Birmingham, Briefly

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I crawled out of a very comfortable and warm bed this morning, reluctantly.  I was tired and wanted to stay but I had a big day ahead of me.  I left my dear friend’s house just after 7 am.  Morning horses 🙂

Round the corner, this beautiful view of the Leicestershire countryside in an early morning mist wowed me.

And this.  How beautiful!

An hour later and I was parking at the Birmingham office.  I popped in to EAT and bought a ham and egg sandwich and a skinny latte.

I went back at lunch time for a soup.

Thai spicy butternut which was ok.  No bread or accompaniments.

It was a long drive home after an intense and tiring day.  It took 3 hours and for most of that I was battling with myself because I wanted to go and buy chocolate in a service station, but I stayed in the car and just kept going and got home shortly after 9pm, 14 hours after I left for work in the morning.

The boiler is broken AGAIN so no hot water or heating AGAIN!  GRRRRRR!

I promised myself a smoothie and it was worth waiting for.

Spinach, banana, apple, 2 dates, 1/2 a tub of cottage cheese with pineapple with almond milk and ice cubes.  It was wonderful – refreshing and creamy and very smooth.

Followed by some Gruyere and oatcakes.  So that was my day in Birmingham, briefly.

 

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Spa Day

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

What shall I put in my smoothie for breakfast?

Delicious.  The raspberry and coconut favours came through and this was thick and creamy.  Consumed along with a cup of tea and I headed off to Leamington Spa to see Jane and Gary.

Jane and Gary are friends of ours we have known for about 30 years but for some reason I haven’t seen them for about 6 years so I was really excited to be visiting.  I had a coffee when I arrived.  How quaint – they have milk bottles in Leamington Spa!

Then Gary poured the fizz 🙂

And we ladies retied to the sunny garden and had a reminisce and laugh about some old photos.  Sally, Sarah and I were at school together and Jane and Gary were at University with Sally so we go back a very long way.  There were some really choice hairdos in those photos!

Lunch time.

Gary had cooked roast pork, sausages, roast and mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower with Yorkshire pudding and apple sauce.  I completely overloaded my plate and it was delicious.

Followed by a very rich and delicious chocolate dessert.  Yum!

Time flew and all too soon it was time to say good-bye :-(.  Thank you for a lovely lunch and afternoon.

So I left one group of friends and headed to another :-).  I am working in Birmingham tomorrow so am staying overnight with fab friends who live about 40 minutes away.  I arrived to some vino and a lovely chicken dinner,

followed by birthday cake, homemade by my sweet God-daughter and her little brother.

So another day that was not a great diet day but I spent it with some very dear friends and enjoyed it all.  I might stay in the Midlands – it’s really rather wonderful.

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Perfectly Runny

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Blood oranges vary in colour from orange to blood red!

You can never tell until you cut them what colour they will be.  Believe it or not, they are both blood oranges.

I put them in the blender with almond milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds and 2 tbsp oats.  Interesting colour and it tasted very pleasant.

Lunch was in contrast to yesterdays vegetable bounty and was practically a vegetable desert.  Basically we had cheese and bread.  But not an ordinary cheese, a Mont d”Or Vacherin!

This is a close up.  To be honest, it  doesn’t even look like food and smells rather unpleasant too!

But if you put its little lid on and pop it in to the oven (I did 150 ° C for half an hour)

it comes out like this!  Yes, looks even worse.  But don’t let that put you off, because if you cut through that top crust you will find cheese heaven inside.

Yes, a golden runny pool of amazing tasting cheese in to which we dipped crusty bread and cherry tomatoes and then poured some on the crusty bread and ate it with smoked ham.  It was perfectly runny.  Awesome!

The Swiss Chard and spinach I planted last year survived the winter and is looking good.  So is a Bulls Blood beetroot which I grew for the lovely purple leaves which are very edible.

Some have been munched a bit but most leaves are new and shiny and perfect.

I picked red, yellow and white stemmed Swiss chard, spinach (large leaved variety called New Zealand spinach) and Bulls Blood beetroot leaves.

I fancied something spicy for supper and opted for a Nasi Goreng which I haven’t had for ages.  I cooked up some brown Basmati rice and stir fried some carrots, red onion, broccoli, red pepper, and the Swiss chard stems.

I added the chopped up leaves and lightly fried them until they began to wilt.

