Awards time and favourite meals.

First award is my Slimming World Target, this was last week, my weight loss had slowed right down and I was really happy with how I looked and how I felt about myself, having lost 2 stone 7 and half pounds my lovely consultant advised me to take my target and then stop stressing about losing  weight, then blow me down I lost another pound this week! My free life membership means I dont have to pay anymore as long as I stay 3 lbs either side of my target weight. I will continue going to group every week to get weighed and keep an eye on things, I don't want to put any of it back on, holidays being the exception, I can easily gain 5 lbs on 2 weeks all inclusive holidays!!  I would like to stay at 3 lbs under just to allow for a few treats now and again, but I need to keep in control and not be greedy! 

Second award is a Bronze Body Magic award for exercise, I'm 60 years old and just getting my first certificate for exercise:-) In January I joined my SW girlies and bought a Fitbit so I could track my steps, join in with their challenges and get myself fitter.  We are all at Platinum level but I wanted to start at the bottom with the awards just so it gives me that extra incentive to keep going. I always aim to do 10,000 steps each day but in reality it averages out to about 7500 per day, maybe it will increase during the better weather when I will be out and about more.

Since joining Slimming World and eating healthily I have enjoyed everything I have eaten and I have never been hungry, at our group we swap ideas and recipes and have regular taster nights where everyone takes something they have made from scratch for us all to share. I thought I would share a little collage of a few of my recent favorite meals.

Top Row.

 Portobello Mushroom with a low fat Burger topped with bacon and balsamic glaze with sweet potato and celeriac chips and salad.

Salmon fillet topped with poached egg baked sweet potato peeled and sliced with spinach salad.

Lamb steak with mushrooms new potatoes and vegetables, I did have a little minty gravy :-)

Bottom Row

Swede and carrot topped mince beef  with spinach, courgetti and low fat cauli cheese.

Sirloin steak with mushrooms butternut squash chips and salad with mange tout.

Roast chicken breast with new potatoes and vegetables plus gravy.

As you can see I try to have at least half my plate of salad or veggies with the rest of carbs and protein, it looks like a big plateful but I never have to snack between meals, desserts are usually fruit or yogurt.

Tomorrow is Sunday so it will be a huge Sunday lunch of Roast Pork etc with plenty to plate up for Mum and Dad to take home. 

Back soon

Take Care

Karen xxx

Sunday

Woke up this morning to a dreary rainy start to the day, after a quick cuppa in bed and a read we got up and had breakfast, we don't always have a cooked breakfast but this morning we both fancied something warm. I even managed to sneek some spinach under the egg, I don't eat bread so it was 2 eggs for me and as it was cooked in frylight it was SW friendly :-)

Next on the list was to prepare lunch, my usual Sunday morning  task. 

I didn't have to make Yorkshire puddings this week as we had 4 from the freezer :-)

Enough for 12 good portions, 4 for dinner 2 for tomorrow and 6 for Mum to take home! 

I also made up a stew pack from some of the veggies and a few perfectly good stalks, I will pop this into the freezer for during the week when I'm busy.

Pudding was a simple microwave sponge.

100gm soft butter

100gm sugar

100gm SR flour

2 eggs

Using the all in one method mix thoroughly and spoon mixture into a pudding sized bowl

I microwaved mine for 5 minutes on full power 850 watts.  Leave to stand.

We had this with instant custard and Strawberry jam...yummy! 

Got so busy after that I forgot to take a photo of the end results! So, here's one from the fridge for tomorrow.

  Just need to make some fresh gravy.

Thats all from my kitchen today, time for a cuppa!!

Thank you for popping by

Enjoy your Sunday evening

Karen xxx

Bagged bargains.

Yesterday morning we had time to pop out for a quick walk round the lake, its about 6 miles away so we took my car to fill up at Morrisons petrol station, I did my shopping in the supermarket while we were there as I knew we were  going to be busy all day today. I managed to bag a few yellow stickers, all reduced to half price and its things I would normally have bought.

There has been a lot in the news lately about a large supermarket selling boxes of Wonky Veg, they don't seem to be doing any trials near me but Morrisons have their own versions, these parsnips were £1 a bag, I've had them before and they are perfectly good, maybe a bit on the small side but if they were labelled as baby veg they would be an extortionate amount of money, way beyond my budget so Im quite happy for them to be classed as wonky!

These are my hubby's favourite yogurt and at £2 for 10 thats very good value for money. I couldn't resist trying the new flavour Peanut and Caramel, not tasted it yet but it might be 'interesting ' .

We were up early this morning scraping the ice off my car as I had to follow hubby to the service garage on the other side of town, his car is due mot and interim service....probably mega bucks!! The menu plan next week will be 101 ways with jacket potatoes, good job I got some yellow stickered!! 

Mums appointment for this morning has been cancelled, hence the time to blog. A few cleaning jobs done and now its just a case of waiting to hear from the garage, I hope its not too long.

