Thursday 30 September 2021

This week's Slimming World food haul from Sainsbury's

 This week I went to Sainsbury's, partly because I wanted to look round and partly because there might have been petrol there, but there wasn't, it was closed.  Never mind.  It was more expensive than usual, partly because it's not cheap at Sainsbury's anyway and partly because I got extras like some nail varnish and some of the new magazines.  Even so, it's not somewhere I will shop every week.

However - see the halo?  I came out with NO NEW CLOTHES.

So - what did I get?

Canned goods:
I like to buy baked beans and chopped tomatoes in semi-bulk and, as I only had a few left, they went on the list.  The beans were fine, no problems, but the only chopped tomatoes were the terribly expensive ranged for which I am not paying so much.  However, they had these plum tomatoes really, really cheap (24p each) and all you need to do is open the tin, go in with a pair of long bladed scissors and snip, snip, snip to reduce the tomatoes to chopped status!  I was quite happy 
with that.


Spices and flavourings:
I have noticed that many of my spices have become quite bland.  They don't last for ever, even kept in a sealed container in the dark.  So I am gradually replacing them week by week.

The Henderson's  shouldn't really be in the photo as they are for Beth.  She's not been able to find any anywhere so when I saw it I grabbed!
Dairy:
To my shame, I discovered this week that my stock of long life milk is out of date, so I have replaced it.  The rest is the usual - semi-skimmed, yogurts, a few kvargs, some Laughing Cow light triangles and some philly light.  I don't get the lightest as it doesn't melt as well and this week I will want melting stuff.

Meat and poultry:
This is where Aldi would have been loads better as their free range 'happy' chicken is much better value but never mind.  As well as the chicken, I got the Count on Us gammon which is always really nice and doesn't have to be used until late October so it may or may not appear this week.
The cold meat is for lunches but also because, as the weather becomes damper and cooler, I start to fancy more 'meat-and-two-veg' types of meal and both the beef and the chicken underneath can be warmed up and  used in a roast dinner.

Bread:
Just the one item this week.  Two of these are for me and Alex tonight for our bacon and chicken burgers and the others are now individually wrapped and in the freezer.
Last but by no means least . . . fruit and veg.
I'm still getting salad stuff, just not so much.  I got a bag of watercress (which I just love) and some mixed crunchy salad
I have veg in fridge and freezer, not to mention what the allotment is still providing, but I needed sprouts and broccoli because that's what I love, plus more Maris Pipers (I always get Maris Piper - it chips, roasts and mashes so beautifully).
I stuck to less exotic fruit this week - apples, easy peelers and a nice big punnet of plums.  Lovely!



Thinking about actual meals, I'm going to have some cold meat and salad meals but also those mock-roast dinners I mentioned and I want to focus on fish more this coming week as I seem to have an awful lot in the freezer.
The beans, the spices and the chicken are for longer term while the yogurts will do as desserts and, maybe, snacks when I do get peckish.
I think the gammon will probably not get used this week as I have cold chicken and beef.

So off I go to list some fishy meals.
Potato topped fish pie.
Salmon curry in a hurry
Breaded cod with chips and peas
Fish cakes
er . . . .  

All ideas welcome.  I have cod, haddock and salmon, I think, plus one breaded (or battered) steak.


Thursday, 30, 09-21

 Good morning, 

Yesterday's meals:

Here's breakfast.  It doesn't look enough to be satisfying but, believe me, it was.  I tend to eat beans on toast like pate - not all mushed, but a few at a time on the toast and eat just that bit.  I know from experience that they slower I eat, the more filling it seems and I so very much enjoyed this, simple as it was.

I've just realised - this was supposed to be cheesy beans.  Ooops.



I changed lunch a bit.  When I went to the freezer to get the daily supplies, I remembered that I have some bean and veg soup so, instead of baked beans or salad, I chopped the chicken and added it to the soup to make a thick sort of casserole and it was very good with a faint spice to it

During the afternoon I binged on fruit - three easy peelers and an orange.  Delicious!


I don't have a photo of dinner because Beth was round but it was as planned, no dessert and very nice indeed.

Today's plans:

B:  something to use up the baked beans, maybe with some bacon and egg
SW:  probably all free

L:  sushi and salad
SW:  two syns for the sushi and maybe one syn for some mayo.

