Thursday, 29-10-20

 Good morning.  Thanks for bearing with me for a few days while I sorted things out - mental stuff, getting things back to what I want 'normal' to be like, and so on as well as not feeling 100%. 
This blog is part of my normal so I'm glad to get back to it.

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast was a wholemeal thin, spread with one tbsp brown sauce (one syn) and filled with three bacon medallions.  The tomatoes are token speed - no longer garden grown ones, sadly.

Lunch was what I thought was going to be bean and veg soup but it turned out to be bean and veg curry with added baked beans and some cheese on the top for one healthy extra A.  Very nice, just not what was expected.

Dinner was simple.  A chicken and veg casserole from the freezer, some packet couscous and some sprouts.  I wasn't sure about the couscous which was the bottom half of a packet opened goodness knows when and was probably stale but the rest was nice.

Today's food plans:

B:  pancakes, fruit and yogurt

The pancakes will probably have a sort of gingerbread vibe about them, I think.

SW:  one healthy extra B for the SR flour and half a syn for the yogurt

L:  katsu curry; fruit

This is a 'pot meal' - add water and stir!

SW:  two syns

D:  chicken tikka masala curry, rice; kvarg or yogurt
It's just the usual - some onion, ginger and garlic, tikka paste and various vegetables as well as some chicken thigh.  If I add light coconut milk (and I might, it's nice)  it will be three and a half syns for 100mls 
SW:  two syns for a tsp oil, three and a half syns for some coconut milk and two for some mango chutney

Body Magic:  none - I'm still feeling a bit wobbly

Summary:  one healthy extra B, half a healthy extra A for some milk I've taken to enjoying a cuppa tea in the afternoon) and up to ten syns.

Just taking a bit of a break

 Back soon.  :-)

Monday, 26-10-20

 Good morning!

Well, yesterday certainly went topsy turvy.  After Saturday evening's splash out, I just wasn't hungry for most of the day so didn't eat until the evening.  I decided to use the whole day's planning on Tuesday, got some steak out of the freezer to roast and sear and cooked some veg.  It was so simple and really nice.

Also nice is that there's some steak and some veg left over for lunch today

Today's plans:
Again, it's not simple.  It's Beth's birthday and she's coming round for a meal this evening.  So I'm going to keep it really small and simple through the day, try to keep the calories under control overall and not worry about syns, healthy extras and so on today.

B:  yogurt and a selection of fruit

L:  steak with veg 
Last night's leftovers should see me through.

D:  vegetarian lasagne, actifry chips and salad; a mini cupcake
All of this is what Beth wanted.  She likes my home made beany tomato mix which I use for the base and I've actually made a potful, some of which is going in the freezer for her Christmas dinner (probably beany crumble, another Beth favourite).  She loves actifry chips so that was a special request too.
As well as that, there will be 'salt and vinegary nibbles' (her words) and alcohol.
I will do my best but I'm going to enjoy her birthday.  Tomorrow will be totally back on track with the weekend meal plans I didn't use.

Sunday, 25-10-20

 Morning!

Yesterday's photos:

A rather messing looking breakfast but it tasted fine and filled me up.  Fine by me!

Beth was round for lunch so no photos and the evening went a bit Saturday-ish!!

Today's plans:

B:  fruity weetabix muffins
I found this recipe on KazzaSW's vlog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUglTKxadF8&t=100s
It uses weetabix instead of oats or flour and, as I've got some right now, I thought I'd give it a go.  I will adapt, of course.  I'll use choc weetabix, soften with skinny syrup, and the fruit will be from the freezer, not dried.  I might also add a bit of baking powder.
Worth giving it a try anyway.
SW:  one heB for two weetabix

L:  bean and veg soup; fruit
One of my throw it all in together soups from the freezer!  I have some baked beans left over from the lunch I made for Beth yesterday so they can go in too.
SW:  should be free

D:  cod mornay, broccoli, sprouts;  kvarg or yogurt
I found this recipe on Lifeline Online and thought I'd give it a go.  It includes spinach (SW seems to have a thing about spinach) which I really don't like, so I'll just do extra veg instead.  The sauce is made from quark, fromage frais, garlic and mustard powder although I thought mornay was supposed to be cheesy, so I might add some nutritional yeast to give it a sort of cheesy flavour - or maybe use some REAL cheese!!  Radical!
(By the way, nooch has suddenly started appearing in my planning because I found some at the back of a cupboard and don't want to waste it.  It's one syn per level tbsp.)
SW:  one healthy extra B (breadcrumbs), either a healthy extra A or one syn, depending on what I do, half a syn for dessert

Body Magic:  a lot of lifting and carrying and moving things around today

Summary:  two healthy extra Bs and a smattering of syns!

Saturday, 24-10-20

 Good morning!

Yesterday's photos.

Instead of poaching the haddock in milk for breakfast, I gently fried it in some butter flavoured spray oil and added a dash of lemon juice and it was really nice.  it came out firmer and definitely the way to go if I wanted to use it for a kedgeree sort of thing.

Quite a lunch, this was.  There's no way I was going to want anything else before dinner time.

(don't the 'heritage' carrots look pretty inside?)

Dinner was just fab.  If you have the current magazine, it's on p 25 and I adapted it by adding red pepper and mushroom and using garlic and onion granules and sumac as well as seasonings and balsamic vinegar (but not the stated oregano and basil).

