New Award

Today at SW I got my two stone award! YAY!

Awards

This week in group I got certificates:  Slimmer of the Week and my Club 10!

That means that I have lost 10% of my original body weight. I am amazed. If I do 2lb this week that's 2 stone gone!

Don't they look lovely lined up like that?!

I also did 4 miles at the gym yesterday, and 4.5 this morning, so there's that going on as well.. here's to a good week.

Pancakes!

YUM.

My SW consultant posted a recipe for pancakes on our Facebook group and I decided to make it. I've had a bit of a shocking week foodwise as I've been really emotional and angry at the world, but today we decided that instead of indulging in syn-heavy ways we would try out this recipe.

I am so glad we did. They were scrumptious!

Training So Far

Going from fat to fit in 11 months is no easy task!

I've been going to the gym recently and I like recording what I've done so I can look for progress later on.

So that was 15km on the bike and 2.5km on the treadmill on Thursday.

I did a 2.5mile walk on the Friday, then today (Monday) I did 1km on the treadmill and then 4km on the bike. (I was in a horrible mood today and didn't want to be at the gym. Haha.)


I also now have had my induction at the leisure centre so can go there whenever I like. Hopefully, I'll be fighting fit in no time ('no time' being, September 2014!!)

Comparisons

A week ago I was showing my other half these photos, and he started showing his friends too. I am so pleased he is proud of me - I am proud of me too.

The left hand photo was at my nephew's christening, late May. The right photo was at a friend's wedding, August 30th. There are 21 pounds of difference between the two. I hadn't really realised how I was changing until you see it side by side like that.

Happy happy!

Week Three Weigh In: Slimmer Of The Week!

SO PROUD!

I am Slimmer of the Week! I lost 4.5lb! I got my half stone award and sticker on my book! 

Look at the haul I got for being slimmer of the week:

Every group member brings a piece of fruit or something and the person that's lost the most weight that week wins the basket full. There was an extra banana but I ate that before taking the photo.. but it still shows how much I've got! Very happy :)

Here's to doing the same thing next week! This week is mostly going to be sponsored by 'finding nice things to make with scan bran' (which I detest) - favourite idea so far is a spiced cake recipe, I'll keep you updated!

YAY!

Steak!

On our anniversary, we decided the best thing we could have would be a beautiful steak dinner. Homemade peppercorn sauce (free), butternut squash cubes (free, though didn't work out as planned - not crispy enough), salad - and the main event, the biggest piece of meat you have ever seen.

I left half of mine and had it with salad for lunch the next day!

Never let it be said that SW isn't full of possibilities for having all the things you love!

:D

Cape Cod Chowder

Well this is a true thing of beauty. One of the recent SW magazines had this recipe in there and we decided to try it, given that we had fish in the freezer from a clearance shelf at Tesco and decided we fancied sea food.

Smoked river cobbler, prawns, mussel meat, and bacon cooked in milk with leeks, parsley and probably coriander (the boyfriend made it, and he got himself some plants this week and loves the coriander) -  it was so good we had it two days in a row.

This is probably one of my new favourite SW recipes. It's also 'fancy' enough that if we had people over for dinner, I could serve it and be proud of it and no one would know it was on plan!

Fake-Take-Away: Indian - Heart Dopiaza!

We were looking for cheap meat and I (perhaps foolishly) picked up a pack of sheep hearts. "Hey, shall we go for it? Live on the edge?" I said, knowing full well that it'd be me that cooked them. "Yes!" was the resounding answer I got back. I then proceeded to scowl at them in the trolley all the way around the supermarket, as I wondered what kind of ridiculous idea it was for me to point them out and how was I going to cook them and what if they still had blood in the cavities and and and ick.

They were delicious. So tender and beautiful!

I made a Dopiaza curry in the slow cooker - literally dopiaza is double onion, so there is a spicy onion sauce and plenty of onions chopped into it. We should have had more vegetables with it, I know that, but we wanted a 'takeaway' experience. I also made a SW raita which was absolutely beautiful - and I've since made it again to have as a salad dressing. The boy reckons he could just eat it on its own with a spoon!

Success!

Beef Olives

Look at these:

I have never had these in my life and my other half is trying to convince me that they're a common thing and it's me that's odd for not knowing what they were!

Beef Olives are (apparently) minced beef and onion formed into balls and wrapped in bacon, then baked. And usually served with gravy, but we didn't fancy it.

They were nice, don't get me wrong! But I've never heard of them!

A Catch Up: Goals and Challenges

I've been remiss on updating the blog because I have a new job and it has utterly zapped me of time and energy. In fact I have two new jobs, but the point is still the same. I am exhausted.

Because of work, I couldn't go to my regular SW group (9.30am) and had to go later (5.30pm) and I was terrified it was going to affect my losses. I text my consultant and asked her about it and she agreed that maybe 1/2 a pound - 1 pound, but it'd show the week after as a bigger loss.

