Fancy a Date?

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

My intention today was to try and eat all raw foods again.  I had made an overnight oat mix by soaking 1 cup of oats with 2 cups of almond milk and 2 tbsp chia seeds before I went to bed last night.  I blended half the oats with strawberries and the other half with banana and passionfruit.  It was served in a glass with coconut on top.

Harvey and I both really enjoyed it.  It is not as pudding like as the chocolate and frozen banana version but still good.

Every spoonful was tasty.

Despite the frost on the ground I went to play tennis.  For the first time perhaps ever, I almost wished I hadn’t because it was so cold.  I never felt properly warm and consequently played really badly which is always frustrating.  It was good to see everyone though.

At home I made a relatively healthy hot chocolate with almond milk and cocoa powder which I ate with 6 fresh Medjool dates which I bought in Vegetare in Cranbrook.  They are full of sugar so full of calories/points but they are delicious as an occasional treat.  They do have 1 WW point each (or about 60 calories) so don’t eat too many!

Medjool dates are full of sugar but also contain vitamins and minerals so if you fancy something sweet, they are better than many alternatives such as sweets and biscuits.  Fresh dates, like these, are less calorie dense than dried ones so enjoy them while they are available.

I decided to try another raw lunch.  Adapted from a recipe in Raw Living which makes a dip from broccoli, pear, tahini, flax seed and Nori flakes.  I used similar ingredients but decided to make a Nori roll.

I blended the pear, broccoli, 1 tbsp flax seed oil and 1 tbsp tahini in a blender until smooth.  To make the Nori roll:

Lay the Nori sheet rough side up on a sushi rolling mat.  Spread the broccoli mix over the sheet, leaving a 2 cm gap at the top so the roll can be sealed.

Add the filling – cucumber, sprouted mixed beans and black sesame seeds – about 1/3 of the way up the sheet.

Use the sushi mat to roll up the Nori roll.

Then cut it with a wet knife.  This mix was more sloppy than sushi rice so the Nori sheet got very soggy.  They do not look as good as Nori rolls made with sushi rice.  Actually they don’t taste as good either.

I was not a huge fan of this lunch but it was edible and kept me full up until supper time.  By then I really wanted something hot and meaty so I reheated the leftover quinoa with roasted vegetables from Saturday and leftover corn pudding from Sunday.  They both reheated really well and I served them with bacon.  I have enjoyed my dabble with raw food living but on a cold day a cooked meal is just the thing and this was lovely.

Today was just too cold for raw.

Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Lose Weight, Nutrition | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Raw Food

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

My tea and coffee consumption has been going up lately so I wanted to try and cut out caffeine today.  I also wanted to attempt to eat raw food only today.  Well that was my intention when I got up but I think I fell at the first hurdle as the first thing I consumed today was a cup of green tea.   I wondered whether the tea was roasted or was it just dried?  But by the time I had added boiling water it wasn’t very raw so how it emerged from the packet was irrelevant!

Breakfast was definitely raw.  Strawberries, one and a half bananas and coconut water which I drained from the coconut myself.

This was lovely and I enjoyed every single drop.

Jenni came round for a coffee and brought some of her delicious cakes but I have managed to resist 🙂 The photo, which I took in the evening, just before harvey devoured them, does not do them justice and they really looked very tempting!  I didn’t manage to resist a coffee though so that was something definitely not raw.  It was good though.

Lunch was all raw.  Or was it?  Are olives raw?  This is harder than I thought it would be. First of all I made guacamole by mashing a small avocado with some salt and lime juice.

I added the salad to the plate and I munched on an apple as I prepared it.  I used baby salad leaves and pea tops, cucumber and celery,

carrots, sunflower seed sprouts and mixed bean sprouts.

I then made an olive tapenade from 1 tbsp green and red olives, 7 sundried tomatoes, 1 tbsp rapeseed oil and 1 heaped tsp capers.  I put it all in a blender and blitzed it, leaving it quite chunky.

