Lovely day out

On Saturday we had a bit of a family get together, and went to the Derbyshire Food Fair, and then out for dinner.

This is (from left) me, mum, big sis, middle sis, all standing outside the restaurant we went to in Chesterfield.

I amazed myself by not eating lots of samples or buying lots of food at the fair - I bought some tea, as I'm getting quite a taste for different teas now that I drink it black. I did have an ice cream though - but just one scoop, and not in a sugar cone, so it wasn't all bad!

It was a great day out, lovely and sunny and great company - just have to schedule in the next one now...

Fishcakes

We've been out all day shopping today - looking for a small table for the new kitchen. I was hoping to buy a second hand one, as I'd like it to be a bit distressed and homely. No joy though, everything we find is too large for the space we've got.

One of the places we visit (Holden Wool Antiques) has a lovely tea room, and since it was lunchtime, we felt it would be rude not too!

I had these very tasty smoked haddock fishcakes, which came with salad rather than chips, so I didn't even have to change the option from the menu for a change, which was nice.

How the other half live

Of course what I really fancied was the cheese and onion pie, with potatoes and cheese and chive sauce...

Although to be honest, I'm not sure I could actually eat that these days - but it looked popular - that hand sneaking in ended up with a fork in the back of it! "Touch my food, Feel my fork".

Tuna

And trying to stay on the healthy options, I then went with seared tuna, with sides of green beans and ratatouille. Eschewing the carbs drops the calorie count quite a lot - and with this much protein, lunch is quite filling anyway.

It was all delicious, and I'd had pleasantly enough by the time I'd finished...

Asparagus and Egg

We celebrated our photoshoot with lunch at Albert's (where else!). This was my starter, baked agg with asparagus.

I tried not to have too much of the hollandaise sauce, although it was lovely!

I'm so glad asparagus season is here, I love it! If you read this blog regularly, you'll probably see many pictures of those delicate green spears before the end of June.

Mother's Day Lunch continued

... as I then had lamb with hollandaise sauce!

Well, it was a special occasion, and this was absolutely delicious!

So I will be doing lots of exercise to make up for up (but perhaps not right now, need to let this settle first!).

Mother's Day Lunch

And of course, as it was a special occasion, I was to be found in Albert's Shed, with my mum and middle sister.

They had a special 3 course menu, and I started off with scallops with a lemon rissotto. It was lovely (as always) and very light. Which was just as well...

Chicken Salad

I was good, and stuck to the plan - here's my chicken and pancetta salad ready to be demolished!

Because I didn't have dough sticks, I had the option of adding something else, so I had some mediterranean vegetables, which were lovely. That increased the calorie value a bit, but still within my limit :-)

And I did have the tartufo for dessert - it was just a small ball of chocolate ice cream, but very intense and just the kind of hit I needed. I did take a picture but it's all fuzzy, so you will just have to imagine it.

We had an intersting chat about diets over dinner. My dinner companion (my niece) is doing the same diet at Sister#1, which involves two very low calorie days (650 each) then 5 normal days. Apparently in a Manchester University Study this proved the most effective diet for not only losing weight but keeping it off afterwards. They've both said they find it easier, as although their first two days are difficult (pretty well no carbs or treats) it's only for 2 days, and then they can have rice or pasta or a biscuit, so don't feel deprived.

They've only just started it - they're 3 weeks in - but I think I'll ask them to do a guest blog when they get a bit further.

Whatever you're up to, enjoy!

out again

So, you'll never guess, I'm out for dinner (again!).

I'm being quite conciencious though, and since we're going to Pizza Express, I've already viewed the menu and decided what I'm having.

Although they've introduced a new pizza menu with a selection of 500 calorie pizzas, it's not really my thing - not a big fan of pizza - so I'm going for a salad.

The great thing is that they provide a complete calorie breakdown on their website, including options for the salads. It's a bit tricky to find, seems to be a bit buried, so I've added the link here:
http://www.pizzaexpress.com/our-food/nutrition/calorie-tables.aspx

I will be having a pollo pancetta salad (I always used to have pollo verdure anyway, but they don't do that anymore) which comes in at 778 calories. However - here's how it breaks down:
- pollo pancetta - 778
- without dressing - 551
- without dough sticks - 530
- without dough sticks or dressing - 303

So, I'm going for the last option, but with some balsamic vinegar (about 20 cals).

My dining companion is also dieting, and she's having a no-carbs day today, so she's having the same, which should mean that we won't be tempted (strength in numbers!).

And if we're tempted by something for afters, I've already looked up the lowest calorie dessert - Tartufo al Ciocolato (chocolate truffle ice cream) at just 70 calories! So by not having dressing, I've easily saved enough to do that and still be within my limit for today - happy days!

I'll keep you posted!

Who's the one counting calories?

Out and about shopping with hubby today and we were in Ikea at luchtime.

Can you spot who's counting calories and who isn't?

My lunch worked out at 448 calories, but I know that apple cake is 330 calories, and the fish chips and peas is over 700 - so by having carrots instead of chips and clementines instead of pie, I saved around 600 calories! Whoop, whoop! And I still enjoyed it just as much.

Another day, another dinner out

Thursday night saw me back in Albert's Shed, this time with mum and sister#1. The staff at Albert's were so brilliant when I was doing Alizonne - making me special dinners and never letting me feel awkward or fussy - that I try and go there now whenever I can.

OK, so I still have to be careful what I eat - but the choice on the menu is great, especially because you can choose your sides.

This was my mains - seared tuna with salsa, with sides of butternut squash and green beans. No potatoes or other carbs, as I'd had the delicious rabbit gnocci for starter. I was pretty full, but had only had a salad for lunch and no afternoon snack today.

