Holiday Countdown - the story so far

Chicken Provencal

It's was an odd week. My working week was dominated by the failure of a popular airline, I got nothing done that I planned which is understandable, but I had that stretched very thin feeling.

At home life was dominated by an allergic reaction, which affected my ankle, chest and my arms and has got progressively worse as the week has gone on. I had to give in and go to the doctor and it seems like it might be a photo-sensitive reaction to having been in Portugal, in other words I can't even enjoy the blooming sunshine now!

One thing that did go well is our Slimming World SP week. We've been eating some really delicious food, food you probably wouldn't choose from a menu - but you'd be making a mistake! The week has been dominated by beans and pulses as it's based on foods that are speed (mostly fruit and vegetables) and protein (peas, beans, pulses, meat and eggs).

So well, that at group weigh in on Saturday I lost 3lbs.

In addition, I reached that psychological high kick and moved down a stone number. First time in 16 years I've had that number!Also I only have 4lbs to meet the holiday goal, but if I can stretch myself to 5.5lbs instead I could get my next award...3.5 stones making it 4 stones lost in all.

So here's what I did...

Breakfasts

A cooked breakfast is a Slimming World staple. Lean butchers sausages (roughly 1/2 syn each), Linda McCartney frozen sausages (1/2 syn), eggs - scrambled, poached or fried in fry light, bacon (syn free - fat removed), spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, baked beans, really whatever you like - add a slice of wholemeal bread as a healthy B. It really sets you up for the day and easy to get when you're out - even a proper fried egg is only 1 syn.

On Saturday I stopped at Hands Butchers and picked up a couple of their slimmers scotch eggs (no breadcrumbs, baked not fried).
My other breakfast favourite is fruit and quark, my normal raspberry quark is a "no no" on an SP week, but you can flavour plain quark and I'm getting used to having it plain now.

Lunches and snacks

No pictures of lunches as all week we had left overs from the night before. Always with a salad or some microwave steam veg packs.

I did have one dessert, plain quark flavoured with coffee
with a crumbled hi-fi bar, slice pear and raspberries

Snacks have consisted of hi-fi bars (available from Slimming World groups), Nature Valley popcorn, almond and pretzel bars and chocolate Fibre Ones - these 3 things manage to stave off my sweet tooth on any given day and work out at 3 to 4 syns per bar. For a savoury snack I will have something around 3 - 5 syns - Sensations Poppadoms, Ringo's, Tomato Snaps, Space Raiders - all from multi-packs as they are smaller and have the least syns, but just enough to fend off a craving.

Dinners

All meals except the slow cook lamb, ramen bowl and stuffed aubergines were adapted to be Slimming World SP compatible from the book Save Money: Good Food - Family Feasts for a Fiver: Family Feasts for a Fiver (Save Money Good Food).

Saturday was pulled chicken fajitas (page 85)  chicken thighs, with skin and fat removed marinaded with chopped onions, orange juice and zest, garlic, oregano, thyme, smoked paprika, tinned tomatoes (all whizzed up and poured over the thighs). After an hour in the marinade, slow roast until the thighs are "pullable", at least an hour to an hour and a half. Served with refried beans - fried onion, chopped fresh tomatoes and kidney beans simmered in stock until soft and mashable. I also made a coleslaw with grated carrot and finely sliced white cabbage mixed with 1 tbsp light mayonnaise and 3 tbsp plain quark, seasoned.

Sunday was Slow Roast Lamb based on a recipe from the Sainsbury's magazine, the recipe is available here. To make my version I replaced the oil with fry light, the honey with a little brown sugar and the wine with lamb stock. We ate it served with roasted carrots, aubergine and courgettes. It was a really easy Sunday dinner to prepare and packed full of herby, garlicky flavour. We almost didn't miss our roast potatoes!

Monday we were supposed to have steak wraps, however, we were all late getting in and then I realised the beef needing to marinade for an hour. Change of plan, we had Chicken Ramen Bowls. Check out my blog here for some more ramen bowl ideas. This week as we were doing SP we swapped our noodles for spiralised courgette and carrot.

Tuesday was our meal of the week (see main picture) Chicken Provencal (page 76) a delicious combination of lean bacon, onions, celery, garlic all fried together. I added brown lentils, chicken stock, thyme, bay leaves and chopped fresh tomatoes. I took 800g chicken thighs and removed the skin and fat, then browned and placed on top of the veg and stock in my pressure cooker and cooked for 40 minutes. For such a simple recipe it was really tasty and on paper one of those things that sounds awful but was so tasty.

Wednesday I had to use the beef but had no time for marinading, so I took all the ingredients for Chipotle Beef Steak Wraps with Refried Beans - not the wrap, but included the beans and made a Chipotle Beef Stew. I fried a chopped onion, with 3 cloves garlic, crushed, 1tsp crushed chipotle chilli, 1 tsp oregano, the juice of an orange, a handful of coriander stalks, a chopped red chilli and a tsp of smoked paprika.  When the veg was soft I added 500g stewing steak until browned. I added a tin of kidney beans, a bottle of passata and due to time cooked int eh pressure cooked for 30 minutes, in the oven you would need about 1.5 - 2 hours. We had it with vegetable rice - whizzed cauliflower and broccoli stir fried with turmeric and chilli and roasted butter nut squash sprinkled with chilli flakes.


Thursday we had an Indian Feast (pages176 - 181) we had a fairly simple but tangy and spicy chicken curry based on the lamb curry in the book, a tomato based sauce, spiced with garam masala and medium curry powder. We had it with a Daal, see my blog for a great recipe. We also had roasted cauliflower, you can roast it in the over, but I did ours in the Actifry - just season with your favourite Indian spices and roast until browned and softened.

Finally, Friday, I was supposed to be going out for a meal which was cancelled last minute due to illness and other complications, so we had Stuffed Chilli Aubergines with 2 aubergines, halved and stuffed with some chilli from the freezer and topped with low fat cheddar. See my recipe for stuffed aubergines here.