I had a lovely weekend, mainly because Lara came home which is always a treat for us all.  My favourite time of the week is Saturday morning when you have the whole weekend ahead of you.  Low tide was 9:23 so we were down on the beach by 9 to make the most of it.

This is such a magical place; filled with space and light, it makes me feel so happy and alive.We pottered rather than walked briskly today and enjoyed looking at all the exposed rocks and rockpools.We walked along towards the pier.An extraordinary structure.It’s worth being on the sand early so you almost have it to yourself.The wind picked up a bit and I had wet feet so we walked back to the car along the promenade.  This is part of the view from Bottle Alley.I love having my girl home.We walked a lot as we walked in to St.Leonard’s for lunch and then back again (over 17,000 steps!!) and we also relaxed a lot.  In fact we relaxed so much I had time to finish knitting the scarf I made for Lara. I am very pleased with it, particularly since it was the first pattern I had ever followed.I have bought a new set of scales.  I can not find the scales I used to have since I moved so I bought new ones and they were delivered on Sunday morning.   I didn’t want to get back to my diet on Sunday though so Lara and I had a good lunch with my Dad and in the evening I finished all the snacks in the house (crisps and houmous mainly with red wine).

This morning I weighed myself for the first time in months – it was grim!  Heigh ho, I am trying to lose weight again.  I have written down what I weighed and I hope next week I weigh a lot less.

I began with 200ml cold water and then a hot water with ginger, lime and apple cider vinegar.  I was working from home so it was easier to control what I ate and drank. I had some grapes for breakfast followed by a small juice.The ‘ginger shot’ is a Jason Vale recipe of a chunk of ginger with half an apple.  I extended it slightly to a whole apple with the ginger and I used up the lime I started this morning.I made lunch early because I was hungry.  I didn’t have enough rice or quinoa to make a portion so I cooked up a cup of buckwheat groats.  They are really easy to make.  You put 1 cup of buckwheat in to a pan with 2 cups of water ( I added some vegan stock as well), bring to the boil, simmer covered for 10 minutes and then set aside for half an hour.I ate half the buckwheat with a red pepper, some sauerkraut that Rebecca had made, celery, cherry tomatoes, pickled beetroot and some alfalfa sprouts.It was very tasty.I had about 3 cups of green tea today and 2 glasses of water.  Late afternoon I snacked on a mandarin, a banana and 6 raw almonds.I made Oh She Glows’ ‘Soul-soothing African peanut stew’ for supper .  It was quite the challenge cooking anything with Harvey and Milton lieing in the kitchen in the middle of the floor but I persevered and I am glad I did.I had a small plate of salad leaves before the peanut stew as I realised I had not had any green leaves all day.This peanut stew is fabulous.  I made it because Marion had been telling me about how much she enjoyed it when she made it for her daughter Lucy who is a vegan.  It reminded me of what a wonderful recipe it is because it is full of flavour.  This is how I made it, which is similar to Oh She Glows but with no added fat and reduced chili so Harvey could have it too.Soul-soothing African peanut stew – thanks to Oh She Glows for the recipe

• 1 tbsp olive oil ( I used water to cut out the fat)
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red pepper, diced (I used a green one)
• 1 jalapeno, deseeded and diced finely
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut in to 1 cm dice
• 1 can tomatoes
• salt and pepper
• 85 g peanut butter
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 tsps child powder (I didn’t add this)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 handfuls of spinach or kale (I used spinach)
• Fresh coriander for serving
• roasted peanuts for serving (I didn’t add any extra to save calories)

1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil (or water) and add the onion and garlic.  Saute for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent
2. Add the pepper, jalapeno, sweet potato and tinned tomatoes.  Simmer for 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the peanut butter with 250 ml of the vegetable stock until no lumps remain.  Stir the peanut mixture in to the pan, with the remaining 750ml of stock, child and cayenne (if using)
4. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 10-20 minutes until the sweet potato is tender
5. Stir in the chick peas and spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted
6. Ladle in to bowls and serve with coriander (or parsley) and peanuts

I really recommend this amazing dish.  You could serve it over rice but we ate it as it is and it was lovely.  Oh She Glows says this recipe is for 6 people but we had 4 ladle fulls each which is about 1/4 of the amount.  According to Cronometer, each portion has about 400 calories.

And that’s it.  I ate very well, both in terms of nutritionally and for a woman on a diet.  I ate 1,162 calories and I am happy with that.  I did not do much exercise though as I did not get far from my lap top all day and then I was busy all evening with chores.