Thursday evening, 25-04-24

Good evening, everyone.  Meals are going to be higgledy piggledy for the next few days so I think I will take a break in this blog and be back on Monday at the latent, once I am home and back on it again.

In the meanwhile, have a lovely weekend, whatever you are planning to do.

xx

Wednesday evening, 24-04-24

Good evening, everyone.

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to one of my readers who sent me an email earlier in April that I have only just caught up with.

It was such a nice message and gave me great encouragement.  For whatever reason, I don't get many comments and, sometimes, I wonder why but when I get such a nice message like that, it really helps.  Thank you so much, J.  xx

It's been a really nice day today.

When I planned things, I sort of forgot it was my birthday today (well, I am 72 now so I have every excuse).  So the meal plans have gone to the wall and it's been quite a naughty day because, as eny ful kno, calories don't count when it's your birthday.

Tomorrow, I am out for lunch with a friend to celebrate both our birthdays and on Friday I am off to Five Lakes for an all inclusive fitness and fun weekend so things will not be 'normal' for the next several days.

It won't be totally terrible.  Lindsey has put together a whole collection of activities and, while I won't be doing everything - CAN'T do everything - I fully intend to do one morning and one afternoon thing because they really will be fun.

Here's Lindsey's timetable - there will, of course, be a full schedule of Potters activities through the days and evenings too

I will certainly do the Friday welcome SET class because I really enjoy SET

On Saturday/Sunday I really want to do Groove, step, SET and circuits - I just have to work out which and when.

And Aqua on Monday is a definite.  I might have another swim at some point too.

However, given that it is all inclusive . . . 

Oh, well, back on it after the weekend, yes?

No photos from today - obviously!

Tomorrow's plans

B:  Sweet omelette with fruit and yogurt

L:  lunch out with a friend

D:  the chicken tortellini planned for today and not had.

Exercise:  rest day - I'm going to need it before the weekend!!!

Tuesday evening (Wednesday morning, in fact), 23-04-24

Good morning, everyone.

Apologies for this being late.  Back to normal this evening.  :-)

What I ate yesterday:

Very delicious beans on toast with added cut up ham.

One healthy extra G

Tuna was nice for a change.

One and a half syns for salad cream.

I wasn't 100% and ended up having fruit and cheese on toast for dinner rather than carbonara.

I didn't weigh or count anything.

Today's plans

B:  fruit

L:  tortellini pasta bake, salad; fruit

D:  rich beef casserole, cheesy mash, assorted veg; fruit

Exercise:  personal training

Monday evening, 22-04-24

Good evening, everyone.

Today's Vlog recommendation is At Home with Chelle.

https://www.youtube.com/@AtHomeWithChelle

Chelle's vlog is not just about food/weight loss, it's an interesting mix of Slimming World meals, lifestyle, shopping, holidays, family, seasonal stuff, deep cleans - oh, all sorts.

She is on Slimming World, maintaining, I believe, and now and again she vlogs about a week's meals, or a week's breakfasts or similar.  Her meals look really delicious, I think.

Here's a link to her latest (at time of typing) food vlog, a week of healthy dinners.

Go and take a look.

What I ate today:

A tasty, syn free breakfast.  The ham, Sunday roast leftovers, is really delicious.

Later on, I had an apple

Syn free

In the end I decided to have neither egg nor ham on my toasted bagel and guacamole.
The coleslaw ended up all pink and purple with red cabbage, red onion, apple amd carrot with some seeds.

Dessert was an orange.

One healthy extra B, two syns for guacamole, one for seeds and one for salad cream in the coleslaw.

To make this, I spray softened onion, pepper and mushroom, cooked some pasta, added the home made baked beans and some cubes of ham to the vegetables, mixed in the cooked pasta and some grated cheddar with more cheddar on tip.  Really tasty and satisfying and I didn't have anything else.

Two healthy extra As.

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

four syns

Tomorrow's plans

B:  home made baked beans on toast

(the last of the three portions - I am definitely making some more!)

L:  Jo's tuna mayo salad cups, side salad; fruit

I saw this on Jo Morgan's Vlog the other day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=531aR7eS0Rw&t=186s at around 2:16

D:  ham and mushroom carbonara, perhaps extra veg; fruit

Exercise:    Groove class and the walk there and back, weather permitting.

Sunday evening, 21-04-24

Good evening, everyone!

