New house

So I have moved, I have a new address about 40 miles away from where I have lived for the last 15 years. I still don’t know that many people, and I don’t have kids so it’s difficult with the neighbours as it’s a family orientated neighborhood.

I still work in bedford and commute everyday, hopefully I will find a new job around my home soon. Spending 2 hours driving everyday is starting to take its toll on me.

I’m getting used to be single again and need to enjoy cooking for one again. My portion control when I cook is still for 2 people. And I have to be honest as I come back after 19:30 in the evening, the last thing I want to do is cook. Which means that I have been piling the pounds again.... looks like it will never stop

But overall, I am getting my life reorganised. It’s nice not to have to worry about going back home, or stay in the car parked outside the house dreading to walk in. So all in all the end of the year is on a positive note. 

Homemade taboulé (Syn free)

It has been a very hot day today, reminding me how I miss a good taboulé. In France, it's one of the most popular salad in summer.

So tonight, I decided to try to come with a recipe which would be as close as possible.

 

Taboulé recipe:

400gr couscous

500ml boilingwater

300gr tomato passata 

1/3 of a jar of syn free Colemans concentrated mint sauce 

Cherry tomatoes cut in quarters

Orange pepper bell

Weight your couscous in a plastic container, add your water, cover. Once ready fluff the couscous with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients in the couscous and mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours. Taboulé is served very chilled.

If the taboulé is too dry for you, more passata and mint sauce can be added.

In the last few months

So it's been a bit more than a month since my last post, god life has been hectic.....

1/ my partner and I split up a few months ago. 

2/ my comfort eating has gone down a lot since

3/ I realised I did not have much of a life so I decided to get a new one (which I enjoy very much)

4/ I had lucky escape some weeks even if I did eat non healthy food.

5/ I have now lost 2st and 10 pounds (yes, I know I have a lot more to come off. But come on, it's still a good result!!!)

Week 11 weight in

Loss this week: 6lbs

Total loss so far: 1st 10lbs

At last I'm losing weight again. Although I'm not sure it's by eating healthy, this week was all over the place but I did eat a lot less following the aftermath of last weekend 

Week 10 weight in

This week I maintained

Total loss so far: 1st 4lbs 

Week 9 weight in

This week: + 4 lbs

Total loss so far: 1st 4lbs 

Holidays

So I had a week holidays and I did not watch what I was eating. Let's face it, I'm not the only one who has done it and probably won't be the last.

What scared me was how easy it was to go back to eating unhealthy. I had ice cream and biscuits. crisps, chocolate, more chocolate ....

I mastered some courage this morning and got on the scales:

1/ felt ashamed

2/ screamed at myself

3/ really really mad at myself

4/ OMG, look I can't do it and I just ruined everything I did the last 2 months

5/ (breathing deeply in) it's ok, managed to do it I can do it again 

And that peeps are the 5 stages of grief Slimming World way 

Week 8 weigh in

This week: 1lb

Total loss: 1st 8lb

Tangtastic sweet Syn free

Tangtastic dandelion & burdock sweet

Syn free

 

Ingredients:

3 cup dandelion & burdock soda no added sugar

1/2 cup gelatine powder

2Tbsp Sukrin:1

3 tsp citric acid (I like my sweets to be very tart, if you want them to be less measure less acid)

1/ Pour the soda in a stainless steel pan and let it go flat.

2/ Add the gelatine powder and mix until the gelatine is dissolved.

3/Put pan on low heat and stir until the mix is at 60 degres Celsius.

4/ Take pan off the heat and let it cool down slightly.

5/ Once cooled, pour mixture in mold (I used two silicone round molds)

6/ Set in fridge, it took 1 hour for my two moods to be set properly.

7/ Cut sweets in the shape you want. In a plastic tub, mix the sweetener and the citric acid. add the cut sweets to it and shake until all the sweets are covered.

8/ keep in fridge up to a week.

