Meal Planning Monday 5

So, meal planning. I had every intention of getting online to do a shop on Sunday, but to be honest I was feeling a bit…Sundayish. Which feeling has lingered through Monday and on to Tuesday. Perhaps it is the fact that the sunshine has disappeared. Or perhaps I’m beginning to get pre-wedding jitters. I’ll be sauntering down the aisle exactly four months today, and I have only just reached the stage of thinking, “I really should make a list or something….” Really, I shouldn’t be allowed to be in charge of organising so much as a trip to the pub, let alone a wedding.

All of which is entirely beside the point of this post. This post is about all the delicious things that we will be eating this week as soon as I rouse my lazy self and actually acquire the stuff with which to make them.

So (in no particular order):

Asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon and dunked in soft boiled eggs a la Heston in the current Waitrose ads.

One pot prawn and tomato curry with carrot and cumin salad and naan bread (eagle eyed viewers might note that this appeared a couple of weeks back, but for reasons which currently escape me, it never got made and the prawns have been languishing in the freezer ever since).

Spaghetti puttanesca – I think I must have seen a couple of blog posts about this recently, because for some reason it has lodged itself in my head.

Gnocchi with butternut squash a la D.

Venison burgers (brought back from the west coast of Scotland) with oven chips (classy, no?)

Pork cheeks with chorizo, white port and broad beans served with mustard mash.

Pop over to Mrs M's blog for more meal planning fun.

Tastes of home

Eating out is, or should be, a pleasure and a privilege.  And to complain because one has just had to spend a week eating out, paid for by their employer, is inappropriate.  Really, it is, and I'm not going to do it.  But the unthinkable is starting to happen - I am beginning to get to the stage where nine times out of ten, I would rather eat at home.

Let's forget about the whole foodie-on-a-diet thing for the moment as well - the fact is, it is possible to eat out and still lose weight, but it is difficult.  So generally, when I'm away for prolonged periods I accept that the weight is going to stay the same or perhaps creep up a little.  I've made my peace with that.  I just can't bring myself to be the person on the table who orders the green salad with dressing on the side.

But the fact of the matter is, most of the time nowadays when I eat something in a restaurant, I find myself thinking that I could do better at home.  And I am not, for one moment, claiming to be a great cook.  I am a competent cook.

There will always be restaurants where what comes out of the kitchen is a little bit special, that gets your heart racing a little bit faster.  I've bored you all before by our bordering on obsessive love of J. Baker's Bistro Moderne.  Later this year, we've managed to get a reservation at Heston Blumenthal's new London venture, Dinner.  And we're already engaging in spirited debate as to what we'll eat when we go there.

But other than that, I think I'm content to limit my going out from now on.  It's unlike me to take a mature line on anything - perhaps being thirty is finally beginning to catch up with me.

This, by the way, is what I came home to on Friday:

A roasted chicken breast with salty, crispy skin.  Some simple, asparagus picked just up the road.  And a portion of D's delicious lemon couscous.  Completely simple and completely delicious, the highlight of my culinary week.

Recipe corner - Rhubarb crumble muffins

Nothing makes me feel more thoroughly domestic goddess like than baking. A loaf of banana bread today to keep D company next week (am away for work AGAIN), some fabulous hot cross cupcakes for my parents for Easter:





And this weekend, a batch of very lovely rhubarb crumble muffins to welcome a couple of visiting friends.





Muffins are great. The thing is, they're basically cake, but cake that you're allowed to eat for breakfast. Cake as legitimate breakfast food! And these are not only very tasty examples of the genre, at 6 pro points they are relatively virtuous too.

Ingredients

175g caster sugar
175g rhubarb, diced
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
125ml buttermilk
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the crumble:

50g light muscovado sugar
50g plain flour
25g oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g butter

Makes 12, 6 pro points per muffin

Heat the oven to 220 and line a muffin tin with 12 cases.

Stir the caster sugar into the rhubarb and set aside.

Make the crumble topping by combining the dry ingredients and then rubbing in the butter until the mixture resembles damp sand.

Stir the oil, egg, vanilla and buttermilk into the rhubarb - it will look quite wet at this stage. Now add in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate and stir well.

Spoon (or ladle) into the cases and top with a thick layer of crumble. Bake for 15-18 mins, until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean.

Allow to cool - and then proceed to enjoy at any time of the day.

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Meal Planning Monday 4

Back to reality and Mrs M's


Hmmm. Well, strictly speaking this is meal planning Tuesday. But we'll draw a veil over the lack of accuracy to the title, shall we? And forgive a poor little brain addled by a week of sunshine and cider?

After a wonderful time away I am not really in the mood for anything as sensible as meal planning. Or, indeed, work. Fortunately I'm off to Birmingham for a meeting today, so several hours can be whiled away on the train catching up with blogs and staring into the middle distance wishing that I was still on holiday...

The meal plan for this week is rather brief and rather dull:

Roast chicken breasts with asparagus

Smoked salmon linguine - final recipe not yet decided

A one pot prawn and tomato curry with rice and naan to accompany Dr Who on Saturday

Garlic and rosemary lamb with new potato salad

Plus a lovely meal with friends at my beloved J Baker's and a night out in Birmingham on expenses! But since we're talking civil service expenses that is far less exciting than one might expect!

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Foodie Abroad: Foraging

It turns out that I had a deprived childhood and never even realised. You see, despite numerous childhood beach holidays, sandcastles and 99s a-plenty, my parents NEVER took me winkling. I shall be having stern words with them when next we meet, I can tell you. Because it turns out I love winkles.

