Christmas Challenge, day 13 (14 really)

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

What I ate yesterday:

Still no photos because . . .

I wasn't very hungry through the day so just grabbed fruit as and when.
I had Dave and Anna round for dinner and there just wasn't the opportunity to take photos.  You may or may not remember that I had pretty much prepped everything a fortnight ago and they had to cancel and the last minute so most of it went into the freezer.

What I did:

I made roast potatoes and onion.
I made honey mustard carrots and parsnips

I air fried sprouts and bacon

The main event was steak and chestnut slices.  I already had some of my rough puff pastry from when they had to cancel a fortnight ago and chunks of steak from a M&S can of chunky steak (it's delicious and worth it for special occasions) with the gravy sieved off.  To that I just added some crumbled chestnuts and turned that and the pastry into three 'slices' (like flat pasty type things).
The lemon cheesecake had frozen beautifully so that was good.

It was really lovely - but a long way from being SW or Med healthy

Today's meal plans:

B:  lemon buckwheat pancakes with spiced yogurt 🎅

L:  marmite cheese on toast; fruit

D:  potato topped steak, chestnut 🎅 and veg pie, veg; fruit

I have a bit of the steak and a very few veg left from last night

Exercise:  Lindsey's advent calendar exercises

And I REALLY hope I can get back to normal for three days now - until the next one.  Fingers crossed, please.

Christmas Challenge, day 12

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

Having said the above, it's not been great today because my friend and I went out for a lunchtime meal which was absolutely delicious.
I had pate to start with and then went on to pan roasted turkey escalope wrapped in bacon with a sage and onion stuffing and a red wine jus with roasted potatoes, carrots, parsnips and sprouts.  So, so good.  My friend had a dessert and we both had coffee.
In the evening, I dug a ciabatta out of the freezer and made a cheese and cranberry toastie.  Again, delicious amd festive but not SW or Med friendly.
And no photos, sorry.  

It's SW today and, unsurpringly, I won't be weighing.  

Friday's meal plans are:

B:  fruit and yogurt

L:  soup and fruit

D:  Dave and Anna are round for dinner and I am doing steak and chestnut slice with roasted potatoes and onions, spiced parsnips, carrots and some other veg, not sure what yet.  All cooked from scratch apart from the steak which came from a couple of M&S cans!
And there will be pudding!

Exercise:  housework, etc

Back to normal for a few days from tomorrow.  In fact, back to basics!

Christmas Challenge, day 11

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

Please m,ay I commend a YouTube channel to you today.
I have a lovely online friend, Roe, who is such a kind, helpful and empathic soul.  
Her channel really is an extension of herself - kind, thoughtful and analytical.
We would love for her channel to get to a thousand subscribers before Christmas so, if you can, please do take a look and show her some love by subscribing.
Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/@ItsJustMyWeigh

What I ate today:

Fruit (apple, pear and kiwi) and spiced yogurt

Syn free

I know this looks like a right jumble of stuff but it is a small jacket potato, the leftovers of yesterday's chicken pasta bake and a salad.

One healthy extra A for the cheese on top, three syns for dressing and two syns for the leftovers.

And, after the school governors' meeting, a nice, simple baked beans on marmite toast.

One healthy B

Plus a couple of nice biscuits at the governors' meeting

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B: fruit and yogurt

L:  Lunch out with a friend

D:  Maybe a toastie I'm not sure right now.  xx

Exercise:  er  - not sure.

Christmas Challenge, day 10

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

Well, today went really well, thank goodness.  I was rather shocked how quickly a healthy plan can descend into - well, let's be polite and call it 'not so healthy'.
I got on my scales this morning and was utterly shocked - in a not good way.  I may not be weighing on Friday.  I know but SW doesn't necessarily need to know.  :-)

What I ate today:

This was just what I needed.  Beans on toast is such a comfort food and adding umami in the form of marmite and a bit of brown sauce is just perfect.

One healthy extra B and half a syn.

