Delaying temptation

30^th September 2017

Self-love is asking yourself what you need - every day - and then making sure you received it!

It’s a quick blog again this morning, my new alarm clock didn’t go off, not sure if I set it wrong and I hadn’t set my phone as back up, only 20 minutes later than normal so it’s all good, good job mom went to the loo and I heard her!

I was a bit pleased with myself yesterday, my mate came to visit and I hadn’t got any food so we nipped over the Co-op and got her and mom packed sandwiches, crisp and cakes and I bought a bowl of salad, some sliced chicken and had that with a pitta.  I’ll admit to having a small jam doughnut (7sp max according to the app) but I still saved points on the other stuff because if I’d have had a sandwich I would have opened for the bacon, lettuce and tomato one which would have been more than twice the points of what I did have.  Then I had the bag of crisps for my tea as a crisp butty, see that’s the beauty of WW you can have the foods you love, because most of the time you choice the healthier stuff because the Points system pushes you towards those choices naturally.

Yeah I do love Smart Points, there are unbeatable in the enjoying your weight loss journey stakes whilst being able to enjoy and include ALL the foods you love and not having to eat foods you don’t particularly like just to lose weight – I just couldn’t do it.  I’ve got chorizo in my fridge and I’m gonna eat it!

I’m going to be getting my Asda order later and I want to make turkey, chorizo and cheese burgers, oh yeah, I’m licking my lips too, I’m going to get a bit of low calorie cheese and chorizo and dice it up finely, then mix with the mince and make burgers which I can cook on my George, then have them with micro chips, I’m starving now!  Eggs for breakfast then I reckon, they’ll fill me up good and proper, I might even have hard boiled in a pitta as I’m running late, I can eat that on the move.

Seeing some cracking results in the meeting this week, it’s great to see members thinking about getting that summer holidays gain off and looking forward to when you know what, I’m not going to say it, not today anyway.

I’m looking forward to having a kitchen with a cooker and a sink in both together than I can use and not have to go upstairs with a bowl to wash up in the bath, how rock and roll am I.  There was a time when I looked forward to going up the town and rocking, but now I look forward to a clean kitchen and a glass of red, with maybe an episode of Friends or Only fools and horses.  I wouldn’t change a thing!

It’s only Saturday, time to see my Old Fallings Angels (yeah they really aren’t angels but they do have wings because they always lift me ;-) and I love em)  I better go get ready then, and when I get back the rest of the weekend is for me and mom, I’ve been so busy this last month that I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with her, we might be in the same house but we’re on different levels!  I plan to rectify that in the coming month, starting this weekend.

Enjoy your day, if you’ve missed your meeting this week, come along this morning or if you’re somewhere else find a local one, if you’re thinking this Weight Watchers lark sounds good, go find a meeting and see for yourself – it really is great, trust me BeYOUtiful, I only speak the truth.

Comfort food - yes please

29^th September 2017

Truly, the greatest gift you hve to give is that of your own self-transformation. Laz Tzu

Absolutely loving the meetings this week, so much talk of food – it is my favourite subject after all, having not been able to get creative in the kitchen for a while, it’s been great to hear lots of new ideas, to be reminded of past deliciousness and to plan what I’m going to be eating in the weeks and months to come.  Autumn is after all a great time to feed, it’s a time when we’re starting to want to cosy up in front of the fire with a plate of comfort food and the joy of Weight Watchers means you can do exactly that.  Here are a couple of recipes that we’ve changed about, the bread pudding came on the back of what to do with spare bread as we were talking about taking out the middle of a crusty baguette to make a posh fish finger sarnie with roasted veg, mmm. 

My savoury bread pudding

Serves 1, 4sp

1 egg (2sp)
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
pinch of oregano

Few capers

Slice of torn up wafer thin ham (0sp)
13g Cathedral City Mature Lighter (1sp)
1 slice of WW brown bread (1sp)

Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Whisk together with a fork 1 egg, ham, mustard and oregano. Break bread into pieces and stir it into the mixture, top with cheese. Spoon into an individual sized ovenproof dish and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and crunchy on the top.

DELICIOUS!

Here’s another of my bread pudding recipes which is also tasty;

 

Cheese and tomato bread pudding
This is a wonderful way to use up leftover bread and it's a cheap and filling family meal.

Serves 4, 10 Smart Points each. Takes 10 minutes to prepare, 35 minutes to cook

39 Smart Points total, No Count day = uses 4sp of yr weeklies, or 3sp if you use lighter cheese.

low fat cooking spray
400 g can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
100 g (3½oz) mature cheese (16sp), or us Cathedral City Mature Lighter grated (11sp) and save 1sp per serving

4 eggs (7sp)
400 ml (14 fl oz) skimmed milk (5sp)
150 g (5½oz) Weight Watchers calorie controlled brown bread (preferably stale) (11sp)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/fan oven 160°C. Lightly spray an ovenproof dish with the cooking spray.  Mix the tomatoes with half of the thyme, then spoon half of the tomatoes into the base of the dish and scatter with about a quarter of the cheese.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs with milk and seasoning. Dip the slices of bread in the eggy mixture, letting them soak in it briefly. Arrange the bread slices on top of the tomatoes and cheese, overlapping slightly.  

Spoon on the rest of the tomatoes and scatter with the remaining cheese and thyme. Pour the remaining egg mixture all over the dish. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove the foil. Bake for a further 15 minutes until the mixture is puffed up and golden brown on top.

- - -

Wednesday night I mentioned a Jamie Oliver recipe that is so much fun to make and tasty too, I’ve found it out, here it is;

Spinach pici pasta

Serves 4, Cooks In 50 minutes,

16sp per serving if you drizzle a tsp of oil over dish, 14sp if you leave that bit out.