Here they are, recovered after some extensive scrambling around in rockpools and a grazed shin. Aren't they lovely, though?


I haven't included a photo of the winkle sans shell because they are not things of beauty - what shellfish are, quite frankly? But they taste amazing, little iodiney bites of seaside and sunshine.

We had them pretty simple and unadulterated - after rinsing they were boiled for twenty minutes and then piled into bowls where we fell upon them with pins - you have to "winkle" the flesh out you see, just like snails. A dish of garlic butter (I couldn't shake the escargot connection) proved a lovely addition, but they were fabulous just by themselves as well.

Unfortunately, it is late in the mussel season, so our foraging in that direction was slightly less successful: those that we found were delicious but a little on the dainty side:


Still, they made a perfectly pleasant, if light supper, briefly boiled with wine, the resulting juices being strained and combined with cream and garlic.

We've been walking along the beach today and have found a new spot which looks to be a veritable treasure trove of mussels - D reckons if we head back in September we could be in for a feast of crustaceans. Which is good news as far as I'm concerned; not only because I adore shellfish (and it is, incidentally, fantastically diet friendly) but because the act of gathering it yourself somehow makes it taste all the sweeter.

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Foodie Abroad: A bit o' Scottish style tapas

Greetings from Scotland! The sun may have disappeared as soon as we crossed the border, but we still have our fingers crossed for a week of rest, relaxation, the odd dram of whisky and, of course, as much local food as we can get down our gullets.

To start with, I bring you a selection of light bites served up by the Clachaig Inn in Glencoe. D and I ordered three starters, a portion of cheese and pudding to share.

Locally smoked salmon with oatcakes:


A Haggis taster plate with more oatcakes:


Stornaway black pudding with apple purée and still more oatcakes:


Local cheeses and, yes, oatcakes:


And, finally, a piece of Ecclefechan tart. This was a new one on me but absolutely gorgeous - just imagine all that is good about Christmas pudding and encase it in buttery pastry:




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(Not a) Recipe Corner - Roasted Asparagus

This weekend we paid a visit to our local farm shop and eagerly acquired some of the new season asparagus, picked just up the road.




We try and eat as much of this stuff as possible during it's all too brief season. Tonight's supper was simple but absolutely delicious; not so much a recipe as an assembly of happily harmonious ingredients.

Ingredients

Bunch of asparagus
Tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp of butter
Zest of half a small lemon
1-2 tsp lemon juice
30g Cornish Yarg (alternatively use Parmesan or Gruyere)
2 medium eggs
Tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Serves 2, 9 pro points per serving

Preheat the oven to 180. Snap the woody ends off the asparagus spears, then toss in the olive oil and season well. Place in the oven and set a timer for 15 mins.

Put a pan of water on to the boil and add the vinegar. Break the eggs into ramekins ready for poaching.

Use a potato peeler to reduce your cheese to a pile of shavings.

Melt the butter over a low heat and add in the lemon zest and juice.

As the asparagus comes up to the end of it's roasting time, slip the eggs into the boiling water for 2 minutes to poach.

Drizzle the lemon butter over the roasted asparagus, top with the cheese shavings, the poached egg and an extra scrunch of black pepper.

Consider having some crusty bread on hand to mop up the butter and egg yolk - or, if you want to save points, throw etiquette to the wind and use your finger.

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Meal planning Monday 3

I’m not sure how far we’ll be sticking to the plan this week. We are off to Scotland on Saturday and therefore should really be eating down the contents of the fridge. But social commitments on Tuesday and Thursday (and one should note that in my world, “Social Commitment” is usually shorthand for “Drinking until you fall over”) make it quite likely that any sensible dinner plans will be replaced by toast. Or takeaway. Or, indeed, takeaway on toast.

So…

Monday: We’ve got some beautiful looking asparagus which I shall be roasting and serving up with lemon butter and shavings of Cornish Yarg cheese with a poached egg perched proudly on top. Simple, light and scrummy.

Tuesday: I saw these chicken fillets with a caesar style melt when I was doing my online shop (I had a 25% discount voucher with Ocado – necessity, sadly, makes me more of a Tesco or Asda girl normally) and, since chicken caesar salad is a favourite of mine, I couldn’t resist. The plan is just to have the fillets on some lightly dressed Little Gems.

Wednesday: Chilli con carne – a household favourite. We’ll be making it in the slow cooker and freezing a couple of portions to take to Scotland with us.

Thursday: I may have promised D a curry to celebrate the start of the holidays. We have a fabulous Indian takeaway just across the road from us and I do spend a large proportion of my life trying to ignore the wonderful smells that frequently drift across…but sometimes, you just have to indulge.

Friday: A play it by ear kind of day – although I had vague intentions of throwing together a macaroni cheese and again, making a couple of extra portions for Scotland. It may not be very summery, but who can resist macaroni cheese at any time of the year?

Continuing in the not-very-summery-but-who-cares vein, we have a mass of leftover chicken from our Sunday pot roast and some rather sad looking mushrooms in the fridge, so I am wondering if whipping up some chicken and mushroom pie filling for the freezer could be in order? I love a nice pie, and it is relatively easy to make them a little more WW friendly by just having pastry on the top of the meat (which I always think is more of an inverted tart than a pie, but to-may-to, to-mah-to.)

Also this week, D has requested that some of the humongous pile of rhubarb in our kitchen be made into crumble, and I am more than happy to oblige.

Pop over to Mrs M's blog for more meal planning fun.

Recipe corner - Gnocchi and butternut squash with chilli, garlic and sage

This post was supposed to be about fish and fruit. But that will have to wait for another day because last night's tea needs to be recorded for posterity (and, hopefully, your delight and delectation.)



I really wish that I could take credit for it but nope, it is all D's work. I just stood on the sidelines warning him to watch the butter content. Then took one of my trademark Pollockesque food photos.

It was absolutely yummy - so much so that the other half of the gnocchi has already been earmarked for a repeat performance.

Ingredients

Butternut squash, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 red chilli, finely diced
2 tsp chilli flakes
salt and pepper
250g gnocchi
50g butter
8-10 sage leave - finely sliced
10g Parmesan cheese

Serves 2, 11 pro points per portion

NB: The cooking times below were for pieces of squash about 1cm cubed, but feel free to go chunkier if you wish, just adjust timings accordingly.

Toss the diced squash in two cloves of crushed garlic, the diced chilli and half the chilli flakes along with plenty of seasoning. Roast in a 140 oven for about an hour - you want it soft but not on the verge of disintegration.

Blitz half of the squash pieces.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the gnocchi and boil for 3 minutes. You'll know they're ready when they float to the top of the pan.

Meanwhile, finely slice the final clove of garlic. Melt the butter until foaming, and then throw in the garlic pieces for a scant ten seconds. Add the blitzed squash sprinkle with the other tsp chilli flakes and fry for one minute before adding the sage leaves and the roasted squash cubes. Cook through for another couple of minutes.

Drain the gnocchi and put into two bowls. Divide the squash mixture between them and toss a little to combine. Finish with the grated Parmesan.

Serve with a fork and a smile

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Meal Planning Monday 2

A groovy MPM graphic!  Courtesy of Mrs M.

The weeks do seem to fly by, don't they? Don't worry though - I'm on the countdown to my holibobs now, so this next one is guaranteed to crawl.

And with no further ado, here is how the meal plan is looking this week:

Monday:  Gnocchi with roasted butternut squash in sage butter. Bumped from last week. It's a good job that squashes are hardy things, this one has been sitting patiently in the cupboard for a while now.

Tuesday:  Hake with tapenade and caramelised pears. This dish deserves a post all of it's own!

Wednesday:  Tinned ravioli on toast. Classy, no? D is out so I'm indulging myself with a super quick and easy taste of childhood.

Thursday:  Peppered chicken breast strips (still clearing the freezer and have no idea why we ended up with these) with sun dried tomato and basil couscous and some Mediterranean style veg.

Friday:  Fish in breadcrumbs (another item unearthed from the dwindling freezer) probably with mash and peas and lashings of ketchup (tartare sauce for D).

Saturday:  We're celebrating our "anniversary" this week (seven years since our first date in a sticky carpeted York pub!) so tonight will be a special candlelit dinner.

Sunday:  In further adventures with the slow cooker, I'm doing a pot roast chicken with mustardy gravy as seen recently on Dinner Diary served with roast potatoes and something green!

Check out Mrs M's blog for more meal planning fun.

Oh! To be in England, now that April's here...

We're coming to the end of a glorious weekend of sunshine. A nation waits with bated breath to see if it is here to stay or if we have just experienced British Summertime in it's entirety.

This weekend, I have mostly been walking. Well, that's not quite true - in fact, walking has only accounted for four of the last forty eight hours. But it felt like more.

D, you see, has appointed himself Chief Whipper Into Shape. This involves the two of us doing a dogged seven mile trek along the river every other afternoon. But in honour of the beautiful weather, this weekend we did it on two consecutive days.

I should say at this point that sometimes I quite like a walk. When the scenery is pleasant, the pace pitched somewhere around "gentle saunter", and there is a pub or two to take in, I can think of few more pleasing ways to while away an afternoon. But D is not doing this particular walk for Fun - nope, this is all in the name of Fitness.

I'm just not built for serious walking. I have short little legs and therefore a short little stride. While D powers purposefully along, I am having to trot, whimpering, at his heels. And my other serious problem is that I am the lucky (?) owner of what we like to call in the trade Comedy Breasts. This means my centre of gravity is all off - I'm in constant danger of toppling forward, and very frequently do.

Having said all that, there is no denying the plus side. The scales are descending at a gratifying rate. And yesterday I managed to quaff four pints of delicious, sun-dappled cider without going into points deficit. What? If this is, indeed, British Summertime then it's only right to indulge in the very British pastime of drinking until your nose turns a fetching shade of lobster...

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Some first anniversary navel gazing

It’s been nearly a year since I started this blog.

If this was primarily a weight loss blog, I’d be sheepishly admitting that my weight probably is about the same now as it was when I started that first entry. It’s been lower and higher, but overall, there has been no significant change. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Well, disappointed, of course.

But also, after a very turbulent few years which have involved all sorts of personal traumas, part of me is rather pleased that I’ve at least broken the pattern of gaining. The depression and anxiety issues, which are the root cause of much of the poundage I now carry around, are improving. I may be taking anti depressants for life, but as my lovely GP said, if you had a thyroid issues, or were diabetic, you would take that medication for life and not think anything of it.