I also had a couple of easy peelers before Groove class.

And another real comfort meal.
I used the rest of the tomato and lentil soup and to it added some cooked carrot, peas, sweetcorn and cooked chicken and reheated it.  So good and so comforting.

And syn free.

I will definitely be making this soup again - so simple and very delicious!

Later, I had more easy peelers.

Dinner was also scrummy.
I softened onion, pepper, mushrooms and tomatoes, added garlic granules, sweetcorn and peas plus some chicken stock powder, pepper and some chopped tomato.  Then I mixed in cooked pasta (30g raw weight) and some crumbled chestnuts before topping it with grated mozzarella and popping it in the oven.

It made loads.  I had all the cheese but have saved about half of the mixture for tomorrow's lunch

So . . . one healthy extra A, half a healthy extra B, three syns for chestnuts and two syns for evoo.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

five and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:  

B: fruit and spiced yogurt 🎄

L:  jacket potato with the chicken and veg 🎄 (because of the chestnuts) plus cheese as a topping, side salad; fruit

D:  beans on toast

I have a meeting that starts at five thirty which makes things very difficult for dinner so, as I have baked beans left over from lunch, I'll have the rest on toast for a quick meal.

Exercise:  personal training

Christmas Challenge, day 9 - late again!

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

Another late one, so sorry.  Again, please pretend this was posted on the evening of the 9th, rather than the morning of the 10th.
Thank you.

Yesterday didn't end well and I have confessed this below.  Positive vibes needed for the rest of the week, please.  I think I'm a bit post-virally really, that's all.

What I ate today:

The fruit was orange, blueberries, kiwi and pear and I flavoured the yogurt with a festive spice mix I made.

One syn for seeds

Lunch with a friend went really well.

We had the tomato and lentil soup which was free and a toastie which was an A, a B and half a syn.

Dessert was an easy peeler.

It was all going so well until I spoiled it with mulled wine, mince pies (in the plural) and cashew nuts.  Oh, dear.

No idea of SW values.

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  beans on toast
Not very Mediterranean but sometimes one just has to.

L:  What's left of the soup to which I will add left over chicken and possibly some veg as well; fruit

D:  chicken pasta bake; fruit

Exercise:  Groove and the walk there and back.

Christmas Challenge, day 8

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

It's going to be a chickeny sort of week coming up.  I treated myself to a chicken, roasted it in Nellie yesterday, took all the meat off this morning and boiled up the bones, skin and other bits for stock.  It's provided me with protein for three meals already, three tomorrow (me and a friend for lunch and me for the evening) plus stock for tasty soups, etc

Chicken may not be as cheap as it was but it is still good value as long as you use every bit.  It's lean, healthy and a good source of protein.  

What I ate today:

I enjoyed this very much.  Inside there's tomatoes and mushrooms and I added a drizzle of brown sauce for one syn.

This was delicious.

Roast chicken, stuffing balls, spiced parsnips, roasties, sprouts, carrots and corn on the cob plus cranberry sauce.

One and a half syns for chestnuts crumbled into a rosemary and onion sausage (free) for the stuffing balls.

Half a syn for the cranberry sauce - home made with a mix of demerara sugar and sweetener.

One syn for some maple syrup that I added to an all rounder spice mix for the parsnips

And that, I think, is that.

Later on I had a couple of easy peelers.

This was my evening meal.  I went to the freezer to get bread and found a single rather battered wrap so used that instead to make a cheese, chicken and cranberry sort of quesadilla.  It was scrummy!

Afters was a couple of easy peelers - they are so delicious at the moment, aren't they?

So it was one A for cheese, one B for the wrap, one syn for some seeds and two syns for oil in some dressing.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

seven syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  festive spiced yogurt 🤶and fruit

L:  tomato and lentil soup, chicken and cranberry 🤶 toastie.

I have a SW friend over to share this with.

D:  cheesy chicken and chestnut 🤶 pasta salad; fruit

Exercise:  circuits - totally back to it this week.

