Sarah83's New Diary

[sarah83]

Morning everyone!
Well the Autumn barley stew was nice last night, I did make a few tweaks which I've put at the end of the recipe thread.
Here's the recipe:

http://www.minimins.com/sw-winter-warmer-recipes/73268-slow-cooker-recipes-3.html

Also thought I'd better post the canneloni recipe from Monday - my tweaks to make it SF on a green day are at the end of the thread.

http://www.minimins.com/syn-values/174733-help-needed-syn-value-dish.html

Hope everyone's feeling ok this morning!
I'm trying to battle through a niggling headache I've had the last two days - was hoping it would go away on it's own but unfortunately not so I'm hitting it with pain killers this morning

 

[prawnchopSuey]

Looks good Sarah, I have put my slow cooker in the cupboard after a couple of mediocre cooking attempts, but should try some more as there's lots of people that rave about slow cooking!

 

[sarah83]

This was the first veggie slow cooker dish I've done - and I think because there were so many pulses from the soup mix, it kinda worked because it made it a bit stodgier if that makes sense?

I still swear by my slow cooker for meat dishes though - especially for cheaper cuts of red meat and pork - anything which benefits from slower cooking anyway really.
Hubby is desperate for us to try making mulled wine in it!! Trouble is our slow cooker is a huge 6.5ltr one so that is a LOT of mulled wine lol

 

[sarah83]

Wednesday 3rd November - Red

Breakfast:
WM Toast (HEXB)
Tinned toms
'Fried' egg

Lunch:
Birdseye simply salmon
Salad

Dinner:
Turkey burgers - mince mixed with spring onions, garlic, ginger, thai fish sauce, lemon juice, lemongrass and some sweet chilli sauce (1 syn)
WM Pitta (HexB)
Stir fried mushrooms, baby corn, onion, sugar snap peas
Total 0%

Snacks etc:
Melon
Boiled sweet - 1 syn??
Time Out - 4syns (starting to think these were a bad idea lol!)
2 Apples
Ham slice & FF cottage cheese
3 Colin Caterpillar sweets - 8 syns

Total Syns: 12

Total Speed: 10

Exercise: None!

 

[Tinytootz]

Morning! Must admit, slow cooking does sound like the way forward for me, but perhaps a teeny bit smaller that 6.5 litres!

How is your 100% week going so far?

I've woken up this morning to a gas fault, so the house is freezing, I need a shower, and I'm scared to make a cup of tea! Estate agents coming round whenever they can be bothered, so I'm having to pretend I don't have a cat.....

 

[sarah83]

You can get much smaller slow cookers but I picked ours from Argos as a Christmas present from my SIL and kinda didn't realise how big it was!!
I completely regretted it once we opened it up and did consider taking it back to the shop, but I'm really pleased it's that big now as I can do a lot of bulk cooking. Depending on how much I fill it (obviously), I can make between 4-8 portions so I can fill my freezer!!

My 100% week is going fabulously!!
Hubby did try tempting me with a takeaway on Tuesday as I was tired but I practically screamed NO at him lol!! I'm determined to lose 2lb this week, and so far I've managed to avoid sneaky weighs too!

Sorry to hear about your gas problem - that's horrible!! We were without hot water for about a year (thought we'd need a replacement boiler - ended up it was only a £60 job!), but luckily the heating still worked and our shower's electric so wasn't a real problem lol. For it all to go must be horrible!

Good luck in de-catting your house!! Just hope he doesn't come looking for attention when the estate agent comes! Shouldn't make a difference though should it...?
When are you hoping to get the house sold?x

 

[Tinytootz]

Ohhh, it's not my house, I rent. Hence the de-catting

Plumber is due soon, and I'm pretty sure he isn't going to care about a cat. Anyway...its not my cat...its mums...yeah....mums....

My shower is electric too, but with it being a combi boiler, and the problem being something to do with gas failure, best I don't touch ANYTHING! My last flat had a boiler, but it was the sort where you had to switch it on if you wanted hot water, and we couldn't wire in a timer. So living without hot water is quite familiar to me, boiling kettles for everything!

I'm a bugger for sneaky weigh ins, so good on you for resisting! Don't know why I bother, they are always higher than on a Tuesday!
Burgers sounds good to me! I have some lean pork mince, might defrost it and make pork and sage burgers - Mmmm

 

[sarah83]

Ah the de-catting makes sense now!! And so kind of you to cat-sit for your mum today

Hope the plumber gets there soon... then you can have a nice hot shower!!

