Life has been busy ...

... and I didn't realise it had been so long since I last posted here.

I've taken on some extra hours at work helping to set up a new clinic to monitor people who have had fragility fractures, ensuring that anyone over 50 who has had a fracture is offered a bone density scan (DEXA Scan).  The aim is to catch folks who may have osteopenia or osteoporosis and get them onto a treatment pathway early.  That's added another 10 hours to my working week, which is tiring but has been so enjoyable.   We started collecting the data in June but had to go all the way back to January, so it has taken until now to get up to date.  Intense but worth it as we're now just working from the previous week, so hopefully from here on in things will be a little less mad.

As if that wasn't enough I decided to embark on a Humanities Degree in October as well!!!  Yes, I am a crazy woman!!!!!  As I'm studying part time, I decided the only way to cope would be to do it over 6 years.  So far it's been great and I have 2 assigments done and dusted.  I'm just awaiting the results of the second - fingers crossed I have done ok.  

This first module is 8 months long and covers a wide range of stuff that comes under the headings of Reputations (Cleopatra, Stalin, Dali Lama, Dr Faustus), Tradition and Dissent (Plato, poetry, Christianity, Ireland and music), Cultural Encounters (the art of Benin, changing relations between Africa and Europe, From Greece to the Middle East, and Seamus Heany) and finally Place and Leisure (leisure, purpose and the meaning of life, sacred space and landscape, leisure in the Roman villa and the seaside). So an absolutely huge variety of subjects to cover there.  Some will be very in-depth, some we just skim over the surface - but it's all hugely interesting.  So that is just the first module - then I have to decide what to follow it up with in October 2013. 

With trying to fit in a social life as well, the usual round of autumnal gigs, and pre-Christmas visits to family in Wales and Newcastle, I've almost met myself coming backwards.  There has been little time to catch up on housework, so yesterday I had a mad, whirlwind of a cleaning session through the house, and barely any time to even think about doing anything craft-wise.

When I haven't made anything for a while I start to crave a creative outlet.  So subconciously I have been building up to doing SOMETHING - although I wasn't quite sure what it was going to be.  After a mad long shopping session this morning looking for party clothes (urghh) - I decided to reward myself with visit to Hobbycraft.  I wasn't intending buying anything there, honest, just wanted to browse through the ailse and get a bit of a creative fix.  However, I've got some little gifts for the folks at work and wanted to save a bit of cash on gift bags, so was really pleased to find some blank white gift bags in, would you believe it, ailse one!  How fortuitous!!  I also found some plastic Christmas stamps for £1 each, so bought a couple of those and a red stamp pad and I was off and running.  

As you can see below I've decorated the front of the bags with a stamped scandanavia snowflake design and made some stamped tags to attach to the handles.  It was so nice to finally do some crafting and I feel all fulfilled now.  I was hoping to get down to making some Christmas cards as well, but I think realistically I am going to have to send some shop bought ones this year.  Maybe I will get an evening or two to sit down and tackle them, but I've decided not to put myself under any pressure.

So now you know why I've not posted in a while.  I'm pleased that as yet I haven't had any mad panics or been overwhelmed by the workload.  I made a decision when I knew I was going to be studying that the only way I could manage all of this was to compartmentalise my time.  So  when I have a study day, I focus completely on studying, then put it out of my head until my next study session.  When I'm working I concentrate on work etc ... so far the plan is going great!

Foodies!

Here's a couple of low-fat but very, very, tasty recipes that I've made this afternoon.

The first is Sweet & Sour Chicken and the recipe comes courtesy of the Hairy Dieters (Bikers) which you will find here

It's surprisingly quick and easy to make - and from all accounts tastes as good as a take-away:

Serve with a small portion of boiled rice.

Edit: This one went down so well with the husband (and that's a tall order!) that I'm going to make a quorn version of it for myself later in the week.  

The next one is a Baked Ratatouille and is a Weight Watcher's recipe, although I've tweaked it a little bit to my own taste.  Here's a photo before I cooked it:

Ingredients

1 red onion

1 clove of garlic

4 oz aubergine

1 courgette

1 small tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tsp mixed herbs

1 tsp capers

3 tbs breadcrumbs

1 tbs sunflower seeds

I didn't have sunflower seeds so I used pumpkin seeds and pine kernals instead - they both have a lot less calories than sunflower seeds so that's a win/win.  I also doubled up on all the ingredients as I had a huge aubergine to use up - so the ingredients above are for one very generous portion, whilst the photo shows at least two.