I put all the vegetables in to a bowl, fried the prawns, which I had bought raw, and then added the cooked prawns to the vegetables.  I had a jar of Nasi Goreng sauce so I added that to the wok, fried it for a minute or so and then added the vegetables, rice and prawns.

Before adding the spice, I put some rice, vegetables and prawns in a large bowl for Harvey so he could have his without chilli in it.  Ours was very spicy.  A bit too spicy for James and at the end of my spice tolerance  but I enjoyed it.

This was not a good diet day for me.  I also had some chocolate and some more cheese can you believe, with oatcakes.  Plus some Crabbies alcoholic ginger beer which went well with the Nasi Goreng and some red wine which I am enjoying now.  I have felt very tired all day and am hoping I sleep well and feel more lively tomorrow as I am off to see some people who are very dear and special to me!

 

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Don’t Adjust The Colour

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

What a colourful days eating we had today.  We were blessed with glorious sunshine which makes everything brighter but I think our food would have shone brightly even if it was raining outside.

I made the most of working from home and started the day with an early dog walk.  Lara came too which is great because apart from the lovely company she is a good pace maker and we got round 3 minutes quicker than I do on my own.  Great start to the day.

After working for a bit I made breakfast.  Look at these colourful foods!  I genuinely get really excited looking at a pile of vibrant fruits and veggies and thinking of all those nutrients and how my body will love me for them.

Beet and Berry Smoothie

  • 1 frozen banana
  • 1 blood orange
  • 7 – 10 strawberries
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 raw beetroot
  • 250 ml coconut water

Blitz until smooth.

Check out the colour of this smoothie – I promised I have not enhanced the colour at all!

And how did it taste?  A little bit more beetrooty than I like but it was easily drinkable.  I felt myself glowing with goodness from the inside out as I drank it.

Lunch was tomato-tastic as it was based on 5 types of tomatoes.

Chopped up with Mozarella and an avocado, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with fresh basil, oregano and salt and pepper.

Tricolore!  Yum.

Followed a little while later with some Brazils, almonds and 3 dates.

Lara cooked dinner for us and it was totally delicious and wonderful and I want it again.  The recipe was an Ottolenghi one for Soba Noodles with Mango and Aubergine.  Lara made it exactly as per the recipe except she left out the chilli and we had to use a mixture of soba noodles and thinner egg noodles.  It was lovely and I recommend you give it a go.

Noodles with Aubergine and Mango

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 120ml rice vinegar
  • 40g sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 lime, grated zest and juice
  • 300ml sunflower oil
  • 2 aubergines, cut into 2cm dice
  • 300g soba noodles
  • ½ red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 large mango, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
  • 40g basil, chopped
  • 40g coriander, chopped

Method

  1. In a saucepan, gently heat the vinegar, sugar and salt, until the sugar dissolves- about a minute.
  2. Remove from the heat and add the garlic and sesame oil. Set aside to cool, then add the lime zest and juice.
  3. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan and shallow-fry the aubergine in three or four batches. Once golden-brown, transfer to a colander, sprinkle liberally with salt and leave to drain.
  4. Cook the noodles in plenty of boiling, salted water – as per instructions on packet – then drain and rinse under cold water. Shake off the excess water and place on kitchen towel to dry.
  5. In a mixing bowl, toss the noodles with the dressing, aubergine, onion, mango and half the herbs.
  6. When ready to serve, add the rest of the herbs, mix and pile on a plate or in a bowl.

This is good when left to sit on the side and cool down to room temperature for an hour or so as it allows the flavours to combine well.  But you may not be able to wait that long!

I hope you had a colourful day too 🙂

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Two For One

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

I didn’t manage to blog last night as I went out after work so I’ll do 2 brief ones today.  In the one post.

Breakfast yesterday was a skinny latte with Granola with yogurt, fruit compote and lots of fresh fruit on top.

Lunch was a super healthy salad with roasted vegetables, spicy chicken and tuna.

After work I went to the local pub for drinks with the team I work with.  And was joined by my sister Lucy and Lara.  We went to the Market for supper and a lot of it was out of bounds due to something being filmed.  There was a lot of huge pieces of meat hanging up round what is usually the fish stall, and then we found this chiller cabinet full of pig heads.

Macabre and fascinating and gross!  And enough to turn a person in to a Vegetarian.

We went to Fish! for dinner.  Apart from our ditsy and hopeless waitress, it was a great meal.  I had fish pie with spinach (not pictured as the waitress forgot it so it came later).

Lucy had lobster with new potatoes – eventually – and Lara had battered halibut and chips.  All the meals were lovely.

