Sunday, 16-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet, particularly using the Mediterranean way of eating.

What I have eaten today.

A very satisfying breakfast of rye pikelets, a poached egg (done in my mini pan but in boiling water rather than spray oil),  leaves and tomatoes.

Half a healthy extra B for the rye flour in the pikelets (not SW canon).

I was going to use some of the roasted lamb from the freezer but I bought some nice sliced chicken from the deli on Friday which needing using up so the lamb can be for another time.
With it I had some cranberry sauce, hm with sweetener so I'm not counting it (I don't count cooked fruit - my  choice), some roasted parsnip and lots of speed veg.  I love my veg . . .

Syn free.

A lovely, cheesy jacket potato for tea and I cooked some edamame beans with my lunch veg to add to the salad and some puy lentils to make it more heart healthy/Mediterranean!  We won't mention the salad cream, OK?  😉

The jacket potato had half a for salad cream and two healthy extra As of grated cheese, the coleslaw had half a syns worth of salad cream and I added three syns worth of salad dressing.   

I topped up my B with some mixed seeds instead of fruit for afters.
(I have some of the bean and lentil mixture and some of the coleslaw left for tomorrow.
And I decided I could afford four syns for some alcohol free Beck's Blue

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

eight syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  sourdough rye crumpet, avocado, mushrooms on the side

L:   edemame, lentil and feta salad bowl; fruit

D:  hm lasagne, salad; fruit

Exercise:  circuits

Saturday, 15-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet, particularly using the Mediterranean way of eating.

I had a whole lot of fun this morning using up my sourdough starter discard and ended up with pancakes (for breakfast), pasta (for dinner), more pasta (tagliatelle and lasagne sheets, dried for future use) and pikelets (for future breakfasts or lunches).

It was all very, very satisfying - and time consuming, but time is something I do have more of nowadays, being happily retired.

What I have eaten today.

Breakfast was pancakes, yummy, delicious, sourdough starter pancakes - they had a bit of that sourdough tang to them but just a hint, not strong at all.  It's a bit hard to work out values but I tried and the best I can do is half a healthy extra B for the rye flour started discard.  It is possibly less but I am calling it a B.  The yogurt was a flavoured one, the skyr baked apple one and it was nice but I think it is nicer to stew your own apple and spices and add it to Greek yogurt.  It was half a syn.

(the mix made five pancakes but I had to taste test one, didn't I?  Just in case it was awful.  😇)

I made a little crustless quiche with onion, mushroom and a bit of sundried tomato and I added some puy lentils and mixed seeds to the salad.

One syn for olives, four syns for evoo in the dressing, the seeds were part of my healthy B, I had half an As worth of grated parmesan in the quiche and one syn for the sundried tomatoes.  

Later on, I had an orange.

Random photo of the pasta drying . . . because why not!  :-)

Dinner was lovely.  The pasta worked well and I could cheerfully have eaten more.  I added onion, pepper, mushroom, chicken and peas to the pasta and the sauce was simply egg and cheese.  Really yummy so that's another thing to make to use up sourdough.

Half a healthy extra A for the cheese in the sauce and the rest was free.
I also had a Beck's Blue alcohol free lager for two syns and some grapes for dessert.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

eight and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  pikelets with egg, tomatoes and mushrooms

L:  roast lamb dinner using a portion of lamb from the last time I had it; fruit

No roasties because I plan to have potato for tea

D:  jacket potato with salad cream and cheese (awful, I know, but I love it so much), salad with mixed seeds; fruit

Exercise:  an online class.

Friday, 14-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet, particularly using the Mediterranean way of eating.

As expected, I had a gain this morning but, phew, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought.  One and a half pounds on, better than it could have been, for sure.

So on we go!

What I have eaten today.

A nice, simple breakfast of yogurt, strawberries, blueberries and a few grapes.

Syn free

The soup I didn't have yesterday for lunch with a cheesy chicken and chutney toastie.

One healthy extra B, one healthy extra A, one and a half syns for the toastie and two syns for evoo used in making the soup.