 

[prawnchopSuey]

*Oh, that pesky stray cat keeps trying to get in*

 

[sarah83]

* Sorry - I've been feeding next door's cat while they're on holiday and it's become rather fond of me so keeps coming over *

 

[prawnchopSuey]

* Aaargh, a cat burglar, call the police*

 

[Tinytootz]

"I have no idea why my number is round his neck, and I have no idea how this cat food got into my kitchen....pesky stray cats"

 

[sarah83]

Well I feel really proud of myself this week for sticking to 100% for so long - this is my fifth day!! As long as I can stick at it today and tomorrow that will be the first week where I've been that good (Saturday obviously didn't count as it was weigh day!! )

I avoided a sneaky weigh again... I just hope I get good results on Saturday - I know I'll be really disappointed if I don't

The turkey burgers were a success yesterday - and hubby loved them
Was a kinda experiment but I knew I wanted Thai flavours so I mixed the turkey mince with some garlic, ginger, lemongrass, Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce), lemon juice (would have prefered lime) and some sweet chilli sauce.

I kept testing little bits of the mixture by frying little lumps off in a pan until it tasted just right!
Were lovely stuffed in a WM pitta with some stir fried veg and Total 0% - yum!

 

[sarah83]

Thursday 4th November - Red

Breakfast:
WM Toast (HEXB)
Tinned toms

Lunch:
Turkey Salad bowl

Dinner:
Sweet chilli chicken (1.5syns)
Pitta Bread (HEXB)
Stir fried veggies - mushrooms, onion, sugar snaps, baby corn

Snacks etc:
2 satsumas
2 apples
Mandarin FF activia yog
Timeout - 4 syns (definitely a bad idea keeping these in work and I so nearly had a second one!)
M&S mints - 0.5syns
2 x Green & Black minis - 8 syns

Total Syns: 14

Total Speed: 10

 

[prawnchopSuey]

I had another 100% day too!!! Hope this week'll be a good loss for you, you really deserve it

Those turkey burgers sounds good. I may start slipping some red days in to try and get some losses in before Christmas, but I get scared of being hungry on red!

 

[sarah83]

Thanks honey and WELL DONE on your 100% day woohoo :happy036:

I had exactly the same worry as you about being hungry... but I've found saving a HEX for dinner and using it on pitta bread works really well! Plus I've been having loads of meat too... probably more than I should lol!! So actually I've been doing ok - not sure if I could manage more than a couple a week though...

Not sure whether to try Extra Easy all week next week to see if it makes a difference as been doing a bit of a combo of all three for the last couple of weeks... if I'm sticking to it properly I might actually be able to tell the difference it makes to my weight!!
What do you think???

 

[Tinytootz]

Congrats to both of you on your 100% days! Good going, and it will pay off on the scales

Myself, if I was you, wouldn't want to try a week of EE, as I would be gutted if I got on the scales, and hadn't lost. Combining the 3 is working for me it seems, and unless I was out for meals alot, I wouldn't really wanna return to just EE.

But it is entirely up to you. Maybe alternating has kicked you into gear, so you can have an alternating week, followed by an EE week!

But it's all trial and error. Haha, I give an opinion, then talk myself out of it

 

[sarah83]

Hmm... I think you're right - I'll just stick to alternating!
So EE at the weekend, then red/green in the week...

I'm the same as you Tinytootz - I find meat too expensive for all the time so green days are a saviour!

 

[sarah83]

Morning everyone - Happy Bonfire Night!!

Don't think there will be many fireworks tonight though - it's going to rain all day!
We're quite lucky though - the local park's big firework display is on Sunday and we can watch from the comfort of our spare bedroom lol!!

I made another concoction last night - cooked chicken breasts into large chunks, then I tossed them in a mixture of sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, 5 spice and garlic before roasting them in the oven. Served these with WM pitta and stir fried veg.
They were really yum and hubby loved them... hmmm in fact hubby seems to be loving all this meat generally so I may have to factor in red days more often!
(think he's getting a bit sick of all the meat-free green days I've been having )

 

[sarah83]

Remember remember Friday the 5th November - Green

Breakfast:
WM Toast (HEXB)
Beans

Lunch:
Nothing - stew was yuck :jelous:

Dinner:
Umm about 4 glasses of wine, some pizza and a couple of wedges

Snacks etc:
Melon
Carrot sticks
2 apples
2 satsumas


Total Syns: flexi flexi

Total Speed: only 6