Wednesday 30 January 2013

The results are in!

Well the time has come!

Been well and truly completely on plan this week. 7
I lost a grand total of...................................................Half a pound!
I got to admit I am totally gutted! :( I was thinking at least 2!

My group leader has suggested I try some "Red days" this means I cut down on carbs and have more meat. (going to have to read up on it as it's completely alien to me)

I am going to still be blogging my progress on a daily basis to keep me on track. however I have set myself a challenge this week inspired by Eddie.......7 days, 7 different lunches. 
I am usually stuck for lunch ideas, so I turn to things like mugshots as they are easy. This week will make me think about what I am having! 

Hope this gives you all some ideas too!

Even though I have already weighed in and technically it is the start of the new week, I am ending my day as I've started, the "extra easy" way...

Breakfast 




Same as yesterday. So pretty standard.

Lunch

I had something different!! (See Eddie I can do it) lol 


Yesterday's Frittata, and I've gotta say it is far better the next day! 

Dinner



Pulled chicken with wedges, Coleslaw (Recipe on the Slimming World website) and salad with my Fiancé's home made BBQ sauce. 

BBQ sauce recipe.

2 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tsp mild chilli powder (or however hot you want it)

475ml oz passata 

6 tbsp artificial 
sweetener

8 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp of paprika

salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Method

spray a pan with fry light and sauté the onion and chilli 

powder over a low heat for 5 minutes until softened.

stir in the remaining ingredients, bring to the boil and simmer

for 10 minutes until thickened. check the seasoning before 

serving hot or cold. 

syn free on both days ready in 20 minutes serves 4 and

freezer friendly.

It is super yum!!!





Tuesday 29 January 2013

Weigh in T-1 Day!

Almost there!! This time tomorrow I will know if my week of recording everything has actually worked! 

I must admit I'm really nervous! I hear stories all the time of people being 100% on plan and staying the same, or even having a gain! Also, afraid if I do stay the same, or gain I'm going to want to come home and eat everything in sight! 

I know some weeks previously I have been totally off plan and lost, so who knows what's going to happen tomorrow??

Anyways, I digress. My day went like this today.

Breakfast


Wanted to save my HEA for later today, so I had my HEB toast and Marmite this morning,with a banana and a yoghurt.
My toast was without any margarine or butter, not that I don't like it .........because I don't know when to stop with it! I love toast dripping with melted butter!

Lunch

Well Mugshot of the day lol.....Also the most Synful one
Creamy cheese!!! (2.5 Syns) 



I must confess when I was counting my Syns today I forgot this was 2.5 and have been counting it as 1 all day. Good job I'm well under today! (Just goes to show how you can forget what you eat) 

Dinner

Tonight I pretty much winged it!


Loosly based on a Frittata recipe this is what I used.....(this recipe made 2 dishes worth)

12 eggs
5 Tesco Healthy Living cumberland sausage, sliced. (5 Syns)
4 potatoes, peeled and sliced.
Mixed peppers.
1 Onion
1 pack of lean bacon fat removed and chopped
50g of cheese. (10 Syns)
Mushrooms (If you like them)

Really you can put whatever you like in it this is just what I chose

Par boil the sliced potatoes and drain.
Brown the cooked sausages, bacon, onions and peppers.
Whisk the eggs
Add any seasoning you wish. I used chilli powder when cooking the sausages and bacon mix. 

Put it all together (I used 2 dishes 1 with mushrooms, one without) 

Top with the cheese and bake until firm and golden!

Total Syns for the 2 slices I've had 4 

Hadn't had my HEA so had this and it was AMAZEBALLS!!!!!


White choc options and my HEB 2 syns

Total Syns for the day........8.5!!


Monday 28 January 2013

2 Days til WI

Well Monday is upon us. 

I woke up this morning feeling a bit rubbish :(. Still had to haul my ass out of bed to get to work. 

Breakfast was pretty standard.
Weetabix and a banana.


Lunch I didn't really change a great deal, apart from having my all time favourite Mugshot......Roast chicken (1 Syn)



I have found over the weekend, and today that I'm not eating as much now my stomach must be shrinking. :)

Dinner 

Cottage pie with loooaaaaaaaaads of veg.


There is tonnes of veg in the pie itself, I think I definitely had my Superfree here! 

Recipe

500g Beef Mince
1 Swede
4 Medium potatoes
2 Large Carrots 
1 Onion
Garden peas 
Mixed herbs
Tablespoon of gravy granules
2 Eggs 
Salt and pepper to taste.
Worcester sauce 
250ml Beef stock

Method

Finely chop the swede and potatoes and boil with some salt and pepper until soft.

