Monday, 16-11-20

 Good morning, everyone.

Fruity porridge for breakfast yesterday.  I used half a pear and half a plum chopped in the porridge and decorated the top with the rest plus a strawberry.  Really nice.

I don't normally take photos when I people over for a meal but I did this time.  The table and the plate looked almost Christmassy and there's loads left over for tomorrow (because I made loads so that there were leftovers).

The stuffing balls were really good - more or less equal amounts of rosemary and red onion sausage and sage and onion stuffing (made up), mixed together, rolled into balls and baked with spray oil.  Each stuffing ball (about 40g) was one and a half syns.  If you wanted, you could add some shavings of bacon or ham to the mix and, maybe, a few dried cranberries to zing them up although that would defeat the purpose of using vegetarian sausages.

A very simple and slightly messy tea of chicken sandwich with celery and lettuce.  Two syns for half fat butter and one for mayo plus the healthy extra B and half a syn for dessert.

The chicken carcass ended up in the slow cooker overnight so the house smelled delicious when I came down this morning.

Today's food plans:

B:  bacon, beans, egg and mushrooms - a half-full English!

SW:  free

L:  cheesy chicken quesadilla, salad; fruit

I wondered about a toastie but I have quite a lot of wraps to use up so it will be a quesadilla instead.

together with the cheese, I might add a sliced left-over stuffing ball for one and a half syns.

SW:  one healthy extra A and one B, one and a half syns for a stuffing ball and one syn for some mayo

D:  bubble and squeak, veg; yogurt or kvarg

I deliberately cooked loads of veg yesterday so I had enough for today as well.  I will just mash some of it up with some grated cheese, seasoning and some spices,  shape patties and fry them with chicken and extra veg on the side.

SW:  one healthy extra A, two or three syns for some oil for frying and half a syn for dessert

Body Magic:  a step class and some balance work

Summary:  two healthy extra As, one B and about six syns.

Sunday, 15-11-20

 Morning, fellow slimmers!  :-)
(and everyone else)

Breakfast of fruity pancakes was, as always, totally delicious!

Bacon, sausage and beans for lunch.  I didn't have an egg in the end, it wasn't necessary.

I did end up using quite a lot of syns in this cauliflower macaroni cheese but it was worth every single one (I used light butter and carefully measured the flour so I didn't go over).

Look at all those speedy veg - sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower.

Today's meal plans:

B:  fruity porridge

Porridge is so simple and it's a great way to break ones fast.

SW:  half a healthy extra A for milk and one healthy extra B for the oats.  The rest is free/speed

L:  roast chicken dinner; fruit

Dinner rather than lunch; Beth is over so I'm doing two mains because I really fancy a roast.  I will cook (reheat!) her a Higgidy Pie of some kind - she loves them.  Roast chicken for me (the leftovers will feed me through the week) and we will both have roasted root veg and a selection of otherveg.  
SW:  If I boil up some cranberries and add sweetener, that will be free and I am fine without gravy.  I may use spray oil for the roasted veg but if I don't, that's two syns for one tsp

D: (tea really)  A sort of coronation chicken sandwich with some salad; yogurt or kvarg

I know I've had one healthy extra B already but that's OK.  I might make it a filled pitta or a wrap instead of slices of bread.

SW:  one healthy extra B, two syns for some light butter, up to two syns for some mayo, one syn for some mango chutney

Body Magic:  An online something or other, I haven't decided yet.

Summary:  one healthy extra A (for the porridge and milk in my tea), two Bs and five to seven syns

The nice thing about roasting a chicken is that there's plenty of leftovers and a good stock for the coming week.  Happy chickens are not exactly frugal but I will get the most out of mine, that's for sure.

Saturday, 14-11-20

 Good morning.
Well, yesterday started off going away from plan.  As you know, I like to do restricted eating when I can, which is more often than not.  Yesterday I woke and got up later than usual, got going on stuff, then remembered that I had a scheduled online chat with a dear friend at half ten.  Not to worry, I could have breakfast a bit later.  However, the chat went on longer than I had expected and afterwards it didn't seem worth having breakfast so late.  I suppose that's the point of restricted eating - one naturally limits how much one eats.

All this is the long way round of saying I skipped breakfast, of course!

This was lunch and very nice it was too.  A jacket potato topped with a can of tuna, drained, two tbsp super light mayo and 45g 50% cheddar with a choppy salad on the side.

