Plumfoodie's diary and ramblings

[Plumfoodie]

Mmm this morning it's grey and cold so we tried Rick Gallop's fruity porridge. Amazing what a difference toasting the porridge makes to the flavour, and the pear and dried cranberry give it a different taste to my usual apricot or apple/cinnamon. The only cranberries I could find in the grocery store have a LOT of sugar in them (in fact I was a little surprised to see them in a GI book as it's really hard to track down lower sugar ones) which we used today but since the porridge was so nice I've just ordered some from Goodness Direct which are only sweetened with apple juice concentrate. They will still have a (lower) sugar content but I won't feel so guilty about it!

Fruity Porridge (from the Gi Diet Green-Light Cookbook by Rick Gallop)

to serve 2

75g jumbo porridge oats
250ml skimmed milk
1 pear (he reccomends Comice or Conference, I just used 'a pear')
37g dried cranberries
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Toast the oats on a rimmed baking tray for 20 minutes at 140C. (You can toast them ahead and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week)

In a large saucepan, bring the milk and 250ml water to the boil. Stir in all the ingredients and return to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened and the oats are tender (for jumbo oats this might take up to 20 minutes).

He says you can add artificial sweetener if liked. I can't eat it so didn't and I found that the fruit made it plenty sweet enough for my taste. He also suggests trying apples, peaches or nectarines instead of pears, and other dried fruits or a mix of different dried fruits. I really liked the pear/cranberry combo! I also added pumpkin/sunflower seeds on top since I usually have them with porridge.

 

[ruth frances]

that porridge sounds yum Plum. I have one of the Rick Gallop books but I don't remember seeing that one. I'll definately try toasting the oats first

 

[CaliSweden]

The porridge sounds yummy

 

[Plumfoodie]

Just a thought... fruit that you pick from the garden doesn't count, right? And fruit that you buy from a farm shop also doesn't count because they've picked it from their garden, right?

...

Right?

 

[babliboobabu]

Fruit from the garden deffo does not count, especially since I had loads today !

Cant agree with the fruit from the farm shop though

 

[Plumfoodie]

Drat! Never mind.

It's been a funny day here. It was chucking down until we decided to go to the cinema because it was chucking down. We drove the 4 miles to town and the sun came out. So we went to the farm shop for some rainbow chard (ours didn't grow) then came back and wandered around the garden eating raspberries and marvelling at the weeds. We even picked an apple and two tiny little courgettes. (we only moved to this house in October so veg/fruit gardenning has been a bit of an adventure for us this year) It's been a nice food day today, I like weekends!

Breakfast: fruity porridge (aforementioned)

Lunch: speedy salmon & runner bean pasta w/Philly light sauce

Snack: Mrs Crimbles Extremely Contraband Jammy & Moist Coconut Biscuit Thing. Oops. How did that sneak into our basket?

Dinner: pork with lentils and butternut squash, sliced tomato salad (not from the garden, I wish! ours are all very green still), two tiny yellow courgettes and rainbow chard, with greengages (again, courtesy of the farm shop) for afters

There may also have been the odd strawberry from the farm shop but I'm not telling anybody about that. *zips lip*

 

[CaliSweden]

Food sounds really nice today.
MMMMMM farm fresh produce is always nice. That's great that you have a lot growing in your garden. Sounds really tastey!

 

[babliboobabu]

Well I was in my mum's garden today. Little one ate all the raspberries before I could get to to them ( he is so quick) but I did have some damsons today and some orange thingies - not sure what they were but they were delish!! She has inspired me to think about growing my own vegetables outside. I do have some basil, parsley and thyme growing in my kitchen - their seeds came free with packs of butter! It's been so much fun to see my little babies grow up into lovely herbs

 

[Plumfoodie]

Oh, I love growing herbs, really rewarding and so tasty to use in cooking. You can grow all sorts of things just in growbags or other containers on a patio, that's what we used to do at our old house. It can work really well!

 

[Plumfoodie]

We're trying the oat scones from the recipe thread this afternoon to have with some soup... but we only have Easiyo lowfat apricot yoghurt. I suspect they will turn out fine (the yoghurt isn't very sweet or strongly flavoured) but we'll see!

 

[irish molly]

I use buttermilk if I have no yoghurt to make my oat bread. The sweet yoghurt won't do any harm, just give the bread sweetness. I made some oat bread this morning. I love it.

 

[Plumfoodie]

They turned out yummy, a little bit of an apricot taste but not unpleasant. They were a little rubbery though, maybe we mixed them too much? I was expecting them to be crumblier! Packed a bunch into the freezer for another day, hoorah.

 

[CaliSweden]

Ohh the bread sounds yummy!

 

[Plumfoodie]

So, weekly goal wrapup - my goals this week, and how I did:

Make two different dishes to replenish the stock of emergency freezer meals. - DONE! 4 servings each of two soups (lentil/smoked sausage, and black bean/sweet potato) went into the freezer this week.