Come the evening of the weigh in, I crept onto the scales rather scared. I lost half a pound. That was it. I was devastated. We'd had a really good week, I was excited, I thought I'd get my certificate for half a stone. All I can say is that I hope it does show up this week at the next weigh in otherwise I will be losing faith in this plan a little, heh. The consultant of the evening said he would tell my consultant how upset I was, and I think I thought she'd get in touch - but to be honest I've been so busy I probably wouldn't have been able to talk to her anyway. I was really down, though. Eventually I convinced myself to use it as motivational, and inspire me to make sure this week is a huge one and maybe even get Slimmer of the Week (maybe? it's good to have goals!) so we've tried really hard, and my new job (1) is 1000000 times more active so that will be good too!

I think I could be near my goal by my birthday next March. I've decided that's the big picture aim. We're going to a Masquerade Ball in November, and I'd like to be in a slinky costume for that night (as I should theoretically be half way to my goal, no?) And we've decided to go on a big holiday in the February, which means I would like to be looking fantastic for all of our photos. So again, I say, it's good to have goals.

We've tried really hard again this week, reprieving the Chicken and Mustard Casserole from last month (yummy again, though not quite as mindblowingly good). We made a macaroni cheese dish, which you're not going to see because it was revolting. We've had healthy fruity breakfasts, I've been taking salads to work and snacking on fruit and syn free yoghurts, drinking plenty of water. Hopefully, when this weigh in comes around, I'll be happier. I've resisted all of the cravings I've had (and there have been many, in my new workplace, and lots of things I would LOVE to indulge in) and have been 100% honest about what I've eaten. It needs to go well and I want to be happy when I get to group.

Eggs Cooked In Things!

After seeing this article on Buzzfeed about eggs cooked inside things, I decided to make a SW version and had a tasty brunch: eggs baked into my wholemeal bread and served with baked beans! Because it's a bit unusual as well, it felt like a real treat. And the boyfriend was impressed too! I used Martha Stewart's bacon and egg cup recipe but made it a bit more SW friendly and they were really very tasty!

Brunch is an underrated meal. The boy wants to reinstate Brinner (a la Scrubs) and I'm 99% certain he'll convince me to do a full fry up one night next week to sate his cravings, but for me, brunch is the best. Lazy lying in bed until 9am (or, shock horror, even later!) then a late breakfast/early lunch combo on one plate. Win.

Sweets and Pride

I've had another rough day so wanted to share the rather tasty sweeties we made in a bid to cheer me up.

Penguins! (Okay, okay, so the most exciting ice cube tray we own is penguin shaped. All the fun stuff will come like penguins.) Made a Hartley's sugar free jelly sachet up to half a pint with boiling water, and added two gelatine sheets. I let it cool for a minute or so then stirred in a yoghurt (in this instance a peach one, but a friend on Twitter suggested that a combination of raspberry jelly and Turkish Delight Muller light would be her choice and that sounds amazing). I put berries into the sections of the ice cube tray but I probably won't do that next time, the blancmange type jelly-ness was excellent on its own and I can always have fruit on the side. 

Sweeties!

And in other news, the pulled pork I slow cooked earlier in the week has been so cost-effective! We had it as a meal in itself, with BBQ sauce and mashed potatoes. We diced it into macaroni cheese (which I did not post here as it was not very nice at all!). We used it as pizza topping (and were quite generous with it!). I have had it twice through the week as a snack, cutting a few slices and nibbling them when I've been peckish. And today it finally disappeared into a pasta salad I made for the boy's lunch tomorrow. The joint only cost £3.50 in the first place! And it was beautiful. I am proud of myself on that one!

Fake-Take-Away: Pizza!

This week's takeaway was to be pizza, and I'm not going to lie, I was very skeptical about the idea of smash potato pizza bases!

However! They were fab! Topped with all manner of things - peppers, onion, sweetcorn, pork, even some spicy 'sausage' we made especially to imitate real pizzas - and smothered in fabulous melty cheese - happy tummies!

Unlike lots of people on the internet, we managed to get crispy bases on our first attempt - you can even pick up a slice and eat it from your hand like a 'real' pizza!

And there's some left for the boy's lunch tomorrow, so everyone is happy!

Sushi

I made my boyfriend this sushi selection for his work lunch, and when I worked it out the sushi nori (seaweed sheets) are only 1.5 syns. So it's a healthy lunch too! (I was going to make some with avocado, but it turns out that it's ridiculously high syn! So I'll not be bothering with that!)

Little cucumber and carrot maki, smoked salmon in the bigger ones and a nice rice ball with a little heart on top. I do spoil him!

Walking, Weigh In and Treats

This week we've tried to incorporate a bit more exercise into our days, and we went on a lovely walk in some local hills and actually worked quite hard at it!

But when the view ends up like this...