Week 7 weight in

Loss: 4lbs

Total loss so far: 1st 7lbs

Week 7 has been a better week. I increased my intake in speed vegetables and reduced my speed fruits. It's also my ⭐️ week.

Weight in week 6

Just realised I forgot to enter last week weight in. So here it goes:

Put on 2.5 lbs

Total loss 1st 3lbs

Healthy eating inspector

Meet my new healthy eating supervisor... Cinder.

 

He will be helping with my meal planning and look very closely at my syns 😂.

Struggling

Been struggling a lot with snacking recently. It was not a major problem until last week, but it is one now.

Did some microwave crisps last night. I know it is a tweak but it's still better to have homemade ones than opening a pack of very fatty one. 

I had some salt and pepper mix left over from when I did Chinese. I sprinkled it on top of mandolined protatoes with fry light. 4.5 minutes for each plate in the microwave, checking at 2 minutes to make sure they were not burning.

 

Butternut squash and Bacon Soup

 

Butternut Squash and Bacon Soup

Syn free

Ingredients:

1 Medium Butternut Squash diced

1 Red onion diced

2 Garlic gloves crushed

2 carrots diced

1 Pak Choi diced

2 Chicken Stock Pot

1 litre of water

4 Smoked Bacon Medallions diced

Salt and pepper to taste

Add all the ingredients together, bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Don't forget to stir time to time, and check the water level, if needed add a bit more water.

Take off the heat and blend until the soup is smooth. 

Serve a a swirl of fat free Greek yogurt or fromage blanc.

This soup is ideal for SP days and can be reheated.

Ohso Good Chocolate

They honestly should have called it Oh My Good it's so lush chocolate and I can't believe it's only 3 syns for a 13.5 gr but I can see that name might have been too long.

The Ohso Good bar with no added sugar comes in 3 different flavours: lemon, raspberry and original.

 

I bought the three flavours but at £3.99, they are a bit of an investment. Now are they worth it? No question about it...Yes 

 

I tried the lemon one as soon as they arrived. I'm not too keen on dark chocolate as it reminds me the bitter chocolate (85%) that my mum used to give us as kids (Hell it could put hair on your chest). But I was pleasantly surprised by the little bar of lemon chocolate, to me it tasted just like chocolate and lemon curd, which I love. Did I had to go and check the wrapper again to make sure it was only 3 syns? Yes, I did... because honestly something that good can't be just 3 syns. It did curb my chocolate craving.

3 Syns/Bar

 

Ohso Good have a promotion at the moment buy 4 packs and get free delivery. If you use the code slimming25 you get 25% off.

http://ohso.com/shop/

P.s:

It's also worth noting that the normal chocolate and orange bar is only 3.5 syns/bar.

Weight lost visual aid

I'm doing slimming world online, as I'm not going to group and I still need that little push people would get in group, I created a visual aid. Standing proudly on my fridge, my little clouds of weight loss are there when I open the fridge. It has been laminated so I can erase them if needed, I use some white board pens to colour them in.

 

The green dots are my weight ins. As no one at home knows about me and slimming world (my dirty little secret lol), it is not titled.

Porky lights part 2 🐷

Received my Porky parcel today. I was very excited to open it and see my packs of sausages.

 

 

Even went through the house to show them to the builders (and yes.... they now all agree that I'm mad as s box of frogs, think they were just going for weird before this).

As it was lunch time, I decided to cook 3 and have a sausage sandwich with a dash of ketchup. 

I followed the instructions and cut them in half lengthways, my first thought was I don't think I cooked them long enough they are still juicy, put them back for another 5 minutes in the oven, but still juicy. I tried one and they were cooked. 

I throughly enjoyed my sandwich and the sausages were as I said before juicy and felt like a proper butchers sausage when biting them.

Celebration the year of the Rooster

As yesterday we were celebrating Burn's night, we did Chinese New Year tonight.

I literally slaved in the kitchen all day to have a Chinese feast tonight. So much washing to do, even if I did it as I was going along, I have still two sinks full of it. Ah how I long for the good old days when I did not have to worry about getting a takeaway. Except than now when I see how many syns are in one I can feel my hips getting bigger.

