Full of Beans

It's summer (finally) and that means that mum's garden is now producing an abundance of fruit and veg. I called in on my way home from work tonight and came away with this bounty.

So, for my tea tonight, I'm having a medley of beans (french, runner and broad) with some pancetta and a bowl of lovely raspberries.

Mmmmm...

Tuna salad

OK, so this might look like the tricolour salad I made yesterday, but it's completely different!

Mostly, it tastes very different because instead of fresh herbs and lemon I made a Chinese inspired dressing. I used almost 1 Tbsp each of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and sweet chilli dipping sauce. Mix well, and pour over the salad. The dressing makes enough for two or 3 - I'll keep what's left for later in the week.

One of your Five a day

I've become a bit obsessed with books and TV programmes about healthy living, food and exercise. This is partly to educate myself about what's happening to my mind and body, and also so that I can separate myth from fact when it comes to claims and hype.

I watched a program last week about the "5 a day" claims that many manufacturers use on their packaging. Now I'm a big advocate of getting my 5 a day getting all of mine from fresh fruit and veg, so imagine how horified I was to find out that chocolate biscuits and fruit bread could be labelled as a portion!

It appears that the government logo for 5 a day (shown here) is very restricted in its use - the food must contain at least the equivalent of 80g of fruit or veg from the prescribed list, and only limited amounts of fat, sugar and other calories, whilst there is no restriction on manufacturers making up their own logos and adding them to any food containing fruit or veg - and they can label anything from 1/2 a portion (i.e. 40g fruit or veg) and can disregard the sugar and fat content.

So a manufacturers' claim that something "contributes to your 5 a day" doesn't mean it's a whole portion, or even that it's good for you! Very much a case of buyer beware.

If you want to see the program, it was in the Dispatches series on C4, and you can find out more here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/myths-about-your-5-a-day-reporter-feature

Well done to Jane Moore for brining this to our attention.

Salad days again

At last! The sun has come out and it's begining to feel like summer is here. And the things I love most about summer are fresh fruit and salad.

So here's tonight healthy dinner - tricolour salad. Not intentional, but most of the things in my salad drawer turned out to be red, white and green. If only there was more blue food, I could be more patriotic in time for the Olympics.

Tomatoes, red and green pepper, lettuce, cucumber, radish, spring onion, avocado and some fresh herbs made the bulk of the salad, with a little lemon juice and some chicken breast. Again, no carbs tonight - I think having carbs at luchtime rather than the evening is working, I'm certainly not hungry and don't feel full or bloated at bedtime.

Now I'm off to find some water - I'm sure I'm not drining enough anymore, ever since I stopped measuring my water intake it's been getting less and less, and I'm now probably having less than 1 ltr a day, so that has to be increased again!

Enjoy!

Back on the regime

Back on the regime and it's more Chinese inspired food for me.

I decided to go for a swim tonight, with an Adult's only swim session from 6-7. As it was about 5pm when I decided to go, I thought I'd prep dinner before I left so that I wouldn't be tempted to have a sandwich when I got back.

So this is what I left for myself - tuna steak (fresh from Bury market today, yum!) with lots of fresh veg and asian condiments.

I swam for about 30 mins - but much harder and faster than I used to. In one way, it's a bit more difficult than it used to be as I don't float as well now that I don't have an inbuilt lifejacket - but on the other hand I have much more energy.

I felt very virtuous when I got back home, and very glad that my dinner was almost ready - it took me about 5 mins to stir fry the veg and sear the tuna, which I rolled in 5 spice powder first for an extra kick.

The veg was bolstered by some fresh garlic and ginger, and then some oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and some fish sauce (1 Tbsp of each). No carbs, but with the protein of the fish it's very filling!

Holiday

Well, it's been a while since I posted, as I've been on holiday and busy at home.

We went to Sussex to stay with some friends we hadn't seen for 18 months - and I hadn't told them I'd lost weight, so it was great so see their surprised faces.

Being from Middleton, we had to visit Middleton-on-Sea when we saw it on the map, and here I am, by the town side. Apparently, I need to treat myself to a smaller windproof - this one is a size 20 and buries me!

The weather was kind to us, and we saw a fair bit of sunshine, and at least no rain to speak of, so we did lots of walking. It still surprises me how far and how easily I can walk these days - I can go for miles without getting tired and without my feet hurting. It's great!

The one thing about being on holiday though, is that you do tend to relax a little and let your hair down (and your guard!) I definitely had too many of these ...

Cakes, cream teas, home baking (curse my friend who is an excellent cook and baker!) which far outnumbered the calories burnt off walking the Sussex countryside - but hey ho! Thankfully, I don't go on holiday very often.

Back on the hard regime when we get home (after the scales).

Eating Healthily

Inspired by Gok Wan's new TV cookery programme, I've decided to make more Chinese food. It's tasty and healthy, and provided you get organised, it can be very quick.

