A gain and determination

Okay so there was no blog last night mainly because I was tired when I got back from group and a bit down in the dumps. I put on 1/2 a pound last night and been considering why it happened. I wondered if I guesstimated syns too much and went over but I think water retention from my op had a big part to play in it. Nevermind it was only 1/2 and that will come off next week no fear.

So this morning I woke up and decided to set myself a new challenge. A friend of mine did a week where she had 15 SF a day and I decided to give it a go and see what the scales say next week. I am now 4lbs away from 3 stone and I want that sticker in the next two weeks so I will work hard on this challenge.

I started the morning with a walk with Doug using my 'good' hand boy was it cold but it was a nice walk and I will be doing that each day as Rich has agreed to harness him up. I just have to remember not to use my left hand.

We got back from the walk and I decided I fancied an omelette which is a challenge when your hand is a bit buggered but I managed to crack the eggs and grate the cheese and the omelette was so good. I added onions, mushrooms and pepper (3 of my sf) and settled down with that, coffee and last nights Match of the Day (though unsure why I bothered damn you Arsenal do not drop a lead). 

 I then settled down to watch some films starting with The Woman in Black which I would give 7/10. Loved the book and play when I was at school so keen to see this. It was a good film though changing the ending annoyed me

I wasn't sure about Daniel Radcliffe as Kipps but he didn't do too badly although seemed a bit young to me. I need to pick the book up again I think.

The next film was The Cabin in the woods, good for me as it had the adorable Chris Hemsworth in it (google him its worth it) and it was a good film but I did sit there going what the hell most of the time.

Worth watching if you like the horror genre! It was then time for lunch

This is a cheese pie which was really good and simple to make, the recipe is as follows

1 pkt cheese and broccoli pasta

1 pkt cheese and onion smash (I used plain as had no cheese and onion)

3/4 pint boiling water

tub quark (I used blitzed up cottage cheese)

3 eggs

1 onion

salt/pepper

garlic granules or flakes

mixed herbs

Put pasta and sauce and smash in large bowl

cover with the boiling water let stand for a few minutes

beat eggs and quark together

add onion and seasoning to pasta mix

add quark and eggs... mix really well

spray quiche or pie dish with fry light

bake at 180 degrees for about 40/45 mins

test with skewer if you think its not set leave in oven for 10 mins but switch off heat

I had it with spinach, beetroot, red cabbage carrot and tomatoes so that was another 5 sf down.

I then settled down to Despicable Me which I was disapointed with and the disc messed up so I didn't watch the whole film

During the bit of the film I did see I had some blueberries and a muller

Not surprisingly around 4pm I got the munchies again and decided to use my HEB and have two hifi bars with my coffee.

I also settled down to watch my new obsession Downton Abbey seriously why did I never watch this before!

Dinner was more SF food and quorn roast which I love

The mush on top of the quorn roast was supposed to be gravy but didn't go as runny as normal. I make the gravy with mushrooms, onions and garlic fried off then blitzed. I then add a veg oxo with water and its very tasty.

I still have my syns and a healthy extra so I think I am going to have a hot choc and some garlic crackers and cheese if I ever move from Bondi vet (Dr Chris is so yummy and the animals on it are adorable). Doug isn't keen on this show and has spent most if it growling.

Tomorrow is payday so I will be spending money primarily on Rich as want to do his christmas presents and I want to get a few bits for Doug he is one spoilt pooch.

Frustration

I really hate not being able to do what I want when I want it. I tried to do something as simple as opening a tin and got really frustrated by it as I couldn't do it. Needless to say I threw a girl strop and then waiting for Rich to come home.

Food wise today was a hungry day for some reason I am not sure if it was a hangover from my red day yesterday but I had major munchies all day. Breakfast was simple but tasty. I love the Linda McCartney rosemary and red onion sausages and even better they are syn free. I had at one stage 10 boxes in the freezer but my stock is dwindling. Good thing is more places are doing it now.

See how well the pepper is cut...that was hard work but it was worth it. I chucked it in the oven with the mushrooms and sausages and it was very tasty. Big mound of baked beans too, I never used to like baked beans until recently.

I settled down to a few episodes of Red Drawf remembering again why I loved that show and then decided to continue my movies. I may be doing this a lot over the next few weeks as well as reading so be prepared.

My first film was Fallen I was drawn to it as it was about fallen angels and had the not so cute salvatore brother in it.

It was okay...the highlight was Gabe the talking dog but I did not like Paul Wesley as the lead he was far too wooden. That took me to lunch time and I had a craving for cheesy chips and beans so thats what I had. Apologies now for the flat square chips but hey I am down to one hand.

More mushrooms too, I love mushrooms so having them twice today was very good for me. I wasn't full after this and knowing that I didn't want to fall into the bad munchie trap I got a bowl of grapes and a yoghurt,

They were so tasty and set me up during my next movie which was Grown Ups.

