Hello shiny new week

26^th February 2018

Wake up and smell the endless possibility.

Oh I had a lovely day yesterday, I never got round to the 2 hours of housework – oops, I managed 5 minutes to clean the bath, then I put bubbles in it, filled it with warm water, put smelly candles by the taps and spent an hour soaking and listening to my audiobook instead, that did me way more good.  I have been a grown up this morning though and I've ’lready stripped my bed, I’ll do upstairs today – honest!

Back to yesterday, what a lovely lunch we had, The Hollybush (Little Hay Lane, Staffordshire, WS14 0QA), I was very impressed, even more so because I’d used my Tesco clubcards to get vouchers, £2.50 got me £10 worth of food, so our meal only cost us £30 total for drinks and tip once we’d used £80 of vouchers.  Result.  As always we had a giggle, my besties realised they need to get me out more often when I started quoting Gibbs from NCIS!  Yeah, that was me who actually said the words “Gibbs says there’s no such thing as a co-incidence” deep sigh, shakes of heads then laughter.  I think this is what I will do when stuck in a quandary in the future, I will ask myself “what would Gibbs do?”  And if this isn’t proof I need rescuing from myself, I don’t know what is. 

4 hours of friendship and laughter was the best medicine ever, plus as a super bonus, I got back to mom in a cracking good mood and we enjoyed the rest of the day.  Alfie even got 2 walks yesterday.

The only negative was the 2.5lb I lost last week had returned this morning, but I’m sorry, I don’t care, I enjoyed every morsel of my 3 courses, I had macaroni cheese for my starter, 

it was delicious, it’s a new food to me believe it or not, probably only tasted it a few months ago for the first time, now I’m hooked but aware of how high in points it is, so I need to find me a healthy version. The Co-op one mom has is 18sp, this recipe is 12sp a portion and lots of members have recommended it to me in the past.

Mac and Cheese

Serves 1, 12sp

1 large Tomato

4 sprays Calorie controlled cooking spray

50g White pasta, dry

10g Plain white flour

200ml Skimmed milk

10g Low fat spread

20g Half fat cheddar cheese

¹⁄₂ leaf Bay leaf, dried

¹⁄₄ medium Onion

¹⁄₂clove Garlic

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/200°C/fan oven 180°C. Place the tomatoes in a square baking dish and spray with the cooking spray. Heat until skins start to crack. Meanwhile, bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Add the pasta and return to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes or until tender. To make the cheese sauce, blend the flour with a little of the milk and low fat spread in a non-stick saucepan, stirring until smooth. Gradually add the rest of the milk. Drop in the bay leaf and bring the sauce to the boil, stirring. Simmer for 2 minutes then remove from the heat and stir in the Cheddar cheese. Remove the bay leaf. Drain the pasta and mix with the cheese sauce and tip into the baking dish on top of the roasted tomatoes. Gently mix together. Add onion and garlic and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until crisp, golden brown and bubbling.

My main was an incredible lamb dinner with a Lancashire hotpot too, oh yeah a meal on the menu that made it legitimate to have two mains in one sitting.  Then pudding was sticky toffee pudding but it beat me, I couldn’t eat it.  I know most people live for pudding but I’m all about the mains and starters.  I believe we have two stomachs and one of them is for dessert, I think my pudding stomachs broken because it fills up too quickly.

Mom’s weighed in this morning with me and agreed that we both need to sort it out so hopefully that will help this week because her biscuits and treats are killing me at the moment, usually I resist but I’m finding it really difficult.  She’s going to have rations, I’ll give her a set amount each afternoon and once they’ve gone they’ve gone.  How she’ll feel about that later is another thing, but we’ll wait and see. 

We’ve agreed to sausage and mash with peas for dinner today though.  Penn Road chicken sausages of course! 

Yeah today’s gonna be a good day, even if there was snow trying to fall when I woke, I’m not gonna let the weather change the days vibe.  Let’s get this day started BeYOUtiful, however your weekend went – it’s Monday, let’s make it magic.