp

Simple Start

/Filling & Healthy: 0pp

Preparation time: 5mins

Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

60g brown rice
2 onions, 1 chopped roughly, the other sliced thinly
1 vegetable stock cube
Spray oil

Method

Put the rice into a small saucepan and crumble in the stock cube. Cover with boiling water so that the water level sits above the rice to a depth of about 1inch. Add the chopped onion, stir once and bring back to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer until the water has been absorbed (approx.. 10mins). Turn off the heat, cover the saucepan and leave to stand for 10mins.
Meanwhile, heat a small frying pan over a low and spray with oil. Add the sliced onions and fry stirring frequently until golden brown (add a splash of water to prevent the onions from sticking if required).
Serve the cooked rice topped with the fried onions as an accompaniment to your choice of meat and vegetables.

Top tip: Stir in frozen peas and sweetcorn at step one and add cooked pieces of chicken, pork, beef or fish before serving for a tasty main meal.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

According to my sister (and probably my husband and a few others too), I’m a control freak. In fact, she’s probably spot on with her judgement to be fair.

For the most part, this helps me to live a busy, organised life. And being in control definitely helps with my weight loss: On a Friday or Saturday night, I sit down and plan my meals for the following week, make a shopping list then either shop online or take my list to the supermarket and I’m in and out in about 30 minutes.

This is great when I get in from work exhausted and all I have to do is look at my meal-planner to see what I’m having for dinner. No decision making is required therefore my chances to make unwise choices based on my mood or hunger levels are greatly reduced. Similarly, meals out are usually planned at least a few days in advance and I will look at the menu ahead of time to decide what I’m going to order (see this post for evidence of control freakery!).

However, the flip-side of this is that I get a little bit panicky should something unexpected come up. Tonight, for instance, my husband phoned me at about 5pm to ask if I wanted to go out for dinner. We don’t often go out in the week and I know he wouldn’t have suggested it if he didn’t really fancy it. Now, I know I ought to have been thinking ‘What a lovely idea’ but the control freak in me was wailing ‘But I haven’t planned for this! How can I eat out and stay on track with less than an hour’s notice?’

Well, the answer is, quite easily actually! I was really hungry and I thought that this would lead me to make a less plan-friendly choice such as a cheeseburger or a great big bowl of pasta. But I simply thought about the reasons I want to lose weight and reminded myself that I’d feel much better about having made a wise choice and that I’d also be that little step nearer to reaching my goal too. We went to a local pub where I ordered a sirloin steak and asked them to replace the chips with a jacket potato so it fit perfectly with the Filling and Healthy/Simple Start plan. Simple.

I’m not saying I’m going to rip up my meal planner and start living by the seat of my pants, but, just maybe, I can say yes to an unexpected invite to dinner without getting stressed about letting it throw me off track.