What I ate in a day & weigh in

First things first, down 1 lb this week! Considering last weekend was my birthday and a lot of prosecco and cake was consumed, I'm happy with that!

So here's what I ate on Wednesday (as per my last food diary, I didn't eat breakfast, just had water and tea - I'm just not finding myself that hungry in the morning and am preferring having a couple of bigger meals instead!)

Brunch and I'm getting predictable aren't I! Tofu scramble but this time I added veggies.

Dinner - easy comfort food of sausages and noochy mash and green veg

When cooking dinner I had a glass of this, aka my new favourite thing! (If you have a decent sized Sainsbury's near you, you should go look for it now!)

I also had some strawberries, because British Strawberries are in season right now and if you get the really red ones, they are usually amazing! But it's such a short window of opportunity before the good ones are all gone again. These were good though, they didn't need anything on them.

Later on I had a tesco toffee chocolate free from cone thing, but forgot to take a photo, duh! Sorry.

So here's the breakdown of the day. I was a bit low on calories, (I wouldn't normally finish that low) even after eating a tesco cornetto. I think it was because I didn't have any snacks as it was a busy day ! Also, I was not that hungry. I made up for it yesterday with Nando's though :)

Have an awesome weekend!
Sal xXx

Recipe: Baked Tofu Bowl With Miso-Tahini Sauce

So I didn't gain! I actually lost half a pound, which I was pretty pleased with.

In my last post I mentioned eating more mindfully to try and hit things like my protein, calcium, iron etc goals and so I've been tracking in Cronometer.

I must admit I've been going over syns as sort of an experiment and I'm not expecting a loss this week as I was not tracking or on plan at the weekend (we were celebrating!).

Anyway what I am leading up to it's that it's been super interesting seeing where I'm short on nutrient goals and where I'm winning.

I always hit my protein goal and stay under my fat goal, but I was finding myself low on the Omega 3 (I do supplement that anyway as I have dry skin and creaky knees!), Iron is a bit low (again I supplement as I have a history of iron deficiency/anaemia. I was finding calcium a bit low but not too bad, but am keeping an eye on that to make sure I'm getting enough. The one thing I am always getting almost zero of is Vitamin D! So although my soy milk is fortified, I'm obviously not having anywhere near enough to cover that. So may have to look into a supplement. I'm not an expert on nutrition, so I'm going by what Cronometer tells me mostly but have upped the suggested protein goal a bit.

Last night I made this yummy bowl for dinner that is packed full of protein, has a tonne of calcium thanks to the tofu and also, the nooch in the sauce is almost your RDA of B12 (my fortified soy milk made up the rest and I do supplement B12, as it's advised by RDs that everyone do this, not just vegans!)

The sauce from this recipe is inspired by a couple of recipes from Isa Chandra, who has a tonne of awesome recipes on her website: HERE.

Baked Tofu Bowl With Miso-Tahini Sauce
Serves: 1
Syns: 3

Ingredients (the purple ingredients have syns, the rest are free foods):
1/2 a pack of Cauldron original tofu
Chinese 5 Spice Powder
Soy Sauce
Frylight

Cooked basmati rice (mine was about 50g or 1/4 cup dry, but use as much as you like)

1/2 a cup of frozen edamame/soy beans, thawed
Stir fry veggies of choice - I used:
Onion
Pepper
Carrot
Asparagus
1 tsp tahini 
2 tsp white miso
1 tbsp (scant) nutritional yeast (with B12)
Sriracha (technically has syns but the amount used is so small it is negligable)
Hot Water

Method
Cut the tofu into pieces, the size/shape is your choice. Place on a baking tray, sprinkle with 5 spice powder and spray with frylight. Bake at 200°C for 20 minutes. Flip, sprinkle the other side with 5 spice, spray with frylight and bake for another 15 minutes. When you remove from the oven, splash some soy sauce over them to season.

While the tofu is cooking, cook your rice and stir fry the veggies (you could do the edamame along with the other veg, but I wanted them separate) until soft. About 30 seconds before you take off the heat, splash some soy sauce over the veg and stir through.

To make the sauce, mix together the tahini, miso, nooch and a squirt of sriracha to taste (optional). Then add hot water a tbsp at a time and mix until you have the consistency you like.

Arrange everything in a bowl and drizzle the sauce over. I added a sprinkling of black sesame seeds as well but you can leave those off if you don't want the extra syns.

And here is the nutritional info from Cronometer for this dish (the protein is actually not quite that high, but they didn't have Cauldron brand listed, so I went with the nearest one).

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

A loss - woohoo!

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

A gain again :(

So I gained 1.5lbs on Thursday. So annoying, I seem to be yoyoing every week! up down up down up down.

I had a bit of a heavy weekend again but I'm going to just eat minimal syns this week in the hope I can pull it back. UGH.

I know after Christmas I can be more focused but I still don't want to have a big gain before then.