D:  chicken burger, salad; yogurt
It's been the week for family meals.  First Dave and Anna on Monday, then Beth last night and tonight grandson Alex.
I'll do a chicken burger for each of us, using chicken fillet dusted in  spice in wholemeal roll for me, with some bacon and with some salad on the side.  I'll do chips for Alex but I'm really all chipped out this week so none for me.
SW:  one healthy extra B for the wholemeal roll, perhaps  and half a syn for yogurt.  Up to three syns for sauces of various kinds.

E:  personal training today, changed from yesterday

Summary:
one healthy extra A
one healthy extra B
six and a half syns


Wednesday 29 September 2021

Wednesday, 29-09-21

 Good morning!
It seems to be the week for entertaining what with the wedding on Saturday and Dave and Anna round on Monday.  This evening, I have Beth round for dinner and a DVD.  She's not staying overnight which is good as it means no alcohol (I won't if she isn't) and I needed an excuse to make those courgette fritters again as they were so delicious and the courgette plants down the allotment are going great guns now.

It just goes to show that you can be generally true to Slimming World and entertain, although I suppose I should wait and see what those scales say on Friday really.  I'm really hoping for a maintain although I have generally followed my own rules and only had alcohol on one evening (Monday), albeit rather too much and while Saturday was off plan, the other two meals are definitely on plan.  The calories look OK too.

Fingers crossed.

Yesterday's meals:

For breakfast, l I had leftover corned beef and also a few leftover chips so I chopped up the chips and gently stray fried the two together.  Really tasty.
This newly discovered recipe site (Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy) is a real discovery.    This tandoory chicken was absolutely delicious.  It was chicken, spices and lemon juice mixed with yogurt and all marinated together before simply baking in a hot oven.  So flavoursome and dead easy.
I made a right mess of the other recipe from the same site.  I cooked the macaroni, added cheese triangles and some additional grated cheddar, spread it over the bacon and mushrooms and popped in the oven - and then realised I'd forgotten the light crème fraiche.
So I got it out, added the crème fraiche, mixed it it making a right mess of it, and then put it back in to heat up properly.
It tasted amazing, very cheesy and flavoursome but it looks such a mess.  Definitely an excuse to make this again very soon and do it properly next time!

I had a kvarg to finish the day off.


Today's plans:

B:  cheesy beans on toast.  
Yum!
SW:  one healthy extra A for cheese and half a B for one slice of toast

L:  cold chicken, salad; fruit
I have the last of the chicken tikka slices to use up.  I might possibly have the rest for the baked beans instead of salad although the thought doesn't really appeal.  However, I don't want any left over really.
SW:  about one syn for the chicken and one for some mayo.

D:  courgette fritters, chips, bit of salad or some veg; yogurt or fruit
Too many chips this week but Beth loves them and they are done the SW happy way so it should be OK.  I will try cooking the fritters on the teppanyaki so I can do them all at the same time.
SW:  one healthy extra A for cheese in the fritters and half a syn for the yogurt.

E:  just home exercises today.

Summary:
two healthy extra As
half a healthy extra B
two and a half syns

Tuesday 28 September 2021

Tuesday, 28-09-21

 Good morning.

Yesterday's meals:

A nice selection of fruit with a yogurt for breakfast.
Chicken tikka salad for lunch - I used the zesty lemon salad dressing spray and it was lovely.
I didn't have any fruit afterwards.
This is the closest I got to taking a photo of dinner.  The chicken is cooked, the sauce is zizzed.  I added grated cheddar and gave it another half an hour in the oven while the chips cooked.  With a very simple salad, it went down a treat and, to my delight, I have been able to pop two pieces of chicken and sauce (not much cheese though!) in the freezer for easy lunches or dinners another time.
I didn't make a fruit salad, we just had fresh fruit - apples, easy peelers and plums.  

If it hadn't been for the wine, it would have been a most healthy meal.  As it was - this morning, I have a headache!  :-)
Today's plans:

B:  corned beef, egg, tomatoes and mushrooms.
Sounds odd, I know, but the corned beef needs using up and I am certainly not wasting it!  I think I will rather like this breakfast.
SW:  the corned beef is one and a half syns for the 100g I have.

