Saturday, 18 October 2014

Seafood Pad Thai

I love the Pad Thai from my local takeaway but it would be very point heavy as it's oily! I decided to make my own version and it was delicious.



Ingredients:

* 1 courgette (I made it into noodles using a julienne peeler)
* 1/2 carrot cut into thin batons
* handful of mange tout
* 2 baby corn sliced
* 2 small spring onions, sliced
* 1 clove of garlic, chopped
* 1 small piece of ginger, chopped
* 100g mixed seafood frozen

Sauce:

* 30g peanuts, slightly crushed
* 15g Crunchy peanut butter
* tbsp light soy sauce
* splash of fish sauce
* tsp chilli powder

Method:

1. Mix the sauce ingredients together with a desert spoon of water, set aside.
2. Heat the garlic, ginger and spring onions. Add the other veg and seafood.
3. Stir in the sauce and mix well.
4 after about 5 mins add the courgette noodles and stir well

Serves 1 (huge bowl) 9 points

Could also be served with shredded chicken or pork. 

Sunday, 12 October 2014

Portuguese Fish Stew

Oh my goodness, I can't tell you how yummy this filling, healthy and flavoursome stew is!



Ingredients: 

* 1 red onion, finely diced
* 1 large clove of garlic, chopped
* 1/2 red chilli, chopped
* 1/2 red pepper, roughly chopped
* 1/4 fennel bulb, roughly chopped
* 1/2 carrot, chopped (I did little sticks)
* 2 cod loins (or similar)
* 100g of mixed seafood
* 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
* 1 tsp tomato puree
* 1 fish stock cube (optional)
* 1 tsp cayenne pepper
* 2 tsps paprika
* 2 bay leaves
* 2 tbsps olive oil (I used one of basil infused and one chilli infused)
* 1 tbsp chopped coriander

Method:

1. Fry onions in 1 tbsp of olive oil until soft, stir in garlic and chilli.
2. Add in tomato puree, tinned tomatoes and fill the empty can with water. Stir together.
3. Mix in the carrot, fennel and red pepper.
4. Add the herbs and spices (except coriander) and the stock cube.
5. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes.
6. Cut the fish into bitesized pieces and add to the pan with the other seafood and the rest of the oil.
7. Stir gently and allow to simmer for a further 8-10 minutes.
8. Sprinkle over the coriander and serve.

Serves 2. 
4.5 Propoints per serving.

As with all my recipes, this can easily be adapted to suit your tastes. You can reduce the points by substituting the olive oil for spray oil, but I loved the oily taste and sheen it gives. You can omit the chilli if you prefer things less hot. Other vegetables could be used such as leek, butternut squash, courgette, fresh tomatoes, celery. I used to make a version of this when I was a poor student which only used cheap frozen baby prawns, tin of tomatoes, onion, garlic and paprika, so it's very versatile! 

Saturday, 20 September 2014

Roast Tomato Tart

This tart is really, really easy to make and tastes amazing. It could be easily adapted to suit what ingredients you have.


Ingredients:

1 pack of Jus Roll Light Puff Pastry
1 pack of cherry tomatoes
60g pesto (I used Tesco Low Fat Pesto)
2 tablespoons of capers
90g cheese (I used Tesco Lighter Grated Cheese - mature)
Black Pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220/200 for fan oven, apply spray oil to baking sheet.
2. Lay pastry sheet into baking sheet. Mine went slightly over the edges - it really doesn't matter!
3. Spread pesto over the pastry, leaving c1cm of pastry uncovered around the edges.
4. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and lay across whole tart, scatter capers, cheese and black pepper.
5. Cook for 20 mins until the tomatoes begin to blacken and the pastry is golden.

Serves 6 comfortably. I had it with a side salad for lunch.

5 WW Propoints per 1/6 of a tart (9 for 2/6)

Taking Pride in Oneself

I've been thinking today about looking after, and taking pride, in ourselves, inside and out. Before this WW journey, I didn't look after myself at all. The poor food choices are now obvious but the lack of pride I had in my appearance and well-being have been in my mind lately. I have a very good job and can afford nice things, however, I lived in crappy, often holey or shabby clothes, worn every day for months (they were regularly washed, I promise!) without regard for how they made me look or feel. I never did any more than shampoo and brush my hair, never wore make-up or looked after my skin. I allowed myself to live in squalor and never looked in a mirror. 

