Saturday, 18-01-20

Good morning:

When I searched the freezer, I did have some smoked basa (see yesterday's plans for context!) so I got that out and defrosted it, only to discover that I'd defrosted two pieces, darn it!  So I used one for the fishcake and the other I cut up and added to my lunchtime soup.  Odd, maybe, but it worked.

The dinner time recipe I tried, using the basa was absolutely delicious but, oh, dear, I mis-read it and ended up with a sort of splodge of fried cheesy fishy potato rather than a potato cake.  The actual results were a lot tastier than the CC fishcake but it wasn't a fishcake!  I think that next time I will use one of my crumpet rings to shape and bake it so it holds shape.  Or I might just combine the two recipes, taking the best of each!

Today's plans:
B:  oat waffles, fruit and natural yogurt, mini yogurt drink
A delicious Saturday treat.  I do love oat waffles!
SW one heB and two syns

L:  chunky bean and vegetable soup, fruit
Made on Thursday and there's two more portions now in the freezer.  Really nice soup.  I think I might add some turkey leftovers to it today.
SW:  free

D:  chicken in orange, posh rice, side salad; fruit and natural yogurt
From PoN2, p66.  I'm slowly working my way through them, aren't I?  This one looks 'interesting' so fingers crossed.
SW:  one syn for the posh rice and I'll use oil in the recipe rather than spray oil so that's another three syns

S:  easy peelers

Body Magic:  a walk

Summary:
a meat day
one heB -  I ought to add an A to that somewhere
six syns
it's not particularly frugal today. what with the chicken, but nor is it particularly costly either
I need to have finished breakfast and cleared away by eleven so the window is ten thirty to seven; 8.5:15.5

Friday, 17-01-20

Good morning.
We're about half way through January now and things continue to go well.  I've been faithfully colouring in my record sheet and it's proving to be a really good visual representation of how things are going.  It's easy to dwell on the more negative things, the days where I didn't stay on plan, but this shouts to me good and clear that actually - I'm doing OK.

The three blanks are two days at Dads and Wednesday this week!  Now let's see if I can colour in every other one this month.
(and no comments about staying inside the lines, OK?  :-) )

The pizza loaded fries were absolutely delicious.  I was feeling pretty peckish by lunchtime but they'd have been scrummy anyway.

Today's plans are as follows.
B:  hash brown breakfast bake (PoN2p38), fruit, mini yogurt
I've already had this and I know it is tasty.
SW:  the recipe is free and two syns for the yogurt drink

L:  chunky bean and vegetable soup, bread to dunk; fruit
I made this yesterday and there's plenty to have over the next few days and to pop into the freezer.
SW:  one heB

D:  melt-in-the-middle fishcakes,  mixed salad or cooked veg, depending on what I fancy; yogurt and fruit
Having learnt from the Chubby Cubs' recipe earlier in the week, this Pinch of Nom one has a few changes.  I shall have less potato, for a start, use finely chopped spring onion instead of chives (roll on spring when the chives will be up in the herb bed!) and if I can't find any smoked basa in the freezer, I might use some salmon as I know I have some or I might stop off at Aldi and get some smoked basa as it's a handy thing to have in the freezer.
It's sort of the same as the CC version but has soft cheese mixed in the potato and chopped babybel in the centre.  I wonder whose version I will like the best.
SW:  35g light squeezy cheese (Primula) will be half a heA and one Babybel is also half a heA so that's convenient!  I might use one tsp oil for two syns or even be lavish with half a tbsp for three syns and mayo (if I have salad) will be another couple of syns.

S:  easy peelers

Body Magic:  I have a free day today so I might drive across town and have a walk on Gallywood Common, weather permitting.

Summary:
a fish day
one heA and one B
around seven syns
reasonably frugal - although fish is never cheap, the rest is fine
the eating window will be between ten and seven so 9:15

Thursday, 16-01-20

Good morning.

For lunch out yesterday, J and I went to a place called ASK in Billericay.  It was Italian cuisine, very nice and, to my delight, there were some 'lighter' choices at 550 calorie or under.  OK, you have to take these with a pinch of salt but even so, given that it was breakfast and lunch combined, I was within my calories for the day, definitely.  That made me happy.

So it was a great pity that I lost my hold on things later on, ate way too much rubbish, continued well beyong seven and ended up having a bad night with a most uncomfortable tum.  Serves me right, I guess and maybe I needed to show myself that what I'm doing (generally, not yesterday evening!) not only works, it's also better for me.