L:  tandoori chicken, salad; fruit
I found this on a newly discovered site, Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy; fruit
https://www.easypeasy-lemonsqueezy.co.uk/tandoori-chicken-slimming-style/
It looked do-able and simple so let's give it a go.  I'll have it on shredded lettuce with some other salad veg on the side and a squeeze of lemon juice over.   Thinking of it reminds me of my days as a student in London eating out at cheap Indians in the early days of said eating places - one of which was later successfully prosecuted for serving up horse meat as chicken.  Ooops!
SW:  it all looks speed and free to me

D:  macaroni cheese, SW style, veg; yogurt
Another from the same site:  https://www.easypeasy-lemonsqueezy.co.uk/mac-n-cheese-slimming-style/
To it, I will add half an A of grated cheese, probably hard Italian, for extra cheesiness.
I'll cut the pasta to 50g as that is always plenty for me.
The veg is likely to be green beans as they are multiplying rapidly at the moment.
SW:  one tbsp crème fraiche will be one and a half syns, the laughing cow triangles will he half a healthy extra A choice and the extra cheese will make it up to one healthy extra A.  Dessert will be half a syn.

E:  some circuit exercises

Summary:
one, maybe a bit more, healthy extra A
no B choice today
three and a half syns


Monday 27 September 2021

Monday, 27-09-21

 Good morning!

Today is a bit of a challenge.  Dave and Anna are coming round to dinner and will arrive bearing gifts - i.e. wine.  I've had my blow out meal so, in order to accommodate the wine and be within calories, if not syns, I need to plan the rest of the day very carefully indeed and dinner will be a SW friendly meal.
I've looked up calories and a bottle of dry white wine is around 560 to 600 calories for the lot so I should be OK as far as staying in my maintenance calories of 1800 but I will have to be careful as well as providing us all with a jolly good meal.

Yesterday's meals:

I just don't seem to be able to do neat fried eggs - all I can say is this breakfast tasted loads better than it looks!

It was a very small jacket potato but I didn't want a bigger one, not with everything else.

I had an orange and an apple for afters.





Rather a dark looking dinner but the corned beef patties were lovely and the green beans were still on the plant less than an hour earlier.

I finished off with the frozen fruit foam.


Today's plans:

B:  fruit and yogurt
SW:  half a syn for a flavoured yogurt

L:  cold meat and salad; apple
I have some lean corned beef and some chicken tikka slices so I will see which I fancy when it gets to it.
SW:  the chicken would be one syn and the corned beef two and a half .  Calories will settle the argument!

D:  hunter's chicken, Cajun fries, salad; fresh fruit salad and yogurt.
OK, nothing very innovative here but it is all tasty and works well with SW expectations.
SW:  one healthy extra A for cheese, maybe one syn for mayo and, hopefully the rest is speed/free.  I'll track the calories very carefully.
Oh - and The Wine!

E:  circuit training

Summary:
one healthy extra A
no B choice today
around three syns plus wine!


Sunday 26 September 2021

Sunday, 26-09-21

 Good morning.
Yesterday was a real jumble.  I would like to say I was 'good' at the wedding but, as often, there wasn't much to be 'good' with.  However, being the driver, I stayed off alcohol apart from a very diluted Pimms at the start so probably wasn't much over total calories.  We won't mention any syns, OK?

Yesterday's meals:
No photos, so sorry - it just wasn't that sort of day - so verbal descriptions only.

I skipped breakfast.  I wasn't hungry and it was a very busy morning one way and another.

Lunch was a proper dinner.  I made a steak pot pie by opening two cans of M&S chunky steak (I was feeding my grandson and he has a big appetite), straining the meat off from the gravy and putting it in the bottom of an ovenproof dist.  I boiled some potatoes and mashed then with my ricer which always makes the best, adding an egg yolk and two light Laughing Cow cheese triangles.  I spread the mash over the steak and baked for half an hour and it was delicious.  With it, we had carrots and broccoli.  I had a quarter and Alex finished off the rest!

The wedding buffet was scrummy, nice and fresh and beige!  To be fair, here was a bit platter of crunchy salad veg to have with a dip so I had plenty of those without the dip, but let's just say I enjoyed it!  One small Pimms and then diet coke.

Today's plans:  moving on!

