Timewarp

I love today mainly because it's payday! This means food shopping and not squinting when looking at your balance so you don't have to face how rubbish it is. It also meant that I could go and pick up these beauties

Me and my lovely friends Tracy and Jen are off to see The Rocky Horror Show in August. I cannot wait got to start planning my outfit!

Food wise today has been a bit of a fail day, a combination of poor variety and a massive case of the can't be arsed when we got home.

Breakfast was a bit different than my normal (well except the coffee part)

I had 35g of bran flake yogurt flakes and a yogurt on top. It was nice and tasty I shouldn't really neglect my other cereals hehe. 

Unfortunately I did get mid morning munchies which isn't normal for me so I dug into my fruit supply

More coffee....I do drink a lot though and a nice clementine. I am fussy with oranges and this current batch are tasty but so many pips! 

Lunch was where it went slightly wrong, as I was going to pick up the tickets I decided I would pop into the tesco on the way back and pick up some nice vegetable sushi. Unfortunately both tescos on my route back to work only had fish sushi so I decided then to try out this healthy place opposite work called Friska but nothing grabbed me so I ended up going to a sandwich shop. It took me far too long to pick a sandwich too 

Unfortunately it was brown bread not wholemeal which is annoying, inside the sandwich was salad leaves and then roasted red pepper, spring onion and cheese. A little on the synful side but also lots of superfree.

On the way home I ran into Asda to pick up some essentials and then pick rich up from work. Then unfortunately lazitus kicked in...the worst thing for a slimmer to have especially when they don't have something quick and simply in the freezer. We ended up with takeaway which is naughty I know but I will bear this in mind for the rest of the week

That's all from me for tonight, a full shop has been ordered to pick up tomorrow (doing a mitchy and using click and collect for the first time) and then a poundland adventure as mikado is bargainous there

Of to bed to start my new book I think night night all xx

Happy humpday

A quick blog from me tonight as had a late one at group and now I am done with dinner I will be heading to bed soon but had to share with you all that I lost 1.5lbs tonight. 

It's an odd one as yay great on the loss but I really wanted more this week us slimmers are never happy ;) I must admit I walked into group feeling nervous as I had felt so bloated all day. I don't think eating late agrees with me so I am glad Rich has finished his 12-8's now. I think this week my aims are even more superfree and more water/green tea. Hopefully next week will be another good loss. I'd love to hit my 4 stone by my birthday on the 20th.

Food wise today well Wednesday's are always a bit difficult as you don't want to eat too much before weigh in but don't want to starve yourself!

Breakfast was 35g porridge with yogurt and kiwi fruit and of course coffee!

Lunch was some magic soup with three babybels and some fruit

I won't show you tea as it was utterly disgustingly naughty! 

Tomorrow I will be grabbing lunch from a shop as we don't have anything in so I am making sure I have my app ready to pick the best options. 

On that note bed for me I want to finish up my book and get a decent night's sleep....needless to say I will likely be reading into the wee hours

Night night all

Sparkle sparkle happy times

I am in a proper good mood right now my friend has just sent me a picture of 'the dress' the one I had pictured and its so perfect....cue much excitement and chat with my lovely friends about how gorgeous it is. I would show you all but then groomy may see it. Though me and mitchy are discussing him moving out so i can wear it all the time ;) though she has made the good point I'd miss him so I guess I will just have to wait ;)

I also got some other good news today which I will share with you all in the next few days suffice to say for once I'm a proper happy girlie. Tomorrow is weigh in and I'm looking forward to seeing how my hard work has gone this week and I hope last weeks gain has gone.

I will start with the normal workday food

Dorset fruit muesli with berries and yogurts sad face time as this was my last portion until I go shopping :( I do not know how this happened but I suspect it is due to the same thief who steals my mushrooms and eggs! They have all gone too :(

I managed to get my post it note of stuff I needed to do straight away and started working with the mututations too....honestly it is a beast and growing by the day!

