Foodie Catch-Up

Apologies for the lack of posting lately - I have had such a busy week! Finished off by an even busier weekend - worked all day yesterday, then today, my "relaxing" day while Liam works - our poor daughter was screaming in pain for 2.5 hours so ended up taking her to the out of hours doctors - ear infection - I'm hoping that the combo of antibiotics and Calprofen will sort her out and allow us to all catch up on sleep tonight! She's desperate to go to school tomorrow so hopefully she'll be feeling better by then! :)

So onto food, I have eaten a lot this week! A lot of it hasn't been photographed so I will just give you the highlights...there were many biscuits, chocolates etc eaten behind the camera!!

Breakfasts:

Cocoa porridge with chopped tinned pear, topped with chocolate & macadamia nut granola





A big bowl of granola :)



Pumpkin porridge topped with Graze rocky road mix (cranberries, dark chocolate buttons & pecans)

Pear & vanilla porridge topped with Graze milkshake mix (dried banana, dried strawberries & white chocolate buttons)...the white chocolate worked so well with the pear in this one! :)

Huge bowl of pumpkin porridge topped with dark chocolate drops & peanut butter to keep me going at work!

Yeo Valley apple flapjack yoghurt, topped with granola

All delicious, I love my breakfast bowls! :)

I've had some great main meals too...:

Chorizo style sausages, roast sweet potato discs and (burnt!) roasted broccoli

Leftover vegetable lasagne smothered in cheese!



Peanut butter & mashed banana sandwich



Divine prawn Thai coconut noodle soup...this was so good!

Fish finger & chip butty

Fried egg & cheddar sandwich...I've eaten a lot of sandwiches this week - quick & tasty! :)

Special fried rice from local takeaway after tonight's hospital trip...too tired/too late to cook!

Also a not so great meal - after the success of the Innocent Mushroom Risotto Veg Pot, I was expecting great things from the Thai Curry version...

however I was majorly disappointed...

I kept trying to tell myself that it tasted nice etc but I wasn't able to convince myself...I ended up chucking some of this away which is so unlike me...yuck!

I've also eaten lots of snacks this week...the photos below are only the tip of the iceberg!

A latte with (2 in the end!) Nak'd Cocoa Orange bars dipped in!

Lindt chocolate with a touch of sea salt (all 100g of this has been eaten this week!)

Last of the mince pies

Granola & chocolate buttons

Lots of cakes! (in my defense, lol, Liam ate one cheesecake slice & daughter ate one strawberry cream cake, but other 4 were devoured by me!)



Apple turnover & a latte...bliss :)

Innocent smoothie and chocolate brownies...

...topped with Baileys extra thick cream...these brownies are so good, new discovery! :)



I also received a Graze box this week - I used to get them a year ago but stopped as they are quite expensive for what they are, especially when I was eating all the punnets in one day! I was sent an email offering me the first box free and next 3 half price to welcome me back in the New Year...will probably stop again when it goes back to full price but for now I enjoyed receiving some healthy(ish!) goodies. This is what I got this week...

honeycomb flapjack, dark rocky road mix, milkshake mix and sweet as a nut (frosted cashews, honey almonds & honey hazelnuts). The two mixes I used for great porridge toppers, both were delicious :) the honey nuts I had taken to work for my afternoon break on Saturday, but I was so busy that I didn't get a chance to take it (got to leave 15 minutes early instead, yey!) so I still have that one to eat. The honeycomb flapjack was munched as soon as the box arrived...

this was gorgeous...they didn't do flapjacks last time I had Graze boxes...would keep them going if I could get at least 2 of these in each delivery! :-D they tasted just like home made flapjacks, soft and fresh tasting...far better than any shop bought ones I've ever had! Hope I get flapjack again next week! They also do a '7 fruits flapjack' which sounds quite nice. I know I could very easily make my own flapjack, but problem is I then scoff the whole tray - this is nicely portioned to limit the damage!! :)

Lots of yummy food! I think part of why I struggle with how much food I eat is that is so tied up in my identity...I spend so much time planning my next meals! Different food means different things to me - when baby sleeps and I want to relax I'll have a latte for some "me time", when I'm feeling bored/upset I "need" chocolate, when I'm not feeling too great (which seems to be most of the time recently!) I "deserve" some kind of carby food (be it chocolate brownie or cake or pb & banana sandwich!) to make me feel better...food is no longer just about fuelling me and stopping me feeling hungry! Even after the Chinese takeaway tonight...I was stuffed but said to Liam that I felt like I needed to eat something. He was shocked (he hadn't even managed to finish his dinner, much smaller appetite than me!) and I explained it wasn't like I was hungry, just felt like something was missing, there was a gap to fill. Didn't end up eating anything as I was too tired to move, laziness beat emotional "hunger" for this evening anyway!

I went shopping after work and bought some easy healthy food - a couple of pots of microwaveable fresh veg to have with some protein for easy lunches, some parsnips to roast as a tasty snack for example, and some big pots of yoghurts for when I can't be bothered to prep anything. I'm hoping that if there is plenty of healthy food to hand it will stop me reaching for the cakes and chocolate...we'll see!!

