Sunday 21 February 2016

Fakin' it.

Years and years ago I bought Richy a session at an Indian cook school as a birthday gift. I picked the time and what he would be cooking because it needed booking before his birthday, so I was careful to pick something I liked the sound of (shocking!). It turned out to be one of the best gifts I have ever bought him because even though that was at least 5 years ago we regularly cook the chicken jaipuri curry and rice he made that day. It actually turns out to be very Slimming World friendly too once the oil is culled. The original curry recipe asks for 1tsp(!) of coconut milk but this can easily be swapped for yoghurt to keep it totally syn free.

It turned out this weekend has been a sort of fake away weekend. I fancied a curry on Friday so we made the Jaipuri which was excellent, and then nursing a slight hangover today I resisted the urge to phone a pizza or order a Chinese and made a chow mein. I'm not going to lie - a takeaway would have suited my mood better but in an attempt to redress the balance where last night's wine syns are concerned it was the better decision to cook something, and it suited my wallet better too.

Today's chow mein was about half a syn plus some sweet chilli sauce and was absolutely perfect for tonight. Here's what I did...

1.5 cooked chicken breasts, shredded and marinaded in 2 tbsp soy and 2 tbsp sherry
A handful of cooked prawns

4 cloves of garlic, sliced
A thumb size chunk of ginger, grated
3 spring onions, shredded

1 large carrot cut into thin batons
2 peppers thinly sliced
A handful of sugar snap peas sliced lengthways
1 medium onion thinly sliced
Half a bag of beansprouts
3 cards of noodles, cooked
Half a stock cube
Soy sauce & oyster sauce to taste

Sweat the spring onion, garlic and ginger for a minute in fry light.  Add a splash of water if it looks too dry.

Add carrots and onion, followed by peppers and sugar snap peas. Add the stock cube to a corner of the pan and add a splash of water (or sherry) to make a light paste and stir through. Toss through a couple of tablespoons of oyster sauce, chuck in the chicken and prawns, then the beansprouts..  then the noodles and mix well.

Add soy to taste and serve with sweet chilli sauce. 

This quantity served 2 adults and 2 kids and I have 2 portions leftover for lunches this week. WIN! :-) I didn't put chilli in it because my girls are wimps but you could easily add some in and obviously amend the veggies to suit what you have and like. This is quick, satisfying, cheap and versatile. I'm not reinventing the wheel here. It's nothing new and actually it's not a diet recipe.

These two dishes kept me away from the takeaway this weekend. It won't always be the way, I know, but right now I'm happy enough that this weekend hasn't been wasted.

Thursday 18 February 2016

Look at that face!

This is the face I pull when I don't get what I want. I was 3 here and 31 years later I still pull it (so I am told). In this case what I didn't get was a quick fix, but really, honestly... who does?

I know I have been a bit quiet about this (shocking!) but I have been back on plan for a couple of weeks now. First weigh in good (4.5lb) and second was a maintain. I should be upset about that but to be perfectly honest I had a takeaway, a lot of wine and a meal with friends. With cake. Hoping for that 2.5lb this week for my first new book shiney. 

Ahh... Remember the shineys? I am really looking forward to getting some book bling on the go as the pounds and inches go down. I've already dropped a couple of inches - it's amazing how quickly you can see results and to anybody starting their journey I would definitely say take measurements from the start. I know lots of people take them monthly but I do weekly and stick with it, taking a note on weigh day. The thing is your clothes might not show a difference and the scales might not either but chances are stuff is happening. I measure my ankle and wrist too and believe it or not they do show a difference!

Anyway that's all a bit dull so I'm going to leave you with that for today whilst I go and figure out what I am going to have for lunch tomorrow. I've got something delicious in mind for tomorrow's dinner though, so until then...

See ya, pals.