Today I was delighted to have a very dear, life long friend Bee pop in unexpectedly for lunch. Bee is a Weight Watcher consultant so when she said, “Don’t hassel too much I’m doing a No Points challenge.’, I think I was relieved. Then I thought, “Goodness, what did that mean?” Obviously I was looking for something so low in fat it didn’t count. No pressure!!!
Fortunately “He who loves prawns” and I have been following the Michael Moseley 5:2 diet for the last 2 years. It sounds worse than it is really. All it requires is that two days a week, for us Mondays and Thursdays, we fast. NO!!! It doesn’t mean no food at all, it means we only have 500 calories each for those days. Not that hard actually! With very little effort we have both lost 10-13 Kgs and maintained it.
What do I have to do?
By not eating after 8.30 the night before and then only having black tea till lunchtime the following day, we are actually fasting for about 16 hours twice a week. This gives our cells a chance to regenerate and heal. I always think that anything which helps me regenerate any part of my body at 60+ has got to be a good move. Right? For lunch we have a soup and for dinner a salad, hence ‘Soup and Salad’ days.
Soup and Salad days.
Back to my friend story. Because it was ‘Soup and Salad day’ I had our favourite soup, Prawn Tom Yum, all ready to go on the stove. The soup looked and tasted wonderful and I was thrilled Bee found my Tom Yum just delicious. Coming from Bee I knew I was on a winner. I thought I’d share it and a few variations. According to Bee and for the Weight Watchers among us the soup would carry NO POINTS (I can’t guarantee that) but I think it is about 150 calories for a large bowl.( You may have noticed I don’t do Kilojoules)
Screamingly Simple
PRAWN TOM YUM SOUP
For 4 people
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1 – 1 1/2 litre chicken stock ( I use 4 stock cubes)
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2- 3 heaped tsp Tom Yum paste. (I always have a jar in the fridge.)
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2 tsp grated ginger ( I keep mine frozen whole in the freezer and grate it with a fine grater)
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12 frozen prawns ( I use Aldi ones because they are big and Australian)
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A handful of frozen green beans.
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1 lime leaf shredded and a good squirt of lime juice or juice of a small lime.
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1 carrot in long shreds ( I bought a wonderful long shredder, peeler at the Japanese shop called Daiso but I think you can get them from ‘House’ as well)
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1 tsp fish sauce
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3-4 lettuce leaves shredded
METHOD
Pop everything except the lettuce into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Boil for about 5 minutes.
Add the lettuce and simmer for 1 minute just to wilt it.
SERVE. Yum!!
VARIATIONS with extra calories
Just before serving whip I egg and drizzle into the hot soup. The egg cooks straight away.
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Add a small round of rice noodles or vermicelli noodles
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Use a packet of Chicken noodle soup as the base. Yum!
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No Tom Yum Paste? Try using 2 cloves garlic crushed (1 tsp in a jar), 1 inch ginger grated (1 tsp grated in a jar), 1 ½ lemongrass stalks (1 ½ tsp lemongrass in a tube)