I thoroughly enjoyed this lunch.  The salty strong flavoured tapenade was a wonderful contrast to the creamy gentle avocado.  The vegetables were crunchy and every mouthful was a pleasure.  I will definitely be having this lunch again.

At weigh in tonight I found out I had put on a pound.  I am not surprised but I am disappointed in myself.  I have eaten and drunk way too much in the past couple of weeks and it has finally caught up with me.  I was feeling a bit too blasé about quite how much I could eat and still lose weight.  So that first weight gain in 6 months will hopefully jolt me back to behaving myself.

I came home to make another raw food dinner.

Raw Carrot and Courgette “Pasta” with Pesto

Ingredients (serves 1)

  • 1 small courgette, washed and topped
  • Salt
  • 1 carrot, peeled and topped
  • Fresh basil leaves
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • 1 tbsp mixed sprouted beans
  • Red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
  • Mixed salad leaves

Method

  1. Finely julienne the courgette.  Lay the courgette sticks out on kitchen paper, sprinkle with salt and leave for about 20-30 minutes.
  2. Julienne the carrot.

3. Put the courgette and carrot in to a bowl and mix gently.
4. Put the pesto ingredients (basil, olive oil, garlic, sprouted beans and chilli) in a small blender and blitz until smooth.
5. Mix the pesto in with the carrot and courgette.
6. Pile salad leaves in to a serving dish and place the pesto pasta on top.

I bought the mixed bean sprouts in the local Co-Op this morning.  A little bag packed full of goodness for just £1 which is superb value, especially when you compare that to the cost of an equivalent quality of animal protein.

This was edible and I would eat it again because it was so nutritious but it is a supper for someone very kean to eat healthily.  I definitely wouldn’t put this in the family meal category.

I am pleased with myself for eating nearly raw and mainly decaffeinated all day.  Off to have a mug of Rooibos to celebrate.  Wow, life in the fast lane eh?

Posted in Recipe | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Steak In

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I went to a wonderful drinks party last night, thank you very much Sarah and Kevin.  I managed to restrain myself with the drinking, even though we had the most delicious spritzer style drinks ever.  Kevin invented, and Sarah F. named, the “Manhunter”.  White wine served with sparking water with a hint of lime over ice.  Not one to waste decent wine on but this drink was refreshing and delicious.  Go ahead and try one next time you fancy a long white wine based drink.

So it was lovely to wake up feeling human and energetic.  I made my current favourite breakfast which is porridge (just 1/3 cup) made up with water and coconut milk and a banana which I chop up and add while I am cooking the porridge.

I served it with a tbsp of the drippy and divine almond butter with mixed dried berries.

While it was cooking I cut large bananas in half and wrapped them in cling film and put them in the freezer.  I bought 2 bunches of bananas (8 large bananas in each bunch) for £1:15 each in Costco last week which was a bargain but half of one is plenty as they are so huge.  perfect for smoothies.

For any veg growers out there, you can plant out broad beans, onions, shallots and garlic now.

Harvey amused himself by climbing trees

and relaxing in trees!

For lunch we went orange.  Very orange.

Squash and Orange Pepper Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 litre stock
  • 1 cup of red lentils
  • ½ an onion squash, skinned, deseeded and chopped in to chunks
  • 1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped in to chunks
  • 1 orange pepper, with seeds and core removed and chopped in to chunks
  • 50 g kale
  • Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Bring the stock up to simmering point
  2. Add the red lentils and all the orange veg (squash, sweet potato and orange pepper)
  3. Cook until they are tender – about 20 minutes
  4. Puree in blender until smooth
  5. Pour soup back in to saucepan, bring back to simmer point and add kale.
  6. Simmer gently for approximately 10 minutes.
  7. Season to taste and serve.

3 empty bowls were proof that this soup was good to eat.  It was a wonderful orange colour and the squash and sweet potato made it a very velvety smooth texture.  It tasted so creamy it was hard to believe there was no dairy in it at all.  The orange pepper added a lovely flavour.  Nourishing and tasty.  Definitely worth making again.

