Good morning, everyone.
First of all, weigh in results, and I am delighted to say that I lost a pound and a half yesterday. I really seem to have broken through my plateau now and have less that a stone left to get back to my target weight. I'm very, very happy about that.
So it's is onwards and downwards and the next interim mini-target is to break through the next stone barrier which I hope will happen at the first weigh in in October, fingers crossed.
Yesterday's meals:
Dinner was great. As I mentioned, I had family round and I did a Chinese fake away.
The first dish was a Chinese style curry. I just used chicken, onion and red pepper in Mayflower curry sauce which is reasonably SW friendly although the sauce itself has to be synned a bit. Dave had never had a Chinese curry before and they both enjoyed it.
The second was the crispy chilli beef recipe which is one of the SW recipes that's available to non-members.
I made it straight apart from adding some bbq sauce to the mix and we all liked it although the whole 'crispy' bit is rather a misnomer as it's not. Covering in the batter and then baking it just doesn't work. Next time, I will try spray frying the battered beef and if that doesn't work either I will take 'crispy' off the title and just have like a beef stir fry because the sauce itself with the stir fry veg really is extremely tasty.
I made it straight apart from adding some bbq sauce to the mix and we all liked it although the whole 'crispy' bit is rather a misnomer as it's not. Covering in the batter and then baking it just doesn't work. Next time, I will try spray frying the battered beef and if that doesn't work either I will take 'crispy' off the title and just have like a beef stir fry because the sauce itself with the stir fry veg really is extremely tasty.
Half way through the day I had a bit of a wibble about variety so I looked up a Chinese ribs recipe and found one on the BBC Good Food site.
I dashed over to Morrisons to get the pork ribs which were nice and lean but already had the rest of the ingredients to hand.
Instead of boiling the ribs first, I did what my Mum always used to do and spread them out on a roasting dish, covered them with foil and slow cooked them for absolutely ages in a pretty low oven before whacking up the heat, uncovering them and adding the sauce in the last half hour And they were gorgeous. What meat there was just slid off the bone into the mouth.
I dashed over to Morrisons to get the pork ribs which were nice and lean but already had the rest of the ingredients to hand.
Instead of boiling the ribs first, I did what my Mum always used to do and spread them out on a roasting dish, covered them with foil and slow cooked them for absolutely ages in a pretty low oven before whacking up the heat, uncovering them and adding the sauce in the last half hour And they were gorgeous. What meat there was just slid off the bone into the mouth.
These three meals were reasonable SW-friendly but by the time you count the rice and the prawn crackers, both courtesy of M&S plus the < cough > liquid refreshment, it was way, way over.
Sorry, no photos but you will get the idea because there are leftovers for tonight.
Today's plans:
I'm thinking I will go the two meal route again today with fruit in between, if necessary.
I'm thinking I will go the two meal route again today with fruit in between, if necessary.
B: (meaning brunch today) pancakes with fruit and yogurt
. . . because it is my favourite breakfast and I am good about limiting this to once a week to keep the 'special' factor. On SW I could have it more often but it might become more ordinary if I did that. (ditto with chips!). Just a bit of personal psychology there really.
SW: one healthy extra B for oats or wholemeal flour (or this time I might try a combination of the two because - why not? Half a syn for the fruit yogurt.
. . . because it is my favourite breakfast and I am good about limiting this to once a week to keep the 'special' factor. On SW I could have it more often but it might become more ordinary if I did that. (ditto with chips!). Just a bit of personal psychology there really.
SW: one healthy extra B for oats or wholemeal flour (or this time I might try a combination of the two because - why not? Half a syn for the fruit yogurt.
D: Chinese leftovers; yogurt
I have small amounts of everything apart from the prawn crackers (and wine).
This is all rather a guesstimate but I can more or less work out the syns using my vast (!) experience and a bit of common sense.
I'm looking forward to this evening - it was all delicious yesterday.
SW: OK, well, I'm calling the Chinese curry* three syns , the rice five (having checked the SW site and that's probably too much given how little there is left), the chilli beef was low syn anyway so one because there's less than a quarter left and the ribs two because there's hardly any sauce left and the ribs were surprisingly lean plus I slow cooked any residual fat off and there's only one rib left anyway! So around ten syns all together. It feels right and because it's mostly home made, I do know exactly what went into most of it so I do trust my judgement.
I have small amounts of everything apart from the prawn crackers (and wine).
This is all rather a guesstimate but I can more or less work out the syns using my vast (!) experience and a bit of common sense.
I'm looking forward to this evening - it was all delicious yesterday.
SW: OK, well, I'm calling the Chinese curry* three syns , the rice five (having checked the SW site and that's probably too much given how little there is left), the chilli beef was low syn anyway so one because there's less than a quarter left and the ribs two because there's hardly any sauce left and the ribs were surprisingly lean plus I slow cooked any residual fat off and there's only one rib left anyway! So around ten syns all together. It feels right and because it's mostly home made, I do know exactly what went into most of it so I do trust my judgement.
Oh, and half a syn for the yogurt.
E: given the slightly fragile state of my head, I ought to do something today so I'll unfold the exercise bike and use it while watching telly.
Summary:
half a healthy extra A (I will probably have some cups of tea through the day as I find it more hydrating than coffee)
one healthy extra B
eleven syns
one healthy extra B
eleven syns
* There seems to be loads of the curry sauce left so I'm going to decant it into a container and freeze it for an easy meal another time. No point wasting it, is there?
A ponder:
Today's dinner is an example of how SW wins over calorie counting, I think.
I could have worked out the calories for each element of the meal, using Nutracheck, and divided by four to find a standard portion although it would have been a real pain and a drag, but there is absolutely no way I could work out how many calories each bit of leftovers carries whereas, yes, the syns are an estimate but I have confidence in my figures.
A ponder:
Today's dinner is an example of how SW wins over calorie counting, I think.
I could have worked out the calories for each element of the meal, using Nutracheck, and divided by four to find a standard portion although it would have been a real pain and a drag, but there is absolutely no way I could work out how many calories each bit of leftovers carries whereas, yes, the syns are an estimate but I have confidence in my figures.
Big congratulations on the loss. The whole Chinese meal sounds lovely. xx
ReplyDeleteIt really was, Sooze, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely a way to go for future times together. Maybe the next one can be Indian based, or maybe I could look up some Mexican ideas. The possibilities are wide.
DeleteAnd thank you - I was so very pleased.
xx