In The Garden

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I had promised myself that I would tackle paperwork today but it was sunny so the garden beckoned.  This is the first sunny Sunday in ages so I didn’t want to miss it.  My vegetable garden has been very neglected and I enjoyed working hard in it.

I paused to have some breakfast.  I haven’t had a green smoothies for a while and was feeling very virtuous today. In to the blender went a banana, some kale and spinach (from the garden 🙂 ), almond milk,  almonds and ice.

Quite good.

My green beans have been decimated by the slugs this year.  The slugs leave the beans and eat the leaves but each little plant battled on and managed to produce one bean each.  This is not the bumper crop I had been expecting 😦

I also picked the first crop of spring onions, which I am growing amongst the carrots – apparently that keeps the carrot fly away from the carrots.

They are still small, probably because they are so overcrowded, but they taste lovely and I use the onion bit and all the green.

I wanted to make one of Angela’s recipes from her brilliant blog, Oh She Glows, which I read every day.   I wanted to make the Veggie Spring Rolls with Spicy Peanut Lime Sauce but we couldn’t find any spring roll wrappers.  So instead I made the peanut lime sauce and mixed it in with noodles and raw vegetables.

Noodles with Peanut and Lime Sauce

Ingredients (serves 4)

Peanut and Lime Sauce

  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter
  • 1 inch peeled & roughly chopped fresh ginger
  • 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1-3 tsp water, to thin out as needed ( I didn’t need any)

Method

  • Place all ingredients in a small blender and process until smooth.
  • Set aside.

Having made the sauce, cook noodles according to manufacturers instructions.  When cooked, run under cold water and drain well.

To assemble the noodle salad, chop up vegetables ( I used cherry tomatoes, red pepper, spring onions, parboiled green beans and carrots), add cooked noodles and pour over the peanut and lime sauce.  Mix well and serve.

This was delicious and we all enjoyed it.  It was good to be able to eat sitting outside too.

Another first from the garden for supper – some broccoli.

It was called “wok broc” and I have been using the leaves in stir fries and smoothies.  The broccoli part looks like purple sprouting broccoli.

Supper was roast beef, with sweetcorn, broccoli, Yorkshire pudding roast potatoes and a port gravy.  Made by James so I could carry on working outside.

We enjoyed dinner in the garden with a glass of red wine.

I feel exhausted.  I have not spent a whole day gardening for a long time and all that stretching and bending has worn me out.  It is very satisfying though, to have a whole day outside, in the sunshine, in the garden.

Posted in Grow Your Own | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Oyster Festival

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I half prepared breakast when I got up this morning and left it to thicken while we went on a long walk.

It was sunny 🙂

We walked from the village through the orchards to the castle gardens and were there way before they open to the public so we more or less had the place to ourselves.

We walked round the lake – how lucky are we to live so close to this beautiful place!

Milton managed a little swim.

These guys just oinked and wallowed.

Hello, what’s going on over there then?

It felt great to start the day with a nearly 4 mile walk, especially knowing I had a really lovely breakfast that was practically ready when I got home.

Oat and Strawberry Parfait

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 2/3 cup oats
  • 1/3 cup oat bran
  • 2 tbsp chia seeds
  • 1 1/4 cup almond milk
  • Banana (optional)
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
  • Approx 20 strawberries
  • 1 tropical fruit soya yogurt
  • 1 tbsp coconut sugar (or sugar alternative)

Method

  1. Combine oats, oat bran, chia seeds and almond milk.
  2. Mix well and share equally between 2 glasses.
  3. Set aside and leave to thicken for 2-3 hours or overnight.
  4. Place sliced banana or maple syrup on top of thickened oats.
  5. Puree strawberries with yogurt and place in glass.
  6. Sprinkle coconut sugar on top and enjoy.

I had banana in mine and Harvey had maple syrup.  This was lovely and we both (Harvey and I ) really enjoyed it.  It is very easy to do and just requires some forward planning.  You could add any type of smoothie on top and any fruit in the middle.  Try it.  It is nutritious and delicious.

Our next destination was Whitstable and on the way there we stopped at the farm outside the village to buy a punnett of just picked cherries – yum!.  We were meeting Michelle there for the oyster festival.  When we got to Whitstable, the wind had blown the clouds away, the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue.  We have missed you, bright blue sky 🙂 .

Whitstable was packed with people, strolling around, drinking, eating, chatting, chilling in the sun.  Fantastic.  The atmosphere was brilliant.  We started with a drink (cider for me) and then we pottered about round the food stalls.  I had a tempura soft shell crab with 1 fried oyster which was served with salad, aioli and mayonnaise.

