Thank you for all your lovely replies! Guess what? Went to Kaufland today and my OH found bags of dried peas -yay! Going to find a recipe to make mushy peas and I'll make that curry on Friday. So 35g wholemeal pasta is a HexB (dried?) and 100g rice (again, dried or cooked?) is 7 syns - just trying to get my head round the rice. Extra easy - AliCat - so I could have chicken curry with loads of rice? Or spag bol with loads of spaghetti? Nope, don't get it! If all meat and all veg, pasta etc is free I would just eat and eat and eat. How do you lose weight if you're just eating ordinary meals? I must be dense because I just can't work this one out at all!!! I would have a kilo of bolognese and another kilo of spaghetti - not that I'm greedy of course lol. That just wouldn't be any different to what I scoff now...told you, I'm dense xxx

You aren't dense at all!! There's a lot of people that still can't get their heads around Extra Easy.
Being on EE just helps those that can't go without the pasta/rice/meat etc. that they wouldn't get if they were on red/green.

And as for the 100g rice, it's the cooked weight xx

Yes, go for it! As much chicken curry and rice or spaghetti bolognese as you want! It works by cutting out fats and sugars, and encouraging nutrient-dense food instead. We're all doing it on here, EE works

But with EE you also need 1/3rd of each meal contains veg and/or fruit

I agree with Deb. I always add loads of veg to my curries, such as peppers, mushrooms and spinach and bolognese is tomato based anyway. I can't imagine having a meal with no fruit or veg, it's become second nature. Think of a beef stew with swede, carrots and peas, or a burger and SW chips with a salad. Lovely stuff!

I love how enthusiastic you all are! It's really helping me get motivated. The harvest is nearly over - just some toms, kale and cabbages left to process - so I'll soon have time to make up some menus etc. Just wondering what I'll do with the 200 jars of jams, chutneys and sauces I've made - lol! I'll syn a tablespoon here and there. Just finishing off tom sauce so that'll be another 22 jars for the pantry. Oh we grow our own fruit n veg by the way (before you think I'm a nutter!) - 60+ fruit trees so they're all canned in water. Got to 57 degrees here this summer and last winter was -17 (-34 the previous winter) so we stock up the pantry to see us through the winter. Then we try and renovate some more of the house till the snow's gone - one day I'll have a proper kitchen! And a bathroom lol! Anyway, I'm going to measure 100g cooked rice to see what it looks like and see if it's worth 7 syns or not- doing SW sweet n sour chicken tonight. Had ham, egg, tomato, mushrooms and 2 x toasts this morning (1 HexB and 2 syns for low fat butter?), had strawberries for lunch then S&S for dinner tonight with more fruit. Luckily I love fruit - just veg I have a problem with. I like mushrooms, onions, potatoes and salad stuff. I'll eat veg soup if I cut up the veg really, really small. Same with stews - I probably eat more than I think because I try to hide veg in everything I cook. OK so now I AM sounding like a nutter. I don't get out much. Will attempt mushy peas tomorrow so I can have a green day on Friday. Going to stick to red n green for a month to see how I get on. If that doesn't work I'll try the EE. Thank you sooo much for replying to my whitterings! xxx

Oh dear just seen how long that message was - sorry x

Never apologise for a long post... I'm a pain for doing it, but I get carried away when I ramble lol

With the whole 'hiding the veg' thing, what about using a hand blender or food processer to blitz the food and get rid of the veg? It's obviously still there, but you just don't see it you can do it with soups, bolognese, chilli, etc.

Yes, good idea - when I see them it instantly puts me off, even though I've cooked it myself. My OH loves veg and God knows we grow enough to feed the whole village and I do try - honest. Roasting beetroot n parsnip n carrots is just about acceptable but I always cover them in honey so I'm going to have to practice with spices instead. He's just plopped a whole load of kale on my table now.....zzzzz.....roll on November and I can sit here in my longjohns eating rice! xxx

Oooh! Kale Crisps are tasty!! Just don't put too much salt on them like I did