After lunch we went for a walk in the woods.  Gosh it gets dark early these days!

For supper we had steak.  Not a regular item on the menu chez moi but I am trying to clear down my freezer and I found 2 good sized rump steaks in there.  We had been so healthy all day I though a little red meat would go down well.  We cook it using a blackened steak seasoning so it comes out full of flavour.  I have been wanting to cook a  Corn Pudding I saw on Kath Eats recently for a while and thought it would go well with a spicy steak as it was described as being light and sweet.  It was very easy and tasted good.

Corn Pudding

Ingredients

  • The corn kernels cut from 4 corn cobs
  • Two tablespoons wholemeal flour
  • Four eggs
  • Four tablespoons light brown sugar
  • One teaspoon salt
  • One and a half cups soya milk
  • 110 g butter

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180 ° C.
  2. Put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz for 10 seconds.
  3. Pour in to a buttered baking dish.
  4. Bake in the oven for 1 hour, until the top is brown and the middle is set.

It was good and received a thumbs up from us all.

Eating a steak is a real treat and it was delicious.  Unfortunately the French beans I was going to serve it with had gone a bit beyond the edible stage (i.e. rotten) so we had peas instead, which was a bit starchy with the corn.  But we had to have something green.  I also had a large glass of red wine to go with the steak.  It aids digestion you know 🙂

 

Posted in Grow Your Own, Recipe | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Ladies Night

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Yesterday was one of my favourite days in the calendar.  The annual Ladies Night.  This tradition began with lunch, was then extended to the evening and these days is a lunch and a dinner and a girly sleepover.  Marvelous!

I spent a delightful 24 hours with 3 dear friends who I was at school with; Gini and Sally

and Lucy.

And Michelle who I used to work with in 1985.

Michelle was the hostess with the mostest and we began by admiring the beautiful table she always sets.

So much attention to detail.

Very pretty decorations with a red, white and black theme.  It was all very gorgeous.

For lunch we had homemade squash and vegetable soup and homemade soda bread which was delicious.  This was eaten alongside pate with redcurrant jelly and cold meats.  Supper was superb.  We had scallops with chorizo followed by an amazing slow roasted blade of beef with red cabbage, pureed carrots and potatoes dauphinoise and then lime and raspberry cheesecake.  Followed by a cheeseboard and chocolates.  Thank you Gini, Sally and Michelle for such a feast.  Unfortunately there are no photos of dinner as I was too busy discussing important matters such as the Euro crisis drunk.

Every year we give each other a little Christmas present which is always really fun.  Michelle surpassed herself by making us all (NB: MAKING) a 1950’s style pinny.

We washed up, left the place immaculate and were tucked up in bed by midnight.  Some, or all of that last sentence may or may not be true.

In the morning Zoe and Lucy were on breakfast duty.  After a ten mile dawn jog long lie in, we served up the chocolate pudding smoothie, fresh fruit, freshly squeezed orange juice,

Bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese and cappuchinos.

It was so good to see everyone and to catch up properly, for the first time in far too long.  Au revoir, beautiful ladies.

Back at home I made a simple supper of roasted peppers, onion and onion squash,

with quinoa and goats cheese.  Quick and easy to prepare, tasty and nutritious to eat.

We are going out to a drinks party locally tonight so I wanted something healthy to eat first and hopefully that will stop me eating too many fatty snacks.  Wish me luck!

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The Advent Countdown Begins

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

The 1st of December is greeted with pleasure by my children because I ban any mention of Christmas until December or it goes on too long and I am bored with it before the holiday season even begins.  So today we could light the advent candle and open the advent calendar.  My Aunty Hillary sends all her great nieces and nephews (i.e. my children and their equivalents in each family unit) an advent calendar every year which is a lovely tradition which we all enjoy.  This year I also bought a wooden calendar with numbered doors on it, behind each door is a little ornament that you hang on the snowman or house scene.  I put some sweeties in it too and Harvey was delighted with it.