I am not a huge fan of raw oysters and was reading on a blog only last night about a fried oyster so I tried one today.  In fact I had 4 fried oysters as Harvey didn’t like his so I swapped his oysters for my crab.

Where did I eat my lunch?  Beside the sea 🙂

It was hard to find a spot to sit down, Whitstable was so busy today.

Having eaten, we wandered along the seafront to the Old Neptune.

We walked past big dogs pulling carts, Morris dancers dressed in black shredded costumes, conventional Morris dancers and then this lot dressed all in black with drums and bells.  We do have some unique customs in England – love it.

After a pleasant afternoon spent on the beach,

we made our way to Michelle’s weekend retreat in Deal.

After a revivatory cuppa, which I had with 3 caramel chocolate digestives and 2 water biscuits with hummus, we took Ted out for a walk down the high street and along the seafront.

The baker had got in to the spirit of the olympics by making these rings from meringue.

On the way back we picked up some fish and chips.

Which we took back to Michelle’s.

Not very healthy I agree, but as I had walked nearly 10 miles today, I think I can justify them.  They really were very good.

Whitstable and Deal are 2 very different seaside towns in Kent.  We were lucky to visit both today and had a lovely day out.  They are both very different from the lovely village I live in which I enjoyed walking in this morning.  Kent really is a fabulous county, with so much to see and do in it.  Go and visit somewhere lovely today 🙂

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Mangosteen or Rambutan?

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I was working from home today so I had time to make a smoothie for breakfast.  For protein I added 1 tbsp hemp seed powder.

I added that to strawberries, a frozen banana, almond milk, natural probiotic yogurt and some sesame seeds for more protein and essential fat.

Delicious.

I love working from home although I wouldn’t want to do it all the time as I like the interaction with colleagues.  Today it was great to do though.  I was logged on by about 7am and had all my emails sorted by half past, which is before I am usually in the office.  OK, so I was working in my nightie but who cares?

Lara made lunch for us and before that we took the dogs on a walk.  So I had a healthy lunch break today, walking in the woods opposite and then came home to couscous with roasted vegetables and 50 g Chèvre Blanc (goat’s cheese).

We then decided to tackle the mangosteen.  Except having looked them up, they are in fact rambutans!  Turnips had put the wrong name tag on.

I may even have to go in and have a word with them.   First time ever I have been unhappy with their produce.  These were ludicrously expensive – £4:80 for 7.  The first one I opened was rotten.  Harvey didn’t like his so we were 2 down!

The next one was a reasonable success and Lara and I both ate one.

It’s like a lychee inside.  An interesting experience but for that price tag, not one that will be repeated.  At least not in London.  According to my well travelled daughter, they are 50 p for a huge bag full in Asia, where they are much softer, juicier and tastier so I will wait until we go there before buying them again.

The rambutan was followed by a very small bowl of Karamel Sutra – one of Ben and Jerry’s decadently delicious ice-creams.  That was more popular than the rambutan and as I had bought it half price, it represented much better value.  Not very healthy though 😦

Having finished work for the week and commuted all the way ‘home’ from the dining room ( 🙂 ) the weekend started.  I kicked back (pun intended) with a pedicure and am off out for a curry tonight with some lovely Ladies.  Get ready Suzanne and Lisa, I’m coming to get you 🙂

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Illuminating

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Another disastrous morning with the trains!  I had to run all the way from the far end of the car park and missed it.  I was already later then usual and then the next one didn’t go to London Bridge so I had to wait half an hour for a train.  Glad I don’t need to catch one for a few days.

I made it outside at lunch time and bought some fruit treats for the weekend.  Know what these are?

Mangosteens!  I also bought some weird aubergines – that photo has made me giggle, remembering what Harvey did with them 🙂

So good to be in Turnips again.

And to eat one of these again.  Boy this was good, even better for being eaten at 3pm when I was really hungry – what a late lunch!

I have worked very hard this week and long hours.  As recompense, I was allowed to leave at 4pm today and I met these 2 gorgeous people and we headed off to Leeds Castle.

I thought of you today Kath – remember when we used to meet here every week when those boys of ours were toddlers?

This is such a beautiful castle and we were here to watch the Olympic torch.

We struck lucky and were right in the front.  Whoop whoop.  I do love a good view.

Anticipation.

Here it is.

We wandered round and looked at the stands, receiving free Natures Valley bars and bottles of Coke.  The corporate branding is everywhere.

There was a fly past but I was too slow with my camera – hope these guys got it.

It was all over quite quickly though so we decided to go out for supper.   The timing worked out for James to join us so we met at the pub and literally turned in to the car park at the same time.

