Good Food, Good Friends, Good Times...

Hello Dear Friends! I hope you are all well, and that you have plenty of delicious things to eat.

Yesterday was supposed to be a fasting day, but we'd decided to go out for a meal with friends on their last day here. Dave and Hazel have a holiday home near here and it's always lovely to see them - they ae so friendly and generous. Last time they were here Hazel gave me a beautiful cross stitch that she had made

Pomme agrees

So on Thursday and Friday I fasted during the day, just having soup, and fruit until dinner time. Then yesterday evening we went to the Relais d'Urfé (we've been there several times fairly recently) for a lovely meal. There was Dave, Hazel and their son, Max, Corinne and her friend Dominique, Richard, and me and Mr FD. Everyone, except Richard who is vegetarian, had foie gras followed by pork fillet in a wild mushroom sauce with green beans and gnocchi. Richard had a salad, followed by fresh pasta with a cream-and-mushroom sauce. Then cheese and an individual Tarte Tatin each.

Source: flickriver.com

It was a really enjoyable evening. 

Otherwise this week has been quiet: no dancing on Wednesday, because it is half term, so we called down for apèros with Alison and Gèrome. That was nice! I wasn't teaching on Thursday, which gave me a chance to prepare for next week and to think a little about Sunday's  sermon. I also made some Thanksgiving cards which I hope to sell for church funds. Here are a selection:

Zentangled, of course!

Today I spent the morning writing the sermon: it certainly was easier to write than last time. I wonder why that is the case... Perhaps it was a theme that rang bells with me and so I wasn't struggling to make sense of it. Should you wish to read it, I'm posting it over at The Teapot.

One piece of good news that I had recently is that my cholesterol levels have dropped fairly dramatically since my last blood test two-and-a-half years ago. Then the level was (I think) in the high sixes, but now I am in the high fours. Yay! Sensible(ish) eating, following the 5:2, losing weight, drinking my Danacol yoghurts and taking a plant sterol tablet a day has obviously had an effect!

 

Source: mielerosupermercado.es

Talking of eating sensibly (not!) today we had pancakes stuffed with a garlicky-bacony-creamy-cheesy mixture for lunch - very nice. I had a couple of handfuls of mache as well, with a drizzle of sweet chilli sauce over it. Main meals for this week are planned as follows:

TODAY: Hairy Dieters chicken fajitas - but served on big chinese leaves instead of tortillas. The tortillas I have are past their best (aka very stale!) so I'm going to sprinkle them with Mexican spice mix, crisp them in the oven and have them as tortilla chips. If the avocado I bought yesterday is ripe enough I'll make guacamole as well.

SUNDAY: Hairy Dieter's pork souvlaki .We'll have this with a few sweet potato wedges and a tomato salad 

SOURCE: dailymail.co.uk

MONDAY: Vegetable chilli and rice. Not much to say about it really. 

TUESDAY (fasting) Easy beef stew  This seems very hearty for only  240 calories but I will trust the website! I may make a bit of parsnip mash to go with it, as it leaves us with 250 calories to play with. Although my lunchtime soup will take quite a bit of those calories too. Maybe some cabbage instead..

 SOURCE: womanmagazine.co.uk

WEDNESDAY: Spicy pork (in freezer) and baked potato. OR maybe not...Our friend Steve, who we haven't seen since he split with his wife some years ago, is coming over with his new partner and their baby. If he arrives as planned (he's already cancelled a couple of times) we're having a drinkie-snacky get together at Alison's home, and just soup for supper. 

 THURSDAY: Hairy Dieter's Pasta Puttanesca. A nice simple supper. I've got an appointment at the Dermotologist for a rather unpleasant rash on my foot and ankle (although it has cleared up a lot since I made the appointment two months ago!) so I don't want to have to spend much time cooking when I get back.

FRIDAY: (fasting) Lemon-marinaded chicken, roast veggies and a teeny bit of cous-cous. This recipe says to use roast vegetable couscous, but we won't have that in France. Anyway, I guess that the actual vegetables, roast with a bit of olive oil, will be better for us than the dehydrated roast veggies that one would find in the packet cous-cous. Fewer calories too, I would guess, but I might be wrong there.

 SOURCE: womanmagazine.co.uk

*****

As usual, thank you all for your comments. It is always great when people agree (or disagree!) or ask questions, or make funny comments. If only because it means I know someone is reading my pages! 

Mags, and  SaraLouise  both loved the Eddie Izzard quotation . I do think he is a very funny guy, but I have also been impressed with him as a straight actor. We saw him in a television drama quite recently "Castles in the Sky"about the inventor of radar and thought he gave a very good, understated performance.

 I agree with Jane about how nice it would be to be one of our well loved cats...We frequently remind ours (especially rescued Bib) how lucky they are to have ended up with us as their slaves!

Fishcake Random - I hope that this blog inspires you to the 5:2  As my cholesterol levels show, it does work (even when you don't do it very properly!)

Kezzie and Briony - shoes! What problems they cause us! I must get better at going to the shoemenders (and in fact found another more convenient one which I must have walked past hundreds of times and never noticed!) in order to make well-loved and comfortable shoes last longer. A worthwhile expense...but it's always nice to find some bargain shoes to buy too. I remember my all-leather 20€ boots found last year at Noz. I love them!

And Maggie - the potato pie was very delicious  - though not as good as the one made by a fairly local butcher. They are only available on Friday, andyou need to be quick. They go very quickly! They are pricy too, so it's not a treat for every week!

And to finish with: I have joined in with a Christmas cracker swap, where you fill a kitchen roll tube with lots of goodies, and make a cracker with it. My swap mate is Ellie at Feltabulous

I wonder if she'll send me a tube stuffed like this one: