LolCats, Food & Musings...Comme d'habitude!
Today is the St Just horse fair - you can read about it over at the Teapot - but I'm here at my desk to update you all on my food planned for this week.
The weight loss hasn't been going too well, although I have noticed a definite shrinkage in the tummy area. So I am losing inches, if not grams. I've been doing 5:2 since the second week of February and I've lost about 2.5 kg. Which isn't too bad, but nothing like as much as I'd hoped. However, I do need to recognise that (and I'm not really blaming her here, but she does seem to be a catalyst for our social life!) since Cathy came over, I've drunk more than I usually do, and eaten rather too many nibbles and crisps too! It's great to see her, but I need to try to be a bit more restrained!!
On the 5:2 forums lots of people have recorded bigger weight losses, but others are having similar results to mine. It's been interesting to read how others deal with their frustrations and their advice. The way of eating has been advertised as "Fast for 2 days; eat what you like for 5" - it isn't quite that, as I think I'm finding out. It was recommended I worked out my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and tried to eat within that for at least 3 of the feed days. As mine has come out at a very healthy (not sure that's the right word!) 1950 calories a day, that really shouldn't be a problem. I just need to be a lttle more circumspect on the biscuit consumption (which has been slowly creeping up!), stick to one Lindor ball in the evening (we have loads of the yummy little devils!) and save the alcohol for the weekends & meals out.
Anyhow, what delicious food is planned this week?
To note: we didn't have freezer casserole on Thursday last, as I forgot to take it out of the freezer (D'oh!) so we had my go-to fast meal of lardons, mushrooms, pesto and fresh pasta. Ten minutes and it's ready! Otherwise, I think the plan was followed to the letter - the red pepper & chorizo stew was finally cooked and was delicious (esp with garlic bread!)
I forgot to put CuppaSoups on the shopping list, so I made a low calorie soup yesterday for lunch. It looked like algae-filled pond water but was actually quite tasty - and only 40 calories a big bowlfull. Basically I cooked a courgette, a carrot, 2 sticks of celery, an onion and a leftover barquette of lamb's lettuce in vegetable stock, seasoned with pepper, herbs and dried chilli flakes. Zuzzed up, it looked gross but tasted fine.
MONDAY: (fast day) I'm not at work today, so I won't have porridgey breakfast. I'll just go with drinks and soup (maybe I'll make another pot of Pond Weed Soup!) until supper, which will be Spinach and Feta pie. I'm using fewer sheets of filo (I have three) and marscapone instead of ricotta (it's what I've got in the fridge to use. It's MUCH higher in calories but I'm using nowhere near as much as the recipe says, making up the difference in spinach, or possibly chopped mushrooms) As the given recipe is only 189 calories a portion, and we'll have about 400 to play with, I think that it shouldn't be a problem...
TUESDAY: I bought some meatballs at Lidl. We're having these with tomato and courgette sauce and fresh pasta.
WEDNESDAY: Aubergine and ham gratin. The recipe doesn't include ham, but I'm going to throw some cubes of ham into the mix. We'll hacve it with salad - which should give a good quantity of our 5-a-day (which I'm not always very good at consuming!)
THURSDAY: Hairy Dieter's Cumin crusted veggies + a grilled pork chop.
FRIDAY: Asian chicken wraps, using Chinese leaf for the wrap. I've done something similar before with fajita type filling which worked really well. Let's try a slightly more Asian feel with this recipe fromthe site "London Unattached"
SATURDAY: I'll make a heavy-on-the-veggies pasta bake - I've got a tin of artichoke hearts, plus whatever is lurking in the fridge, mixed with a tin of tomatoes, cooked pasta and covered with cheese. Yummy.
SUNDAY: Let's try pulling a casserole from the freezer. And having it with mash and veggies.
The weight loss hasn't been going too well, although I have noticed a definite shrinkage in the tummy area. So I am losing inches, if not grams. I've been doing 5:2 since the second week of February and I've lost about 2.5 kg. Which isn't too bad, but nothing like as much as I'd hoped. However, I do need to recognise that (and I'm not really blaming her here, but she does seem to be a catalyst for our social life!) since Cathy came over, I've drunk more than I usually do, and eaten rather too many nibbles and crisps too! It's great to see her, but I need to try to be a bit more restrained!!
