Lurk no more, fat no more

[Mandlegrot]

another good day today! Had fruit and soy yogurt (2) for brekkie...then went to work for hours and forgot my lunch *fail* so didn't eat lunch until about 4.30 pm!!! had a veggie sausage, sweet potato wedges, mixed salad, sweetcorn and a dash of ketchup (1). Dinner was some mash potato with soy butter (4), rosemary, thyme and lots of garlic. then 3 linda macartney free sausages and a tin of beans with some spicy sauce (2).

just had a little bit of chocolate (3) and that concludes my day at 12 syns. had some chocolate oat milk and ryvita minis for healthy extras. am gonna get an early night as I have NO WORK TOMORROW (until 9pm, which doesn't count really cos I just have to go in and sleep) and am going to have a good nights sleep. Gonna get up early though as have lots to do - got a busy day planned on the allotment and garden, lots of seeds to sow and potatos to plant. Then got to clean out my campervan and measure up the floor, load her up for next weekend's fun, touch up the interior paint, try and clean some of the bird crap off her then finish cleaning the house...try and move some of my stuff out of the lodgers bedroom to make more space for him!!! THEN SLEEP. Monday much of the same, minus the cleaning, so basically working my **** off on the allotment getting everything ready. suddenly its all sprung into action

 

[WiiFitAddict]

I think nicking some of your recipe ideas will help me. I'd like to drop below the 14 stone 7lbs mark so would like to lose 3lbs this week. I just need to get my backside in gear and focus.

Tomorrow sounds busy, busy, busy! Have a great day.

 

[systema]

Yup Nigellas are part of the alliums, my fave plant group as they are both beautiful and yummy! I sometimes boil the onions in too, but you really need to fry the spices to get the real flavour and scent. it only takes 2 mins so is worth it I'll post up my MegaDahl recipe tomorrow, is super chunky and lush with spuds, spinach, lentils and all sorts of goodness in to fill you up

I never use frylite or similar for spices - worth the syns to use real oil.

 

[Mandlegrot]

depends which spices - dry spices your better of dry frying anyway as oil ruins them...but frylight works OK for seeds etc but only if you add it to a super cold pan, and loads of it too, and get the heat just right. I've had it where the pans been warm and it just won't crack the seeds open but a cold heavy bottomed pan works just as well. I have pretty much no oil in this house anymore, except for super nice oilve oil which I have drizzled over salads sometimes and some veg oil which I use for currys etc when I can't be bothered with frylight. always synned though

ps do you have any more vietnamese recipes? yum yum yum x

 

[Mandlegrot]

I think nicking some of your recipe ideas will help me. I'd like to drop below the 14 stone 7lbs mark so would like to lose 3lbs this week. I just need to get my backside in gear and focus.

Tomorrow sounds busy, busy, busy! Have a great day.

Sweet - are you veggie or just curious lol

I'll post some more recipes and ideas up on here actually, i tend to ramble on now and not post a lot about food anymore. Already been into the lodgers room and made a lot of mess, about to have some brekkie then go in and finish it. i can't move the van near the house as there has been a ********** motorbike taking up most of the space outside my house for days now, I'm tempted to just move it as its the worst parking i've ever seen and I could squeeze my van in either side if that silly thing wasn't parked LIKE A CAR instead of diagonally across most of the space in front of mine. Might have to sort that tomorrow when everyone goes to work...which just leaves me with - cleaning the house, sorting out the garden, sorting out the allotment (at least 5 hours work!!!) finishing the lodgers room and eating somewhere inbetween. Oh and going to work at 9pm.

 

[Micci]

Busy woman! Wishing you a sucessful and fulfilling day - and some sleep at some point

 

[WiiFitAddict]

Sweet - are you veggie or just curious lol

Not a veggie although got a couple in the family and even when they're not at home I find I'm tending to cook increasingly less meat. I can't imagine not eating bacon or fish though lol

You're making me feel tired just reading about your itinerery for the day!

