Make it the Monday you want!

15^th January 2018

The best project you will ever work on is yourself.

I had a productive morning yesterday, cleared up my kitchen then made cottage pie and slow cooker beef curry, that’s means for a few days now, I can freeze the other portions for another week too.  For my dinner I had a delicious steak salad, can’t beat a bit of rump steak and I sound like a broken record but the Penn Road butchers is good, we should be supporting our local businesses anyway.  Saturday I nipped to the greengrocers on my way to my meeting and bought a bag full of fresh stuff.

Once I’d got all the housework done I was willing to do mom and I chilled, Alfie did get two walks though as it was his birthday, 8 years old, he’s the first dog I’ve had as an adult from puppy and I can’t believe how quickly those years have gone by.

We also had a visit from my big brother, he said my cottage pie was good, so I’ll look forward to that myself, might have that today and curry tomorrow.  I’ll need some fish and/or chicken to balance out all that red meat, or maybe some vegetarian food.  I put a tin of lentils in with the beef mince to bulk out the cottage pie.

It’s my day off today but I’ve got things to do, however I do intend to keep with taking time out, so it’s all about the balance, chilling out is making it easier to cope with the grey winter days, it’s raining out there this morning, that’ll make walking Alfie fun – NOT!  Could be worse, could be my bestie delivering her post in it.  I’ve already spent an hour listening to my audiobook, loving it, simple story, easy to read called the undomestic goddess by Sophie Kinsella, it’s reminding me on the unimportance of being rushed and busy and how good it is to find pleasure in doing the simple things in life.  I’ve already got my next book lined up ‘the keeper of lost things’ Ruth Hogan, it comes highly recommended, one member gave me the book, another has posted about it on instagram.

I spent all weekend trying to find a recipe for my stew beef and couldn’t find one I fancied, then yesterday I found a pack of Berberi spice that I remember ordering for a recipe so this morning I did a search on my pc and found this recipe for

https://food52.com/recipes/27752-kai-wot-ethiopian-beef-stew-spicy

The recipe has ½ cup of butter in it which is a ridiculous amount, but it does serve 8, apparently 1 stick or 1/2 cup butter is equal to 4 ounces, or 113 grams.  That’s 42SP!  The stew beef would only add 8SP, so that’s still only 6sp per serving, I’m going to make it at the weekend I think, it’s good to have a bit of what you fancy and I’ve bought the spice – it’s a big bag too, if you’re one of my members and fancy a try, let me know and I’ll bring the spice to meeting, bring yr own tub.  Maybe wait till I’ve tried it first in case it’s yak.

Anyway, I also fancy the fakeaway donor recipe made with turkey mince after seeing Jane’s post in my group, looks fab,

Donor Kebab

Serves 4, No Count or 3 Smart Points per serving with beef zero with chicken / turkey breast or quorn

1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
500g extra lean mince beef / turkey / chicken / quorn

Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180C. In a large bowl, combine the dried oregano, dried Italian herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Add the beef mince and mix thoroughly for 2-3 minutes. Take out all of your beef mince and mix thoroughly for 2-3 minutes. Take out all of your aggression on the kebab mixture, punching and kneading until no air pockets remain and the kebab meat is extremely smooth. Shape the seasoned mince into a loaf and place on a baking tray. Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 1 hour 20 minutes, turning the loaf half way through the cooking time to ensure even browning. Once cooked, remove from the oven and cover with foil. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Slice the donor kebab as thinly as possible and serve with pitta and salad. NOTE: On No Count you can have WW pitta bread, if doing Smart Points you will need to add extra sp's for the pitta bread. 

Right it’s 7.43am and still black as night out there, apparently today is miserable Monday, that day of the year when we’re all low because of the after effects of Christmas, the bills, being skint, pay days still a way away.  I’m having none of it, I shall find pleasure in the little things, I’m keeping a note of money I’ve spent and things I didn’t buy to prove I don’t need all this stuff we keep buying.  I’m smiling every time I see someone has bought another gadget for their kitchen, I’ve been there done that, I’m downsizing, decluttering and it feels great.

Have a Happy Monday BeYOUtiful, prove the media wrong, let’s fill Facebook with happy thoughts and positivity.  Did I mention my members have lost 823lb already this year!