Meal Plan Monday - 20th November

So here we have it, my favourite day, start of the week and a while new week of food! 

I do love a Monday. Not sure if I've ever mentioned it but it's the one day I get to get stuff done! Everyone's where they need to be, I get to string a thought together without someone asking for something and I get to plan my meals for the week!


I'm no good at winging it...tried that doesn't work.  Dinner ends up being toast and coffee if I don't plan....and not even wholemeal toast!! 

Lunches need to be quick too, to stop me reaching for the biscuit tin.  So lately I've been tending to batch make some soup (carrot and red lentil is my favourite) or make a big Slimming World quiche to keep in the fridge to use for lunches and to snack on. Other snacks will be clementines, strawberries, boiled eggs and maybe some wafer think ham.  So this is what our dinners look like this week....

Monday - Hunters chicken, salad and wedges

Tuesday - Sweet and Sour chicken noodles

Wednesday - Lean Braising Steak and mash
. 
Thursday - SW Ready meal and veg

Friday - SW chips and curry sauce

The weekend I'll leave for now as we tend to have a picky tea on Saturday (all Slimming World friendly for me but includes lots of pickled onions!) and a roast on Sunday.

So thats  my week!  I'll do some further posts with recipes later in the week.  I'm most looking forward to Hunters Chicken tomorrow which is a recipe I found on Pinch of Nom.  It looks amazing on the website so I'm hoping it turns out as nice as it looks!

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Mrs B xx

Like a Bad Penny......

I'm back......again!!

So apparently I can't do this weight loss thing on my own.  Who knew staying on track and finding will power and motivation on your own would be so flippin hard!

After a not so great summer health wise, my heads now back in the game. I've joined a new to me group, on a Monday night (to hopefully stop me cheating at weekends!) and I'm more determined than ever to stick with it. My consultant seems lovely and the group isn't huge which I like.

Do I feel like a failure going back to group? No not really. I wish I'd never stopped going or stopped eating properly but I don't feel I've failed going back to group at all. That's like not going to the doctors when you're ill because you went last year, but now you're ill again! Of course you'll go back and ask for help. That's what the doctor is there for. Same as group, it's there when you need help, but only if you ask!

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy food optimising and the last two weeks have enjoyed my food so much more. We've been sitting down to meals again and planning our week which I love!

So.....here we go again!

xxx

May Goals

Hello!  

Been a while, I lost a little mojo there for a minute....infact I'm writing off April all together! I could blame half term and my littlest ones birthday, plus visitors and meals out, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed but its just excuses really.  I have things in place to stop me going off track in those instances but I chose not to do them and now a month has gone.  

However, got my positive panties back on and looking forward to a good month!  The sun is (kind of) shining and I'm feeling motivated!  So, with that in mind, here are my goals for May.  

1. Lose another half a stone

The last month on/off plan has seen me put on 3lbs in total (I'm soooooo lucky its not more!) so I now have 7.5lbs to get into the next stone bracket.  I havent seen said stone bracket since about June 2015 so its a MASSIVE deal for me and means I'm that much closer to my target.

2. Fit comfortably in my clothes

I've already started fitting back into my size 12s but its still a bit hit and miss depending on what the fit of whatever I'm wearing is like.  I'm probably a size 13 but as they dont do a size 13 I'd like to comfortably get back into my size 12s which I think is probably not that far off.

3. Find new recipes

I'm stuck in that rut at the moment where I'm cooking the same things again or I can't be bothered to think about food at all which is even worse!  This can only end in me eating toast for dinner which is never good.  I've got about a ton of magazines and nearly every recipe book going (including the new Barbecue one I'm looking forward to trying) so Ive no excuse not to try new things.  Its just a case of getting them all out and looking through!  

4. Go back to group

I'm still not sure about this one, but I'm wondering if I've become a bit complacent and therefore need the kick up the backside going to group will give me!  However, I have a couple of things that make me unsure whether going to group works for me 1. I dont lose weight every week, more like every ten days which can get frustrating when you're weighing on a set day and 2. I've yet to find a group I can go to thats not huge and takes hours to go through everyones weight loss!  So yes, I've included it on my goals but we shall see. 

5. Get back out running!

I got addicted to running a while back.  Love doing weights but want to focus on losing weight before I concentrate on building up muscle, love the gym but been so busy lately I've not got there.  Running is something I can easily fit into my day with the dog in the mornings after the school run.  He'll love it too so its a win win! 