It strikes me, reading that last paragraph back, that it smacks a bit of excuse making. Is it an excuse? I’m not sure. I certainly think, had the last few years not been as difficult, I would be smaller. I absolutely know that, especially in the early days of the anxiety, when a vague feeling of dread hung about me like a cloud punctuated only by moments of extreme, white-hot panic, I was self medicating with food and alcohol. It’s natural to turn to things that you love in times of stress. And there is a limit to how much you can ask of your loved ones before your depression starts sucking all the life and joy out of them as well whereas food is an unquestioning, undemanding constant.

To go back to my original point, I have always wanted this blog to be about more than weight loss, but a celebration of wonderful food as well. I wrote, back in my very first entry, about how some of my favourite memories were foodie ones, and it was absolutely true; food has always been a great love of mine and probably always will be but, somewhere along the line, it also became my weapon of choice. That’s sad. It makes me sad that I’ve abused something I am so very fond of and turned it into something harmful. But, at the very least, my eyes are now open to that. And it is nearly impossible to binge mindfully. The essence of bingeing, especially when you’re using it as an escape mechanism, is mindlessness.

Gosh. A bit heavy. I feel the urge to chuck a recipe in now, for something frivolous like fairy cakes, or fudge. Instead, let me consider for a moment where I want to be in another year’s time? Well, still writing here. Still sharing a virtual meal with all you lovely people. Hopefully slimmer. Definitely healthier, both in body and mind.

Meal Planning Monday

I think that one of the most sensible things a frugal foodie can do is make a weekly meal plan.

I realise that there are arguments against it. It’s not exactly spontaneous to have a list of meals pinned (or, rather, magneted) up on the side of the microwave. It doesn’t exactly scream “Free spirit lives here”. And what happens if the meal plan says chicken but your heart says fish?

But the alternative is to end up wandering round the supermarket with a slightly dazed expression, picking up random items, and condemning yourself to a Masterchef style invention test when you get home. And having to go back to the supermarket the next day to do it all over again.

Gentle reader, I have been there, and it is not a happy place. And so now I meal plan. I mean, I can be reasonably flexible – if I want Thursday’s dinner on Tuesday then that’s ok (wild and crazy, huh?) But, aside from the obvious logistical and financial advantages, it also is the best way to manage my points. Dinner tends to be the high point (no pun intended) of my eating day, therefore, I work out what I’m having and plan everything else around it. If I know it’s going to be a bit points heavy, then it makes sense that I’ll have a lighter lunch. Whether you’re a Weight Watcher or not, that’s just common sense.

So from now on, I’m going to try and include the odd weekly meal planning post in this blog. This idea is not mine – it is blatantly stolen borrowed from Mrs M whose blog I recently stumbled across. Given all the inspiration and tips I’ve picked up from looking at other people’s meal plans, I thought that it would be nice to contribute myself.

This week we’re trying to eat down the contents of the freezer, so it can have its annual (is that shameful?) defrost and clean. Hence the meals are based around what we have unearthed in there.

In no particular order:

Sweet chilli chicken stir fry with rice noodles

Broccoli and blue cheese soup

Cajun pork steaks with rice and peas

Coley curry – loosely based on Jamie’s coley korma recipe, but using some home made curry paste that we found lurking in the middle drawer of the freezer

Roasted butternut squash with gnocchi in sage butter

Crispy skinned chicken breast with lemon couscous

Spaghetti carbonara – I’m a bit of a purist and tend to use this recipe because it doesn’t include cream. I like my carbonara to be a simple bacon and egg concoction. With Parmesan. And butter.

Recipe Corner - Lemony white bean purée

I was going to start the post by suggesting that this bean purée is a delicious alternative to mashed potato. But I just couldn't do it to my beloved mash. It felt too much like betrayal.

I mean, really, who wants an alternative to mash? There are few sights that will gladden a foodie's heart more than a golden slump of buttery mashed potato on the side of the plate.

But we are coming into spring now and it is just conceivable that we might want something a little zingier to wake up our palates. And here it is. This recipe is as bright eyed and zippy as all those bonny young spring lambs out there. And it just so happens it is the perfect accompaniment to a juicy piece of lamb, as seen above. But it would work equally well with steak or, come to think of it, a nice big chunk of tuna.  It's not really a recipe, so much as a bung all the ingredients together and blitz. 

Ingredients

Tin of cannellini beans, drained (reserve a couple of tablespoons of the liquid)
2 fat cloves of garlic
Juice of half a lemon
Fresh herbs and seasoning to taste

Serves 2, 3 pro points per person

Wrap the garlic cloves, still in their skins, up in a piece of foil and roast in a hot oven for about half an hour.

Meanwhile put the beans, the reserved liquid, the lemon juice and any fresh herbs into a blitzer.  We've done this with both basil and parsley and both worked beautifully.  I'd recommend something leafy and green rather than the headier end of the herb spectrum - the aim here is fresh.

Watch the seasoning at this point - remember the bean water will be salted, so don't go overboard on the additional salt.  Plenty of black pepper is good though.

Add the garlic and blitz to a coarse paste.  Place in a small saucepan to warm through while you cook your meat accompaniment.

A thousand words. Or not.

Aka further experiments with my new Blogpress app...

You know how I said that I wished my blog had more pictures? Yeah, well. This is why it doesn't:


It turns out that one of my many talents is the ability to make perfectly nice platefuls look like dog food. This is stew and mash by the way.

Or this:


This is a spaghetti dish I have been meaning to blog about for ages. Gorgeous. Here, it looks like pale dog food. Note the artistic skewiffness to the set up...

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I love to go a-wandering...