Tonight I made Super Speedy Noodles with Pork. It took about 10 mins to prep (see photo of all the ingredients) and about 5 mins to cook - and it was very tasty! I made an extra dish of brocolli and beans, to boost up the green content.

I worked this out to be about 450 calories.

And this is the finished dish - it did look just like the picture in the book!

Afternoon tea

This week, the staff restaurant are doing "the best of British" to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. Today, it's the tea party.

As it's also my birthday, a few of us decide to have a tea party for lunch - complete with royal headwear.

Thanks to Lisa, who's missing from the pic as she took it, and to the restaurant staff, who excelled themselves, as usual!

Birthday treats

Today is my birthday, and it's customary in our office to bring in treats, usually in the form of cakes, sweets or chocolate.

Now I don't want to deter all the bikini concious dieters in our office (and there are many) so I've arranged a big platter of cut fruit. It's going down well, just had time to snap it before it's completely demolished!

Celebratory lunch coming up...

Desk Picnic

Had another desk picnic this week - jazzed up my salad into a tuna nicoise with some olives, tuna and boiled egg, and saved my banana for my afternoon snack.

Although it was lovely, it's actually much nicer on days like today when I can go and sit outside in the sunshine. I have a picture of that somewhere too - must find it for you...

In a stew

Rhubarb and Apple.

Finally, I have a freezer - having been without one for about 3 1/2 months, and I really missed it! So today I've made up a batch of stewed rhubarb (with sweetener, not sugar) to have on my weetabix or with yoghurt in the afternoon when all my fresh fruit has been used up.

I used 2x450g packs of rhubarb, so that makes 190 calories, plus 3 Tbsp sweetener making another 24 (214) and it made 7 little pots, so about 30-35 calories a pot (each little pot holds about 120g of stewed fruit).

I've also made some stewed baking apple - we're having pork for dinner, and I love a bit of apple sauce with it - this is made with lemon juice and sweetener, and will also go in the freezer for with pork, or with yoghurt. They work out about 40cals per 120g pot.

Now I just have to wait for them to cool down enough to go in the freezer...

Hey Presto

Hey Presto - fruit prepped and in the fridge!

I don't mix it, as it keeps fresher longer kept separate (especially with fruit like pineapple that "goes" quickly). When I'm ready to eat it, I just take the selected boxes out of the fridge and mix it in my bowl.

I didn't do both melons in the end - this looked like enough and the other one isn't quite ripe yet.
There's about 360 g in each of these boxes (they held 1 large mango, 1/2 pineapple, 1/3 melon each).

Calories per 100g:
Mangoes - 65
Pineapple - 48
Honeydew Melon - 36

So, a selection of about 1/4 or 1/3 box of each fruit (around 100g each) would be about 150 - 200 cals and would be plenty for a snack meal (I allow 200cals for breakfast and snacks, then 400 for lunch and 600 for dinner, making 1600 altogether).

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.

Beautiful Day

It's such a beautiful day, I couldn't resist having lunch outside today - we're lucky that our staff restaurant has a garden area, with picnic tables for al fresco dining.

And the omelettes and salad are really tasty too - one of the busiest days in the restaurant is omelette day!

Sea Bass

And to follow the pea and ham soup, some sea bass, with boiled new potatoes, asparagus and sugar snap peas.

It was lovely!

Company for Dinner

My niece came for diiner tonight, before we went to a comedy gig. She's also watching her weight, so low cal all the way tonight.

This is homemade pea and mint soup, with some crispy pancetta on top (which is where all the calories are!)

I made it with shallots, sweated off with 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, then added a veg stock pot cube, some fresh peas and some boiling water - then cooking it until the peas were done. I added a big handful of chopped mint and blitzed with a stick blender until smooth.

In the meantime, I crisped the panchetta between two baking sheets (to keep it flat) in a hot oven for about 7 mins. You could skip the pancetta if you want to reduce the calories even more.

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.

Spicy Soup

Thought I haven't posted a recipe for a while, and just made this soup for lunch. I'm home from work today, so had a bit more time than normal. It's lovely and thick (which is how I like it, but you could water it down) and very filling.

Chop up a butternut squash into about 1" cubes, and spray with a little oil, then roast in the oven for about 40 mins at 200 degrees.

When the squash is almost ready, add 1/2 Tbsp oil to a pan, and gently fry 2 shallots with about 1" of root ginger and a garlic clove (both grated or very finely chopped). Add a little chilli (I used 1/2 tsp lazy red chilli) and once its all cooked add a vegetable stock pot. Stir it in, then add in the butternut squash. Add just enough boiling water to almost cover the squash and then cook for a couple of mins to let the flavours blend.

Tip everything into a blender (or use a stick blender in the pan) and blitz until smooth. Add more boiling water to get the consistency you like - being careful not to splash yourself with boiling hot soup.

Pour into a bowl and enjoy!

Depending on the size of your squash and how thick or thin you like it, it will serve 1 hungry person or up to 3.

I worked out the calories at about 300 (but it depends on the size of your squash, I based this on about 1 lb of squash weighed raw).