 

[systema]

- do you have any more vietnamese recipes? yum yum yum x

The Vietnamese people I know are all meat eaters - they don't eat much of it but it is always there. When we eat with them there are lots of veggies, mostly stir-fried and they use lots of oil. We eat mainly Indian food as we have lived there for months at a time for years and it was what we became used to.
We go to the vegan/veggie place for the food that was in the pictures in my diary and tasty spring rolls but if we go to a restaurant there only seems to be tofu based dishes or things like courgettes with tomato sauce and pizza is very popular here so we mainly eat at home. We are going to Saigon in a couple of days and going to a "posh" vegan restaurant, if we can find it, which is owned by the company who made the "steak" so hoping for good things from them.
You mentioned you lived in Malaysia - are you Asian or lived there by choice.?

 

[Mandlegrot]

The Vietnamese people I know are all meat eaters - they don't eat much of it but it is always there. When we eat with them there are lots of veggies, mostly stir-fried and they use lots of oil. We eat mainly Indian food as we have lived there for months at a time for years and it was what we became used to.
We go to the vegan/veggie place for the food that was in the pictures in my diary and tasty spring rolls but if we go to a restaurant there only seems to be tofu based dishes or things like courgettes with tomato sauce and pizza is very popular here so we mainly eat at home. We are going to Saigon in a couple of days and going to a "posh" vegan restaurant, if we can find it, which is owned by the company who made the "steak" so hoping for good things from them.
You mentioned you lived in Malaysia - are you Asian or lived there by choice.?

I'm 'english' as in raised here but blood is not strictly english, but not Malaysian either. My dad moved out there for work about 11 years ago and never came back, so I used to go and spend anything between 2 weeks to 4 months out there a year. Good times Vietnam is somewhere I have been wanting to visit while out in Asia, sounds very similar food habits to malaysia, not many vegetarians but lots of veggie and vegan friendly food which is good for us

How comes you live out in such lovely places? I got back from India only a few weeks ago and eat a LOT of indian food as stepmum is from there and I was bought up in a very Indian area of London so its in my blood as much as any. I'm going to flick through your diary for some recipe Ideas soon I think, you sound quite similar to me in terms of what you eat x

 

[Mandlegrot]

Not a veggie although got a couple in the family and even when they're not at home I find I'm tending to cook increasingly less meat. I can't imagine not eating bacon or fish though lol

You're making me feel tired just reading about your itinerery for the day!

Ah fair do's. i think Veggie food has changed a lot in recent years; it used to be sneered at and people were quite ignorant about what it really is, but I know an awful lot of meat eaters who happily choose to eat veg some nights My OH isn't veggie or even vegan but he loves to eat whatever I put in front of him which is a bonus

 

[Mandlegrot]

Just got back from the allotment - did about 4 and a half hours in total of digging, lifting, planting and raking. Pretty heavy work, lots of bending etc to get the spuds in but they are finally in the ground! My kitchen looks very bare without the trays of potatos chitting away. Oh well i will *have* to fill the space with some more tomato, chilli, BNS and courgette seedlings. Oh and my sweetcorn

That has boosted my body magic for the week - I think I might be ready for platinum, as exercise feels so much easier now and I think thats a good marker as any that i'm keeping it up. Theres a few more things i'd like to work on, like walking to shops rather than driving, but its often a matter of not having the time, plus my weak wrists wouldn't be able to carry the bags haha. Am going to get the cycle back on the road and tackle some of the long bike trails through the countryside in summer and watch the lbs drop off.

Time to eat my late lunch (2 days in a row haha!) of a pasta pot shot. Got some curry in the fridge that I made a week back, gonna have that for dinner with some of the dahl (Recipe above) and rice. Then time to finish sorting the lodgers room (half done now!) and then off to work. Repeat it all again tomorrow

 

[systema]

We retired when we were in our mid 40's and bought a flat in Goa and lived there for anything up to 9 months of the year and traveled a lot around India. We have recently sold it and travel for about 6 months of the year now - anywhere that takes our fancy as we don't like cold weather and spend the rest of the year in Spain.
This is all going to change now as we are going back to live in UK - don't know how long for - just have to see how things work out.

