Tuesday Stodge!

Happy tea, Happy me! Tasty and filling, keeping within my Slimming World plan and totally syn free.

Chips were a mix of potato, sweet potato and butternut squash, par boiled, drained put onto a hot non stick baking tray and sprayed with fry light and baked in a hot oven.  Poached eggs, mushrooms cooked in the microwave then dry fried in a hot pan, mushy peas are frozen pre soaked ones you cook yourself.  Dessert is melon and pineapple both from Aldi.......mmmmm....simple, basic and delicious!

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post xx

Take Care

Karen xxx

A day in the garden.

Its been another glorious day and there has been lots to do in the garden. After a quick trip to the carpet shop to pay for the new conservatory flooring we got changed into scruffs and started work.

Hubby was painting the brackets for the bird feeders and renovating the bird house which was dropping to bits,  while I made a start on weeding the veg beds. I sorted out the strawberry plants and moved what I needed into the smaller raised bed, the rest of the plants are going to the study centre garden for the children to plant. It was hot work and I was glad when lunchtime came round just fir a sit down and a cuppa! 

I had already weeded the 2 flower beds during the week and they were still looking tidy, I could do with a few more summer perennials to fill in the gaps, I will look out for some on my travels.

Veg beds ready for planting up, strawberries in the small middle one.

This is the one we re planted last year, its come on a treat!

The apple tree is full of new buds, I hope we get plenty of lovely apples again this year.

The clematis on the garage wall is loaded with flower buds, I think its Montana Rubens.

The Wisteria on the side of the bungalow has a record number of flower buds this year, hopefully when they all open it will look spectacular.

Whats hubby looking at? He has taken the door off! 

Ahh...he has put some squirty expanding foam in a gap round the edge of the floor ready for the new Rhino flooring, once its cured it will set hard enough for the excess to be cut away leaving the gap filled in.

Time now to make dinner.... Roast Chicken...yummy! With red berries and quark for dessert.

With same again tomorrow :-)

Its 10:45pm and I'm shattered, so its a skinny hot chocolate and a quick read in bed.

Back soon

Take care

Karen xxx

Success all round.

Tomorrow is Community Shop day at our study centre so it was time to try out baking in my new oven. I was amazed how quickly it got to the right temperature and was very impressed at how evenly baked the cakes were.

It was definitely a success :-) 1 Victoria Sandwich Cake for refreshments as requested and 4 Fruit  Cakes for the Sale Table £2:50 each, I have trimmed the liners and wrapped them in counter wrap and labelled them. The 'buns' were a bit of left over mixture, hubby's treat with his cups of tea.  Not a crumb for me! 

It was another successful weigh in for me last night, I had lost another pound :-) slow and steady wins the race. We had a huge but delicious salad tonight for our tea, it took ages to eat and I was stuffed full when finished.

I had chilli chicken from Asda on mine and boy was it hot!! and very garlicky! 

I bought these in B&M the other day its quite a big jar for 89p, along with some sliced gherkins they add a bit of zing and heat to salads, I didnt need any tonight the chicken was hot enough on its own!  The fruit and quark were a nice sweet cooler to finish off with.

This afternoon while hubby was cutting the grass I popped into the greenhouse and potted the tomato plants up into big pots, tomorrow I need to sow cucumbers and salad leaves and do more weeding in the veg plot!  Looks like it will be another busy day.

Back soon

Take care

Karen xxx

New Oven.

My blog post on Monday 9th March was all about cleaning my oven and how I dreaded the day it stopped working....well I must have tempted fate..  10 days ago it stopped working! Kaput! Hubby had it in bits to see if he could fix it but the parts are no longer available, WHAT!! Its only 23 years old lol.. So we succumbed to a new one :-). After researching the new ones we settled on this one, its a Samsung single electric oven in black :-) bought from Currys.

Sorry for the wonky photo, I only have a small kitchen.

Delivered then installed by my hubby on Tuesday.

