Recent Eats - end of February

The last two weeks of February flew by.  The only place I've eaten out was grabbing a bite to eat from Fish& who are currently in Trinity Kitchen.  I opted for the lobster mac and cheese - delicious.  I also indulged myself in a super quick espresso stop at Bottega Milanese, not sure the other customers were very impressed with my double buggy, but I needed caffeine and I needed to stop to feed my hungry baby.

 lobster mac & cheese

  

my first ever espresso

Other than lunch out on Friday our only other eating out has been a picnic in our car when we went to Dalby Forest last week.  It's been a couple of weeks of eating Slimming World friendly meals, and then ruining the effort of those by eating loads of chocolate and drinking wine.  Not sure where I left my self control and willpower, but I could do with them returning to me...

 defrosted berries and fat free yoghurt - the juice that comes off the fruit as it defrosts is the best bit

 Chicken and potato curry with peas and sweetcorn

 cauliflower rosti pie - recipe from this months Slimming World magazine

If I didn't have the wedding coming up I think I'd be ready to throw in the towel on Slimming World, I'm not sure it's ever going to work for me, I'm constantly yoyoing up and down with gains and losses.  I'm finding being exhausted from lack of sleep just makes me crave sugar, likewise feeling upset, I just want to binge on chocolate for that quick fix rush from the sugar.  But then I have to deal with the guilt of eating it.

I had no idea that it would be so much harder to lose the baby weight after my second baby.

Danepak reduced salt bacon

I was sent some Danepak reduced salt bacon to review. The bacon is 30% less salt than the standard version - as far as packaged bacon goes I'd definitely buy this again.  Obviously it isn't in the same league as bacon from the butchers, but it isn't meant to be, it is a vast improvement on the Aldi bacon we've had recently though.

In terms of taste, you can taste from the first mouthful that there is less salt in the bacon, I often find supermarket bacon too salty, particularly if I'm going to use it in a meal the whole family is eating.

I used my bacon in an omelette, cauliflower 'fried' rice and we shared out the remaining in sandwiches.

I'd buy this again, over the other supermarket bacon.

Recent eats - first two weeks of Feb

Over the last two weeks I've eaten a few stir fry meals, lots of soup (butternut squash and red pepper shown above), a sausage and puy lentil stew (I loved it, everyone else hated it), cauliflower fried 'rice' and stuffed mushrooms.

In celebration of valentines day Daisy and I made double chocolate heart cookies, and Phil and I had an M&S dine in meal.  The wine was the star of our meal, Wave Break Pinot Grigio - absolutely delicious, we'll be stocking up with more of that.

I also bought some Essy & Bella chocolates, these are dairy, egg and gluten free. I always imagine "free from" products as being tasteless, these definitely are not. I bought pink peppercorn and sea salt, lime and sea salt and ginger bars, and got Phil a heart lollypop. Our favourite was the lime one, we love chocolate lime sweets, so this was a perfect bar for us to share.

So far this month I've eaten out with the girls at Little Tokyo in Leeds, fantastic as always, and will be heading into Trinity Kitchen for a Fish& fix next week.

Slimming world wise, I got slimmer of the month for January - 8.5ibs off, but have totally gone to pot and gained 3ibs last week! I'm expecting another gain this week after all the wine and food we've had this weekend. Need to give my head a shake, and stop snacking.

Recent eats - slimming world meals

I've been back at Slimming World for a while now, but didn't really get my head back round it until January. I lost 8.5ibs in January and was my group's slimmer of the month.

Although I'm expecting a gain this week (biscuits, chocolate, toast...) I am really enjoying being back on plan.

I eat lots of soups, omelettes, pasta and rice dishes and try to eat as much 'speed' fruit and veg as I can. I've even had a go at egg 'wraps'.

What's your favourite slimming world meal?

My version of Homity Pie

A Traditional Homity pie has a pastry base and is filled with potatoes, onions and leeks.  There's currently a Slimming World recipe for Homity Pie on the app, I adapted it to fit a fussy eater, and also to use up some broccoli.

Ingredients
3 medium potatoes
2 medium sized leeks (about 250g)
Half a head of broccoli
120g cheddar cheese
Splash of milk
Peas
Garlic
1 egg
75g vegetable stock

Method
I peeled and chopped the potatoes then threw them in a pan of boiling water to cook.

While the potato was cooking I chopped the leftover broccoli and put that in boiling water to cook.

I sliced the leeks quite thinly and sautéed them in fry light with some garlic, then added a generous amount of frozen peas.

While all three pans were doing their stuff I grated the cheese, and weighed it until I got to 120g worth.

When the broccoli was almost done I drained it then added that to the leek and peas pan.

When the potatoes were done I drained them and mashed with a splash of milk, then added the egg and the vegetable stock.

I mixed the green vegetables into the mashed potatoes and added three quartets of the cheese to the mixture.

I poured this into a baking dish - spraying the dish with fry light first, sprinkled the remaining cheese on the top and popped into the oven at 200 for 25 mins.

It was delicious. I'd definitely add the broccoli again, maybe even some spinach too - it did need more leek though to make up for the missing onion. If you were going to make this then I would double the leek, or add an onion.

This did 4 portions, working out at 6 syns per portion with the cheese. (Milk from my HExA). A high syn value, but definitely worth it!

Meal Planning Monday

Monday - jackets, beans and steamed veg / sausages, beans and egg for D & P.

Tuesday - tomato soup, bread for D & P

Wednesday - gammon, hasselback potatoes and veg

Thursday - creamy bacon and mushroom pasta

Friday - salmon stir fry for me

Saturday - cottage pie and veg

Sunday - pork loin and veg

Quite a conservative week for us, a bit too much meat and veg for me, but I can't make everyone like what I do.

You can join in the meal planning at www.athomewithmrsm.com

Slimming world friendly tomato soup

 Ingredients

5 tomatoes
1 tin of plum tomatoes
1 carton of passata
2 sticks of celery
Half large brown onion
1 carrot
200mls vegetable stock
Garlic
Squeeze of tomato purée

Method

When I decided to make this soup I was my trying to make it the most tomatoey thing known to man, I just got a wee bit carried away adding them in.  I liked how strong the tomato flavour is, but I guess it won't be to everyone's taste.

As you'd expect - chopped all the veg, peeling the carrot too. I sweated the onion, celery and carrot off in some fry light with a splash of water, and a little bit of garlic paste. The fresh tomatoes got chucked in next, then once they'd softened in went the liquid elements of the stock, tinned tomatoes and passata, then lastly added a little squeeze of tomato purée.

I let the soup simmer until all the vegetables were cooked then blended and served.

You'll notice from my posts that I don't list salt and pepper - I'm committing sacrilege I know, but our daughter eats with us and I don't like to add salt to what she's having.

In a turn up for the books she actually liked this soup - she's been in a difficult fussy phase for months now. I always offer her what we're having but she would often impolitely decline it. Occasionally demonstrating her displeasure with my cooking by removing it from her vicinity, and acquainting the food with the floor. Very frustrating when done with dishes she ate happily before.

I got coerced into doing leafleting for my slimming world group, this soup was lovely to have a cup of to warm up with when we got back.