Chop the carrots and onions and fry with the mince using Frylight
Add some Worcester sauce herbs and stock once the mince is brown sprinkle the granules over the mixture (if too thick add more water)

Put the mix into your casserole dish.

Mash the swede and potatoes together with the 2 eggs and top the mince mixture.

Bake for around 30-35 mins

That's about it!

Then had to have some more cheesecake! Would be rude not to!!


Tracy was right! It does taste better the next day.

Total Syns for the day 9!

Getting a little nervous now about weigh in! :/ 


Sunday 27 January 2013

The one with the cheesecake recipe

Well here it is guys! The fabled Oreo cheesecake recipe blog!!!!

Before I let you know the recipe I'm going to let you know how my day went!

I didn't really have breakfast today apart from an banana and a yoghurt before I went into town. I wasn't really overly hungry to be honest. 

Lunch was this........



Toast with Marmite (HEB)
Beetroot.....I could seriously live off this stuff! 
Fruit

I still wasn't hungry but I felt I had to eat something to keep my metabolism up.

No Sunday is complete though without one of these



This is where the Syns come in handy!! 

Brisket of beef cooked in stock 
Peas and carrots 
Leeks with HEA cheese on (was super yum!)
Roast tatties cooked in Frylight 
Splash of gravy 1 Syn 
And you can't have a beef dinner without a yorkshire pudding!! 3 Syns

Now it comes to the good part! TA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Oreo chocolate cheesecake!!!!!!!!

This is what you will need to make this.



 Ingredients

• 375g of Quark (I used low fat soft cheese which is 1 Syn 


per 25g so 13 Syns.)

• 300g of fat free cottage cheese (blended till smooth) 


• 4 eggs 


• 50g sweetner


• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch (cornflour) (1.5 sys)

• 1 tsp of vanilla essence

• 11 Oreo cookies (26 syns) 


I also added a sachet of options to the mix ;)

Method

Preheat oven to 180c or 350f (gas mark 4)


Grease a spring form pan.


Chop 10 Oreo’s into quarters


and roughly line the bottom of the spring form pan with 

the Oreo pieces.

Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. 

Scrap the seeds from the vanilla pod and add to a large bowl


 along with the quark, cottage cheese, sugar, egg yolks, 

vanilla extract, little zest from a lemon and the cornstarch.

Whisk until all ingredients are well combined

In another bowl whisk the egg whites until they form soft 


peaks

Fold this into the rest of the mixture.


Pour this on top of the Oreo pieces in the springform pan 


and gently tap the sides, so the mixture is evenly distributed

Place in the oven and bake for approx 35 mins. When

 cooked the cheesecake will be slightly golden around the 

edges. You can gently place a skewer in the centre just to 

make sure the middle is not too wet still.

Leave the cheesecake to cool in the oven with the door 


slightly ajar

Once cooled you can then place in the fridge to chill before


slicing.

Once ready to serve. Get the remaining Oreo cookie and


crush roughly with a knife and sprinkle this on the top.


When I took it out of the oven it didn't look very pretty......until I sliced it up. 




IT WAS AMAZING!!! at 7 Syns a slice it's well worth it!! 


I also had a couple of sweets at hockey....I'll add an extra 2 syns to my day 

Total Syns 13! 

More than I would usually have but I've had a good day!! 

They wouldn't let us have up to 15 a day if it was going to make us bigger! 


Hope you've all had a good weekend guys!! <3




Saturday 26 January 2013

Super Saturday!

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you've all had a good day! :)

My day has been pretty cool. I've been catching up on some Supernatural and Once upon a time..........Whilst food optimising of course! 

Now I've settled in for the evening and watching Pirates of the Caribbean, and writing this blog.

I posted earlier on my page that I had pancakes, maple syrup and sausages for breakfast. It looked like this..

They look burned here however they tasted lovely! These are what are commonly known in the Slimming World Facebook groups as "Magic pancakes" I think they must call them that because they are completely free! (If using porridge oats as HEB)

Ingredients

HEB worth of porridge oats
Muller light yoghurt. I use vanilla, you can use any flavour you like.
2 eggs 

Method

The night before you make them, combine the Muller and the porridge oats, cover and leave in the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to make them whisk the eggs and stir it into the Muller, porridge mixture. 

Heat a pan and spray with frylight.

Drop a ladle's worth into the pan and cook the pancake through on one side, when you are able to get the turner under it flip it over. This can take a while to get the hang of it but trust me it works.

There you have it! Magic!

With this I had Quorn sausages 1 Syn.
Maple syrup 1 Syn per tablespoon.
Lots of chopped strawberries.

