Slimmers Delight

After loosing 3kgs, I have become very motivated to continue to shed these extra few pounds before summer starts. The secret to a good diet is variety. The minute you become bored, you start to "fall off the wagon". Feeling deprived and hungry is only one step away from a tub of ice-cream and box of smarties!

Keeping your food full of flavour and colour is a great tool to eating healthy and loosing weight. I added this old French favourite - Ratatouille to my menu plan for this week. There are no hard and fast rules to what you should and should not add - it's actually very useful for using up the "odds and sods". It keeps well and is better a day or two after it is made.


Ratatouille

1 large Onion sliced
2 Carrots chopped into dice
2 finely chopped Garlic Cloves
1 large or 2 small aubergines diced
5 Baby Marrow (courgettes) chopped
6 Button Mushrooms halved
1 small chilli (optional) chopped
1 Red Pepper chopped
10 Baby Rosa Tomatoes cut in half
1 teaspoon Sugar
500ml Stock (Chicken or Vegetable)
10 Black olives (take out the pip)
1 bunch Spring Onions chopped
Fresh Lemon Thyme
Salt and Black pepper

Fry the onions and carrots until they start to soften.
Add the garlic, aubergine, baby marrow, mushrooms, red pepper and chilli and fry for another 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, sugar, stock and seasoning and let it simmer until all the vegetables are cooked, but not mushy.
Add the olives, the chopped lemon thyme and the spring onions and stir through.
Serve with rice or pasta.