All done....now wheres the instruction book!

Its very shiny and difficult to photograph. It has a much bigger capacity than my old one but can be used as 2 ovens as it has a dividing moveable shelf, there are 2 fans in the back and the top half can be set at a different temperature to the bottom, ie slow cooked casserole in the bottom and a high heat in the top for yorkshire puddings.  The bonus is it cleans itself, you put in a bowl of water and turn it onto steam clean, I don't  know about you but I hate cleaning ovens! 

I have yet to cook something in it, as its the coffee morning on Saturday I will be baking cakes on Friday, I just hope they are eatable, the only bit I have used is the minute minder for timing the pressure cooker.

The old one is in the trailer ready for taking to the skip, at least it will be clean for its final journey :-)

Back soon

Karen xxx

Beef Goulash and Fat Free Chocolate Dessert.

After a busy weekend and lots of crispy salads and fruit we fancied a bit of stodge, but needed to keep in line with my Slimming World Food Plan, so a spicy Beef Goulash was added to the slow cooker this morning, this left the day free to go hunting for some flooring for the conservatory.

Beef Goulash. Makes enough for 4 hearty portions.

In a hot non stick pan I sealed the meat and dry fried the onion with a little spray oil, I added the peppers, 1 teaspoon of garlic, 2 teaspoons of Paprika, 2 stock cubes, 1 tin of Red beans and 1 of Tomatoes, half a can of hot water, salt, pepper and a good squirt of tomato puree.

Bring  to the boil then tip into a hot slow cooker and cook on low for about 6 hours leaving you free to enjoy your day :-)  I served ours with plenty veg and new potatoes.

For dessert I quickly whipped up this Slimming World Chocolate Mousse with defrosted Black Forest Berries sprinkled with powdered sweetener (canderel).

For 1 portion I used about a third of a tub of Quark (87p a tub) mixed with a sachet of Chocolate Options or Highlights or use 11gms from a big jar, you can add some sweetener to this if you want, place in a nice serving dish and top with the berries.  If you are familiar with Slimming World its 2 syns:-)

Delicious!!

As for the flooring, we have a man coming to measure up the conservatory on Saturday for some Rhino floor, tough stuff and  expensive! but on a good offer at the moment and it has a long guarantee so I think it will be worth it.

Thank you for all your lovely comments yesterday xx

Back soon

Karen xxx

Friday already

Thank you all for your lovely comments yesterday, it was so kind of you to be so supportive xx

I'm not sure where the week has gone! Time seems to be flying by at the moment.  It's been a glorious day here, washing on the line and cleaning done early we nipped off to asda for some fresh salad and a few more bits for next week. After a yummy lunch of salmon, almost a repeat of yesterdays lunch, I headed off to my Thimbles group.  Today was one of our ladies birthdays and guess what?  Ok you guessed....there was cake!! 3 different choices.....all my favourites, Carrot Cake, then a sliced and buttered Fruit loaf and Scones with jam and cream! Oh my!! But I was good and resisted it all, mind you I did look pretty sad sat with my black coffee and Alpen Light bar lol. Hopefully I will be glad I did when it comes to weigh in again :-)

For tonights dinner I was inspired by Frugal Queen to make Cottage Pie with lots of veggies and 5% fat Mince from Aldi @ £2:99 per 500gm

Topped with Root Mash.

Tonights veggies :-)

I added a handful of frozen Leeks and a couple of handfuls of mixed veg,cooked then thickened with a bit of gravy granules.

For the Root Mash I used one third each of Sweet Potato, Swede and Carrot cooked in my pressure cooker and then mashed.  Another good combo is Carrot, Parsnip and Celeriac, these just make a nice change from plain mashed potato, I love Froog's idea of adding leeks to the mash, must try that.

