What’s In Your Cupboard?

I am thinking about converting my under-stairs cupboard into a pantry and in the process thinking about what I would want to stock up on and store. Obviously it would need to be foods that I use all the time in various recipes and that are also Slimming World friendly. This got me wondering what would you stock up on? What do you use all the time in your cooking?

Some of the things I want to stock up on are:

• Chopped tomatoes
• Baked beans
• Passata
• Corned beef
• Tinned salmon
• Sardines/skippers
• Jacket potatoes (in appropriate storage)
• Pasta
• Spaghetti
• Noodles
• Rice
• Pudding rice
• Supernoodles, Pasta and Sauce, Savoury Rice etc
• Sugar free jelly
• Stock cubes
• Sugar free pop and squash

The Dream (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Looking at the list it doesn’t look like all that much so I’m sure I am missing a lot of stuff so I was wondering what would you stock up on?

 

My name is Vicky and I am addicted to weighing myself!

I can’t help it! Every morning I have to wake up and know what effect the previous days food has had on my weight-loss. Sometimes it has a negative impact when I have been super good and it doesn’t seem to be working. But on the flip side of the coin when I see that my eating is having a positive impact it is a huge motivator. It also helps me to see how badly I need to get back on track after a weekend of sheer indulgence. I know it is wrong to weigh myself most days but I can’t help it. A couple of weeks ago I went away for the week and I it nearly drove me crazy not knowing what was happening with my weight. But it did help me to break some of the weighing habit so now I have managed to only weigh myself every couple of days. You never know some time soon I might manage to only weigh in once a week in class. That will probably be about the time that I get to target some time after the wedding and honeymoon (I am probably going to end up gaining that week).

Anyway, onto other news…today’s food plan is as follows:

Breakfast – Shreddies (HEB), Semi Skimmed Milk (HEA) Banana (Superfree)

Lunch – Supernoodles (Free), Jelly and Mullerlight mix (0.5 syns)

Dinner – Spaghetti Bolognese (Free) MullerLight (Free)

Syn Free Pizza (using your HEA and HEB)

Well, it’s a great alternative to pizza and chips. I had some left over bolognese and there just wasn’t enough to make a meal for both me and husband  to be and as I HATE wasting food I flat out refused to throw it away. So I decided to turn it into a meaty pizza!

Pizza and Chips

I used 1 untoasted whole meal pitta bread (HEB) for the base. Spread a spoon of the syn free bolognese  over the pitta and then sprinkled it with 45g mozzarella cheese (HEA). This was then put into a preheated 200degree oven until the cheese is melted and going brown and then served with slimming world chips.

It really was lovely and it has quickly become one of husband to be favourite left over meals! Next I’m going to try it with chilli!

Chinese Slimming World Style

Tonight I am indulging in one of my favourite foods…chinese! I love chinese and look forward to it whenever I eat it. I haven’t had it in a good few weeks though due to the fact I have found that since starting Slimming World and cooking from scratch more I feel horrible afterwards. I’m not talking about that dreaded guilt trip I tend to go down whenever I ‘cheat’ but in myself I feel terrible. It is like my body is punishing me for putting something as fatty as prawn crackers, bbq ribs, egg fried rice and sweet and sour chicken (battered) into my body. It is like I just can’t handle it and to be honest I have now decided that it simply is not worth it. So tonight I will be really strict with myself and I will certainly not be indulging in the ‘really naughty’ chinese foods. Another added bonus to this is the fact that I will be saving a ton of syns. I looked up the syns of some of favourite chinese orders:

• BBQ Spare Ribs = 8.5 syns
• Prawn Crackers = 1.5 syns for 5 and you can guarantee that I could eat 10/15 in a meal so you looking at 4.5 syns
• Egg Fried Rice = 4 syns
• Sweet And Sour Chicken (battered) = 17.5 syns

So for my old chinese takeaway that made me feel terrible is a whopping 34.5 syns! I can’t believe I used to put that into my body and think nothing of it. It really is no wonder I used to feel terrible after that.

This time it will be a completely different story. I intend to not eat any prawn crackers or appetisers and will instead be ordering boiled rice (FREE) with chicken in oyster sauce (4.5 syns). Yum Yum and with this menu choice hopefully I wont be feeling half as bad as I did last time.

Back On Track!

