YAY! 3.5 lbs off last night, so excited. I am not under any illusions that that'll continue next week as I'm away for the weekend, but I'm hoping I can manage a maintain before the craziness of Christmas starts next weekend!
Also, I came home from group and we ordered pizza! Which I'm regretting today because my acid reflux is now getting its revenge. But it was good at the time.
Fought every urge in me today to have the lovely, soft, white, uncut bread we have in the kitchen for breakfast and had some SW friendly porridge instead.
Have an awesome weekend everyone!
Sal
xXx
The Social Stuff
Friday, 9 December 2016
Thursday, 8 December 2016
Recipe: Mushroom Soup
Someone at work the other was heating up something for lunch that smelt delightfully mushroomy (sod off spellcheck, it's totally a word!). So I then spent the rest of the day fantasising about mushroom soup. I'm a sad bugger I know.
It's ugly. In fact it was so ugly I couldn't get a decent photo so I decided not to include one.
Here's what I came up with. Ugly... but tasty!
Mushroom Soup
Serves: (depends on how much soup you want but mine made about 4 servings)
Syns: 0.5 for the whole pot
Ingredients:
1/4 cup of dried mushrooms, any will do
1 Small onion, chopped
1/2 a cup (a couple of stalks) of celery, chopped350g ish of mushrooms, stalks and all, chopped (I used a pack of chestnut mushrooms and half a pack of shiitake mushrooms that I had left to use up)
1 medium potato, chopped (I don't bother peeling, just give it a scrub)
Veggie stock
Marmite
2 bay leaves
A Pinch of dried thyme
1/3 of a pot (about 125-130g) of plain Alpro Go On Yogurt, optional
Salt & pepper to taste
Method:
Pour boiling water over the dried mushrooms and leave to soak.
Hack up the onions and celery and fry in Frylight for a few mins until start to soften. Clean any mud off the mushrooms and hack them up - stalks'n'all. Throw in pan and cook until the water starts to release and they've cooked down a bit.
Chop up the potato and add to the pan with the soaked mushrooms and their soaking water. Add a couple of stock cubes and enough water to just cover the veggies (I added about 3-4 cups, including the mushroom liquid). Add a teaspoon or so of marmite (even if you're a hater like me, trust me!). Add the herbs and bring to the boil.
Turn to a simmer and simmer for 20 minutes, until potatoes are soft. Leave to cool a bit and then remove the bay leaves and blend.
Add the yogurt if using and blend again. Check seasoning and serve.
If you wanted to make this SP friendly you could replace the potato with cauliflower! :)
Sal xXx
Tuesday, 6 December 2016
Savoury Rice Recipe
It's less than 3 weeks til Christmas! I'm pretty excited, just put up a few decorations at work as my boss is out for the week. No more bah humbug for him! haha
Anyway, I thought I'd share a super easy, regular weekday dinner of ours. This recipe has evolved over the years from something I used to make, with some additions my mum made... and this is the most regularly used version, but tweak it to what you have.
This made 4 decent sized portions and worked out at 3 syns for the entire pan. I counted it as 1 syn per portion, rounded up and had I not been feeding 4 of us, I would've had a third of it and kept a third for lunch today. You could also use curry powder instead of paste, if you want to keep this free, or leave it out altogether and add some herbs and spices instead. But here's how I made this version.
The beans etc are approximates, if you want to chuck in a whole can do it. If you want to add more or less peas/sweetcorn or any other veg, do it!
Savoury Rice
Serves: 3-4
Syns: 3 in the whole recipe; omit or swap the curry paste with powder to make this syn-free
Ingredients
Frylight
1 onion, diced as finely as you can be bothered
1 pepper, colour of your choice or a bit of both, diced as above
1/2 a tin of kidney beans
1/2 a cup or so of sweetcorn
1+1/4 cups of basmati rice, dry
Veggie stock
2 tablespoons of korma (or other curry) paste (I used Pataks)
1/2 a cup or so of peas
Salt & Pepper to taste
Method
In a non-stick frying pan (the non-stick bit is important!), fry the onion in frylight for a few minutes, then add the peppers and fry a few more minutes. Place basmati rice into a sieve and rinse under cold water. Add to the pan. Add 3 cups of stock (or in my case 3 cups of water and two vegetable oxo cubes) and the curry paste. Stir well.
Add the beans and sweetcorn and mix through. Turn to a simmer, cover* and leave to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After 15 minutes, add the peas, stir through and switch off the heat. Replace the lid and leave to sit for around 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork, taste to see if it needs salt and/or pepper and then serve.
I love the leftovers cold the next day but if you are going to do this, make sure you keep refrigerated until you eat it or if you're going to reheat, make sure you do so until it's super mega boiling hot. Like liquid hot magma-hot! Reheating cold rice is when it becomes a danger zone, so either eat really cold or piping hot!!
*If your pan doesn't have a tight fitting lid, use foil.
What's your favourite easy weekenight meal?
Sal xXx
Saw this yesterday on Facebook and laughed!