Christmas Challenge, day 7

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

Apologies for being late (again).  Just imagine this was posted Saturday evening, please.  
Thanks!

What I ate today:

Blueberry pancakes with lemon and sweetener and some yogurt.  Delish!

Half a healthy extra B

Home made lentil and tomato soup.  Very easy, very simple - just a carton of chopped tomatoes with garlic and onion, three level tbsp red lentils, one level tbsp chicken stock powder and some water.

Sometimes that's all you need, isn't it?

Dessert was some grapes and an apple

Syn free

As I had roasted a chicken in Nellie in the afternoon, I changed my plans and made myself a lovely chicken sandwich with cranberry sauce.
I took what I though would be really good close ups but they all came out blurry and ununable.  Such a shame.

One healthy extra B and three syns for the cranberry sauce.

Summary:

no healthy extra As

one and a half healthy extra Bs

three syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  breakfast omelette wrap

Nothing particularly festive about this.

L:  roast chicken, cranberry sauce 🎅, 'stuffing' 🎅 spiced parsnips 🎅, sprouts with chestnuts and bacon🎅, carrots; fruit

Almost a proper Christmas roast dinner but not quite.  

The stuffing is just a reshaped onion and rosemary sausage, probably with a chestnut crumbled into it and maybe a bit of sage added.

D:  chicken, cranberry 🎅 and cheese toastie, salad; fruit

Exercise:  rest day

Christmas challenge, day 6, a scales surprise and ooops!

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

I had a very pleasant surprise when I got on the scales at group.  Yes, I had gained but only one pound so I am still very comfortably in my happy zone.

Once you get to target at Slimming World, it is accepted that 'maintain' doesn't mean 'stay the same' and a range of between three pounds under and three pounds over is perfectly normal and acceptable.  I agree with that completely - it gives me the flexibility I need.

I'm not quite sure how it was just one pound, mind you, but I'll take it with gratitude.

What I ate today:

I had just fruit for breakfast so decided to have the waffles for lunch.

Lunch did NOT go well.

I forgot to oil the waffle plates.  Ooops!

They still tasted nice, they just weren't waffles.

Half a healthy extra B for buckwheat flour (unofficially)

The evening was officially Off Plan.

This is why . . .

May I introduce you to the annual Shimmy 'n' Groove Festive 'Afternoon' Tea . . .

Let's just take a moment to appreciate the festive nature of the cakes.

I made good inroads into the sandwiches which were lovely and fresh.

The mini quiche was warm and delicious

I had a fruit scone which was still warm too and lovely.

By the time we got to the cakes, I managed a mini mince pie and one of the mini coffee mousses and that was that.  I wasn't the only one and they gave out doggy boxes towards the end (plus a disclaimer thing to sign - the first time I've seen that happen but maybe they have had issues in the past?).
I didn't, not that I can claim a halo, I just can't manage sweet stuff like I used to be able to and they all looked very, very sickly sweet.

It was lovely though, very sociable and great fun.

(we won't mention s*ns, OK?)

Tomorrow's meal plans:

proper on plan for two days at least!

B:  fruit and yogurt - if I want anything after tonight

L:  tomato and lentil soup (because I didn't have it yesterday)

D:  chicken and veg pasta bake, side salad maybe; fruit

Exercise:  personal training

Christmas Challenge, day 5

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

Weigh in tomorrow and I am not confident but I missed last week's so really ought to do tomorrow's.  Ho hum!  
Why is it that when you feel unwell, you nibble on unhealthy stuff?

Re yesterday's extra bit, I located buckwheat groats on Amazon, ordered yesterday and they arrived this morning.  Cheers!  Now to locate recipes that will work with SW and the Mediterranean vibe.

What I ate today:

I was short of time to have a breakfast so I had an apple and a pear - no photo and syn free.

I had a friend round so this is just a quick snap of the table.  It was a soup from the freezer with grated cheese, croutons and seeds and it was lovely.