On the menu tonight was:

Lemon chicken

 

Salt and pepper chicken

 

Vegetable stir fry

 

Fried rice 

All the recipes can be found on Pinch of Nom website 

Week 5 weight in

Loss: 1/2lbs

Total loss so far: 1st 5.5 lbs

This week was hard and I'm very happy with this loss. I have been leaving in a renovation project house for the last 4 years. And in the last few months, it has become a building site. 

We had the electricians in this week, and as lovely as they were, it has been difficult for me as my privacy dropped to almost zero. Having to look out to see if the  corridor to the bathroom is clear, taking a quick shower just in case, they cut the electricity, happened on Tuesday ended up with no lights in bathroom (we don't have a window in it) and no water (the shower is electric).

The boiler was cut for a few hours too and ended up freezing in the house, well to be fair it was freezing outside. 

I ended up eating the wrong thing as I was trying to keep warm. Let's face it a salad does not keep you warm hot chocolate does. Abused it a bit and had to do a few SP days, thank heavens for courgettes lasagne sheets.

Porky lights at last

Good news Peeps,

Porky lights maker have now a shop online. 

https://shop.porkywhites.co.uk/collections/best-sellers?utm_source=corporate%20site&utm_medium=menu&utm_term=main

The Elusive sausage is becoming real for me , after visiting a lot of stores ( I when I say a lot I mean 7, even travelled 30 miles to the biggest Asda store in Milton Keynes) and still could not find them.

 

So I got the Grail of sausages, woohoo, can't wait. I have to be honest the shipping price was a bit stiff, £7.50 if buying under £50. I bought 5 packs of it which came up to, with the shipping, £21.

I am now hoping they are well worth it....

Luxurious courgette lasagne

So tonight we are trying the new courgettes lasagne sheets from Sainsbury's.

The recipe is for 4 persons 

2.5 syns per portion if using the cheese as a Healthy Extra A

You need:

500gr 5% or less mince beef

1 red onion chopped

1 red pepper choppped

4 mushrooms sliced (I did not use the stalks)

4 garlic cloves crushed 

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 pack of passata 

2tsp of mixed herbs 

1 pack of 400gr courgettes lasagne sheets

250ml of  bisto white sauce (made with water and I added a bit of Xantham gum to thicken it a bit more)

160gr reduced fat cheddar

Salt and black pepper to taste

Frylight 

Fry the onion until soft in frylight.

Add the the mushrooms, red pepper and garlic, I cooked until the mushrooms were soft.

Add the mince beef and cook until browned. 

Add the tin of tomatoes, passata, herbs and seasoning to the pan. Simmer until the sauce is thick (remember that the courgettes lasagne sheets will release water in the sauce when cooking)

 

Prepare the white sauce as indicated on the bisto tin, add some xantham gum (sparingly) if you want it to be thicker.

Spray some frylight in an oven dish, layer the courgettes lasagne sheets, pour some mince beef mixture on top, I did add a thin layer of white sauce ( 4 Tbsp of it). 

 

Repeat until you have used all the courgettes sheets. Pour the left over white sauce on top of the courgettes lasagne sheets and cover with grated reduced fat cheddar.

 

 

Cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes.

 

Enjoy 😊 

Double sausage egg fake Mcmuffin

Really fancied a Mcmuffin today, but at more than 20 syns it's a big no no.

So I did one myself for 3 syns.

I used:

a Kingsmill whole meal roll (they are 68gr so used my healthy B and added 2 syns)

2 slices of Dairylea light

2 Quorn sausage patties (1 Syns for both)

2 eggs (I used egg mold to fry the eggs in shape)

1 sliver of ketchup (not synning this)

 

I'm not going to lie and say that it tasted exactly like a Mcmuffin because it did not. But saying that I loved it and i felt a bit fuller than after I ate a real Mcmuffin.