Lunch was a bit different I decided to make up some soup last night that I had not had in a while and I knocked up some magic soup. Its so so simple it is a tin of tomatoes, tin of carrots and a tin of baked beans. You cook that off then blend with a pickled onion thats the magic ingredient! I added some lentils to mine too and a few herbs and spices

The soup was gorgeous and made enough for a few lunches. I also had some lovely ryvita crunch as my healthy b and fruit. This kept me going through the afternoon and once 4 oclock hit I headed home to see Doug and take him out.

Me and Doug went on a proper long walk today it was slightly unplanned but once he was out he was so happy and trotting around that we just stayed out and kept walking. All in all I have done nearly 5 miles today without really trying. It was blinking freezing though and when I got home I decided that a mahoosive coffee was in order

This beauty was 4 syns and my second healthy A I had an extra 100ml of milk plus 2tsp's of hazelnut syrup and it was worth it! It was good coffee and warmed me up nicely.

Dinner was a case of chucking whatever we had in the fridge and it turned out great

I had two quorn pork and apple sausages with carrot and potato chips, plum tomatoes cooked in the oven and baked beans with spinach. Considering how lacking our supplies are I managed a good quota of superfree there and felt very satisfied. 

I am going to end the blog now and head to bed a lot later than I had planned but things have got in the way this evening. I will let you all know how weigh in goes tomorrow

Night night all x

Moo Moo Monday

Regular readers of this blog will know I dislike Monday's I usually wake up far too tired and today was no exception. What made it worse was it was my first day back after last weeks irritating bug so I knew I'd be going back to a massive pile of work. I trotted into work and was right and felt quite deflated almost instantly but I powered through and actually made a dent in the pile. 

Now this will be a short blog as I've currently got Doug sitting on my lap and he is not appreciative of me trying to blog when he wants to snore. I can't resist his cuteness plus The Lost Boys is on tv and that movie is amazing!

Breakfast was a bit of a standard work day fair

40g of Dorset fruit with berries and a shape yogurt. Of course washed down with a coffee how else could I start my day! Once this had been nommed and I chatted to a few people I start working through the stupid mutating pile! Honestly you know the calories in the wardrobe that shrink our clothes well they have friends who increase workloads!

Lunch came rather quickly as I was busy beavering away and I realised that I had left my babybel at home which was rather sad so lunch was missing one item but still was great and filling

A freezer find of broccoli and blue cheese soup plus some plum tomatoes, clementine and apple. The book was for reading now eating incase you think I have gone a bit mad ;).

Once 4 o clock hit I headed home to be greeted by the lovely Doug wanting his walk. We headed out into the nasty cold weather and had a nice walk. Oddly Doug was relatively quiet when we got home and decided he just wanted to snuggle so once I had made some soup for the next few days we did that until we had to venture out to collect Rich from his penultimate dumbass 12-8 shift. I don't like these shifts as I tend to get far too hungry waiting for him to finish and it can be a danger zone but as I am quite in the zone this week I was okay. 

Lunch was a quick meal of cheesy goodness

I cooked some orzo and added to this mushrooms that I had fried off with garlic and some swedish quorn meatballs. I then added garlic and herb philli the babybels I didn't have from earlier and a laughing cow triangle. The meal was 5 syns in total (for the oil and garlic cubes in the mushrooms) and was really tasty. 

Once this had been consumed and I helped Rich setup his laptop again after it had been repaired I needed a sweet treat so went for a rocky road hifi bar. They are so tasty

That's Monday done and dusted and its time for me to head to bed with my book and get some shuteye. I will try and make tomorrows blog more interesting ;)

Pudding!!

Whenever I think of the word pudding this clip comes to mind (this link better work)

Now Supernatural is my all time favourite show and I adore Dean Winchester especially when episodes like this happen! 

Today has been relatively unproductive yesterday whilst going through the sky + box I decided to make a start on watching The Following and promptly got hooked. I was a bit too tired to watch more than two last night so spent today catching the other five we had recorded and chatting to my partner in crime Mitchy who I owe a big thanks too as she kept me cheery today when there was a danger the emotional vampire would suck me dry again. Why oh why are some friends so lame and nasty?? Thanks also to my Jen Jen for being Jen x 

Right onto the noms of the day

Nice cheese omelette to start the day with peppers, mushrooms, onions and spinach. The old stomach seems happier today less ouch which is good.