Dessert was an easy peeler.
One healthy extra A, one healthy extra B and one syn.

Later on, I had another couple of easy peelers.

The steak for dinner was delicious.  I have to say, Aldi does a lovely steak.

No room for dessert.

One healthy extra A, three syns for dressing and one for mixed seeds.

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

five syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  buckwheat cinnamon 🎄waffles, fruit and yogurt

(after the success of the pancakes, I have to try this, don't I?

L:  soup from the freezer, chestnuts crumbled over 🎄; fruit

D:  festive afternoon tea 🎄 with Shimmy 'n' Groove

Exercise:  none

Christmas Challenge, day 4, a couple of recipe ideas and about buckwheat flour

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

What I ate today:

Cranberry and cinnamon pancakes for breakfast.  I use buckwheat flour for the first time and they were delicious.  There's definitely a difference between flour and oat based pancakes.  The former cook faster for a start!

I think I have found my Christmas morning breakfast!

I am calling the 20g buckwheat flour I used as half a healthy extra B.  See the Extra Bit below for details of why.

The cranberries were the dried kind so three syns for what I had - bit of a shock, that!  I'll try the frozen kind next time and see if that works OK.

The recipe for the pancakes is:

20g buckwheat flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

one medium egg

50g Greek yogurt

1/2 tsp sweetener

cinnamon to taste

splash of water

20g dried cranberries

Mix it all together and give it a good old whisk.

Cook as one normally cooks pancakes. Today I used spray oil.

I changed from a bagel to a slice of toast and it was lovely.

I had some grapes for dessert.  

Half a healthy extra B for the toast, two syns for the avocado and one syn for the salad cream.

Later on,. I had an apple.

Dinner was delicious.

The roasties and veg were same as usual and this is how I did the chicken.
I used half a breast fillet (I always halve them now before freezing them) and hammered it out a bit with my steak hammer.  I sprinkled over some Montreal steak spice (quite chilli-ish) and then spray fried it in a pan.  Then I put it in an oven dish, spread a tbsp cranberry sauce over and then covered it with 30g grated cheddar and popped it in the air fryer top keep warm and melt the cheese.

It was so delicious.
I'll try it again but with stilton instead of cheddar.

One healthy extra A and one and a half syns for the cranberry sauce.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

seven and a half syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  breakfast wrap

(ringing the changes just a bit)

L:  soup, seeds, bread; fruit

I have a friend round, a SW friend so all good.

D:  steak, stilton and salad

A treat!  Stilton isn't a healthy extra A but I am going to call it so.

Exercise:  none

The Extra Bit:

About buckwheat and buckwheat flour.
(Mostly copied and pasted from various places as it says it much better than I could)

Important edit:  buckwheat itself is gluten free but buckwheat flour (such as Dove flour) may contain traces of gluten if it has been milled in a non-gluten free environment so be careful if this is important to you.
Many thanks to June for pointing this out in the comments below.

When I started eating more in the Mediterranean way, I kept coming across buckwheat and buckwheat flour praised as a super healthy product.
I bought a bag of flour (Dove does it) but never used it so it is about time I did, isn't it?

So I did a bit of Googling and found put that . . .
Buckwheat is grain-free, gluten-free ((see above and comments) and adds nutty flavors, tender textures and darker shades to dishes, such as noodles, cookies and bread.

 
It is packed with fiber, protein and other minerals. Not only can buckwheat add an earthy flavor infusion and darker hue to your recipes, but it can be a healthier alternative to regular flour or wheat flour.

Buckwheat flour can be made by milling or grinding buckwheat groats  and you can do it yourself if you have the right equipment.

As it is gluten free, it can result in a heavier texture and it's best to use it with other flour if you want lightness.

Gluten- and grain-free, organic buckwheat flour (see above and comments) has more protein, dietary fiber, and B vitamins than an equal weight of oat or whole wheat flour, and is an excellent source of potassium and essential amino acids.

