Happy Friday everyone!

9^th March 2018

There are hundreds of paths up a mountain, all leading to the same place, so it doesn’t matter which path you take.  The only person wasting time is the one who runs around the mountain telling everyone that his or her path is the wrong one.

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t loving the idea of Day 7 of my yoga challenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1SvHXqenPs, my body was tired yesterday and I knew from how it felt that it had been doing stuff it hadn’t done for a long time.  The yoga lady must have known because she was gentle on me and it wasn’t as bad as I expected, 30 minutes soon passed and now I’m feeling all stretched out and ready for my DAY OFF!  Oh yeah, I’m not working today, I’ve got a full day off – whoop, whoop!

I’ve even planned a little bit of me time, I’m off to see a lovely lady who’s going to do me a reading, clean my aura, that kind of this, angel cards which I love, I’ll let you know all about it tomorrow.  It’s been a long time since I’ve done angel cards, crystals and the like so I’m looking forward to it. Oh and no she can’t tell me my future – nobody can, she knows that and so do I and we both agree, anyone who tells you they can is either a liar or a little delusional!

Yesterday was a busy one, but it all started with double yolkers for breakfast so I knew it was going to be a good day!  Lots of happy members getting certificates and plenty more members returning after the snow had put a dampener on their weight loss progress, being snowed in apparently leads to eating too much ;) but we’re not surprised there are we, being out of routine can knock us off track.

I’m gonna cook today, I have chicken in the fridge so now to decide what to do, just had a look through a couple of cook books and found this one which could be made WW friendly for sure, you could switch the lardons for medallions saving 8sp, you could use less oil saving more points and if you can’t get the chicken breast with the bone bit in, a normal breast will do.  There are a couple of variations of the recipe online, here’s one https://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/recipes/2010/11/16/nigellas_comfort_chicken_lentils.html the other is below.

Nigella Lawson’s poached chicken with lardons and lentils (18SP)

Serves 1
garlic oil 2 x 15ml tbsp. (4SP)
100g smoked lardons (10SP) or pancetta (14SP) (or diced smoked streaky bacon)
carrot 1, peeled and halved lengthwise, roughly chopped
leek 1, cleaned, trimmed and halved lengthwise, roughly chopped
fresh parsley 3 x 15ml tbsp, chopped
dried mint ½ tsp
lemon 1, grated zest
puy lentils 125g
English mustard 1 tsp
chicken supreme (i.e. a skinned breast with peg bone in) 1, preferably organic
water 500ml
salt and pepper to taste

Fry the lardons, carrot, leek, parsley, mint and lemon zest in the oil for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently, in a smallish, heavy-based pan (big enough to lay 1 chicken breast in) that has a lid. Stir in the lentils and cook for another minute, before adding the yellow gloop of mustard and stir that in, too.

Sit the chicken on top of everything in the pan, and add the water. Bring to the boil, put on a lid and simmer very, very gently for 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the lentils are tender. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

You can eat now, but everything is at its most tender best made in advance and reheated. I let it cool in the pan with the lid off, but for no longer than 1 hour, then put the lid back on and stash the pan in the fridge. Later, I warm it in the pan with the lid on, until everything’s piping hot again. Why add to the washing up?

I’m thinking chicken with pasta, some kind of bake, I’ll make it up as I go along I think, will let you know how it turns out.  But first…. I have a dog to walk and a kitchen to clean, apparently by the look of my members faces yesterday morning, I shouldn’t leave the floor so long between clean ups J , meh, I ain’t planning to eat off it – it’s all good.

Here’s to a magical day, it’s started well, the sun is shining on a glorious, bright, dry frosty morning.  Let’s get stuff done BeYOUtiful and chill out too – all about the balance x