Today's vlog is 'Nicky in a Vlog'.  

https://www.youtube.com/@nickyinavlog

Nicky and her other half have one teenage son, Freddie, and her vlog is a real mix of shopping hauls, days out, holidays, lifestyle, product promotion (not loads, just a bit) and, most of all, her journey to more healthy eating and weight loss.

She does hop from one plan/method/system to another, currently on calorie counting using Nutracheck,  and she shares what she learns and eats and has done some lovely recipes.

It was Nicky who introduced me to Just Spices for which I am very grateful as I now use their mixes and toppings such a lot; they are really very good.

Here's a link to her latest vlog post at time of typing.

What I ate today:

I think that, from now on, I'm going to put any long-winded recipes or explanations, etc, at the bottom of the blog.

Breakfast.
Guacamole (bought last week and not eaten, actually really nice) on pumpernickel bread with scrambled eggs and a leafy side.

I used Just Spices scrambled egg seasoning and avocado topping mixes.

One healthy extra B (I've checked and the bread is a B - hooray!) and one and a half syns.

Roast gammon dinner - I treated myself to some Jersey royals and yum!

How I made the sauce and cooked the gammon are both below.

I don't normally photo pudding because it's just fruit but this was delicious.  I thawed and heated some raspberries in the microwave, adding some sweetener.  I warmed up a portion of rice pudding.  One on t'other and Bob's your uncle.  It was most satisfying.

Half a healthy extra A and one syn for the rice, half a syn for the bbq-ish sauce.

By the way, I've posted the rice pudding blog now.  I hope it is useful.  xx

Just a simple ham salad in the evening plus a potato salad made from the rest of the Jersey royals with chives from the garden and mayo.  Very tasty

And that was that.

One syn for super light mayo, one syn for salad cream and one syn for mixed seeds.

Summary:

half a healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

six syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  ham, egg, mushrooms and tomatoes

(plus a piece of fruit before circuits class)

SW:  syn free

L: toasted bagel, guacamole, egg, salad; fruit

SW:  one healthy extra B, two syns for two level tbsps guacamole

D:  ham and baked bean pasta bake, side salad; fruit and rice pudding

. . . using the home made baked beans from Saturday

SW:  one healthy extra A for cheese, half a healthy extra A for milk, one syn for sugar and one for salad cream

Exercise:  circuits class and a walk

I made the sauce for the ham using some passata, chopped onion, half a tsp dark muscovado sugar (half a syn and worth it for the deep flavour), white vinegar, Hendowsons, soy sauce, tomato puree and black pepper.  I pot it all in a pan, let it summer for a while and then blended it smooth.
Really nice.

There's a bit left which will go towards a hunter's chicken meal at some point soon.

The ham was my usual Sainsburys Be Good To Yourself gammon joint (I tend to buy one each month).  I wrapped it in foil and gave it about fifty minutes in the Ninja at 170 C on roast and then about fifteen minutes resting time.  Perfect and much cheaper than on the hob or in the oven.
And there's loads and loads left over for meals through the coming week.  

Recipe: different ways to make rice pudding

 A few days ago, I was asked how I make rice pudding and, as there are several possible ways, I thought I'd do a post about it.

I used the same proportions each time.  They were:
120 mls semi skimmed milk (half a healthy extra A)

20g pudding rice

one tsp sugar (one syn)

grated nutmeg

(or multiples of these amounts)

You could use other flavourings, of course - vanilla, mixed spice, cinnamon - whatever you want.  I stuck to nutmeg for consistency. for half a healthy extra A and one syn or for four syns.  I didn't add butter and you could use sweetener instead of sugar which would make it just half an A or three syns.
I believe some people use water instead of milk or half and half - I might try that sometime but I am happy to use half an A per portion.

This is what I did.

In the oven:

It is expensive to heat up an oven for one rice pudding but if you have it on for something else and have space, why not?

Heat the oven to 140 fan, 160 non-fan or gas 3.
Butter an ovenproof dish and add the ingredients - personally, I would do three or four portions at a time.

Stir and bake for between an hour and an hour and a half.

I didn't try this - I'm trying hard to be frugal with my power usage and it's just not economical unless you have to have the oven on anyway.  I know it works because that's how my Mum always made her rice pudding (plus butter!).  😊

On the hob:

Use a pan suitable to the number of portions you want to make and non stick is a really good idea!

Add the ingredients and stir.  Put the pan on a high heat and bring to a boil, stirring all the time.
Reduce the heat to the lowest possible and put a lid on.
Allow to simmer away, stirring every five minutes or so to prevent sticking - it took me about 20 to 25 mins.
Add a little splash of water if it seems to be drying out.
When it's done, it's done!