Having checked what advent means, I was surprised to discover that within the church, Advent starts with the nearest Sunday to November 30th.  So not usually starting on December 1st, unlike the advent calendars.  Advent means arrival and the point of this count down is to be celebrating the arrival of the baby Jesus.  I guess how each family celebrates Christmas, or doesn’t, is personal.

I confess to feeling rather jaded when I woke up this morning, after last night’s excessive eating and drinking.  I had half a carton of coconut water left over from yesterday.  I wasn’t very keen on it so I had put it in the fridge and thought I could use it in a smoothie.

I made a smoothie with mixed berries, coconut water, coconut milk, cashew nut butter and protein powder.  A mega vitamin boost certainly helps perk one up.  I forgot to take the photo until I had nearly finished the smoothie but you get the idea of what a wonderful colour it was.

After breakfast I went Christmas shopping in Costco.  I knew I would be leaving Costco at lunch time so I excelled myself today and made a salad to munch in the car; mixed salad leaves, cherry tomatoes, smoked mackerel, sunflower seed sprouts and a heaped tablespoonful of the olives I had bought last week which had some Feta cheese in the pot too.  No need for a dressing as the oil in the olives did that job.

Costco was exactly as I expected; heaving with people struggling to manoeuvre their oversized and overloaded trolleys.  I bought the groceries I wanted, found some gifts to give and a few Christmas treats.  Reaching the car I was very pleased I had made a salad.  It looked rather small so I opened up the strawberries and grapes I had just bought and ate those too.

The strawberries really are very large, it’s not just a weird camera angle.  No eco points for me today as nearly everything is imported from USA, including this fruit but I only go every 3 months or so and hopefully that won’t kill the planet.  They were delicious!

My nut butter stash is somewhat depleted so this afternoon I made some almond butter with mixed dried berries.  My inspiration came from The Edible Perspective which is a wonderful food blog which has excellent photos and many recipes I want to try.  She makes an almond butter with cherries and chocolate.  I added extra mixed berries instead of the chocolate.

Almond Butter with Mixed Dried Berries

Ingredients

  • 375 g almonds
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 100 g dried cherries
  • 35 g mixed dried berries
  • ½ tsp vanilla essence
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Oil in case you need to make it a runnier consistency

I used dried cherries which are slightly sour and a bag of mixed berries for a variety of consistency and flavour.

This bag of ‘Wonder Berries’ had some unusual berries in it: cranberries, Goji berries, blackcurrants, physalis, blueberries and strawberries.  They were really tasty.

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 150 ° C.
  2. Put some greaseproof paper on a baking tray.
  3. Put the almonds on the paper and pour the maple syrup on the almonds.
  4. Stir the almonds until they are all covered in syrup and then spread the almonds out in a single layer.
  5. Put in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring twice and checking they are not burning.
  6. Leave to cool for 10 minutes and then blitz in a food processor.  It takes about 10 minutes for the nuts to firstly turn in to crumbs, then a thick butter consistency and then become runnier.  If the nuts remain too stiff, add oil to soften and improve consistency.  I added 1 tbsp coconut oil and then ½ a tbsp rapeseed oil to get the desired consistency.
  7. While the nuts are being buttered in the processor, chop the mixed berries in to pieces as small as you want.
  8. When the almond butter is ready, add the vanilla and salt, blitz to mix and then stir in the dried fruit.


I was really pleased with this nut butter.  It tastes amazing

and the consistency is perfect.  It slowly drips off the spoon.

Now I just need to use all my willpower to resist eating it by the spoonful as it is incredibly delicious!  Oops, already had 3 spoonfuls.

Supper was a complete snack.  Bagel with smoked salmon, mixed salad greens and pea shoots, cherry tomatoes and the remainder of the tahini dressing I made earlier in the week.  I used tahini dressing instead of butter or cream cheese in the bagel which worked well.

