Food Diary

I didn't weigh last week, I'll be honest, I chickened out as I knew it'd be a gain cuz we've been eating crap!

The likely gain coming my way this Thursday doesn't bother me so much, but I'm really trying to be more mindful of eating to feel better.

Breakfast
- A pink grapefruit
- Alpro Go On Passionfruit (1.5 syns)
- Coffee with 200ml Alpro Hazelnut milk (1/2 HEA)

Snack
- Golden delicious apple

Lunch
- Vegan quorn pieces, onions and red peppers, cooked with some spices in Frylight
- Romaine lettuce and cucumber
- Follow Your Heart Blue Cheese dressing - 2 tbsp (7 syns, totally worth it but 1 tablespoon was probably enough!)
- tsp sesame seeds (1 syn)

Dinner
- Linda McCartney Red Onion Sausages
- Roasted veg, SW chips and roasted veg (sprouts, mushrooms, cauliflower and a bit of alpro go on mixed with srirach to dip (not enough to syn it).

Snacks/Drinks
- I roasted some edamame beans, seasoned with a bit of salt and some nutritional yeast (0.5 syns). No I'm not synning the beans, I know I probably should as they're technically a tweak but I'm not gonna. If SW allow a pack of ham or chicken pieces to be a free snack, then I'm keeping my edamames free!!
- 300ml Alpro light soya milk (other 1/2 HEA) throughout the day for cups of tea.
- Pepsi Max Cherry with lunch (I'm using up the cans I have then trying to cut out fizzy drinks!)
- About 2/3 litres of water
- Proper corn popcorn (3 syns)

I ended the day on 13 syns and forgot to have my HEB! I had planned to have walnuts but forgot to eat them.

Cronometer!

As I mentioned earlier, I am trying to eat a bit better to feel better - I have issues with stomach acid (reflux) and iron deficiency that rear their ugly heads when I eat like crap. So... just to satisfy my curiosity, I plugged everything into Cronometer to check I'm getting enough calcium, iron... etc and I'm a bit low on a few things!

Calories - I only ate about 1200; although I didn't find I was really hungry all day, I did get hungry and now I know why! I probably should have eaten some fruit to bump this up a bit so am going to try to make a conscious effort to do that.

Selenium - I have ordered some brazil nuts to get this in.

Vitamin D - I was way low! I probably will need to supplement that.

Others.. I hit my protein, iron, omega 3 and calcium goals - I do supplement Iron and Omega 3 (see below) though.

I did hit most of my RDAs and met my protein, fibre and carb goals. I did go way over my sodium goal though so I will need to look at that.

* I do take a few supplements:

• B12 (once or twice a week as one tablets is about 4000 x your RDA and I've never had a deficiency! My soymilk is fortified with B12 and so is my beloved Nooch, but it is recommended that everyone supplement B12 by RDs!)
• Vegan Omega 3
• Iron + Vit C (I went slightly over my RDA for Iron today, but I do supplement to ensure I get enough because I have a long history of iron deficiency from even before I was vegetarian!)
• Pro Biotic (Lactobaccillus Acidophilus) to help digestion
• Starflower oil - high strength

What are you eating today?

Sal xXx

Easy Weeknight Meal - Mushroom 'Risotto' Recipe

I put the 'risotto' in quotes because I used basmati and so I guess it's really more of a mushroom savoury rice. But .... pahtayto pahtahto! or something.

There's no potatoes in this. OK I'm rambling....

For this simple weeknight meal you'll need:

1/2 a cup of dried mushrooms
1/2 a tsp of marmite (optional)
1 small onion, diced
Frylight of choice
3 large Portobello etc mushrooms, chopped
a pinch each of dried thyme and sage (or whatever fresh or dried herbs you like and feel free to up the amount!)
1/4 tsp (or more to taste) dried garlic
1/2 a cup of basmati
1/2 a cup of frozen peas

Method
Cover the dried mushrooms with about 1.5 cups of hot water and leave to soak. Add in the marmite too so that it dissolves easier later.

Fry the onions in frylight for a few minutes. Add the mushroom and a pinch of salt (in batches if need-be) and cook until they start to sweat down.  Add the herbs, basmati and the dried mushrooms and stock (making sure you get all the marmite out too).

Add the stock cubes and a good grinding of black pepper. Once boiling, turn to a medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes; if you need to add more water, do so. Turn off the heat.

Stir in the peas and leave off the heat, but covered for 5 minutes.

Before serving if you want to, go ahead and add in about a heaped teaspoon of Alpro plain Go-On yogurt (not enough to syn it) but you don't have to, I just like the extra creaminess. You can also stir through a couple of tablespoons of nooch* - 1 tablespoon is 1 syn.

Then stuff it in yer gin hole!

I served mine with some broccoli on the side and about 2 syns worth of baba ganoush on the brocc to make it extra yummy!

*nutritional yeast :)

What's your favourite quick weeknight meal?

Sal xXx

Update - 2nd Weigh in of the year

After gaining 8.5 lbs (well 10.5 really if you take into account the 2 I'd already gained) over Christmas, I was down 5.5 lbs at weigh in on Thursday! YAY So in total from my start weight last year, I've lost 7.5 lbs. Disappointed in myself but also, glad that I'm still over the half stone mark.

So now I'm doing weekly meal plans and trying to come up with some fun ideas to keep me and the fiance interested.

So far, this week, he has said he wants to me to try and make toad in the hole, so I'm attempting that Friday, with Linda McCartney Red Onion sausages. So far, this is my week:

Monday - Mushroom Risotto, plus extra green veg (use up what's in fridge)
Tuesday - SW Glamorgan sausages with SW chips (sausage recipe HERE)
Wednesday - Not cooking**
Thursday - WEIGH DAY Savoury Rice
Friday - Toad in the Hole
Saturday - Homemade Pizza (thinking I'll do mine with the small wholemeal bases I have in the freezer and use it as my HEB / + a couple of syns!) and maybe some SW Chips.
Sunday - Roast Dinner

** Wednesday is our tasting evening with our Wedding caterers. Pretty sure I'll be eating a LOT that night and I'm away for the day with work too, so lunch will be something trashy I expect! So I'm not hopeful for a loss on Thursday :/

What's on your menu this week??

Sal xXx

Happy New Year!

Oh dear oh dear oh dear! 8.5 lb gain over Christmas and I'd already put on 2 the week before! 9 months til my wedding so I'm more determined than ever to get back on plan.

So wish me luck for Thursday and this week, I'm meal planning for the week and going back to basics to shift some of that ridiculous gain.

How did you all do over chrimbo?

Sal xXx