So those are my May goals.  I do feel its good to write them down as opposed to having them in my head, makes them much more real and I'm much more likely to stick to them!

Thanks for reading, happy slimming!

Mrs B xx

{Recipe}Slimming World Paprika Pork

Hello and welcome back to my little blog!

I mentioned in my Meal Plan Monday post for this week that we were trying a new recipe this week.  I have to try new things maybe once a week, otherwise I get SO BORED!!! Like, literally, I can't face cooking something if we've had it over and over again. Now, don't get me wrong, I've a few fail safe regulars that I circulate a few times when I know time will be short or I'm using stuff up we have in, but even they get boring!

This week I asked Mr B to have a look through all my recipe books and pick out something new that we've not had before and he came up with quite a few but this one was convenient as I have pork in the freezer I had no idea what to do with.  I followed the recipe from the Slimming World Family Feasts on a Budget with a few of my own tweaks, as I tend to do!

So here it is, my take on Paprika Pork.

Ingredients 

500g lean pork (fillet or chops) sliced, all fat removed

2 large onions, thickly sliced

2 red peppers, cut into chunks

2 tbsp paprika

400ml chicken or vegetable stock

Fat free fromage frais to serve

Salt and pepper

Fry light

What to do....

1. Spray a large frying pan or wok with fry light and heat over a meadium heat

2. Add the onions and peppers and cook until slightly soft (around 5 minutes)

3. Add the pork and fry for another 5 minutes until the pork is browned

4. Sprinkle over the paprika and stir to ensure all the veg and pork is covered

5. Add the stock and bring to the boil.  Season if needed

6. Once boiling, reduce and simmer for 30 minutes

7. Serve with a dollop of fat free fromage frais, boiled rice and your favourite green vegetables 

Syn free on Slimming World

Really easy in terms of prep as you can chop everything up, bung it in the pan and let it simmer away while you get on with other things (cleaning the kitchen in my case!) 

Until next time, thanks for reading, 

Love Mrs B xx

Meal Plan Monday - 3rd April 2017

Good Monday Morning to you!  And what a beautiful morning it is!

I've been in a bit of a funk with meal planning this last month, which has resulted in me losing a measly pound during the month of March!  Its been mainly due to the fact I've been away twice, plus Mothers Day and, I don't know about you, but I really struggle to get back on track after I've had a cheat day....hence why I try not to do it!

So determined April will get back on track, I've started as I mean to go on with a weekly food plan!  Apart from Easter and my youngest daughters birthday (Lord help me!) I'm hoping to have a good month.

So here's this weeks meal plan.....

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Overnight Oats	Quorn meatballs	Chicken Fried Rice
Tuesday	SW Pancakes	Quorn Meatballs	Paprika Pork
Wednesday	Overnight Oats	Quorn Meatballs	Gammon, egg & chips
Thursday	SW Pancakes	Quorn Curry & Cauli Rice	Chicken Chasseur
Friday	French toast w/rasberries & greek yoghurt	Quorn Curry & Cauli Rice	Bangers & Mash
Saturday		Quorn Curry & Cauli Rice	SW Burgers & Chips
Sunday	SW Pancakes	Roast Dinner

Trying a few new things this week....the bangers and mash are from Marks and Spencer and are meant to be lovely!  Will be doing some low syn gravy for those too.  

The Paprika Pork is a new one too so will share the recipe for that later in the week!  I'm into cooking things once at the minute too so today I'll cook three lots of Quorn meatballs (free) and portion them out for the week with cauliflower rice and green beans then on Thursday I'll do the same with the Quorn Curry.  Saves time and when I come in for lunch from wherever I've been, five minutes and I have food!  

Feel so much better just having a plan in place, much more in control and organised knowing I wont have to look around for food when I'm starving!  I never make good decisions in those scenarios.

Until next time, thanks for reading!!

Mrs B xxx

 

Five Ways to Stay On Plan...

...when everything around you is not going to plan!! I'm having one of those weeks this week.  I like to think of myself as fairly organised but sometimes you just cannot plan the unplannable.  But y'know what, it's ok, its life especially when you have kids and a husband and a house to run etc etc etc.  Even if you don't have all those things, life has this habit of throwing you curveballs and regular WTF moments (I have many WTF moments and usually before 8am 😁)  

This weeks unplanned events have been my husband off work ill, more appointments than usual and crappy weather that just will not give in!!  Ok, so the weather thing I shouldn't complain about as there's nothing I can do about that but it was so lovely on the weekend!! Mother's Day has also thrown me off because, as lovely as it was and I really did have a lovely day, having a "cheat day" for me is no good.  I struggle to pull it back after one day and end up having three of four....not ideal.

