Seven Week Odyssey to Skinny

Week one has started of my seven week odyssey - which is defined as "an intellectual or spiritual quest".  Actually, odyssey is maybe the wrong word but I have to make it seem like an adventure and not a miserable experience.  I want to diet to lose a stone in the next seven weeks or 49 days or at least an average of 2lbs a week.  Then if I get to that target I hope to go on and lose a bit more; but one step at a time.  Why I am doing this is, because I have prevaricated and messed about with it for too long now - starting and stopping after a couple of weeks with no target to aim for.  Plus by posting this on my blog I hope it will shame me into keeping it up and not giving up heart if I don't reach my target on time.

I am following the Weight Watchers Pro-Points Programme.  I have joined Weight Watchers a few times and have always given up in frustration at the nutritional advice they dole out.  The final straw last time was telling dieters to use an oil-concoction-replacement-chemical spray instead of a healthy teaspoon of an olive or rape seed oil.  Plus advising buying fake bacon and promoting bars with hefty doses of hydrogenated fats and other nasties.  I wanted to scream several times at the meetings at the level of nutritional ignorance by the leaders.

So this is day 3 of week 1 and I am aiming for a 22 point daily intake plus a very vigorous walk for 50 minutes minimum which gives me another 3 points to play around with.

So far for breakfast I have had organic Kilbeggan porridge approx 50g cooked in water with low fat milk and muscovado sugar and a freshly squeezed orange for breakfast.  I have as much tea, coffee and water as I feel like.

For lunch I have variations on a salad theme with no bread and I use my own homemade dressing with olive oil and measure it out by teaspoon instead of the usual big dollop!

Snacks are seeds, nuts and fruit.

Dinner consists of meat or fish, lots of veg usually up to 5 or 6 different portions and maybe a medium potato or some rice.  I am trying to avoid pasta and other refined carbohydrates.

At the weekend I am going to splash out on a really good red wine and allow myself a bottle spread out over Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday, depending on my restraint! 

I hope to devise some nice meal recipes and post them as I go along, but here's a quickie.

Spicy Bean Stew
1 400g can of mixed beans
1 small onion
1 stick celery
1 carrot
1 clove garlic
Thyme, sage and parsley chopped
Salt and pepper
4 thick good quality sausages (i.e. low fat and 80%+ lean e.g. Oldfarm)
100ml chicken stock
1/2 tin tomatoes
1 tsp of spicy sauce (Holy Fuck)

Sauté all vegetables in a teaspoon of rapeseed/olive oil.  Dry fry sausages, dab in kitchen paper and slice.  Add to vegetables.  Add beans drained and rinsed, stock and tomatoes.  Season and simmer for 30 minutes.  By my calculations this should serve 2-3 people and will not be more than 7 pro-points/serving.  Serve with a mash of root vegetables or extra green veg rather than potatoes or bread.

Tags:
Spicy Bean Stew,Sausage, Diet Weight Watchers, Low Calorie Kilbeggan, Holy Fuck

A Measure of Cups

Not all cups are the same

It came to me suddenly; late one Friday night - cups?  Why do Americans use cups to measure? It's daft if you think about it.  A cup is a cup - is a cup - if it's not a mug right?

A cup, anything from a tiny espresso cup to a big clunky mug - the type my mother refuses to drink out of....

Tea tastes nicer drunk from a china cup.  Espresso must be drunk from a pfaffy little cup that invariably you can't lift without burning your hand.  Builders favour mugs.

How can you bake using a cup?

But then if you really think about it - it's all proportional - except when you want to make a cake for 10 and end up with one for 2.  Should the recipe not include a definition of a cup?  I mean are you to use an espresso cup or a big, ignorant mug?  Is there some covert definition of a cup that us Europeans are not privy to?  I immediately come out in a cold sweat when I try to follow an American recipe.  Even the ingredients have strange names - cornstarch and Graham crackers for heaven sake. 

We also measure bust size in cups.  Do big cups mean more milk?  Who thought of cups as a measurement and why?  Had to be men though because let's face it babies not the best at articulation.

So cups for butter, flour and sugar.  Cups for tea and coffee.  Cups for when you have no glasses and cups for boobs.

Next I am going to write a recipe for making a cake using a bra cup.  And It will be left to the imagination which cup to use, depending on how greedy you are...........

Cup Measures   American Measures  Imperial Measurement  Metric Measurement

Catering Call Up

On a few occasions lately I have been called up to do the catering for family (and friends) occasions.  The latest was my nephew's and godson's First Communion.  Sis was going to get caterers and showed me the menu.  The thing that struck me was the total lack of concept with the dishes on offer.  Anything and everything seems to go.  The usuals - Beef Stroganoff, Beef Bourginion, Chicken Korma, Coq au Vin or as I call them pots of slop.  Standard salads and the usual suspects for desserts.  I maybe am very fussy but I don't think mixing cuisines from lots of cultures together at the same meal works.  The very idea gives me indigestion.

She, in typical sister fashion said "well you do it for me so, since you are so critical"!  So off I popped with the brief - one main "Chicken dish",  a selection of salads and a selection of desserts for 40. 

I did ask should I not cater for vegetarians or non-chicken eaters and was told no "feck them, there will be plenty of salads"!

I decided to do a chicken dish cooked with white wine and a splash of cream but wanted it to look "unanaemic" so chose flageolet beans and spinach to add to give it colour and texture.

Chicken and Bean "Slop"

Chicken breasts (1 breast for 2 people)
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves garlic
3 stalks of celery finely sliced
1 tin of flageolet beans
Small pack of french beans blanched
1 pack of baby spinach leaves (washed, wilted and drained)
500ml chicken stock
2 glasses of white wine
100 ml cream
Handful chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
Beurre manié

Sauté the onions, garlic and celery in some olive oil until softened.  Add the stock, parsley, a glass of the white wine.  Add the beans, the blanched French beans sliced, and the wilted spinach finely chopped. Simmer 10 minutes.  Add the cream and season and set aside.

Poach the chicken breasts in enough water to just cover with a glass of white wine and the bay leaves and seasoning.  Bring to a slow boil, turn the heat right down and simmer for 20-30 mins.  Cool and remove from the poaching liquid and cut into pieces.  Retain the poaching liquor to add to the above sauce if needed.

When you want to serve add the chicken to the sauce and heat through.  To thicken use the beurre manié (this is butter say 25g mixed into 50g flour and dropped into the simmering sauce).

Serve with baby new potatoes and a selection of salads. If you are making above and use 6 chicken breasts this will give you approximately 10-12 servings.  Obviously if using more chicken say 12 breasts double up the other ingredients.




I chose to make a salad with black eyed beans and quinoa to "go" with the main.  We also did a pasta salad to keep the kids happy and a big green salad.  Both adults and kids "assaulted" the desserts on offer. More of that anon!