Christmas Quackers

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Up early today (well, considering it is Christmas week).  Pretty dawn sky to look at while the kettle boiled.

Quick bowl of banana porridge with sunflower seed butter and off to Ramsgate.  Lara came to help me change the house over for new visitors.  We had one set leaving at 10 am and another arriving at 3pm and it takes 12 hours to do the house properly!  It was like a scene from the Benny Hill show (but without the lecherous middle aged man and scantily clad ladies) as we both raced up and down and round and round, changing beds and cleaning the house until it gleamed and smelled fresh again.

The only respite was literally 5 minutes to eat a fish pie I had heated in the oven and then waited until it had cooled down and was quickly edible as no time today to sit and enjoy the view and wait for each forkful to cool down.

I was exhausted when we got home and fit for nothing more than meditating snoozing on the sofa.  Luckily the boys made tea.  We had crispy duck pancakes.  I had bought a big bag of frozen pancakes in Wing Yip.  They are really convenient as they come in 17 packs of 6 pancakes each so you just defrost how ever many you need.

The 4 of us shared 2 duck breasts which were sprinkled with Chinese 5 spice powder, cooked on 200 ° C for 10 minutes then 150 ° C for about an hour and a half until falling apart tender.  I had also bought a jar of plum sauce at Wing Yip’s.  It was lovely.  More like a plum jam than the sauce you get in Chinese restaurants and I preferred it.  Harvey chopped up cucumber and spring onion.

If you have never had these, where have you been?  then you should try them.  They are delicious.  They are a staple of our order when we go out for Chinese.

You take a pancake and spread it with plum sauce,

load up as much duck as you can get away with add some cucumber, spring onions and duck

and roll.

Completely delicious.  I was going to do a huge portion of stir fried vegetables as an accompaniment but was too tired so decided to have some fruit for pudding instead 🙂 .

For dessert we had baked apples, stuffed with mincemeat, titivated with cherry brandy.   These are so easy to make and require very few ingredients.

Baked Apples

Ingredients

1 Bramley apple per person (or other cooking apple)
1 tbsp mincemeat per person
Cherry brandy (optional)
Cream to serve (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 ° C
Cut through the peel in a line around the widest part of the apple.

Cut out the core.  If you are a gadget queen like I am, you will have an apple corer.  If you are not, go and buy one.  If the shops are shut, you can use a sharp knife or a vegetable peeler.  You will end up with a hole through the middle of the apple, as demonstrated by my young assistant.

If your apples are wobbly, cut a thin slice from the bottom so they stand up in the baking dish.  Fill the hole in the middle of the apple with mincemeat and some cherry brandy (optional).  You could use brown sugar and some butter if you don’t have any mincemeat.  Or maybe use up some leftover cranberry sauce?  Put what you like in basically.  It needs to contain sugar.

Pop in the oven for half an hour.
When the apples come out, they will ideally be on the verge of collapse as the insides will be so soft and the sugar in the filling will have caramelised.  They will be piping hot so be careful.

Serve with cold cream and a tipple of your choice.

The tray said it all, this was truly great.

I put mine on a tray with a glass of cherry brandy and toddled off to the sitting room, to eat this slowly on a tray, enjoying every mouthful, while I watched some cr*p light entertainment on tv.  Bliss.

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Feeling Japanese

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I have shown no restraint in the past few days and have enjoyed every mouthful and sip.  Now it is time to start scaling back.  I am not rushing to be super healthy but am beginning to get back on track, so by the beginning of January I will be in the weight loss zone again.

So I began the day with a smoothie.

An old favourite of 1/3 cup of oats, 1 cup of almond milk, 1 banana, 1 passionfruit and 1 tsp chia seeds.  When I took the photo of the ingredients I was going to use sunflower seed butter but as I put the ingredients in the blender, I thought chia seeds would work better.  It was satisfying and delicious.

One of my favourite presents this year was a splendid new tea pot.  I prefer loose leaf tea to tea bags these days but only had a large tea pot so Holly gave me a pot for one.  Actually it makes 2 cups and is fab.  It has a strainer within it so the tea percolates and is strained as you pour it.  A simple and genius design with a spout that doesn’t leak.  I love it.

I was also given a sachet of coconut tea which I tried mid morning.  It is a black tea with pieces of toasted coconut in it.

The tea pot and coconut tea is from Adagio teas.  It tasted and smelled lovely and I drank it without milk.

I decided to have some fun at lunch time and make Nori rolls.  Harvey and I have done them before with Jenni which I wrote about in the Masterchef Masterclass  post but James and Lara had not made them before.