...it's hard to complain! It was a really lovely hour spent walking along the stream, admiring the baby ducklings and then climbing a horrible hill and walking back. I wish we lived closer to scenery like this (this park is a 40 minute drive away) so we could do that more regularly, and walking in the streets of the town doesn't have quite the same appeal!

At group this week I lost 3.5lb and am pleased with that. Next week I want to do the same again and get my 1/2 a stone certificate. And I know it could have been more, as I've now looked up the Lidl brand muller lights we've been having (muller lights have got so expensive!) and they're not at all syn free. Which would have been fine if I was aware of that and accounting for it, but to have an extra 4.5 syns every day that I didn't know about, not so good.

As a post weigh in treat, we had jelly and ice cream! Mixed a yoghurt in the freezer to create our own 'fro-yo' and served with jelly penguins! We're big kids at heart.

Birthday BBQ

At group last week it was all about BBQs and doing them whilst still on plan. It was also my mum's birthday, so we offered to do her a BBQ and try out some of the ideas!

I marinated skinless chicken legs in a variety of different spices and natural yoghurt - I made some with chinese five spice, some with tandoori spice, and some in balsamic vinegar. I also made skewers of vegetables and turkey, a big salad, a load of coleslaw and took bread rolls too - and everyone was satisfied!

Unfortunately the cake I made was not exactly on plan but it's only a birthday once a year, hey!

Manhattan Cheeseburger

In one of the recent SW magazines there was a feature of American inspired recipes, and we really liked the look of this cheeseburger. A wholemeal roll as our HEb option, with the cheese from HEa - with loads of salad bits and sweet potato fries, yum yum yum!

And even better (probably) - the fact that we buried cheese into the middle of the beef burger so that when you cut it open, gooey melted cheese escaped out! Divine! With a trimmed bacon rasher and a good spoonful of our syn free barbecue sauce, this was a nicer burger than you'd ever get in a restaurant and we were thrilled we'd made it ourselves!

We <3 Slimming World!

Fish Fingers and Chips

After not being too happy with the Chinese take away imitation, I decided I wanted another treat. Fish fingers and chips!

I saw a piece of coley fillet on the clearance at the end of the day at the supermarket, and it was only £1.36! With delicious sweet potato chips (spiced with cayenne pepper), SW coleslaw and a green salad. Delicious! I used HEb wholemeal bread for the crust on the fish fingers (which I admit are more like fish nuggets?) after dipping them in egg. The coleslaw was the nicest we've made it - probably because this time we grated the cabbage as well as the carrot so it was finer - and the only difference for next time will be that I want to make the fries thinner! There will be a next time for sure!

I apologise for the dodgy photo, we just wanted to dive in!

Fake Take-Away: Chinese!

Another Friday, another fake take away!

This week we had diet-coke chicken with water chestnuts and onion, egg fried rice, stir fried soy sauce vegetables and home made SW spring rolls!

My major disappointment was that I over cooked the chicken and all of the sauce was gone. It was too wet and not thickening so I cranked up the heat... and then got involved in something else and came back to it too late. Alas.

The spring rolls are made of lasagne sheets cooked for 5 minutes then rolled with the filling and baked for 20mins in a warm oven. Not quite the same as the real thing, but close enough for me!

Slimming World Group

I went to Slimming World Group today because I decided it would be good to have the group element again, and because I like the community aspect and the friends!

Unfortunately, her scales are a lot more accurate? depressing? unflattering? than mine, and I got a bit disappointed. The other consultant, her partner, and I had a chat about it. He was nice, and put me at ease about the whole thing, but obviously it still hurt.

We're going to have a good week - tonight we're having a slow cooker special made up from my cook book and Slimming World adapted. And as long as the number goes down, I guess it doesn't matter where we start?

I'm just looking forward to fake-take-away night! Bring on Friday. And bring on next Wednesday and next group, and we'll keep on going.

A Cookery Afternoon!

Yesterday I needed to make lots of things to last us through the week, as it's going to be a busy one!

And that meant there wasn't much time (or in fact desire) to make anything too special for my own lunch, in the middle of cooking madness... but the Fancy Beans On Toast I ended up having was pretty delicious for saying it was an instant quick fix!

I'd made light-sausage and bean casserole the night before, using the last of the BBQ sauce we had from the pork, chickpeas, butter beans and baked beans. Co-op Light Range Sausages are low enough syns to make them okay in something like this! I couldn't find any of the syn free Quorn ones in local supermarkets so couldn't pick them even if I'd wanted to. It was delicious in the end!

I also made another batch of 'KFC' chicken for the boy for his lunches (which keeps him happy!) and so far haven't snacked on any of them! I've been getting my bread/fibre choice in other places, so to have these as well would be wrong.

