Mince pie issues and some new noms

Today I have been very sleepy as woke up at 4am and didn't get back to sleep for ages so not felt great today. Cue lots of coffee and a mid afternoon nap!

Anyway food wise it has been a 90% on plan day and it only went slightly off track about 5 when the munchies hit. Even so I have had lots of superfree today which is I am pleased with!

Breakfast was an experiment for me as I wanted a potato hash brown/rosti but never made one before. 

Doesn't look too bad for a first attempt, it was quite simple. I grated a potato and onion and then patted them both so get rid of as much moisture as I could. I then added an egg some herbs and garlic. I fried it of in my new favourite oil fillipo bertoili 7 sprays for 1/2 syn and its so much better than fry light. I have read a few people make their own 'syn' free spray but this does me well. I  had my rosti with mushrooms, peppers and courgettes and linda mccartney rosemary and red onion sausages. During the morning I pottered around watching tv and prepping dinner for tonight as it needed marinading.

I decided to make a scan bran cake as I had some sitting in the cupboard and thought cake was a nice way to use a healthy extra (though I havent eaten it and saved it for tomorrow now). 

The topping is quark, coffee and an options hot chocolate sachet. You soak the scan bran until it is soft then drain the water and mash it. You add to this 3 eggs, half a cup of sweetener and 1-2 tsp of coffee. I also chucked in some almond essence. You pop it into chinese takeaway tubs and microwave for 7 minutes....then let it cool and add the topping. As I said I haven't tried it yet but it will be a nice thing to snack on tomorrow during the day. 

Lunch was a bit different in the sense I was trying Orzo for the first time. Orzo is pasta shaped like rice so its quite small but it was really tasty. I added a pot of cauliflower cheese soup and veggies and some extra cheese. The soup is great as a soup or sauce. 

Very filling and tasty definitely something I will have again.

This afternoon I did a bit of ebay browsing, I really want a pair of purple dr martens but they are usually over my budget but I did find these cuties for my christmas tree

I adore Nightmare before Christmas so was really pleased to find these! I cannot wait for my tree to come now.

As I said I had the munchies so had a couple of mini mince pies and two babybels (healthy extra...cheese not pies).

I normally have babybel lights but we had these in the fridge so it would be rude not to eat them!

Dinner was another new dish it was sweet chill chicken (for rich) and quorn for me.

Again I had lots of veggies and some noodles but didn't eat it all. Notice the appearance of Doug we may him a peanut butter kong and he was desperate to get it. He loved it and it kept him occupied.

The recipe for the sweet chilli chicken is as follows

Serves 4 - just under 3 sins per person

4 large chicken breasts or quorn chicken

3 tbsp of honey

3 tbps of balsamic vinegar

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp sweetener

1 tsp chinese 5 spices

2 cloves of garlic

fry light

Add all ingredients into a dish and marinade for 30 mins.

Stir fry in a wok and cook on a low heat until the chicken is fully cooked. Once cooked turn up the heat for 3-5 mins to make the marinade more caramalised.

Now I actually halved this ingredients as it was just for the two of us and it had been marinating since this morning. It was pretty tasty though I need to make it more saucy so may add a stock next time but thats personal preference. I am aiming to try new recipes this week to mix things up a bit so quite excited to see how the week pans out.

I am still off work and my hand is quite painful at the moment which is probably the wound healing but I do now have more movement. This week will be fun as the postie is going to be delivering parcels so I can start wrapping presents. I have one more thing to buy. I am going to settle down and watch Heston's Fantastical Food now and he is doing sweets. I love Heston and we went to The Fat Duck in July for a once in a lifetime opportunity to try his tasting menu. Its strange looking back to July as I was faffing around on slimming world and wasn't really focused. I certainly seem to be getting my head screwed on now.