Today's plans:

B:  yogurt and fruit platter
SW:  half a syn if I have a flavoured yogurt

L:  spicy mince with protein noodles and veg; fruit

I have some protein noodles to use up so I will get out a little pot of savoury mince to have with them.  I want to save my cheese for the evening so I'll sprinkle over some 'nooch' for a cheesy flavour.
SW:  one syn for the noodles and one for a tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

D:  home made pizza, salad; kvarg or yogurt

I'm going to make the SR flour and yogurt type base so it may be a bit scone-like but none the worse for that.
I'll use some of the tomatoes that have ripened on the window ledge to make the sauce and the topping will be a bit of ham (or bacon), onion, pepper, mushroom and maybe pineapple (don't shoot me - I LIKE pineapple on pizza) with some grated cheddar.

This is the sort of thing I have in mind.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/quick_cheats_pizza_88026

SW:  one and a half healthy extra Bs (I can have an extra healthy extra as a target member (albeit a bit up right now) and two As; half a syn for dessert

Body Magic:  I rather fancy a walk along the country lane today, weather permitting, but for most of the day Beth is helping me put up some shelves so it will be quite energetic, what with sorting out all the things to go on them, etc.  I'll get my body magic in, for sure.

Summary:  two healthy extra As and one and a half Bs, three syns

(not having evening snacks really does help to keep the syns under control)

Friday 23-10-20

 Morning!
Five pounds off at weigh in yesterday evening.  Woo hoo!  It just confirms to me that there were other things in play last week - meds, for a start - and that's all settled now.
If I lose two and a half this coming week, I'll be back in my 'zone' again next Thursday

I'm happy with that!

Yesterday's photos:

Nom nom.
I mixed 0% Greek yogurt with some raspberry skinny syrup and tipped it into a bowl.  The chocolate weetabix was crumbled over one half and some melon and a fig popped on the other half with some pretty old raspberries in the middle.

And it was delicious!

Freezer soup for lunch.  Dave, my son, came over and ended up staying.  Luckily I had some leftover passata so I added that, some stock powder, tomato puree and seasonings and it worked fine.

There's a bit left over so I will posh up today's lunch with an extra course.

Rather a beige dinner, don't you think?  I couldn't be bothered to open a can of mushy peas!!!

So not the best balanced dinner but I enjoyed it, all the same.

Today's meal plans:

B:  smoked haddock, poached or spray fried egg, mushrooms, tomatoes
I'll poach the haddock in milk but won't need to count the milk.
SW:  free

L:  tomato soup, smoked salmon pate, melba toast, salad; fruit
I used one leftover slice of the smoked salmon I had on Wednesday and blended it up with 40g lightest philly (two syns), one tbsp lighter crème fraiche (one syn), lime juice, dill and black pepper.  It's been in the fridge since yesterday so the flavours should have developed nicely.
I will make the melba toast by firstly lightly toasting two sliced wholemeal, then splitting each slice in half across the way to end up with four thinner slices.  Then I will cut each slice into triangles and pop them in the oven to dry out.
A three course lunch - how about that then!
SW:  one healthy extra B, three syns

D:  chicken, sweet potato and tomato traybake, salad; yogurt or kvarg
I found this in the new magazine and it looks very straightforward.  I think I will use a tsp oil instead of spray oil - there's no getting around it, roasting in real oil does make for a better texture and flavour, it really does.  
I will probably also add some red pepper and some mushroom to the bake for more speed veg
SW:  two syns for one tsp oil - I might use toasted sesame for the extra flavour.  Half a syn for dessert

Body Magic:  A walk

Summary:  one healthy extra B and five and a half syns

Thursday, 22-10-20

Good morning:
Weighday today.  I have no idea, remaining true to my resolution not to step on the scales between Thursdays for now.  I hope I have lost a bit, in spite of Tuesday's blip but I won't be back in my 'tolerance zone' for a few weeks to come.  A bit galling to have to start paying again but there you go - I made that choice, didn't I?

Yesterday's photos: 

I was very pleasantly surprised by the weetabix layer thingy.  It was really satisfying.  The main fruit was peach and nectarine slices (from the freezer, thawed) but I had a few berries to use up so I popped them on top.  

The Asian dressing I used on this smoked salmon salad was really very nice.  

half a tsp sweetener (or to taste)

a bit of chilli (to taste)

one tbsp lime juice (and zest, if you have a real lime - I used bottled)

one tsp toasted sesame oil (two syns)

half a tbsp soy sauce

I put it all in a small pot and gave it a good shake, 3 marinated the salmon in some beforehand and sprinkled what was left over the salad.  I'll do that again - it would be nice on poached salmon and other fish too.

Chilli for dinner - very nice!  Nothing special, just nice.

And no blips!

Today's meal plans:

B:  one weetabix with fruit and yogurt
Having bought a box of chocolate weetabix, I have to use it!
SW:  half a heB

L:  tomato and something soup, bread; fruit
It depends whether sweet potato or red pepper comes to hand first from the freezer!  I'll probably toast the bread for dunking.
SW:  half a heB

D:  fish, chips, mushy peas, mayo for dipping; kvarg or yogurt
I just fancied this today.  The fish is in the freezer and the chips will be actifried.  Lovely!
SW:  eight and a half syns for the fish, one syn for mayo (got to have mayo to dunk the chips in)and half for dessert

Body Magic:  after some more problems with my neck and shoulder following a swim while on holiday, I've decided to give it a bit of a break and see if it helps.  So I guess today will be a walk, weather permitting.

Summary:  one healthy extra B and tem syns.  Not brilliant on the healthy extras today