Finally, I made something that I was very sceptical about! Cream Soda Rice Pudding from the Slimming World Recipe Share Group. I've been happily using my milk allowance to make rice pudding and then adding sweetener at the end. This cuts out the middleman, plus whatever E numbers they add to make cream soda taste like cream soda linger into the rice pudding and it came out just like Ambrosia! Half the batch disappeared at dinner, the rest went with fruit at breakfast. Yum. We'll definitely do another run of this!

Butternut Cottage Pie

The other night, instead of making the traditional cottage pie I decided I wanted to use the squash I had sat looking at me. I had planned to make a risotto - it was on the menu plan and everything! - and then at the last minute decided I didn't fancy that. I am fickle! Some brief Googling later and I came across the idea of using butternut squash as the topping for a cottage pie.

So I made my usual recipe cottage pie - extra lean mince, onion, chopped vegetables (frozen - I am also lazy!), stock, herbs - but instead of topping with mashed potato, I steamed cubed butternut squash for 25 minutes until soft enough to mash and used that instead! Finally put it in the oven for 20 minutes to brown the top - and I was really impressed!

A nice spinach side salad and it was lovely, and the butternut squash topping snuck an extra superfree vegetable in there over and above potatoes! 

And it got another thumbs up from the boy. Success!

Fake-Take-Away: Doner Kebabs!

It sounds like a cruel joke but I assure you it is not! And best of all? It's syn free!!

These were incredible. I would prefer them over kebab-shop kebabs. I don't even know how to be begin to describe how satisfying they were - and how filling! By the time I was starting to feel like I'd had enough dinner, my plate looked barely touched.

Homemade syn free kebab meat, wholemeal pitta (HEb), spinach salad, homemade SW chips and coleslaw, with some of that syn free bbq ketchup from the pork dish to add a bit of spice to the kebabs.

I can't adequately explain how proud I was of this. Fake-take-away night is going to become a regular thing each friday evening, and next week we're having Chinese themed delights. I can't wait!

BBQ Slow Cooked Pork

OM NOM NOM.

A few days ago we made BBQ pulled pork (although I got lazy with the 'pulling' so it was quite chunky!) with potato rosti, spinach salad and homemade coleslaw.

Boyfriend says he's never letting me get away.

That pork is to die for. I also made some of the sauce as a syn free 'ketchup' alternative which I then served with the fake-take-away the following night (photos to follow, because it was incredible!) and will keep making as our condiment to go with practically everything.

Shoulder of pork went into the slow cooker and then was covered in the BBQ sauce and cooked on low for about 8 hours. I suspect the recipe originally came from Vicki Kitchen but I can't find it at the moment, sorry! A carton of passata was boiled with 5 tsp worcestershire sauce, 3 tsp of lemon juice, 3 tsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of mustard powder... and probably some other stuff too. >.< Then into the slow cooker!

Slimming World coleslaw is the easiest thing - simply chop or grate carrots and white cabbage and mix together with a good tablespoon of fat free yoghurt, salt and pepper.

And the potato rostis that survived this feast made a lovely brunch the next morning! I feel like I haven't stopped eating in the past couple of days - I hope it pays off on weigh in!

The most recent issue of SW magazine has yet more lovely recipes, and also mentions a voucher in Bella for free joining fee. I think I'm going to start going to group again. I think I would like that.

Snapshot of Yesterday

 A little snapshot of my day yesterday, before I post later with a full couple of meals and anything else to report.

Carrot cake muffin with yoghurt 'icing' is delicious! I think calling it a cake is a stretch, but it's made of cous-cous so has a solid bite to it which makes you feel like you're eating something more substantial - like real muffins. I made ours with ginger and cinnamon (because my carrot cakes were always well spiced) and that definitely worked better than the plain ones.

Can you guess what the top right image and bottom left are going to be?


I stumbled across the Vicki Kitchen blog and decided to try out potato rosti - as she rightly says, potatoes may be a great staple but they can get a little boring. I pressed them into a cake tin and baked in the oven for about 30 minutes. Next time I think I will shape them in a cake tin but not cook them in it, so that both top and bottom brown evenly.

The beautiful looking pink mush is doner kebab meat! I mashed various spices (chilli, garlic, onion powder, seasoning salt, mixed herbs) into it and made it into a vague square shape, and will cook it in the oven later today before slicing and serving in wholemeal pitta breads (HEb) with homemade coleslaw, SW chips and spinach salad.

And the even more beautiful looking thing in the bottom right image is my pesky boy, who decided to sit in the recipe folder when I put it across my lap to browse for more ideas. He's not on the menu!

Carbonara and Imam Bayildi

Savoury things are something I can easily neglect - my problem has always been the cakes, doughnuts, pastries, sweets of the world.

These are two of our most successful slimming world dinners of recent times - not perhaps beating the 'KFC' (of which there is a batch for 'nibbles' in my fridge 99% of the time!) but nonetheless, things we loved and were relatively easy.