B:   eggs on toast with mushrooms and tomatoes
One slice of toast is enough for this, cut in half and with two eggs.  Filling, as I know from experience.
SW:  half a healthy extra B

L:   chicken tikka breast slices, small jacket potato, salad; fruit
I have some cooked chicken to start using up and I really fancy a bit of jacket potato today, with some super light mayo and a couple of light cheese triangles.  Sounds awful, tastes wonderful (I think) and I am really looking forward to it.
SW:  the whole pack of chicken tikka slices is two and a half syns so I'm going to have 100g and call it one syn.  The mayo will be two syns and the cheese triangles half a healthy extra A

D:   either corned beef patty with assorted veg or chicken pot pie and veg; frozen fruit foam
I have leftover gravy, mashed potato and broccoli to use up and I'm torn.
I could make another pot pie in the same way as yesterday, using a can of Aldi chicken in a white sauce which is one syn for the whole can or I could open a can of lean corned beef (two and a half syns for 100g), mix some of it with the potato and some onion and seasonings and make one or two patties which I would fry with spray oil until nice and golden on the outside.  To either, I will add some grated cheese as I have healthy As to use.
I don't have to decide until later so I might work out the calories for the day and see how they look.  Certainly, I have the syns for either and both 'excite' me - my way of deciding what to go for as, if it doesn't jingle the excitement bell, it's not likely to satisfy me.
Then I have a left over egg white so I can make the frozen fruit foam, probably using black cherries.
SW:  half a healthy extra A for some cheese (won't need more) and either one or two and a half syns for the main course.  Dessert will be free.

E:  circuit exercises

Summary:
one healthy extra A
half a healthy extra B
either four syns or five and a half syns, depending on which dinner I go with

What would you choose?


Saturday 25 September 2021

Saturday, 25-09-21

 Good morning.
At weigh in yesterday, I was very pleased to have lost a pound and a half.  Three cheers.  It means that starting from when I started losing weight after my gallbladder crash, I am back to my six stone loss again.  There's still a little way to go before getting back to my target range but I am getting there.

Yesterday's meals:

My usual Friday treat breakfast, raspberry pancakes with raspberry yogurt, raspberries from the allotment and agave chocolate and raspberry sauce (for one syn and a healthy extra B).

Oh, it was so good!


Lunch, sushi and salad, also went down a treat.  I had the chicken and duck sushi this time and it was fine after freezing and thawing.
Then I had an allotment pear which was just right, very sweet and juicy.
Beth stayed for dinner which was dirty Cajun fries and we both enjoyed it very much indeed.  So very simple.
I started off the chips in the actifry with oil, some Henderson's sauce and some Cajun spice.
What they were doing I spray fried onion, mushroom and red and yellow pepper, all roughly chopped and with some garlic and some more Cajun spice.
When the chips were done, I shared the chips into two oven proof dishes, spooned over the vegetable mixture plus, for me, one bacon medallion, cut into bits.  They I topped both dishes with a mix of grated cheddar and grated mozzarella and popped them in an over at 180C for about fifteen minutes until the cheese had melted.  And that was it.  I had no room left for any dessert.
Today's plans:  The restricted eating flies out of the window today

B:  a couple of pieces of fruit
I will have this earlier than usual
SW: speed

L:  potato topped steak pie, assorted veg; fruit
I'm using a can of the M&S steak which is lovely and lean and has gravy that I can drain off.  I will top the pie with some mash, enriched with an egg yolk for flavour.  I'd add some grated cheese for a healthy extra but I suspect there will be cheese in the evening.
Alex is sharing this with me so I'd better make plenty!
SW:  it should all be speed and free, even the canned steak is free on SW


D:  wedding buffet so absolutely no idea but at least I have control.  I'm a designated driver so can't indulge in alcohol which will help with making healthy choices.  Yes, I'll enjoy the food, don't get me wrong, but the older I get, the more I find what I REALLY enjoy the most is the fresh, unprocessed foods.

E:  nothing much today although I will be walking about a fair bit.



Friday 24 September 2021

Friday, 24-09-21

 Good morning.  Weigh in this morning and I don't hold out much hope for anything but a maintain really but that's OK, a maintain is fine and I will be very happy with that.
I've been exercising a lot this week and, as they say, muscle is heavier than fat.  In other words, you can lose fat, tone up considerably, and still not lose weight because of the muscle development. 
I've tried very hard to keep my calories at around 1200 to 1,300, giving me a calories deficit of around 500 each day apart from last Friday.  I'm not happy to go much lower than that, generally speaking, although the occasional much lower day wouldn't do any harm.

No easier dinner today as I'm off to a wedding tomorrow and, although I am the designated driver and thus off alcohol, there are bound to be a few goodies I won't say no to.  So tomorrow evening will be my easier meal.  
(Easy means not so focused on syns/calories and if they go over, so be it.  It doesn't necessarily mean simple)

Yesterday's meals:

This was so very good and all for one healthy extra B or 336 calories.  Two bacon medallions, one egg, one muffin, 20g crucials bbq sauce and the tomatoes and  mushrooms.   
It kept me full until lunch which was quite a lot later than planned.

