Day 1 and a Recipe

As I promised myself, the Sunday after Dre's party was the start of my new diet.

I didn't quite know where to start though - I had all these lists telling me what foods contained all the items I was allergic to and then I had another list telling me what foods I could eat. Sounds easy enough; just follow the list you can eat - yeah right! 69 foods sounds like a lot, but when you take into account that you can only eat them every 4 days, it becomes a bit tricky.

After a sulk, and a bit of a feel-sorry-for-myself sob, I dragged myself off the couch and towards Woolies.

Right, I was going to do this!

Bravely I traversed the isles, armed with my lists. I remember reading a lot of labels and consulting my lists a lot. (Yip, I was there for a while!)

On impulse, I decided to buy a whole lot of seeds: sesame, linseed, pumpkin, poppy... I didn't have the foggiest clue what to do with them, but I could EAT them!

Next, I bought some veggies like broccoli and some strange beans that I had never eaten in my life - called soya beans. Seemed like a good idea at the time - embrace the unknown!

No more yummy Italian pasta for me - I was relegated to rice noodles and maize pasta. But, it's ok - I can work with it, better than no pasta at all!

I am lucky enough to be able to eat all fish, so standing in the fish section I saw the most divine fresh Norwegian salmon steaks, embracing the adventure - I took a packet. (Please note, the price was nowhere to be seen and with good reason - it cost an arm and a leg! I also have never cooked it before... Ominous)

I had been told to buy a variety of oils because cooking with olive oil every day was no longer allowed. Sheesh, oils don't come cheap! I was beginning to realise that this new diet of mine was going to cost a small fortune.

Ignoring the part of my brain that was calculating how many pairs of shoes I would be sacrificing, I soldiered on.

On this trip, I bought some cold pressed avo oil...

Back at home, I put all the ingredients on the counter and surveyed the scene.

Now, what was for dinner?

I decided on:

Flash fried salmon steak with rice noodles, soya beans and sesame seeds.

• Firstly I covered the salmon lightly in avo oil, salt and pepper (I had heard somewhere that such a delicate fish doesn't need overpowering flavours - probably from my dad)
• I then put the soya beans and rice noodles on to boil (neither of these take very long at all - 5 minutes or so)
• Next, I bravely attempted the salmon (along with the first tip, I also heard not to overcook it, I was stressing a little - how would I know if it was overcooked?)
• I quickly fried it on both sides making sure it developed a nice golden crust, probably for a few minutes on either side and decided it was done
• I then dry-fried some sesame seeds to bring out the flavour
• When the rice noodles and soya beans were done, I drained and tossed them together with some avo oil, salt and pepper and yeast-free soya sauce - the one I use is from the "Vital" range, you can get it from most supermarkets
• Artfully set it on a plate and finished off with the sesame seeds

Simple yet surprisingly very tasty. Each item compliments each other very well and tastes so fresh (like health). I will make it again, although Dre was not too keen on the salmon :)

All in all my first "healthy" meal was a success.

Yay for me :)