As the title of my post says I am back on track and had a good day yesterday as well as today (so far), although I haven’t been doing much exercise. That is unless you count the fact that I spent all of today assembling a table and 6 chairs. The table weighed a ton and I was impressed I actually managed to move it around and flip it over etc.

Yesterday I decided that I needed to do an actual food shop and this alone has helped me stay on track. Before yesterday we were trying to make do until payday. This was alright, until the point where you have nothing left and you have the nibbles. It is at that point where you end up making toast and butter. But now I’m stocked up with plenty of fruit and veggies, lean meat and some cupboard essentials like chopped tomatoes and baked beans.

Actually have food in the house meant we could have something for dinner that wasn’t made up of the spot based on what we have left in the cupboards. So we had a yummy scrummy chicken dinner.

My lovely chicken dinner

It was just what the doctor ordered.

This morning I had a good start with a fruit salad for breakfast and surprisingly enough it actually filled me until lunch!

Fruit Salad

I’ve decided that I just eat way too much high starch food. Generally I have a bowl of Fruit and Fibre for breakfast, some sort of pasta based food for lunch and then my dinner in the evening usually always had potatoes. Plus I might have cereal bars during the day which is another added carb filled item. So for a week I have decided to try to reduce it down a little and swap it out for more superfree foods. Hopefully this will help my weightloss a little bit.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to trying this pancake recipe that I have found. I’m going to use the porridge as a healthy extra and this will make the pancakes free!

Spiced Plum Clafoutis

Taken from the Slimming World magazine October 2012.

Serves: 6

Ready in about: 45 minutes

Syns: 4 syns all choices

• Fry Light
• 500g fresh plums, halved and stoned
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• A pinch of ground cardamom seeds
• A large pinch of ground allspice
• 6 tbsp sweetener
• 2 eggs, separated
• 3 level tbsp plain flour, sieved
• 1 level tbsp ground almonds
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 70ml skimmed milk
• 1 level tsp icing sugar, to dust
• Fat-free natural fromage frais, to serve

1. Preheat your oven to 18oc/fan 160c/gas mark 4. Lightly spray a shallow 20cm-diameter baking dish with Fry Light.
2. Put the plums, orange zest, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice and 2 tbsp sweetener in a mixing bowl and toss well. spoon the mixture into a baking dish.
3. put the egg yolks and remaining  sweetener in another bowl and beat, using an electric hand whisk, until pale and fluffy. fold in the flour, ground almonds, vanilla extract and milk.
4. put the egg whites in a clean glass bowl. beat with an electric hand whisk on a medium speed until they form soft peaks when the blades are lifted. fold the egg whites gently into the batter.
5. Spoon the batter over the fruit and bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the batter is puffed and golden. Allow the clafoutis to cool slightly, then dust with the icing sugar and serve immediately with a dollop of fromage frais.

Classic Beef Burger

Taken from the Slimming World Extra Easy Cookbook.

Serves: 4

Syns: Free on Extra Easy, 8.5 on Original, 13 on green

Ready in about: 40 minutes

• 794g extra lean mince beef
• 8 tbsp very finely chopped shallots
• 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1. Place the minced beed, shallots, Worcestershire sauce and garlic in and bowl an,d using your hands, combine the thoroughly.
2. Season well, divide into four and shape into flat burgers.
3. Spray the burgers with low cal spray, place under a hot grill (or BBQ 😉 and cook to your liking.

Tandoori Chicken

BBQ Tandoori Chicken

This recipe is taken from the March/April 2012 Slimming World magazine and uses lamb instead of chicken.

Serves: 4

Ready in about: 40 minutes, plus overnight marinating

Syns: Free on Extra Easy, Free on Original

• 1kg chicken cut into chunks
• 200g fat-free natural yoghurt
• 6tbsp tomato puree
• 4tbsp tandoori curry powder
• 1cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1tsp hot chilli powder
• 3tsp sea salt
• 3tbsp lemon juice

1. Put the lamb chunks in a dish in a single layer. Mix together the yoghurt, tomato puree, curry powder, ginger, chilli powder, 2 tsp of sea salt and lemon juice.
2. Rub the mixture onto the chicken pieces.
3. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for 4 – 5 hours, or overnight if time permits.
4. Preheat your oven (or bbq 😉 to 220c/200c fan/gas mark 7. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Thread the chicken onto skewers and place on a baking tray.
5. Cook for 12-15 minutes, or until the chicken in cooked.