I was slightly anxious about what to have for dessert as there was no fresh fruit on the menu – luckily they do a calorie free hot sticky toffee pudding with ice-cream so I had that :-).

Today I made breakfast to take in to work; 50 g Granola with nuts in it, one blood orange and 100 g low fat probiotic natural yogurt.

It was market day so I went for a quick shop in Turnips and bought some baby aubergines,

some mixed tomatoes,

including these ‘Bulls Heart’ tomatoes!

I also bought some baby parsnips.

I did head to the Raclette seller for lunch but then veered left and went for a vegetarian stall instead.

I had a ‘Heavenly Halloumi’ burger on a bed of 3 salads with tomato salsa.  It was good.  I liked the way you could choose to have it in a bun or on salad so I went for the healthier option.  Just as well as I was tempted a bit later (we are talking minutes later here) with a piece of banana and walnut cake which was lovely but calorific.

I made a smoothie for dinner which I enjoyed.

It looked a bit beige but was full of goodness; banana, kiwi fruit, avocado, strawberries, kale and a pear.  Made up with ice cubes and coconut water.

This has been such a busy week but tomorrow I can work from home so no commuting – hooray.  And I can cook and eat healthily all day.

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Home Again

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

I woke up bright and early today.  I could have had a lie in as the hotel is so close to the office but I woke up early and got going with the day.  I had a large breakfast in the hotel, starting with a small bowl of muesli with some extra nuts (hazelnuts and almonds), dates and a pot of yogurt.

Delicious but I should have added some fresh fruit.  I had a small bowl of cereal as I fancied having an egg, in case I didn’t get time for lunch.

I then had a fried egg on a  slice of wholemeal toast with 2 small cheeses and a small slice or seeded brown bread.

When I popped out of the office at lunch time for some food, the sun was shining and the local office workers were outside catching some rays.  This is the view from the office steps.

The fountains are very relaxing to watch as the pressure changes so they are high then low and they sound lovely.  If you had the time to sit and enjoy them I am sure it would be very pleasurable.

I bought a tuna melt and a skinny flat white from Costa.  I have not found anywhere here that does a decent salad full of vegetables or even fresh fruit which is annoying.

I had a straight forward trip back to Kent and it was great to be home again.  I was really excited to get home, knowing Lara was there 🙂  Although not so excited to see my clean and tidy kitchen transformed to something more usually experienced in a Hall of Residence!

Order was quickly restored and I happily popped goodness in to my blender: kale, celery, a pear, an apple, a banana and an avocado with 250 ml water and 250 ml ice cubes.  Just managed to get my 5 a day in – phew.

This was my first green smoothie with kale in it.  I could taste it slightly but it was fine and I enjoyed it.

That quantity made one and a half large glasses full of green yummy goodness.

I also had 2 slices of the Celebration cake.  Oops.  But one slice was so delicious so I had another one which finished it up.  It tasted even better I think than on Sunday.

It’s so good to be home again.

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An Early Start

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

I have been up for hours.  I was up at 4:45 am so I could catch the 5:31 am to London and then on to Birmingham.  I bought a small latte and yogurt with granola pot at Euston which I had on the train.

At lunch time I stepped out for some air and a stroll about.  Just round the corner from the office is this charming canal.  I like the pink barge.

Here’s the view from the other side of the bridge.

I bought a salad from Carluccio’s.  Half the pot was chick peas and the other half was pasta.  It was the only 2 salads they did.  Tasted OK but I wanted fresh vegetables.

After work we checked in to the lovely hotel and then caught a cab to The Bullring for a spot of shopping.  This is the outside of The Bullring.  The green spotty building is Selfridges.

We had supper in a Japanese restaurant.  I had vegetable and seafood tempura which was lovely

followed by a chicken curry which was not.  I ate the chicken and salad but left most of the rice.  I enjoyed the beer I washed it down with.

 

I have enjoyed relaxing in my hotel room and really appreciate the super fast internet which has uploaded my photos in seconds.  I will be off to bed in a minute as I am exhausted and I have another early start in the morning.

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Happy Mothers Day

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

Happy Mothers Day to all of us wonderful Mothers out there and to your Mothers.  To compensate for a lack of recipes recently I have included a few great ones today, including one of my favourites which comes from my own dear Mother.  She died 19 years ago so it has been a long time since I have shared Mothers Day with her.  But cooking one of her recipes keeps her with us.