The courgette fritters with the added grated cheddar cheese were absolutely gorgeous - I can totally recommend this recipe.  I didn't use the peas that the recipe asked for in the end and I didn't miss them.  
Also, I didn't use the yogurt and chutney dip, I had some apple and sultana chutney.  Delicious.
And I was stuffed!!

Later on, I had a couple of pears from the allotment.  They were nice but still rather too hard.

I changed the veg from roasted tomatoes to dwarf French beans because - allotment produce, the first of this season.  Very nice too.  The chutney was some of my green tomato chutney which I am calling one syn as that seems to work with a lot of the commercial chutneys.  It's very nice and now I have three home made chutneys to choose from, lucky me!

I had yogurt to finish off a very satisfying day's eating.
Today's plans:

B:  pancakes, fruit and yogurt
As usual, my favourite post-weigh-in treat breakfast.  I love this so, so much.  
I came back from the allotment with a lovely picking of fresh raspberries so I will use some of them for the fruit
SW:  one healthy extra B for the oats/flour, I will use natural yogurt with some raspberry skinny syrup and up to one and a half syns for a tbsp chocolate sauce

L:  sushi and salad; fruit
One of my packs of Aldi, sushi from the freezer plus a nice, big salad.  Lovely
SW:  the sushi, depending on what I grab from the freezer, will be between one and a half and two and a half syns and any dressing I have will be one-ish syns

D:  dirty Cajun fries, maybe a side salad; yogurt
This is definitely a treat, if not an 'easier' meal.  Here's the recipe:
although I will undoubtedly shove in more veg, just because I can and yum!
SW:  it all looks pretty much speed and free apart from the cheese which will be all my healthy As, I suspect, a mix of cheddar for flavour and mozzarella for meltiness.  Dessert is half a syn

E:  allotment work, weather permitting, plus some Lindsey exercises

Summary:
two healthy extra As
one healthy extra B
four and a half syns


Thursday 23 September 2021

A small Slimming World food haul

 Good morning.  I'm just back from my weekly shop (M&S and Aldi) and this is what I bought for my SW friendly meals this week.

Fruit and veg.
All standard stuff really.  The extra large oranges are lovely at the moment and I treated myself to some more figs.
Also, sadly, for the first time in months, I had to buy a cucumber as I finished off the very last one yesterday.
I still have quite a fair amount left over from last week.
The figs and the parsnips are SW free and the rest is speed.

Dairy:
The usual yogurts, 0% plain (SW free) and flavoured (SW half a syn) too.  I don't need milk every week but this week I do.  I can have 250mls of semi skimmed for a healthy extra A.
I treated myself to a bit of lighter creme fraiche to jazz up things - I feel soups coming on and a bit in a soup is lovely.  A level tbsp is one and a half syns.
The mozzarella is to mix with cheddar for melting.  The cheddar gives the flavour and the mozzarella gives the meltiness.  Cheddar is 30g for an A choice and the mozzarella is 40g
Extras:
I was almost out of baking powder and the sauce is just a treat.  I have the chocolate and raspberry and the chocolate and orange so this competes the trio, all half a syn for a level tsp which I think it pretty good as the flavour is very intense and you really don't need much for a real hit.


Meat products:
The chicken tikka breast slices are two and a half syns for the whole pack and will work well with a salad, in a wrap or even as a nibbly snack.
The bacon is for breakfasts/evening meals and the steak is for dinner tonight.
Not much this week and thgere's plenty in the freezer and I also ought to start using up some of the canned stuff now the colder weather is approaching.


And finally, later on in the morning, these arrived.  
You can get them in Costco which is no good for me and I think they are more widely available further north but I get them at a greatly inflated price on Amazon.
I think it is better than FryLight, each can lasts a lot longer and it is much kinder on pots and pans than FryLight is.  I was down to my last one so ordered a couple more.  One of the major helps on my slimming journey, without a doubt.


And that's it for this week, pretty much.


Thursday, 23-09-21

 Good morning!

