Christmas Challenge, day 21

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

I've been busy in my kitchen again today so there's been a few nibbles going on but nothing too terrible.

What I want to share with you is a very simple but totally delicious recipe for oatcakes, found on the wonderful 'Ali Lives Well On Less' YouTube channel.  I'll post the link in The Extra Bit - take my word for it, they are easy and taste great,  Adaptable too.

What I ate today:

Fruit for breakfast plus a mini mince pie bite and a small bit of seed and oat cracker (not the Ali one) because one has to test before offering to guests, doesn't one?  

I added cheese and crackers to the menu, remembered to take a photo of them but forgot about the leek and potato soup.  Ooops!

Both were delicious!

Steak and chips for dinner plus some naughty stilton and butter potted cheese.  It was delicious.

Afters was some easy peelers.

I'll syn tomorrows, Monday's and most of Tuesday's meals and then I won't be blogging on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  Back on Friday.

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  avocado toast with either smoked salmon 🎄or egg, fried mushrooms and tomatoes

L:  chicken something or other (from the freezer and I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head) plus some roasted veg and I might add chestnuts for a vaguely Christmas vibe (and because they are very good for one) 🎄; fruit

D:  cheesy beans on toast; fruit

Exercise:  lots of stuff to do in the house.  

The Extra Bit:

Here you go - the link to the recipe and to Ali's channel.  Do pay her a visit, like the video and, if you want, subscribe.  (It's free)

Christmas Challenge, day 20

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

I know it's not very helpful at the moment but I'm keeping it real and honest.  

What I ate today:

Breakfast was a taster session at the SW party.
I took turkey, cranberry and chestnut festive baubles (basically meatballs on cocktail sticks) with cranberry sauce to dip in and they went down a real treat - I had some sauce to bring home but no baubles.  I've posted the recipe in The Extra Bit below.

I didn't take a photo as Jen always did so I expected Heidi would.  She didn't, however. so sorry, so no visual evidence!!

Lunch - toasted chutney and cheese plus some melon that really needs to be used (quite apart from the fact that there's no space in the fridge for it.)

I've stopped counting for a while but it's around two As and one B

Not planned.

I made some mince pies and one honestly and truly broke apart as I lifted it out of the baking tray.  I wasn't going to waste it, was I?

The rest are now safely tucked away in the freezer.

Dinner - well, I did defrost the steak but didn't have it because . . .  

. . . I sliced the loaf of bread I made and had a couple of slices of that with cheese spread and chutney.  The rest is in the freezer.

I love my freezer.

So today has been carb heavy but I'm keeping it real in here.

After all - it is nearly Christmas!

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  fruit

L:  soup from the freezer; fruit

D: steak and chips (should have had this Friday); fruit

Exercise: er - not sure right now.

The Extra Bit:

Turkey, cranberry and chestnut festive baubles

Ingredients to make between seven and ten baubles depending on what size you make them
125g turkey mince
one Linda McCartney rosemary and red onion sausage (or I use the Aldi equivalent – cheaper!)
some chopped onion, softened with spray oil in the microwave
a couple of chestnuts, crumbled (one syn per chestnut or 7 chestnuts for a B)
some dried cranberries, chopped (25g = 4-ish syns. Depends which ones you use)
15g grated hard Italian Cheese (half an A)
seasonings – I use garlic granules, black pepper and a little salt)

Amounts are to own taste so weigh and work out syns.

Method.
Chuck everything in a bowl and mix thoroughly together – I use my hands (washed, obv!).
Before shaping, dry fry a little in a small pan and adjust seasonings, if necessary – don’t skip this bit.  

Using damp hands, shape into balls and place on foil that will fit into your air fryer or on an oven tray.
Spray with spray oil and air fry for around fifteen minutes, shaking them a couple of times or pop in a preheated oven at around 180 for 20 mins or so, again, until done.

Eat hot or cold.

I like them dipped in cranberry sauce or a festive chutney (generally one and a half syns for a level tbsp but check what you use as they differ)

You can make little kebabs with them, adding pickled onions, gherkins, grapes – whatever you fancy really.

Christmas Challenge, day 18

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

What I ate today:

Back to yesterday afternoon first - no photos but the fish and chips was delicious and there was an unexpected dessert of cheesecake.  Not as nice as the lemon one I made but still nice, all the same.  I have absolutely no idea of syns.

Now today:

This was nice.  I mixed the yogurt with sweetener, ground ginger and chia seeds.  The fruit was melon and blueberries with the mince pie oats mixed in  and there's mixed seeds on top.

Half a healthy extra B for the oats, half a B for the seeds.

Lunch was lentil and tomato soup from the freezer and some fruit - melon and apple.

All syn free.

I ended up having chilli beans and veg on a jacket potato,  The photo looks blurred because of the steam  Delicious.

Four syns for evoo.