My day started perfectly with a lie in followed by a cup of tea in bed brought to me by Harvey.  I received lovely cards and gifts in bed and then got up and made smoothies.  It was so wonderful to have Lara here too to make them for.  We had frozen mixed berries with banana and almond milk, thinned down a bit with coconut water.

Lara made everyone American style pancakes with bacon and maple syrup.  Sublime.

The sun shone and we went to Jane’s garden opening and then a dog walk over the road in the woods.  When we got back I began to bake a special cake for special friends.  Kath, Matt and Henry leave for NZ on Friday so they were all coming for supper tonight.  Our last meal together before they leave.

I had seen an amazing 4 layer cake on Nutty Crunch and decided to make that.  However, on closer inspection I did not have all the ingredients plus it was a vegan cake and I wanted to use eggs in mine.  So I made my standard cake recipe I always use and made 2 chocolate and 2 plain sponges.

Sponge Cake

Ingredients

  • 175 g butter (or non dairy equivalent)
  • 175 g sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 175 g self raising flour*
  • 1 and ½ tsp baking powder

* to make chocolate cake, use 150 g flour and 25 g cocoa powder

Method

  1. Pre-heat Oven to 180 ° C.
  2. Butter 4 x 18 inch  cake tins.
  3. Cream together the butter and sugar.
  4. Beat in the eggs.
  5. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder (and cocoa if making chocolate).
  6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
  7. Turn cakes out on to wire cooling tray and leave until cool.

Buttercream Icing

175 g butter or non-dairy equivalent
300 g icing sugar
cocoa powder to taste

Cream butter with icing sugar and cocoa powder.
Whisk until light and creamy in texture.

Celebration Cake

Ingredients

4 cakes (from recipe above make a chocolate and plain cake)
1 punnett strawberries, sliced
2 cups frozen berries
½ cup icing sugar
Cherries in Kirsch
1 portion of chocolate buttercream
1 tsp Orange Blossom syrup (optional)
Cake decorations, such as sprinkles and crystallised violets.

Method

Place one chocolate cake on cake stand.
Cover in half the sliced strawberries

Place a plain sponge on top.
Heat the mixed berries with the icing sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves and mashing the berries lightly.

Place all the berries and their juice on top of the plain sponge.  It may seem like a lot of juice but the sponge soaks it up.

Place a chocolate sponge on top and cover with strawberries.
Place a plain sponge on top and cover with cherries and some of the Kirsch.

You will end up with 4 layers of cake and 4 layers of fruit.

I had some orange blossom syrup and I stirred 1 tsp in to the buttercream.

Cover the top and sides of the cake in the chocolate buttercream.  Add decorations.

This is a very tall cake!

While I was making the cake, Lara made the potato salad.  I am so happy she is here with me this year for Mothers Day.  I was so miserable last year when she was in Australia.

From the Food Network, via my friend Laura in Canada, comes this wonderful recipe for a Purple Potato Salad.  I used a mix of 3 types of potato, including the lovely purple ones.

Purple Potato Salad

Ingredients (serves 6)

  • 2 pounds new potatoes (try and include some purple ones 🙂 )
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed first in a pestle and mortar
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
    Paprika

Method

  1. Boil potatoes until just soft (about 20 minutes) and drain them.
  2. Mix dressing ingredients together and stir in the potatoes.
  3. Sprinkle with paprika and serve.

I made a salad of lollo rosso lettuce, sugar snap peas, carrots and yellow pepper.  I added a simple dressing made with 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard and a small pinch of salt.

We had the potatoes and salad with BBQ chicken, which is a recipe my Mother used to make which my cousin Hannah passed on to me a few years ago.  The sweetness in this dish makes it very popular with children.

Mummy’s BBQ Chicken

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 4 – 6  pieces of chicken ( I use a whole chicken chopped in to 2 x breast and 2 x legs)
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp Lee & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
  • 8 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • Tabasco to taste (optional)
  • 2 bay leaves

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 200 ° C.
  2. Brown chicken pieces.
  3. Mix other ingredients together in a large casserole dish.
  4. Add chicken pieces to BBQ sauce and mix well to coat chicken evenly.
  5. Bake in oven for 30 – 40 minutes.

This is an easy but very tasty chicken dish which we all enjoyed.

We ate dinner with champagne and toasted our dear friends bon voyage and hoped that their new life in NZ will be all they want it to be.

Followed by the celebration cake.  Just to clarify,  we were celebrating our friendship, not our friends departure.