Firstly, a friend recommended that carbonara made with Quark fat free soft cheese was indistinguishable from the full fat version, so we had to put this to the test. And since then we've had it several times - it's so quick to knock together after a full day at work and, more importantly, delicious! I'm sure there are recipes out there on the internet, but for ours I boiled pasta/spaghetti for however long stated on the packet, and whilst that was cooking fried off some extra trimmed bacon with an onion or two. I also mixed together in a jug a good heaped tablespoon of quark with two eggs, salt and pepper. When the pasta was done, I stirred the bacon into it with the creamy sauce mix, gave it a minute to warm through and served over some fresh spinach leaves. So good. Last time we had a more generic lettuce salad, and the sauce soaked into the leaves like a beautiful dressing. Perfect for that quick supper that doesn't leave you just making beans on toast!



Our second recent success is an Imam Bayildi. I have made this dish for years, ever since I had to present a dinner party at which several guests were vegetarian. I only remember that the cook book I used in the first place was full of garish photos - ever since then I've worked from memory (or experimentation, depending on who you've asked). This recipe is perhaps the most similar, though not Slimming World converted. For this dish, I also added a sausage for each of us, cut into pieces and served on top for 8.5syns each - which is a lot, but they're really delicious pork and leek ones from a local butcher! Worth it!
Aubergine are halved and then the soft inside flesh removed, leaving a shell about 1cm thick. Some prefer to cook the shells first - drop them into boiling water for about 5 minutes, and turn upside down to cool to help them retain their shape. The other way is to bake them with an amount of liquid in the bottom of the dish, which does mean baking them for longer but is generally a nicer result. In my opinion. Anyway. Make the stuffing sauce with fried onion, chopped tomatoes, plenty of herbs, any other vegetables you particularly enjoy (grated courgette can be nice, as can grated carrot), and add the chopped aubergine flesh, cooking down to make a thick rich sauce. Put it back into the shells and put them in a medium warm oven for about half an hour if you've pre-cooked the shells, an hour if you're putting some liquid in the basin with them in the oven. About half way through you will need to cover them to stop the tops burning, but remember to leave a little hole in the foil for the steam to escape.

Profiteroles

A long overdue post! With going up north for a family event, and other Life Stresses getting in the way, there's been a bit of radio silence over here - that needs stopping!

So two posts today, to make up for lost time!

Firstly, profiteroles. Adapted from this recipe for 1 Syn Cupcakes, which came out of the oven looking rather impressive. They rose like 'normal' cakes - I was rather dubious they might not get to that point.

As mentioned before, squirty cream is to me like a very legal drug. Low syn, makes everything feel like a proper treat. So it wasn't a long stretch to slice these babies open and squirt a little filling in, making them 1.5 syns each! Two on a plate with a couple of strawberries, yummy. And so easy!

Holiday

It's the first day of our holiday to my boyfriend's family for a christening - and in true holiday fashion, today has been a diet disaster.

I have had 40 syns today. :/ !

Over the last few days we've made some lovely Slimming World things - potato moussaka, cottage pie, quark carbonara, imam bayildi, profiteroles - and I'll share some photos as soon as we're home. The profiteroles were amazing. Such an incredible success. Very proud! They're definitely worth a post of their own!

But being on holiday isn't an excuse to really let things go as badly as this, so tomorrow is a new day and we will get back on plan and keep up the good work  ready for Monday weigh in!

Danone 'Danio'

The adverts for the Danone Danio yoghurts are adorable. Seriously adorable. And every time I see them I think "I would love to try that." So today I did. 

They are COMPLETELY worth the hype.

The television told me they were "extra thick" - I was not expecting them to be so thick that the spoon stands up on its own! The fruit at the bottom was lush - I had passionfruit, and the gold syrup and crunchy seeds was delicious.

For the syns they are worth, they are the perfect indulgence - they feel more like a cheesecake than a yoghurt. So so thick. Something that I wouldn't choose every day but when I had a cheesecake craving, this is what I'll buy.

The 0% passionfruit is 1.5 syns. 0% strawberry is just 1 syn.

The blueberry and the peach are 3 syns each but I imagine totally totally worth it. That's not even many. You get so much flavour and 'treat' out of it. I'm am a convert. They are even on special offer at the Co-op at the moment!

Week One Weigh In and Fifty Shades of Fruit Salad

This morning was the proper day for the weekly weigh in (not yesterday: it's just that I forget what day of the week it is because I'm a tool.)

I've lost four pounds! Boyfriend lost five pounds!

I was a bit disheartened yesterday to have thought I'd not done so very well. This has definitely perked me back up! And that's even with a cheeky takeaway last night (although we did choose the lower syn options) because I was feeling terrible and too apathetic to cook. We're on holiday over the bank holiday weekend, which might be a challenge, but hopefully we can continue this momentum. I do hope so!

We had a celebratory 'exotic fruit' salad to treat ourselves (plus a syn's worth each of squirty cream.. it was a celebration after all!) Add that to the fruit salad and natural yoghurt I had for breakfast this morning and I'm pretty sure we've had a good portion of our 5-a-day today!






