I think I am going to film / photograph some food diaries this week and share them, hopefully this will inspire me to cook and eat some good stuff.

I have also planned meals for the week on my meal planning pad!

How's everyone else doing? Is the run up to Chrimbo affecting you at all / yet?

Sal xXx

Easy (SP Friendly) Syn Free Vegan Chilli Recipe

First things first, results of this week's weigh-in:

I lost 1.5 lbs this week! YAY.

Here is a super easy recipe for the SP day friendly vegan chilli I mentioned in the yesterday's food diary that I posted this afternoon.

I actually had it with rice the other night (and the leftovers on a baked potato for lunch yesterday) but this makes for a yummy SP day meal, either alone or with cauli-rice.

Ingredients:
1 small onion, diced
Frylight Spray
1 red pepper, diced finely
1 tin of kidney beans in chilli sauce
1 tin of cooked lentils
2 tomatoes, chopped
a pinch of sweetener
2 tsps of marmite
Chilli flakes or chilli powder (optional) to taste

This makes 3-4 servings but on SP days I often eat half of it as I have it without rice.

Method:
Fry the onion in frylight until it starts to soften and colour a bit then add the pepper and cook for a little more time. You could also throw in a clove or 2 of garlic if you want.

Add all the other ingredients (I add chilli flakes as the chilli sauce on the beans isn't that hot, but only add if you like it spicier) and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for at least 15 minutes, but anywhere up to 30-40 will be fine too. I pretty much just put my rice on once it's simmering and cook it til the rice is done.

Re the marmite - even if you're a hater, add it in. It adds a lovely savoury note to the chilli. If you hate it so much you can't bear to be around it, just add a bit of extra salt.

I added 3.5 syns worth of avocado mashed with a bit of salt and lime juice.

Have an awesome weekend.
Sal xXx

Weigh-In Update

I gained 0.5 lb last night.

I'm ok with that. In fact I'm pretty happy about it! Considering the weekend of booze and desserts and Zizzi's that i had :)

Back on plan now and I'm aiming to lose 1.5 lbs next week.

I'm still on track for my first mini goal (as per THIS POST). I've got 4 lbs to lose in 6 weeks, so totally doable if I knuckle down.

One thing that should help this, is that I'm doing Sober October! Indulging in too much prosecco always ends up with me eating like crap, so cutting it out for a while should help.


Is anyone else doing Sober October? If you sign up then you can get your friends to sponsor you and raise some dosh for Macmillan Cancer Support, which is a great cause. You can sign up here: https://www.gosober.org.uk/

If you're not up for doing it yourself but want to donate, you can sponsor me via the button on my sidebar to the right, even if it's just a £ or 2.

Have an awesome weekend everyone.
Sal xXx

Weigh-in and some exciting new vegan stuffs!

First things first, last week was awful and I ended up having a bit of a heavy weekend because of it. Plus it was star week (HATE that term!) so I was expecting a gain. I did 3 sp/no syn days to try and claw back a maintain and was actually down half a lb, so YAY.

Onto the good stuff.

It seems like every day I'm reading about some exciting new vegan item being released, which is awesome.

This week I found one of the new Quorn offerings; the breaded fillets. I worked these out on the syn calc as 3 each, as they're not on syns online yet. That sounds about right to me, as they're bigger than the burgers which are 2 each.

Pic from Quorn's website

I thought they were good. Ignore my terrible photo but this is them cooked. I had it with mushies and mashed potatoes. After 3 sp days, it was frigging GREAT to have some taters. I dunno how anyone does a low carb / no carb diet. That to me would be hell. haha

How did you get on this week?

I also picked up the new Alpro ice cream, but haven't tried that yet. Watch this space....

Have an awesome weekend.
Sal xXx

Weigh in and new Linda McCartney vegan items (syns)

This week has not been a good one, my beautiful cat passed away on Wednesday and I am devastated. Somehow though, I managed to stay on plan, when in the past I'd have run straight for the chocolate / wine!

Anyway, at weigh-in last night (I didn't stay for the meeting for once) I was down 1.5 lbs. Making a total of 10 lbs in 6 weigh ins.

So I am confident that I'll get to my 1 stone by my fiance's birthday, which was my first mini-goal, as per my last post.

On another note, there's been some new offerings from Linda McCartney out recently, I found these in Morrisons. (Not my pictures, taken from the LM site.)

I work the syns out (using the SW syn calculator) as 2.5 per 100g of the chicken (or 6.5 for the whole bag and 3 syns per 100g of the duck (or 8.5 for the whole bag). But I don't have official SW confirmation of that yet (will update here when it's confirmed). I should note that worked out the syns per 100g, someone on the vegan slimming world facebook group worked out the syns for the whole bag.

Also they have brought out some new sausages that are vegan, Chorizo & Red Pepper flavour which look to be 0.5 syns each and also a Beef Burrito mix, which someone worked out as 4.5 syns for half the bag or 200g.