As you can see we ate it with greens and cauli, for dessert we had Melon chunks and Strawberries :-)

The meat was divided into two dishes, the second dish will be frozen for next week and I will add some sliced potatoes to the top and cook in the oven, the leftovers from tonight will be tomorrows lunch. Comfort food but frugal food and it fits in with my Slimming World plan :-)

Did you cook dinner tonight, I would love to know what you had and if you cooked from scratch....just because I'm nosey :-)

Back tomorrow with some different news.

Take care

Karen xxx

Whoo hoo!

Weigh in tonight, another 1.5lbs off :-) not many at our class they all went to the afternoon session, I think most people had a gain last week because of Easter but because I maintained and lost this week I got the fruit and the above sticker for my book.   Doesn't take much to make me happy :-)

Todays food

                    Breakfast of strawberries, banana and aldi fat free greek style yogurt.

            Lunch.  Salmon fillet from Aldi, lots of salad for speedy weight loss and some Tartare style sauce made with Quark, chopped gherkins, chopped pickled onion and salt and pepper.

Dinner, after weigh in.  Chilli,  Rice and salad, dessert was Apple, Satsuma and a few strawberries.

All todays food is Free on Extra Easy :-)

Healthy A choice was 250ml of semi skimmed milk

Healthy B choice was 2 sw chocolate biscutes instead if my usual 60gm wholemeal roll.

Do you like my heart shaped plates and dish, they're from Wilko, and are my treat for losing over a half stone, it may be a while before I have another half stone treat lol.

Now its time for a cup of tea and an hour with the tv.

Back soon

Karen xxx

For my dear sons x

Saw this on FB and had to share :-)

David & Daniel.........Be warned!!.... Lol

Love Mum xxxx

Chilli night

Mmmm Chilli.... One of our favourite meals. Today I made a lighter version to fit in with my Slimming World diet plan.

The minced beef is 5% fat from Morrisons and is very lean, I used peppers and mushrooms to give bulk.

Chop the onions add to the meat and sauté in its own juices until sealed add the rest of the ingredients with a good squirt of tomato puree and some salt and pepper.  I used the tomato can to add a can of hot water, half a can would have been enough...see below..and enough chilli powder and garlic for our taste. I also added a stock cube, sorry I forgot to add one to the photograph.

Once it came to the boil I tipped the lot into the slow cooker and left on low all day, at the end of the cooking it still seemed a bit thin so I tipped it back into the pan to reduce it and it was much thicker, must remember to only add half a can of water next time!  I would normally just cook this on the hob on a low setting and it would have reduced itself but today I have been busy so I thought the slow cooker was the safest option.

I had mine with rice and half a plate of chopped salad for 'speed' food and dessert was strawberries sliced   apple and a blob of Quark. Very filling and very tasty and all 'Free' food on extra easy with Slimming World :-) the good thing is there is plenty left for another 3 portions.

Not a very exciting post tonight..sorry..  Thank you for your comments on my last posts, sorry I havent had the time to reply but .i really appreciate them.  A huge welcome to my 2 new followers, I hope you find something of interest in my chunterings:-) its great to have you on board, thank you xx

Goodnight

Love Karen xxx

Almost a No kinda day!

No weight loss this week.......boo hoo....I have been very good too :-(

No washing done today even though its been a great drying day.

No housework done, everywhere is clean and tidy.

No shopping, that can wait.

No crafting or sewing done.

No hubby all day...he went hospital visiting.

Just Willow and myself, we had a girly chatty day with a bit of fun in the kitchen.

Willow made Flapjacks, and very nice they are too.

And I made Porky Pasta for tea.

We had this with a nice crispy salad with fruit and yogurt for dessert, followed by Flapjack and a nice cup of tea.

All in all a lovely day with my beautiful grandaughter.  

Its grandads turn now, they are in the study doing My Maths on the computer.

Willow is staying over tonight so we can look forward to her company again tomorrow :-)

Take care

Karen xxx

Its just another day.

