I was packing a lot in today so meals were fast.

I made breakfast last night – Chocolate Chia Oats from a newly discovered blog called Sugar Free Mom which my friend Laura recommended for me last night.  I mixed together:

• 40 g porridge
• 100 g Yeo Valley Natural Probiotic yogurt
• 150 ml soya milk
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp apricot kernel butter

This lot added up to 13 points.  Not worth that many points and I don’t like chocolate for breakfast.  It made me want to eat sweets all day 😦

So easy to wake up and there is breakfast,  all ready :-).

Talking of Laura, she has been very supportive of my efforts to lose weight and gain health.  Laura has been particularly encouraging of increasing activity.  So people do not feel daunted by the prospect of adding activity in to already busy lives, she suggests just trying to add a mile a day.  If you walk briskly, that only takes 20 minutes.  So far this year I have managed to fit it in nearly every day.  It is successful because it is not too much but it is enough to bring health benefits and help weight loss.

I earned 7 points today due to activity which is great.

Laura has set up a Facebook page to encourage us all to do M.A.D.  Have a look – it is very motivational.  http://Facebook.com/MileADayIn2013

After today’s activity, I was starving so made a very quick lunch which was excellent.  This beef salad would be an easy thing to do in the evening after a day at work.  I think it took about 10 minutes to prepare from deciding to make it to sitting down and eating.

I got the recipe from Donna Hay’s book ‘Off The Shelf, Cooking From The Pantry’.  I had some spare steak as James was not home to eat his last night and I have meals planned for the weekend.  It would have been a shame to waste it!

Spicy Beef Salad

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 1 Rump steak
• 1 tsp oil
• Green salad leaves
• Celery
• Fresh mint
• Fresh coriander
• Juice from 1 lime
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp spicy Asian paste (I used Thai Taste Tom Yum Paste)
• 2 kaffir lime leaves

Method

1. Heat oil in pan and fry steak.  I like mine pink but not bloody so did 3 minutes per side.
2. Set aside.
3. Make salad with green leaves, celery, mint and coriander and place in bowl.
4. Mix sugar and lime juice and dress salad.  Toss to mix well.
5. Heat paste in frying pan for 1 minute and crumble kaffir lime leaves on top.
6. Slice beef and add to pan.  Stir to coat in the spicey paste.
7. Place on top of salad and serve.

This was absolutely delicious.  The spicy paste left a warmth in my mouth and was a wonderful contrast to the sweet and tangy dressing in the salad.  It was quick and easy to make and another bonus is that it was only 7 points (165 g rump steak = 5, 1 tbsp Tom Yum = 1, 1 tsp oil = 1 and 1 tsp sugar = 1).

One of the best parts of this lunch was the mint.  I was dubious about adding it but it combined with the other flavours very well.  I now have plenty left to add to hot water for a very refreshing drink and for some exciting recipes I am planning for tomorrow.

I am going out tonight, over the road to Sarah’s for drinks and nibbles which always spells diet disaster.  I will try and be good.

I wasn’t in the mood for a meal tonight or more to the point, cooking anything so I had 2 Karg’s crispbreads with butter and Gruyere.  Plus an apple and some almonds.  Then some more almonds and some dates.  So today I have used all my normal points and activity points and some weekly points.  Hope I’m going to behave tonight!