I am writing this blog tonight while I watch The Food Hospital which is proving to be an interesting programme. It looks at the medicinal properties of food and covers a wide range of conditions, some of which have fantastic results. Scientific concepts are simply explained and they use some wonderful graphics to explain anatomy or treatment options. It must be better to change your diet than to take medicines.
I liked the demonstration of which foods are high in anti-oxidants, which are good for preventing cancer and other degenerative illnesses. If you cut an apple in half, it goes brown quickly. If you rub lemon juice on the cut apple, it doesn’t, because the anti-oxidants in the lemon juice stop the oxidation process. So to prevent tissue damage, you need to eat plenty of fruits (and vegetables) which retain their colour when cut, such as citrus fruits and berries.
Tonight I was particularly interested in the 18 year old who weighed 27 stone and has a BMI of 58. She was recommended a gastric by-pass. I am not sure I needed to see the film of the actual operation but some people may have wanted to! Surgery is not something I would want but if it is going to save your life, then good luck with it.
People watching this programme probably wonder how people get that fat. I remember watching a programme about someone who weighed over 40 stone and was permanently bed bound. She was asked how she got so big and her answer was “slowly”. That really stuck with me because it is true. You get bigger slowly.
It is predicted that by 2050, over half the British population will be obese and that will cost the NHS £8.5 billion per year! I do not intend to be on the obesity register this time next year, so that should be one less for their statistics 🙂
We started the day with porridge; 50 g oats, 1/2 tbsp chia seeds, 150 ml almond milk and 1 tbsp cashew nut with clementine butter. 10 WW points.
That set me up for an hour and a half of tennis. It didn’t help prepare me for the weather though! Gosh it was so cold outside today it was hard to hold the racket until I had warmed up. Great fun as always and I am going to try and play more than once a week.
I felt really hungry when I got back. I had quite a lot of vegetables in the fridge that need eating up so I decided to make vegetables in a cheese sauce. I used one large carrot, half a large leek, half a head of broccoli and one small cauliflower. I chopped up the vegetables and steamed them all for about 5 minutes. I then put the oven on to 180 ° C.
I was given a cookery book in the 1980’s by my Dad. I am guessing he gave it to me when I left home for University. I used to look at it a lot as it has so many photos in it. When I look at it now, it was very ahead of its time. A lot of the photos do not look that dated and they were unusual for being close ups of the food. Other books I look at from the 1980’s have a photo of a well garnished dish rather than a more contemporary looking close up we have all become familiar with today.
It also has lots of cookery techniques explained with step by step photos. Whenever I want to make a cheese sauce, I always reach for this book and use the quantities for a white sauce which is 25 g butter, 25 g flour and 300 ml semi-skimmed milk. Having made the white sauce, I grated in 50 g strong cheddar cheese.
I enjoyed reading this book and will definitely use it for more than just a white sauce!
When the cheese sauce was ready, I poured it over the steamed vegetables, grated another 50 g cheddar on top and baked the dish in the oven for half an hour.
This is such a simple dish to make but so comforting and substantial. It always reminds me of Lara as it is one of our favourites. I could easily have made it with more sauce but this enter dish already had a whopping 23 WW points. I was only going to eat half but I felt so hungry today I quite soon had the other half too.
This was delicious. I wonder why people just stick to cauliflower cheese. Chuck your veggies in and mangez mangez !
Supper was a very easy affair – egg mayonnaise sandwich. I only had Harvey to cook for and he had a large lunch at school and was not very hungry tonight. Neither was I after such a huge lunch.
I am not known as the “Gadget Queen” for no good reason. I have a gadget for most food preparation and cooking tasks. Le voila the egg slicer!
My Mum had one of these when we were children. Guess what they do. Yes, slice eggs! I believe they were designed just for eggs but you can also use them to slice other soft foods such as kiwi fruits.
Easier then chopping them up or mashing them in a bowl. I slice the egg one way, rotate it 90 degrees then slice again. Put in a bowl with mayonnaise, salt and pepper and mix well.
I had 83 g of wholemeal bread, 9 g of butter, 1 and a half eggs and 1 tbsp mayonnaise. Lots of freshly ground black pepper. Yummy. 14 WW points.
I ate more points than my daily allowance today but I just used up some of my weekly extra allowance. I was hungry and needed them today. I ate more saturated fat than was healthy today but I ate no sweet or sugary food. I feel happy with today’s efforts. It’s good to be back on track.
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