Certain  items are now out of the house and others pushed to the back, out of sight.

Today's plans:
B:  nothing
I'm not being noble or self flagellating, honestly, I'm just still feeling uncomfortable and the thought of breakfast is a right turn off!

L:  (dinner/main meal really, because of time restraints later on)  pizza loaded fries, salad; mini yogurt drink
Taken from Pinch of Nom 2, p74
It's what I had planned to have yesterday evening but didn't and, as I'd made/prepared the separate elements needed, I'm not going to waste them!
SW:  one heA, two syns for the yogurt drink and two for some oil

D:  spicy bean and vegetable soup, roll to dunk; fruit
I have some beans in a spicy sauce left over from Tuesday plus plenty of veg so I will make a good potful and it will do me for other meals as well.  It'll have onion, carrot, celery, sweet potato, orzo, pepper, peas, maybe some sweetcorn, mushrooms, the spicy beans and some orzo.  Very nice!
SW:  one heB (the roll)

S:  fruit

Body magic:  Someone on t'other blog reminded me of the online walking thing on youtube so, whatever the weather, I can get my half hour of brisk walking.  Also Lindsey's 15 and balance ball.

Hopefully, during the morning, internal things will return to normal so I can enjoy the rest of the day's food!

Summary:
a vegetarian day today
one heA and one B
four syns
comfortably frugal and using leftovers
an eating window of between one and seven (because of no breakfast) so 6:18 which is smaller than I would usually have - I can't eat later that seven because I'll be at pottery!

Back to my version of normal tomorrow

Wednesday, 15-01-20

Good morning: I hope everyone is OK after the strong winds.

Yesterday's post seems to have had a lot of hits/views or whatever the word is.  That's really nice; welcome and please feel free to follow or comment (or both).

I was so pleased at SW group yesterday morning.  Not only had I lost weight, I was Slimmer of the Week.  Yay!!  I'm now really motivated to carry on in the same way.

Before getting on to today's food, just a couple of photos of yesterday's food.

Quesadillas are always nice and this recipe is no exception.  I left out the leaf coriander from the salsa and it was delicious.
(PoN2, p 92)

And the Chubby Cubs' fishcake was also tasty although it was HUGE - and I did weigh everything out carefully.
(C C, p68)

Both these recipes required non-cheddar cheese so I went a bit against my principles and bought some lower fat mozzarella and some gruyere.  However, I reckon cheddar would be nicer so I'll use that next time.

This recipe asked for some chives (if possible).  I took a look at mine and, because of the mild weather, there was a bit showing, but there was little flavour so I may as well have left them alone!  Spring onions would have done instead.

Today's plans are a bit different.  I'm out for lunch with friend Jackie so, rather than squash a late breakfast and an earlier-than-usual lunch into my day, I'm just having my yogurt drink after ten, as usual, and then wait for lunch.
I have no idea where we're going.

So . . .
B:  mini yogurt drink
SW:  two syns

L:  eating out and I will enjoy myself.

D:  pizza loaded fries, side salad, yogurt
This is not nearly as naughty as it sounds as it's from the PoN book 2, p74.  Basically, it's SW cooked chips with tomato and cheese on the top and it should be tasty!  It's also frugal which is just as well because goodness knows how much lunch will cost!
SW:  one heA and two syns for 1 tsp oil (because I think this makes nicer chips than just using spray oil)

S:  if I have any, it will be fruit

Body Magic:  there's not much opportunity for a walk today but I still have the balance ball stuff and Lindsey's 15 (and I've done a separate post about this).

No summary today as I'm off plan apart from the food window.

What are your plans for today?

Lindsey's 15

I was originally going to include this as part of my daily post but it made for such a huge long read, I decided to do it separately.  Two for the price of one today!

People have asked me about Lindsey's 15.  That's what I call it, it's not the actual name as her business is called Shimmy 'n' Groove.  Life's too short to type all that out each time!

Lindsey is my personal trainer and she has a small local business in this area.  She does group classes in all sorts of things (dance, aqua, aerobics, etc) as well as personal training, she's interested in general well being and she's a really lovely person.

She's recently branched out into small, online workouts on a closed group in Facebook.  They're not professionally produced; she records them on her mobile and then shares them on Facebook.  I asked her and she said I could publicise the details if anyone was interested.