I wonder what will be in the advent calendar tomorrow.

Posted in Recipe | Tagged | Leave a comment

Pot Luck Supper

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Today started so healthily and ended in a blur of eating, drinking, laughing and loveliness, which was all great fun but no good for weight loss.

Before I had eaten anything I took the dogs on an hour long walk in the forest.  It was a beautiful morning, sunny and not too cold and I walked briskly, breathed deeply and thoroughly enjoyed the setting, the peace and quiet and the exercise.

Back at home I set about making a tomato, mushroom and spinach omelette.  I washed and chopped up the vegetables,

whisked the egg,

fried the veg and then set them aside while I fried the egg in butter.  When the egg was nearly set I put the veg on one half of the omelette to finish off the cooking.

To serve I folded the egg half over the veg half and carefully slid it all on to a plate.  It was piping hot.

And very delicious.

I spent most of the day in Banstead, visiting Dad in his new house and then shopping for tonight.  It was lovely to see them settling in to their new home.  We had a snacky lunch of a cheese sandwich and scampi in a bowl, as they haven’t unpacked plates yet.  Who needs a plate anyway?

After lunch I shopped for food and unfortunately had a banana muffin with passion fruit icing which I have to admit was delicious.  At home, I had another cheese sandwich with apple butter and cheddar.

Tonight we had the Ladies Drills (tennis group) pot luck supper, which Michelle had kindly agreed to host.  We all took a different dish and the quality of the food was wonderful.  We started with drinks (naturelment!)

and eventually sat down to eat.

The lovely thing about a pot luck supper is that everyone brings something they really enjoy cooking and eating so every dish is amazing.  We started with a delicious game terrine and a salmon mousse,

which was followed by North African squash and chick pea casserole, chicken cooked with a rich tomato sauce and prunes ( I will get this recipe and post it later for you), couscous with roasted vegetables, lasagne and a green salad.

Followed by some irresistible desserts of which I had to try them all!  Note how there are more photos of dessert than main and starter!!

Eton Mess,

orange cheesecake,

a sparkly chocolate tart

and a delicious sticky toffee pudding served with awesome sauce and vanilla ice cream

I love homemade puddings and I tried them all.  There were still chocolates to come!

It would have been rude not to.

It was a lovely evening and I was delivered home, inebriated, stuffed and happy.  Gosh I need to do some compensating tomorrow!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

Chocolate Pudding Breakfast

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

I want chocolate.  I want chocolate, was my first thought when I walked in to the kitchen this morning.  I had already prepared some overnight oats.  Last night before bed I put 1/3 of a cup of oats, 1 cup of almond milk and 1 tbsp of chia seeds in a jug and left them soaking overnight.  This morning I tipped the overnight oats in to my blender, along with a frozen banana and a tbsp of Carley’s raw chocolate with hemp seeds.  It still wasn’t chocolatey enough so I added 1 level tbsp cocoa powder.  I served it in a glass with 1 tbsp coconut on top.

It was thick and soft and smooth.  The coconut sat on top, adding a chewy sweetness to each bite as I slowly ate this glass of deliciousness with a spoon.  How can something full of natural ingredients taste so amazingly good?  It tasted just like a chocolate ice cream pudding.  I could eat this every day.  So could Harvey who couldn’t believe his luck, being allowed a “pudding” for breakfast.

It looks decadent and sinful but all it contains is unsweetened almond milk, oats, chia seeds, a banana, raw chocolate and hemp seed spread, cocoa powder with coconut on top.  This is almost the same ingredients as a recent post called Brilliant Banana Breakfast.  The only difference is that previously I had time to layer it so it looked better but this was really quick and to be honest, it tasted the same.

It was a blustery day so tennis was more challenging than normal.  I couldn’t make my normal group but had been invited to join a different group of players so I did.  It was great fun and with a lot less chatting than my usual Tuesday drills, I ran around a lot more and was really hungry by lunch time.