This last caught my attention so I looked up calories and fibre for 20g buckwheat flour and 20g oats.  Guess what - there's not a lot of difference.

As far as the quality of the fibre is concerned, buckwheat contains a decent amount , which your body cannot digest. This nutrient is good for colon health.

By weight, fiber makes up 2.7% of boiled groats and is mainly composed of cellulose and lignin (2).

Fibre is concentrated in the husk, which coats the groat. The husk is kept in dark buckwheat flour, giving it a unique flavour. (This is the flour I have)

All in all, it is a Jolly Good Thing to include in a healthy diet. and I would really like to get some buckwheat groats and blend them to flour as needed.  Must look around for some.

As far as Slimming World is concerned, buckwheat is a free food but buckwheat flour is not.

However . . .

Healthy extra Bs are all about fibre.

Buckwheat flour contains as much fibre, possibly a little more, than oats.  The calories are pretty much identical.

Therefore . . .

As with wholemeal/wholewheat flour, I am perfectly happy to use buckwheat flour as a healthy extra B

. . . because I can't see why not.

It's definitely not SW canon though, so be careful and, if you do what I do, use it mindfully and sensibly!

Christmas challenge, day 3, a pesky cold and a coffee review

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my Christmas Challenge, 2024 where I try to give as much festive vibe to my everyday food as I can with the aim of staying on my healthy Mediterranean focused meals so that weight gain is minimal and I remain healthy.

What did I say about staying healthy?  There's no arguing with a cold, is there.  You feel yucky but it's not a dangerous thing (for most of us) and fairly soon over.  I opted out of Groove today and personal training will be on Saturday - thank you, Lindsey.

What I ate today:

I started on the other Christmas themed Oat Pantry oats today, cinnamon bun flavoured, for my overnight oats, adding yogurt, a splash of milk, some spiced cranberry skinny syrup and fruit (blueberries, raspberries and grapes) plus my mixed seeds.

Half a B for 20g oats and half a syn for the splash of milk

To make the smoked salmon pate, I simply blended some smoked salmon bits with some light soft cheese (which I am calling half a healthy A but that is unofficial so be careful) plus some lemon juice and zest and a pinch of dill.
I toast bread, remove the crust, then split in in half through the slice and pop the thin slices in Nellie to dehydrate.  I have to fasten them down or they fly up and burn.

Half a healthy extra B for one slice of toast and half an A for the soft cheese plus four syns for the evoo in the salad dressing and one syn for mixed seeds.

Later on I had a pear and a couple of easy peelers plus a chicken bouillon drink (which is free) because I wanted something very flavoursome.

I changed dinner plans a bit as I decided I didn't really want pasta so it was just a bean and olive bake.  I softened some veg including tomatoes in evoo, added some mixed beans, olives and Mediterranean herbs, stock and tomato puree plus a bit of marmite, added some grated cheese on top and popped it in Nellie for a short while to melt the cheese a bit.  Very easy and very tasty.

Two syns for olives, two syns for some evoo, two healthy extra As for cheese.

And that was me done for the day.

Summary:

two and a half healthy extra As

one and a half healthy extra Bs

eleven and a half syns - a bit high but not to worry!

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B: buckwheat, cranberry 🤶 and cinnamon 🤶 pancakes with fruit and yogurt

L:  avocado bagel with smoked salmon 🤶, salad; fruit

D:  chicken with cranberry sauce 🤶, veg; fruit

Exercise: lovely Lindsey has rescheduled personal training for Saturday morning so it will probably be a rest day.  

The Extra Bit:

Another review.

I love my coffee but I am in no way a coffee expert and I'm not, as a general rule, that keen of flavoured coffee.

However - this is delicious and I'm happy to own up that every time I have been to Morrisons, I have picked a box up.

It's just under £3 for ten so 30p per coffee which is a lot more than the wonky pods I usually buy but not in terms of paying for one at Starbucks.  And it is syn free!

I'm looking upon it as a December/Advent treat and am happy to recommend, if that's your thing.