I saved the fruit for later on.

A very orange/brown looking dinner but actually it was totally delicious.  Must do root veg fries more often.

I may have skipped breakfast but yesterday's meals kept me full and satisfied all the time.

All th fish fingers have not been eaten so that's a box space in the freezer.  Slowly, very slowly, I'm making inroads.  Soon it will be cold enough for me to get everything out of the chest freezer and sorted and I can defrost the beast!  It needs it rather urgently.

Today's plans

B:  the fruity pancakes I planned for yesterday:
SW:  one healthy extra B and half a syn

L:  bacon, sausage and beans; fruit

I know it sounds like a breakfast but why not?  The sausages will be the Linda McCartney ones.  I might even splash out and add an egg - I'll see how hungry I feel when the time comes.

SW:  free!

D:  cauliflower mac and cheese, veg; yogurt

As I haven't used my healthy extra As, I will spend them on something saucy/cheesy.  I might even also use up some syns to make it proper cheesy!  After all, why not?

I'm looking forward to this.

SW:  two healthy extra As and maybe up to six syns, half a syn for dessert 
(laster edit - I totally forgot about the flour and butter for the sauce - I'll work them out and add them to my food diary)

Body magic:  step and a walk

Summary:  two healthy extra As, one B and seven syns (worst scenario)

Friday, 13-11-20

 Good morning!
Weigh in was most successful - three pounds off which means I have lost last week's gain plus another half pound.   I'm extremely happy with that and on we go!

I changed my plans a bit as I remembered that I had a cooked chicken thigh in the fridge plus some baked beans so I made the omelette with two eggs, chicken and mushroom and added the beans as a side.

It totally filled me up and I didn't want any lunch - nothing to do with weigh in, I had already done that.

Dinner plans changed a bit too.  After looking forward to lots of veg, I found I didn't really fancy them much so I just did the sizzle steak.  What I did was this:  I spray fried some sliced onion and some mushroom, then added the 'steak' (so-called but not the kind I'm used to) which I had cut into strips.  When that was done I added leftover pizza sauce (from a couple of days ago) and the burger sauce I had made earlier in the day and when that had heated back up to sizzling point I piled it all into a split pitta and ate it with my fingers.
It was lovely, I will definitely do it again but next time I will use a decent bit of steak!

Today's plans:

B:  fruity pancakes

SW:  one healthy extra B and half a syn

L:  cheesy tuna jacket potato with salad; fruit

SW:  one healthy extra A and one syn for some mayo

D:  fish fingers, root veg fries, maybe some peas or sweet corn; kvarg or yogurt

I have fish fingers in the freezer!  SW is quite hard on fish fingers so I checked the numbers and four of them total 244 calories and either six or eight syns, depending on which one you go by.  To my shame, they are pretty old and I can't find the exact one on the SW app.  SO I am reconciled to higher than usual syns today.
The fries will be carrot, sweet potato and parsnip.  The meal may be low on speed but it has plenty of veg and a high satisfaction score!

SW:  nine syns for six fish fingers, two syns for one tsp oil, one syn for some mayo (love fish fingers dunked in mayo) and half a syn for dessert.

Body Magic:  I ordered a new step from Amazon as my old one was actually a Wii step and a bit small.  It arrived yesterday so I'll give it a go with one of Lindsey's step classes online.

Summary:  One healthy extra A, one B and fourteen syns - still within SW boundaries!

Thursday, 12-11-20

 Good morning.
It's the Zoom SW meeting early this evening so I will be weighing this morning which is when Jen wants the info.  Fingers crossed.  I feel lighter but that can be deceptive.

Yesterday's photos

Plain old sausage and beans - except that the sausages were rosemary and red onion and they were very herby and rather tasty.   I reckon they will make a nice sort of stuffing to have with chicken, maybe rolled on a chicken fillet and baked.  Might try that on Sunday.

I haven't had a toastie for a while.  I enjoyed this one with cheese, chicken, mushroom and onion chutney.

Salmon with chips and peas - very satisfying!

Today's plans:

B:  bacon and mushroom omelette

This time I will remember that the bacon probably has enough salt.

SW:  half a syn for half a tbsp of nutritional yeast flakes

L:  broccoli and 'stilton' soup; fruit

From the freezer (a few gaps are now appearing) and I will add about three laughing cow light blue triangles for the stilton-y flavour.