I had been recommended the The Hawkenbury Inn, which is between Staplehurst and Sutton Valance a couple of years ago.  When we sat down and were handed the menu my heart sank.  It was a glossy colour menu with about 50 items on it.  No decent chef can make that many meals from scratch and sure enough, everything was bland and microwaved.  I had salmon fishcakes on a bed of Mediterranean vegetables (apparently)

followed by a school pudding – treacle sponge and custard.

We had a pleasant evening but will not be returning there.

It was fun going to Leeds Castle and being part of the torch relay and we have just enjoyed watching it on the local news 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Redemption

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

This head of mine is so fuzzy still.  I got up early and spectacularly mis-timed the train and missed it by seconds so instead of being on the 5:47 I was on the 6:21 am.  So still very early but not as early as I intended.

Having arrived in London I made a stupid breakfast choice of a skinny latte with a toasted cheese and marmite sandwich in white toast.  I don’t even like white toast!

Lunch was an improvement.  Despite the drizzle I went for a walk.  I had to do the shortest route possible as I only had 25 minutes but at least I went.  Walking over London Bridge I snapped the Olympic rings on Tower Bridge.  London is still grey 😦

I had a delicious lunch from Konditoor & Cook – a lentil and aubergine bake with sour cream.

It was very good and I will try and make that at the weekend.

I also had some coffee cake  – doh!  Konditoor & Cook is a challenge for me.  I like going there because they have a great range of hot food and healthy options.  Unfortunately, the hot and healthy food is at the back of the shop so I have to walk past all their amazing cakes and then wait to pay next to the cakes again.  I should stay away really.

So where is the redemption?   Supper :-).  I made a base of raw vegetables which I just added salt and pepper to.

Then I added 2 slices of ham and some potato salad made with 4 small new potatoes, 1 spring onion and 1 level tbsp mayonnaise.

So I redeemed myself slightly.  Must do better tomorrow and make healthy choices all day.

Posted in Diet Struggles | Tagged | 1 Comment

Tracking

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I did have to blink like a little mole because it was sunny this morning – whoop whoop 🙂

I made breakfast at home.  I find breakfast the hardest meal to find a healthy take out version of so always try and take in my own.  Instead of cereal and milk, how about cereal and smoothie?  I poured some left over (from previous day) smoothie in to a tupperware pot and topped it with a nutty granola

and a chopped banana which I then mixed together.  By the time I ate it at work, the granola had softened slightly in the thick liquid and it was lovely.

I stood outside Monmouth coffee shop and enjoyed the sun’s rays on my face for a few minutes while I enjoyed one of their flat whites.  This is the beautiful building opposite Monmouth.  The restaurant Roast is located on the upper floor and has lovely views over the market.

I took my trainers to work today to make sure I was comfortable when I went on a  walk at lunch time.  I wear the little Tractivity sensor in the insole I insert in to my shoes.  It makes my work shoes too tight so I have a blister but I pulled the insole out of my trainers so they are more comfortable.

I walked over Southward Bridge, around the North side of the Thames and back over London Bridge.  Unfortunately my camera jammed so I couldn’t take any photos :-(.  That means I also couldn’t take any photos of the 2 slices of pizza I had for lunch !!!

 

James fixed my camera at home so I managed a photo of the watermelon, strawberries, chia seeds and 1/2 avocado I put in the blender

with a banana and some soya milk to make a creamy smoothie for supper.

Time to check out how many steps I have done today.  I walked just over 7,500 on Sunday and Monday.  I was surprised they were similar and mainly surprised that I seem to walk further on a work day then I expected.  But I want to walk 10,000 steps a day and that was my target.  To check my totals I just log on to my Tractivity site and it tells me how far I have walked.

Tractivity Totals 17th July 2012 at 21:07
9,828 steps  4.27 miles
139 mins  744 calories

Very nearly there so by bedtime I will definitely make 10,000.  I knew I would enjoy this tracking.

Posted in Healthy Lifestyle | Tagged | 3 Comments

Home Coming Treat

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

How can a woman run for 2 different trains and miss them both?  Well, I ran for the first because I decided at the last minute to bring my own breakfast to work so left home a fraction later than usual.  Just as well.  Having got to the train and pushed the door opening button only to see the train slide away (always so humiliating!) I remembered I had managed to leave my laptop at home.  A costly mistake as I had to give up my free parking space to drive home, get laptop, pay £5 for car park as free car park was full by then and run for another train.  Only to miss another one!  I eventually got to work at 9 am, over an hour later then usual with a headache, stinging eyes and completely congested – I really did feel dreadful but we are so busy I didn’t want to take a day off sick.