Yesterday's meals:

It might not look very swish, but this breakfast totally filled me up.
The falafels worked really well, so easy to make and very tasty.   The nice thing is, you can really add whatever spice/herbs you wan to.  I'm wondering what a bit of crumbled feta in the mix would be like.
 I had four out of the seven made in the pitta and nibbled the other three as a snack later on in the afternoon.
I also had an apple.
Well, I can heartily recommend the steak casserole, it was delicious and the dumpling was real rib sticking comfort food.  The plate looks loaded, I know, because of all the veg I had; the casserole itself was, as it said, a mini meal.  Small but enough for me.
The whole meal was around 376 calories - perfect for a lunch on a cold, miserable day!
I will get that again.
I totally forgot to have the yogurt!


Today's plans:

B:  bacon and egg muffin with tomatoes and mushrooms on the side
I haven't had this for ages so it's about time, isn't it?
SW:  one healthy extra B for the muffin plus one syn for some bbq sauce

L:  courgette fritters with mango chutney yogurt and a side salad
This does carry some syns and I am going to add some grated cheese to the mix because it's nice.
SW:  three syns for plain flour, one and a half syns for mango chutney and one healthy extra A for grated cheddar.  If I have mayo, that will be one syn max

D:  steak, butternut squash chips, roasted tomatoes; yogurt
I have the last bit of a butternut squash to use up and I might cut it into chips or cubes, I'll see how I feel when I come to prep it.  I have loads of tomatoes to use up and will probably roast them with some onion and garlic.  The steak is because I feel like a treat meal but might morph into chicken instead.  I'll decide later on.
SW:  up to two syns, depending on what chutney I have with the steak plus half a syn for dessert

E:  circuit exercises, maybe some walking

Summary:
one healthy extra A
one healthy extra B
nine syns


Wednesday 22 September 2021

Wednesday, 22-09-21

 Good morning!

Yesterday's meals:

Fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast.


A very yummy and satisfying toastie for lunch.  I'm not sure if I prefer the apple and sultana chutney or the onion chutney in a toastie; they're both delicious.  I haven't tried the green tomato chutney yet.

Later on the afternoon I had an orange and a plum, both speed.
Not the most colourful of dinners, but this chicken, mango and chickpea curry was really very nice and it made enough to split into two portions so I have more for another day.

Dessert was a yogurt and two plums.


Today's plans:

B:  weetabix, fruit and yogurt
I'm swapping the healthy extras round today to have one A and two Bs.
SW:  one B for the weetabix, up to one A for milk and the rest is free/speed

L:  falafel salad wrap, fruit
It didn't take me long to find a falafel recipe on faithful old BBC Food.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spicy-falafels
As always, I have cut the oil and used spray oil and made the rest straight.  I used half amounts because that's what I had left of chickpeas, put it all in Nutracheck and it came out at 29 calories per falafel, which seems pretty good to me.. I used a level tbsp for shaping so they are not huge but not tiny either.
They are just finishing baking in the oven and smell really good.
SW: one healthy extra B for a wrap and two syn for some mayo (some in the wrap and some on the salad).

D:  M&S mini meal steak casserole with dumpling, broccoli, runner beans, sprouts; yogurt
It's time to try out one of those mini meals I bought last Thursday.  It's classic British food so I will teal it up with some nice green veg.  No potatoes as it includes a little dumpling.
SW:  seven and a half syns for the ready meal and half a syn for the dessert

E:  personal training with Lindsey today

Summary:
one healthy extra A
two healthy extra B
ten syns


Tuesday 21 September 2021

Tuesday, 21-09-21

 Good morning.

Yesterday's meals:

I just totally forgot to take a photo of breakfast but it was as planned.

The fig and feta salad for lunch was fab, really delicious.  I'm glad I spent the syns on a proper dressing.
No fruit for afters - I was too full.
The baslamic chicken pasta was nice enough but, to be honest, nothing special  I could make a better sauce, I think.  However, I liked the idea of blending all the veg sauce ingredients down, I may very well adopt that.  Most of my sauces are chunky

I decided to have runner beans instead of a salad, seeing as I soon won't have any beans to pick.  The season is pretty much over now so I need to make the most of what is left.

For dessert, I had natural yogurt with some chocolate sauce and it was delicious.