SW:  half a healthy extra A for the triangles and some milk

D:  Sizzle steaks in pitta, burger sauce, loadsa veg; yogurt or kvarg

I was rootling in the freezer and found these sizzle steaks so I'm using two and will make them into a filled pitta with some burger sauce and, probably, tomatoes.
I've got rather a lot of fresh veg which is a good problem to have but it means they need using, so I intend having a feast of veg on the side.  A bit odd, perhaps, but I'm not fussed.  Any leftovers can go towards some bubble and squeak!

The burger sauce is one tbsp each of sweet mustard ketchup, superlight mayo and tomato puree.  I love it!

SW:  one healthy extra B for the pitta, three syns for the mustard ketchup and half a syn for dessert.

Body Magic:  step and balance exercises

Summary:  one healthy extra A, one B, four syns

Wednesday, 11-11-20

 Good morning!

This is such a favourite breakfast!  This time they were made with toffee Mullerlight and chocolate caramel skinny syrup and wowee!   I'd have them every day is I thought it was wise.

Hearty bean and veg soup for lunch.  I found one single, solitary laughing cow triangle in the fridge so I popped it is the soup and it worked well.  Being so low fat, it didn't melt that quickly so now and again I'd get a more cheesy mouthful which was nice.

That pizza base worked well.  40g wholemeal SR, 20g red lentils, ground up, 60g natural yogurt plus some garlic granules, a tsp nutritional yeast flakes, a pinch mixed herbs and some salt.
It's not a bready base, it's sort of crunchy and I really liked it.  More substance than a wrap base and not soggy.
Using SR flour doesn't bring much to the plate - I will try plain wholemeal next time or maybe strong wholemeal.

Today's plans:

B:  sausages and beans

I've heard people say some very good things about the Linda McCartney rosemary and something-or-other vegetarian sausages and, as they are free on Slimming World, I thought I'd give them a go.  I'll let you know!

SW:  half a syn for something spicy in the beans

L:  cheesy chicken toastie, coleslaw; fruit

Just what it says - shredded cooked chicken, some grated cheese and, probably, some onion chutney for a couple of syns.  I have some grated mozzarella light left over from yesterday so I'll make it up to one syn's worth with grated 50% light.  I also prepped too much mushroom so I'll probably pop that in too and it will all be toasted in my microwave mini griddle thingy.

SW:  one healthy extra A, one B, two syns for chutney, one and a half syns for half tbsp M&S half fat butter and one for coleslaw (also left over)!

D:  salmon, chips and peas; yogurt or kvarg

I really fancied this when I was doing today's planning.

SW:  two syns for one tsp oil and one syn for some dunking mayo.  Also half a syn for dessert

Body Magic:  personal training online today

Summary:  one healthy extra A, one B and eight and a half syns

Tuesday, 10-11-20

 Good morning!

Yesterday's breakfast - egg and bacon muffin.

Lunch - chicken and beans, and if you look carefully, the little green bits you can see are mushy peas, left over from Saturday.  Waste not, want not!
Not terribly exciting but OK.

This was VERY nice.  If you have access to lifeline online, look for chicken and hash brown burger.  I won't bother with making the salsa again but the hash brown was both simple and delicious and I shall make some more for the freezer at some point.

I have salad left over for dinner today!

Today's plans are:

B:  toffee pancakes or waffles, berries

It's the same recipe but I add water to it if I'm making pancakes

SW:  one healthy extra B for 40g wholemeal SR flour (one of my tweaks) and half a syn for the toffee mullerlight

L:  bean and veg soup, fruit

From the freezer.

SW:  free

D:  chicken and veg pizza, salad, coleslaw; yogurt or kvarg

I will use another 40g flour and maybe 20g ground lentils with some yogurt to make the base (still experimenting with added protein) and the cheese will be a healthy extra As worth mix of mozzarella light and cheddar 50%.  I can have 35g and 22g respectively so I'll see if that's enough when I grate it.

There's salad and coleslaw left over from yesterday too.
SW:  one healthy extra A and one B, one syn for mayo in the coleslaw and one syn for some base sauce, unused after the hunter's chicken last week and popped in the freezer.  Also half a syn for dessert.

Body Magic:

Summary:  One healthy extra A and two Bs, three syns.

I know it should really be two As and one B but occasionally I swap it round.  I could call it one of each and another six syns - it's swings and roundabouts really, isn't it?