Sweet freedom

Sainsbury's is having a promotion on sweet freedom £2.50. I managed to find the choc shot coconut and the regular choc shot. The orange choc shot can be found in Aldi at the moment.

 

Week 4 weigh in

Week 4 loss: 5lbs

Total loss so far 1st 5lbs

I'm so happy this week as my target was 3lbs. I have adopted  the principle of if I'm not hungry don't force yourself to eat for the sake of it. 

Knitting club

Every week I go to knitting group. Once every two weeks, the pub we go gives us some free food, usually chips and sandwiches.

Last night was proper torture as on top of our own spread, they served the darts club a creamy curry with naan bread, the smell was divine. It took a lot of effort to no eat anything from both buffets. 

And the worst is that some of the girls brought a box of Roses chocolate and some homemade cheese puff pastry hearts.

#iamsoproudofmyselfasididnottouchanyfoodatthepublastnight..... but jeez did I want to

Reality sucks

Got a shock this morning, kind of a wake up and smell the roses shock.

I dropped my car to the MOT station this morning, yes it is this time of year where I have to have that dreaded  car check done. As I did not really sleep last night, I arrived one hour early, and let's face it I was not ready to wait 2 hours at the garage. So I went to town to find a coffee shop.....need caffeine.....

I managed to find a Sainsbury's, ordered a large americano (no milk, no sugar). I walk towards a sit and  SMACK.... reality gave me a hard check... I was unable to fit my whole butt in the chair!!!! What the plum pudding!!! I managed to fit most of it by wiggling in it but still.

I felt stupid but thankfully nobody noticed what I was doing.

Hopefully I will keep on track and this will never happen to me. 

Thank you Mcvities

So today I got to Tesco to buy the new thins. At work the girls and I had the Oreo thins. We were all surprised than such a small, or more like thin, could pack the same taste as a whole regular size biscuit. At 1.5 syns each they are well worth it. Each packet contains 2 packs which could also limit the damage. Except for the digestive which are coming in one pack....Oh dear, will power required!!

Tesco as a promotion on the Oreo thins at the moment only 54p, the others are sadly a bit more pricey at £1.59.

 

Loaded pizza

Did not feel like cooking today, so I did a loaded pizza.

I used my healthy B and A which means that it was syn free.

Yummy

1 Bfree Foods whole grain wrap healthy extra b

40gr of reduced fat cheddar healthy extra a

1x Yellow pepper

Half an onion

1Tbspoon sweet corn

A few mushroom sliced

Tomato purée for the base

And some ham

I cooked it in the oven at 180 between 5-10 minutes

My life saver this week

My diet saving food this week is definitely Kingsmill whole meal no crust bread. 3 slices for healthy b!!!!

I usually use two, toasted, for a sandwich and the third one for a sweet toast, used it with PB2 chocolate peanut powder and banana.

 

New sweet freedom chocolate spread

 Awesome news for chocolate spread lovers Sweet Freedom is launching a new product. A chocolate spread without the nasties in it and with less calories.

This product will be on Asda's shelves from the 20th of January.

Can't wait 😊 

 

OMG!!!

Oh my goodiness,

I just look at my stats on blogger and this blog has been viewed 7410 times. 

I know it's probably not a lot when compared to others but for me it sounds massive. 

So I would like to thanks everyone who had a look at it, thank you so much 😘

Yummy toad

Pinch of Nom has a very nice recipe for toad in the hole. It was my first time ever cooking it.

I'm proud of how it turned out and it tasted lovely. Served 3 for 3 Syns per person

http://pinchofnom.com/recipes/low-syn-toad-in-the-hole-slimming-world/

At last

So for the last 3 weeks, I have seriously got my slimming world mojo back. And it's paying off, in 3 weeks I lost 14 pounds. I am not starving but I also adopted the principle that if I'm not hungry I am not going to force myself to eat. I also started to walk a lot more and to push myself I have signed up for the 1000 miles walk challenge.
So all in all everything is good, I still have some off days but I rectify the course back to normal the day after.