Meat-free Monday

As I went to write this post, I realised that today has been completely meat-free...not deliberately but hey, it makes a good post title! :) We try to have meat-free meals 2-3 times a week, mainly for cost reasons although I like that it gives me an excuse to try out new recipes/vegetables. To be fair dinner is the only "real" cooking I've done today, so more on that later.

First, breakfast, porridge. Once Liam and daughter were off to uni/school so that I could eat in relative peace! Today I was trying out a new brand of oats and a new peanut butter...

I used to eat Quaker oats as a child but have been favouring Scott's oats recently, when the shop has them in stock at least. Quaker oats seemed smaller when I poured them into the bowl. I made up my porridge with milk, tinned peaches and cinnamon...I love this combo!!

The Quaker oats seemed to make a more creamy/gloopy texture...not sure which I prefer to be honest, but they both taste great so all good!

I topped this with a simple blob of peanut butter...

I'm pleased to report that this peanut butter was much more to my taste! :) less liquidy texture so that I was able to have a blob, a nice salty taste, and the fact the it is "wholenut" made me feel it was slightly healthier...plus the flecks of peanut skin look nice with the flecks of cinnamon in my porridge!!! :-D

Mid-morning, when baby went for a nap, I treated myself to a latte and time on the sofa reading a book...bliss!!



After work on Saturday, I was absolutely exhausted so bought a couple of Innocent Veg Pots that were on offer, to save me cooking lunches when it's just me and baby during the week. Today I actually had a lot more energy, but decided to have one anyway...Italian Mushroom Risotto...

this looked lovely and fresh inside...



didn't look quite so vibrant once it was cooked but was still really tasty...

I loved the variety of vegetables in it, the green lentils being a surprise favourite. My only criticism would be that for a mushroom risotto it wasn't particularly mushroomy! Had bits of mushroom in it but not much mushroom flavour. Great general vegetable risotto though and so easy to cook - 4 minutes in the microwave and it's done - great way to increase your veg intake without much effort! :) Realise I sound a bit like an advert, oops...can you tell I really enjoyed this??!

Mid-afternoon I chopped up a couple of carrots to have with some of Tesco's Caramelised Onion Houmous...now this stuff I really do love!

delicious! If only all my snacks are all this healthy and tasty - I usually just grab whatever's near me (spoon of peanut butter, chocolate buttons etc) rather than taking the time to make something I'll really enjoy.

Dinner was something I'd been looking forward to all day :) No recipe to follow although it was inspired by a meal out I had recently - vegetable lasagne. The version I had in the restaurant was supposedly red pepper and portobello mushroom lasagne but all the vegetables were finely chopped into the sauce so you couldn't really distinguish any flavours, and the whole thing was instead covered in cheese! It also used meat-free mince which was ok, but I wanted my lasagne to be based on vegetables.

I first put 4 peppers into a roasting dish with a little oil and put them in the oven at 190C for 30 minutes...

I then started making the sauce. I first simmered a carton of passata (at this stage I realised Liam had used the last of the garlic when he cooked on Saturday, grrr, so I popped a chopped red onion in with the peppers to make up for lack of flavour) and when the peppers were about 15 minutes away from being ready I added a tin of green lentils (drained and rinsed first) and 250g of mushrooms - I did chop these quite finely so they were part of the sauce.

this is what the sauce looked like when cooked...

and the roast veg...

I also made a white sauce by melting 40g butter, stirring in 40g plain flour, cooking for a couple of minutes and then whisking in 350ml skimmed milk until the sauce was thickened and smooth...

Then it was time to layer up the lasagne...apologies if this gets a bit repetitive, I want to have a good account of this recipe so I can make it again...it was definitely a success! :) So, roast veg first...

then a layer of the lentil/mushroom mix...

3 dry lasagne sheets...

then half the white sauce...

and repeat... rest of the roast veg...

rest of the lentil/mushroom mix...

lasagne sheets...

rest of the white sauce - try to make sure you've left enough to fully cover the lasagne sheets...

and then finally top with about 70g of grated cheese...

In the oven at 200C for 30-35 minutes and it should come out smelling great and looking like this...

this tasted so good...Liam was a bit wary at first when he spotted the empty tin of green lentils on the side, but he went back for seconds! Divine...

definitely a new family favourite, so healthy and tasty too :) made enough for me, Liam and daughter plus seconds for both of them and leftovers for me and baby to have for lunch tomorrow or Wednesday :)

Today has been a really good day :) really enjoyed spending one-to-one time with the baby and, during the day at least, my food has been both healthy and delicious. Sadly, despite what the photos suggest, behind the camera there has been other food going into my mouth - a tsp of peanut butter, a handful of granola and the last square of dark chocolate whilst cooking dinner, plus a chocolate covered flapjack I'd originally bought for Liam (well I bought 2 because they were on offer, but they were both meant to be for him!) this evening, oops!

I'm having a real battle in my head at the moment - on the one hand I know I should be trying to lose the weight that I've put on recently, but I just love my food too much! I don't want to keep gaining weight though, which is what is happening at the moment...I need to get to the stage where I can maintain my weight (preferably with little or no effort from me!!) until my head is ready to start losing again. Otherwise by the time I get my head together I'm going to have a lot more weight to lose!!