I’m a single guy, and I live alone. My diet is pretty typical of a single guy who lives alone: pasta, beans on toast, pie + pots + veg, chicken + jar of sauce + rice etc. Pretty boring, and not all that healthy.

While I enjoy spending hours baking, the thought of spending hours (or even an hour) preparing and cooking a meal, after I’ve been working for 10+ hours, doesn’t fill me with as much joy as you’d expect.

What do you cook after a day at the office, which is both yummy, and healthy? My only real restriction is that I dislike fish, so no fishy goodness.

TIA.

Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged, you have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. I love baking, and the reports I’ve received indicate I’m fairly good too.

2. I am very picky with food. It’s primarily the texture of items I struggle with, rather than the taste.

3. When I was 3, I opened a case containing one of my mum’s dead, but real, butterflies, and ate it.

4. I want to study medicine.

5. I have worked two jobs for the last 10 years – my regular 9-5 (well, more like 6-3) and I provide consultancy services for a number of other companies outside those hours.

6. I dispise lateness (in myself), and I would prefer to arrive somewhere an hour early than 5 minutes late.

7. I’m a huge fan of Britney Spears, and not afraid to admit it. I’m going to see her in June!

8. I also love the Spice Girls, and went to see them in January 2008. With Reagan.

9. I’m an obsessive saver. I spent my life savings between the ages of 16 and 18, and then went heavily into (credit card) debt. Having cleared the debt just before Zachary was born, I’m now driven to save as much as possible.

10. I have stitched my own wounds, it’s an interesting experience.

11. After a 7 year break, I started reading fiction books again 4 years ago.

12. I was recently asked to be ‘more civil’ in written communications. While accurate, and containing the required information, my emails are frequently terse and people can take that the wrong way.

13. Having disliked being taught English while in the schooling system, I now enjoy learning about language structure.

14. While I don’t regret having them done, I’m miffed that it’ll cost me £2500 to reverse the earlobe ‘damage’ of £20 piercings.

15. My Mum loved the story of Jonathan & David written about in 1 Samuel (old testament). I have two brothers, one is named David.

16. I am an atheist. I detest religion, and have no respect for religious beliefs whatsoever.

17. I can juggle, and used to win talent contests doing so.

18. I am not superstitious. Scorpios never are.

19. I used to have a crush on Anne Diamond. In my defense, I was 7.

20. It’s very difficult for me to sit and do nothing. Even while watching TV I need to be productive – working, tidying etc.

21. I’m told I’m smart, but having left school at 16 and now working with people who have multiple degrees, I rarely feel it.

22. I laugh every time I’m wiping Zachary’s bum and he says, ‘Daddy, don’t get poo on your finger!’. I have no idea where he got that from – it certainly wasn’t from me!

23. I nearly always ask for discounts or free stuff when I’m shopping. I’m often successful, too.

24. I was circumsized when I was 17. And I bursted my stitches with a ‘nocturnal erection’ a few days later. My surgeon laughed and asked if it was a good dream.

25. Two years ago I convinced my then ten year old brothers that homeopathic medicines were taken by all males from the age of 15 to stop them being gay. ‘Homeo’ meaning ‘gay’, and ‘pathic’ meaning ‘anti’. It amused me greatly.

Zachary and I did some baking today. If it tastes anywhere near as good as it looks, we’ll be very happy.

Compared to the number of recipes which contain gluten, there are very few which don’t. In my experience, gluten free cakes have been dense and not all that enjoyable to eat, so I’ve been trying to find one which would be light and fluffy, like normal sponge cakes are.

Enter the potato cake, cunningly disguised as a gluten-free lemon drizzle cake.

Basically, in place of the flour, use mash potato. Yummy, huh?

So, with a few friends either unimpressed (or in one case laughing) about the idea, I made it.

Having allowed it to cool, about ten minutes ago I cut a slice, and while crossing my fingers tasted it….

…I have to say that it’s one of the nicest cakes I’ve tasted. It’s moist (due the the potatoes retaining moisture during the cooking), fluffy, and almost melts in the mouth.

I definitely recommend trying it yourselves. My only suggestion is that you don’t tell anyone who’s tasting it about the mash until after they’ve finished :)

Currently I heavily use carbohydrates but I’m wanting to cut that right down on a Monday-Friday basis while leaving myself free to load up as much as I want on them at the weekends (so really this is a Monday-Friday diet change)

Before I start this, I want to get some decent meal plans / food ideas down so I’m not struggling to find things to eat from day one.

I’m looking to initially cap my carb intake at around 30g daily, and finding foods that will give me my required calories (~3000-3500/day) without there being tons of carbs is proving challenging.

By challenging, I mean:
* One of the biscuits, of which I normally consume a pack of ~25 in one sitting, contains 7g carbs!
* One Kitkat (I’m a 4 finger guy), contains 28g of carbs. I normally have 1-2/day while at work (free tuck shop == dangerous)

So this is going to be quite a drastic change, but one I’m quite looking forward to.

What foodstuffs / meals can you suggest which will do what I’m looking for? Meat/fish are obviously big wins, and I’m especially interested in food with high protein/fat content, but there must be many high calorie food stuffs which are evading my searches / trains of thought.

Any ideas will be gratefully received.