How To

1. Pre-head the oven to 180c

2. Slice onions, crush garlic, chop aubergine and courgettes into 1" cubes.

3. Combine these with the tinned tomatoes, capers and herbs in an oven-proof dish

4. Mix breadcrumbs and seeds and sprinkle a layer on top of the vegetable casserole.

5. Bake for 40 minutes. Cover with foil once the top begins to brown to save burning.

Serve with pasta or baked potato or eat by itself for a light meal.

Herbs & Spices 

Megarelly slow start to the day ... felt completely drained of energy and lacking in any get up and go. I've probably been too much of a busy bee over the past week or so. 

So took it easy until I started to feel better ... which was about 4pm!!! 

Still - burst into action once I was up to it and whizzed around the house. Back to work tomorrow and the only thing left on my week's 'to do list' is my ironing but I'll do that while watching telly tonight.

Was sorting through some boxes and found a big box of herb seeds I'd been gifted for my birthday. I hadn't exactly forgotten about them, more was at a loss as to where to plant them as the only available bit of garden seems to have morphed into Pepper Cat's toilet and ... well ... ratatouille a la cat pee doesn't really appeal. !!! 

Simon had the bright idea of putting them in a container so it was just a case of finding one the right size, as you have to plant them box and everything. Found a nice curver box in the garage which was perfect - so finally got around to planting them. Hopefully better late than never.

I look forward to reaping a tasty crop of assorted herbs! 

 Box 'n' all

 

All nicely tucked in for bed.

 NOW GROW !!!

PS - I lied about the Spices.

My very industrious and creative weekend!!

Friday. I re-painted the bathroom ceiling - not very exciting to look at but we get terrible mould - so I cleaned it all down, and have used anti-mould paint.  Shoudn't see another spec for 5 years!

Saturday. I refurbished my garden bench - 3 years out in all weathers has left it a little worse for wear.   Took me the best part of the day but I'm so pleased with the results.

Before

 

During

 

After

Sunday.  Linda, one of the nurses in our office is 50 next week.  We've had a collection and as her and hubby John are in Cornwall for their hols next week, we thought we would treat them to a meal at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant.  So it has fallen to me to make a nice little wallet and card to give her.  

Pretty pleased with that little lot - and feel like I've put my week off to good use!  In fact I'm off to put me feet up now and read my book!

Satisfied!

I have satisfied my creative urges for the day!

I've been a little buzzy bee sewing away all afternoon and evening.

Here's today's spoils!

Here's the little heart idea I mentioned in my last post.  I've mounted it on some dark red felt (the lighting isn't too good here) and used some thick cotton ribbon as the hanger. 

As well as hearts I adore Roosters and have been wanting to make a rooster hanging for the kitchen for a while.  This is the stitched piece which I have literally just finished.  It needs pressing and mounting.  Not sure whether to put it on a black background or red - I'll try both and see how they look.   I'll report back when its' all finished.  I really enjoyed making this - the rooster design I found on the internet but the border was my own idea.

A finally I did another little heart possibly to mount or I may put it in a frame that I have waiting to be used.

Crafty!

Isn't it always the way.  The day before I go back to work inspiration strikes with a nice little craft idea.

I took some embriodery on holiday with me back in May and wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with the finished result.  I decided to make it into a wall hanging - so backed it with some nice green material and made a hanging rope from some string plaited together.  That's wasn't my inspired idea - but it has led me on to thinking about making some smaller hangings.  If you know me, you'll know that I love hearts, and my idea is to make some small hangers with red embroidered hearts on.   So that's this afternoon's tasks. I'll post a piccy up when I've done my first one.  I think I might make a start on some Christmas ones also ... 

Meanwhile here is the one I did today:

 

Sunday

Spent most of the morning and early afternoon cooking. We intended going out for a walk into Derbyshire around 4pm (weather permitting) so I decided that I needed to make the lasagne for tea early and ready just to heat up for when we got back.

Well, one thing led to another, and I had some avocados to use up - so the first thing I did was pull up a recipe for guacamole that I'd found recently.

I've never tried making it before but was really pleased with the results, so much that I had half of it for lunch. Healthy and raw! I'll get there in the end!!

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 red onion,finely chopped
• 1 tsp chili (I used another frozen chili cube!)
• 2 tablespoonsCoriander
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lime or lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 ripe tomato

How To Do

Cut avocados in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avacado from the peel, put in a mixing bowl. 

