Hunters chicken tonight.

Dear reader,

What a lovely hot day. I was troubled to see a lady driving into John Lewis with her dog in the car though. It always ruins the summer for me, the amount of stupid, ignorant people who leave their dogs in cars in this heat.  Just leave them at home with some water and shade.  STUPIDS.

Anyway, rant over. I had some chicken pieces to use up and decided to do Big Mans favourite, Hunter Chicken.

I had some Approved Food BBQ, roast in the bags left and put three drumsticks and two large thighs inside, you toss them in the powder and tie up the bag. A couple of hours in the fridge and I roasted them for 20 mins.

I defrosted some diced onion. (I always chop a load in the food processor and then freeze in portions as I only like to cry once). Once the chicken was cooked I poured all the lovely, sticky chicken and juices into a baking dish. Put the onions on top and poured 2 BBQ marinade sauces over. Also from AF. ( I have a huge box in the larder full of various flavours) I baked that for 5 mins and then put 4 rashers of bacon, cut in half on top and two handfuls of grated cheese. A further 5 mins and it was a wonderful, bubbling, browned on top dish of gorgeousness.

Sorry we ate it, no pics.

I am using up lots of cupboard food and just buying chicken, eggs, milk and bread with fruit and salad.

I have some Quorn pieces in the freezer which are just like chicken so am thinking of something summery to make with them and then the fridge and freezer are pretty empty.

I like salads in the summer so lots of them soon.

Much love. X

Quick crispy chicken.

Dear reader,

Hello, have been away for a while. How lovely to see new followers Chris Carter and some other via Bloglovin. Thanks for reading.

A busy day in the garden today. Weeding, making new beds, planting and generally tidying. I needed a quick dinner for tonight as we are both tired. Now we could get a takeaway but a curry would be about £30, KFC about £20 and I am still dieting. 2 stone lighter and I don't want to eat greasy, fattening food. What to do?

I buy the large packs of chicken portions from Asda for £5. Thighs, drumsticks and two large legs.
I split the pack and freeze. I had two legs in the fridge defrosting so decided to make this. Crispy chicken with potato wedges and stuffed peppers.

I skinned the chicken legs and coated them with half a teaspoon each of Bovril. The chicken flavour is best but I only had beef. I wanted a sticky surface for some approved food crispy breadcrumbs I had. I sprinkled these on top, ready for baking. I peeled and par boiled the wedges and sprayed with fry light. They will go in the oven together.
I halved a red pepper and filled this with a portion of frozen veg mixed with onion and a tablespoon of cream cheese. A light sprinkle of grated cheese on top and baked in the oven for 15 mins.

Great meal, low calories, low fat and a whole lot cheaper than a takeaway.

Have a great weekend.
X

Weigh in Wednesday- day late

Dear reader,

A short, weigh in post tonight. Went to SW last night and lost 3 more pounds. That's a 9 pound loss in two weeks. I am thrilled! I am not hugely overweight and only want to lose another stone so am well chuffed.

Food is remaining similar but I have noticed we are not spending as much money. Losing and gaining!


Today I had a Mullerlight yogurt for breakfast with some grapes.
Lunch was a ham salad with a pot of beetroot salad mixed in-no dressing. Satsuma afterwards.
Dinner- I roasted two chicken thighs and then removed the skin. I gently fried some onion and garlic in a few squirts of Frylight. I added two chopped stalks of celery that were a little limp, a chicken stock cube, a tea spoon of bovril, some diced potato, frozen peas, frozen sweetcorn, a handful of red lentils and towards the end, some thickly sliced mushrooms. I removed the cooked chicken from the bone while still hot and added with a good grind of pepper.

Honestly, for a made up dinner it tasted fantastic. I served big mans in a large h/m Yorkshire pudding  with cabbage.
While the chicken was roasting I cooked some jacket potatoes and a halved butternut squash.
I will have the potato at work tomorrow for lunch and the squash will be made into soup with some other vegetables.

Thanks for popping in and I love to read your comments as always.

Much love. X

Happy, sunny, positive.

Dear reader,

Welcome to my new followers, thank you for reading.

Lovely sunny day here and I have a few days off. Diet is going really well and I am feeling very positive.
I am on week 4 of the couch to 5k which is 3 and 5 mins running, twice with shorter rests between.
I will move on to 8 mins running next week. People have mentioned the high they get after running and I now know what they mean. I am enjoying it!

I haven't done much cooking apart from a veggie chilli which I like to take to work with boiled rice.
We have both been eating omlettes, salads, fish and lots more fruit. I definately feel better.