Not a bad movie had me chuckling in places. By the time this had finished I had munched my way through my grapes and a massive mug of green tea. I then decided to try a horror/supernatural vampire film which I normally love. I went for Priest which is about priests who kill vampires and it was dull.

The boredom made me want to munch on something and I was very happy to look back over what I'd had and realised i still had two HE's left and no plans to use them in dinner (the other ones were cheese and milk in my coffee). I had a craving for a toasted cheese sandwich last night and it was still there today so thats what I had. It didn't go down well with Doug who adores cheese as I wouldn't let him have any.

I used the low low cheese toastie slices as you can have three for a healthy extra and it was so good.

I decided to pick a Ryan Reynolds film as my final one....mainly because he is hot but I have never seen a RR film I have disliked and the change up did not dissapoint.

It was very entertaining and had me chuckling till Rich got home.

I decided I wanted chickpea dahl loaf for dinner but it didn't turn out very loafy :( but boy did it taste good. If you have not tried it I'd recommend it as its so good

More SF on my plate and I think for the next week after wi I am going to try and have 15 per day it won't be easy but it may work well!

Anyway it is now time for a nice bubble bath and my book. I am still reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and would really recommend it. It is quite captivating

Movie day and less padding

Well I am now down to a smaller bandage so more mobile though I did discover chopping was very hard :( but got to keep practicing.

Today was not an ideal day on plan I went for a walk to the shop for milk and felt good that I walked past the cakes and crisps until I saw the new special k crackers and decided to try some you can have 21 for 5 syns..shame I ate the box :s anyway lesson learnt do not buy crisps as its your downfall.

So breakfast didn't really happen except for coffee

I also kept up my water today so hopefully the cristatrophy wont damage me too much.

Today I decided to do a red day and had some nice bacon and mushroom brunch muffins at lunch, I topped them with two HE's of cheese.

They were nice and filled me up till Rich got home at 7pm.

As I am off work for now I took advantage of the lovefilm, netflix and now tv free trials and had a tv/movie day. I started with Red Drawf one of my favorite shows

which cheered me up a lot. I then decided to start working through my film list. First up was Fright Night

Now this is a food/SW blog but I may as well tell you what I thought. I really enjoyed it I like vampire movies and this didn't dissapoint. Colin Farrell was good as the baddie he had the right look. After this I went for the cute Gnomeo and Juliet

Loved it it was so cute and I chair bopped to the Elton John soundtrack. Next I went for something scary Insidious

Needless to say I was glad Doug was with me as got the major heebie jeebies. I finished up with the lovely Taylor Lautner in Abduction

and you know what it wasn't bad. I have only seen Taylor as a werewolf but he did well in this and the story kept me interested. My favourite of the four was definately Fright Night and I need to watch the original now.

Dinner on red was tricky for me as I'm used to having whatever pasta I wanted. It did help me realise Im not a fan of meat anymore and I am going back to green tomorrow.

The meat is lamb tagine which asda do in a tin for 1.5 syns on red and EE. Rich had about 3/4 of the tin and I had the rest with stir fried veggies and 35g of pasta (uncooked weight). I am glad I experimented with red but I do prefer green. It may be handy for the days before weigh in if I want to cut my carbs but I need my cheese and pasta hehe.

Anyway Rich is watching QI which is making me chuckle but I keep missing the intelligent things Mr Fry says so I will end my rambles here. Join me tomorrow more movie reviews and food pictures!

Frustration and Crunchie bars

I didn't realise how annoying this one hand thing was going to be!! Tomorrow the big bandage is coming off so I should have more movement.

Foodwise I've had another good day I had another sausage and cheese sandwich but with mushrooms too was good!

Definitely kept me going till lunch which was magic soup but with added mushrooms

I love this soup so quick and easy to make!

I decided after to make a collage of my journey so far I can see the changes beginning

Dinner was a bung it in the pan and see jobby it was quorn lamb filllets baked beans mushrooms and courgettes with passata and garlic We topped it with mash and cheese and it was tasty

Rich had a crunchie for his pudding and wouldnt let me have any :( its okay i will have my fruit and blamange and not have any. Im keeping the syns low after fridays feasts. Rich is back to work tomorrow so hopefully I willl be good even without my monitor

One handed blogging

So yesterday I had my op yesterday so this blog is brought to you by one hand and me modelling a funky purple sling apologies for the scary look :p

I had a day off plan enjoying pop tarts (first time ever) and a curry. I got right back on the wagon today with a yummy sausage and cheese sandwich.

Inside is two Linda Mccartney italian sausages and three low low cheese slices was gorgeous and hit the spot.

