Lots of people pop up at this post after doing an internet search along the lines of of  ‘is tandoori chicken good for weight loss?’ This stems from, I think, from various diets which say if you’re eating out in an Indian restaurant, tandoori is the best thing to choose.

This is because it’s not made with a creamy sauce and lashings of oil, but it does use yoghurt in the marinade. It can be tweaked … skip to the recipe below if you don’t want to read my ramblings on weight loss.

Losing weight – it’s really not difficult. You eat less, drink less booze and exercise more. It’s not brain surgery and I’ve done it before. I’ve lost loads of weight. Pounds and pounds and I swore it would never go back on. Ok, you can laugh now.

The Mrs Portly name, which began as a joke, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or perhaps a clothes-filling prophecy. Something has to give and I’d rather it wasn’t the seam on my trousers.

But while I can forego wine, even the nightly pre-supper fino ritual, I love good food.

And my long-suffering and naturally thin husband, while prepared to indulge me as long I don’t try to get between him and his gin and tonic, draws the line at fasting twice a week. So the 5:2 Diet, seemingly the diet du jour, is out (though I may sneak a few very low calorie dishes past him).

What I’m aiming to do then is to lose weight while still eating well, so for the next few months I’ll be offering skinnier versions of most of the dishes I post here, alongside the standard recipes.

There will be some exceptions as I’ve also promised myself I’m going to write more about local producers and not all of them produce food naturally conducive to a slimmer waistline (pork pie, anyone?) and I’m not going to attempt to work out the calories. There are lots of free calorie counting sites on the web if you’re so inclined.

If I’m trying to lose weight I don’t drink alcohol and I (sob) don’t eat bread or cheese (except for a dusting of parmesan from time to time). I don’t eat sweets, cakes or biscuits much anyway but they’re definitely off the menu for the next few months.

The good news is that the garden is beginning to produce plenty of fruit and veg and they’re never a hardship to eat when they’re so fresh, in fact they don’t always make it back to the kitchen.

Spices add interest to what I hope will be a comparatively low-fat, low carb diet, so I’m kicking off with the promised tandoori chicken, which can be tailored to fit slimline or fatline diets.