Well, I've finally gone and done it. Yep, the Foodie has got the technology. I've been doing so much travelling for work recently that my poor blog has been somewhat neglected. Now, with the Blogpress app, I can remote post with ease! Well, I think it is with ease. I mean, I haven't actually posted this yet...

I'm a homebody so being away is tough. It's especially difficult, when one is trying to shed some poundage, to be trapped in a fully catered facility where it is possible to eat three courses for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, and biscuits are laid on every time we break for coffee. Damn those biscuits. So far, so good. I'm partly saved by the fact that mass catering - even reasonable quality mass catering - isn't a patch on home-cooked food so I'm not tending to over indulge. As long as I stand FAR away from the biscuits.


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Diet averse

Stew!  (Image taken from deliciousmagazine.co.uk)

I was on the phone to my Mum the other day, discussing cancelling my subscription to Weight Watchers magazine because I found the recipes a bit “diet-ey”. Which D found amusing for some reason – “Of course they’re dietey,” he said, “It’s a diet magazine.”

I HATE the word diet – although dietey sounds a bit like doughty which I like...but the word diet, and the concept of diet food, stinks of deprivation and misery and steamed vegetables. I can’t count the number of times I’ve read some skinny sleb or other enthusiastically saying that their dinner tends to consist of grilled chicken and steamed veg. I bet they don’t leave the skin on the chicken either. If I thought I had to live on that for the rest of my life I’d attempt hari kiri with a piece of blunt spaghetti.

Take this week, for example. Among other things I’ve put away a great slab of sirloin steak and a rather delicious split pea and ham soup with a crusty, buttered roll for dunking. On Tuesday, I tucked into a hearty beef and red wine stew which I’d found lurking in the freezer, served up with Cheddar dumplings*, mashed potato and creamy leeks. I’ve sampled the new, limited edition Penny Pigs (I assume Penny is Percy’s girlfriend; she is lemon flavoured in any case), eaten several segments of chocolate orange, and a good few fistfuls of Maltesers. None of these things are dietey, or dietesque, in the slightest.

There are concessions, of course there are. I mean, I’m finally learning a bit of portion control – the steaks may have been huge, but there were no potatoes on the side because they just weren’t required and the Maltesers were weighed out. The “creamy” leeks were made with half fat Philadelphia. I haven’t had any wine. I’ve exercised. But, I suppose the point I’m trying to make, is that the concessions have been, relatively speaking, fairly small. I’ve been able to enjoy what I’ve eaten safe in the knowledge that it is a million miles away from a joyless plate of chickenandveg.

And at the scales today, I’d somehow managed to lose 6.5 pounds. I’m willing to make a few concessions for success like that.

*For the recipe, pictured above, pop across to the Delicious magazine website – according to the nutritional info it works out at a pretty reasonable 10 pro points per portion.



What is the use of a blog without pictures...?

Packet of peanuts for anyone who can identify the quote paraphrased above?  No?  Well, it's from Alice in Wonderland, spoken by Alice herself just before she falls down the rabbit hole.  Only, she referred to a book rather than a blog.  Blogs still being a twinkle in a white rabbit's eye at the time.

It keeps popping into my mind with regards to this blog because I'm extremely lax on the old picture front.  Some of my absolute favourite food blogs always have amazing pictures of gorgeous looking meals strewn throughout them and it always makes me feel a little shabby by comparison.

Yesterday, I had an absolute behemoth of a sirloin steak for tea.  Seriously, seriously huge, but also glistening and tender and totally delicious and would have made a fantastic (if rather carnivorous) blog illustration.  But I only remembered when I was about three quarters of the way through.  And no one wants to see a picture of a mostly-eaten supper.

So instead you get this:

It may look rather unprepossessing - but this is the basis of our rather fabulous smelling tea tonight.  Leeks, carrots, celery, dried split peas and homemade ham stock seasoned with black pepper, mustard powder and dried parsley all bunged in the slow cooker and then left to putter away on low for 6-8 hours before being whizzed up to make a gorgeous, hearty soup.  And I can't tell you how much it warmed the cockles of my heart to be able to use the words "homemade" and "stock" in the same sentence.  Just before serving, I plan to stir through a spoonful of mustard and some shredded gammon that has been languishing in the freezer since Christmas.  Perfect Sunday night fare.  

Lenten promises

Awww, how lovely it is to be missed! Thank you so much, Peridot, for your comment on my last entry.

I’ve not blogged anything for a while; time just hasn’t been on my side, but neither has inclination, if I’m honest. Of course, in dieting spheres this generally means bad news, and, I must concede, my heart hasn’t been in the counting lately. Apparently, the fact that I have to wear a wedding dress in, oh, six months, is not incentive enough.

It was in the run up to Easter last year that my efforts first started to seriously falter. I can’t even remember why now. So it seems fitting that in the run up to Easter this year I retake my mojo. Yes, for Lent 2011 this particular foodie is giving up giving up on WW. I even made a list of things that would help me use these six weeks to form some good habits, including cutting out all alcohol apart from the odd glass of wine (I appear to have developed a bit of a cider habit of late), exercising three times a week and dragging my sorry behind to a meeting without fail. Unless I have a really good excuse, like illness or death or something.

Actually, Lent has started a day late in our household due to me being away for work for a few days and missing out on pancake day. So we had pancakes last night, mine smeared respectively in lemon juice and sugar, Florentine butter and golden syrup. Gorgeous stuff, and I discovered D’s talent, hitherto concealed, for pancake flipping. A man of many and varied talents, obviously.