I bet you are all making the most of this wonderful weather and getting all the washing done and dried outside...I certainly am, another 2 loads done today and everything ironed and put away. I did a quick hoover and dust while hubby went to the flying club to cut the grass....lots of it it... He likes playing with Ernest...the 1950s tractor cum grasscutter :-), I knew he would be gone a few hours so I made him some sandwiches for lunch, it saved him buying one in the Café.  That just left me to make something for own lunch, I decided on low fat Scotch Eggs.

Starting off with 4 hard boiled eggs and a pack of low fat sausages.

They're not bad sausages although I would prefer the outdoor reared pork ones.

I used 6 sausages for the 4 eggs and the 2 leftovers made a nice sandwich for my breakfast, at 10 am! I did get up just after 7:30 though.

Instead of them being deep fried with breadcrumbs on they were left plain and baked in the oven 180*c for about 40minutes.  I had one with salad for my lunch, they are very easy to make and will be great for summer picnics.

Dinner tonight was another simple meal of Salmon new potatoes and more salad

I had some brocolli to use up and I made a sort of low fat tartare sauce using quark, chopped gherkins, with a spoon of the vinegar and some salt and pepper.  The salmon fillets are from Aldi, frozen ones, 2 in a box for around £2:50 and they are delicious. We had fresh fruit and yogurt for dessert.  Its weigh in day for me tomorrow, I hope all this healthy eating has paid off and the scales show a loss, I will let you know!

Willow is coming tomorrow for 2 days, I think she will want to do some crafting, she was absolutely thrilled with the bag she made last week.

Time to make the last cuppa and have an early night...and hopefully a good nights sleep!

Bye for now,

Take care

Karen xxx

Sunny day chores

Hasn't the weather been glorious, warm spring sunshine with lovely blue skies, perfect for getting a few ouside chores done.

Its time to get the caravan ready after being closed up for the winter, I popped the duvet on the line for a good airing and washed the bedding to freshen it up. Hubby connected the solar panel to the battery to put some free charge in it, when we are on site the panel goes through the sun roof and sits on the top of the van, it stays there quite happily soaking up the suns rays and keeping the battery topped up. The tow hitch needed a bit of attention so Hubby jacked up the front of the caravan and gave everything a good grease.  All we have left to do is fill it up with clothes and food and we're ready to go :-)

The next big job to tackle is cleaning the conservatory, I have made a start while hubby cut the grass and did the edges of the path...it looks so much better! Tomorrow we will finish the windows inside and out and then we are ready for some new floor covering.  We have been looking at Rhino Floor, its quite expensive as its a biggish area but if it lasts it will be worth it....we will have to see! 

I have been at Mum & Dads today doing some of the bigger chores, starting with....the junk room!!! aka the small bedroom aka Mums Crafting room....goodness me...what a hoarder! We had a good fling out and it looks so much tidier.  I also sorted out her tablets again, this is going to be a weekly task from now on.

The last of the dinners has been eaten tonight so I will cook something nice for tea tomorrow, probably salmon fillets with new potatoes and salad...

Time to watch Holby while recording Back in Time for Dinner.

Enjoy your evening

Take care

Karen xxx

Slimming World

Last month I took the plunge and enrolled myself at Slimming World, I have messed about trying to lose weight myself and find I'm just not disciplined enough to keep going more than a couple of weeks. With the summer fast approaching and last years clothes a bit tight it was the right decision for me. In three weeks I have lost half a stone :-) my friend goes too so we can give each other a bit of support. The healthy eating suits me and really its only a case of cutting out the baking the sweets and all the high fat snacky stuff that seems to attatch itself to my hips!  Its going to be a slow process unless soneone invents that magic pill where you take one at night before bed, falling asleep a size 16 and waking up a size 10 :-) that would be rather nice dont you think? Until that happens I will have to be a little more creative in the kitchen and stick to good home cooked low fat dishes.

Friday night we treated ourselves to a fillet steak each from Aldi, we have had them before and they are delicious, they're around a fiver each, not bad when you think how much a restaurant charges for the same thing, we didnt have any other Easter treats so .i can justify the cost.