Luckily for me I have a few things in place that means I can still have a good week even though I'm having a bad week....if you get me??!!  So I've put together a few of the ways I use to try and stay on plan...

1. Do your shopping online

Now I know a few people hate online shopping...you get dodgy dates on fruit and veg, fatty bits of meat, 4kgs of bananas when you wanted 4 - haha!  I've honestly never had any problems with online shopping but put it this way....wouldn't it be better if you had your weeks shopping brought to you than have to pop to the shops every day for dinner, end up spending way more than you need to on "bits" and get tempted by the hot cross buns that just smell so amazing! (do they pump that smell through the air conditioning??)  I plan my meals for the week ahead and do my shopping online at the same time to be delivered on a Monday morning, that way if things start to go wrong from the minute I open my eyes on a Monday, I know I at least have food in the cupboards and I don't have to do endless trips to the supermarket, which can only add to my stress!

2. Have ready to go food in the freezer

Not necessarily unhealthy ready meals.  I'm not a fan of ready meals in general but I am a fan of freezing leftovers and I'm also a fan of the defrost button on my microwave!! Slimming World do a range of ready meals that are great to have in the freezer for a meal emergency however, I've found by far the easiest thing to do is cook double of whatever I'm doing for dinner then freeze it (or even better, have it for lunch the following day).  If I'm really stuck I defrost it in my microwave then cook it until its piping hot.  

3. Buy "cook from frozen" food

For those days when you've forgotten to take meat out the freezer!  Quorn is really good for this.  My favourite go to meal if I have nothing prepared is Quorn Swiss Meatballs (not sure what makes them Swiss??) with tin tomatoes, lazy garlic, onions (from the freezer) and a bit of dry basil. Served with pasta or if you're having an SP day maybe courgetti or cauliflower rice and you have a meal from scratch, in 15 minutes.  If you're not a fan of Quorn, there are frozen chicken breasts and fish portions you can cook from frozen in the same amount of time.  Always handy to have in the freezer.

4. Meal Prep

I know I know, spending an hour on a Sunday prepping meals for the week is the last thing you want to be doing...but trust me, you are far more likely to stay on track if you have food ready to go than if you are starving and looking for something to make.  Its all very well having food in the freezer ready to be cooked but when you just have to eat something RIGHT THIS MINUTE like when you walk in from work or you're in from the gym, its helpful to a) know what you are going to be eating and b) have it there ready to go in two pings of the microwave.  Trust me, it will be the best hour you spend.  Doesn't have to be complicated and you only have to prep one meal for the day.  I tend to prep my lunches for the week as I have time to cook dinner from fresh and would rather have a different thing for dinner every day.  Do I mind eating the same thing for lunch every day?  Hell no!  If its going to get me to my goals and means I don't have to think about food for that day, I am on board!

I'm going to do a whole series of posts on meal prep ideas so keep an eye out for those!

5. Put yourself in time-out!

Its not just for kids you know!!  Ok so imagine you're having a row with your teenager, your youngest child is in a whinge bag mood, your dogs just thrown up on the rug and your husband is ringing asking whats for dinner (a typical day in my house 😀 ) Stress levels are rising and all you want to do is reach for the biscuits.....and understandably so!!  Take a minute....go hide in your bedroom or on the toilet (if the door locks) think about why you want to eat, what it will achieve and if, in the long run, it will make you feel better.  Give yourself five minutes to calm down (three if you really dont have time to have  a breakdown). If after five minutes you still really want that biscuit, hell, go eat it!  However, if you're just looking for comfort or to make yourself feel better, maybe you can talk yourself out of it because lets be honest, one biscuit is never one biscuit is it??  It also wont change the situation so maybe, just maybe, it would be better to give it a miss.

So there are my five best tips for helping you stay on plan and help achieve your goals if you're having a less than perfect week....which less face it, is most weeks in this wonderful thing we call life!

Until next time, thanks for reading xxx

{Recipe} Tuna Fishcakes

Hello Fellow Slimming World Followers!