Lara and I prepared the fillings by finely chopping cucumber, spring onions and smoked salmon.  We also had some dried onions (which I had bought previously in Wing Yip ).

James made the sushi rice and I also served black sesame seeds, wasabi and soy sauce.

Everyone had their own rolling mat and a sheet of Nori (dried seaweed).  We spread the rice on and then selected our filling.  I tried a bit of everything.

After rolling the Nori up we cut the rolls in half and then in to smaller pieces.

I served the Nori rolls with salmon which I fried in a ridged pan with a minimum amount of oil until it was just cooked through.

This was a really fun meal to prepare and it tasted lovely too.  It was great to eat something fresh and light after all that rich food of Christmas.

But still being in the Christmas piggery zone, no meal is complete without a pudding!  Waitrose are selling Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream for half price so a carton is only £2.22.  Bargain.  I had some Phish Food and Coconutterly so we had some of both of those with the last pieces of the brownie pumpkin pie I had made for Christmas Eve.  I think a restaurant may have called that a “trio of chocolate desserts” 🙂

For supper I tried a Mary Berry recipe I had seen her make on The Great British Food Revival which has been a fabulous series where chefs/cooks champion their favourite ingredient.  Mary Berry was promoting fresh herbs and one of her recipes was a goat’s cheese, red pepper and thyme galette with onion marmalade.  The link to her recipe is here.

In summary, you caramelise 3 onions, roast and then skin 3 red peppers, roll out some flaky pastry, spread the pastry with goat’s cheese, pile on the onion, thyme and pepper then bake for 20 minutes.  Easy to make and it tasted delicious.  I served it with an undressed green salad and we all really enjoyed it.  Give it a go.

I have enjoyed the fruits and veggies I have eaten today and we all had fun with our Japanese lunch.  I wonder what we will feel like tomorrow.

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Christmas 2011 Highlights

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I think I can speak for us all when I say we have had a fabulous Christmas.  Noisy, mad, chaotic and crazy and all good fun.  I spent Chistmas in lovely Lyme Regis, with my 3 sisters and their families.  There is not much about food in this post, even though we did spend a significant proportion of our time, preparing food and eating it!  I allowed myself to eat and drink what I wanted without worrying about points or calories or even recording what I had.

CHRISTMAS EVE

One of the last things I did before leaving home was to decant the sloe gin I made in to these beautiful bottles for my brothers-in-law .  I bought the bottles at County Cookshop in Cranbrook.

We arrived at Lucy’s at lunch time.  She has the most wonderful kitchen for cooking and eating in, with plenty of space for everyone.

The children set about making a gingerbread house.

Ta da

While it set, we went to the Christmas crib service at Uplyme Church which was delightful.

We each took a day to manage the cooking and I was responsible for Christmas Eve.  I made a delicious chicken dish with prunes, tomatoes and olives which I will share another time.  I also made the North African Squash with Chickpeas (see recipe page), rice and a large salad.  Followed by brownie pumpkin pie (made without nuts and it still tasted lovely) and baked apples.  My cousin Miranda joined us with her children for supper too.

While I cooked the children settled down to watch a film

on the big screen.  As a BAFTA judge (and BAFTA winner 🙂 ) my sister Lucy is sent a copy of all the films which have a BAFTA nomination so there is always a stack of current films to watch at her house.  During the next 3 days, the children watched Arthur Christmas ( received a big thumbs up), Hugo (slow moving and dull) and Super 8 (only for the older children and adults as it was a bit scary but fabulous)

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas Day began early for the younger members of the house – 4am!!!  But they were good and managed to resist waking us up until 7 am for a flurry of present opening.  Followed by breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, maple syrup plus toast and cereal.

Most of us then went to Charmouth Beach, which is part of the Jurassic Coast which is a World Heritage site.  You can literally walk along the beach and if you are keen eyed, pick up fossils.  Real ones.  But we did not go to collect fossils but for the annual Christmas Day swim.  Not as participants you understand, but as spectators.

The children had a look for fossils while we waited.

They didn’t find any fossils but Harvey did find this interesting stone.  Children always find some treasure on the beach which has to be carefully looked after and taken home.

My beautiful niece Olivia.

The swimmers began to arrive from about 10:30 am, most of whom were in fancy dress.

Some wore more than others!

More and more swimmers arrived.

The crowds gathered to watch.

At 11 am, the crazy swimmers ran in to the water.

There was a wonderful party atmosphere on the beach and we really enjoyed the spectacle.

Back at the ranch Jim was in charge of Christmas lunch and Abi and Lara helped.  The rest of us flopped about, relaxed and began enjoying all that is yellow and fizzy and served in tall slender glasses.