It was a great night - lovely food and great company!

Out for dinner part 2

... and for mains, a morrocan parcel of spiced chick peas with onions and sweet potato. All wrapped in puff pastry with sesame seeds on top. Really, really tasty. Closest guess I've got is somewhere just over 500 calories - good job I'd skimped at lunchtime to leave me lots of calories for the evening.

All washed down with some fresh peppermint tea. Lovely!

Out for dinner

My boss took me out for dinner last night, and since he's trying to avoid eating too much meat at the moment, we went to a vegetarian restaurant for a change (Green's in Didsbury).  It was amazing! Lovely food and friendly, attentive staff.

This was my starter, black pudding scotch egg with picallili. Don't ask me how many calories, because I can't find it listed anywhere, so I've approximated with an egg, some breadcrumbs and some picallili! I get that to just under 300 calories, but I could be wrong...

Out for lunch

It was a friend's birthday today so we went to our local pub for lunch. We both had mackerel and mash, with pineapple salsa. It was delicious, and I worked it out to be 665 Kcals (I counted 2 portions of mash, because it was a big dollop!)

The chilli really gave it a kick, and we had to go back to work, so we both had ice cream for dessert to cool us down. That added another 350 Kcals, making lunch a whopping 1,000 calories!

Still, I didn't have my mid morning snack, and certainly didn't need an afternoon one, so only had breakfast and dinner to add (weetabix for one, salad for the other) and so I still came in just under my 1500 cal target.

I wouldn't do this everyday (have the majority of my cals at one meal) but for a special occasion I think it's fine. And I did have a lovely time!

Out for dinner

I've been in London on business and out to dinner with some colleagues. I'm still officially phasing off, so really trying to stick to the phase 6 and phase 7 regimes.

As we were in an Italian restaurant, and I was avoiding carbs today, it was a bit tricky, but then I noticed this fish on the menu - seared cod loin with griddled vegetables - perfect!

It tasted delicious and just goes to prove you can stick to the plan when eating out.

OK, so I did deviate a bit by having a glass of wine with my dinner - this was a Christmas and celebratory dinner (we've just about finished a big project). Have to say, after my first glass of wine in 8 months, I was definitely a bit squiffy! And of course I savoured and loved every mouthful!

Potato!

Today was my first day on Phase 7 - and I can have potatoes! Great timing, as it was a pre Christmas dinner with my mum and two sisters.

We went to the catering college restaurant at Rochdale College, and it was lovely - I did eat my roast potato, but left the dauphinoise and the trimmings, but the turkey and veg were lovely.

C'mon Christmas!

TGI Fridays

We ended up going out for dinner after the Big Style Event on Saturday - and the nearest place was TGI Fridays.

I suspected this might happen, and so I'd checked the menu on the internet and didn't find anything that would suit, so I rang them and asked if they would do a steak with a simple salad. They said it would be no problem at all, just to ask and they'd be happy to do it.

And indeed they did. The steak was too big, so I cut it in half and had half in a doggy bag to take home (lucky cat!). There was loads of salad, and I was pretty full by the time I'd eaten mine, so didn't mind the others all having sundaes and cheesecake.

The tip here is to plan ahead if you think you might get caught out, then you won't panic. And if you're only planning on eating half your steak (or whatever) cut it in half first and push one half to the edge of your plate. Don't start eating it planning on stopping half way through - you won't be able to tell where half is once you've eaten some!

Enjoy - you really don't need to be a hermit!

Night at the Ball

Here's a better picture of me just before going to the Halle Ball on Friday. We had a lovely night - I felt fab, and got lots of lovely comments and surprised looks from people I hadn't seen for a while.

I was good and stuck (almost) to plan too! It was cheese and onion tart for starters, so I ate a bit of the filling, but not the pastry and left my bread roll.

Main course was lamb with roasted veg (carrot and parsnip) so that was all on plan, and I left the potato. I didn't have dessert, just some tea. Drank water all night and had a good dance.

Watching everyone else eat really doesn't bother me though, which still surprises me. I'm sure it's helped by the fact I had an afternoon snack about 2 hours before we went, so I wasn't really hungry anyway.

Still, more parties to come, let's see what else happens before Christmas.

Thin Dish

I read an article today about a service in California called Thin Dish. It's a website that lists the dishes of local restaurants that contain fewer than 600 calories. Users can print out a voucher for the dish and then get a discount for it at the restaurant. If you'd like to know more, here's the review I read - http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/a-guide-restaurant-dishes-600-calories/

This got me thinking that this would be really useful - at least a roundup of the dishes somewhere in a list. I know that the calories of dishes for restaurant chains are published (if you look hard enough or get a big calorie bible) but often small independent restaurants don't have this information.

That,of course, assumes you've got 600 calories to "spend" on your dinner.

Now, when's by Medgem test so I can find out how many calories I'm allowed...

Surf and Turf

Yes, I've been out again (I know, seems like I'm never in these days!). And yes, I was at Albert's Shed again - but why not, they're so great!

Tonight's treat - surf and turf with venison and prawns. The venison was beautifully cooked, just how I like it, and the prawns lovely and crispy on the outside and just right inside. It all looked and tasted delicious.

And to cap it all, my dinner guest hadn't seen me since Feb; her face when I met her at the train station was a delight! And she just kept staring at me (in a good way) and saying "I just can't believe it". I didn't even mind when she ordered a chocolate volcano for dessert (it did look good, and to be fair, I did encourage her too as she's a real choc-aholic).

So a lovely evening all round (thanks DC!)