Lunch was kind of a chuck what I had in the fridge and freezer into a pan and see what comes out...it ended up a sort of carbonara type dish

I added some quorn ham to the mix and 75g garlic and herb philli. It went down well. I wanted to follow this up with a sweet treat so made a fruit salad with yogurt.

I am polishing my halo big time at the moment! I am hoping it will pay off on the scales Wednesday!

As it's Sunday I wanted some sort of roast dinner and a pudding! Now the roast is brought to you by the face of Doug

I had two of the quorn pork and apple sausages which are amazing with lots of veggies sw roasties and my homemade free gravy. Now whilst this was amazeballs it was trumped by the pudding we had after

Absolutely gorgeous steamed ginger pudding with homemade custard. The custard is really simple the heat 250ml of milk (I used skimmed) until it is hot, you add to this a mix of two egg yolks 1tbsp sweetener and vanilla essence. You then stir until its cooked and coats the back of the spoon. 

The pudding was just as simple to make and its gorgeous. I will be nice and give you the recipe too so you can all share in the gorgeous noms

Ingredients (makes 4)

• Low calorie cooking spray
• 4 level tbsp reduced sugar apricot jam (I didn't have any so used orange marmelade)
• 2 eggs, separated
• 25g golden caster sugar (regular works well too)
• 4 tbsp sweetener
• 75g self-raising flour
• 3 tsp ground ginger ( I had none so just added more allspice)
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• 1 level tbsp finely chopped stem ginger

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas 6. Spray four individual
   pudding basins with low calorie cooking spray and place in a deep
   roasting dish. Spoon 1 tablespoon of jam into each of the basins.
2. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and sweetener until pale and fluffy. Sieve in the flour, ground ginger and allspice and stir to mix well.
3. Whisk the egg whites until softly peaked and fold into the egg mixture
   with the stem ginger. Spoon this into the prepared basins, cover with
   baking parchment and foil and pour boiling hot water into the roasting
   dish to come up halfway up the sides of the basins. Place in the oven
   and steam for 20-25 minutes or until just firm and springy to the touch.
4. Put a plate over each basin and invert to turn out the puddings.

This took me up to 11 syns today which is a little higher than normal for me but it was so worth it to have this amazing pudding.

I am heading back to work tomorrow and slightly dreading it because of the amount of emails I know I am going to have to read through and the general amount of work but I am happy my stomach is virtually back to normal now.

And on that note I will love you and leave you all night night xx

Arrow Arrow and TV rage

One of the most annoying things when a book is made into a film or TV show is when some bright spark decides to completely change the plot. I have just finished reading 666 Park Avenue and enjoyed the book a lot so was intrigued to see how they would do the show. Unfortunately they have changed virtually every element of the book including the main characters relationships and the family. So far the only things they have kept is the female leads name, the location of the apartment and the name Doran but they are completely different. 

Today has been a pretty lazy day much mooching on the sofa reading and chatting with Mitchy about some amazing things such as Cheshire cat tattoos and unicorn hoodies. I also spent the day polishing my purple halo because I had another slimming world halo day. After last week I have actually found it relatively easy to get back on the purple knight bus (seriously Mitchy we need to make this happen). 

Young master Doug slept in the bed last night (he does this most weekends) and he did not wake me up early for once. He woke up a human time and sat on my head until I felt like getting up. Once he was sorted I decided to make a start on breakfast

My Little Pony spaghetti (our last tin sad times) with two tesco meatfree lincolnshire sausages and a mix of spinach peppers and mushrooms. My stomach appeared to like this food so hopefully it's on the road to recovery.