The children played with new games.   Some played together,

while others found a quiet spot to play alone.

Lunch was a triumph.  Smoked salmon and parma ham to start with,

followed by the full works:  roast turkey, sausages, bacon wrapped around sausage meat, a vegetarian and a meaty stuffing, roasted potatoes, parsnips and carrots, brussel spouts, leeks and carrots in white sauce (one of our traditions), cranberry sauce (made by me), bread sauce and gravy.  YUM!

Followed many hours later by Christmas pudding with brandy butter and brandy cream and an evening of games, such as Mah Jong.

BOXING DAY

I often find Boxing Day far more relaxing than Christmas Day.  The pressure is off and everyone relaxes.  After a very leisurely breakfast, my Uncle and Aunty and cousin Miranda came round and we all walked in to Lyme Regis and headed for the end of the Cobb.  Lyme Regis is one of my favourite places on the planet and I love being there, especially when I have my family with me.  We all really enjoy being at Lyme as we have holidayed here nearly every year of our lives.  It is a special place.

Sister Holly with her hubby, Richard.

New Christmas hats and coats were worn,

Near the end of the harbour wall is a small but enchanting aquarium.  We thought the 21 of us may have overwhelmed it but were curious to discover what these were!  Any ideas?

The boys were nearly lost as they slipped off the harbour wall – LOL.

We eventually made it to the end of the harbour wall.  It was cold out there!

Brrrr.  Time to go to the pub.

The verandah of The Harbour Inn was quickly filled by our party of 21 and we sat and enjoyed a drink, some chips and the view.

Miranda lives in the centre of Lyme Regis and I wanted a closer look at her Christmas tree which she made herself so some of us spent the afternoon at Miranda’s.  She had collected driftwood from the beach and then made this beautiful tree.  This is my favourite tree of the year.

These charming ginger biscuits were made by a friend.

Lucy cooked a roast pork and a gammon for supper and Holly made a Key Lime Pie.  The food was fabulous, again.  The children ate separately and after a little play, went to bed quite early as they were all tired.

The gentlemen had great difficulty making it back up the steep hill from the harbour, where we had left them in the early afternoon.  Luckily there were plenty of pubs along the way so they could rest their weary feet during their 4 hour journey and try to decide whether they preferred Laphroaig or Talisker and other such weighty matters.  To say that supper was raucous would be an understatement.  We enjoyed a very hilarious evening, memories of which remain fuzzy.

DECEMBER 27 th

The day started with breakfast at one of my favourite eateries –  The Town Mill Bakery in Lyme Regis.  I walked there with Lara and Harvey.

From Lucy’s we took the scenic route and walked beside the river.

And came out at the bottom of the High Street at the Town Mill.

Breakfast at the Town Mill is more sociable than your average cafe and as fresh as it can be as you actually sit in the bakery and can watch them making the bread.  You pick up a bread board and help yourself to the freshly made breads, cakes or pastries (or muesli or eggs).

You sit at long trestle tables and share huge bowls of butter, jam and peanut butter and pass your neighbours bowls of sugar and jugs of milk.

I had a boiled egg with toasted sea salt and rosemary bread.

We always try and visit the Town Mill Bakery every trip to Lyme Regis as it is so lovely.

The large breakfast was the perfect fuel for a longer and more bracing walk today from Langdon Woods to Seatown.  30 of us set out for the walk and we were heading for the bay in the distance.

Some of the walk was rather muddy

and other parts were down a steep hill.

It was a lovely walk as the scenery was spectacular, there were so many lovely people to chat to and the weather was kind to us.  At the end we were rewarded with lunch at The Anchor Inn, Seatown.

It was mild enough for many to eat and drink outside, but as the family room was vacant, that offered a welcome respite for the younger members of the group.

My lovely cousins, Edwina and Miranda.

After such an amazing time, it was hard to leave in the evening but we had to.  Luckily we had a quick 3 hour drive home where our house seems very quiet.  Thank you Lucy and Trevor for hosting such an amazing Christmas.

We all had a very happy Christmas and I hope you did too.


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A Nomination

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I have been nominated for a blog award 🙂 .   I was delighted, especially since the nomination came from a blogger I do not know.  So it was from someone who enjoys my blog, as opposed to a friend being supportive.   Note to all my friends – please keep being supportive, it really helps.  I just mean that to have a stranger nominate you is extremely pleasing.

From what I can gather, the award is not something to be won, but rather an acknowledgement that someone out there reads your blog and likes it enough to encourage their blog readers to have a look at your blog.  So it can help to increase your readership.

