Friday, 08-09-23 - bit of a long one, sorry

Good morning, everyone.
Weigh day and I am not hopeful of much but that's OK.  Hoping for a maintain rather than a gain.

Today's dinner description is rather long - I thought I'd break what looks like a fussy and time consuming made-from-scratch meal down into parts to show the process.  Please, please, just skip it if you're not interested.

Yesterday's meal photos:

A tasty and filling breakfast.

No fruit needed before lunch, partly because it was filling and partly because it was so very hot.  

Odd lighting but you get the idea.  The soup was lovely and I couldn't manage most of the salad so I popped it into the fridge for later (or dinner).

I spent another syn on a tsp of mixed seeds because they are so lovely in soup.

Very much later on I had a couple of easy peelers.

Such a delicious burger in a bowl.  It's definitely worth adding whatever you fancy to the basic mix.  I enjoyed this so much.

Afters was an egg custard and some blackberries and raspberries.  Very satisfying indeed.

Today's plans:

B:  fruit salad and yogurt

Nice and light for a hot day.

SW:  syn free

L:  ham salad; fruit

Again, nice and simple.  I cooked up a Be Good To Yourself ham from Sainsbury's.  My favourite joints - they are always tasty and free of all visible fat.  With it I will have your basic salad stuff and some coleslaw as mentioned below.

For once, the stock was really good, not too salty and worth boiling down to keep.  One of the biggest secrets of a good soup is a good stock!

SW:  this will count as syn free as I've counted the coleslaw salad cream below.

D:  cheesy bacon burger, chips and coleslaw; egg custard or blueberry 'ice cream'

I seem to have fallen back into the very poor habit of having 'extras' after weigh in and then feeling that I'm chasing my tail all week.  
So this evening I'm planning loadsa goodies that I know I really enjoy but that are fine when following the SW structure.  It's also a darn sight cheaper than eating similar stuff out.

So, a few details - skip this bit if you're not interested!

The chips are air fryer chips and I'll probably add some JD Seasonings chips and wedges spice mix which is delicious.  Syn free

The burger is my own recipe - mince, an Aldi red onion and rosemary sausage, some finely chopped and softened onion, a bit of grated cheddar and seasonings, all squished together.  From this quantity I get one burger and six meatballs (so that is tomorrow sorted out).  Half a healthy A for all the cheese so quarter A for the burger

The bun will be a roll, a bagel or a muffin, all home made, but I haven't decided which yet.  One healthy B

With the burger, I will have home made green tomato chutney, some grated or sliced cheese (maybe not cheddar) and some salady bits, sliced gherkins, etc.  One and a half syns for the chutney, the rest of my healthy extra A plus the second A for cheese and the salad/pickle stuff is all syn free.

The coleslaw is nothing fancy - some shredded white cabbage, grated carrot, chopped apple or other fruit and some 70% lighter salad cream.  One syn.

The 'bacon' is a slice of ham - same difference, as we say.  Syn free

The egg custard is already made and the ice cream (not really ice cream at all) is frozen blueberries blended with some plain yogurt and any sweetener you fancy, whether sugar substitute or some sort of skinny syrup.  It blends to an icy sort of sludge (and is lovely) but only make it just before you want to eat it.  one syn for sugar in the egg custard if you use part of an A for the milk but as I'm having cheese, I must count two syns.  The ice cream is syn free as I don't syn blended fruit

Tip:  re the cheese, in situations like this, I measure out the full amount before I start and then I know I can't go over.

It all sounds a bit of a faff, doesn't it, but truly it isn't.  I prep the chips first thing in the morning and keep them in water, the burger/meatballs take just minutes to make and then keep chilled, the bread just needs defrosting, I make the coleslaw first thing too and keep in the fridge and I just shove yogurt and frozen fruit in my mini blender to make the dessert.

And I have half of tomorrow's dinner made too
As for working out the syns, etc, when you've been doing SW for a while, you build up a range of recipes that you just know and it's easy.  Of course, it is going to be 'higher' if you look at calories and one needs to be aware of this.  It's a very carby meal and lower in speed than I would usually have but - big but - it will be lovely, it will feel special and it will stop me having any kind of Friday 'blow out'.  And I have a bottle of Shloer zero to finish it off.  Syn free

SW:  two healthy extra As, one healthy extra B, five and a half syns OR two and a half syns if I have the yogurt ice.  Good, isn't it?

Exercise: a walk and back exercises

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

either five and a half syns or two and a half syns