The morning flew by with a little bit of plants vs zombies too and it got to lunchtime and I decided good old cheesy pasta was going to be needed

I stirred in three laughing cow blue cheese triangles and it was very tasty! Once this was nommed down I decided to add more superfree to the mix and have a fruit salad

Me and Rich attempted some D.I.Y but we are not good at this so the project was abandoned and instead Richie had a lie down and I watched Soccer Saturday and guess what.....for once no miserable Kaz today as Arsenal didn't lose! Once Rich got back up he wandered to the local shop as we have managed to get through 30 eggs recently so I required more and he was a sweetie and went and got them. He also came back with this little goody

I love Relentless and Monster so I am very pleased they do diet versions of these!

Now dinner I am very impressed with just because it looks so so nice

A quorn mince lasagne with a white sauce made from cottage cheese and then a double healthy extra of cheese on top....today has been a cheesefest! The mushrooms were placed to help me know whose portion was whose. It was packed with lots of veggies and lentils and was one of the best I've made. Me and Rich settled down to catch on Arrow (amazing show based on Green Arrow). 

Once this was eaten and we had an add break we wandered off to find some sweet treats and I was kind enough to share my kit kat chunky chocolate fudge flavour with Rich. 

I made this bit of chocolate last for ages and it was a nice sweet treat. Rich nommed his much quicker hehe

So thats today all done I will inevitably be watching some more TV then heading to bed with my book after

The three stages of nom nom

Today's title has been brought to you courtesy of Rich who just explained to me the three stages of dumbass...its something to do with trying to chat to a friend via his gaming mike without a. taking the mute off and b. not connecting it to the wire! He is currently playing Aliens with his mate and they are discussing tactics....which I don't understand but the game is a bit scary! There are Aliens (as in the film with Sigourney Weaver) and they are usually hiding somewhere and then they jump out. Okay so you now have an insight into my world. Doug is snuggled in my slanket and snoring away and I am watching the awesome How I met your mother. We have just finished watching Skyfall which was legen....wait for it....dary! Okay so you may not get that joke if you have never seen How I met your mother but its funny.

Am I rambling? I haven't been in the company of other humans much this week due to my dumb stomach so I may be going slightly mad....

Okay so the boys are now discussing who has a mohawk.....this seems far to complex a game for me so I am going to simpilise it (is that a word) and say big bad aliens go bye bye with guns. Oh and keep running around!

Okay so onto the food of the day I have been working hard at slimming world angeldom and trying to stay firming on the newly created Knight Bus....its purple and has mikado diet drinks and plush sofas that you sink into!

Okay so breakfast was inspired by the lovely Miki who had a scrummy breakfast of beans and spinach on toast. I decided to add some mushrooms to mine and walla

This was gorgeous!! Infact this may have to become a regular not at work breakfast. 

Me and Doug did pretty much what we have done all week sit on the sofa and watch Friends. I also read my book too which whilst I have adored the other Sookie Stackhouse books (aka True Blood for those who watch the show) this one is currently missing the spark. It may be a case of a series going on for a bit too long but I'm going to persevere with it. I got peckish again and it was lunchtime so I got to work on making some noms.

Cous Cous quiche again but with more beans and spinach and some butternut squash I want to call them chips but they were more random bits of butternut squash.

My appetite seems to be coming back because by dinner time I was getting pretty hungry. We had decided on mayflower curry tonight with rice and I packed mine with lots of veggies

I adore mayflower curry its so tasty 28g of powder is 4 syns and I tend to add about 250ml of water as I like it more saucy. The rice was cooked with a curry oxo and I made it pretty in a little round shape. All in all a good and yummy looking meal.

As my appetite seems to be back to normal (touch wood) I had a yummy pudding too. 

Okay so this awesomeness was made as follows

Two alpen bars (HEB) crushed and pushed into a pot then nuked in the microwave for 30 secondsish

I then broke up a big flump (1.5) syns and put that on top of the alpen mix
Then covered it in yogurt and melted choc philli (4.5 syns)

I popped some berries on top and it was gorgeous. I miss nutella so the choc philli does work well but I was informed tonight by my lovely friend charlotte that tesco may do mini pots of nutella she is going to investigate for me 

So thats today done and dusted I think soon I will be crawling to bed with my book and hoping its a darn sight warmer in bed! Stupid -1 winter weather. 