Thank you to Vered at Eat Now Talk Later for nominating me.  I really am delighted so thank you again :-).

Here’s a little of the official information about the award:

“The Liebster Blog Award is given to up coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

The Meaning; Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The rules for the Liebster Blog Award are:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.

3. Copy & paste the blog award on your blog

4. Reveal your 5 blog picks.

5. Let them know you choose them by leaving a comment on their blog.”

So I have completed obligations 1, 2 and 3.  But number 4 is harder.  Mainly because most of the blogs I read regularly have way over 200 followers.  And others do not give any indication of how many followers they have.  So I have pondered this for a few days, and have decided to give my 5 favourites which I think have 2o0 or less.  If they have more, I did not mean to offend you, especially if you actually have thousands!

So my 5 blogs I recommend you have a look at are:

1.  Eat Now Talk Later which is a food blog with good photos and interesting and unusual recipes.   Vered’s food is influenced by her diverse and foodie rich heritage of Jewish, Indian, Israeli, Italian and English .  From her site you can also find a link to her sister’s blog which is also interesting.

2. Ape And Angel is not a food blog.  It is a blog about musings on life.  It is intelligent, funny, interesting, unique and very enjoyable.  There is also some poetry, which is a form of writing I particularly admire.

3.  365 Days of Breakfast appeals to me because of the photography.  The writer is Swedish and is a photographer who wanted to photograph every breakfast she ate for a year.  She has finished that task and I really hope she keeps going so we can see some more of these stunning photos.  I also like the variety in her breakfasts, which is a meal that most people seem to find difficult to vary much.

4. Girl Interrupted Eating is interesting because the writer, who lives in Nottingham, enjoys foraging for food, which is something I am beginning to do.  So this blog is inspiring for that.  I also like her recipes, which are seasonal and full of fresh food.

5.  Recipe Adaptors is written by a Brit living in Perth Western Australia and features many delicious looking recipes.  I was drawn to this blog because I lived in Western Australia for over a year, and loved it,  so I was interested to read something by someone who lives there.  The photography is good and the recipes very tempting, especially all the sweet dessert types!

So they are my 5 which I recommend you have a look at.  Now i need to let those 5 know I have nominated them and my obligations are completed.

As for the rest of my day?  Well, it has been a blur of rushing about and trying to get too much done in too short a time.  Why wasn’t I ready days ago?  I was too busy for breakfast.

The highlight of the day was lunch with my Dad.

We went to an Indian restaurant, Amani , near Epsom Downs.   The chef has come from the Cinnamon Club in London and the restaurant recently won an award for excellent Asian food.  The menu was different to the standard range of curries and the food was delicious.

We shared some poppadoms to start and they were not at all greasy.  I had mine with raw onion.

I had a taste of Harvey’s pollock cakes which were fantastic, as was the presentation.

I had Tandoori King prawns which were cooked with cheese, yogurt and cream.

Followed by Goan fish curry, cooked with coconut, coriander and kaffir lime leaves.  Delicious albeit rather rich.  I also had some sag paneer with it.

We finished with a “floater coffee” which is an Irish coffee without the booze.  It was a wonderful lunch.

Those who have seen me recently hopefully noticed my new hairdo in the photo :-).  I was feeling frumpy and middle aged so I have gone shorter and blonder and am very pleased with it.

Supper was a smoothie to use up fruit that needs eating: 3 nectacots, 2 passionfruit and a small banana, with natural yogurt and almond milk.  I spent the evening cooking and preparing for Christmas and am now knackered!

So I am off to bed and will be too busy for the next couple of days to post a blog, immersing myself in my wonderful family and having lots of fun, foodie and otherwise.  So I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and will be back very soon.

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Winter Solstice

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Happy Winter Solstice!  Today is the shortest day which means sumer is on its way 🙂 .  The date varies between December 20th – 23rd in the Northern Hemisphere and occurs when the axial tilt of earth’s polar hemisphere is farthest away from the star that it orbits i.e. the sun. Earth’s maximum axial tilt to the sun occurred early this morning.  So that makes today the shortest day.  An event worth celebrating, to those of us who love the sun and hate the dark.  I think the Earth was celebrating too because today was sunny and warm.

My throat felt a bit better when I woke up but a dreadful chesty cough has arrived.  Jane had kindly sent some echinacea round last night and Laura recommended a hot water drink with freshly squeezed lemon juice and cayenne pepper to boost the immune system.  Thank you both for your kindness.

I had cereal for breakfast today; Grape Nuts with some Greek yogurt and blueberries.

