Climbing reluctantly back on the Wagon!

The rheumatologist has told me firmly to lose weight; I know that I have gained as my skirt felt tighter than it should have done on Sunday - I meant to weigh myself this morning, so I had a starting point, but I forgot (psychological slip-of-the-mind, do you think?!). So here we go!

Yesterday was a fast day - I am not sticking very strictly to 500 calories a day, as I am cutting down every day, but Monday & Tursday are still my "leaner than usual" days. So I had an agg for breakfast, a salad with a small amount of chicken & no dressing at lunch, plus an orange and an apple, a veggie stir fry ( made with 1 leek, 1 onion, 1 courgette, 1 carrot, 200g mushrooms, 100g beansprouts, 75g duck breast, 75g egg noodles and a black bean sauce - shared about 40% me, 60% Mr FD ) and finally a banana.

TODAY

 I tried a new breakfast - 20g porridge oats, a handful of dried cranberries and half a banana. It was okay, but I need a bit more liquid in the porridge. With a glass of half-and-half OJ & water, a coffee and a Danaol yoghurt this is my new breakfast for this week at least.

Lunch will be veggie soup (celery, leek and potato), a chicken breast-and-salad sandwich, fruit and a "sweet treat" (except I've not made any yet, so that might have to wait until later)
Dinner:  salmon spaghetti with green leaf sauce (You can see the recipe on this pdf file here)

WEDNESDAY

Mr FD is cooking as he gets back from his course before I get back from teaching.  Usual breakfast, and lunch (I may need to make some more soup - which will be curried parsnip and sweet potato soup) 

Dinner: Mexican bean burgers with yoghurt dressing, salad, avocado and potato wedges (tossed in a tsp or so of olive oil + paprika) The recipe says use rolls, but we're not doing that!! I'm also going to substitute some of the kidney beans for chickpeas, left over from tonight's dinner.

THURSDAY
(fasting)

Hopefuly nothing ( but possibly fruit )  until dinner. Which is Hairy Dieter's Easy Crispy Chicken plus a salad with a zingy yoghurt dressing. One thing I will have to do is try to find some interesting salad ingredients...mine are rather boringly of the lettuce-cucumber-tomato variety.

FRIDAY

Breakfast & lunch as detailed above.

Dinner is Mr FD cooked again, due to another late return.

It's another Hairy Dieter's recipe, coconut prawn curry  with a smidgeon of rice (probably about 30g of raw rice each)

These are the Hairy Dieters; Dave Myers & Si King

SATURDAY

Lunch is beans and poached egg on toast. Dinner is a veggie cottage pie which comes in at just over 200 calories a portion. Add lots of veggies as well - probably brocoli and carrots. There is a broccoli with zingy dressing at ther end of the linked recipe. I'll probably try that.

SUNDAY

Lunch will be left over cottage pie - in the form of soup!! I'll zuzz it up with some vegetable stock and maybe a tin of tomatoes. I might scrape off the potato topping however, and make it into little patties served up with an egg on top.It depends on how much is left.

Dinner is turkey ragout - this was a great success when I made it before, so I'm looking forward to it again!

 

Pompom: The muffin recipe I use is this one or this one:

2 large eggs                   150 ml pot nat yoghurt              50ml rapeseed oil                100g apple sauce

1 ripe banana (mashed)  4 tbsp clear honey                    1 tsp vanilla extract            200g flour

50g rolled oats               1.5 tsp baking powder               1.5 tsp cinnamon                100g blueberries

2 tbsp mixed seeds (don't have - I'll omit these)

Heat oven to 180°C/ GM4. Line a 12 hole muffin tin

Mix eggs, yog,oil, applesauce, banana, honey & vanilla in a jug.

Put everything else (except seeds) in a bowl. Combine.

Pour wet ingredients over & mix till you have a smooth batter...Be careful not to overmix though.

Divide batter between uffin cases. Sprinkle with seeds (& some extra oats if desired)

Bake for 25-30 minutes

Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Can be kept for up to 3 days. 179 cals per muffin.

I got your email & will respond sometime soon.

Trish: I hope you liked the salmon dish. I was a bit unimpressed with it, but I didn't follow the recipe exactly (for various reasons) and I was in a grumpy mood, so it's possible I wouldn't have been impressed even if it had been served by David Tennant wearing nothing but a rose between his teeth. (Actually, I'm not sure how appealing a picture that is...especially if you're waiting for your dinner!)

Aside: I googled "David Tennant with rose" and got nothing but variations of this picture

No! That's the wrong kind of rose!!!

Mags & Fishcake Random: Thank you for your new year wishes. I hope 2014 is good for all of us.
Must rush! I've got a phone lesson to give!