I have Indian friends who live in Woodford and go to visit them as often as I can.

 

[systema]

Ah fair do's. i think Veggie food has changed a lot in recent years; it used to be sneered at and people were quite ignorant about what it really is, but I know an awful lot of meat eaters who happily choose to eat veg some nights My OH isn't veggie or even vegan but he loves to eat whatever I put in front of him which is a bonus

I am the same - my OH is a meat eater but can't honestly tell you when he last ate any. When we go back to UK we will stay with his mother who is a great meat eater so he will eat it with her but would not bother if we were at home.

 

[Mandlegrot]

We retired when we were in our mid 40's and bought a flat in Goa and lived there for anything up to 9 months of the year and traveled a lot around India. We have recently sold it and travel for about 6 months of the year now - anywhere that takes our fancy as we don't like cold weather and spend the rest of the year in Spain.
This is all going to change now as we are going back to live in UK - don't know how long for - just have to see how things work out.

I have Indian friends who live in Woodford and go to visit them as often as I can.

Ha! How strange- before I moved to Norfolk I was living in Woodford...my mum is still there

I'd love to retire in my 40's - probably not going to happen though. But I was having this discussion with someone at work the other day, and they were going on about pensions, blah blah blah, and I said to him I wouldn't bother with one myself as its gambling. Instead I work my bum off for a few years then have 2-6 months off, mini retirements every few years make the rubbish times (winter basically) seem worth the good times (summer, preferably abroad). I can imagine myself doing this for a while but it all depends on how long the sort of work I do will have me coming in and out. I am hoping to go self employed and get some more skills and ways of earning money so I can live the way that I want, which is not settled down or tied down to one place or location

Goa is stunning, thats where I went to. I didn't want to come home! Just walking out into the garden every morning and cracking open a coconut to drink and eat was enough to make me want to go back for more

 

[Micci]

!!!!!!! I went to Woodford County High

 

[Mandlegrot]

ARGH WOODFORD CONNECTIONS

I went to caterham which was down the road but moved to woodford (or hoodford as we call it) in about 98 just after I started high school. I had a few mates who used to go to county high haha!

 

[Micci]

I'm trying to remember the year I was in the first year of secondary as we used to call it - non of this year 7 business then. It must have been 1968 so I doubt we have school mates in common. Don't bother looking for me on the honours board Where's Caterham then? I can't think of it.

 

[Micci]

How to make Paanch Phoran - aka Bengali 5 spice - equal measures each of Cumin seed, Fennel seed, Nigella seed (onion seeds - small black ones), Fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds. Is gorge, and can be used in loads of dishes - is lovely with fried cubes of butternut squash and tomato.

With the help of the very wonderful Mr Bassi down the road and digging in my cupboards I have all of this and am about to look for my pestle and mortar. I do not joke about Mr Bassi by the way, he is a lovely man.

 

[Mandlegrot]

I wouldn't bother grinding it - fry the seeds whole until they crackle and stink your kitchen out

 

[Mandlegrot]

caterham was in barkingside or clayhall, depending on weither you are middle class or working class (barkingside for me!) It was an absolute hell hole and was the worst 5 years of my life. Racism run rife there, if you were racist you got beaten up by non-white people but if you weren't `(like me) white people tried to beat you up for not being racist. Logic huh? Plus loads of classism, if that's even a word. People from my area/estate used to be sneered at for living in tower blocks but hey, I look at people I went to school with on facebook these days and a lot of them are utter failures in life. Suddenly being the odd kid at school seems to pay off seeing as i get to jet around the world and do all of the festivals instead of living with my mum and working in a pound shop like most people I went to school with seem to do.