In the slow cooker:

I made double quantities so two portions.

Just chuck everything in, give it  good stir and turn it on.  I used the Auto setting, turned it on at around 9:30, gave it another little stir at around ten, then went out for a walk and when I came in just before 12:30, it was done perfectly.

Cook it on slow and I guess it would take another hour or so.

In my Thermomix:

If you have a thermomix and access to Cookidoo, you could follow that recipe but don't do the butter thing, just miss it out and go on to that final cooking time.

I had a go with the ingredients as above x 2 portions.  

Insert butterfly whisk.

Place ingredients in bowl.
Measuring cup on.

Cook 55 mins, 90C, reverse speed 1

Check and give a bit longer if needed.

I did try the microwave but all I got was a big old mess all over the turntable - wouldn't recommend it, personally!!

Which method would I choose to use depends on context.

If I wanted just one portion, I would probably do it in a pan on the hob.  However, that would be unlikely as I'm a great believer in cooking once and freezing the extra portions and also you can't just leave it to do its thing!  Lazy cooks rule, OK?

If I was going out, I would use my slow cooker.

If I was staying in, I would use Thermione.  

Both make a really nice basic rice pudding that you could jazz up if you wanted to.

Neither method needs you to stir regularly, both are fuel economical, both are easy.

Up to you.  Which will you do?

Saturday evening, 20-04-24

Good evening, everyone!

Today's Vlog is one I have watched/subscribed to for quite a while.

https://www.youtube.com/@Mrsleannejames
Leanne has a had quite a journey - she joined Slimming World, was doing rather well and then she was diagnosed as having breast cancer so had to start treatment.  
Her vlogs became, understandably, rather infrequent, and they focused on eating for health rather than following any specific plan.  

However, she is now in complete remission (is that the right term?) and she is now back on the Slimming World plan, plus intermittent fasting when possible, and going great guns.

She does weigh-ins, what she eats in a day, health updates, general life stuff - oh, all sorts of things.

Leanne is lovely.  She comes over as a gentle, courageous lady who thinks deeply and expresses herself really well.  I always enjoy watching her vlogs and I hope you will too.  Go and take a look.

Here's a link to her latest vlog at time of typing.

What I ate today:

Breakfast was some fruit (an apple and an orange), eaten on our morning walk.  No photo.

I goofed over my lunch plans.  How can anyone run out of cans of baked beans?  Well, I did and I don't want to go shopping again so soon so I put baked beans on the shopping list and turned to the faithful Internet for a simple recipe.

Here you go - from the wonderful BBC Good Food site - I love that place.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/healthy-baked-beans

I had to do a bit of subbing.  I used cannellini beans, one carton, and reduced the other ingredients accordingly although it's really one of those 'chuck it all in and see' type recipes.  
I blended a can of chopped tomatoes and used some of it instead of passata.
I didn't have dates so I finely chopped some mixed dried fruit instead.  And I cooked the chopped onions long and slow so they almost melted in.

It does have synnable ingredients but I made between a third and a half of the recipe and it made three Joy-sized portions, I reckon it is comparable to canned baked beans in calories so I'm just calling it syn free

After taking out two thirds to freeze, I finely chopped a bacon medallion and added that with a squidge of brown sauce to the last third.  On pumpernickel toast with cheese on top it was absolutely gorgeous - and I have two more portions in the freezer as well as a new recipe I will want to make again.

Half a healthy extra A, one healthy extra B and one syn

Later on, I had an orange and a banana.

Dinner was a shop bought fresh chicken and pancetta tortellini to which IO added a tomato, pepper and mushroom sauce.
The SW site said the whole pack was fifteen syns which sounds awful - until you realise that it's officially two portions but I got three portions.
It was lovely - must buy that again sometime and, in the meanwhile, I have two portions in the freezer.

My freezer is taking a battering again, isn't it?

Earlier in the day I made a two portion batch of rice pudding in the slow cooker (for the post I'm doing about rice pudding) so I had one portion for dessert and the other portion is - guess where!!

Half a healthy extra A for cheese, half an A for milk, six syns for the main and one syn for sugar in the rice pudding.

Summary:

one and a half healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

eight syns

Tomorrow's meal plans:

B:  guacamole toast with egg, leaves and tomatoes

L:  roasted gammon, etc; fruit

I have some blended chopped tomato from the baked beans recipe so I will make some sort of sauce to go with the gammon.

D:  ham salad; fruit

Exercise:  a rest day.  I start back at classes again on Monday.