Mash the avocado with a fork

Add the chopped onion, coriander, lime juice, chili and salt  and mash some more.

Keep the tomato separate until ready to serve.

Remember that much of this is done to taste because of the variability in the fresh ingredients. Start with this recipe and adjust to your taste.

Pop in a dish with an airtight lid and put in fridge until you need it.

Just before serving, add the chopped tomato to the guacamole and mix.

I got a bit carried away and also a made a huge pan full of butternut squash and red pepper soup (thats lunches for me and Jenny sorted for the next few days) and some stuffed peppers.  Finally the thing I set out to do, I made the lasagnes!  A meat version and a veggie version. As I'm trying to stay away from dairy food, the stuffed peppers are for my tea which I might serve with the rest of the guacamole from earlier, and the veggie lasagne will do Jenny for tea today and tomorrow.

Oooh I feel all organised now!

The Stone Roses Save the Day!

Quite a pleasant day today! Becky is off on a field trip with school next week - to Whitby I believe! She needs some wellies so her, I and Jenny trooped off to Meadowhall yesterday to see what we could find. I half expected everywhere to be sold out as we have had so much rainfull this month (as of Thursday it was the second heaviest rainfall in June since 1910 - and may have gone into first place by now as Friday and Saturday were horrendous). 

We were really pushed for time though as Simon was taking Becky on a mystery tour (more of that later) so after a quick bite of lunch, Jenny went in one direction and Becky and I in the other. Walking past Republic a rail of Stone Roses t-shirts caught Becky's eye - they were reduced, and she's been after one for ages, so I thought I would treat her. The queue was really long and I was concious of the time, and that we'd still not bought what we came for when my eye caught shelves of trendy wellies over the other side of the shop. Ha ha - they had leopard skin or union jack wellies - Becky opted for the Union Jack ones. Cool Britannia. 

So panic over, and the Stone Roses (t-shirt) saved the day as we still had about an hour to spare so had a nice wander around doing a bit of window shopping. 

So we got back, and as Simon and Becky haven't been seeing eye to eye on much lately ( exam fever and uni choices, having a tidy bedroom and 'how many gigs are you going to this week?'!!!) - Simon decided that it would be nice to have some one to one time with her so organised a mystery tour. 

He took her to Starbucks (her second favourite place on earth) then to the cinema in Sheffield - they're both big fans of chick flicks and I think they saw The Five Year Engagement. Afterwards, the ultimate in Becky treats - her actual favourite place on earth - Nandos. I think that did the trick they were actually communicating normally when they got back. 

Jenny wanted to go to the cinema too so we headed off in the opposite direction to Chesterfield to see Men in Black III. Great film, with a really, really nice ending that I wasn't expecting. Made me go all 'ahhhh' and gooey. 

Food today was Cornflakes (and more rice milk!! Lunch was a very naughty but nice pizza hut deal, and tea was pasta with marscapone and tomato sauce. I'm not anticipating having lost any weight when I way in tomorrow again. I have incorporated some exercise this week though, which can't be a bad thing. Two cycle rides on Tuesday and Wednesday and a 3 mile walk on Thursday and again on Friday. I feel thinner, healthier and fitter, but the scales don't seem to be budging much! Oh well!!!

Mango & Pepper Risotto

We picked up an almost over-ripe mango which was reduced in price at the shop yesterday so I was looking for a way to cook it.  This is what I came up with, a concoction of my own this time!

Ingredients:

1 cup arborio risotto rice

1 red pepper

1 small red onion chopped

Half a mango - peeled and diced

Handful of small button mushrooms

2 tbsp olive oil

Vegetable stock

150ml boiling water

150ml white wine

1 tsp swiss vegetable bouillon

1 tsp chili   )

1 tsp ginger )  see below!

Mix all stock ingredients together in a jug.

How To

Put the olive oil into a large frying pan

Add the onion and soften for a few minutes

Add the red pepper and onions and soften for a few more minutes

Add the rice and fry for 2 minutes

Add the stock a little bit at a time, letting the rice soak it up.

Cover and simmer for 10 minutes

Add the mango and cover and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

Keep checking the moisture levels, if the rice is starting to get a bit sticky add either more stock or just pour in a bit more wine. (I'll let you guess which I did!!).

I intended to put some quorn pieces in to bulk it out a bit, but they weren't really needed, it was a filling meal in itself.  For non-veggies you could add some diced chicken breast, browned in the pan after the onions have softened.  