I now feel hungry in the morning which I never have before. I look forward to breakfast.

This is what I usually eat now.

Breakfast-  2 Weetabix with half milk, half water. Hot with sweetener.

Lunch- jacket potato with natural yogurt and tuna, large salad. Muller light yogurt, banana.

Dinner-Fish and salad, satsuma and apple.

I usually have an Alpen light cereal bar for a snack with a cup of tea at work. I am trying to increase my water intake as well.

Food buying is just chicken, salad, fruit and milk. Much less bread although big man sometimes takes a sandwich to work. Am getting into this healthy eating and loving it!

Have you made changes to your diet? Do you get you 5 a day? Are you a Slimming World follower?
I would love to hear you stories and recipes.

Have a fabulous weekend and I hope this gorgeous weather comes to you.

X

Weight loss Wednesday

Dear reader,

 A few of us decided to lose some weight this year. We called it weight loss Wednesday and we started off really well.
You know how these things are, you sign up, stuff happens, you get busy at work and with family and we kind of lost our mojo. ( does anyone know what that actually is?)

Our oomph, pazaaz, motivation, call it what you will. I, for one lost my way. I didn't diet, I didn't try, I slowed with my blog writing. Changes at work, not for the better and general life does keep you busy. We lost touch. If anyone still fancies it, let me know.

After a particularly piggish week I noticed a vivid red ring around my stomach, it hurt and felt bruised. Some deadly disease you may ask.........

No, my jeans were so tight they had dug into me badly. The same with my bras, knickers and even boots were squeezing my calves. I couldn't bend down so well anymore to ties laces and putting on socks left me puffing and hopping round the bedroom like a telly tubby. Eh oh!

Last Wednesday I walked into a large church hall. No, not to pray for weight loss.
It was a local Slimming World group. I got all the books and the little card. Got weighed.....not good, stayed for class and took the lot home for a good read.

What was I expecting? It's a diet based on, well healthy eating. Fruit, veg, not too many carbs and very little fat. What we all know. I know what to eat, I know how to cook, I know oil is fattening and so are crisps and chips and I know that fresh fruit and veg is good. It's the going every week and being weighed and writing in down in a little book that I find motivational.

I returned tonight. I had been good, very good. I lost 6 pounds!

The girl next to me was making me laugh. "I fancy a kebab" she whispered.
"No, you can't have that" I said. "Why don't you cook some chicken breast and have it with salad and a bit of chilli sauce, that may taste like it"
"Not that sort of kebab" she replied
"Oh" I said "You want the dripping doner meat one?"
"Mmm" she replied "I might text him indoors to get a couple for when I get home"

As I drove out later I saw her walking past. I couldn't resist a shriek out of the car window,
"Stay off the kebabs"

I'm not sure she will speak to me next week.

What exactly is in a Donner kebab meat remains one of life's mysteries.


What have I learned so far?

Stop shoving crap in my mouth and the weight drops off.
Eat less and do more
I'm not really hungry, I just think I am.
If I wake up and I'm not hungry, I pigged out the day before
And Mullerlight yogurts do some fab flavours and are 10 for £3 in Asda.

I trapped a man!

Dear reader,

Off to work I went this morning, a bit late so in a hurry. As I drove down the motorway I felt a strange lump in my jeggings. I squeezed it and it went flat. As I pulled into the car park I rolled up the leg to find a large, squashed earwig type bug. Eeeeuuuwww.

Big Man was off today and as the cupboards were bare I had left him a shopping list. All carefully checked and planned to fit in with my Slimming World diet.

My day got better as I then got a text from Big man.

BM " You've locked the porch door and taken both sets of keys"
ME " Oh no, I'm really sorry."
BM "I'm trapped in the house all day and there's no food"
ME "Shall I send them home in a taxi?"
BM " No, don't worry I'll be fine"


Later.......

BM "Please get me a bottle of wine, have had a miserable day"

ME "Ok, what's wrong?"

BM " Got really hungry, had to order an emergency pizza and the man had to deliver it through the window, feel trapped"


I felt bad and a bottle of red and a Lindtt bunny were brought home.

By the way, thank you for going over to Mandy's blog, it really cheered her up. She loves getting comments so if you haven't popped over do have a look, she does some great cooking with really good pictures. My thrifty homemade challenge

Much love. X

Check this out

Dear reader,

This is just a shout out to a lovely lady with a great blog. Her name is Mandy. She has some lovely pictures and enjoys cooking with a bit of thrifty thrown in too.

I especially love her cheery smile, have a look hereMandy and her smile

Thank you. X