A blog I really enjoy called Kath Eats had made a lentil and kale soup last night and I was inspired to do the same today.  The chicken carcass from Sunday was in the fridge so I made a stock with it.  I put the bones in a saucepan with a chopped up carrot, a quartered onion, salt and some peppercorns.  Covered it in water, brought it to the boil and left it simmering for about an hour to an hour and a half.  I strained the bones and was left with a litre of golden stock which I used to make the soup with.

Lentil and Kale Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 litre of stock
  • 1 cup of red lentils (about 180 g)
  • 100 g curly kale, chopped
  • ½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tbsp Greek yogurt (optional)
  • Parmesan cheese, finely grated (optional)

Method

  1. Heat the stock in a saucepan.
  2. Add the lentils and boil for 10 minutes.
  3. Add the kale and paprika and simmer for 10 minutes.
  4. Season according to taste.
  5. Pour in to a serving bowl and serve with a spoonful of Greek yogurt and parmesan cheese.

As you can see, this soup was so easy to make it hardly classifies as cooking.  In a simple soup like this I think having a good stock is important.  It tasted wonderful and the yogurt and Parmesan really enhanced it.  The soup tasted warming, comforting and nourishing.  The cold tangy yogurt was a lovely contrast to the smoky paprika and the cheese was, well, cheesey and gorgeous.

Yummy!  More please.

Supper was a quick and easy stir fry: spring onions, chestnut mushrooms, spinach and mange tout, fried in sesame oil with some oyster sauce, served with prawns and brown rice.  Unremarkable but it did the job.  I had mine with hot pepper sauce – hence the orange sauce.

I wish I had a chocolate pudding for afters.

Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Recipe | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

A Pledge

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

I made a pledge today to eat more fruits and vegetables.  I wasn’t hungry this morning so breakfast was easy – a pear with 12 g of pistachio nuts (2 WW points).  Pears are delicious at this time of year.

I had a banana late morning and for lunch I made a salad from Veg every day!

Courgette and Green Bean Salad with Tahini Dressing (serves 4)

Tahini Dressing

Ingredients

  • 1 small or ½ large garlic clove, minced
  • 2 tbsp light tahini
  • Finely grated zest and juice from ½ a lemon
  • Juice of  ½ an orange
  • ½ tsp clear honey
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Put the garlic, tahini, lemon, orange and honey in a small blender and blitz until smooth.  If you don’t have a small blender, put the ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine.
  2. Add the olive oil gradually, stirring so it combines with the other ingredients.
  3. If the dressing is too thick, add some water.
  4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Courgette and Green Bean Salad

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp olive oil*
  • 3 medium courgettes, sliced in to lengths
  • Juice of  ½ a lemon
  • 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
  • 125 g French beans, trimmed
  • 4 handfuls of salad leaves
  • 12-18 oven dried or fresh cherry tomatoes
  • Fresh mint, finely shredded (optional)

* DIET TIP 🙂 If you have a decent cooking brush, you can use a fraction of the amount of oil the recipe calls for.  I used less than  ½ a tsp oil on 1 courgette by dipping the brush in to the oil and then brushing the oil on to the courgette.  I fried them in a ridged pan and added no oil to the pan.  The oil I added to the courgette was sufficient to stop them sticking.

Method

  1. I sliced my courgette lengthways, so they were easier to cook.
  2. Heat the pan and fry the courgette until tender and slightly browned on both sides.
  3. When they were cooked, I cut them in to bite sized lengths and transferred them to a bowl with the lemon juice and chilli.
  4. Cook the beans in a pan of salted boiling water for 1 minute.  Then run under cold water, dry and add to the courgettes.
  5. Put the salad leaves in the serving bowl or on the plate you are eating from, add the courgettes, beans and tomatoes (and mint if using – I didn’t).
  6. Trickle the tahini dressing over the salad and serve.