Recipe corner - Valentine's Raspberry Souffle

Edited Feb 2012: I'm adding this recipe to Mrs M's first ever recipe link party - it seems appropriate given the time of year!  This is a fantastic, simple and (relatively) virtuous dessert to make for the one you love...

Raspberry souffle - sadly not mine!  (Taken from the Good Food Channel website)

A belated happy Valentine’s Day to everyone! Now, I know it is a cheesy Hallmark occasion designed to guilt people into spending money on cards and gonks. But I must admit that it does hold a special place in my heart.

A good few years ago – just over seven to be precise, I was in a pretty low place. I had just moved back in with my parents after a disastrous period of trying to assert my independence that had left me broke, tired and utterly heartbroken. That Valentine’s Day I received the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, sent by my gorgeous Mum to cheer me up. The gesture didn’t cheer me up though. It made me feel incredibly alone.

And so, it was on Valentine’s Day that I decided I needed to do something to take control of my life and I signed on to an Internet dating site. At that moment in time it didn’t cross my mind that I would meet anyone with whom I could have a long term relationship. But I wanted to take the initiative, seize the day...do something, anything, positive.

D was not the first man that I chatted with on there, but he was the first one that I actually met in person. As a couple, we didn’t get off to the most auspicious of starts, but despite everything, the relationship prospered and grew. And this year, I get to marry my best friend in the entire world, and I get to stand up in front of my family and friends and tell them how much I love and value him. So I always celebrate Valentine’s Day, because it was the day on which I took the first steps along the path that would lead to here, and to him.

Enough with the gushy stuff and on to the more important part of this post – pudding and, specifically, the pudding that I served as the final hurrah of my multi course extravaganza of a Valentine’s Day dinner.

This recipe, which is by Paul Heathcote on the BBC website, describes itself as “foolproof”. Now I must admit that I tend to distrust anyone or anything that uses that particular adjective, but on this occasion it may have been justified. Certainly it was simple to put together, and a lovely way to end a meal. I didn’t pick it because it was WW compatible – that was just a happy accident, but I would definitely make it again, without a qualm, for a dinner party.

The only change I have made to the original recipe is to halve the portion size – and this is only because my ramekins could only hold a quarter, as opposed to half, of the mixture. After several other courses though, the reduced quantity was absolutely fine. One of the key things I’m learning about myself is that I need a lot less food than I think I do. And I would rather eat a smaller portion of something yummy that a large bowl of something bland and worthy.

Oh, and I should mention, that D used the remaining half of the mixture the following night. It had split slightly, but a good whisk to reincorporate the raspberry and the meringue, and Bob’s your uncle, two more soufflés. So they are obviously pretty forgiving if you want to make them in advance. Personally, I made the coulis before hand and then had the egg whites and sugar laid out in bowls to do the whipping and folding at the last minute.

Ingredients

250g raspberries
4 egg whites
100g (plus 2 tsp) caster sugar
1/2 tsp cornflour, dissolved in a little water
2 tsp butter

Serves 4, 4 pro points per serving


First, evenly butter and sugar ovenproof moulds for the soufflés and place in the freezer.


For the coulis, add half of the sugar to the raspberries. Place in a hot pan and cook quickly for 2-3 minutes with a good squeeze of lemon juice. Liquidise with a hand blender and pass through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Place 2 tsp of coulis in the bottom of the soufflé dishes and thicken the remaining coulis with the moistened cornflour.

For the meringue, ensure the whisk and bowl are free from grease by scalding in boiling water or rubbing a lemon around the surface of the bowl, then place the egg whites into the bowl and start to whisk (an electric whisk makes life an awful lot easier!) Gradually add the sugar until the mixture forms a soft, glossy peak then finish off with a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Briskly whisk about a third of the egg white mixture into the thickened coulis and then gently in the remainder, taking care to keep in the air.

Divide the mix between the dishes.

When ready to bake, space out on a tray and bake in a medium to hot oven (180C/350F/Gas 4) for approximately 10-15 minutes depending on the size and dish.

Dust with icing sugar, place a raspberry on top (if you so fancy) and serve immediately

The wanderer returns

The last week has seen me at a training centre, deep in the wilds of Lincolnshire. Well, I say deep in the wilds – it is actually just a couple of miles outside of Lincoln town centre. But it feels like the middle of nowhere.


After five days there I did feel a bit like a mole. Classrooms, bedrooms and dining room are all under the same roof and so, unless you make a conscious effort, or take up smoking, you never actually need to set a food outside.

And oh, the joys (or not) of mass catering. Actually, they make a fairly reasonable fist of it, but still…had I ever been allowed to have school dinners (I brought a packed lunch for my entire school career) I am sure this would have invoked flashbacks. L-Hall is kind of legendary in certain circles; people have been know to gain as much as half a stone after a week of three course breakfasts, lunches and dinners. They quite literally feed you into a sort of bemused submission.

I am pleased to report that I did not gain half a stone – in fact, a quick hop on the scales this morning, and I appear to have stayed the same, which I take as quite the victory. The week started well; I hit up the salad bar at lunchtime and stuck to one course, generally a veggie or fish option for dinner…however, by the end of the week I had made a couple of evening visits to reception to purchase a twin pack of Cadbury’s Caramel Bunnies to soothe my jangled nerves.

