Midweek favourites!

I was lucky enough to be chosen to try tesco's meat for free. For the campaign I received a £10 voucher, and the meat is always on 3 for £10. With my voucher I purchased some beef mince, skinless boneless chicken breasts and pork chops.

Today I will focus on the mince. I was looking for beef mince with a nice long date on it and with a deep red colour. I was successful on both points, I would never pick up browning or grey looking mince. When it came to using the beef the next day it still looked nice and fresh, I have experienced meat that has browned in the fridge slightly before and it puts me off even cooking it. I made a rich and traditional bolognaise, it was delicious and the sauce was lovely. This owes to the quality of the meat, one hood thing is that when cooked it didn't release excess water or fat. It was a great meal and my boyfriend and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Chicken thighs next, watch this space they're currently marinading in a delicious satay style sauce. Cookie x

Curry night

Friday and Saturday nights seem to be when we have the least will power and absolutely have to have a takeout, were usually tired from work and just want to sit down and have something a little naughty and flavorsome.

I now have an airfryer, my favorite christmas present last year.

So I thought id try an indian takeout style meal. I marinaded chicken thighs in a paste made from crushed garlic, garam masala, curry powder, ground ginger, ground coriander, ground cumin and ground turmeric mixed with a tablespoon of tomato puree, lemon juice and greek yogurt.

This went into the airfryer at 180 degrees for 12-14 mins to start in off and brown it a little, I then put these in the oven to finish off whilst i used the airfry for some aubergine cubes.

I put the aubergine ad some fried onions and mushrooms in my saffron rice, and I served the lot with some yellow lentils which I cooked with onions, some of my curry paste as above and some creamed coconut.

It was delish! just a little more effort than a takeout, the trick is commiting the night before, i.e marinading and doing some of the hard work ahead of time.

Thanks for reading,

Cookie x

Teryaki Chicken and noodles

A quick and simple dinner. I just marinaded my chicken in teriyaki sauce and honey and stirfried some peppers, mushrooms, cabbage, carrot and spring onion with noodles and a sachet of amoy hoisin stir fry sauce.

17 minutes in the airfryer at 180 and the chicken was lightly charred in the sticky areas and succulent in the middle. All in all a good mid week dinner, not too much fuss or too many dishes and relatively healthy.

Tonights dinner

Tonight I gave the Airfryer a little rest, sort of.. I seasoned a chicken breast with a little fajita seasoning to give a barbecue flavour and put this in my preheated (180c) Airfryer for 16 minutes. I turned halfway through. I was sticky and flavoursome, I cut this into little pieces, mixed with a little reduced fat mayo, I added this to a sandwich made with small wholemeal bread (60cal per slice) for tomorrows lunch.

For dinner I had beef stroganoff, which I made using thin steak strips, mushrooms, onions, spring
onions, chives, paprika, olive oil and sour cream.

It was yummy! I served it with 50g of basmati rice.

Cookie x

 

New beginings.. AGAIN

So new year new me.. new diet? No, I am giving up on dieting. I would like to lose weight because, yes I am fat again, but I haven't had much success with diets in a long time.

I am not going to restrict myself too much, I will simply be a bit cleverer in my choices and cook a little slimmer.

A big part will be cooking, and not reaching for the takeaway menu which we know is all too easy!

This Christmas my other half bought me two new gadgets, one is a spiralizer and the other is the Phillips Airfry (I bought him  pizza slicer and a cheese cutter..)

So far I have made a few goodies in the Airfry and im loving it, so you will probably find that a few of my posts and meals will revolve around this wonderful tool!

Pork, Spring Onion and Ginger Gyoza, filling put into defrosted store bought pastry sheets, sealed with water and a fork, then lightly brushed with oil prior to air frying.

                                   

3 mins in the Airfry at 190, turned and then on for a further 2 to 3 mins

                                    


New Years Meal; Home Cut Airfried Chips, Gyoza, Pork Patties, Tzatziki, Raita, Houmous and Veg Crudites

Cauliflower Crunchies, Sweet potato, Carrot and Parsnip Chips and Mac  Cheese

 

These are made by boiling cauliflower, draining and mashing with salt and pepper and a handful of cheddar, I also added a handful of breadcrumbs. I refrigerated,  rolled in flour, egg dipped and dipped into some finely crushed panko breadcrumbs. 

