So the weight loss is slow and I’m waning big time. With the entire Mills household under the weather, I’ve been pining for comfort food and have sunk well over my allocated quota of beer & wine in the evening. I’ll be doing a bumper post in a few days with my latest vital stats and another ghastly underwear shoot, but I thought I would share some food porn from Diet Chef with you in the meantime.
When you’re considering any diet, I appreciate that choice, quality & taste is right up there when picking your plan. I reported a few weeks ago that Diet Chef offered a staggeringly impressive choice for dieters, and promised you feedback on whether they delivered on taste. So consider this my round-up of the very best and most disappointing dishes so far.
Breakfast
I’m surprised at how filling these are. When I first saw the tiny 40g pouches of muesli, granola & porridge oats, I wondered whether they’d sustain me until lunchtime, but they really do. Breakfast is a new concept for me (all that used to pass these lips pre-elevenses is the odd cookie that Dex would ram into my mouth) but I can definitely get on board with it. I’m no longer ravenous come lunchtime and serving myself a man-sized plate of something naughty.
I’m loving the cookie and muesli bars. They deliver a burst of energy and are packed out with dried fruit, oats, raisins and chocolate pieces. They’re also a generous size and are perfectly textured.
The chocolate granola is also spot on with a nutty & crunchy texture and heavy chocolately accent. Little goes a long way and when you add a glass of skimmed milk it’s a hearty breakfast that staves off hunger pains until lunch.
Lunch
I mainly opted for soups as I like hot lunches and wanted to really feel as though I was dieting (liquid lunches if you like). These arrive in robust pouches and are easy to prepare; you simply snip into the corners of the pouch, heat for 2 minutes, rip open the top, stir the contents, then heat for a further minute. My only slight reservation with this is that the pouches are quite tall and only just stay upright in my microwave. Every time I heat one I worry it’ll topple over and my microwave will require an industrial clean.
Best ones for me have been pea & ham, chicken mulligatawny, oxtail and spicy tomato & beef. Each of these deliver a real kick and are full of flavour. They’re also well textured and border on broth territory. The ‘cream of’ series and oxtail soups are also thick, creamy and flavoursome. Less impressive is the mushroom soup which tasted a little like a powdered cup-a-soup.
I also ordered a few creamy pesto pasta and tomato, pepper, cheese pasta pots - these are like posh pot noodles and (provided you follow the instructions and stir vigorously) are really filling and delicious. You can taste the salt but this is really welcome given diet foods are all too often bland and under-seasoned.
Unfortunately I stocked up on chocolate, vanilla and cranberry protein bars thinking they’d be a fab on-the-go option - but they’re really quite horrible. They taste of chewy nougat, are difficult to finish and the difference in taste between the 3 flavours is negligible.
Dinner
This is the reality of dieting, don’t expect to have to sidle from the dining table & plonk yourself on the sofa with a belly full of food. Portion sizes are diddy but I’m impressed with the flavours and sheer amount of choice. There are dishes from most continents and they’re easy to prepare (simply pop them in the microwave as directed).
Stand out dishes for me include the beef rogan josh, beef in ale, sausages in onion gravy and the chicken curry. Sauces are thick and flavoursome and the meat is succulent and tasty. Each dish is well seasoned and you can really taste the quality of the ingredients used.
My only slight reservation is the salt & sodium content which seems high. I’m assured this is not to preserve the food, but rather to add taste. If you stick to the diet and limit sauces and other seasoning, you will stay in the confines of your RDA.
Blandest dishes were the Chicken Jalfrezi which lacked that all important kick, and the lasagne which was heavy on the béchamel sauce and not the tomato. But these are the only dishes that haven’t quite hit the mark for me so far.
Snacks
No complaints here whatsoever, the bags of popcorn will last you an entire film, the pretzels are nicely coated in rock salt, and the biscuit and oat bars are seriously scrummy. Plenty big enough to fill a small hole throughout the day!
Additional thoughts
Seriously missing side dishes, I eventually tweeted Diet Chef to ask if I could add steamed vegetables to a chicken curry. It seems I was missing a trick during week 1 and 2 as you’re encouraged to add your 5-a-day to the plan! I’m annoyed at myself for not checking this sooner as it would have plumped up the portion sizes (they’re not bad anyway but I’m greedy!).
My advice is to definitely add broccoli, cauliflower, beans or sprouts to your evening meals to pad them out a little. Each dish has plenty of gravy or sauce to flavour the veg, and this will certainly help fill you up! Drinking plenty of water will also help with this and jumpstart that metabolism. Adding a few wedges of lemon to each glass will also help rid your body of unwanted toxins.
To find out more about Diet Chef, and take advantage of their great offers, head to dietchef.co.uk