The suns out....hurray!! Washings on the line.....hurray!! Time for a cuppa :-)

Back soon

Take care

Karen xxx

Yorkshire Pudding Recipe

Yorkshire Pudding Recipe for Sarah aka Frugal in Bucks.

 Pre Heat Oven 230* fan

300 grams Plain Flour

4 large Eggs

300mls Milk. I use semi skimmed

200mls water

1 teaspoon salt plus a really good shaking of white pepper

pop all ingredients  into a large bowl and give a really good whisk until you get a nice smooth batter. leave to rest a couple of hours at room temperature. then I give the mixture a quick stir with a fork.

Brush a shallow bun tin (mine are non stick) with Oil and place into a very hot oven, once hot fill each hole with the mixture, return tin to oven and cook until golden brown and crisp on the outside. use multiple bun tins or repeat until mixture used up.

I make double this recipe and it yields 5 dozen nice big puddings.  They freeze really well and its worth while making a big batch while the oven is on high.

I know there are lots of recipes for Yorkshires out there but as you can see, this one really works for me. :-)

Happy Cooking

Love

Where did the week go?

The usual round of Sunday lunch again! Where did the week go? What did we do?  We've had a flurry of snow this afternoon, then it turned to drizzly rain!

The weather has been a bit hit or miss this week but we have managed a few walks, according to my fitbit I have done 27.79 miles so far.

Wednesday was a beautiful day, so wrapped up nice and warm and had a lovely walk round the lake.

Lots of fat buds on the pussy willow, this always reminds me of the Nature table we had at junior school.

The hubby, probably walking and talking to himself not knowing I had stopped to take the pussy willow photo :-). Its only about a mile and half all the way round the lake but we did a bit of a detour and included the outlet shopping centre, nothing bought:-). Home for coffee, no need to buy one, so saved £4:80!

Saturday night we had a Valentines meal at home, no wine, chocolate or flowers, we dont do the commercial side of Valentine twaddle, just a nice quiet night in each others company.  I did serve dinner on my heart shaped plates though :-)

Back to Sunday Lunch just 4 of us today and 8 roast beef dinners for Mum & Dad to take home. The Yorkshires were exceptionally good this week, and the homemade rice pudding with strawberry jam a nice creamy treat.

I don't eat them but my hubby and Dad certainly appreciate them with lovely homemade gravy, as usual Dad had his 2 with gravy before his dinner, this was normal practice when I was growing up and something that Dad has carried on.  Do you eat your Yorkies first or do you have them with your dinner?  My father in law had neither he had his for pudding with jam on!

Time to relax this evening, we will watch Countryfile for the weeks weather to see if we're going to need our thermals and then its Vera for me.

Enjoy your evening.

Take care

Karen xxx

Fish n chips n Fitbit stats

Well nothing like the fish shop fish n chips but this is one of my favourite light, tasty meals. Oven baked Salmon fillet with King Prawns, Butternut Squash chips with watercress mixed salad followed by mixed fruit salad using some of my yesterday's winnings :-). Its been a busy day today and this is quick and easy to prepare and in keeping with my healthy eating.

I've just looked at my Fitbit stats from last week......

Note to self.......must do better!!

Thank you for your comments yesterday x

Back tomorrow when .i have more battery power :-)

Karen xxx

An adventure, a disappointment and a win!

First the adventure

Gorgeous grandaughter came for a sleepover on Tuesday night and as Wednesday morning was a perfect flying day she went with Grandad to the airfield and they set if for a fly round.

Once they were airborne Willow took the controls and had 20 minutes flying experience, grandad said she was a natural and handled everything brilliantly. They had a thoroughly good time, she really enjoys these special times with grandad, making lovely memories.  Grandad took over and headed back to the airfield and made a safe landing.  We headed off to Sainsburys and treated her to chocolate cake and hot chocolate :-)

The disappointment..... I have been to my slimming group tonight and I ve gained a pound :-( don't know why as I have been really good....must be fluid! These things happen from time to time, so I will continue to do my best again this week.

The win.... I won the raffle :-) 

That will knock a bit off the shopping bill tomorrow.  Lots of lovely fruit salads over the next few days.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Pink Quilt.

Back soon

Take care

Karen xxx

Pretty Pink Patchwork

'Last year I started to make this quilt from 2.5 inch strips, it seemed to take me forever and I ended up losing interest in it so it was folded up and put to one side. Months later I thought it ought to be finished, I had already got the batting and the backing fabric so there was no excuse not to get on with it. Once finished it got folded up and put into the airing cupboard, it fell out the other day so I thought I would take a couple of photos to share with you.

 I quilted it on the machine into 12inch blocks and was very pleased with how my machine performed.