I really enjoyed this lunch.  I like tahini and by using a small blender, the dressing ended up very smooth and I left it quite thick.  It was delicious and worked well with the salad ingredients.  Next time I will cook the courgettes a bit longer so they are browner – that would improve the texture.

I had the other half of the orange with it and it was lovely.

Supper was roasted vegetables with some leftover roast chicken.  I wash and scrub my vegetables and as I usually buy organic, I don’t need to peel any of them.  I just cut the tops off the courgette, aubergine and carrots which I put in the compost bucket. I chopped the vegetables up and put them in a roasting tray with 2 tbsp rapeseed oil and salt and pepper.

I heated the chicken through and dinner was served:  roasted aubergine, onion, red potatoes, carrots, courgette and red pepper with chicken, sprinkled with Cayenne pepper for a bit of a kick.

Simple, easy and delicious.  I kept my pledge today and intend to do the same again tomorrow.

Posted in Lose Weight, Recipe | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sunday Roast

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

The little fella has been really accepting about eating lots of fruits, vegetables and whole foods.  He has almost stopped asking if there is pudding and no longer expects the snack option to be anything other than fruit, nuts, seeds or yogurt.  So when he put in a request last week for a “proper” Sunday roast, how could I deny him?  He wanted chicken so that is what he got.

Roast Chicken

I like my chicken to be cooked with tarragon and lemon.  I think the aniseed in tarragon goes beautifully with chicken.  I put the chicken in to a roasting tray and rub olive oil on to the outside of the chicken, then squeeze half a lemon over it and put the squeezed half in the breast cavity.  I then add tarragon (ideally fresh but dried will do), salt and pepper to the outside of the chicken.  I poured about 130 ml of white wine in to the roasting tray, some celery and an onion which I had quartered.  This creates a small amount of richly flavoured stock, which I use as the base for the gravy.

I put the chicken in the oven at 220 ° C for half an hour and then turn the oven down to 170 ° C for about 1 and a half hours, but it could be more or less, depending on how big the chicken is.  When it is cooked, I put it on the carving board, cover it with foil to keep warm and let it rest for about 10 – 15 minutes so I can finish off the meal and make gravy.

Gravy

I make the gravy in the roasting tray we cooked the chicken it.  I throw away the bits of celery and onion but keep any brown sticky bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.  I add some of the water I have used to steam vegetables with and add it to the juices from the chicken .  I bring it to the boil and add 1 – 2 tsp of cornflour which I have mixed with cold water.  This thickens the gravy.  I taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Roast Potatoes

Not diet food but I was making these for the family and then succumbed and had 2 as they were so delicious.  I peel the potatoes and parboil them for 10 minutes.  I drain them, pop them back in the pan and then shake the pan to fluff up the potato on the outside.  I add about 2 tbsp of groundnut oil to a roasting tray which I put in the oven to warm before adding the potatoes.  When the oil is warm, I add the potatoes and turn them so they are lightly coated in oil.  I put them back in the oven and cook them on 190 ° C for about 1 hour.  If you have used a good type of potato for roasting (I like Maris Piper), your potatoes will be crispy on the outside and soft inside.  You can see from the picture I have hardly used any oil so they are not disastrous for a diet treat.

To go with the chicken and potatoes I looked to Veg every day! for inspiration.  I made the parsnips chips as we hadn’t had any parsnip yet this year and the Brussels, cooked with shallots, thyme and lemon.

The parsnips were great.  Peel and quarter the parsnips lengthways.  Lightly rub with olive oil and place in a roasting tray and add salt and pepper.  Roast at 190 °C for about 45 minutes.  They were lovely and just like the recipe said, crunchy and chewy at the thin end and soft and sweet at the thick end.

I was not thrilled with the Brussels though.  I chopped the stalk off and peeled the outer leaves then cut the brussels in half.  I put them in a dish with peeled shallots, some fresh thyme, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  I put them in the oven on 190 °C for 35 minutes.  They did over cook but mine looked very similar to the picture in the recipe book.  I prefer other methods of cooking brussels – sorry Hugh!