Whole thing......4 Syns (I ate a sausage whilst cooking)


For my lunch I had a big fat tuna salad. 

 It may not look pretty but it was damn tasty! The cottage cheese on top was Tesco Piri Piri cottage cheese, and even better it was completely free!! 

I haven't really snacked at all today because everything was super filling, apart from a Weight Watchers yoghurt.

As for dinner..........This is one of the reasons I love slimming world.


Gammon (though hidden by the eggs), Chips, Carrots and mushy peas. 

Believe it or not peoples this is free! As long as you cut off the fat of the gammon it's happy days!!!

I would have been well within my Syns today if the housemate hadn't have brought this home for me.


Usually I would have this without even thinking about it. Today I checked my Syns. You wouldn't think it but this is 13 Syns! I checked this out with my group leader and he said as long as I've been under Syn allowance all week I'll be fine. It was good too! :)

Total Syns for the day.....17. 



Friday 25 January 2013

Thank Crunchie it's Friday! (No Crunchies were eaten during the making of this blog)

It's Friday people! By far the best working day of the week! 

Usually I would treat myself to a large bar of chocolate or crisps.....or both! NOT ANYMORE!

Instead, this is my day.

Breakfast

I decided to mix it up a bit today and not have porridge. I still used my Healthy extras though. 


You can't see it but there is actually 2 Weetabix under all that fruit and milk. Following the Slimming World plan you can have 2 as your Healthy extra. I also had my first green tea of the day.

Lunch

Lunch when I'm working doesn't change all that much.
Today's Mugshot of the day was spicy tomato, and it was ACTUALLY spicy! (All those who know me will all know I love me some fiery food!)


It is also looking a bit sparse. The reason for this is that by the end of the week we are running out of fruit. This is why it is helpful to have a supply of fruit on my desk.....Just incase! 

Dinner 

There was a little bit of time before dinner yet again. Today I had a pickled egg and some pickled beetroot. 

Dinner though, was a Slimming World favourite.......



Syn free (beleive it or not) pasta quiche.

Here is how I made it.

Ingredients 

1 packet of broccoli and cheese pasta and sauce (any brand) made up with water.
4 eggs
1 tub of cottage cheese (I used the onion and chive one)
Lean Bacon
Onion

Though you can add anything you like! It's really versatile!

Method

While you are cooking the pasta and sauce..
Blitz the eggs and cottage cheese in the blender.
Chop the bacon and onions into pieces.
Mix the whole lot together! Yes, Its that simple!! 

Put it in the oven at 200 and cook until golden and cooked through in the middle! 

With it I par boiled and roasted some baby potatoes in Frylight and nuked some mixed veg! Et Voilà!

The only thing I have Synned today so far was the garlic mayo i had on top (1 Syn)

This means if I get peckish later I can have a Special K bar or some cracker crisps!! Yay!

Today though I realised that I always drink plenty of fluids at work but when I get home I seem to stop drinking alltogether! 
From today onward I am making sure I have at least 2 pints of sugar free squash in the evening. Lets see how that goes! 

Stay tuned for a Saturday edition of The Shrinking Geek! <------please click the link to follow me on Facebook, or or even my Twitter Feed

<3


Thursday 24 January 2013

Week in the life Day 1

Thursday

First full day of being completely on plan and keeping track of everything. 

All done and dusted and I'm not feeling hungry, or in the need to munch on chocolate or crisps!

Breakfast

I always make time for sitting down and eating breakfast in the mornings. It sets me up for the day and wakes me up. 
This morning I had this.


Oats so Simple porridge (Healthy Extra B)
250ml Semi skimmed milk (Healthy Extra A)
Chopped up strawberries 

I've never had strawberries with porridge before. I loved it! Will definitely be having it again, when they are on offer! 

Lunch

I am terrible at remembering to make things for my lunch. I even buy the stuff in with all good intentions of making it. Even then I still don't make it!! So I take things like this.


Tikka Pasta Mugshot 1 Syn.
A lot of people think these are all "Free" on Slimming World but unfortunately they arent. :( 
However, if you stick to these rules you will be fine!
1% fat = Free
2% fat = 1 Syn
3% fat = 2.5 Syns

Weight Watcher yoghurt. 
Most of these are free, its best to check Syns online if you're doubtful.

Lots and lots of fruit for snacking on. 

This usually lasts me through until dinner time, however there are times when I just can't stop munching at work. All we have to hand are things like crisps and chocolate out of the vending machines. 

So, instead of running to them I stock up my desk with supplies.

Spare Mugshot. For when I feel I could eat a scabby donkey!
Special K biscuit breaks (5 Syns per pack) 
Bowl of fruit.
Lots of packets of different flavoured tea.

