Thursday, 17-04-25

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my blog where I talk about my ongoing Slimming World and associated health journeys.  I'm now in my target range and I have managed to reduce my 'bad' cholesterol by eating according to Mediterranean principles and the Slimming World structure and now I want to maintain this.

I've been 'creative today so, rather than make the 'what I have eaten today' section very long, I'll chat about it here.

1.  Using up watercress.

I like water cress but is does go 'off' quickly, losing its fresh green colour and then not attractive in salads.  I Googled and found watercress pesto.  I'm not fond of basil so never have pesto but this attracted me.  I used roughly 25g watercress, a bit of garlic, one tbsp mixed seeds (I thought I had pine nuts but I didn't) nearly one tbsp evoo and 15g grated hard Italian cheese.  Once all blitzed together, I was really nice and made three small portions so each portion is three syns (five for the evoo, one for the seeds, three for the cheese, divided by three).

I mixed one portion with half a can of drained tuna for today's lunch salad.

I'm going to make a pasta salad with one portion and the other half of the tuna

Finally, I want to make a chicken pesto pasta.

Definitely doing this again, for sure.

2.  Using up the very nice pack of stir fry veg

I had just a bit and it was easy - I just added it to the lunchtime salad.

3.  Using up veg that was starting to 'go'

The really bad bits are now releasing goodness in the compost bin.

I put the usable bits in the thermomix and chopped them fairly fine - leek, carrot, parsnip, cauliflower stem and curds and broccoli stem and florets.  Most went into bags and into the freezer for soup/casserole base mix.
I left some in Thermione and added a can of chopped tomatoes and some chicken stock powder and water, boiled it all up and blended it smooth and, Bob's your uncle, two portions of a really delicious soup.  They're in the freezer too, for a quick lunch on a busy day.

I was pleased to not waste much at all and even the stuff I didn't use for food is now composting.

What I have eaten today.

Breakfast felt very bistro!!

Toasted sourdough with smoked salmon and an egg with leaves and tomatoes on the side.

Nearly one healthy extra B for the bread - I've combined it with seeds in my lunchtime salad (not the ones in the pesto) to  make a whole B.

This salad had some tuna mixed with watercress pesto as above, leaves, tomatoes, peppers, baby corn, cucumber,  the remains of that pack of stir fry vegetables, some mixed seeds, some of my lemon salad dressing and some salad cream (sorry - I love it!)

Three syns for the pesto, two for the dressing and one for the salad cream.

Later on, I had a very juicy orange.

Dinner was the second halves 0f two SW ready meals, sweet and sour chicken and chicken in black bean sauce.  SW ready meals may be a bit expensive but they don't skimp on ingredients.  Loads of chicken, loads of veg, plenty of black beans and the sauces too.  I'm so glad I decided not to have rice or noodles, I would never have been able to finish it.

SW free.

A little while later, I had an apple and that was it for the day.

Summary:

no healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

six syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:  

B:  hot cross bun, fruit

but not until after weigh in.  The bun is a home made sourdough one and is absolutely delicious

L:  tuna pesto pasta salad; fruit

D:  chicken goujons, chips, salad; fruit

I just really fancies this.  It will all be home made.

Exercise:   nothing formal but I will be walking around town