I love the malty crunch of this cereal which is one of my favourites but I haven’t had it for ages.  It was delicious.

For lunch I defrosted a chicken carcass and used it to make a stock which formed the basis of a sweet potato and red lentil soup.  I added some bay leaves to the stock, because recipes say to do that but I don’t know why.  I don’t get bay leaves.

They don’t seem to taste or smell of anything.  But as I happen to have a huge bay tree in the garden, I use it.  I cut off a twig and then leave it with the other herbs on the windowsill to dry out and diligently use it as recipes recommend.  But I am not sure why.

Having made the stock, I strained the liquid, put it back in a large pan and added red lentils and sweet potatoes.  I served it with bits of chicken picked from the carcass and some Shropshire Blue cheese.

We went for a lovely walk this afternoon.  I haven’t felt up to a walk for a couple of days, but now that drill sergeant is home, I was not allowed to lie on the sofa after lunch.  We went to the woods and it was so warm (relative to the very cold weather we have had in recent days) and sunny.  So good to be out in the sun.

The dogs always love a walk and splashed about happily in the water.

We all enjoyed it.

Look how long the shadows are on Solstice day.  I think we get the longest shadows today.

Supper was quick and easy comfort food.  I had bought some wild boar chipolatas from the farmer’s market.

I cooked them with mashed potato and broccoli.  Easy to cook and tasty to eat.  I had quite a small portion of sausages and potato and loads of broccoli.  I also added some butter to the potato and some mustard to eat with the sausages.

I made my first Christmas food today – sausage rolls.  They are by no means diet friendly or healthy but if you are going to eat such things, I think it is better to make your own.  Then you can use good quality meat with a lower fat content than the standard shop bought sausage rolls.  Plus, you can roll the pastry really thin so you have a much higher meat to pastry ratio,  which again reduces fat plus reduces the amount of flour you are eating.  I had some wild boar with apple sausage meat and used that, but any sausage meat will do.

Sausage Rolls

Ingredients

  • 450 g sausage meat
  • 3 shallots
  • ½ tbsp of thyme
  • ½ tbsp of parsley
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Plain flour
  • 1 packet of readymade puff pastry
  • 1 egg

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 220 ° C.
  • Put the sausage meat in to a large bowl.
  • Grate the shallots and add to the sausage meat.
  • Finely chop the thyme and parsley and add to the meat with the salt.
  • Combine all ingredients well.
  • Roll out the pastry on to a floured surface.  Roll the pastry as thin as you can, keeping it in a rectangular shape.
  • Cut the pastry in to thirds, lengthwise.
  • Place one third of the sausage meat on to one of the three pastry strips and spread the meat along the centre of the pastry.
  • Put the egg in to a small bowl and whisk.  Brush the whisked egg along one edge/length of the pastry and fold the pastry over the meat and on to the eggy edge.
  • Brush egg along the top of the pastry.
  • Press the edges together.  To save some calories, I use a pizza cutter to  remove as much spare pastry as possible.

  • Cut the long sausage roll in to smaller rolls, about 3 cm long.
  • Snip 2 small holes in the top of each one with scissors.

  • Put the sausage rolls on to a lightly oiled baking tray and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

They came out crisp and crunchy.  A delicious snack.  Very high fat so not healthy but I accept I want to eat some treats like these so I prefer to make my own so I have made them as healthy as they can be.

I had one small one with a medicinal whisky with soda.  I enjoy a quality whisky with a splash of water.  But this was a blended whisky which I usually like to have with ginger ale.  But because I was trying to be good on my diet we have run out,  I had soda instead.  A very enjoyable treat.

Happy Winter Solstice.  Cheers!

 

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If Found, Please Return Voice

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I have lost my voice 😦 .  I have looked everywhere and can’t find it.  Which is so frustrating because there is so much I want to chat to Lara about but I can’t.  Plus I feel very grotty too and just want to lie down and sleep.  So my objective today is to mega dose on vitamins to help my immune system along.

Berry smoothie to start with:  raspberries, blueberries, marionberries, coconut milk, Greek yogurt and a banana.  Blitzed until smooth.  Delicious and easy to drink with a sore throat.

I didn’t feel very hungry today and certainly not up to cooking much, so I kept lunch simple.  We had pesto chicken with baked sweet potatoes and salad.

To make the chicken you just cover chicken pieces in pesto and bake in the oven at 180 ° C for about 40 minutes or until cooked.  I didn’t have any vegan pesto (pesto usually contains cheese) so we covered Harvey’s chicken in an olive paste.

Baked sweet potatoes are delicious and have become a favourite of mine.