We had papaya, sharon fruit and strawberries. The other day we tried dragon fruit and I was really not a fan, but both of these were delicious. I hope we get them again!

Layered Treat Pot (and Tea Solves Everything)

I've realised I really like preparing food for my other half. My long term ambitions are all things which fit around being a home-maker, I see now, but I've never looked at it that way before nor have I ever really indulged in this kind of taking care of somebody. But I love going to his work place at midday to deliver some kind of tasty nutritious lunch, seeing him for 30 seconds, and then later having him come home to the smell of a hot oven and a dinner ready when he is. I know how much some of my old friends would laugh to hear that's what I dream of, though! We've just got to get him a good enough job that he can support his 1950s housewife whilst she cooks delights for him and raises the children!

Hey, a girl can dream of whatever she wants. The 1950s woman I imagine I could be also gets to wear very snazzy aprons, so it's a win-win really!

Today I took him a ham salad (with ham from a shank we slow cooked for cold meat), some syn free rice pudding (which he's been pestering me to make again for a few days now, ever since I tried it and shared it on here) and then a layered pudding, a treat pot if you will, made from a slice of the flourless chocolate cake (2.5 syns), a pot of his favourite low fat gooseberry yoghurt (2 syns), sliced bananas and a handful of strawberries. It looked pretty from the outside of the container, and was a nice little surprise for a Sunday afternoon at the office, bless him.

Unfortunately, I'm still not feeling terribly chipper myself. I'm hungry today like I haven't really been all week, craving cupcakes piled high with buttercream frosting, cookies, meringues and fudgey brownies. I have the most appropriate mug for the situation (a gift a long long time ago) and a lovely selection of teas, and am hoping that some sort of magic will infuse into my drink, warm me up and inspire me to finish (/start) my last essay. I wish I had some other sort of pick me up but there's really nothing here that I want to eat, and I'm too dispirited to want to cook. The internet recommended I knock up some scrambled eggs and beans, or make some SW chips quickly, to sate a hunger before I go on a binge. I don't see that I'm likely to make anything more taxing than a bowl of jelly, at this rate! (Hartley's Sugar Free sachets come in at 1 syn, for the record.)

I hope I cheer up tomorrow, but with the actual weigh-day (!), going to the doctor's, going to therapy and trying to sort out whether we're moving or not, it seems unlikely!

Or maybe all I need is this cup of tea, a few deep breaths and a moment of calm. We'll see.

The Wrong Weigh In

Well, at the end of the first week of living Slimming World style again, I have successfully dropped 1 pound.

Less than I'd hoped for, of course, but it's at least one notch in the right direction. The boyfriend forgot to weigh himself before work, so we'll see how he's done tomorrow.

I thought I'd have a lot more to say about this, but somehow I am quiet. Today will be a busy day and I am a little overwhelmed by the amount that's left to do, so perhaps I'll have more thoughts when my brain slows down again.

For now it's probably enough that it's the first step on a long path, but that first step it most certainly is.

ETA: Well, I'm an idiot. I thought it was Monday today. I'm a real special creature, me. So we'll do this again tomorrow!

Sweet Potato Curry

Yesterday's dinner wasn't a patch on the Chicken and Mustard Casserole but few things ever would be! Following on from a success like that is rather a big ask! (I was made incredibly smug by one of my boyfriend's colleagues reportedly saying to him, upon having a small taste of my boy's lunchtime pasta salad in the reduced-down bacon & mustard sauce, that he "wishes his missus cooked like that for him!")

All things considered, though, this Sweet Potato Curry was good, if not fantastic to photograph. Sweet potato chunks were cooked in the slow cooker with tinned tomatoes, chilli, garlic, onions, lentils and stock, with peas, broccoli, chopped peppers and hard boiled eggs added 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time to cook through. This is another one adapted to suit Slimming World from the Hamlyn cookbook, though turned out differently than I imagined. The boyfriend wasn't terribly impressed when I said we were going to have at least one 'vegetarian' day per week, but he seemed happy enough with his dinner last night and I haven't heard any complaints so far today!

And yesterday's sadness was helped greatly by the beloved bunny, who is such a mummy's boy that he decided that the place to be was directly under my chair whilst I was eating said curry (also pictured in the low quality iPhone photo: fuzzy slippers.)

It's not even as if he's begging for food - he hasn't learnt yet that (some) human food can be delicious for small rabbits, he just likes to be close to me. He is a darling. 

Tonight is just a simple fritatta made with red onions, potatoes, pepper and a sliced sausage (8.5 syns per sausage) so I doubt there will be anything worth saying about that - but tomorrow is the first weekly weigh in and chance to move our markers along the ribbon chart of progress, so either way, come success or disappointment, I'll have something to say!

