Yesterday was a delicious day!

4th January 2016

I'm thankful for my struggle because without it I wouldn't have stumbled across my strength.

If I haven't said it before, I love my mom, she's just incredible, this was how our conversation went yesterday;

Me "I feel like I can do this at last"
Mom "You know you can do it because you've done it before!"

She's just the most BeYOUtiful soul I've ever known, she bought us up to believe in ourselves and that we can do anything we put our mind too and she's still doing it.

She's right too, I have done it before (quite a few times ;), I have at least 6 gold cards, I used to pretend I'd not done Weight Watchers before and start afresh!)  So here's to getting back to my happy weight, I'm feeling confident. 

It's the first Monday in 2016, most people are off back to work and so many will be 'starting' their 'diets', I'm happy to say I'm starting Day 4, I've made it through the weekend, I've given my liver a break (no booze at all!) and I'm feeling really positive which for January is awesome for me, it's not usually my best month, I don't like this grey, miserable weather!  I'm also just about to start on what will be a crazy month so I must ensure I find the time for me, it's too easy to say "I just haven't got time to..." and that might be plan meals, cook meals, get to a meeting, whatever it is, if it's important to you, you'll make time!  It's true, I hate that it's true but it is, so I shall be making time for myself and my health.

Especially when I'm hearing stuff like I just did on the news on Radio 2 "Children between 4-10yrs old are eating their body weight in sugar each year"  That's terrifying!  I think it's really important to remember not only does this sugar come from chocolate bars and pop but it's hidden well in our processed foods, thinks like ready meals and jar sauces, that's why I love this new Smart Plan because it's getting us to check first before buying, cooking and eating - after all healthy eating starts in the supermarket.

We ate really well yesterday, our day started with soft boiled eggs on toast for mom (bread for me), for dinner I cooked the bacon and onion mash from yesterdays blog, then served it with cod fillet, seasoned with fresh rosemary and lemon zest, then I wrapped them in 2 pieces of Asda's extra special unsmoked streaky bacon (it's very lean) roasted in oven until cooked and served with brocolli.  I also added the left over  lemon juice to some extra low mayonnaise to make a real tangy sauce - mmm it really was delicious and only 9sp in total.

Then at tea time I used a bit of spray light and fried a pack of mushrooms with a couple of chopped garlic cloves and served it in a Weight Watcher tortilla wrap (which I know can be rarer than rocking horse poo to get hold off, but I found in Waitrose last year) served it with mixed salad leaves and 1/2 an avocado for a delicious 8sp.

Here's to making today a Monday that matters, focus on the healthy and happy BeYOUtiful, and I'll finish with today's Smart Pointed recipe;

Beef & Beer Casserole

Serves 4, 4sp portion

Low fat cooking spray
400g lean stewing steak, cubed (12pp)
2 finely chopped onions
2 tbsp plain flour (4pp)
2 finely chopped carrots
200g chopped mushrooms
300ml beef stock (made using 1½ oxo cube)
150ml beer (2pp)
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to Gas mark2/150^oC. Heat a non-stick flameproof casserole & spray with low fat cooking spray.

Season and fry the beef on a high heat then add onions & stir-fry for another 5 minutes.
Add the flour and stir to coat the meat.

Add carrots, mushrooms and seasoning and stir-fry together for a minute or two, don’t let the flour burn.   Pour over the stock and beer and stir, mix together.

Cover and place in oven for 1 hour, stir occasionally. If stew dries out, add a little more stock or water.

Serve with Roasted butternut squash to make it a really filling meal.