I put one tbsp of olive oil and one tbsp of maple syrup in to a bowl and mix together.  Slice the sweet potato in to rounds and then add to the bowl and stir to cover in the oil and maple syrup mix.

Tip in to a roasting tray, sprinkle with salt, paprika and cayenne pepper and bake in the oven at 180 ° C for about 40 minutes or until cooked.

Some pieces come out chewy and others soft.  Some spicy from the Cayenne pepper and others sweeter, tasting of maple syrup.  Delicious.  This is a very quick and easy lunch to make, it’s full of flavour and has a lovely variety of colours and textures.

I was home alone for supper as everyone else has gone out.  I couldn’t be bothered to cook at all so I put together a platter of fresh fruit (cherries, blueberries and black grapes) which I served with a naughty treat of date and fig brandy cream.  WOW!  This cream was amazing.  I like brandy cream anyway but having the dates and fig in there for sweetness is absolutely brilliant.  I bought it in Marks & Spencer and might have to get some more as it is so lovely.

The fruits were not seasonal or local but they were what I wanted and were juicy, sweet and delicious.

Still looking for that voice though.

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Naughty But Nice

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I had a long and busy day ahead of me, cleaning the beach house from top to bottom and making up the beds, ready for the visitors coming for Christmas.  I have noticed it is much easier cleaning a 5 storey house when you weigh less!

We started the day with Tropical Porridge.  We weren’t exactly transported to the Carribbean but almost.

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 1 cup of Jumbo porridge oats
  • 2 – 3 cups of coconut milk, depending on how runny/thick you like your porridge
  • 1 large or 2 small bananas, chopped
  • 1 passionfruit
  • 1 tbsp nut or seed butter

Method

  1. Put oats, milk and  bananas in to a pan and heat until boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Serve with passionfruit and nut/seed butter.  I used sunflower seed butter.

Delicious.

I was too busy to cook lunch so we had a packet.  Yes, it’s true, I had a packet lunch.  Fisherman’s pie from the fresh chill cabinet.  The ingredients were all good with no additives.  And I decided to eat it from the pot it came in too, to make washing up easier.  I’m a classy bird aren’t I?

I enjoyed the view as I ate, as I always do.

I like the view down the street too.  I don’t have a street view from home as I live in a “semi-rural” area where my view is of trees and fields.  I like the busyness of the street and can spend hours sitting in this window, enjoying all the activity in the marina or down the street.

If you fancy fisherman’s pie beside this window with the beautiful view, you can rent the house through Freedom Holiday Homes.

By the time we got home I just had time for a shower and to change before going out to Vicky’s ‘Naughty But Nice’ party.  I was hungry so had a snack of dried fruit and pecans.  Not a good choice as it was too sugary but I needed something very quick.  I was clearly still feeling a bit tropical 🙂 .

Then off to the party which was FAB-U-LOUS .  Vicky is an awesome host who pays great attention to detail and goes to a huge amount of trouble to make sure everyone has what they want.  Vicky and I have lost the same amount of weight this year, so between us we have lost nearly 6 and a half stone!  Go girls!!  Vicky has always been very encouraging for which I am grateful and she has a wonderful saying when you lose some weight of “that’s another pound in the bank”.  I like that.

On arrival we were all handed a glass of fizz and while we chatted, plates of salmon and prawns were handed around.  Yum!  That was where the healthy food finished, unless you count the grapes on the table.

There was no strategy for avoiding the goodies on offer tonight.  It was impossible.  We were partying in the beautifully decorated conservatory which was decked out with ‘naughty but nice food’.  There was a table full of wonderful cheeses and crackers and look at this one.

Everywhere you looked was something you wanted to eat.

Most of it was homemade so it was even more delicious.

Check out this – a chocolate pot, made of chocolate and filled with chocolates 🙂 .  Vicky had just returned from chocolate heaven (Brugge) and I think she brought most of it back with her.

And even when you managed to resist eating what was weighing down the tables, cheeky little minxes like Mirella came and gave it to you anyway!

Resistance was futile so I gave in and enjoyed myself.  There were so many lovely ladies there to chat to: Esther, Marion, Debbie and Lisa,

Lou, Mirella and Suzanne to name just a few.

I didn’t drink excessively, despite the constant stream of alcohol and tables loaded with lovely wines.  I had 3 or 4 glasses of fizz and I did enjoy a Limoncello shot.  If I was to caption this photo it would be “Suzanne, you ARE having a drink” :-).

