Day 2: vegetarian dinner with chick peas, salad and bread

Today my estimated total intake of cholesterol is only 120 mg. This evening was all about trying to make a delicious vegetarian curry based on dried chick peas.

My lunch was just a bit to small, so I became hungry way before dinner. For tidbit I ate some bread dipped in chicken stock, which I always freeze in small cup-sized bathes.

Following a new diet means having to learn new cooking skills and discovering new ingredients. Today I learned that dried chick peas need to be soaked in water overnight and cooked for about 2-3 hours. I only soaked them a few hours, read the recipes that mentioned a long time of boiling and decided to divide the chick peas in 2: 1 pureed in a carrot soup and the other made into a curry. A wise decision, otherwise I had to wait until about 22.00 in the evening to start my dinner.

Dinner consisted of a French kind of loaf, with a dressing of mustard, olive oil, garlic, pepper, salt and spring onions. Nothing is easier and faster than making a thick dressing by simply adding in a small jar:

• some mustard,
• some freshly squeezed garlic clove(s),
• olive oil,
• lemon juice or vinegar (3 tablespoons of oil per 1 tablespoon of e.g. lemonjuice)
• pepper and salt.

Shake the small jar and your almost as thick as mayonaise dressing is ready. Add fresh herbs to taste and add a bit of water to make it more suitable for a salad dressing.

Add to that the carrot chickpea soup (nothing to brag about, but at least I had a decent amount of proteins) a mixed fresh salad with olive oil and lime dressing, and for drinks a fruit smoothie. Apart from maybe some butter or margarine in the French bread, a completely cholesterol free dinner: unfortunately the soup was not really delicious ( I am not much of a carrot soup lover) and the chickpea curry was ready about 2 hours after dinner :).

Total cholesterol intake of today: 120 mg:

• breakfast: 0 mg
• lunch: 120 mg
• dinner: 0 mg

Today shows that with the right choices, you can easily achieve a cholesterol intake below the 200 mg daily recommend intake for people that should lower their LDL. However, it also showed that you need to have zero cholesterol food at hand for moments when you get hungry, and you need to find new recipes that you can make on time and taste delicious. In other words: the numbers part is easy, enjoying tasteful meals becomes the challenge.