Call me un-PC too, but I adore foie gras. My father-in-law is a retired charcutier and does his own, which is to die for.
Ok, here's my little list of French goodies.
For breakfast:
I ditto the cereals. I have substituted supermarket's own brand "fruits et fibres" for Kelloggs. Most supermarkets do them.
Wholemeal bread - a hexb protion is 57g. I have found wholemeal muffins in both Leclerc and Carrefour Market, which weigh in at about that. Otherwise, 1.5 slices of Lidl's sliced wholemeal bread is 57g (you can have the full 2 slices and add a syn or two to compensate - frankly, I have always eaten the full 2 slices and just counted as a hex)
French toast - use a hexb portion of 2 slices of wholemeal bread. Whisk an egg or 2 in a flattish dish big enough to take a slice of bread. Add a little sweetner and some cinnamon. Dip the bread in to coat both sides. Heat some frylight (or similar, see my post above re Leclerc oil) in a frying pan and fry the "toasts" until golden and fluffy. This is gorgeous served with fruit and/or yoghurt/fromage frais.
The classic boiled egg & soldiers is also SW friendly. I put marmite (free) on my soldiers.
I always start my day with fruit, either a fruit salad - I prepare enough to last a few days - or a grapefruit, grapes, melon or strawberries, depending on the season
HEXAs
There are lots of reduced fat cheeses available. it's just a question of whether they are A or B choices (on green)
HEXB's (green)
- Goat's cheese - Carrefour discount do a low-fat goat's cheese called a mi-chèvre. I count it the same as any reduced fat UK cheese, so 42g rather then the 28g. (These amounts might now have increased slightly)
- Ricotta also a b choice (I love chopped dried apricots in mine)
- Pagen Krisprolls are available here - I don't like crispbreads, but do like the wholemeal rolls. But Pagen's rolls are soo expensive, so I substitute them where possible. If I want to substitute anything that is a hex, I look up the nutritional value of the one that is a HEX and then check the values on other brands, such as supermerket's own. For example, Pagen rolls are 45 calories each and have 8% fibre. I have regularly bought Lidl's own, which are 7% fibre, treated them as 3 for a hexb and got to target doing so!
Free stuff
Apart from fruit, veg and the 0% dairy stuff, this is the hard part of doing SW, as it is difficult to classify pre-prepared things. Lidl often do "British" promotions and their baked beans are good and I suppose free?
Crabsticks are a great snack on red.
Flavoured yoghurts - make sure they're 0% fat AND 0% sugar added. Unfortunately 0% fat flavoured Fromage frais tends to have sugar added, so needs to be synned.
Syns
Use the 20 cals = 1 syn rule and you won't go far wrong
Low syn products - Bridelight low fat (15%) spread
Eating out
Not easy! But I find most restaurants will do a steak with haricots verts rather than frîtes if you ask. Ok, there will probably be butter on both, but it won't ruin things. Crème caramel or crème brulée aren't too bad for dessert. Otherwise, eating Italian, go for the tomato-based sauces rather then creamy ones.
I'm sure I'll come up with more things, but that's enough for now