Today has been a tv and sofa day but there was some excitement when the postie brought me this

I'm in love <3

Lunchtime then came and I fancied mushy pea curry and veg was so nice

That set me up for an afternoon of attempted to read a monster of a book

and then a very dull football game.

Dinner was mainly cooked by Rich though I assisted we had quorn swedish meatballs with a tomato sauce and pasta topped with more cheese

We had pudding after of fruit and a muller/jelly combo

Gorgeous and tons left for tomorrow deffo a new favourite pudding!

I'm now going to watch Elementary then bed I think

Work done until..........(who knows)

I think the clouds in this area are really upset today they are crying torrential rain and its really windy stupid weather. I don't mind a bit of rain but this weather is stupid!

Anyway today was my last day at work until I have recovered from my surgery and as normal it was busy. I also got some news which I was pissed off about...okay that is an understatement. It had the chance of being a mood that would lead me to the shops but I was good and didn't run out to get chocolate.

On to the food for the day now I decided that breakfast may be boring you a bit at the moment as I tend to have the same thing monday-friday. Today was no different 40g dorset fruit muesli with fruit and yoghurt but I decided to add some friends into the picture so it looks more interesting.

Meet Agent 47 and squeeze dog.

The morning flew by again and I had decided on something a bit different for lunch and one of my favourite green day meals.

Jacket potato beans and cheese, I chopped up the babybels and mixed it in and it was really good and filling. I had some fruit too for my superfree side of things.

Four o clock came round too quick today and I left a few things outstanding but its too late to worry about them. The walk back to the car was not nice due to stupid weather and when I got in I took Doug out for a quick walk before deciding to have a nice bath. I then got on with dinner prep. I really fancied sausage and mash however I think Rich went a bit mental on the mash on my plate but I ate it all up.

The sausages are the Linda McCartney italian ones (1/2 syn each). I had some syn free gravy with it which I make by firstly frying of some onions and mushrooms then blitzing them into a puree. I then add veg stock and garlic and simmer it until its nice and thick. I really like this gravy and made extra for the freezer. The mash has half a tub of low low in it so it was nice and cheesy.

Rich had a gorgeous sticky toffee pudding with custard afterwards which made me fancy something sweet and whilst I wanted to wrestle Rich to the ground to steal his pudding I decided to be a good girl and have a rocky road hifi bar for 3 syns.

That brings my total for the day to 5.5 syns. The jacket pot is 1 syn (Mccain frozen jacket potato) and I used the felippo oil which is 1/2 syn for 7 sprays.

I'm going to be having an early night tonight as we need to be at the hospital at 7.45am. I'm not sure if I will be blogging tomorrow but I am sure I will ramble over the weekend. I am relaxing in front of the TV watching Dallas now nice bit of trash TV to finish the night.

Loserville and warnings

Okay first things first I had weigh in tonight and I lost an amazing 5lbs!!! I am over the moon as I worked really hard this week. I've now lost 2 stone 10 1/2 lbs. We did a weigh and run as my friend went to visit her mum (who best get better soon otherwise I'm doing my stern face) and I wanted to watch Arsenal. Next week I want my 3 stone award :D

Today was my penultimate day at work before my Op so I decided I wanted to get in early to organise my filing cabinet (it was not alphabetical and it was bugging me) and generally crack on except I had a bit of a dozzy morning and I blame the rain! I left my pass in the car which I realised after a 20 minute walk in the rain so I had to go our other office to get let in so in the end I wasted 15 minutes more sleep wandering around! Anyway I finally got to my desk and got my morning coffee and breakfast on the go.

You get to see a bit more of my desk here including my cute family picture. But breakfast was fruit and dorset fruit cereal and a muller which is my favourite breakfast. The water bottle is 1 litre and I got through two of those during the day.

My coffee consumption was low today which is unusual and I was quite peckish by lunch time. Now I had planned another pot of cauli cheese soup but when I defrosted it the amount looked pathetic so I added some pasta too it.

It was okay but not the nicest lunch I've had but the soup is a winner as a soup and a sauce so next time I will make a bigger portion.

Dinner....well there won't be a picture of that except for this

Yes we had a naughty weigh in treat but I only managed half of my normal amount and didn't enjoy it as much as normal. 

I am now going to enjoy the football and read the two new SW books I got tonight. I got little book of soups and extra easy meals in minutes. I don't do extra easy but I can tailor the meals for my green days I am sure. 

Copying the worlds of Lynyrd Skynyrd Tuesday Gone...

Which means tomorrow is weigh in day and I hope my hard work pays off!

Anyway today has been a good day in the sense that I had a productive day at work but also a realisation that after my op I need a night out as I got excited about a new shelf in the cabinet....I have a lot of files and they have to be done in a certain way and I was running on space! Only two more days left at work so going to try and get in earlier to make sure everything is up together.

