Weight loss diary: September 2018

It’s been a while since we had an update so let’s get straight to it:

Weeks 1-4: -8.5lbs
Week 5: -2lbs
Week 6: -1lb
Week 7: -1.5lbs
Weeks 8-10: +2.5lbs
Week 11: -3.5lbs

Total: -15lbs

Not bad at all. Even with a three week blip I’m still averaging at just under 1.5lbs a week. Excellent. It’s not the fastest, sexiest tale of weight loss ever but it is a very sensible, sustainable one.

There will be many more blips but I need to make sure that I arrest them before they turn into three weekers. That’s too long to be off plan and (I always say this but it always bears repeating) I feel SO much better when I’m in the zone. It is hard work to plan and track but the benefits are myriad: better digestion, better sleep, better mental health...it makes you wonder what kind of moron wouldn’t make the effort...

MPM: 24th September 2018

Greetings chickadees and I think it is safe to say that summer is well and truly over after a weekend which saw us a) light our fire every night b) turn the heating on and c) get pounded by hailstones.  Suits me just fine - I am not a big fan of the hot weather although I have no intention of giving up the salads that have characterised my lunches for the past couple of months.  I love salad and don't see that it should be confined to when the weather is sunny.

I've been back on track for nearly a whole week now (four and a half days counts as nearly seven, doesn't it?) and although it has had its tricky moments, altogether it is going pretty well.  It helps, I think, that we were SO over indulgent last weekend, my body was definitely ready to embrace a simpler, leaner diet.  But, as I said in my last post and said to my WW coach at the weigh in, I will never be the type of person to count, or even attempt to count, on holiday.  Food and drink are two of life's very great pleasures.

Talking of great pleasures, and another sign that winter is on its way - the new series of Strictly Come Dancing started on Saturday night which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Saturday nights from now will definitely have to feature a special sort of supper to honour the occasion.  Actually, this Saturday's supper was very special indeed - inspired by a photo on Bundobust's Instagram feed, I contrived a saag paneer pizza.  If two of your favourite foods are saag paneer and pizza, this is a dish not to be missed.  I may well post the recipe at some point.

Anyway, on to this week.  I am supposed to be going out on Friday, so it is blank for now, but may try and wriggle out of it for various reasons, not least that it would be nice to have two straight weeks of tracking under my belt as we go into October AKA D's 50th Birthday Month.  Elsewhere:

Monday: Tuna and onion (tonno e cipolla) pizza - we have pizza dough leftover from Saturday night and, well, it would be rude not to.

Tuesday:  Mussel paella

Wednesday:  Vietnamese braised pork with vegetable egg fried rice

Thursday: Chicken breast stuffed with goats' cheese

Saturday:  Lobster truffled macaroni cheese - a dish inspired by our recent trip to the Star Inn the Harbour.

Sunday:  A freezer dive - beef and fennel stew with mashed potatoes.

Have a fabulous week all!

The wages of sin

Well, the scores are in and after shamefully missing not one but two weigh ins, and consuming more points over this last weekend than a good Weight Watcher does in a year I have gained...

2.5 lbs.

So that’s not bad at all. And every glorious mouthful was worth it. I will NEVER be the kind of person who attempts to point while on holiday.

Back to it now and I’m hoping that a good week can get that back off again. There are another thirteen weigh ins before Christmas - I could easily be a stone down by then with a bit of focus. Onwards and downwards!

Revisits - Ruby Hunt and The Star Inn the Harbour

On Monday, D and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. And of course we did so by spending an entire weekend indulging our appetite for delicious food. We are consistent, at least, in our greed. It’s a shared obsession that is probably one of the primary reasons that we have managed to (more or less) stay together.