Watermelon and a boiled egg for breakfast.

I didn’t get a break until 3 pm by which time I was starving.  I went to EAT and had a cheese sandwich and a small bacon and corn chowder soup.

When I came home, my wonderful daughter had made supper for us.  Chicken breasts with Gruyere and mushrooms and roasted tomatoes and peppers.

Chicken Breasts with Gruyere and Mushrooms

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 small onion, sliced finely
  • 4 medium sized mushrooms, sliced finely
  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 120 g Gruyere , cut in to slices
  • Toothpicks

Method

  1. Heat oil in frying pan
  2. Turn oven on to 180 ° C
  3. Gently fry onion and mushrooms for about 10 minutes
  4. Slice a deep pocket in to the long side of the chicken
  5. Stuff the onions, mushroom and Gruyere in to the pocket in the chicken
  6. Use cocktail sticks to hold the stuffing inside the chicken
  7. Gently fry the chicken for a few minutes on each side until slightly browned
  8. Place the chicken on a baking dish and bake uncovered for 15 minutes.

The tomatoes and peppers were roasted in the oven for about half an hour while the chicken was being prepared and cooked.  Their sweet juiciness went perfectly with the chicken and mushrooms.

This was delicious.  Gruyere goes so well with mushrooms and this whole meal was perfectly cooked.

I could come home to a home cooked dinner more often 🙂

Posted in Recipe, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

It’s a Wild Life

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Today’s post was going to be called “a Tale of Two Parties” but for various reasons it is now renamed.  One reason being that I only managed 2 decent photos from Veg Grower and Tree Planters’ 100th birthday party, which was a very lavish affair inside a magnificent marquee.

The rain finally stopped so we could stand outside and enjoy the garden and the view.

We feasted on a fantastic curry and danced to a wonderful band but the few photos I had taken were out of focus and generally hopeless so I can not publish them.  By the time I tottered over the road to help Colin celebrate his first half century the camera was in my bag and no thought was given to taking it out.  I had a fantastic time at both parties.  Ate too much, drank too much, talked too much and managed a bit of a boogie.  A truly splendid evening at 2 wonderful parties.

I was woken this morning with news of a little visitor, found on the floor of the lounge.  Look how small it is compared to the match!

A little Pipistrelle bat.  I don’t think bats would win a beauty contest but they are cute.

As I write this there is a very kind man from a local bat charity, who is trying to locate the mother.  Apparently this little bat is about 2 weeks old.  It is too heavy to cling on to its mother but too young to fly.  So he and James are outside now, with tall ladders, looking for the nest.  Fingers crossed it survives.

I started my day with a blackcurrant smoothie, made with blackcurrants, banana, natural yogurt, chia seeds and almond milk (thanks Lara).

For lunch I marinated some cod in this delicious marinade I bought at the Wealden Times summer fair.

I rubbed it in to the fish which I then covered and left aside for a couple of hours.

I then wrapped them in a parcel (2 fillets in each parcel) of greaseproof paper and baked them in the oven for 12 minutes at 200 ° C and then let them rest for 2 minutes,

before serving with green beans and BJ’s new potatoes.  Delicious.

Lara was craving some chocolate as she hadn’t had any in Asia so she made the Chocolate Crunchie Nutty Bars.  Apparently the link from a previous blog post no longer works so here is the recipe.  I realise this is NOT a diet or healthy snack but it is so moreish and so easy to make, everyone should try it at least once 🙂

Chocolate Crunchie Nutty Bars

Ingredients

200 g 70% dark chocolate
125 g butter
3 tbsp golden syrup
250 g salted peanuts
4 x 40g Crunchie Bars (chocolate covered honeycomb bars)

Method

Line a baking tin or baking dish with tin foil
Break up the chocolate and heat in a bowl over a pan of simmering water with the butter

Add the golden syrup and mix gently until melted and combined.

Chop the Crunchies in to bite sized pieces and place in a bowl with the nuts.

Mix the melted chocolate mixture in to the nuts and Crunchie pieces.  Pour in to the foil lined dish.

So great to have my lovely Lara at home cooking again 🙂

Set aside to cool and then try really hard to leave it in the fridge for 4 hours to go solid before eating it.
When solid, tip out and cut in to small bars.

This is so divine.  As well as the chocolate, you bite in to sweet honeycomb or salty nuts.   Luckily Lara has several girl friends over tonight and they are eating it all, but that was not before I had too many pieces.

We headed to the beach this afternoon.  Despite my dreadful cold, I wanted to give my Tractivity a good trial so wanted to get a walk in.  We set off for Dungeness and despite the ominous black clouds, it was sunny when we arrived.  Harvey was determined to have a swim and raced towards the beach.