It looked great when we cut it open and it tasted good too.  It was rich though and one slim slice was enough.

Before we knew it, it was time to say good-bye.  Sadly Matt had to stay home as he is ill so here’s a virtual farewell :-).  We said good-bye to Henry

and Kath.  Farewell, dear and special friends.

I am so sad they are going, but really happy they have finally made a tough decision and are going ahead with it.  I wish them all the very best and look forward to visiting them in their new home on the other side of the world.  Which in this day of Skype and Facebook is really not so very far away.

So this has been a fun and emotional day.  But for me it will soon be at an end as I have to go to bed early.  I am off to Birmingham tomorrow and need to catch the 5:30am train.  I hope you have all had a lovely day.

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Crazy Horses

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

It’s the weekend 🙂 .  So time for a cooked breakfast.  Bacon, poached egg and tomatoes.  Is it runny?

Oh yes, I remain the world champion egg poacher.  They were cooked to perfection.

This is Harvey’s “egg volcano”.

Off to Ramsgate for a days cleaning so I took a salad, based on this lovely Lollo Rosso lettuce.

With cucumber, celery, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, red pepper and sprouts.

Served with some oily fish my Step-Father brought me back from Spain.  Not sure what it is but am guessing mackerel.

I was not expecting it to be orange!  I drained the oil and mixed it in with the salad.  It all tasted lovely.

In Ramsgate I was pleased to see the Ramsgate Society has started its rennovation

of the charming promenade shelters with the ones outside our house.

I had a really fun evening.  The best part was someone special hopping off a train – she’s home for 5 weeks 🙂

I then went to see The Osmonds with Suzanne.  We have each been 3 times, twice together.  They were in Tunbridge Wells which was rather convenient.  I donned my blue velvet coat for the occasion which was a bonus as I have not managed to squeeze myself in to it for years.  It was very comfortable tonight.

They may be older, fatter, greyer and wrinklier, but they can still hold a tune and belt out a great song.  They even managed some dancing.  Each time we see them there are fewer of them.  Alan has retired due to his MS,  Wayne was due to come but had a stroke.  Donny and Marie were not on this tour so we had Merril, Jay and Jimmy.

We had a wonderful evening and I was transported back in time, to my teenage bedroom which was plastered in posters, pictures and clippings of Donny, my first love.

I had missed dinner so I started my Mothers Day pampering early with a tray loaded up with wine, bread and cheese.  Which I am enjoying as I sit in the lounge, catching up on tv I have recorded to watch with my gorgeous girl

Crazy.

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Vegtastic

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

Remember I told you how I fell over a few days ago?  My right knee is very swollen and covered in a spectacular bruise.  It is very tender and hurts when I walk 😦 .  Sorry, that is gross isn’t it?

No more nasty photos, I promise.  I packed in the fruits and veggies today.  I was quite horrified to realise that I ate no fresh fruits or veggies yesterday until the evening so today I did much better.  I also want my bruise to heal so I provided lots of nutrients.

The little fella requested strawberries so he got some.

They were blended with banana, vanilla soya yogurt, almond milk and sunflower seed butter.  It was a great start to our day.

Enhanced by the fact I was at home making it at 7:30 am, nearly an hour after I usually have to leave.    I also had time to make a raw salad for lunch.

I chopped up cucumber, celery, red pepper, carrot, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and added some mixed sprouted seeds and 1 tsp hazelnut butter instead of dressing.  Ultra healthy 🙂 It did take a lot of chewing though.  I was thinking I could pop it in the blender, add some water and ice cubes and drink it effortlessly.  Instead I munched it slowly while I worked.

I took Harvey to get the school bus and sang Candyman at the top of my voice.  Deep joy.    I had this lovely start to the day because I was bound for the Gillingham office which was only a 50 minute drive from home.  When I go to London I go early to snap up a decent desk and to get going with the mountain of work I have each day.  But there was no point going early today so I didn’t.

I had a great day at work and was home earlier then usual.  I was very hungry as I had only eaten the smoothie and raw veggies all day.  I made one of my favourite meals – mixed vegetables in cheese sauce.

Step 1 : place raw kale in a layer over the bottom of an oven proof dish.

Step 2: pile on a mixture of lightly steamed vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas, purple and pink new potatoes).

Step 3: Pour over cheese sauce and grate more cheese on top.  Bake in the oven for half an hour at 180 ° C.

Step 4:  Mangez.

Vegtastic 🙂

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