It was really scrummy and the nicest 'healthy' thing I've eaten this month. The mango was quite sweet and tangy and went perfectly with the rice.

A little footnote about the chilli and ginger. I found these little gems in the freezer at the supermarket yesterday.  I usually buy fresh chilis and fresh ginger for specific recipes and invariably I end up throwing away half of them because they go off before I get around to making another dish that needs them.

How innovative are they?  Little pouches of chili and ginger that you keep in your freezer.  Each portion contains 1 teaspoon.  I guess you could always make your own by using ice-cub trays, but it doesn't half save you the hassle!

More Sweet Stuff ...

Not sure what I would call this, it's a recipe I picked up from a raw food subscription - Cocoa Nuts maybe?

Ingredients

I.5 cups mixed nuts (I used cashew nuts and some almonds and walnuts I already had in the cupboard, but any sort will do)
1/4 tsp cinammon
Half cup of raw cocoa powder
4 tbs agave nectar
Half tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp shredded coconut
1 cup dates (or you can use sultanas or raisins if you prefer)
Handful of dried sour cherries (optional - Jenny saw these in the shop so we thought we would add some in)


How To:

Put the nuts and cinammon into a food processor until they are ground.

Add cocoa powder, coconut, agave nectar and vanilla and whizz up briefly.

Add the dates and process until the mixture starts to stick together.

Remove and put on a tray and press down.  Put in the fridge overnight to 'set' - then cut into bite size squares.  Store in a box and eat as required.


I've varied wildly in quantities from the original recipe - I tried to mostly halve the quantities  but found that I needed to put in more dates and agave nectar.  Mine turned out very nutty, with just a hint of chocolate so maybe in future I would put in a tad more cocoa powder, but otherwise I was really pleased with it

They're quite dense and filling so you really don't need a very big serving.

Pasta with Asparagus and Spinach 

Jenny made a lovely tea last night. She boiled up some penne pasta. 

Then in a large frying pan put a packet of baby spinach and some asparagus, along with the juice of half a lemon and a little bit of garlic. 

Cook it in a little oilve oil until the spinach starts to wilt and then stir into the cooked pasta. Simple but simply lovely!

Becky made the loviest cupcakes afterwards as well.  What a treat.  As I'd been so good all week I didn't refuse!

Back on the horse!!

Back into the healthy eating the past two days and feeling somewhat better again.


Today I want to mention puddings!!!

I found a recipe for healthy ice-cream. Except there is no cream in it so you really can't call it ice-cream.

I thought I would give it a whirl nevertheless.  It's the simplest of simple things.

You just take one banana and a handful of strawberries,  stick them in the blender, then decant to a plastic container and put in the freezer.

Problem No. 1 appeared when I sliced the fruit up and tried to liquidise them. No can do - I had to scoop them all out and cut them really finely - which did the trick in the end.

Problem No. 2 appeared the next day when I decided I'd like a scoop or two of the mixture out of the freezer.  It was frozen block solid. An ice-cream scoop wouldn't even touch it, I suspect I would have had more luck with a pick axe.   It took a couple of hours for it to defrost to a consistency that was still icy but ok to eat and not runny.   It was ok, just like frozen fruit really - quite refreshing for a hot day - but by no stretch of the imagination can you call it ice-cream. Still it was nice enough.



I found another recipe today which is similar which I have just whizzed together, and am going to try freezing it for about an hour before I eat it so it doesn't set solid.

Ingredients this time are:

One banana
Handfull of strawberries
2 teaspoons of raw cacao powder
A dribble of maple syrup

As my blender wouldn't liquidise all of that I poured in a little bit of rice milk - which worked a treat.

If you like dark chocolate you will love this - the raw cacao powder is more bitter than sweet and I might have been better putting just one teaspoon in - I will try that next time. 

Weigh-in Time!

Not done at all well this week, but that's not surprising as I have had a very naughty few foodie days which have included pizza, chinese take-away, wine, chocolate and a Maccy D!!!!

Was in work on Thursday for the day and very pooped by the end of it - we have so much work on at the moment.  I opted out of cooking and we got a chinese take-away. I have to say it was soooo nice.

Friday we went over to Manchester to see Bruce Springsteen play and managed to grab a very, very quick MacDonalds  on the way there.  Not sure it did the digestion any good wolfing it down in the take-away car park but we needed something to keep our energy up.