On Saturday night, we returned to our favourite restaurant of last year, Raby Hunt which is just outside Darlington. Holder of two Michelin stars it was a fantastic experience first time around (which you can read about here) and just as wonderful now. The only...I hesitate to use the word problem because it wasn’t the least bit problematic...was that many of the dishes on the set tasting menu were either the same or similar. As before, the signature razor clam with celeriac and almonds was a highlight:

And the kitchen’s pastry game is strong, especially when it comes to producing a chocolate and olive oil mousse which combines ethereal lightness with rich, cocoa filth:

But we both agreed that one of the nicest things we ate was, in fact, one of the few brand new dishes - a wagyu beef nigiri topped with sea urchin. Teapot, that was fabulous. The Japanese influence was, I think, a new direction for the kitchen and one I liked very much indeed:

It was a fantastic privilege to eat these amazing plates again but, given the plethora of other places out there which we are keen to try, and our limited funds, I would not be inclined to return for a good few years to allow time for a bit more variation to creep in. We discussed, as we drove away, whether one should prioritise the known and glorious or the unknown and potentially not-so glorious and reluctantly came down on the side of the latter. Although D intends to win the £110 million Euromillions Super Draw this week, at which stage it will become a moot point.

We then high tailed it across to Whitby, and Sunday found us on another revisit: The Star Inn the Harbour which I wrote about here.

Well, what a revelation. I don’t think it had been long open when we visited in April and the kitchen has really flourished since then. We liked it well enough last time round but this time a couple of dishes blew us away. A lobster and summer truffle mac and cheese was superlatively good:

And D was in raptures over his coley with a light curry sauce, declaring said sauce one of the nicest things he has eaten all year:

We will whisk a veil over a slightly over chilled dessert (we did feed back to the kitchen via our absolutely charming waiter) and say, rather, that overall we were seriously impressed and pleased to see that the wonderful produce from this corner of the Yorkshire coast finally has a restaurant that can do it proper credit.

The Moorcock Inn, Sowerby Bridge

We went to the Moorcock Inn following a glowing review on the Guardian website; when Jay Rayner waxes lyrical about a place we tend to listen, especially when it is localish. And I would definitely agree that this little gastropub is worth a visit if you ever happen to find yourself a few miles outside of Halifax.

I have few pictures to share because we were seated in a dark corner of the dining room, rendering all the shots even worse than usual. And you people have seen the standard of photography on this blog: I do not have high standards. So here’s a picture of a gin, enjoyed in the pub garden pre dinner:

And some butter (very light, whipped texture, very salty, very good) and, er, a jug. That’s your lot I’m afraid.

The not-very-Unique-but-instead-rather-Ubiquitous-SP of the Moorcock is an emphasis on locally sourced and foraged food. Indeed, the waiter was almost apologetic about the fact that the sardines came from Cornwall (but apparently Cornish sardines are only in season for a short period and delicious enough to make it worth shipping them up to Yorkshire from the South coast). This is a trend that is not going away but, when handled well, makes for interesting and delicious combinations, so no complaints from me. Some of the dishes we ate for very lovely indeed: the aforementioned sardines with leeks and a redcurrant seed miso were a particular highlight. We also very much enjoyed a main course of confit chicken and lobster served with sweetcorn and a bread porridge.

My one issue was that the kitchen seemed to have something against texture. That chicken dish, for example, while incredibly tasty (the lobster, in particular, was handled brilliantly well) was crying out for something crunchy. As was the otherwise delicious dessert of raw milk ice cream with fig leaf and plums. The flavours were all balanced so well - I particularly loved the chef’s use of sour notes to make food sing - but there was nothing for my teeth to get in to. Except the crust on the sourdough bread which was excellent with the aforementioned butter.

Could just have been the particular selection of dishes we had on the day though - the menu changes, I believe, daily so perhaps someone was just in a particularly soft mood the night we were there. We both agreed that we would happily go back - not only was the food good but the whole meal was excellent value. We might need to investigate local taxi services next time though, so D can partake of the very interesting little wine flight.

The Moorcock Inn
Moorbottom Lane, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX6 3RP
01422 823103

Recipe corner: Tuna melt fish cakes

Many people might start this recipe by suggesting it as an excellent use for leftover mash and to them I would say - I never have extra mash. If I make too make mash then I eat too much mash. God, I love mash.