I definitely made a big dent in the cheese board and had a slice of pavlova.  But looking back at these photos, I can see there were plenty of lovely things I did resist, such as the brownies and cup cakes.    I had several pieces of chocolate.  Belgian chocolate is completely fabulous but it is very rich so you can’t eat as much as you may want to.  So although I definitely over ate and over drank,  it was not as excessive as other occasions have been.  Thank you Vicky for a lovely time.

It was a fabulous party and I caught up again with lots of dear friends.   The evening ended perfectly as someone special hopped off the last train from Durham.  Yes, my lovely Lara is finally home for Christmas :-).  A perfect ending to a splendid evening.

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Run Rabbit Run

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I was up early today so I was able to enjoy this beautiful dawn.

Harvey went to work with his Daddy for the day so I had a chance to get ready for Christmas.  Time for a potter about in the garden first though, crunching on the heavy frost.  What is going on out here?  The spring flowers are blooming.  They are all confused and this little rose bush is full of new buds!

I made a perfect poached egg for breakfast.  The yolk was runny and the white was just set.  A perfect egg is a thing of great joy.

Lunch was very easy – a reheated portion of the red kidney bean chill with brown rice, leftover form the other night.  It tasted better after a few days and I served it with some mango chutney and Greek yogurt.

Supper was a rabbit burger.  In the past I have not enjoyed rabbit and I suspected it was psychological rather then due to the taste.  I used to have pet rabbits as a child and don’t like the idea of eating them.  However, they are a low fat source of protein and I decided to stop feeling sentimental about it and try the meat again.  After all, it’s only a fluffy bunny isn’t it?

I bought the burgers so they don’t resemble the animal they come from.  I gently fried them in a ridged pan.  They didn’t shrink in size as they cooked so they had not been pumped full of water and it shows how low fat they are.

I served mine with ketchup and onion on a white bap (no wholemeal in the supermarket today) with pea shoots, cress, cherry tomatoes and beetroot in mayonnaise.

But I only managed one mouthful.  I just didn’t like the taste or the smell.  So no more bunny burgers for me.  I had some Shropshire Blue cheese instead and the salad.

Then Harvey and I headed off to Ramsgate.  I have a busy day tomorrow, preparing the house for Christmas visitors so I wanted to wake up in the house.  First job was the tree.

The rest of the chores can wait until tomorrow.  This is my view from my bedroom tonight 🙂

Oh yes!  You will never believe what happened at Weight Watchers this evening!!!  I actually lost a pound :-).  No idea how but I am pleased.  I know I was very bad several times this week but I guess the rest of the time I was very good and I did quite a bit of walking too.  Phew!  No weigh in next week so the next date on the scales will be January 2nd.  If I weigh the same, I will be pleased.  I want to start the new year with a 3 stone weight loss.

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Disasterama

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Wow.  What a night.  Great fun but a diet disaster.  I nearly always drive when we go out but last night James agreed to drive so I could be let loose.  We dropped Harvey off with his cousins and we went out with my sister Abi and Jim. It has been a very long time since I have been to a party with one of my sisters because we usually socialise with our children too.

As we left they were happily playing.

We arrived at Alison and Andrew’s.

I immediately began drinking and eating.  I troughed.  And troughed.  And then troughed some more.  I have wondered today why I was successful at Thursday’s party and not last night’s, when both parties had plenty of booze and food and fabulous and generous hosts.

One reason is that on Thursday I went out determined to not drink and eat much but last night I decided to ease up a bit.  Big mistake!  I also stayed in the kitchen last night but on Thursday I moved away immediately so was not near the food and booze.  That makes a massive difference as it is too easy to eat continually and then refill your glass.  I also think a big difference was that on Thursday I knew loads of people very well.  But last night I only knew 5 people and I guess I nibbled too much while chatting to people I don’t know.

The main reason though is staying in the kitchen.  The kitchen was full of plates of amazing food.  I practically hyperventilated in gastronomic delight when I walked in.  Everywhere you looked was a plate of something delicious.

Cheese board,

Mince pies,

Brownies,

Andrew is a fabulous cook and actually it was he who introduced me to those wicked chocolate bars with peanuts and Crunchie that many of you have since enjoyed.  And Andrew constantly walked around with plates of deliciousness:  sushi, cheese, egg and salmon bits on tiny bread rounds, steak pies, chicken kebabs, a selection of Indian snacks and many of these had dips to add to the calories count.  I am sure there was much more too.  It all proved too irresistible for me.

If I ever get invited again, please tie me to a chair in the sitting room with some water to sip.  And keep me away from the fizz, white wine, lime vodka shots and blueberry vodka shots.  Yes indeed, I overindulged in extremis.  It was a great party though and thank you very much Alison and Andrew.