I am not a girly, girl. I never have been, nor do I intend ever to be one. I justified my dowdy look by saying I'm a tom-boy and care more about my thoughts and career than what I look like. However, since starting this journey, I've realised that my mental well-being is just as important as my healthy eating. Today, I had my hair cut, chose nicer clothes and put on some light make-up. The change in my self-esteem is immense. It was done for no-one but myself but it's working! 

I'm going to reward myself for each half stone lost with something to boost my self-esteem and help me to take more pride in myself.

0.5st = new make-up
1st = hair cut
1.5st = manicure and gels
2st = buy a new mirror

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Kayaking!

So, as part of my job, I had to take some children kayaking today. I've not been before and I was worried about the following:

- the life jacket not going around me
- being too heavy to get in the kayak
- the kayak sinking
- the children making comments

I needn't have worried! The life jacket was snug, but comfortable and the kayak was low in the water, but didn't sink! It gave my arms a good work out (well, one arm, it was a double kayak!).

Excuse the weird selfie. It's hard to watch over children and photograph yourself!


Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Weigh-In Wednesday

This week saw an amazing weigh-in. I lost 4lbs, bring my total to 1 stone 2 lbs! I'm so pleased. To be honest, I've found it very easy sticking to the plan. Earlier in the week, I was very tired and feeling down which I'm pretty certain was because I wasn't eating enough. I was eating no where near my points and wasn't touching my weeklies. Since then, I've upped my food intake and included more protein and fats (from milk, cheese and nuts). I feel a lot better. I'm still not really touching my weeklies but will try and eat more this week.

I treated myself to an Indian takeaway tonight, my first in six weeks (I used to have 3-4 takeaways per week). It tasted amazing and I've pointed it all! I had tandoori chicken half, cauliflower bhaji, salad and mint sauce. I'm planning on not having another takeaway until I lose 2 stone in total.

A great week!

Sunday, 7 September 2014

Exercise - aaaaaaah!



I took my measurements this morning, after four weeks of weight loss, and was really pleasantly surprised at the losses already. It got me thinking about exercise. I know how important exercise is to weight loss, stamina, organ health, mental health etc but I'm not really an exercise sort of person. I know I need to change.

I don't want to do too much too soon as I won't stick to it but am going to slowly introduce new fitness routines in bit by bit. As well as weight loss, I do want to tone up my body and increase my stamina and I know it will help with saggy skin and when I have fewer ProPoints, it will help with that too! I love swimming but have never really found anything that I enjoy. My doctor has advised against running (thank goodness!) and yoga as I have hyper-mobility and very damaged knees. I also work strange hours, so I never know whether I will finish work at 5 or 6:30pm. However, I can't make excuses. I want this whole health change and I therefore need to change to achieve it.

My plan: 
September: Two walks per week (at least 1 mile)
October: Two walks per week (at least 2 miles), 30 mins beginners aerobics (using YouTube videos) per week
November: One walk per week (at least 3 miles), 30 mins aerobics using YouTube videos per week, 1 swim per week (30mins)
December: 2x 30 mins aerobics using YouTube videos per week, 2x swim per week (30 mins)
January: 1 x higher intensity aerobics using YouTube videos per week, 2x swim per week (40 mins), 1 strength/ tone/ Pilates type class per week
February: 1 x higher intensity aerobics using YouTube videos per week, 1 x swim per week (45 mins), 1 strength/ tone/ Pilates type class per week, 1 x higher impact/ Zumba/ aerobics type class
March: maintain February
April: 30 day shred, 1 x swim (45 mins), 1 strength/ tone/ Pilates type class

I can't yet imagine myself beyond that! Obviously, my plans may change but I do like a plan!

I started off with a 1 mile walk today. It only took 15 mins 20 sec to do 1.09 miles and I burned 164cals according to Map My Walk. Not amazing but it is a big start for someone who has been a couch potato for over a year!