Tuesday, 31-08-21

 Good morning.  Last day of August.  Tomorrow, September, will either be the last three weeks of summer or the start of Autumn, depending on what calendar you follow.  I go with the astronomical date so Autumn starts from Sept 22nd this year.  Three weeks when we could maybe have a bit of sunshine.

Despite the plateau, I seem to have lost five pound this month, a bit slower than I had hoped but at least it has stopped the comfort eating gain and started reversing it.  I'm good with that although at this rate I will get back to target just in time to gain some again over Christmas.  lol

Talking of Christmas, have you started thinking about it yet.  I'm afraid I have, I love a good long lead up to Christmas and this year might be a bit different, I don't know yet.  With Dad no longer with us, some of the things we cooked/did may no longer be cooked/done.

Yesterday's meal photos:

Not the prettiest bowl of breakfast I have ever had but it was lovely and just what I fancied on a very dull and slightly damp morning.  One chocolate weetabix, 100ml milk, a nectarine and some yogurt with added butterscotch zero calorie 'syrup'.  Mmmmmmm.

Lunch was great.  I did just what I had said - I sprayed and then toasted a slice of wholemeal until it was golden and crunchy, spread some light soft cheese with cracked black pepper over it, then added the leaves, a bit of watercress and the ham before topping with one portion of my home made spicy onion chutney (which, by the way, mellowed as it cooled so it isn't too hot at all, it is just right for me).
You can see what I had on the side for salad stuff.

Then I had a very juicy pear for afters.

Dinner was fab.
I adapted the spaghetti carbonara recipe in the new SW magazine.

I used wholewheat tagliatelle, ham instead of bacon, 30g hard Italian cheese (more than the recipe asked for) plus one egg yolk (see below for what happened to the white) and one tbsp lighter crème fraiche to make the sauce (with some garlic granules and black pepper)and I softened onion, yellow pepper and mushroom to go with the ham.
Oh, and runner beans instead of salad.
I cooked the tagliatelle and drained it, leaving a tiny bit of pasta water in the pan.  I put the tagliatelle back in the pan (keeping it off the heat), added the sauce and the other bits and stirred while the sauce warmed up in the residual heat and thickened.  I had kept back a bit of cheese so that sprinkled over the top.  It was so good!

These two recipes went so well together, the yolk for the carbonara and the white for the dessert.

In a dish I put 55g strawberries, halved, and 45 g blueberries with a little sprinkle of sweetener.  I whisked the egg white until at the soft peak stage, then added two level tsps caster sugar and kept beating until it was thick and smooth.  I piled it on top of the fruit and it cooked in a 160C oven for around twenty to twenty five minutes until all lovely and golden.  The fruit had cooked and it was just gorgeous.
This is also in the new magazine and, apart from my own choice of fruit, it was exactly the same.

Because I had both syns and calories, I had a little 200ml bottle of Morrison's prosecco which went perfectly and later on I had an Options choccy drink.
And I was still well within syns and calories.  A delicious day for 1226 calories and eleven syns.

Today's plans:

B:   weetabix, fruit and yogurt
Exactly the same as yesterday, partly because it is so very delicious and partly because the weetabixes (?weetabices?) are pretty old and really should be used up soon.  I have strawberries to use up and a few raspberries and blueberries from the garden.
SW:  half a healthy extra B for the weetabix and half an A for the milk.  The rest is speed or free

L:   tomato and red pepper soup with shredded ham, cheesy toast; fruit
A while ago I made the soup and froze two portions of it.  I have some ham leftover from the Sunday roast so I will shred some and add it to the soup for more 'body'.
With the bread, first of all I was going to just dunk, then I thought about croutons but, because I have a healthy extra AQ to use, I'm going to spray toast the bread, spread over some of my onion chutney, top with grated cheese and melt under the grill.  That should be really nice, like an open toastie!
SW:  one healthy extra A and half a healthy extra B plus half a syn for the chutney

D:  stonebaked chargrilled vegetable and olive pizza, salad; banana and coconut ice cream
The pizza is one of those Sainsbury's ones that are surprisingly low in calories (if not in syns) and the dessert is a frozen banana (I froze it yesterday in expectation), zizzed up with some yogurt and some coconut skinny syrup.  I've not made this before but I gather the banana goes all smooth and creamy and makes for a great texture.  I will let you know!
SW: the pizza is twenty and a half syns which I don't get.  The whole thing is 402 calories so even if there were no free foods or healthy extra cheese, it shouldn't be more than twenty syns. 
I'm using what SW calls 'flexi-syns' for this which is , quoting the web site info, "setting yourself a higher Syns limit for that day only (having a good think first about what you’d like to use those Syns for) – and fully enjoying them without feeling like you have to compensate before or afterwards. "
So now you know!

Summary:
one and a half healthy extra As
one healthy extra B
twenty and a half syns using flexible syns