Has anyone tried any of the new items yet? I have no idea what to do with the chicken and duck, so they're still sat in my freezer haha.

Have an awesome weekend.

Sal xXx

Belated Weigh-In / Update

Thursday night I was down 1 lb, making a total of 8.5 lbs lost, by my 5th weigh in.

I don't have any plans for the next week or two, so I have no excuse for not losing at both of my next weigh-ins.

So I decided to set myself some mini goals, to see if it will keep me on track.

1 - I have a skirt that has never fitted me; I want to fit in that by December.

2 - I want to get my 1 stone award by my fiance's birthday in November.

3 - I want to get my club 10 award by Christmas (that's 13 lbs in 15 weeks, totally doable!)

What are your current goals / mini goals?

Have an awesome week everyone
Sal xXx

What I ate yesterday (SP Day) and weekly weigh in

Weigh in: 2 lbs lost YAY! That means I lost the 1.5 lbs I put on last week, plus a cheeky extra half pound. Yippee.

So how about a little food diary?? I had a bit of a heavy weekend, well one day anyway (as I mentioned in my previous post) so I'm doing a couple of SP days this week. Here's what I ate on Wednesday.

Breakfast
2 x small wholemeal slices of bread (HEB) with strawberry jam (1 syn)
125ml/half a cup of Alpro plain yogurt with coconut (0.5 syn)
Some grapes

Lunch

Mushroom Quinoa Pilaf*

This was super easy; I just cooked an onion and a few sliced, large white mushrooms in frylight. Then I soaked a good handful of dried mushrooms. I added around 120g (about 1/2 a cup) of dry quinoa to the pan and then added the dried mushrooms, their soaking water (plus a bit extra water to make it up to 1 cup) and added a veggie stock cube. I also added a chopped roasted red pepper (from a jar).

I let this cook around 20 minutes, until the quinoa was cooked, adding a bit more water where needed. I checked the seasoning and it was ready to go into a tupperware to bring to work. I ate it cold.

I also had some more grapes.

Snack
Wheaty Space Bar (3 syns) 

Dinner

Lentil chickpea curry with more wholemeal bread (my second HEB). I used 1/2 a cup of soya yogurt in this so it's 0.5 syns for the whole recipe, and I ate about half of it. But I'm counting it as 1/2 a syn for today.

I actually filmed the making of this curry so look out for a recipe post coming very soon!

Snack

Chocolate orange rice cake (4 syns)

1 teaspoon of orange spice choc shot (1 syn) in some warm soymilk (HEA)

This is the brand of rice cakes - I get them in Sainsburys or Waitrose from the Free From aisle :)

So I finished the day on 10 syns.

Hope you're having an awesome week. Have you weighed in yet this week? How'd you do?

Sal xXx

* I may have messsed up as not sure if you are meant to have quinoa on an SP day? However, I always thought of it as a protein and not just a grain, so hopefully it's ok.

Update and staying on track at the weekend!

So last week I had a gain, 1.5 lbs. Could have been worse and was totally expected after an awesome weekend of 80s Rewind Festival, lots of junk food, booze and meals out.

So I'm trying to reign it back in this week in the hopes that I can lose that 1.5 lbs by Thursday. I'm doing a couple of SP days this week.

Over the weekend is where I always struggle though. Especially this weekend as we were moving. So no one felt like cooking! And we ended up having 2 takeaways. On Friday we got Chinese and I know I went over my syns by a lot. I also had wine. BUT... I wrote it all down and decided to reduce my syns for the other days of the week, so that I don't go over the 105 total.

Then Saturday night, an Indian takeaway was suggested. This time I decided to limit the damage and googled the best options syn wise. It turned out vegetable dhansak was the lowest, at 6.5 syns and I ordered plain boiled rice as a free accompaniment. I skipped the wine and the breads/bhajis etc and managed to stay under my syns for the day.

Then yesterday was bank holiday and we had a barbecue. And I managed to have a full BBQ meal for only 1/2  syn. I had:

1 Linda McCartney red onion sausage (free)
1 Linda McCartney regular sausage (1/2 syn)
1 vegan quorn fillet
Some homemade syn free BBQ sauce*
Roasted potatoes done in Frylight
Corn on the cob
Asparagus
Sweetcorn/Edamame salad
Regular Salad

That's a pretty decent meal! I was originally going to have a Linda McCartney burger which are 4.5 syns, but by swapping that out for the quorn fillet, I had enough syns for a Rowntrees fruit pastille ice lolly for 3 syns!)

(* recipe is coming for bbq sauce soon, as soon as I figure out the measurements!)

Hope you all had a fab bank holiday weekend!
Sal xXx

Weigh In 18.08.2016

Last night was my second weigh in after starting back and I only lost half a pound, which I was a bit disappointed but not surprised about (strayed from the plan on Saturday!). However, I lost 6.5 lbs the week before so this put me at 7 lbs and I got my 1/2 stone award. YAY!

Have an awesome weekend.
Sal xXx