It Sunday and it’s sunny so lets have a BBQ!

The weather has been beautiful today and as such we have had a lovely relaxing morning just sitting in the garden and reading while waiting for a friend to come over to have a BBQ lunch, Slimming World friendly of course. As I had Fruit and Fibre for breakfast as my HEB I didn’t have a cob but to be honest I didn’t feel like missed out. To help me stick to my syns I used a couple of my tried and and tested recipes that I know I love. The first on was Tandoori Chicken Skewers.

They are amazing and my other half thinks they are the best thing ever, in fact whenever we have a BBQ these are always requested. The best thing is that if you do not tell people they are Slimming World friendly they simply don’t know. They are just that good. Even better than that is that they are FREE!!!! I really would recommend that you try them and you can find the recipe HERE.

Another thing that I made is homemade burgers, unfortunately they looked and tasted so good that I completely forgot the take a picture, but you can find the recipe HERE. These are also FREE.

Alongside this I had some very juicy and tasty mushrooms (so juicy in fact that the juice burnt my lip 😦 ) and our friend brought along some Pork and Sweet Chilli Sausages. These I worked out and 5.5 syns and as I had such a good rest of the BBQ I allowed myself 1 without a cob. All in all it was a very good syn friendly BBQ.

In other news I also went to see my very first ice hockey match and I absolutely loved it! I’m really not one for watching sports like football (it annoys me when players roll on the floor for every minor injury) or rugby (I get annoyed by the stop and start play) but ice hockey is so quick! I was also strong and didn’t give into the temptation of burgers and hotdogs and chocolate and sweeties. Instead I just made do with…a diet coke. YAY for me!

So today has been an OK diet day again. I has better get a good weight loss this week.

Breakfast Fruit and fibre (HEB + 1 syn), semi skimmed milk (0.5 HEA), banana and a nectarine

Snack Muller Light Greek Style Yoghurt

Lunch 2x burgers (FREE), Tandoori Chicken (FREE) Pork and Sweet Chilli Sausage (5.5 syns) Mushroom (FREE) Sauce (2 syns)

Snack Mullerlight Banana and Custard

Dinner Mango

Total syns = 9 syns

Tomorrow I will be going to the gym and making sure I have another low syn day to make up for it. In fact I have some of that yummy scrummy pork from yesterday so that will make a lovely low syn meal for tomorrow evening. YUM YUM!

Here I Am!

Well here I am! I have been doing Slimming World since February 14th and have lost a total of 1st 2lbs. I started at 10st5.5lb and being only 4ft11 this is rather a lot. It also gave me a BMI of 29.4…the highest I have ever been! Now though I am down to 9st3.5lb and a BMI of 26.2. I feel so much better look so much better because I have gone down a dress size, but I am struggling!

I have had a couple of weeks where I haven’t been losing and have maintained or gained and I really need to get back into control before I go back to my start weight. It isn’t through not understanding what I need to do and how to do it. It is just a sheer lack of motivation. I feel like I am so close and I am terrified of letting myself go and gaining everything I have lost plus more. This would be tragic because I am getting married next year!

So here I am. I have started this blog to help me keep losing weight , allow me to track my eating and show off my meals. Having already scoured the other Slimming World blogs I am also discovering that it is a great way of gaining inspiration. I am looking forward to keeping you guys and gals updated on my progress and gaining the motivation and inspiration that I have seemingly (temporarily) lost.

Tonight is WI! As negative as it sounds I will be happy with a maintain and will be ecstatic with a 0.5lb loss. Fingers crossed. As tonight is WI I will be starting writing down my diet diary tomorrow.

As tomorrow is the start of a new phase in my weight-loss I  am going to plan what I am going to be eating:

Breakfast

• Fruit and Fibre (HEB + 1syn)
• Semi – skimmed milk (1/2 HEA)
• 2 satsumas (FREE)

Snack

• Some sort of fruit

Lunch

• Low fat Supernoodles (FREE)
• Fat Free Muller Greek Style Yoghurt (1/2 syn)
• Fruit

Snack

• Fruit

Dinner

• Homemade salmon fish cakes (FREE)
• Slimming World Chips
• Veggies
• Fruit

I will also be going to the gym and will have to take a wander to the shop to buy some fruit. Lets hope it all goes to plan