 

Sprayed with olive oil on both sides and put into the preheated Air fryer at 200c                          

 

I just had to have the tinned mac and cheese, it acted as a good dip for the chips and the crunchies, they were a little dry but had good flavour.

 

I only had half a tin a s I cook for two, so as a quick side 182 cals isn't too bad

 

 Thanks for reading, any questions or comments please drop me a line. Good luck to all the new year dieters and those of you embarking on a weight loss challenge!

 

Cookie x

Oops

Ok so I have had a few days off from writing about this diet. I have one or two little slip ups (nothing major like a take out or chocolate), the naughty things are as follows - 4 9 bars a week rather than 2, uh oh! and 5 slices of spelt bread throughout the week rather than 2 slices. I have had 2 thirds of a ristorante pizza as a treat, and last Thursday I stole 2 pieces of my other halfs pizza. Also, I had a few sausages! Eeep, its like confessions innit. All the rest of the time I have been eating pure, however I haven't lost anything infact I have pit on 0.7kg

so here as some of my delicious meals!

Sausages and root veggies, they were mini sausages and I used some the next day for a pasta salad (made with brown rice pasta of course!)



Sausage pasta salad


I love middle eastern food so one night I dug out my favourite recipe book and made middle eastern spiced sautéed sweet potato  with a little basmati rice, spiced chicken and butterbean hummus.


The next day we had rice salad with hoemade babganoush (aubergine dip)


Main meal- smoked mackerel, salad and a baked sweet potato


Lunch - m and s salad, about the only one that's almost 100% ok, along with pineapple, apple, lemon and spinach juice!

My deliciously naughty pizza


Scrambled eggs and salmon for breakfast



A sunday roast of chicken and veg



Homemade spelt bread - was nice but heavy and cakey, but hey im not one to complain!

 

 

Thanks for looking

 

Cookie x

the past few days

Today (sunday) is my last detox day and tomorrow I will start with my milkshake and 6 capsules.

Although I have had a couple of small hiccups along the way I have managed to shift 5.5 inches from all-over which is a good start. I will have a weigh in tomorrow and report any loss at that point.

Friday

Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs x3 on a spelt cracker and a fruit smoothie

Lunch was Tuna with homemade mayo and cucumber

Dinner was butternut squash and coconut soup with goats cheese, tomatoes and a spelt cracker

Saturday

I had work so I started the day with my fruit smoothie and x 3 scrambled eggs.

Lunch was tuna pasta salad made with brown rice pasta and fruit

Snacked on a 9 Bar

Dinner was chicken and homemade coleslaw and salad

Sunday

I started with my fruit smoothie and x 2 scrambled eggs, having less as of tomorrow I will be substituting this completely with a shake, so don't want to feel too hungry.

I have asked on the JP group on Facebook what I can have post detox and to be honest it sounds the same as detox except I am substituting 1 - 2 meals per day with a shake. Ooh and I can now have peanut butter and perhaps corn on the cob as a treat, and from what I have read each week I can have a treat snack which can last 15 mins and a bigger treat which I assume is a meal and can be eaten over 1 hour.

Tomorrows lunch that I am preparing is a Quinoa salad, I have never had Quinoa before and will let you know my thoughts.

Tonight's dinner is a bit of a cheat, it is lamb shanks which have been seasoned and prepped from M&S, they have root veg with them and no potato or wheat which is a bonus. I may roast or boil some cauliflower to have with it, I would normally love mash, so may do cauliflower mash!

and here it is... Gorgeous!

Wasted day..

Today was a good day diet wise, but it seemed to go so quick and I hardly left the house (only to the butchers down the road.. Oops!)

Is started the day with a smoothie of a whole small pineapple and some chia and flax and beetroot powder and coconut milk.

Lunch was scrambled egg with spring onions and the leftover raita from the other night with some cucumber to dip.

Snack - half a honeydew melon blended with some filtered water

For my dinner I had a baked sweet potato and bolognaise style mince. (I have some of this left so will either have it for dinner tomorrow or the next day either with roast veg or with spelt pasta, which I am yet to try)

Snack - fruit and nut 9 bar, it was ok but I need to start baking and being a little more adventurous to see if I can come up with something better.

Thanks for reading

Cookie x