Anyone would think my children were in different locations, since they are dressed for different climates!

While Harvey was swimming, we saw at least 2 dolphins in the sea which was thrilling.  We failed to capture them in a photo as they only surfaced briefly and then re-appeared some distance away but we were all excited to see them.

After a swim,  Harvey collected shells and parts of sea creatures and we enjoyed walking along the shingle.

I like looking down through my zoom lens.  By only having a small area to look at, you can really “see” it properly and appreciate the shapes, colours and textures of the land beneath your feet.

How do these flowers grow on the shingle?

The clouds looked ominous.

And became darker and darker so we hurried back to the car!

Dungeness is a surprisingly beautiful place.  I love the flatness of the landscape here.  It is dramatic, especially with the black clouds and winds we experienced today.  We all really enjoyed being here and look forward to returning.

There are so many flowers out at this time of year but the darkness made them difficult to capture properly.

We didn’t walk as far as I had hoped but walking along the shingle was good exercise and we could feel it in our thighs.  When we got home my Tractivity monitor told me I had only walked 7,370 steps today and I need to do 10,000.  But I felt too tired and poorly to go out for a walk and will try and walk further tomorrow.

Pipistrelle update – they believe they found the colony and left the little bat under the tiles.  It was calling out so hopefully it’s Mother will find it.   Apparently it is a healthy size and plump so it has a chance of survival.  Fingers crossed.

Posted in Beach, Recipe | Tagged , | 2 Comments

A Package

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I felt so ill when I got up today.  Head cold has taken over my entire body which aches and is hot.  I was tempted to go back to bed after a bath but instead decided to take advantage of a break in the rain and go for a walk with my lovely daughter, just home from Asia and Harvey.  Plus dogs.  It has certainly been raining a lot!

Puddles are so irresistible for a young boy.

Who ended up soaked.

Why are girls so gorgeous and boys so gruesome at times?

When I take Harvey to school, we pass the field of Alpacas.

Today we drove alongside the field on the way in to the forest so stopped to say hello.  This one needs a haircut!

They seem so calm and docile.

On the way home we stopped off at the Hartley Dyke farm shop which is brilliant as it is only small but it has so much packed inside it.  Lots of local produce and on a Saturday, lots of yummy things to sample.

Next to it is a relatively new fishmongers.  It doesn’t look very enticing from the outside so although I regularly visit Hartley Dyke, I have never been inside here.

What a mistake.  It was fantastic.  A wide variety of produce and no nasty fishy smell.  Served by incredibly smiley and happy people.

We will be going back here, that’s for sure.

Quick snack lunch of bread, cheese, ham, turkey and Crevettes from the fishmonger as we were all busy running errands this afternoon.  I had eaten nothing all day so far but still wasn’t very hungry.  I did have 2 slices of bread with some ham and turkey and 2 Crevettes which were lovely.

Plus loads of cherries.  Love cherry season 🙂

While we were out walking, my package from Canada arrived.  Thank you Laura and Bob 🙂

I do love a gadget and this one is available in the USA and Canada only. My friend Laura recommended it and kindly posted it on to me.  With it, I can track all my activity and keep a record on-line.  Love things like this 🙂

I think this will help motivate me as I am very target driven and will enjoy making my 10,000 steps a day.  I will let you know how I get on.

I was thinking of my dear neighbours earlier today, as the rain lashed down.  I was having an afternoon sleep to try and get rid of my headache, which did subside slightly, and the rain was so noisy it kept me awake.  My neighbours are preparing parties and the thunder crashed and the rain was so heavy I really felt for them, as they were dashing about making final preparations.  Veg Grower and Tree Planter are having a birthday party tonight, as is CJ who lives opposite.  So we have 2 parties to attend tonight – excited !!!  Our road will be rocking tonight. I suspect my head will be thumping tomorrow.

Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Keep It Local | Tagged , | 7 Comments

A Few Words

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Not too much to say today as I have been so busy I am knackered.  I have worked from home but only stopped after 8pm and it has been very hectic.

I started with a smoothie made with dried acai berries,

fresh blueberries, banana, protein powder, chia seeds and almond milk.

Yummy.  Plus some more echinacea as I am still battling a bad head cold.

Work, work, work then a quick bite for lunch; wholemeal bap with tomato, cucumber and  smoked mackerel.

Work, work, work and then a quick and easy supper.  2 cheeses on toast, one with ham and Gruyere and the other with tomato and Cheddar.  The bread is from a small loaf and this is a side plate so not as bad it probably looks.

Plus a berry and banana smoothie on the side.  Having a very early night tonight – night all!

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