Summary:

no healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

four syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  mince pie oats 🎅, spiced yogurt 🎅 and fruit

L:  Out to lunch with a friend

D:  Not sure right now . . .

Exercise:  a walk

Christmas Challenge, day 17

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

What I ate today  (and yesterday evening):

This was my dessert at the Harvester yesterday - gingerbread and salted caramel profiteroles and ice cream.  Lovely but I could only manage half of it.

On to today and I had this for brunch in the end.

I haven't had a cooked breakfast for the longest time and, to be honest, it wasn't as nice as I remember it to be.

Two syns for spray evoo.

I'm posting this now because my next meal will be in London and I will post that tomorrow.  It will be early but not to worry.  

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  fruit and yogurt

L:  soup from the freezer

D:  something with left over beans

Exercise:  circuits and then personal training

Christmas Challenge, day 16

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

What I ate today:

I was going to have oats and yogurt - before I remembered I had a dentist appointment so decided fruit was the easiest thing to clean off my teeth.

Also - syn free

Lunch was the third turkey burger (see yesterday) with a salad.  Afters was easy peelers.

I'm not going to fuss about syns for the burger because I counted them yesterday - not terribly Slimming World but never mind!

So two syns for the oil in dressing and one for mixed seeds

I am out for dinner this evening and might talk about it tomorrow - or not as the case may be!

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  fruit and yogurt

Late lunch/early dinner:  fish and chips (out on a coach trip)

Exercise:  Groove class and the walk there and back.

Christmas Challenge, day 15

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

Back on it properly today and out on time too, rather than tomorrow morning.  

What I ate today:

A lovely bowl of fruit and yogurt for breakfast with a sprinkle of cinnamon on the top.  Delicious.

One syn for some mixed seeds.

Lunch was lovely

I made the burgers with

about 125g turkey mince (free)

one Aldi rosemary and fed onion sausage (free)

half a small onion, chopped and softened with spray oil in the microwave (free)

two chestnuts, crumbled (2 syns)

some cranberry sauce (home made so I'm saying half a syn)

salt, pepper, Italian all rounder spice mix (all free)

Squidge it all together until well mixed.  With damp hands, shape into burgers - this amount made three.

Shake over just a bit of flour and fry in a tiny bit of oil in a non stick pan until cooked.

These were a trial run for Thursday and I think that the only thing I will change is that I will use some cut up dried cranberries instead of sauce.

I wanted a bit more 'substance' to the sweet potato fries.  If you just use oil, they go lovely and soft but - not really chip-like.
So I added a bit of flour, some salt and pepper spice mix (home mixed and I really ought to use it up soon) and some spray evoo and gave them twenty minutes on air fry in Nellie.

I'm estimating a bit with the syns and I had two out of the three burgers but . . .

two syns for chestnuts, half a syn for the sauce, two syns for flour and two for evoo - oh, and half a syn for seeds in the salad and one syn for a very little bit of salad dressing.

So a total of seven syns.  Phew!

I had planned bean and tuna bake but the tuna wasn't needed

As well as the onion, pepper, mushroom, mixed beans, tomato, past and cheese, I had a bit of a bag of that 'crispy salad' left so I added that seeing as it was mostly shredded carrot, cabbage and onion.  Really nice.

One and a half healthy extra As - not particularly festive but quite Mediterranean.

Summary:

one and a half healthy extra As

no healthy extra Bs

eight syns plus a few more because I made some fudge and mopped up just a few of the shavings from the bowl before washing away the rest.  It won't be many, I promise.  xx

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  mince pie oats 🎄, fruit and yogurt bowl

L:  turkey burger (in a bowl) 🎄, salad; fruit

The turkey burger mix made three burgers - so there's one left over for tomorrow and I don't really want to freeze it.

D:  out with the girls to the Harvester for a Christmas Get Together. 🎄🎄🎄

Exercise:  none - I moved circuits to Wednesday because there's something festive to do tomorrow.

Christmas Challenge, day 19

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

I have no idea how this got posted early - well, I do, it had to be me, but it was accidental, sorry!

What I ate today:

Only one photo today which is not that helpful but . . .

I didn't have breakfast (wasn't hungry)

I had lunch out with a friend

If you are of a sensitive disposition, don't look at the next bit, OK?

If you make your own mince pies, you can just make a few - works for me anyway.

So I made pastry with 40g flour and 20g butter and used the wee gizmo in the photos which makes little pasty type parcels.

And they cooked in the air fryer which is great.

Absolutely delish and I had two.  Each one is six syns - better than the bought mince pies but pastry things are never SW friendly or Mediterranean compliant.

The other two are now in the freezer.
And that's all I had.

Ho hum!
I enjoyed it though.

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  taster at SW group.

L:  cheese and chutney toastie

D:  steak and chips; fruit

Exercise:  The Christmas Shop (groan)