On the 5:2 forums lots of people have recorded bigger weight losses, but others are having similar results to mine. It's been interesting to read how others deal with their frustrations and their advice. The way of eating has been advertised as "Fast for 2 days; eat what you like for 5" - it isn't quite that, as I think I'm finding out. It was recommended I worked out my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and tried to eat within that for at least 3 of the feed days. As mine has come out at a very healthy (not sure that's the right word!) 1950 calories a day, that really shouldn't be a problem. I just need to be a lttle more circumspect on the biscuit consumption (which has been slowly creeping up!), stick to one Lindor ball in the evening (we have loads of the yummy little devils!) and save the alcohol for the weekends & meals out.
Anyhow, what delicious food is planned this week?
To note: we didn't have freezer casserole on Thursday last, as I forgot to take it out of the freezer (D'oh!) so we had my go-to fast meal of lardons, mushrooms, pesto and fresh pasta. Ten minutes and it's ready! Otherwise, I think the plan was followed to the letter - the red pepper & chorizo stew was finally cooked and was delicious (esp with garlic bread!)
I forgot to put CuppaSoups on the shopping list, so I made a low calorie soup yesterday for lunch. It looked like algae-filled pond water but was actually quite tasty - and only 40 calories a big bowlfull. Basically I cooked a courgette, a carrot, 2 sticks of celery, an onion and a leftover barquette of lamb's lettuce in vegetable stock, seasoned with pepper, herbs and dried chilli flakes. Zuzzed up, it looked gross but tasted fine.
MONDAY: (fast day) I'm not at work today, so I won't have porridgey breakfast. I'll just go with drinks and soup (maybe I'll make another pot of Pond Weed Soup!) until supper, which will be Spinach and Feta pie. I'm using fewer sheets of filo (I have three) and marscapone instead of ricotta (it's what I've got in the fridge to use. It's MUCH higher in calories but I'm using nowhere near as much as the recipe says, making up the difference in spinach, or possibly chopped mushrooms) As the given recipe is only 189 calories a portion, and we'll have about 400 to play with, I think that it shouldn't be a problem...
TUESDAY: I bought some meatballs at Lidl. We're having these with tomato and courgette sauce and fresh pasta.
WEDNESDAY: Aubergine and ham gratin. The recipe doesn't include ham, but I'm going to throw some cubes of ham into the mix. We'll hacve it with salad - which should give a good quantity of our 5-a-day (which I'm not always very good at consuming!)
THURSDAY: Hairy Dieter's Cumin crusted veggies + a grilled pork chop.
FRIDAY: Asian chicken wraps, using Chinese leaf for the wrap. I've done something similar before with fajita type filling which worked really well. Let's try a slightly more Asian feel with this recipe fromthe site "London Unattached"
SATURDAY: I'll make a heavy-on-the-veggies pasta bake - I've got a tin of artichoke hearts, plus whatever is lurking in the fridge, mixed with a tin of tomatoes, cooked pasta and covered with cheese. Yummy.
SUNDAY: Let's try pulling a casserole from the freezer. And having it with mash and veggies.
Thank you to everyone who comments on the blog - it's always nice to see what people have to say, and I do try to reply, even if my response is a bit banal sometimes!!
PomPom - I'm glad you liked"The Cats" It really tickled my fancy!
Sara Louise: I hope you enjoyed the Chorizo dish as much as we did. I threw in some spinach too, which added a bit more greenery to the diet and bulked it out a bit more. I think that is a "keeper" as a recipe.
Jane & Chris: Don't tell anyone, but - while I'm glad that the Morris side is still dancing out - I do have a sneaking suspicion that often it is much more fun for the dancers than the spectators!!! I'm thinking about joining a Line dancing (known as "country dancing") group here in France, but I keep putting off phoning the contact! Maybe I'll wait until September!
Christina: I didn't end up crafting much - I wasn't "in the zone" - but I did tidy my crafting shelves znd tinker about a bit. I finally got round to a wedding card that I was commissioned to do. It's not finished yet, so I'm not showing it off, but the person I'm making it for is pleased with the design so far!
I also made a card for lovely Rachel who sent me my earrings, which I still can't show you as Blogger is still being snippy about uploading photos. But rest assured, they are lovely and I'm wearing them again today.
Girlfriend -- you are one of the winners in my Vera Grateful giveaway! I will send on of the tote bags your way -- all the way over there! Please send me your mailing address -- write it out exactly as I need to put it on the package!!
ReplyDeleteYou can email me at the address listed on the sidebar of my blog.
Thank you for all the love you send my way --
xoxo
Vicki