Friday evening, 04-10-24 - Eat-Your-Syns-Friday and melba toast

Good evening, everyone!  

I was absolutely delighted to find that I have maintained this week so I am still just one pound above the bottom of my Happy Zone with a nice 'gain cushion' when I go to Center Parcs soon.

Just in case - you know!

I'm not sure if this is good news or bad but I bought a little bottle of red wine, drank it with my dinner and . . . no reaction whatsoever - not of the migraine kind, anyway.  So it must have been a dental issue.
I'm still going to more or less keep off it though, just because that is better for my health.  

What I ate today

The usual breakfast - the fruit was melon and red grape.

Half a syn for the chia seeds in the jam and one syn for the mixed seeds on top.

I also scoffed some mixed nuts which I didn't weigh (bad me) so have no idea of the syns.  Thank goodness it is EYSF.

(I think I said that last week too, didn't I?)

I found this recipe for hummus and made it up in half quantity.

https://www.inspiredtaste.net/15938/easy-and-smooth-hummus-recipe/

All I can say is wow, so delicious.  Half amounts came to eleven syns, six for the evoo, five for the tahini and one syn for some peanut butter powder (not in the recipe, I just like it), the rest being free food.  It is in no way SW-adapted and, making enough for three good portions, I am calling it four syns per portion.  It does have healthy heart-oils though.

The melba toast was also home made and really is very easy - I will describe what I did in The Extra Bit.

Four syns for the hummus and one healthy extra B for the melba toast.

To make the sausage casserole, I browned three Cumberland sausages from Morrisons (three syns each) and softened some sliced onion, cut the sausages into pieces and then put them all in the slow cooker with a can of chopped tomatoes, the other half can of chickpeas, some roasted red pepper from a jar, some garlic, chilli flakes, liquid smoke and Italiah All-Rounder (from Just Spices).  Because I left it a bit late, I kept the slow cooker on high for around four hours.

It made one good portion and two smaller portions to which I could add extra protein or veg.  They

will be going into the freezer tomorrow morning.

I had it with mixed puy lentils and quinoa, both from pouches so they may carry a few syns.  I'm not going to worry about it because both have made three portions (into the freezer!)

So . . .  nine syns for the sausages, two syns for some oil and the rest is all speed/free, divided into three uneven portions so I am going to say five today and three for each of the two smaller portions.

Plus one healthy extra A for some grated goat's cheese.

And the red wine was seven syns

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

seventeen and a half syns plus the nuts

Given that it is a double syns day (if I want them), that is perfectly OK, even with the nuts

My meal plans for tomorrow:

B:  penny pancakes, chia jam and yogurt

L:  feta and bean salad with hummus dressing; fruit

D:  fasolia gigantes (with added chorizo and grated cheese); fruit

Exercise: 

The Extra Bit

Melba toast at home.

You need

slices of bread, not too thick, crusts removed (use them to make breadcrumbs)

 And that's all.

Method.

Lightly toast the bread.  Carefully cut across to separate the top of the slice from the bottom, creating two very thin slices.

Cut each thin slice into pieces the size you want.

Pop them under the grill, untoasted side up and brown very carefully until the toast is brown and crunchy.  It tends to curl up so don't put the tray too close to the heat source.

Alternatively, pop them in the oven on an oven tray until done or in a toaster (I don't recommend this last if your pieces are small).

I find they fly about in an air fryer unless you can secure them under a wire rack.

However you do it, keep an eye on them because they can go from perfect to burnt offering quite quickly.  You get a kind of rustic look, nothing like the packs of Melba toast you can get in the crackers section near to the Ryvita, etc.

Use wholemeal and you can call it your healthy extra B