My members are making the rest of the year, the best of their year!

12th November 2015

Sometimes the advice you tell other people is the advice you need to follow.

Woke up just after four by a beep from one of the smoke alarms!  Why do they always do that in the middle of the night when the batteries running out, I took two down before I found the one that was beeping!  Standing on a box at the top of the stairs at 4am isn't the wisest thing to do when you're not fully awake but I made sure I was fully awake first.

Once I'd done that I did my headspace 20 minutes, this series is balance, I'm on day 8 or 10, according to my stats I've completed 65 sessions and done a total of 1070 minutes of meditating since I started 58 days ago!  I'm chuffed with that, I also believe it's making a difference, twice in the last two days I've expected to react to a situation and I haven't, once when my computer froze and lost an hour's work and yesterday when I knocked a pint of water over my keyboard and desk, I was stunned that my heart rate barely changed and I didn't get wound up, I likes this calmness.

Cracking day at the scales yesterday, over 150lb lost, everyone seems more determined the closer we get to Christmas, I love that members are upping their game and new members are joining because they've realised that if they leave it till January, the damage will be much worse.

We made Cauliflower cheese soup in the meeting last night, this was the recipe I based it on;

Cauliflower cheese soup (total 21pp if using tbsp butter)

Serves 6 adults, or 4 adults and 4 kids

knob of butter (1pp per tsp, 3pp per tbsp)

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 large cauliflower (about 900g/2lb), leaves trimmed and cut into florets

1 potato, peeled and cut into chunks (150 = 3pp)

700ml vegetable stock (from a cube is fine)

400ml milk (skimmed = 4pp)

100g mature cheddar, diced (11pp)

1.    Heat the butter in a large saucepan. Tip in the onion and cook until softened, about 5 mins, stirring often. Add the cauliflower, potato, stock, milk and seasoning. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for about 30 mins until the cauliflower is soft and the potato almost collapsing.

2.    Whizz in a food processor or crush with a potato masher until you get a creamy, thick soup. Top up with more milk to thin a little if serving in mugs. You can make ahead up to 2 days in advance, cool, cover and leave in the fridge until needed, or freeze for up to 1 month. When ready to serve, warm through, ladle into mugs or bowls, top with the cheese pieces, then stir through before eating.

However I adjusted the quantities because that was too much for my soup maker to hold, I didn't use the butter, my cauliflower was only a small one, about 400g of florets, I wouldn't use milk again as it burnt to the bottom of the soup maker, I'd maybe stir it in once the rest had cooked.  My helpers and I shared it once cooked, and I have to say a mug of soup with 3 cubes of cheese dropped in is the business, melted cheese lumps at the bottom of the cup, mmm, you need to try that, it's awesome!    

Still have to say my favourite is the butternut squash, potato, onion, oxo cube combination, this one to save you searching, with or without the low fat spread its tasty, I just throw it all in soup maker and leave it to it.

Gina's Scrummy Squash Soup

30g low fat spread

1 small onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

2 medium potatoes, cubed

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed

600-700ml vegetable stock

Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste.

Melt the low fat spread in a large pot and cook the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes and squash for 5 minutes or until lightly browned.  Pour in enough of the stock to cover vegetables.  Bring to the boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer 40 minutes or until all vegetables are tender.

Transfer the soup to a liquidiser and blend until smooth.  Return to pot and mix in any remaining stock to reach the desired consistency.  Season with salt and pepper.  (if you want it thinner, add a little more stock) mmmm

And for those who've asked I had mine from the home and living store in saddlers centre Walsall and I've been told they're getting more in at the weekend.

Right that's my mug of tea empty and crying to be filled up, you know when you just have that perfect cuppa, I just had it, so I'm going to try and replicate it, already had my pint of water by the way!  Still replacing a meal with soup, really helping to save me some ProPoints.

Here's to making Thursday count this November, which looking at the forecast is about to become very wet and windy lasting the weekend, that means an excuse (if you need one) to snuggle up in the house!