It was a wonderful gig.  Mind you, Simon and I were almost divorced three times before we even got there.  The traffic was horrendous so Simon flung a map at me and between us we decided on a back-street route away from the traffic.  But man, if you are gonna ask someone to navigate, please listen to them - don't go shooting of down right hand turns that take you further away from where you want to be.

We got there about 10 minutes before Bruce and the band took the stage, and managed to locate Rue and Liz who had found us a nice little spot to watch the show from. Despite the rain having been coming down in stair-rods all day, it stopped just as the show started - thank goodness.

Highlights of the show for me were No Surrender, Land of Hope and Dreams and Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.  Some of my faves there - loved every minute of it.

So back to the diet - this morning I weighed in at 11st 13 and a half - so really not lost anything.  Pleased to say that the next three weeks I am back into a proper work routine so it should make it a lot easier to plan ahead.  I doubt I will achieve my goal of dropping another 5lb in the next 6 days - it's possible, but so long as I am good and loose something this week, I'm not too bothered.  I'm still heading (creeping!!) in the right direction and that is good enough for me for now.

So, the healthy eating thing?  It something would be hard for me to sustain long term I think, although I am planning on doing it whenever I can, but not feeling guilty if I have the odd take-away or cake.  The biggest thing is finding meals that I like, and am happy to eat more than once!!  I will stick with the rice milk, and keep trying to incorporate more raw fruit and veg into my diet thought. 

The biggest thing is that I have definitely felt better when I've had a few days of fresh, unprocessed food, and then become sluggish when I revert back to the junk food.  It's quite shocking the difference it makes actually.  I feel more alert, less tired, happier and my digestive system doesn't feel so clogged up - and really, that is a huge endorsement for trying to continue to make some changes.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Woah what a couple of days!

Tuesday was the culmination of 3 months of studying for a work-related exam.  It didn't go well.  And that's all I will say about that!

Straight after the exam I left the hospital and headed down to the station to hop on a train to London.  Best remedy for my malaise.  I was meeting up with Jenny for a night at the theater as, due to her college having their annual ball, she wasn't allowed to stay in her room that night.  She wasn't actually going to the ball, but as its an all night affair, it's a college rule that none of the rooms can be occupied.  Seems a bit strict to me, and it meant she had to make alternative arrangements.

So she headed into London and met me from the train and we headed over the road to St Pancras Youth Hostel.  Accom. is hugely expenive in London at the moment, no doubt due to Jubilee and Olympic season - so we opted for something cheap.  It wasn't the Ritz but it was ok and somewhere to lay our heads for the night.

We had a lovely tea at Pizza Express, and I chose  a healthy goats cheese salad (how good was I??).  I'd only had some veg soup for lunch, and a cookie and pepsi on the train (consolation food), but wasn't particularly hungry by tea time, so the salad was really nice.

We hi-jacked a taxi to the Queens Theatre to see Les Miserables.  I went to see it last year with some friends, and Jenny was to come with us but it didn't work out, so I had promised her that I would take her sometime.  This was the ideal opportunity.  The tickets were half the price we paid last time but we were up in the gods.  When it comes to films, tv programmes and the like, I'm not usually one for watching things over and over again, but I loved Les Mis and it was great to see it again. The cast had changed a couple  of days before and the new performers brought something slightly different to the night.  

I did indulge in a little tub of ice-cream during the interval - it was so hot (that's my excuse etc ...) but not a bad day food wise all told.  We walked back from the theatre to St Pancras, and I even managed to remember the way without a map.

I woke up on Wednesday morning thinking it might have been wise to have brought my A-Z or printed off some maps before I came, then I remembered the map app on my phone.  I'd never used it before but it turned out to be an excellent little facility.  That led me on to downloading a London Underground app from the princely sum of ... 69p!!  That was brilliant also and made things soooo much easier.  We had brekkie at the hostel - so cornflakes and a yoghurt for me then set off for Oxford Street to do a bit of shopping.  Bought a few crafty bits and Jenny got a new dress then we headed down to Piccadilly to visit Europe's biggest bookstore - Waterstones.  It is immense!  

Shopping trips are never complete for either me or Jenny without visiting a bookstore.  I bought the new Danny Wallace book - Charlotte Street, and started reading it on the train on the way home - it's hilarious and I inevitably started giggling my way through the pages much to the amusement of the other travellers. I also bought The Barbed-Wire University by Midge Gillies  - about the real lives of Allied prisoner of war in the 2nd World War. I'm not much of a war book person, but this doesn't sound like your usual war book and the blurb on the back really caught my attention.

