A wholemeal pitta bread is equally easy to take to work. Pitta pockets hold salad veg better than sandwiches bits don't fall out. One wholemeal pitta weighs approx 50g/20z, which is half your daily bread allowance, and supplies 3g fibre. It could be eaten along with an F2 Essential Soup, followed by fruit, to make a more substantial meal.
Nearly all the suggested sandwich fillings could equally well be used to fill a pitta and you can freely add any salad veg. First warm your pitta bread in a toaster or under the grill to puff it up, making it easier to split open and fill. But don't leave it too long or it will go hard. Here are a few additional ideas for fillings:
Houmous and salad: Spread the inside of the pitta with 2 rounded teaspoons reduced-fat houmous. Fill with an appropriate F2 Essential Salad such as grated carrot with almonds and raisins, or the bean, sweetcorn, onion and red pepper mix.
Pesto chicken salad: Mix together l tbsp light mayonnaise with l tsp pesto sauce, then spread inside pitta. Fill with 50g/20z sliced cooked free-range or organic chicken breast meat, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumber.
Cottage cheese and date: Stir a small tub of cottage cheese and chop up some dates. Spoon up to 100g/40z of cottage cheese into the dry pitta bread and then sprinkle in the dates so that they are evenly dispersed.
Cheese salad with salsa: Mix some tomato salsa with a few quartered cherry tomatoes,
chopped yellow pepper, chopped red onion and 50g/20z feta cheese. Add a few halved, stoned olives if you like. Pile into the pitta.
Wholemeal pasta meals
Wholemeal pasta makes the perfect F2 meal. It is widely available in a variety of shapes conchiglie, fusilli and spaghetti. An average (90g/3 ½ OZ dry weight) main-course serving supplies a substantial quantity of fibre, in the region of 8-9 grams. Pasta is also highly recommended for its low GI.
The obvious way to serve it as an easy meal is with the Basic Tomato Sauce on a ready-made sauce from the chart on article 152-4, or the VERY Easy Tomato Sauce on the next article. A green salad (buying a ready-to-serve pack of mixed leaves doesn't make you a bad person!) is all you need to accompany it. Raw sugar-snap peas sliced lengthways add crunch and fibre to green salad and, when you can afford the fat units, a little sliced avocado turns this salad into something really special.
If you choose the 'make in quantity and freeze' tomato sauce option, here are some of the many ways you can ring the changes. We've included 1 ½ fat units for a portion of the homemade tomato sauce in each meal total.
Pasta vongole: Add 1 tbsp dry white wine and finely chopped fresh red chilli (or 1 ½ tsp dried crushed chillies) to the tomato sauce, heat in a pan then add about 75g/30z drained and rinsed canned baby clams and heat through gently. Stir in chopped fresh parsley.
Calamari or seafood sauce: Add l tbsp red wine and l tsp garlic puree to the tomato sauce, heat in a pan then add 75g/30z calamari (squid rings) and cook gently for 3-4 minutes until tender. For a spicy kick add chopped fresh chilli, chilli sauce, Tabasco or cayenne pepper (whatever you happen to have). Alternatively, add 75g/30z cooked shelled prawns or seafood selection to the tomato sauce.
Roasted vegetables: Toss a selection of thickly sliced onions, courgettes and red or yellow peppers in l tsp olive oil in an ovenproof dish. Add crushed garlic and chopped fresh rosemary, if liked, then roast in a hot oven for 20 minutes until tender and slightly charred. Add to the tomato sauce.
Garlic and anchovy: Add four drained and chopped anchovy fillets and l tsp garlic puree to the tomato sauce. Just before serving, stir in a handful of shredded fresh basil leaves.
Tuna and mushroom: Gently cook 75g/30z sliced mushrooms in the tomato sauce, then stir in a small drained can (about 80g) of tuna in brine and 1 tbsp rinsed and chopped capers.
Veggie puttanesca: Add a good slosh of chilli sauce, l tbsp rinsed and chopped capers, 6 chopped stoned black olives and 25g/10z chopped sun-dried tomatoes, well drained of oil, to the tomato sauce.
VERY Easy Tomato Sauce
Simply simmer a can of chopped tomatoes with a couple of sliced spring onions until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then add seasoning, a torn basil leaf or two, a few capers, some black olives, chopped parsley anything you have handy. The only oil is in any olives you might use. Count 1 unit if you add 6 olives.