Continue avoiding wheat products more than 2-3 times a week maximum but improve on this by not having wheat more than once in any given day. (Edit: I am not including AllBran in the 2-3 times a week limit, because it is mostly insoluble fiber.) - NOT DONE. I had wheat almost every single day this week, and today I had it twice. Oops. Not sure if I will roll this one over to next week or just bear it in mind. I suspect this week hasn't been too different from any other, the main difference is that I've looked back and added it up. Food for thought!

Drink enough water every day. - NOT DONE. I'm going to have to roll this one over to next week as it's so important. I hit my target today but it was the only day that I did.

So, now I'm not sure whether having weekly goals was a good thing or has just pointed out my shortcomings. But tomorrow I'll set some more for the new week and see how I do.

-----------------------------

It is also the time of month when I add up my monthly losses and I'm quite happy!

In the two months I've been doing Low GI/GL I have lost 8lb (3.5 the first month whilst doing Tesco Low GI and 4.5 the second whilst doing it on my own with books etc.).

I'm pretty pleased with this as I only lost 13.5lb in 6 months of Slimming World (most of this was in the first 2-3 months, although I stuck to the plan for all 6, so it could all go downhill from here of course! but hopefully not).

In addition to eating low GI/GL and keeping track of calories for the two months, I've also been taking some new supplements recommended by one of the leading doctors in the field of ME; I suspect all three things have contributed!

Fingers crossed it will continue to go well this month. It's funny how weekly losses can look small and sometimes discouraging but then when you look back over a month or two they all add up!

 

[irish molly]

I think reviewing your goals honestly was a good thing to do. I also believe attempting them again next week is a good idea. Patrick Holford also recommends limiting your wheat intake. So keeping it to once a day is sensible.
On the oat scones; I make just half the recipe into a bread. I use 250 g oatmeal with 250 mls buttermilk or Greek yoghurt, 1 tsp bicarbonate soda, grind of salt, 1 dessertspoon oil, half a grated apple. Mix it all together, put it in a 1lb loaf tin and bake at 190- 200 c for 40 minutes. It turns out lovely and cuts into ten slices which freeze well.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Molly, how much do you mix the bread? Do you give it a good old stir or just stir gently until it's barely combined?

 

[babliboobabu]

Wow Plum, 8lb in 2 months is awesome. Well done you I'm sure you will keep up the weight loss.

I second Irish Molly when she says to attempt the goals next week. You achieved one goal (yay!) and the wheat one is hard but it's worth giving it another shot. I too have a problem with drinking enough water and I am trying really hard, like you.

Perhaps you should take it day by day so that you are not looking at it for the whole week. For example, wheat once a day - how many days did you achieve this? If it was 3 out of 7 days, then you were successful for those 3 days. The whole week was not a write off and you wont feel so grrr about it. Also it's something to build on too - so the following week you would aim for 4 out of 7 days. Baby steps. Does that make sense?

 

[Plumfoodie]

Thank you for the encouragement Ashie. I know some people lose 2-3 or more pounds a week but for me with my health and not being able to exercise, an average of a pound a week is really exciting!

And I know you are both right, I *will* carry on with goals next week, it was just interesting for me that I hadn't actually done as well as I thought in my head (if that makes sense). So it's useful to see the truth! And you're quite right, I was successful on some of the days in some ways!

 

[babliboobabu]

To be honest with you I am always amazed when people regularly lose 2 or 3lbs. If I lose weight, its mostly 1lb or less.

When I was younger, in my 20s, I was diagnosed with having under active thyroid and I used to take thyroxine. I dont know how but it corrected itself. I am still tested regularly because of my past and although within the "normal" range I am just on the right side of borderline under active thyroid but it still makes it difficult to lose the weight - I have lost 7lbs in about 11 weeks.

But the main thing is that I am losing weight and I am not too worried about how long it takes, as long as it goes.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Sunny here today but I'm feeling quite tired so just sort of mooched around. And baked! In addition to the oat scones, we made wholemeal sunflower seed/oat bread in our tiny breadmaker (this makes a miniature 1lb loaf which is easy for me to cut small slices from and doesn't go stale before the husband can finish it). This was soo yummy but I managed to resist noshing it all down. Tomorrow it will be less tempting as it will no longer be freshly baked. Food today started late due to aforementioned lazy mooching.

Breakfast: turkey tomato scrambled eggs, 1/2 wholemeal bagel with Philly light

Lunch: homemade black bean and sweet potato soup (from dried beans, even! rare that I actually remember to soak them in time), with oat scone on the side

Snack: homemade wholemeal sunflower seed/oat bread and a mini Babybel light

Dinner: barley couscous with herby beef mince and vegetables, and 1/2 a bottle of Becks Blue (alcohol-free lager) - well, it IS the weekend

I've some calories left for the day so if I fancy it later I might have a tiny chocolate bar or some plums or something. Or not if I don't!