'For most allied prisoners of war, there were no heroic escapes through secret tunnels - the reality was a constant battle against boredom and brutality.  Now drawing on letters and interviews with survivors, Midge Gillies casts a new light on a remarkable group of men who held onto the hope that there was life beyond the camps.  These men applied their initiative to forming orchestras, building a golf course between their huts and daring surgery on the Thailand-Burma railway.  There were men who attended lectures, learned new languages and, at one German camp, sat exams on such a scale that it became known as the Barbed-Wire University.'

We were doing ok for time so grabbed a quick lunch at Eat; a very healthy falafel wrap and a mango and lime blast - just what was needed to cool us down as it appears summer has arrived.  We then headed down to Trafalgar Square where Terry Pratchett was doing a book promotion for The Long Earth as Jenny is a huge fan of his.  We managed to get hit on the head a few times by bouncing globes but sadly had to leave before Terry put in an appearance.  

It was a close call getting back to St Pancrasin time (via the hostel to pick up our bags) but I made it on the train with just a few minutes to spare.   I so hate being late or close to time for things and prefer to leave myself plenty of time to get somewhere - especially when my train ticket was only valid on that train.  So it was a little bit of a panicky end to the trip, but all is well that ends well. It was another flying visit but so lovely to spend some one on one time with Jenny. 

Back to the food then. Last night we ended up in Yankees for tea - I had a beer and a re-fried bean enchilada but passed on the chips and salad. It's telling that I have cut down on quantities this week as I was struggling to finish the enchilada and we all passed on pudding. 

However, very naughty ice-cream was bought on the way home from the cinema so I did indulge in a bowl full of that. I could feel the calories clinging to my hips!! 

So Monday and one day to be good. 

One more thing I made on Saturday was a huge quantity of mushroom soup. I've frozen 4 portions which will do for work next week and had one in the fridge which I have had for lunch today. Here's the recipe: 

 

Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

3 cups of mushrooms

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp tamari

Juice of 1 fresh lemon

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp honey

3 tbsp almond butter

handful of cashew nuts

2 cups of mineral water or coconut milk (I used coconut milk for a creamier finish)

Cut up the mushrooms andmarinate in the olive oil and tamari for 2 - 4 hours.

Blend the mushrooms and the remaining ingredients - you might want to experient with the water/coconut milk to get the thickness you like, so just add half at first and take it from there.

Can be served warm or cold - I had it warm.

Verdict

It was nice - the consistency was good, but it tasted a little strong for me. I did put in more tamari than the recipe asked for and I think that was a mistake. 

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and we had a great time blessing Simon with some fun gifts.  Last week I took Becky on a mystery tour into Sheffield to visit Pete McKee's gallery 'A Month of Sundays'. We'd seen some of his art the night before in The Inn at Troway, which featured musicians and landmarks of Sheffield and loved it.  In the car on the way in Becky was talking about it all the time, little knowing that was our destination - it was so funny and her face was a picture when we arrived there. 

Apart from it being cool and wanting to have a look around, the purpose of the visit was really to choose a pressie for Simon for Father's Day and we settled on this on canvas:

He loves it - and we had a pleasant few minutes trying to identify all of the album covers represented in the painting.  How many can you spot?

Becky went off into Sheffield for the afternoon as Reverend and the Makers were signing copies of their new album.  Father's Day Present No. 2 was a signed copy. 

We met her later on outside the Showroom Cinema as I'd bought us all tickets to see a documentary about John Cooper Clarke - little knowing that the man himself would turn up read a selection of his poems and then treat us to a question and answer session after the film was shown.  Present No. 3 went down a storm!

The documentary itself is very good, and very well worth watching with lots of old footage of John in his punk hey days.  There's also interviews with loads of people who have been inspired by John.

Call it intuition or just a lucky break but as an afterthought I picked my camera up just before I left the house.  I'm so glad I did.

The Scores on the Doors

This is where the rubber hits the road.  Last Sunday I weighed in at 12st 1lb.  This morning the scales say 11st 13.5lb.  

I did hope to lose more than 1 and a half pounds this week, but on balance I have eaten out a couple of times and had wine and chocolate, so I'm happy that I have lost something and am into the 11's rather than the 12's.  I hope I don't stay there too long though.

So the coming week is probably going to be more of the same. It's Father's Day and we are going out for tea and I have a day and a half in London with Jenny this week, so it will be a case of eat whatever is available.  Hopefully with a big push towards the end of this next week, I can lose a bit more.