This morning I decided to heal my body from last night’s excesses.  I began with a green smoothie.  I went outside and picked some Swiss Chard and added some parsley and broccoli.

 

This I put in the blender with 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, 1 tsp Chia seeds, 1 heaped tsp sunflower seed butter and 1 banana.  I blitzed it until it was smooth.

The smoothie was very refreshing.  That and some tea gave me the strength to set off round the village, delivering Christmas cards.  Harvey came too and we had a lovely time, chatting to dear friends and neighbours as we dropped off their cards.  I think I walked about 3 miles.

Lunch was quick and easy as it was gone 2pm when we got home.  Tuna and sweetcorn sandwich with a cup of Japanese Genmaicha tea.  This was followed by a long snooze!

James cooked dinner which was a rare treat.  We had roast lamb with roast potatoes, gravy, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and peas.  Yummy.

Today was not a disaster and tomorrow will be exemplary.

Posted in Diet Struggles | Tagged | 2 Comments

They Were All Yellow

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I woke up early today (6 am) and felt wide awake which is a good feeling.  I lay there quietly, enjoying the peace and stillness in the house as the weak wintry light slowly filtered in to my room.  I enjoyed knowing breakfast was already made too and all I had to do when I got up was to make a pot of tea.

When I roasted the Crown Prince squash last night, I kept back one of the quarters from the roasting tray.  I wrapped this in foil and baked it at the same time as I roasted the other dinner dishes and left it on the side until it had cooled.  When it was cool I mashed the orange flesh in a bowl, and then added 1/3 of a cup of oats, 1 tsp chia seeds, ½ tsp cinnamon and ½ tsp pumpkin spice mix.  I mixed these ingredients together and then added enough almond milk to cover and mixed that in.  I did not refrigerate but left it covered, on the side as I dislike eating this dish chilled.

The colour of the squash is very vivid to say the least!

This breakfast may not appeal to all of you but a home roasted squash is much tastier than a can of pumpkin puree and I really enjoy it.  The Chia seeds swell up over night which helps to make this very thick.  I used Flahavan’s organic rolled oats, rather than jumbo oats when I soak them overnight and by morning the oats are completely soft.

Once a month there is a farmer’s market in Cranbrook and it was on today.  I always buy some of the meat from Cherry Tree Farm in Frittenden (such a cute name for a farm – like something out of an Enid Blyton book!) so we have a shoulder of lamb for roasting tomorrow and some boneless pork chops for the freezer.

I also bought some goodies from V.J.Game to pop in to the fridge and freezer for later.  Home Gurrown were there today and she makes lovely quiches, pies and Scotch eggs which I bought for lunch.  If you live locally, pop in next time it’s on and support the local producers.

I bought this cheese too which I had to sample while I prepared lunch and it was lovely.  I like my hard cheeses to be hard and this was, with a wonderful creamy rich flavour with strong blue cheese notes too.  That won’t last long in my fridge!

I had to get some bits from the supermarket too and this is the view of the windmill from the Co-Op car park.  Such a lovely sunny morning.

Lunch was a Scotch egg with salad.  Harvey and I shared a smoked salmon egg and a pork with tarragon egg.  They were delicious, with lovely fresh eggs and a very meaty shell which was not at all greasy.  I particularly liked the smoked salmon one although I found it slightly salty today.  That may be me though.  I have noticed that as I eat more whole foods and raw foods, I eat a lot less salt and rarely need to add it any more to food so I have perhaps become a bit sensitive to it.  After I had taken the photo I decided I needed mayonnaise with this so I added a large dollop of mayo which went well with the salad and the Scotch egg.

Smoked salmon Scotch egg is a genius idea.  It works very well.

We had a good walk in the woods this afternoon.  Another bracing walk in the cold but all agreed we felt better afterwards.

Supper was very early again as we are off to a party in Sussex tonight.  I am attempting to copy my success of the other night by eating a substantial meal before going.  I picked up some chicken breasts from Wilkes in Cranbrook and sought inspiration for a recipe in  The Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.  This is a massive book, with over 700 pages in it.  I cooked the chicken with lemon and parsley.  The chaps had a baked potato too but I ate mine with just carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.

We weren’t sure what the point of the parsley was as it went black, crispy and inedible in the pan and we couldn’t really taste it in the chicken either.  Maybe it added a subtle flavour.  This was a reasonable meal.  Not exceptional but good enough to eat and will possibly be made again.

I have noticed, from writing up what I have eaten today and going through my photos, that nearly everything was yellow!  Off to Sussex now.  Party on!

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