Anyway, I thought I'd share a super easy, regular weekday dinner of ours. This recipe has evolved over the years from something I used to make, with some additions my mum made... and this is the most regularly used version, but tweak it to what you have.
This made 4 decent sized portions and worked out at 3 syns for the entire pan. I counted it as 1 syn per portion, rounded up and had I not been feeding 4 of us, I would've had a third of it and kept a third for lunch today. You could also use curry powder instead of paste, if you want to keep this free, or leave it out altogether and add some herbs and spices instead. But here's how I made this version.
The beans etc are approximates, if you want to chuck in a whole can do it. If you want to add more or less peas/sweetcorn or any other veg, do it!
Savoury Rice
Serves: 3-4
Syns: 3 in the whole recipe; omit or swap the curry paste with powder to make this syn-free
Ingredients
Frylight
1 onion, diced as finely as you can be bothered
1 pepper, colour of your choice or a bit of both, diced as above
1/2 a tin of kidney beans
1/2 a cup or so of sweetcorn
1+1/4 cups of basmati rice, dry
Veggie stock
2 tablespoons of korma (or other curry) paste (I used Pataks)
1/2 a cup or so of peas
Salt & Pepper to taste
Method
In a non-stick frying pan (the non-stick bit is important!), fry the onion in frylight for a few minutes, then add the peppers and fry a few more minutes. Place basmati rice into a sieve and rinse under cold water. Add to the pan. Add 3 cups of stock (or in my case 3 cups of water and two vegetable oxo cubes) and the curry paste. Stir well.
Add the beans and sweetcorn and mix through. Turn to a simmer, cover* and leave to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After 15 minutes, add the peas, stir through and switch off the heat. Replace the lid and leave to sit for around 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork, taste to see if it needs salt and/or pepper and then serve.
I love the leftovers cold the next day but if you are going to do this, make sure you keep refrigerated until you eat it or if you're going to reheat, make sure you do so until it's super mega boiling hot. Like liquid hot magma-hot! Reheating cold rice is when it becomes a danger zone, so either eat really cold or piping hot!!
*If your pan doesn't have a tight fitting lid, use foil.
What's your favourite easy weekenight meal?
Sal xXx
Food Diary - Sunday 04.12.16
Here is a recent food diary (from Sunday):
Breakfast
Dee's sausages, potato farls (1 syn*), heinz spaghetti (not hoops - hoops are not vegan, pesky vit D grr!), Mushrooms. I also had my daily latte made with 200ml hazelnut milk for half my HEA.
*these are shown as about 5.5 syns each on the app but on checking the ingredients, they are mostly made from dehydrated potato - smash! So if smash is free, no way I'm counting these as 5.5 syns. So I put them through the syn calculator with a free food allowance and they came out as 0.5 each. That's what I go with - obviously if you're not happy to do this count them as per the app.
25g of granovita pate (3 syns), 2 ryvita dark rye (1/2 HEB), cuppa.
I got a bit peckish later on so I had 21 grams of these Snapea crisps for 4.5 syns.
Not pictured, I also had a tall soya latte in Starbucks. They're 5.5 syns each so I counted it as the other half of my HEA plus 2.5 syns.
Ended the day on 14.5 syns.
Sal xXx
Breakfast
Dee's sausages, potato farls (1 syn*), heinz spaghetti (not hoops - hoops are not vegan, pesky vit D grr!), Mushrooms. I also had my daily latte made with 200ml hazelnut milk for half my HEA.
*these are shown as about 5.5 syns each on the app but on checking the ingredients, they are mostly made from dehydrated potato - smash! So if smash is free, no way I'm counting these as 5.5 syns. So I put them through the syn calculator with a free food allowance and they came out as 0.5 each. That's what I go with - obviously if you're not happy to do this count them as per the app.
Lunch
25g of granovita pate (3 syns), 2 ryvita dark rye (1/2 HEB), cuppa.
Dinner
Sainsbury's meatfree balls (hehe) (0.5 syn) in speedy mushroom/hidden veg sauce. I added a little bit of alpro go on plain to the sauce and a sprinkle of nooch, so I called that half a syn. I had the other half of my HEB too with dinner, one slice of bread.
I also had one of these chocolate covered gingerbread cookies with jam i the middle that I found in the Polish section in my local Tesco (or possibly Sainsbury's). They're 2 syns each.
Snack
Not pictured, I also had a tall soya latte in Starbucks. They're 5.5 syns each so I counted it as the other half of my HEA plus 2.5 syns.
Ended the day on 14.5 syns.
Sal xXx
Monday, 5 December 2016
What I ate video
No weigh in update this week because I couldn't get to group due to a work event. However, I'm pretty sure it'd have been another gain. But I'm back on track now and feeling quite inspired to stay on it until the weekend when I'll no doubt do some more damage :)
I decided to film a what I ate video and introduce myself a bit. If you are interested in that, here it is. Excuse my derp face thumbnail! haha
Have a great week everyone
Sal xXx
I decided to film a what I ate video and introduce myself a bit. If you are interested in that, here it is. Excuse my derp face thumbnail! haha
Have a great week everyone
Sal xXx
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