Lunch, Plans, Sadness and Goals

I don't feel quite myself today, but I'm trying hard to focus on more positive things and look after 'me' in the best way possible. I think a while longer on the internet and playing with Bunny then I'll crack on with the essay I'm avoiding (and panicking about) and perhaps even reward myself with a bath this evening.

As I'm so blue, I wanted comfort food. I'm a simple girl. Emotions = eating (though of course I know they definitely shouldn't!) But comfort food on Slimming World, not breaking rules? More difficult, not something I've explored too much before!

So I made rice pudding. Syn free rice pudding using my HEa allowance of milk for the day, and then filled it with chopped banana and berries. C'mon, when you're down, rice pudding is going to put a smile on your face. Or maybe that's just me. I don't know. :) Recharging with the magazine, though, I'm sure that's a more mainstream cure for the sads! It's full of motivation and success stories - one of the women in this edition is about my weight and is now even smaller than my target, and stunning. I want the dress she's wearing! I think when I reach target weight I will buy the most glamorous dress I've ever owned (wedding dresses not included!) and hold a party in which I am a princess.

But reading these success stories also made me think that I might need to be at a group, and I'm terrified that I won't get the reductions each week that I'm hoping for. The My Fitness Pal app which I use as a food diary each day, writing syns into the comments and notes sections, keeps telling me I'm not eating enough and might be putting my body into 'starvation mode'. But I'm not starving myself, I'm not particularly hungry most of the time, I feel like we're cooking good quality food. I'm worrying about Monday and weighing ourselves and I've got no need to be worrying about that yet. I'm very good at worrying, though!

Bigger picture, though. We're in this for the long haul. Lifestyle change and all that jazz. So I thought I'd show you what's up on my wall in the kitchen - the boyfriend and I have made one of those ticker/countdown things people have on the internet, but in real life!

Our goals are on blu-tack so can be moved if we reassess where we're at, and I'm worried I'm going to want to lose more than we've got length for! But right now, that's not something I need to be concerned with! I just think it'll be lovely moving along the slider and getting visibly closer to where we want to be.

Chicken Mustard Casserole

Turns out I was wrong, and my brother didn't insist on McDonald's! As we were walking and trying to decide, he volunteered Pizza Hut as his choice, which I politely suggested wasn't a good idea, and then he saw a Subway in the distance. Seeming to be the lesser evil, I thought that would be fine - but as we walked towards it, we saw a lovely little local cafe next door to it! Perfect!

I was planning on having a jacket potato with beans, but after ordering, the lady came back to the table and said "we've been so busy.. we've run out of beans... what else would you like?" and after a minor fluster, decided I could use cheese as my Healthy Extra 'A' and that'd be okay. I'm glad I did; I haven't had cheese in so long and it was delicious!

Dinner, though, was a whole new level of amazing. Boyfriend sounded like he was having a religious experience eating it! He said it was the best thing I've made from the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbooks: 200 Slow Cooker Recipes (though of course I Slimming World enhanced it) and I have to admit it was pretty special even if I say so myself!

Chicken drumsticks and thighs (skinless) were browned in a frying pan before going into the slow cooker. I then dropped half a leek in to the frying pan with some chopped bacon, added stock and three tablespoons of wholegrain mustard, brought to the boil then put that into the slow cooker too. I added baby new potatoes and cooked the whole thing on low for about 9 hours. When we got home from work, I added the other half of the leek and gave it 20 minutes to soften, then served with salad. The other half used his Healthy Extra 'B' wholemeal bread to mop up the sauce, too. The meat just falls off the bone, no effort involved, and it was sweet, sticky, om nom nom.

Later I boiled up the remaining sauce into a much thicker one, cooked some pasta and that's the basis of lunch today as a cold pasta salad. So it's frugal, too, in a way! We're not exactly on a high budget at the moment so most of what we're making is fairly cost efficient, budget brand, so I'm very proud that we're still eating such nice things. And, yesterday I treated myself to the Slimming World magazine which has a good 40 recipes in it, so we've plenty of ideas to be playing with!

ETA! Forgot to mention the Syns! The casserole would be just 0.5 syns per level tablespoon of mustard!

More Cake (and other stories)

..because why the hell not?!

I've realised that whilst it definitely still will be a dark chocolate flavour, someone (me) may possibly have used too much cocoa powder and that might possibly be why it's so bitter - the proportion of sweetener to chocolate is wrong. Oops? But at least we liked it enough to make it again anyway, and it wasn't a recipe written off for no fault of its own!





















The trifles I was making the other day were rather good indeed. The already-moist chocolate cake absorbed the custard and became akin to a chocolate sponge finger - delicious with the berries. And with an (artistic!) squirt of cream, almost like a real trifle and satisfied my cravings. For a low syn dessert, I don't think you'd get more 'decadent' feeling.

And then last night we had it with custard again to show the boyfriend my discovery, and....