Later on, I had an apple.  

Dinner was so nice, like a fakeaway.  The chips and the salad were free, the burger was one and a half syns (for a bit of cheese) plus one syn for chutney and half for some mayo super-light.

So good.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

two healthy extra B

(these are the wrong way round but not to worry!)

six and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  sourdough discard pancakes with fruit and yogurt

L:  crustless quiche with salad; fruit

D:  chicken and mushroom carbonara, broccoli; fruit

Exercise:  probably nothing!  

Thursday, 13-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet, particularly using the Mediterranean way of eating.

What I have eaten today.

The sourdough pikelet was absolutely delicious and one I will definitely make again with my discard - and if I don't want it that day, it can freeze.

One healthy extra B (a bit less, in fact, but I can make it up with seeds later) and one syn for some spray evoo.

I set to making a nice big salad bowl, totally forgetting I had planned (and defrosted) soup.  That's now in the fridge for tomorrow.

The salad bowl was peppers, carrot, watercress, capers, tomatoes, cucumber, some bulgur wheat, mixed seeds and two sardines from a can and with some dressing drizzled over.

The seeds were the rest of my B and the dressing was three syns for the evoo content.

I used my usual recipe (see below) to make a burger for tomorrow night and meatballs for today, added to some of the tomato and veg sauce I made yesterday.  I was going to cook some extra veg but there was loads in the sauce so I didn't bother apart from adding some frozen peas to the sauce, I just topped it all with some cheese.

One and a bit As for cheese on top and in the meat mix and that, I think, was that!

Summary:

one and a bit healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

four syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B  fruit, yogurt and mixed seeds

L:  toastie and soup; fruit

D:  hm burger and chips, salad; fruit

Exercise:  rest day

The extra bit:

How I make burgers/meat balls

Ingredients to make one burger and six smallish meatballs.

100g under 5% mince (beef or pork)

one Aldi onion and rosemary sausage (or a Linda McCartney one)

one smallish onion, finely chopped and softened in spray oil, 90 seconds in the microwave

15g finely grated cheese - parmesan or cheddar

some garlic granules and herbs or  other seasonings to own preference

pepper (no salt as the cheese and sausage both have salt)

Place everything in a bowl and squidge it through fingers (or use a fork) until everything is well combined.
Make half into a burger and the other half into six little meatballs.  Store in fridge until needed.  Cook as you would any burger or meatballs.

Wednesday 12-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet, particularly using the Mediterranean way of eating.

What I have eaten today.

This morning's crumpet made with my starter discard was lovely.  Not very conventional as it was 100% rye flour and made with an immature starter but, as the only additions were a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar and water, I feel totally justified in calling it a healthy extra B.  I was going to add some avocado as well as the egg, mushrooms and tomatoes, but decided not to this time - I'm glad I didn't as it was quite a plateful by itself.

So one healthy extra B

I'm getting a bit short on salad veg so am adding other bits and bobs - carrot and cabbage are fairly usual, broccoli maybe not so much but very tasty all the same.

I used feta for an A, synned olives and some mixed pulses, mixed in with some crunchy cucumber and red pepper plus orange segments, mixed seeds and the juice that came out as I was segmenting the orange and finished it off with some evoo that mixed well with the orange juices.  This was all piled onto a bed of grated carrot, leaves and shredded cabbage and made for a tasty and filling lunch.

One healthy extra A for feta (Greek style, not the genuine article), one and a half syns for olives, one syn for some mixed seeds and four syns for evoo.

I had the pulses to use up so I made an arrabbiata for dinner.  I often have it - it's delicious.  I softened onion, grated carrot, roasted red pepper from a jar and some button chestnut mushrooms in spray oil.  I added garlic granules and chilli flakes, a can of Mutti chopped tomatoes (more expensive but so much better than Morrison's own), the mixed beans and some tomato puree with salt and pepper to season and let it just simmer away for about ten minutes.

Mixed with some cooked penne and topped with cheese it was lovely.