It was lovely to be home, and to be reminded of the pleasures of great home cooking. We’ve had quite a fishy weekend, the highlight of which was an amazing warm salad of pan fried mackerel fillets and grapefruit. It was D’s creation, much as I would like to take credit, and I’ve told him he needs to cook it again soon. The combination of the rich, oily mackerel with the sour grapefruit and a hit of wholegrain mustard was absolutely gorgeous – and I’m not usually a grapefruit lover.

I also realise I never got the chance to post here about the Valentine’s Day dinner I cooked before I left for Lincoln – but rest assured it was fabulous, even if I do say so myself. I do plan to share the pudding recipe here because actually it is a very WW friendly dessert, and easy to whip up midweek if you feel like indulging.

Right, off to plough through my inbox…

Backwards and Forwards, Up and Down…

For the last three weeks I have been full of motivation and resolve, eating well, hitting the gym and seeing some downwards movement on the scales. Hurrah.

And then, the last couple of days I seem to have slumped back into “don’t care” mode. Tuesday night, I decided to eschew the stir fry that was planned for tea and dragged D out for a drink instead. And then, a bottle of wine down, we phoned our favourite restaurant on the off chance that they would have a table available, and they did. So we went.

The meal itself was absolutely wonderful. I’ve waxed lyrical about J. Baker’s before, but (and I can’t emphasise this enough) if you ever find yourself in York and don’t choose to eat here then…well, there’s not a lot I can do about it. But you’ll have missed out.

Of course, I can’t entirely regret a nice evening out with good company, and fantastic food, including some amazing fresh crab served with apple sorbet and spicy granola (wow!) and one of the most delicious duck dishes I’ve ever tasted (seared, served with vanilla salt and mandarin balsamic if you’re interested). And, as my last weigh in proved, one bad day doesn’t undo a good week. But I suppose what bothers me is why I chose to go off piste. What triggered this particular little act of rebellion. Because although one bad day won’t make a long term difference, one bad day has a habit of becoming two or three or…well, you get the gist.

I’m a wee bit stressed out work wise at the moment – I’ve signed up to do something that I really don’t want to do, something rather pressurised, something that will potentially involve being away from home for extended periods, which I hate. And, I’ll be honest, I’m worried about how these periods away will harm my eating habits – I’ll struggle to count the catered food, and I’ll be lonely and prone to comfort eating Kit Kats in my room. I’m a wee bit stressed out about the upcoming wedding as well – some of the decisions we’ve made have upset some people which in turn has upset me. But I’m just kidding myself that pressure of this, or any other sort, is a license to anaesthetising myself with food. Which is really what Tuesday night was all about.

So, as of today, as of right NOW, I’m putting it behind me and starting all over again, and the thought of Jeff’s sublime aubergine-with-fifty-spices or his delicate cauliflower foam served with a poached quail’s egg will most definitely NOT make me lose my focus…for the rest of this week at least.

Lunch in the closet

I’ve given up trying to understand my body. Last week I pointed every morsel that crossed my lips and lost a pound. This week I spent most of Saturday afternoon indulging in wine and cakes and lost three. I’m not complaining. But I am slightly confused.

It was the final stage of my rather drawn out 30th birthday celebrations this weekend: some friends and I decided to indulge ourselves with lunch at a the two Michelin star L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Actually, D and I ate here a few years ago, and at the time found it a mixed bag – although the mashed potato (which Robuchon famously makes with a 50:50 ratio of potato to butter) was fabulous. The lunch deal this time round was too good to resist however: two courses from the lunch menu, followed by “afternoon tea” in the bar area upstairs in lieu of pudding, all for £35. It’s certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities of the Toptable website.

My starter of baked egg with wild mushroom cream was nice – although the fact that my friend described the texture of her egg as “slightly snotty” did put me off a little. Descriptive, no? The light-as-air mushroom cream was the star here; I loved the combination of its fluffy texture with the deep, earthy flavours of the mushroom – it was like getting a kiss from a big, burly farmer with a scratchy beard. Or something. The main course was good too. I couldn’t resist the pork belly – despite the fact that most of the time when I order it in a restaurant it compares unfavourably to D’s amazing twice cooked version. This was good though – much thinner that you usually see belly served out, with crispy fat and a warm hum of ginger; and I adored the combination of the pork with fat, juicy prunes. As an accompaniment, the table received a couple of bowls of matchstick fries – my only criticism here was that there were not nearly enough. Fat chips I can take or leave, but hot, thin, crispy, salty fries are irresistible.

Without a doubt though, the most exciting part of the meal was being escorted upstairs to sit in comfort in the third floor bar and indulge in the loose leaf tea of our choice with a selection of delicate confections. Unfortunately, my own photos didn’t come out (the lighting was terribly dark – how do other people manage?) but I managed to find this image online at bookatable.com which should give you some idea. I think the general consensus of opinion was that the caramel macaron was the standout here – gorgeously sweet with that little hint of salt which compliments caramel so well. Blissful.

So there you have it – apparently my dieting top tip this week is to go out and indulge yourself a little. On second thoughts, if my body is running a week behind, the fallout from my pointeriffic weekend may be yet to come…

L'atelier de Joel Robuchon
13-15 West St
London
WC2H 9NE

Recipe corner – Get Ready To Crumble!

Had a bad day?

Feeling like the world is against you?

You need….crumble!

There is no pudding in the world that can put a smile on my face like a gorgeous, steaming bowl of fruit crumble. Ooooh, except maybe sticky toffee pudding. Or hot chocolate fudge cake. Or….ahem. Easy there, tiger!