Ever feel like a week is slipping away from you?  That someone somewhere is determined to try your nerve and lead you to fall off plan?? I'm having a week like that!  

I'm a bit of a stickler for routine and when my routine is put out (as it inevitably is 95% of the time with two kids around) I tend to go to pot!  However....not this week!  The old Mrs B might have given in and reached for chocolate but the apparent new Mrs B is sticking firm and hasn't slipped off plan once!  Both my girlies have been struck with this nasty mean virus so all my plans to train this week have been scuppered, my Asda delivery didn't turn up on Monday forcing me to actually GO to the shops (cue much eye rolling) with two ill kids in tow, plus a few more appointments that were out of the norm.  All in all, its shaping up to be a funny ol' week!  Plus its only Wednesday when it feels like it should surely be Friday afternoon by now (cue more eye rolling).  Hey ho, I digress....

I saw this in my Slimming World Meals for One book ages ago and have been wanting to give it a go.  I finally did on Monday and it did not disappoint!  

Super easy to do as I had left over potato in the fridge from the girls Sunday dinner (sans any butter or milk!) tuna in the cupboard and sweetcorn in the freezer!  

Tuna Fishcakes 

2 syns

200g potatoes, boiled and mashed

50g frozen sweetcorn

160g can tuna, drained

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tbsp extra light mayo (0.5 syns)

10g golden breadcrumbs (3 syns)

What to do....(so easy I'm not sure it needs an explanation!) 

• Mix together the mashed potatoes, tuna and extra light mayo.
• Defrost the frozen sweetcorn in the microwave and add to the mixture
• Put the beaten egg into a shallow dish and the breadcrumbs into another
• Once slightly cooled shape the tuna mixture into four small patty shapes
• Dip each one, both sides into the egg then the breadcrumbs
• Place on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
• Alternatively, you could fry in fry light for the same result
• Serve with salad and/or slimming world syn free chips!

They're easy peasy to do and so filling.  I only ate two of mine and had the other two later in the afternoon as a snack.  They taste just as lush cold!  If you didn't have any tuna you could use any left over fish, I'm fancying salmon fishcakes next as I love salmon and this would make a really tasty dinner!

Thanks for reading!

Love Mrs B xx

Meal Plan Monday - 23rd January 2017

Goodness another Mondays swung around pretty quick!!  Nearly the end of January already and another good week on plan behind me!  Planning another good week this week, which will also include a weekend away to London visiting my in laws for my nieces birthday. I'm lucky my lovely sister in law is following Slimming World too (and doing amazingly well!) so I'm determined to stay on plan and not eat the entire contents of the kids buffet, four pieces of birthday cake and end up with an indian takeaway (not unheard of)!!  

Weighing on a Monday definitely helps stop the weekend binges, whereas I know if I weighed on a Friday, I'd write the weekend off thinking I'd have five days to pull it back.  However, we all know that one weekend off plan turns into six weeks off plan and ends up spiralling and before you know it a whole year has gone and you're still unhappy with your weight and moaning about it (harsh but true).  So for now, Im very much in control and very much intend to stay that way.  I dont even fancy an indian takeaway if I'm honest :D 

So....onto this weeks meal plans!

I've based this weeks meal plan around some of the meat we already have in the freezer, which isnt a lot I'm going to have to put an order in soon, but for now we have enough and this is what I'm planning to have.....

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Baked oats, raspberries & Greek yoghurt	Tuna and Sweetcorn fishcakes & salad	Cottage pie
Tuesday	Greek yoghurt & raspberries	Jacket potato, beans and salad	Crispy chicken & butternut squash chips
Wednesday	Baked oats, raspberries & Greek yoghurt	Sausage casserole	Stuffed peppers
Thursday	SW Waffles w/raspberries ,greek yoghurt	SW Quiche & salad	Beef & bean stew
Friday	French toast w/rasberries & greek yoghurt	SW Quicke & salad	Chicken kieves & SW chips
Saturday	Toast & jam
Sunday

I'm going to give the Tuna & Sweetcorn fishcakes a go from the Meals for One book as I've got a bit of mash left from the girls dinner yesterday but other than that these are all tried and tested favourites of ours!  I'm thinking of making some quiche to take to London with me and maybe some clementines and beetroot to take with me to snack on (I'm obsessed with beetroot at the moment!) so I'll know I'll have got some speed in (as I'm eating birthday cake - haha!)