Today's plans:

B:  fruit salad and yogurt
I have pineapple and kiwi to use up and a lovely big tub of Yeo 0% fat Greek style yogurt, so this will make a delicious breakfast!
SW:  if I have some choc and raspberry sauce, that will be one and a half syns

L:  cheese and chutney toastie, side salad
Over the weekend, I made some apple and sultana chutney and it is time to test it out.  While I don't have definitive syns for the home made chutney, I have looked up apple chutney in general and it seems to be between one and two syns per tbsp so I will call it two to be on the safe side.
SW:  two healthy extra As for cheese, one B for bread and two syns (to be on the safe side) for the chutney

D:   chicken, mango and chickpea curry with konjac rice; yogurt
This caught my eye as I was leafing through my Free and Easy Collection from Good Housekeeping.  Most of these recipes are online but I don't grudge buying the book - I'd never have found them otherwise.  Here's the link: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a535504/chicken-mango-chickpea-curry-recipe/
Luckily, I have a little can of coconut milk and I've been wanting to make some falafels for ages so the leftover chickpeas won't be wasted.  The mango will be from the freezer and I will cut the leaf coriander completely, disgusting stuff!  Ditto the spinach because I don't have any but I do have salad leaves I could add instead - I suspect some of those are spinach anyway - or maybe a small handful of frozen peas or I have some yellow courgette from the allotment to use up.
SW:  Most of the ingredients are SW free.  The Thai curry paste is too small to count, the coconut milk is four and a half syns and the konjac rice is one syn.  Dessert is half a syn 

E:  allotment digging, weather permitting

Summary:
two healthy extra As
one healthy extra B
eight and a half syns


Monday 20 September 2021

Monday, 20-09-21

 Good morning.

Yesterday's meals:




Breakfast was left-over dessert from the night before, kept in the fridge overnight - hence the condensation.
I'm glad I didn't try to tackle it Saturday evening - it was very filling indeed.
It set me up for the allotment good and proper, no fibbing!

Lunch was surprisingly nice.  It was the Count on Us chicken in creamy mushroom sauce.
The potatoes were rather soft - I might do something else with them next time - take them out and maybe slice and spray fry them, there weren't enough beans but that's OK, one can do more veg and the chicken and mushroom sauce was very nice.  The sauce was too thin but, again, it would be an easy matter to pop in a few thickening granules.  
The tomatoes weren't part of the ready meal.

I'm glad I have another one in the freezer.



I enjoyed dinner too.  I just baked the pork steak, the roasties were done in the actifry and the whole thing was made in half an hour.  The chargrilled Med veg (from the freezer) ended up somewhat more charred than intended but they still tasted OK.

The day finished off with some yogurt.


Today's meal plans:

B:  egg on 'fried' bread with tomatoes on the side
I will do the usual spraying the bread on one side to give an impression of fried bread.  It keeps it crispy too.  To fry the eggs, again I use a bit of spray oil, pop the eggs in a pan, cover them and they just cook nicely.  The hardest bit is catching them, just at the right moment.
My goodness, how I will miss the tomatoes when they have finished cropping.  The ripening is slowing down now but the fruit still keeps coming.
SW:  half a healthy extra B for the bread

L:   fresh fig and feta salad; fruit
Last week I bought some figs and I looked around for a simple recipe to use, finding this one.
https://larderlove.com/fig-feta-salad/
It looks extremely easy, adaptable to fit SW, using healthy extras and a few syns and, something I love about some online recipes, has a button to scale it down to one serving before printing it off.  Pinch of Nom has the same function and it's useful.
So the sourdough will become one slice of wholemeal (not the same at all, but OK), the 50g feta will become 65g M&S lighter Greek salad cheese for a healthy A choice and I will cut the pine nuts completely because I don't have any in.
For the dressing, I will make it more or less straight, using a tbsp olive oil for six syns, agave nectar for half a syn while the vinegar is SW free.
Very do-able, don't you think?  And even with the oil it is calorie and SW friendly 
SW:  one healthy extra A and half a healthy extra B plus seven syns

D:  balsamic chicken pasta, side salad; yogurt
This is another recipe from the Good Housekeeping fast and easy collection and it looks nice.  
Here's the link:   
I will use spray oil and runner beans as I don't have green beans (yet).  I'll change or cut the herbs as I dislike basil and don't have fresh parsley - maybe scatter on some dried parsley a bit earlier in the recipe  Oh, and cut the pasta to 50g dry weight because I know that's enough for me.  
SW:  I think it's all speed and free unless I have mayo on any side salad.  Dessert is half a syn.

E:  it's circuit training with Lindsey today.  Always good fun.

Summary:
one healthy extra A
one healthy extra B
seven and a half, possibly eight and a half syns