Why do you eat?

6th April 2016

Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door. 

Wednesday already!  I didn't believe my alarm clock this morning either, I was in the middle of a dream, although it wasn't a good one so I was happy to wake up. 

Yesterday was mostly all about work, I'm doing pre-work again for going paperless in some more of my meetings next week, I did however stop long enough to cook at least one good meal.  I opted for Vietnamese pork, and I'm glad I did, only took 30 minutes thanks to Simply Cook, mom even enjoyed it, she said it was a little warm but so tasty she persisted.  I loved it, especially the flavoursome, sticky rice, it's showing me you can create tasty food with something as easy as adding stock to the rice as it cooks.  I added more pork than it said, used less oil and it went three ways.   The other portion I had in a pitta bread for my tea, nom nom.  I was introduced to Sriracha sauce, when I've googled it, it's a type of hot chilli sauce, added to the recipe yesterday, it gave it a real kick.

Today I think it's a chicken dish, then I need to go shopping for more ingredients to do the others, that'll have to wait till Friday at least though. 

I like to keep on top of my nutritional info and also the psychology side of eating, so in addition to reading up on it now and again, I've just signed up to do an Eating Psychology course because I've got time to do that :).  I do know I'll enjoy it though and find it interesting, it's an online, distance learning thing and I can do it at my own pace.  Even if I don't learn anything new, it's a reminder of what I already know, it's too easy to forget stuff.  The same goes for the programme material members get when they join Weight Watchers, it's good to go back and refresh our members, I know some members don't even read it at all!

The first module talked about our relationship with food and the reasons we eat, such as boredom, sugar addiction, comfort eating, viewing food as a social occasion or a treat. What I found interesting was the reasons they gave for psychological eating, all of them were negative!  Low self-esteem, sadness, despair, stress, anger, loneliness, abandonment, lack of love, oh the list went one!   What about the not so negative reasons we eat, erm it tastes amazing, it's enjoyable?  Yep I'll find this course interesting.  I don't think everyone that overeats is unhappy, we eat when we're having fun, when we're out spending time with loved ones and making memories, when we're on holiday having a good time. 

There's a little task for you to do today, think about your reasons for eating, for overeating, what other reasons that you eat would you add to that list?   You don't need to do anything else once you've worked it out, but it is good to be aware of all the reasons you eat, we rarely eat merely because we're hungry!  Food is so much more than fuel for our bodies, the more we realise that and our reasons why we eat, the more we understand ourselves and can do something about it in the long term, not just the short term I want to lose weight fix!

Right I'm off, I'm going to leave you with Graham and Christine's recipe, I'm told this is a delicious meal, also really tasty with chicken.  Enjoy your day whatever you're cooking! 

Paprika Pork

Serves 6, per serving with pork 5sp, with chicken 2sp

1 tbsp sunflower oil (4sp)

2 medium onions, halved and finely chopped

600g lean diced pork (24sp) if using chicken (6sp)

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 tbsp paprika

400g can of chopped tomatoes

400ml chicken stock (1sp)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

3 large peppers, red, yellow and green

1 tbsp cornflour (1sp)

1 tbsp cold water

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large non-stick saucepan or casserole dish and fry the onions over a medium heat for 6-8 minutes, until softened and lightly coloured, stirring regularly.  Put the pork on a board and cut any visible fat. Season with ground black pepper and add to the pan.

Cook the pork with the onions for 4-5 minutes until lightly coloured on each side.  Stir in the garlic and paprika and cook for 1 minute more.  Tip the tomatoes into the pan, pour over the chicken stock and add the bay leaves and mixed herbs.  Bring to a gentle simmer, then cover the pan loosely with a lid and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cut the peppers in half and deseed.  Cut them into chunky pieces, each about 3cm.  Add the peppers to the pork and cook everything for another 25-35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pork is tender.

Mix the cornflour and water together to make a smooth paste and stir this into the pan.  Cook for 2-3 minutes until the sauce is thickened, stirring constantly.

This recipe can also be cooked in a slow cooker for 6 hours on medium setting.

Add the peppers 1 hour before the end of cooking.

Serve with a small portion of rice or some mashed potatoes.