My actual core diet is pretty decent...I do a lot of food prep on Sunday's, and this covers my breakfasts and lunches for the rest of the week. I am, however, a massive snacker. I have a huge sweet tooth, and also happen to love creamy textures. If it wasn't for the fact I cycle so much, I'd be immensely overweight! I've said for this year I'm not going to worry too much about my weight, however it's notable that it is sneaking up, so I had a look at my diet in general terms.
It turns out that my"core diet" (what I eat for meals) is massively under what it needs to be. I have a basal metabolism in the region of 1750 calories/day...my core meals were coming to 1200 calories, giving me a shortfall before exercise of about 550 calories...no wonder I snack so much!
After a bit of investigation, I came up with a plan/challenge...fill a 300ml kilner jar with a dessert that looked and tasted great, and get it under 150 calories. The first attempt is not too bad, and with a bit of trimming I reckon I can get it down more. There are 3 key ingredients;
1) A fatless sponge, using xylitol instead of sugar, and chopping the flour ration down a bit
2) Greek yoghurt, with a zero-calorie caramel flavouring (normally used for coffee!)
3) Blueberries
The end result looks pretty good, though I think with a couple of tweaks I could do better. Ideally I'd whip the yoghurt to give it a lighter texture, and a bit more volume, however even with pre-strained yoghurt I couldn't get it to hold air. I think that if I add an emulsifier (the most common one being soy lecithin), I can get it whipped up. I had some trimmings from the sponge which I ended up eating, but I could easily put those at the bottom of the pot to give more volume (the calorie calculations include the trimmings). For fruit I could use other berries (strawberries, raspberries), or even other fruit entirely. I might be able to squeak a bit more flour out of the sponge (trying to avoid turning it into a meringue!). First attempt, a shade over 170 calories a pot...happy with that! If they work over this week, I'll make a batch of them on a Sunday, and take them into work throughout the week, hopefully stopping the visits to the snack machine...
Blueberry Pots
- Pre-heat oven to 200'C
- Grease and line a swiss-roll tin with baking parchment
- Get 6 300ml kilner jars (diameter 70mm)
Sponge Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 75g Xylitol (lower calorie sugar-substitute...I bought it from Holland and Barrett)
- 60g self-raising flour
2) Whisk hard until pale, thick and creamy...you're looking for a raised trail across the mixture when the whisk is removed. This took ~8 minutes for me
3) Sieve and fold in the flour carefully, removing all the dry pockets
4) Pour into the prepared swiss-roll tin, and tilt gently to get the mixture into the corners5) Bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes, until the mixture is just pulling away from the edges
6) Turn out onto a wire rack with a layer of baking parchment on top, and peel off the baking parchment from the bottom
Assembly
- 500g strained, fat-free yoghurt (I used Fage 0%, as it's the thickest)
- Squirt of Caramel Flavouring (I use this stuff, which is to all intents and purposes calorie-free)
- 60 Blueberries
Note - I assembled these on a set of weighing scales, so I could get the right amount of yoghurt into each layer1) Using a 70mm circular cutter, cut 12 discs from the sponge
2) Beat the yoghurt and caramel flavouring together, and place in a piping bag
3) Snip off the end of the piping bag, and pipe ~25g of yoghurt into each jar
4) Place a sponge circle into each jar, pressing down gently
7) Place 7 blueberries into each jar
8) Pipe ~25g of yoghurt into each jar, over the blueberries
9) Press a second sponge circle gently into each jar
10) Pipe ~25g of yoghurt into each jar (be careful, you'll only just have enough...if you do have spare, split it between each jar evenly)11) Place 3 blueberries into each jar
12) Close the lids, and keep in the fridge until needed.