Overall, I feel better for the change in diet.  Definitely more alert and less tired than I usually am with more energy.  I only remember feeling properly hungry once this week which was in the evening after the Nandos lunch  - so that is all good too.

Breakfast today was cornflakes and rice milk with some fresh grapes and blueberries.  Lunch shall be half a stuffed pepper and one of my spinach and ricotta tartlettes that I made yesterday.  Here's the recipe:

A little well done in places but it didn't affect the taste

The following makes 4 tartlettes:

6oz fresh spinach
1/4 cup of ricotta cheese
1/4 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
1 large egg - beaten
1/2 clove of garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper






Finely chop the spinach and put into a medium bowl.

Add the ricotta, parmesan, egg, garlic, salt and pepper and stir well to combine.

Coat 4 cups of a muffin pan with cooking spray. Divide the spinach mixture amongst the cups (they will be very full).

Bake the cakes at 180 degrees for about 20 mins.

Remove from oven and let them stand in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife and turn onto a plate.  Serve warm sprinkled with more parmesan if desired.

The stuffed pepper has cous cous, mushrooms, tomatoes and cucumber.  I made 2 yesterday, along with some mushroom soup and all the other stuff I mentioned - it was a bit of a culinary afternoon!  I'll post the mushroom soup recipe tomorrow!

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We're off to see a documentary about John Cooper Clarke at the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield tonight.  It's a father's day surprise for Simon.  He was just saying a couple of weeks ago how he had never been to that particular cinema before and lo and behold we now have the chance.  Looking forward to it.  Then we're hoping to go to Yankees on Ecclesall Road for tea afterwards, it's been a favourite place of his down the years.  They don't take bookings at weekends, so hopefully we can get it.  As the name suggests its an American diner type place serving predominantly burgers.  

Until then the rest of the day will be spent studying for my AMSPAR exam on Tuesday.

Saturday - which feels like Sunday for some reason, but everyone assures me is in fact Saturday. Was very hungry this morning so I had not one but two bowls of cornflakes with rice milk.

Just got back from Sainsbury's having stocked up on fruit and veg and other bits and pieces and am going to make some of that soup I mentioned yesterday.

I've never had cold soup before - have you? It's never been something that has appealed to me. However,  I came across a Gazpacho recipe in an ebook I downloaded this week called Raw Food Recipes and thought I would give it a go. It worked really well and is surprisingly filling.  I couldn't eat the whole bowl full so have saved half for tomorrow or maybe later if I feel peckish.

Here's the recipe. 

Gazpacho Soup 

5 tomatoes 

Half a red pepper 

3 soaked sundried tomatoes 

Fresh juice of 1 lemon 

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil 

Pinch of salt and pepper 

Zest of garlic (optional - I didn't!!) 

Blend all the ingredients together in a high speed blender. Add water until it gets to a consistency you like - I just added about quarter of a cup. 

The recipe didn't say to strain the mixture - but as my blender left it with lots of little lumps I put it through a seive to make it completely smooth - I don't like lumpy soup!!! 

It also said to garnish with some small slices of avocado - I did this but it sank to the bottom - maybe I should have left the soup lumpy for photographic purposes and then seived it afterwards ;-). It was surprisingly tasty and quite filling.

I'm also trying a mushroom soup recipe from the same book - that can be served warm but not hot as apparently you lose most of the goodness if you cook it above 46 degrees.  It's a little more complicated to make and in fact my mushrooms are marinading as we speak. I'll probably freeze that for later on in the week and stick the recipe up when I have road tested it.

My plan for tea is to have some noodles with mushrooms and red peppers, onions and hemp seeds - and as I missed out on Chocolate Friday yesterday, I bought a tiny bar of Green & Black's milk chocolate.  That should go down nicely with the rest of the wine I opened 2 days ago!!  I will save that for this evening though.

Edit:  I didn't have noodles for tea  I made some Spinach & RIcotta tarts which turned out a lot better than than I thought they would.  Recipe tomorrow.  Pudding was a fruit salad of banana, apple, pear and kiwi fruit.

Tomorrow I get on the scales and see if I have managed to shift any poundage.  Eeek!!

Not a good couple of days on the old food front.

Thursday:

Cornflakes and the lovely rice milk for breakfast.

Can of Heinz Vegetable Soup for lunch.

