Light Food Blog

Why go on a punishing diet when you can eat really tasty food and still lose weight? This blog will give you new light, tasty and healthy recipes that have been added to Light-Food-Full-Of-Flavour.com, where you can also find nutritional information and weight loss tips. Click on the orange button to subscribe to the blog/RSS feed.

Jan 12, 2026

Cottage Cheese and Sweet Potato Pancakes

New recipe: Delicious and nutritious savoury cottage cheese and sweet potato pancakes.

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Jan 07, 2026

Water fast versus Fasting-Mimicking Diet

Would you like a recipe for water?

I came off drinking a lot of water this morning after attempting a 3-day water fast. I say attempting because after 1 day of nothing but water I became so dizzy and unstable on my feet I knew I had to add a few calories.

So I turned to the Fasting-Mimicking type of fast where you are allowed to eat up to 800 clean calories - 400 calories from non-starchy vegetables (broccoli, leafy greens etc.) and berries + 400 calories from healthy fats, such as nuts and seeds, avocado, and Extra virgin olive oil. You should avoid all types of dairy and all types of grains.

What I ate each day for the next 2 days, apart from drinking lots of water and some fennel tea, was a small bowl of blueberries, 2 celery sticks, a few nuts, and half an avocado mashed with 1/2 tablespoon of Extra virgin olive oil and some dried oregano. Never has so little food tasted so good!

I also allowed myself one cup of coffee each day. Coffee in itself only has 2 calories per cup, but I usually drink my coffee with some barista-style oat “milk”, which definitely contains many more calories.

I have never liked the taste of pure, black coffee before, but in order to be as strict as possible, I only added a teaspoon of my oat “milk”. It’s amazing, though, how quickly your taste buds can adapt to new flavours. Having broken my fast, I now add much less of the oat drink to my coffee.

Why did I do this fast? Well, it had nothing to do with losing weight but rather because I had read so many articles about how a water fast and a Fasting-mimicking fast may induce immune system regeneration, shifting stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal. It is said to be really good for your health, but consult with your doctor if you have any health issues and are on any kind of medication before attempting this. I’m planning to do another fast, the Fast-mimicking type, at least one more time this year.

I have a healthy diet, and most days I only eat two meals per day, a late breakfast and a late lunch. My problem has been that I’ve eaten too much at each meal, to the point of feeling uncomfortably stuffed. Before attempting the fast, I taught myself to eat less at each meal. One of the reasons Japanese people are seldom overweight and also healthy is that they stop eating when they are around 80% full. I have to say that learning to eat like this has really increased my wellbeing.

Today though, I’m deliriously happy to be eating some food again! 😄

Dec 27, 2025

Moong Dal Chilla Pancakes With Vegetable Stir-Fry

Delicious Indian-style moong dal chilla pancakes which I serve with a spicy vegetable stir-fry.

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Dec 08, 2025

Cured Salmon Two Ways

I'm going to show you how to make cured salmon two ways and while different, both are delicious and quite easy to make.

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Dec 05, 2025

Chicken With Harissa And Squash Tagine

This chicken with harissa and squash tagine is a full-flavoured stunner of a dish.

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Nov 25, 2025

Tis the season for colds and flu in the Northern Hemisphere.

What can you do to, if not avoid completely, at least not get too ill?

I can usually keep colds at bay if I start taking echinacea as soon as I feel the first stirrings of a cold. I wasn’t paying enough attention last week though, and got caught.

It wasn’t too bad, I just needed about ten toilet rolls to blow my nose for three days in a row.

What I did do during those days of nose trumpeting was to follow what my mother always did - wrap a woollen scarf around my neck and keep it on night and day, and drink cups of hot water with lemon juice and some honey (add sliced ginger if you have got a sore throat).

And I added a fair amount of ginger and garlic to most of my food to boost my immune system and hasten my recovery.

Other types of food that are good for your immune system include dark leafy vegetables, blueberries and other berries, fermented foods like kefir, yogurt and sourdough bread, and Extra virgin olive oil.

For extra warmth and comfort during these colder days, whether you have a cold or not, make a large batch of vegetable soup and eat it with added protein, like beans, cooked chicken or salmon. Check out my soup recipes for ideas.

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Nov 20, 2025

Ginger Root - a Fiery Healer

Ginger root - a fiery healer and a tasty ingredient. It does wonders for both your health and taste buds.

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Nov 09, 2025

Panda eye

After missing a step and falling headfirst into a bowl with guacamole, which was placed on a much bigger bowl that I was carrying at the time, and breaking both bowls with my face, leaving me looking like a panda bear (minus the cuteness) in one eye, I didn’t much feel like showing myself in public - not even to go food shopping.

This happened recently on the last evening of a private job I was doing, to the horror of the people I was cooking for. They took full responsibility for my fall, as the step I had missed had apparently caused other people to stumble, albeit not as dramatically as my fall.

So once I got back home the following day, and for the next few days, I made do with what was already in my fridge and cupboards.

The four vegetables I almost always have at home are red onions, sweet potatoes, broccolini/tenderstem broccoli and garlic. This time I also had a raw beetroot and fresh ginger.

Apart from the vegetables, you will always find eggs and Greek yogurt in my fridge and pouches with ready-cooked wholegrain basmati rice in my dry-store cupboard.

One look at all this made me decide to make vegetable egg fried rice. I finely chopped the onion, broccoli, ginger and garlic, grated the sweet potato and beetroot, added some avocado oil to my wok pan and, once the oil was hot, added all the vegetables, seasoned with salt and pepper, and stir-fried the veg for about 3 minutes.

I then added the pre-cooked rice and continued to stir-fry for a further couple of minutes, then pushed the mixture to one side and added 2 eggs to the other side, breaking them up with a spatula. I finally mixed everything together in the wok, placed the vegetable egg stir-fry on a plate and topped it with a generous dollop of Greek yogurt mixed with a chilli sauce.

It was delicious!