The chips were done in my usual way, par boiled sprayed with oil and baked in a hot oven until golden brown. We were stuffed to the gills and had our fruit and yogurt dessert later in the evening.

Yesterday we had family over for Easter Sunday Lunch. I cooked 2 free Range Chickens I'd previously bought on yellow stickers for £3:85 each and added loads of fresh vegetables. We had 7 for lunch then Mum & Dad took 2 plated meals home and we have 4 plated up in the fridge so 13 meals from 2 chickens isnt bad is it? 

Ready to microwave and add fresh gravy. Stuffing and roasties for hubby, parsnip and brocolli for me :-)

Today I made soup using some leeks I bought last weekend , we had this for lunch and the leftovers made 3 tubs for the freezer.

I used a mix of sweet potato and white, 3 large leeks and 2 small onions. Chop all the veggies cover with boiling water add 3 stock cubes salt and pepper and simmer until soft. When cool blend and check the seasoning, I added a bit more and a few chilli flakes for a bit of a kick.

Served with a blob of cream, yogurt or in my case Quark and a sprinkle of sweet paprika, very tasty and very filling, hubby had some wholemeal bread with his. It looks a megre portion but the bowls are quite deep. We followed this with fresh fruit.

All the above food is called Free Food with Slimming World, you also get 5-15 syns each day to spend on treats or extra ingredients for cooking, I shall use 4 for my gravy today. I like the fact that its all food we would normally eat and its still within my budget and the cost of the weekly fee is taken care of by not spending money on biscutes or baking ingredients. It gives me an evening out with some lovely people too who are eager to share their hints and tips with everyone.

Back tomorrow with something different.

Take care

Karen xxx

3 weeks of updates!

Can't believe where the last 3 weeks have gone! Looking back over the first week, nothing very much happened, just the mundane day to day stuff and getting on with 'normal' life.  I hadn't been sleeping very well and tried to keep off the computer late at night to see if that helped....not really! Just a case of too much in my head!

I did keep myself busy though, first knitting 50 Innocent Smoothie Hats for the Big Knit Challenge

I have pledged another 50! They are an ideal project for taking in the caravan if I use a circular needle they dont take up any space, I can see the next 50 being well travelled :-). If any if you fancy a go you can find loads of free patterns on a site called Jo's Big Knit, there are some fantastic designs and all of them are fab for using those tiny oddments of wool knitters seem to accumulate . 

At the end of the first week I started a new quilt, its very pink!! and its the biggest one so far, double bed size ish.  It has involved lots of cutting, not my favourite thing to do but done in small batches I managed it.  

All my big strips are made and they need sewing together, still a lot to do yet, it will have white borders and a mixture of the pinks for the binding, I have the batting, just need some fabric for the backing.

It's surprising how many hours it takes up!

Still on the sewing front, Willow has been with us and as usual we got together for a crafting session, this time she wanted to sew.......a bag!!...  We raided the stash cupboard and found some pretty turquoise fabric and some beige citton fabric for the lining.  I did all the cutting out...didn't want a trip to A&E with a nasty cut from the rotary cutter, i put it all together with her watching, then set the machine to snail pace added the seam guide and she was well away....a bit wobbly at first but she soon got the hang of it :-)

We even made a Suffolk Puff each....hers was better than mine!!  I gave it a good press and she was chuffed to bits with the result.  Its going to be her Cornwall holiday bag. 

The last weekend saw us hitting the motorway for a 320 mile journey down to Plymouth to see my son and his wife, we had a lovely time and ate far too much!  It was all over far too soon and we were back on the motorway for another 320 miles!  Loads of roadworks and standing traffic both ways....uggh... Worth it though :-)

This week its been quite hectic, Im still helping out  Mum with the washing and shopping so that takes up quite a bit of time, in fact thats where I'm heading this morning. Its prescription day and tablet sorting! 

Hope to visit your blogs later for a catch up on your news.

Take care

Karen xxxx