My sister in law, who has a way with potatoes, got us on to making mash by pushing the spuds through a sieve. This method will produce the smoothest, silkiest mash that ever there was. You’d achieve a similar effect with a ricer but I don’t know...something about the sieve method is preferable. Maybe it’s because the additional effort you end up putting in adds a subtle seasoning to the finished product. I should add, however, that it is harder to sieve cold potatoes, so take the time and trouble to make the mash when the potatoes are just cooked.

These fish cakes were thrown together rather, but many of the best dishes are. The thing is, I had planned to cook jacket spuds for tea, but when I actually investigated the potato bag, I had three rather shrivelled, sprouty littleuns that would not have been fit for purpose. This was a more than acceptable alternative that made use of store cupboard ingredients, thus meaning that I did not have to nip out for shopping - after the day I’d had, it is quite likely that a bottle of wine or five would have fallen into the basket. And that would NEVER do.

Ingredients

250g potatoes (raw weight) peeled and thinly sliced
10g butter
50g half fat Cheddar cheese, grated
Heaped tsp English mustard

Can of tuna in brine or spring water, drained
4-5 heaped tablespoons non fat plain yoghurt
Small handful of capers in brine, drained and chopped
2-3 spring onions, finely chopped
Tsp dried dill
1/2 tsp dried chervil

25g plain flour

Serves 2, 9 Smart Points (WW Flex) per portion

Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 10 minutes or until soft and yielding to the point of a knife.

While the potatoes cook, combine the tuna with the yoghurt, capers, spring onions and herbs and season. You want the consistency to be fairly loose so add more yogurt if necessary - fat free plain yogurt is zero point on Flex, so it won’t make a difference to the total.

Drain the potatoes into a sieve and then push them through said sieve back into the pan. Return it to a low heat and stir through the butter, cheese, mustard and seasoning until everything is smooth and incorporated.

Combine the potatoes with the tuna mix.

Sprinkle the flour on a large plate and on to your hands, and shape the mix into six small cakes. Coat them well in the flour and then cover and chill for at least an hour.

Fry in a good non stick pan (use a few sprays of oil if necessary) for 5 minutes or so on either side until warmed through and crisp of crust.

Serve with...well, I went with salad but I am never sure what is the best accompaniment for fish cakes. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Friday miscellany

I'm due to do a monthly weigh in catch up this week but I've been avoiding it just like I *cough* avoided my weigh in on Wednesday evening.  Yes, I bunked off and yes, it was because I knew that I was likely to post a gain.  This is WW 101 - whatever happens you go to your weigh in.

At least I've kept myself vaguely accountable by reacquainting myself with my bathroom scales after a few days of avoiding eye contact.  So I know where I am.  And, as of this morning after a couple of good, solid days of tracking that is at a new low, so I have already reversed any damage.

However, lessons to be learned, as ever.  I did the classic thing - I let a bad day turn into a bad week.  We went out for a lovely meal on the Thursday night (review to follow shortly) and I never managed to get back on the wagon.  As always there are plenty of excuses masquerading as justifications but the bottom line was that I wanted to cheat.  There will be many more cheats and many more gains, but, in future, I will try and ensure that Thursday, the first day of the WW week, is on track in order to set myself up with the best possible start. 

**

Tempting me back to the straight and narrow by making it too delicious to refuse, D made bangers and mash with a WW friendly twist this week. He took an entire head of garlic and slow roasted it for around an hour and a half until the cloves were soft and creamy. Simmered two drained tins of cannellini beans in a little vegetable stock until warm and soft and then blitzed them along with the garlic, a swig of lemon juice and plenty of seasoning. Voila, zero point mash.

Depending on how loose you want your texture, you could add a few splashes of water or stock. Or, if you’re feeling decadent you could whack in a knob of butter and/or a swig of olive oil. A brilliant mid week alternative to mashed potato if you’re trying to keep your points down. Although I would never advocate replacing them (spuds) altogether.

**

I'm sure that I had something else to say and now I have completely forgotten what that was.  Anyway.  Hope everyone else out there in Blogland is well, and happy, and looking forward to the weekend.  D and I intend to climb Roseberry Topping on Sunday although he informs me that this is a walk rather than a climb to which I say - pshaw and, also, how many points do I earn if I cough up a lung?