Food wise it was another good day, I didn't take a picture of breakfast as was too busy eating it as I was hungry. I had my usual mug of coffee and then I had 40g of Dorset fruit muesli with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries and a yoghurt all mixed up.

Lunch came before I had time to breathe or go to the toilet (I was bursting haha) and I had similar to yesterday

The soup today was cauliflower cheese soup which is gorgeous. The soup was 1 syn but so worth it and I will be having the same tomorrow. My cute lunchbag is also in the background.

The afternoon was busy and unusual one of my client's has decided to call me babygirl which is kind of odd considering I am her legal representative but its also sweet as she is nice and its better than being shouted at.

So after a walk back to the car I came home to be greeted by the lovely Doug waiting for his walk, so I was happy to oblige. Some people have Christmas lights up already and its not yet December! When we got back and I got into my comfy pj's it was time to start prepping dinner as we were having spinach and cottage cheese cannelloni which is a firm favourite. The recipe makes so much though that we made three dishes of it so two have gone in the freezer. I was on a bit of a cooking frenzy so I made up two portions of fish pie. I'm not sure if I am going to like it as I'm not keen on fish but it had been in the freezer for so long I figured Id better use it. I used garlic and herb philli and chucked in some mixed veg and mushrooms. I am trying to be prepared for next week as Rich will be doing most of the cooking whilst I am recuperating.

So dinner was gorgeous I even had garlic bread using a WW petit pain for 6 syns.

I fancied something sweet after so I had a bowl of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries with a vanilla and chocolate sprinkles muller. It satisfied my craving and now I am relaxing watching Greys Anatomy.

Hope everyone reading is well tonight :D thanks for getting to this bit of the blog and still reading

Tell me why I don't like Mondays....

To be honest I don't mind Monday's too much except today where I woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep properly. It was really annoying so I was feeling quite sleepy.

Anyway when it was time to finally get up and go to work I packed up my food and was cheering myself on my walk from the car to work with some My Chemical Romance. I had forgotten I liked them so much so it was nice to plod along to some of their music.

Now like anyday I need to start it with coffee so cue a picture of coffee stuff

Yes we have three coffee making machines if you include the kettle but isn't the kettle so pretty. The little pots are douwe eggberts coffee and they come in vanilla, hazelnut and caramel and they are gorgeous and at 2 calories per tsp they are classed as syn free.

So enough of the cute purple kettle onto breakfast which monday-friday takes place at my desk.

More coffee in my lush harley mug that my lovely Rich brought me my fruit and yoghurt pot and one of my magic muffins which are magic pancakes as muffins. I had three which kept me going for quite a while.

Before I knew it the morning had flown by and my pile of work was not dissapearing (I swear we have imps we add work to my pile when Im not looking). My tummy told me it was lunchtime and thankfully the clock agreed so cue another picture but this time from a different section of my desk.

Don't the sections of my desk look tidy..the massive piles are hiding ;) In the bowl in magic soup a very simple but tasty soup it is one tin of carrots one tin of chopped tomatoes one tin of baked beans and cook them up. Then blitz with pickled eggs it does taste similar to heinz which I like. I had my fruit and my babybel too whilst enjoying my current book The night circus by Erin Morgenstern its very good and I would recommend.

The afternoon went even quicker talking to clients and generally being busy. I've only got three days left before I am off for my op so the pressure is on to clear the work as much as possible.....so 4 oclock came and it was time to head home via Asda for the essentials I managed to forget saturday when the shopping came (why does that always happen). I got home to the lovely Rich and Doug and took Doug out for his walk. I then decided to have a bit of a bubble bath and read my book for a bit before cracking on with dinner.

Dinner meant experimentation time I wanted to try Meatazza which I made with quorn mince and it was really tasty. The recipe is as follows

750g extra lean mince (I used 350g of quorn mince as it was just for the two of us)
2 eggs
Garlic
Parsley
Can of tomatoes
Tomato puree
Mushrooms
Cheese

You mix the mince with the eggs garlic and parsley. I also chucked in some paprika and onion granules.

You mix the tomatoes and puree together (I had no chopped toms so used passata) and spread it on top

Add your mushrooms (and other veg of your choice)

Top with cheese and bake for 25 mins at 200.

I really enjoyed it, it was a nice change from the normal food we have and quite filling too. I had mine with a salad Rich didn't as he hates veggies and has to force them down.

Here is the finished article and my dinner plate

Hiding under the spinach is a lot of beetroot which I adore.

I'm finishing off the night with the rest of my low syn cake a flump and a hot chocolate but I struggling to get to 5 syns today as I am genuinely full. I won't force any after saturday as I want to stay focused.

I'm looking forward to wednesday weigh in already I hope its a good result :D

I can't think of a reason to lose weight other than clothes right now so I will instead show you my pretty skirt which I will be wearing soon