So good. So very very good. Syn free custard is my new favourite dessert - you could have that with all kinds of fresh fruit, or chill it down and have it with frozen berries as a cold ice cream substitute, and it's so easy to make. Perfect for us. The first time I made it I used approximately 20g of sweetener - this time I used just 10g and it was still fantastic. Given that the recipe advised me to use 50g... I can't imagine it would need that much!

Today is a breakfast-on-the-go kind of day so, unfortunately, there might not be anything worth writing about - I'm going out today with my brother, who will inevitably want to go to McDonald's since we'll be in a town that has such luxuries, and so tonight will either feature a post about how virtuous I feel or the syn value in relation to the quality of Happy Meal toy I've received!

I am putting a chicken and bacon hotpot in the slow cooker, though, so if that turns out nicely there'll be another savoury recipe to make up for all these posts about cake!

SW Chocolate Cake (Part 2)

After giving it a night in the fridge (which every recipe assured me was the right thing to do lest I be traumatised by the lingering flavour of kidney beans), we're now ready to present the Chocolate Cake!

One of my Facebook friends posted the recipe to this Healthy Chocolate Cake as a gluten free, low carb idea. From there, I ended up using this recipe from Eating Well Living Thin, and I worked out the Slimming World syn value for the ingredients given. By my reckoning, it's 31 for the whole cake - mine has cut into 12 generous slices but as it's so rich, you could easily serve smaller pieces. That made it a chocolate cake which looked very promising, for just 2.5 syns a slice! We couldn't resist trying it out.

Last night you saw the food processor full of gooey chocolatey goodness. Those of you lucky enough to be twitter friends of mine also got the bonus picture of my boyfriend - and this picture too, the product as it came out of the oven looking - much to my surprise, if I'm totally honest - like a real, normal, full fat chocolate cake! Risen tall, unexpectedly tall - with a cracked shell like a brownie. The whole flat smelt delicious. Our hopes were very high as I wrapped it in cling film, put it in the fridge and went to bed for the night, dreaming of soft, moist, creamy chocolatey cake crumbs!

It still smells good today, it definitely does have that going for it, though I can't say I'm 100% happy with the overall result. Have you ever had a bitter chocolate torte? It's reminding me of something I tasted in Austria, though I can't at all remember the name. It's got a beautiful moist texture, it's just very 'dark chocolate' when my palette is of course used to MILK and SUGAR and FAT and all the things we're trying to avoid at the moment! I think with a little more sweetener it would be magnificent, and we will be trying it again for sure - but I've already made some improvisations with what we've got.

Yesterday I was talking to the boyfriend about a craving for trifle, so I went hunting for syn free custard recipes (with custard being sugar, egg yolks and milk, I couldn't see that there would be syns involved - but I like to check these things against the greater knowledge of the Google masses!) - it turns out that my boyfriend doesn't actually like trifle, which put paid to that idea. (Next time he's on a conference I'm getting my sugar free jellies, SW custard, fresh berries, and making a trifle that will last all week. Probably. Unless I eat it in one night for dinner.) However! Not to be perturbed by his lack of enthusiasm, I made SW custard today and  had my slice of this cake with lashings of hot custard and a handful of soft raspberries. The sweetness of the custard and the fruit made this cake absolutely amazing. In my opinion, it just needed that little bit of extra sugar (or sugar substitute) to make it really sing - and boy am I glad I went with my instinct on that one. It was incredible. I'm now upset that I took a slice to my mother for her to try ("yes mum, I've made a cake with kidney beans in... no, it won't taste like kidney beans!") when it would have impressed her one hundred times more as a warm dessert with custard and fruit.

But you know me, so we're taking it one step further and trying another approach to getting my own way in the Menu War with my beloved boy - tonight's dessert is going to be chocolate cake and raspberry 'trifles' and the custard is setting as we speak. I hope it turns out as nicely as the hot dish! Plus, one slice of my cake created these two small trifle bowls - which makes this a 1 syn dessert! If you wanted to make it even more special, a bit of non branded low fat squirty cream on top would be but half a syn for 2 level tablespoonfuls making this into a really luscious party treat that you can 'afford' to have every day on Extra Easy!

I also treated myself to those little glass dishes from a charity shop recently and think they're delightful, so I imagine that when pudding is finished I will make us both wait to dive in whilst I take a series of artistic photographs. I'm sure you can't wait to see those tomorrow :P 

So far today has been a really good day - delicious fruit breakfast, a second batch of the 'KFC' chicken made for lunch (and totally demolished, given that I then had to make a special trip to his workplace to deliver it to him still-warm) and a dinner that I've not made in a long time - Imam Bayildi, made 'my' way, with a sneaky sausage in there too using a few more of our syns and getting things out of the freezer ready to be replaced with bags of frozen vegetables and other SW staples. Tuesday is a neglected day, I think, so I hope yours is shaping up as nicely as mine has.