The perfect diet for those on the go (Diet Chef)

Member Name: TiredandTested

Product:	Diet Chef
Date:	06/01/09 (1154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple, tasty, no artificial ingredients, easy-to-follow, reasonably priced

Disadvantages: Product range isn't terribly wide so may get boring if you're dieting over a month

Diet Chef is a diet for those with busy lifestyles, or even those like me who regularly fail to stick to diets which involve lots of faffing around counting calories, carbs or points.

In a nutshell, a hamper containing breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks is delivered to your door. All you need to do is add some vegetables or the odd piece of fruit.

I desperately needed to lose weight and I'm currently working two jobs thanks to the credit crunch. I chose Diet Chef (www.dietchef.co.uk) because I simply didn't have the time, energy or will to do a complicated diet. I ordered the 35 day hamper at'a cost of £190 ( or £5.42 a day) and did it via quidco.com to get 10% cash back. So a total of £171 for 35 days worth of food - not bad!

The hamper was made up of:

- 35 breakfast pouches of Lizi's Granola
- 35 lunches consisting of soup by Look What We Found
- 35 dinners consisting of meals by Look What We Found
- 35 snacks consisting of bars by Nakd or sweet oat biscuits by Nairns

An interesting point about this (and a selling point for me) is the fact that these products do not contain artificial colours, flavourings or other un-natural stuff so often found in diet food. I did a bit of reading up on the products and it seems the Look What We Found range are cooked at high temperatures in a pressure cooker type method already sealed in pouches. This method means that you don't need to keep the food in the fridge and it lasts for up to 6 months.

Given that information I rather expected the soups and main meals to taste a bit bland or plasticy. I was therefore pleasantly surprised - they taste no different to something that's just come off the hob of a country kitchen. They are delicious! I ordered the following from the range:

Soups -
Country Cured Ham & Pea
Spicy Cumbrian Beef & Tomato Soup
Tweedside Honey in English Parsnip Soup
English Tomato Soup with Cheviot Cheese Pesto
Free Range Chicken Soup with Lemon Thyme
Wild Mushroom Soup with a Dash of Sherry

Dinners -
Gloucester Old Spot Pork Meatballs with Butter Beans in a Rich Tomato Sauce
Herdwick Mutton Stew
Wild Rabbit in Leek & Elderflower Sauce with Camargue Red Rice
Home Reared Beef in Black Velvet Porter with Maris Piper Potatoes
Beef & Basil Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Cumbrian Lamb Hotpot
Fellside Beef Casserole
Home Reared Beef Chilli Con Carne
Traditional Pork & Herb Sausage Casserole

Cooking these was as easy as pie. You have the choice of opening the tops of the pouch a little and popping in the micro, emptying into a pan or putting the pouch unopened into a pan of boiling water (so very handy for camping enthusiasts!).

Since I wanted to keep everything as simple as possible for days I was really tired I elected to buy bags of steamed veg to go with the main courses which meant I could throw a bag in the micro half-way through the dinner pouch cooking. On days with more time I get a lot of green vegetables or stir-fry vegetables. Some of the dinner pouches look like the sort of thing you'd have with pasta and in those cases I'd make courgette ribbons and stir-fry them quickly.

The snacks are very good quality. I've always liked Nairns so was pleased to get those.

Doing some calculations I think you could probably buy the products from supermarkets cheaper if you only elected to buy a week's worth of Diet Chef however for the 35 day hamper ordering via Diet Chef is definitely cheaper (Look What We Found retail at £2.99 so that'd be £104.65 for the dinners alone!).

All in all I found the diet very tasty and easy to stick to so much so in fact that my other half has now asked if he can join me in it!

The important past is weight loss. Well I'm two weeks into the diet and have lost 13lbs so far. I don't feel hungry and for once I actually look forward to the next meal.

Summary: A very good choice for those who don't want a complicated diet or one filled with artificial foods.