 

Did my weekly shop this morning (no thanks to Asda's disappearing home delivery), so we are all set for another awesome week on plan!  I went to Sainsbury's (as I'm in a huff with Asda) and picked up some of the butternut squash crinkle fries to try, thought they'd be a good replacement for Slimming World chips one night.  So....I'm all organised!

I'm very pleased to say I lost another pound last week bringing my total up to 10lbs lost and 26lbs to go!  Slow and steady wins the race and all that :D 

Thanks for reading!

Love Mrs B xx

{Recipe} Syn Free Onion Bahjees and Rajita Dip

Hello Fellow Slimming Worlders!

As promised, I thought I'd share the onion bahjee recipe I found, tweaked and made over the weekend when my in laws were visiting. I had lots of people message me and ask for the recipe for these.  Just like the Chicken Tikka Massala these looked and tasted just like the real thing and were perfect as a side or a starter for any Indian dish.

Ingredients

Makes 15

1 sweet potato, grated
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 white onion, finely chopped
240g tin of chickpeas
2 eggs
3 tsps garlic granules
1tsp cumin 
1/2 tsp coriander
2 tsp tandoori spice
1/2 tsp tumeric

For the dip:
4tbsp fat free natural yoghurt
1/2 tsp cumin
1tbsp mint sauce (1/2 a syn)

What you need to do...

• Finely dice the onion and fry in fry light
• Peel and grate the sweet potato, add to the pan with the onion and fry gently
• In a small bowl, mix together the spices with a little water until they form a paste and add to the pan.
• Drain the chickpeas and blend in a mixer (or if you dont have a blender, they're quite soft you can mash them with a fork until they're all mushed up) and add to the pan
• Whisk the egg and add to the pan, stirring well
• Carefully (its going to be hot) remove from the heat and shape the mixture into small ball shapes (or flattened ball shapes, whichever you prefer) 
• Bake in the oven for 40 minutes turning halfway through
• Mix together all the ingredients for the dip and serve in a small dish in the middle of onion bahjees

Let me know if you try it!

Love Mrs B xx

{Recipe} Slimming World Chicken Tikka Massala with Onion Bahjees

Anyone who knows me knows I love a good curry, however, my husband does not...cant even stand the smell of it.  Which means, I very rarely cook curry for myself as it seems a bit of a waste of time doing all that cooking for one.  So...whenever anyone comes to visit or I go out for a meal sans husband I ALWAYS go for curry!  Whether my friends like it or not - haha!

Spent all week researching which curry to cook whilst the boys were at football last weekend and it would be just me, my mother, my mother in law and sister in law (no boys to complain it stinks!).  Finally decided on Chicken Tikka Massala as its one of my favourites and is a little more exciting than Chicken Korma!  I should point out, that although I love a curry, I'm a bit of a wuss and a jalfrezi has me in a sweat so it has to be a mild curry!

The Slimming World Chicken Tikka Massala recipe is by no means a quick one but its sooooooo worth it!

Here's what you need...

Ingredients

Serves 4 - Syn Free

4 Chicken breasts, diced 

150g fat free natural yoghurt

juice of 1 lime

1 onion, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tbsp ginger

1 tsp ground cumin

1 chilli, deseeded and chopped (optional)

4 tbsp tomato puree

5 tbsp tikka/medium curry powder 

5 tbsp fat free fromage frais

250ml chicken stock

And here's what you do....

Method

• Mix the lime, yoghurt and 3tbsp of tikka powder in a large dish or tupperware container.  Add the chicken and stir in well to ensure the chicken is well covered.  Leave for four hours or overnight if time permits.
• In a large pan (I used my wok) add the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli (if using) cumin and remaining tikka powder, stirring constantly.
• Stir in the tomato puree and 250ml chicken stock and simmer for 12-15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, griddle the chicken pieces on a griddle pan or thread onto a skewer and grill for 15 minutes until cooked through.
• When cooked stir into the sauce.
• Take off the heat and stir in the fromage frais (natural yoghurt would work aswell if you dont have both!)
• Enjoy with a bowl of rice and side salad (for extra speed)

Like I said, not a quick recipe with the marinating but it is a lovely one and is perfect for when you fancy an indian takeaway without the syns!

Im very pleased to say it was very well received by my family who all said it was as good (if not better) than the takeaway as it doesnt come with all the grease!! 

I'll share my onion bahjee recipe tomorrow, which makes the perfect side dish for a curry!