I must admit though, I drink about 5 cups of green tea a day! I don't know if this is too much but I have found since I've made the switch from coffee to green tea I've felt far less stressed and less grumpy! Lee has even noticed a change!.

Dinner

By the time I get home from work I do feel kind of peckish.
Today I couldn't wait until dinner so I had some Special K cracker crisps 21 for 5 Syns

The hubby in training made this for dinner tonight.


He is a pretty awesome cook! 

This is the remaining sauce from the Katsu curry we had last week heated through with some chicken breast added and some boiled rice.
When we have curry unless we have a tonne of veg in it I can never figure out what Superfree food to have with it, so I just had a big fat salad with salt and lemon juice dressing.  

I will also have an options hot choc later (2 Syns)

Total Syns 8!

If every day this week could be like today I'm sure I would get my 2.5 stone award!!

 

Wednesday 23 January 2013

A week of the Shrinking Geek! The start............

If you bite it, You write it.

We all get told, you will have better losses by keeping a food diary. 

I start one almost every week with all good intentions, then it sort of dwindles off........................

This week you are all going to help me stay on track. 7 days 7 blogs and you will know EVERYTHING that passes my lips! 

Starting right now!! 

Tonight's dinner was this....

Chicken and mushroom jacket spud with HEA cheese and salad! 

The only Syns in this is the mustard pickle. 

I am stuffed..........currently not wanting to snack. 

Tune in tomorrow for a full days worth of munching 

<3

"Weigh Me" Weight loss competition

At work I have decided to take part "Weigh Me" competition to help people here get healthier....With a cash incentive!

Here is how it works.......

It runs for 21 weeks.
Every participant has to pay £1 a week to weigh in.
If you gain, you pay 25p for every lb.
1st prize 60% of all total takings
2nd prize 40% 

I did this last year, and came second! I won over £100

This year I am determined to be #1!!!

Wish me luck!!!

<3

Friday 18 January 2013

Doner Kebab!.........Slimming World Style!

As you can tell, I love takeaways!! One of my favourites is a big fat greasy kebab! With lashings of mayonnaise and chilli sauce.

When I started this plan I thought I was going to miss. 

Then I came across this in an unofficial SW group on Facebook. This is the end result!




Ingredients: 

1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder 
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
500g/1.1 lb Extra lean lamb mince


I have customised this to how I like it...Added mint to the mix for example. Its just a basic recipe, so put in whatever you fancy and make it your own!

Method: 
Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180C/350F

In a large bowl, combine the dried oregano, dried Italian herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper.

Add the lamb mince and mix thoroughly for 2-3 minutes. Take out all of your aggression on the kebab mixture, punching and kneading until no air pockets remain and the kebab meat is extremely smooth.

Shape the seasoned mince into a loaf and place on a baking tray.

Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 1 hour 20 minutes, turning the loaf half way through the cooking time to ensure even browning.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and cover with foil. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Slice the donor kebab as thinly as possible and serve with pitta, salad and sauces!!!


And if mixed kebab is your thing cook some chicken breast with herbs and spices, and throw that in too!! :)

 If you have enjoyed this recipe and would like to see more.....Follow my Facebook Page <3



Wednesday 9 January 2013

Green tea - What doesn't it do?

As inspired by the conversation on my page this morning. I'm going to talk about this stuff.....


Yes.....Green tea. I'm sure some of you already know some things about it but you might learn something new from this post.  

I'm going to tell you a few things you may/or may not know about it.

1. Weight loss. (This is why I drink it.) It increases your metabolism.  The polyphenol found in green tea intensifies levels of fat oxidation and the rate your body turns food into calories.

2. Diabetes. Green tea apparently, helps regulate glucose levels slowing the rise of glucose levels after eating. This can prevent insulin spikes and resulting in fat storage.

3. Heart disease. Scientists think, green tea works on lining the blood vessels, helping to keep them relaxed enough to withstand changes in blood pressure. It may also protect from the formation of clots, the primary cause of heart attacks.

4. Depression. Theanine is an amino acid naturally found in leaves. This is thought to have a relaxing and tranquillising effect.

5. Skincare. Green tea can help with signs of ageing. This is because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Trials have shown this, when applied to the skin can reduce sun damage.

It also isn't (unlike tea and coffee) a diuretic. So it's hydrating too! I personally had about 5 cups of the stuff today! It tastes a little weird at first, but I got used to it. 

You can also buy different flavours of it....Lemon, Fennel Etc. 

There are a lot more reasons. But I don't want to blind you with science.

I would recommend it to everyone!!