Mid week mindfulness anyone?

16th September 2015

Waiting for someone else to make you happy is the best way to be sad.

Well after my hormonal dramatic Monday, Tuesday turned out to be great, what a difference a day can make, loved all my meetings, lots of support and laughter, just what a Weight Watcher meeting is all about, oh and food, we're cooking (of a sort) this week. 

 

I've also meditated a little of the past two days, this website came up in my Facebook time line www.headspace.com and when I clicked it was 10 days free of meditation so I thought why not, use it to get back into it, we can all benefit from a bit of mindfulness every day.  They reckon regular mindfulness practice, through meditation, is an effective treatment for stress, worry, lack of focus, relationship problems, addictions and more. It apparently leads to peace of mind and wellbeing, greater focus and creativity and better relationships.  Worth a try ain't it, especially as now scientists are finding evidence supporting many of these claims.   I just like the idea of taking 10 minutes as soon as I get out of bed to calm my mind before jumping straight onto my pc and into my blog which is what I usually do.  I'll do the 10 days and see how I feel, if it makes a difference.

My Jamie cook book arrived yesterday too, I haven't had chance to have a look at it yet but I look forward to checking it out, on first skim, it looks a little fancy but we shall see.

I cooked a delicious mince dish for dinner yesterday, just extra lean beef mince, red pepper, onions, yellow courgette, savoy cabbage and oxo cubes, was really tasty and easy, we had it with mashed potato.  I had leftover roast beef toasties for tea, need to have some more fish and/or veggie meals over the next few days to balance out all that red meat!

Ooo mushroom and marmite eggs, that's a scrambled egg recipe I've just flipped too in his book, that combo would work mmm.

He's also showing how to make home made Tortilla's, simply mix 80g wholemeal self-raising flour, with 50ml of water and a pinch of salt until you have a smooth pliable dough.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out on half until 3mm thick and about 20cm in diameter, then cook through and char on one side only in a hot frying pan, so the top bubbles up, and repeat when done.  He likes to rest them over a rolling pin to give them a natural curve to hold your filling.  They'd be 4pp each, make a nice lunch with something scrumptious inside.  Tempted to have that with homemade hummus on them.

I remember making chapattis similarly when I did my Indian cookery day and they can be reheated too, nice with your curry, mmm curry must have one this week, and chapatis are fun to make, so you could get the kids doing it too.  Here's the recipe, next time you're out having a curry, bear in mind that there is no such thing as low pp chapatis or naan bread!

Chapatis

Makes 8, 6pp each (Ouch!)

• 450g/1 lb wholemeal plain flour
• 250ml/9 fl oz cold water

1. Set aside 200g/7 oz of the flour and reserve for shaping the chapattis.
2. Place the remaining flour in a deep bowl. Fill another bowl with the cold water.
3. Add the water to the bowl of flour, a little at a time, kneading as you go, until you have a soft, elastic dough. The longer you knead the dough the softer the chapattis will be.
4. Sprinkle a little of the reserved flour onto a flat surface or board.
5. Divide the dough into eight and shape each piece into a ball.
6. Flatten the balls slightly, then place one onto the floured board.
7. Roll it out into a flat disc approximately 15cm (6 inches) in diameter, flouring the board when necessary.
8. Heat a griddle or a shallow frying pan. Lay the chapatti on the griddle or pan and cook for about 20-30 seconds or until the surface is bubbling.
9. Turn it over with tongs and cook the other side for 10-15 seconds. As soon as brown spots appear on the underside, the chapatti is done.
10. Repeat with the other seven balls, using the remaining flour to roll them out. Stack them up as they are cooked, placing a sheet of kitchen towel between each one to absorb any moisture.

Back to the hummus idea, I'd watched Jamie make it the other day here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5W9pTBx7Go but when I tried to find a really good quality jar of chick peas in Sainsbury's I couldn't so I bought a can, I will try it with that.  But he puts 1 x 660g jar of chick peas,  juices and all into a blender, adds 1 tsp of tahini, 2tbsp natural yogurt, 1/2 peeled clove of garlic, the just of 1/2 lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper then blitz until smooth. 

How easy would that be to make, and again the kids could have a play making this too.  If you do see jarred chick peas anywhere will you let me know please! 

I'm going to keep it simple today, haven't got time to spend loads of time in the kitchen, so I'm going to throw 4 chicken legs (almost half the price of a whole chicken!) in the slow cooker before I leave for my meeting and either have them with rice or spaghetti when I get back, a nice quick and easy meal.  We can have that for lunch then I can make a sarnie with the other one tomorrow for lunch or even a chicken couscous salad, mmm yeah, now that sounds like a plan!

Right I'm starting to waffle, so I'm going to get off, oh but before I do, I have a load of tomatoes that need using up, I'm thinking a tomato soup maybe, I'll definitely have tomatoes on toast for breakfast, I'm going to roast them all this morning, then have some on toast with an egg on the top.  Then the rest can either be mixed with spaghetti and chicken for lunch or made into a roast tomato soup mmm.  I'm going, need to get them roasting, my mouths drooling, no wonder I'm not skinny ;)

Enjoy your day BeYOUtiful, all about the healthy and happy remember. xx