Some grapes for snackies

And we ended up in Cambridge for tea as Jenny had a crisis so we all jumped in the car to cheer her up and ended up in Bella Italia. I was sort of good, only had a spinach canneloni for tea.  And a Mega chocolate Godfather Knickerbockerglory.  And a Pepsi.

That was it though - I was glad I had resisted Becky's scrummy chocolate brownies earlier in the day.

Friday:

Cornflakes and rice milk breakfast.

As it was another day out and about taking Becky to Sheffield Uni for a look around, we ended up in Nandos for lunch.  I just had a portobello mushroom burger in a bap with a few bits of haloumi cheese, and a couple of fizzy drinks.  I didn't have any chips, rice, other sides or pudding, and shall have a light tea tonight - so I'm not too concerned. Back to  the rabbit food tomorrow though.

While in Sheffield I visited one of the health foods shops - they have a buy-one-get-one-half-price on everything in the shop, so I stocked up on rice milk, almond butter and Tamari soy sauce.  Look out for some soup recipies coming up soon.

Edit:  My tea consisted of 7 jacobs crackers with 2 slices of Leedammer Light but quite a bit of mayonnaise on them.  And 2 or maybe 3 glasses of wine if I'm being completely honest.  It were nice though!!!

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Nandos - Sheffield

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We loved everything we saw about Sheffield Uni.  The accommodation was a bit on the small side, but bright, clean and modern - and the campus was pretty spacious with a great bar and cafe on site.  The Studen Union building was mega - again, bright modern and HUGE.   We went to find out more about their journalism course - there was only about 10 students but I'm not sure whether its because it was the first of three open days and mid-week, maybe the weekend days will attract more people, or because of the rise in university fees which will put off a lot of potential students from going to university this time round.  Talk was great though, it's not all glamorous and very, very hard work, but it still sounds fab and very rewarding.  Downside is that there are only 60 places on the course so its very competitive to get a place and those applicants that show they have already made some inroads into journalistic or media endeavours will be head and shoulder above the rest.  Becky has a little bit but whether it will be enough to get her a place, we will have to wait and see.  It's all exciting stuff though.

So last night Becky arrived home from her friends house around 9pm with a bag of Doritos, pot of salsa and some jalapeno peppers. I didn't eat very many of them. Honestly!!!

So Wednesday:

Breakkie the usual cornflakes but with rice milk this time.  It's much nicer than soy milk and surprisingly sweet.  It took me back to the days when I used to put sugar on my cereal.  Definitely the way to go.

A banana mid morning perked me up and as I didnt get round to making any lunch last night, I bought an egg & mayo sarnie from the shop on the way into work for my lunch.   First dairy product this week.  It was lovely.

Tea was pasta bows with broccoli and mushrooms and I was good and cooked the broccoli for 10 mins less than I usually would so it wasnt all limp and pathetic.

Had a couple of glasses of Ribena at work and a glass of water at home.  Not working tomorrow so I've got a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge and will have a glass after I've done a bit of studying tonight.  I learned the hard way on Sunday by having wine with my tea and consequently couldn't be arsed to do my homework which was meant to be in on Monday. I scraped through though.  Still,  I'll leave the wine as my reward for after my revision tonight.

Becky wants to bake and so has gone off to the shop to buy some ingredients for chocolate brownies. This is what I am up against - temptation once again!  I'll let you know tomorrow whether I succumb or not.

Been feeling really tired the last couple of days, but I always do when I work full days, so I don't think its diet related.

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Other news - Jenny has an interview in London tomorrow for a summer internship with a computer gaming company.  She's already whizzed through a 45 min phone interview and passed a coding assignment they set her so they want to see her in person. Fingers crossed - this is what she wants to do when she leaves Uni so would be fantastic experience for her.  

Becky starts Uni next year and it is now Open-Day season.  So she's compiling a list of places that she wants to go look at.  She says she doesn't want to venture too far and Sheffield is top of her list, followed by Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham.  We'll be having a few day trips in the next month or so then so check them all out.  Although she really wants to go to Sheffield, she doesn't want to live at home and commute in (we're about 7 miles away from the university) and I think it will do her the world of good to do the shared house thing with some friends.  She's close enough for us to be able to see her at the drop of a hat if needs be (and bring her washing home no doubt!!) but far enough away that it won't feel like we are breathing down her neck all of the time.  

It's strange to think that in just over a year both of my girls will be living away for the majority of the year - the house will be so quiet.  And tidy!!!!