It occurs to me that anyone who ever comes across this blog may not realise how sweet a tooth I have, mainly because I never seem to post sweet recipes. I’m not sure why it is that I rarely make puddings – possibly because we tend to have a stash of chocolate in the cupboard most of the year round that provides sweet treats as and when required.

I have sampled, by way of research you understand, most of the WW own branded desserts and my feeling is, for the most part – don’t bother. They all taste a little artificial to me – and pudding is one area where quality is definitely more important than quantity. One thing I do often have in my freezer is a pack of Del Monte Smoothie lollies. These are 3 points apiece and gorgeously smooth and fruity, like a really indulgent sorbet. Far nicer than anything WW has yet produced in my opinion. I also recently discovered that Magnum Minis work out at only 5 points, which, ok, is not an every day kind of thing, but definitely worthwhile for the occasional splurge. The Limoncello and Irish Cream flavours that they produced for Christmas were fabulous – I’m hoping these are not limited editions.

Anyway, back to the crumble, and here is my recipe based on one from the WW site…the only concession it makes to virtue is using half fat butter, and I don’t find that this makes any real difference to the final flavour. I like Lurpak Lighter and tend to keep it in the fridge anyway for those times when only a crumpet or slice of buttered toast will do. I am also adamant that the best crumbles contain oats – purists may beg to differ, but what can I say, I want my crumble topping to taste a bit like a Hob Nob biscuit.

This is 9 points which sounds a bit ouchy – but the other night we had a bowl of 2 point soup followed by the crumble which was a fantastically comforting tea for a chilly January evening and, taken as a whole, doesn’t do too much damage to the daily allowance.

Ingredients

60g plain flour
30g jumbo oats
40g half fat butter
40g caster sugar plus a tablespoon for the fruit*
½ tsp cinnamon
6 sticks of rhubarb

*You could sweeten the rhubarb with artificial sweetener which would reduce the points by 1 per portion.

Serves 2, 9 pro points per person

Combine the flour, cinnamon and oats in a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture ressembles damp sand (you can do this stage in a food processer which saves a bit of time). Stir through the sugar.

Meanwhile, chop the rhubarb into roughly 5cm pieces and place in a saucepan with a splash of water and a tablespoon of sugar (you could also add some warming spice at this stage – cinnamon and ginger both work well). Place over a low heat until the rhubarb has softened but still retains some structure.

Tip the rhubarb into an ovenproof dish and tumble the crumble (poetry!!) over it. Bake in a hot oven (180 – 200) for 30 mins, or until the top is golden and the fruit is beginning to bubble up at the sides. Leave to cool for 5-10 mins before serving.

Gorgeous with cream, ice cream or custard (unless you’re me and don’t really like the stuff – an Englishwoman who doesn’t eat custard! The shame!) – remember to include any additional points.

Sit back, relax and indulge.

Tales from the Scales

I don’t tend to talk an awful lot about the results of my weigh in. I’m not sure why, it just never seems to occur to me as a topic when I’m coming up with things to write about.

But I want to write about my result last night. Last night was my first weigh in since re-starting the plan two weeks ago post the Christmas and New Year merriment. My first week had been less than 100% stellar, not improved by the fact I had been unable to attend the week before (I’m a terrible sulker when things don’t go to plan), but I’d pulled it back and now I toddled along , having had seven perfectly tracked days in a row (plus three gym visits to boost the bank). I had that smug little glow that one gets when one is about to receive one’s just reward and I jumped onto the scales quite happily.

I had lost a pound.

A single, squiddly little pound. A decent bowel movement can get me a pound’s weight loss some mornings.

I took back my card, signed the weekly sheet and headed straight for home, definitely a bit moist of eye. I started doing diet arithmetic – you know when you think, “Well, if I lose an average of half a pound a week for x number of weeks then it will take me so long to get so far,” and that made the eyes even moister. By the time I got back to the flat I was sufficiently worked up to make D’s shoulder quite soggy.

Later, pootling up and down the swimming pool (and let me tell you, it took quite an effort of will to go to the gym after my disappointment – the two bottles of organic cider in the fridge and the takeaway menu drawer had been singing out my name quite loudly) I tried hard to be sanguine.

I bang on and on about the fact that I don’t regard WW as a diet – just a way of monitoring the way I eat to ensure I create a bit of a calorie deficit. The alternative to WW? Well, I’d still have to eat, I’d still have to plan my meals, I’d still want to consume sufficient nutrients for good health. There’d be a little less admin, but not a massive amount. And the trade off for that fifteen minutes spent tracking every day is improved health and an eventual decrease in girth.

I suppose we all want validation, we all want to know that our efforts are being rewarded. And the main way we seek that validation is the number in the scales. If the number goes up, or stays the same, or even doesn’t give us the drop we hoped for, if the number doesn’t feel like sufficient reward for our endeavours, then we judge ourselves a failure.

But I’m sorry; I did not “fail” at anything last week. In fact, there was plenty to be proud of. I made sensible, healthy decisions, I ate well, I exercised, I did not over indulge nor did I deny myself anything that I really wanted. That’s a successful week. Failure would have been allowing my disappointment to derail me, to allow the negative thought pattern of, “Sod it. This obviously isn’t working for me, I’m going to eat and drink what the hell I like and waistline be damned,” to take over. Success is accepting that if you do all the right things, the results will eventually follow. Success is realising that this is a life plan – not a quick fix, not a temporary measure. Success is keeping on and on and on, and not allowing a number on a dial to derail you.

In the words of The Beautiful South, you just have to “Carry on regardless.”