The tomato and bean sauce was free as was the penne with one healthy extra A for the cheese - and I have three more portions for other meals, to which I could add other things - olives, chicken, etc..  

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

six and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  discard pikelets (like crumpets only flatter and more like pancakes), fried egg, mushrooms and tomatoes.  Very like today in fact and I am so glad that I can start using the sourdough discard instead of chucking it.  There's so many recipes out there.

L:  soup from the freezer, simple salad (maybe with sardines?); fruit

D:  meatballs in the sauce made today, with vegetables on the side; fruit

Exercise:   housework - plenty of housework!!

Tuesday, 11-03-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet, particularly using the Mediterranean way of eating.

Today was proper back on track after four days off.  It was all lovely and I didn;t miss the holiday grub at all.

What I have eaten today.

 Yogurt at the bottom with a lovely mix of pineapple, peach, nectarine, mango, raspberries and grapes.  All but the grapes were from the freezer.

I spooned some mixed seeds over the top.  Lovely.

The seeds were part of a healthy extra B

As I had baked beans left over from yesterday's lunch, I cooked a thin omelette, spread over the beans (heated up) and rolled the omelette up - well, that was the theory but the omelette stuck so it ended up a bit of a mess.  It still tasted great though!  Sides were my favourite mushrooms and tomatoes - plenty of protein, fibre and speed.

Later on, I had an apple and an orange.

Syn free.

I made another batch of that white bean sauce, defrosted four portions of cooked savoury mince and the puy lentils left from last week, and used this plus some lasagne sheets (five) to make a dish of lasagne that gave me four portions plus enough cheese sauce for some macaroni cheese or similar.  I made it syn free by using spray oil rather than evoo and it was one healthy extra A per portion including the left over sauce, now in the freezer as are the three portions of lasagne.

I had it with salad, some dressing (must get my evoo in) and a good load of mixed seeds to make up my healthy extra B.

The rest of my healthy extra B, one healthy extra A and four syns for the oil in the dressing.

Regarding the sauce, I used cannellini beans this time but I think I actually like the butterbean version more.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

four syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  avocado bagel, maybe with a poached egg and some leaves/salad

 . . . although, as my sourdough starter is finally beginning to bubble and double, I might have a go and wholewheat crumpets using the discard - which I will call a healthy extra B, whether they are or not because life's too short . . .

L:  feta, olive and mixed bean salad; fruit

D:  bean penne arrabbiata, salad; fruit

(to use up the rest of the beans)

I had planned this on Monday night and was looking forward to it.  

Exercise:  circuits in the morning (because it didn't happen on Monday)and personal training in the afternoon.

Monday, 10-03-25 - back again! (posted Tuesday morning, written Monday!)

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  At present, I am working to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol through diet, particularly using the Mediterranean way of eating.

Here I am, back home again after a really lovely weekend at Five Lakes, a Potters spa hotel holiday place near Maldon in Essex.

Was I sensible?  Did I stay on track.  Well, 'no' to the latter and 'sometimes' to the former.  The food was lovely, nothing too processed and if you wanted snacks between, you had to buy them and, anyway, there was so much to do, we didn't actually feel all that hungry.  

But, no, I wasn't on plan and I need to get straight back on it again.

What I ate today:

Breakfast was still at Five Lakes and I have no idea of syns.

Lunch had to be very simple as I was only just home with little time so good old beans on toast it was.

One healthy extra B and one A for grated cheese

Evening didn't happen according to plan so we will not talk about it.  Suffice to say, I am right back on it full time and a half!

Approximate summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

not a clue . . .

Tomorrow's plans:

B:  fruit, yogurt and seeds - back to normal

L:  baked bean omelette, mushrooms and tomatoes on the side

There's baked beans to use up!

D:  hm lasagne, salad and coleslaw

I plan to make another batch of that cheesy white bean sauce, thaw out some of my basic savoury mince and make a lasagne that will do me a couple of days.  I can freeze half of it for another time.

Exercise:  Groove and the walk there and back