Night night all xx

Ode to my stomach

In the words of Kelis I hate you so much right now....some of you may not be familiar with this song but its appropriate right now. For those who do not know the song here it is.

Unfortunately I woke up feeling as crap as yesterday just when I thought maybe my stomach liked me again it seems it hates me still so I had yet another day of work. Not ideal considering the pile of work that will be building up but I don't think my team will like me infecting them too. 

My aim for today was to see how I coped with a full day of on plan food and this seemed to work food wise....unsure whether my stomach will appreciate it. The lovely Mitchy kept me entertained during today with our multi platform chats about all things awesome. I also spent the day watching multiple episodes of Friends and cuddling Doug

***Quick nostaligia break there whilst I am discussing the need to go and see the big reunion tour***

Right where was I, okay so food today I started with something nice and simple

Hello Kitty spaghetti on toast. It was nice and just what I needed this morning.

Once I had this I settled down on the sofa and hoped it wouldn't make me regret it. It was lunchtime before I knew it and I decided to have something a bit substantial and had another portion of cous cous quiche and speed soup which was nice and filling

The afternoon was pretty much the same as the morning with a bit of reading mixed in. For dinner we tried a new recipe sticky chicken but with quorn it was tasty and we will definitely make it again

I ever so slightly burnt it but it worked quite well

The quorn was marinated in 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 1.5 tbsp honey and 1.5 tbsp with balsamic vinegar. You cook it until the sauce goes sticky. I did mine with some roasted veggies and potato slices. My portion was 1 syn which is just for the honey.

I managed a snack tonight as still had a healthy b left so decided to have peanut butter on toast and it was worth the 8 syns for this as it was gorgeous

I need more peanut butter in future I think it was gorgeous. 

I'm heading off to bed in a bit with my book and I will continue glaring at my gurgling stomach :( night night my lovelies

Getting sick and the gain

Sorry for my blog slackness yesterday unfortunately I have been struck down with the stomach lurgy and not been feeling too chipper. I am unsure yet if its a bug or stress related IBS but either way my stomach hates me right now. I have not been at work this week but I want to get back tomorrow lets hope the stomach behaves (glares at stomach).

Tonight I wombled off to weigh in and faced the scales. I knew I was going to gain and had already made my peace with it as I knew I was going to gain. I gained 2.5lbs this week which means I have now lost 3 stone 5lbs. I will get that off next week without fail and more. I have the week planned out and my head righted. 

So food wise it has been a bit limited the last two days as I have not had the biggest appetite. Infact yesterday I didn't have breakfast so we will skip straight to lunch

A nice portion of cous cous quiche (love this stuff) packed with lots of superfree veggies.

Dinner was an attempt at SW Chow mein (brought to you courtesy of Doug)

It was really simple to make, I mixed 100ml soy sauce with a tsp of Chinese five spice and some garlic. I cooked the noodles then added the soy sauce mix to them and let them soak. I fried off mushrooms, onions, carrot, pepper, leeks and some quorn chicken pieces. Once they had cooked through I mixed in the noodles. It was very quick and easy to make and really yummy so I will be making them again.

I woke up this morning not feeling fab so once I had called work I headed back to bed. Once I got back up again I decided to try something more substantial and have breakfast

Good old magic waffles with fruit and yogurt. It went down okay but my stomach still felt odd.

I spent most of the morning watching Friends and trying to make sure my breakfast stayed put. I felt peckish again at lunch so had another piece of cous cous quiche and a little pot of cucumber and beetroot

It went down well and for a little while my stomach felt happy :)

No picture of dinner we did our usual treat night and I am currently regretting it as now feel crappy again. Think it will be time for bed soon with my book.