I had made far too many blocks so rather than put them to one side I made a baby sized one and gave it to my friend, her nephews partner is having a baby girl and .i thought it would come in handy. Its 100% cotton so I know it will wash ok.

The quilt is folded up and back in the cupboard, I intend to use it in the spare bedroom once its been decorated. 

Busy day with Mum today, Doctors first thing, he was pleased with her progress on her new meds, then it was a visit to the Opticians to pick up her new glasses. We had yet another visit to the chemist as her Nomad packs of tablets were wrong, Dad thought they had put the wrong tablet in the nighttime section, but when the chemist checked, it was the correct tablet but because it came from a different company the tablet was a different size!! I wish they wouldn't do that, its so confusing!   Home for lunch and then out again with Mum to her therapy session, she absolutely loves these and is always eager to go. I sit in the next room with a coffee while I wait and I can hear them all laughing and singing, it gives me that feel good factor too.

Tonight we have gorgeous grandaughter staying, she's hoping to go flying tomorrow with grandad, weather permitting, if not it could be a baking day.

Thank you for taking time to leave comments yesterday, they are much appreciated.

Back soon

Take care

Karen xxx

Sunday lunch and more!

Sundays have been some of my busiest days lately, you will usually find me in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove cooking what feels like enough food for an army! Yesterday it was 7 of us for lunch and I needed 6 extra dinners for Mum & Dad, they freeze 4 for later in the week and have 2 today plus I wanted 2 for us to have a day off cooking. It's normal practice for me to cook extra, we all like a day off from cooking don't we.

6 Roast Pork dinners for Mum & Dad, it's usually 8 but they had 2 from last week.

And a basket of bags of Yorkshire puddings and the remains of the wine, enough for a glass each. This has become my normal routine on a Sunday and at least I know they have a ready meal to hand.

Mum had a really bad fall last Saturday and she hasn't been too good the last couple of days, she has a huge black eye and lots of other bruising still coming out and I think its a bit of delayed shock, nothing broken thank goodness! We're at the Doctors on Tuesday again so I ll ask him to give her a check over.

Its been another horrible rainy windy day here, its getting a bit tiring now, roll on spring and some warmer dry weather! I tried going for a walk earlier but got beaten back by the wind and big spots of rain, I dont mind one or the other but refuse to battle against both for the sake of a bit of excercise! Instead I cleaned a cupboard out.

Bit messy! And why is everything I need always at the back! 

Thats much better :-) next.....

How much pasta and rice do 2 people need!!!  2 part bags went into the bin, they were 2013 and had obviously been in the back cupboard too long! Don't think I need to buy any for a while do you?

Game stopped when we had a visitor for a cuppa and natter, I couldn't get any enthusiasm to start again so I will do the others another day.

Thank you for popping by yesterday and leaving me lots of lovely positive comments, I have missed your friendship and kindness over the last 6 months.

Take care

Love Karen xxx

Hello again!

                                      Pickering War Weekend.. October 2015

Hello everyone, well yet another month has passed and nothing posted, it has been on my to do list but just kept getting pushed down to the bottom, well here I am, better late than never! 

I have been trying to do a bit of blog reading and hoping to catch up with you all over the next few days, I have really missed you all, thank you so much for leaving lovely comments on my last post xx

The past 6 months I have been so busy with a few family problems and with 2 parents in their 80s needing a fair bit of care, time has just whizzed by and left me with little personal time for blogging etc. I seem to be getting things more organised and into a routine again albeit different from before its working ok.

  We did manage a couple of trips away last year, we went to three 1940s weekends, Woodhall Spa, Papplewick and Pickering, they are great fun and its lovely  to get a bit dressed up. Hopefully we will be doing the same this year, Woodhall Spa is already booked for July. I had my 60th birthday in November and we left my brother in charge of Mum & Dad and went on a well deserved holiday to our favourite hotel in Cyprus for two whole weeks of bliss, the weather was wonderful, around 30 degrees, lovely for lounging around and being totally looked after and very spoiled. Christmas sort of came and went but we still had a lovely family time together with my youngest son coming up from Plymouth for 5 days it made it more special. We're planning on a visit to see him in March, can't wait!! 

Through all the trials and tribulations I have managed to keep going with my weight loss journey, two and a half stone off now and only a couple more pounds to go.  Its been a hard slog some weeks with my stress levels maxed out and nothing lost but I was determined to keep going, the benefits have been worth it, I feel so much better in myself as well as looking better for it, now Im trying to improve my fitness levels by doing lots of walking and a bit of jogging on the spot! 

Heres a before and after!  I was delighted to win the groups Miss Slinky award in December :-) i think you will agree I look much better lol.

Well it's now 3am and I need to try and get some sleep, I have a very busy day tomorrow cooking lunch for 7 plus a further 8 dinners for my parents for during the week, I m getting a dab hand at these Sunday Lunches :-)

Back soon and thank you for popping by.

Love Karen xx