Difficulty - Not too tricky

200g baby spinach

300g Tipo 00 pasta flour or plain flour  (30sp), plus extra for dusting

olive oil (2tbsp - 9sp)

4 cloves of garlic

½ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes

200g baby courgettes

320g ripe cherry tomatoes , on the vine

50g pine nuts (11sp)

½ a bunch of fresh basil, (15g)

50g Parmesan cheese (7sp)

extra virgin olive oil (1tsp per plate = 2sp per plate)

In a food processor, blitz the spinach and flour until a ball of dough forms, letting the machine do all the work. Touch the dough – it shouldn’t be sticky, you want a play dough consistency, so add a little more flour, if needed. To make the pici, simply tear off 2cm balls of dough and roll them out into long thin sausage shapes – think fine green beans – on a clean surface (the beauty is that they’re all different, so get little helpers involved, if you can). Cook the pici straight away, or leave them to dry out for a few hours, or even overnight.

Put a large pan of salted water on to boil. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil (9sp). Peel, finely slice and add the garlic, along with the chilli flakes. Finely slice and add the courgettes, then halve and add the tomatoes. Cook it all for 5 minutes, then stir in the pine nuts and add a ladleful of boiling water. Leave on the lowest heat while you cook the pasta.

Add the pici to your pan of boiling salted water. If it’s freshly rolled it will only need about 5 minutes, but if you’ve let it dry give it 8 to 10 minutes, checking on it to make sure you get lovely al dente pasta. Drain, reserving a mugful of cooking water, then toss through the veg. Reserving the baby basil leaves, finely slice the bigger ones and stir into the pan with most of the finely grated Parmesan, loosening with a little reserved water, if needed. Divide between your warm plates and serve with a few drips of extra virgin olive oil (if you do that's extra SP's, 1tsp is 2sp, with the remaining Parmesan and the baby basil leaves sprinkled over.

You’ve got to love a good plate of food and yesterday I had 3 of them, I’ll leave you with that thought, Weight Watchers really does work!

Stay BeYOUtiful. xx

Doing it!

28^th September 2017

Live for the moments you can’t put into words!

Another day on track, oh yeah, I’m behaving and it feels good, I really enjoyed my omelette I had for breakfast yesterday, actually I enjoyed everything, had salmon and rice for lunch, I enjoy my lunch even more when I watch mom enjoying hers.  Then tea was a quick chicken and tomato sandwich, instead of spread I put a bit of Greek 0% yogurt and wholegrain mustard on it – that works well.  I then remembers Harjit had made me a chicken pea curry dish so I just did a small bowl of that in the microwave to go with it, delicious.

My days are long and busy at the moment but I’m loving it and it is short term, it will calm down in a few weeks time.  Meetings are as fab as always, the sense of community and friendship in those groups, they could almost run themselves if I’m honest.

We’ve got a raffle going on for McMillan, whatever we raise we’ll give to Suman at her coffee morning on Saturday 7^th, Old Fallings United Reform Church Old Fallings Lane WV10 8BH, 12-4pm, please feel free to come along and buy a slice of cake!  Of course if you’re in my meetings before then, buy yourself a ticket, great WW friendly prizes.

We talked about curry last night and I mentioned the butter chicken one, so here’s the recipe for Estee

Butter Chicken serves 3 sp per serving, 14sp each

180g dried rice 18sp - cook according to instruction

550g chicken breast diced 5sp
5Tbsp Tandoori spice 3sp
1 ½ tbsp can't believe it's not butter light 3sp
5 green cardamom pods lightly crushed
1” cinnamon stick
4 cloves
2 small onions finely chopped I used 3 shallots
1 heaped tbsp grated ginger
1-2 green chillies slit lengthwise
2 tsp paprika
2tsp curry powder (any)
2 tsp garam masala powder
3 tbsp tomato puree 1sp
120ml Elmlea light cream 7sp
5 teaspoons sweet freedom syrup 4sp
1/2 tsp fenugreek leaf powder (Sainsbury's)
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander for garnish

Marinade chopped chicken for few hours in the tandoori spice then oven cook till tender.

Heat a heavy bottom sauce pan and add the butter. Add green cardamom, cinnamon stick and cloves. Fry for 20 seconds, add the onions and sauté for 5-7 mins on medium heat until they take on a light brown colour.

Add the grated ginger and slit green chillies. Fry for a further minutes and add the curry powder, paprika, garam masala powder along with the tomato puree. Stir well and cook for a couple of minutes. Now gradually add the cream stirring continuously to mix all the spices with the cream. Simmer and cook for 2-3 minutes. At this stage add a splash of water if the curry is too thick. Stir in the syrup and the fenugreek powder. Season to taste. Now add the cooked chicken pieces and simmer the curry on a low heat for 8-10 minutes. Garnish with coriander and serve with rice.

When I think 'butter chicken' I thought a korma style dish and it isn't at all, it's lush. 

I’m thinking omelette again for breakfast, bought a can of white kidney beans from Poundstretcher the other day, I didn’t know there was such a thing, but thinking I could put a few in the omelette add more protein and fibre to it, they were only 29p a can too!

I’m tempted to do stewing steak and micro chips for lunch with tinned veg, nice and quick, the Asda one is only 5sp and it’s on offer at the minute for £1.79.

That’s my day sorted, I can have Harjits chick pea curry for tea when I get back.  Here’s to another day on track and in control, being busy will not stop me succeeding!

You with me BeYOUtiful?