Before I do leave you though I just wanted to publicise some brilliant blogs which I'd recommend everyone reads (if you don't already)

http://www.theslimmingworldfiles.com

http://www.weightlossbitch.com

Lazy day and seeking onederland

Today has been the laziest day on record for me, I enjoyed my day off doing very little though I did travel from Manchester to France and soon I am off to New York from the comfort of my sofa. Today I have mostly spent watching this show

and reading this book

My mood was still not perfect today (big thanks again to Jen and Mitchy for being awesome friends today) and despite prepping the oats to make magic waffles I didn't want breakfast once I got back from dropping Rich off so I just settled for a lot of coffee and water. I unfortunately broke my lent agreement turns out I cannot give up caffeinated coffee so instead I am changing the rules and giving up treat nights. I don't need them and they are possibly now stunting my losses so once I have got weigh in over and done with Wednesday (and that wont be pretty). 

I did manage to have some lunch which was a very lazy affair I chopped up some mushrooms and added some mixed veg to a pasta n sauce and then added a pot of low low for two healthy extras. Cheesy pasta is good when you cant be bothered

Lazyitus was still very present at dinner time and I got Rich to help me make it as I couldn't be bothered to do anything. We settled on an omelette and sausages which went down well. I put some courgettes and mushrooms in mine

Once this has gone down this did peek my appetite for something sweet so I went for an old favourite alpen bars, marshmallows and a yogurt all mixed it. It hit the spot.

I am going to leave you all with some motivation something I found missing this week, this popped up on my newsfeed on facebook and is a good quote. I want to get to onederland (anyone who watches biggest loser will know that is the point when you get into the 100's) I am getting closer each weigh in

Sunday struggles

Unfortunately Master Doug was not accommodating to the need for sleep this morning and decided he was bored so had to wake me up....this meant another early morning and a tired Karen. The good thing about today is Rich was due back from his trip home. The house is certainly quieter/tidier/less homely without him so I was looking forward to him being home.

After a lengthy chat with my lovely Jen this morning and my lovely Mitchy I realised the reason this week has been so tough for me...its back to the emotional vampire. This 'friend' has been pretty unfriendlike and unsupportive and recently it has got to me. Jen talked me through it and how to stop this person sucking me energy so much which helped me a lot. We all have people like this in our lives and we shouldn't let them get to us but we do.

Thankfully the girls sorted my head out quite a bit and I've taken some steps to remedy the situation. The afternoon was then filled with dodgy wedding/bridesmaid dress planning. Rich is going to dress as Batman I am wearing a dress made of wallpaper and my bridesmaids will be wearing a big pink meringue and a pineapple outfit (manda) and floral curtain dresses (suzy and jen)...its going to be the wedding of the century!

Right onto the noms of the day

A 3 egg omelette with peppers and mushrooms and a healthy extra of cheese.

There was a Friends marathon on TV so I settled down to watch that and read/cuddle Doug. I had originally had a plan of cous cous quiche for lunch but Mitchy's mushroom thief had taken all our eggs so I decided on wedges and mushy pea curry sauce and veggies

I think I went a bit ott on the superfree there but to be honest I needed it and it was gorgeous! The afternoon flew by and before I knew it I was heading off to the station to get Rich. I took Doug with me who was insane due to the people and experience, he loves meeting new people and getting fussed which he got a lot off. 

Once we were home and settled my thoughts turned to dinner and I was trying out another new recipe which was gorgeous and a success

This is a butternut squash, sweet potato and leek bake and it was yummy. The recipe is as follows

1 large sweet potato half butternut squash. Peeled and chopped into small pieces. Boil for 20 minutes.

1 large onion and one large leek chopped and fry with fry light for a 6 minutes. Add 200g of frozen peas cook for a further 5 minutes. 

Drain the potato and butternut squash. Place in with the onions and leeks mix well.

Place into a large oven proof dish arrange it so it's all even

300g of quark
4 garlic cloves crushed
1tsp dried chilie flakes or seeds
4 eggs
Whisk well and poor all over the potato etc

Grate some cheese all over 

Place in a pre heated oven 200 for 30-35 minutes

Completely free on green just need to sin the cheese but does make up to 6 people 

It was really tasty and filling and I will make it again. Unfortunately whilst this filled the big hole that is my stomach it didn't last long and I was getting peckish again so I decided to make a quick portion of slimming world chips nice and carby and yet free

No work for me tomorrow as I have another day off so I am planning to go and replace our missing eggs and thats about it. Night all