You need to have access to Facebook.
The address of the group is https://www.facebook.com/groups/1014033412280540/ and it's called Shimmy Sessions 2020
There is a cost - it's £50 for the year which sounds a lot, I know, but it's only £1 a week and for that she posts daily workouts of various kinds, each lasting between twelve and fifteen minutes.  I find them very doable and accessible.  You don't need special equipment or clothes, although I have found a sports bra essential for the more bouncy ones!!!

Lindsey says it's 'open access' by which she means you don't have to go to any of her groups or be a personal training client.  Nor do you have to be local, of course, as it's online.

I'm finding it better to use the Facebook 'save' function and have them all saved in a folder (still on Facebook) so it's easy to go back and use any one I fancy.

If you're interested, why not take a look?

(just to say, I'm not being paid or in any other way recompensed for the above)

Tuesday, 14-01-20

Good morning.

Yesterday.

What a great way to break ones fast.  SW free too as I didn't use any extra oil

Lunch was less colourful but just as satisfying.
(PoN2, p 26)

As for dinner, I really can't recommend having sprouts with this.  I had my doubts and I was right!  Salad next time.
The salmon itself, with its marinade, was really lovely.
Next time, I will leave out the coriander from the salsa.  Sadly, I'm one of those people for whom leaf coriander tastes like soap.  I try it again from time to time but no luck.  So it will either be herb free or maybe mint would be nicer, once there's mint in the garden again.
It looks loads because I was using a smaller dessert plate, not my usual dinner plate.
(PoN2, p110)

Today's plans:
B:  beans on toast, fruit, mini yogurt drink
Nice and simple.
SW:  one heB and two syns

L:  quesadillas (from Pinch of Nom 2, p92) salad, fruit
It's a refried bean based recipe which I will have to adapt and I'll let you know.  So far I've not been disappointed with this book
SW:  one heA and one B

D:  cheesy chubby fishcakes (Two Chubby Cubs, p68), some veg (maybe peas); yogurt
Again, I'll let you know.  It looks good from both ingredients and photograph.
SW:  one heA, four syns (for breadcrumbs) and one syn for some brown sauce.  I could save syns by not breadcrumbing them and I might also use two syns for a tsp of oil to fry the fish cake in.

Sn:  fruit

Body Magic:  a walk, Lindsey's 15

It's SW group this morning.  I think I mentioned before that now Jennifer has opened a morning group that I can walk to and the time also suits very well so, while pottery classes are on, I will be going Tuesday mornings, not Wednesday evenings any more.  A bit of extra body magic never hurt anyone.

Summary:
a non meat day
one heA and two Bs
seven (or nine) syns
I treated myself to some cod from the fish stall at the weekend and might use that for the fishcakes which won't be cheap, but on the other hand, I might use tuna or basa instead - the rest is great value
the eating window will be between eleven (after group) and seven   8:16

What are your plans today?

Monday, 13-01-20

Good morning.
It was lovely to have some oat waffles after so long.  I think it must be a month or so since I last made them.

Dinner was half leftovers from yesterday and half crunchy salad and it was all delicious (and very sunny!)!

Everything seems to be working well right now, thank goodness.

Today's food plans:
B:  I really fancy a good old cooked breakfast this morning.  Bacon, egg, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and, as I have a couple of little roasties, a bit of broccoli and one sprout left over from last night, a bubble and squeak patty  Also the mini yogurt
SW:  two syns unless I indulge in a bit of oil, in which case it will be four

L:  cheesy leeks on toast, tomatoes on the side; fruit
This is from the new Pinch of Nom book, p26.  The recipe serves two so I will just halve the amounts.
SW:  one heA for cheese - a mix of hard Italian cheese and cheddar and one heB for two slices of toast.  I like the idea of mixing two cheeses

D:  tandoori salmon with mango salsa, steamed veg on the side; fruit or yogurt
Another from the Pinch of Nom book, this time p 110.  I will use frozen mango for the salsa and have bought a coriander plant which wasn't too costly.  It won't keep, these supermarket herbs never do, but it should last longer than a packet which was the same price and when it starts drooping I will chop it down and freeze the leaves and tender stems.
SW:  free

Ss:  fruit

BM:  walk, Lindsey's 15, balance ball exercises

Summary
not a totally non meat day because of breakfast but not bad, all the same
one heA and one B
two or maybe four syns
the salmon is more expensive but the rest is fairly economical
I hope to eat between ten and seven so 9:15

Although it looks as if there's a lot of cooking, the recipes are both pretty simple and I can prep a lot of it first thing when I'm feeling 'strong'.  Resolve tends to weaken as the day goes on - do you find that too?

What's your favourite SW friendly meal?