 

 

 

 

I also cooked a butternut squash.  I peeled it, scraped out the seeds, cut it in to chunks and steamed it for 10 – 15 minutes until it was soft.  It mashes so easily you don’t need to add butter so it is a healthy addition to the plate and a very tasty one.  It goes beautifully with chicken.

The little fella loved his lunch and asked if he could have another “Sunday roast on Monday”.  Er, no.  Monday will be ultra healthy to make up for the misdemeanours of the last 3 days.

Posted in Recipe | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Sisterhood

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I am a very lucky person because I have 3 sisters.  And today was a lucky day because we spent all day together.  This is not a post worthy of a diet blog or even a healthy living blog.  But for a post showing a wonderful day with special people which is good for your soul, mind and spirits, then this is it.

I started eating well, with a green smoothie.

Mixed salad leaves, almond milk, chia seeds, protein powder and a small banana.  Not bad.

Harvey and I then caught the train and tube to London.  Two of my wonderful brothers-in-law, Trevor and Richard, took the kids to London Zoo so we could have some girl time.  Thanks chaps.  We made the most of it and popped the first cork before the front door was even shut behind you.  Cheers 🙂 .  Note to self, when you are the largest person in a group, don’t sit closest to the camera, sit as far away as possible.

Lucy made us all a delicious lunch of baked salmon sprinkled with jerk seasoning and freshly minced garlic, roasted vegetables and salad.

Holly brought a plum tart with half fat creme fraiche.  Yum!

We then set off for a walk to Hampstead Heath and soon came to the enchanting looking ‘Holly Village’.

We entered the heath at Parliament Hill Fields.

Despite her excitement at being let off the lead, Sunshine gave an exemplary display of sitting and waiting until she was called.  Very impressive.

We walked up to the highest point of the heath, which meant we had a decent walk and as a bonus  we had a great view of London.

We took tea at the cafe which provided us with an industrial sized tea pot!  We also shared a huge piece of pannettone and a carrot cake muffin which had the cream cheese icing in the middle.  Calorific but delicious.

Time to head back to Lucy’s as the sun was setting.

With a little detour in to the pub at the end of her road.  Note to self number 2:  definitely sit behind the others in group shots so you look smaller.

A traditional London pub offering; a pint of beer and a bowl of pork scratchings.  For those of you who have not come across this food item, they are made from pig skin with a layer of fat on it, which is salted and oven baked to produce a crispy and salty snack.  I dislike the concept of, taste and smell of pork scratchings and these were not mine (neither was the pint).

Richard had arrived with Lucy and Emily.

We finished our drinks and collected Trevor who had taken the children home so we could finish our drinks in peace.  What fabulous Bs-I-L I have 🙂

We headed off for dinner to the local Italian which had a traditional pizza oven.  Pizza!

Olivia was told she could choose whatever she wanted.  I’ll have a hot chocolate with whipped cream then please.  Well, we did say she could have what she wanted.  I think she enjoyed it 🙂

I made a dreadful diet choice with a really high fat Quattro Formaggio.  I just wanted it.  I was relieved to discover it was not as loaded with cheese as some are and I did share some with others.  My dining companions kindly donated some greenery as I was a bit shocked to be handed just a large pizza with no vegetation on it.  It was absolutely delicious and definitely worth every calorie/point.  It certainly cured the sugar hangover I had been left with after the previous evenings chocolate binge.

It was great fun and all the food was really good and very reasonably priced – £10 a head for pizza and a beer!

Before we headed home we were visited by some Christmas folk:

Harry Christmas

Olivia Christmas

Harvey Christmas

It was a wonderful day and a total pleasure to have all day with my lovely sisters.  Thanks to Trevor and Richard for taking the little ones out so we could relax.

P.S. Can we go to Paris next time?  Pretty please.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 6 Comments