Charleybarley tries again - Jan 2013

[Charleybarley]

Sunday 10th June

Well today I have been a busy bee. I woke up and did 20 mins on the trampette, then 10 mins free weights and dynaband. Then my sis in law called me and said she and my niece were going for a jog, so I did that too! I felt so great afterwards and she chucked a bit of boot camp in as well (she is a fitness instructor!). My niece and I are just starting out with our jogging so it was stop and start, jog and walk - really good.

Then came home and had brekkie - see below. I did a load of housework. Then I made a shepherds pie for tomorrow and chicken and bacon liver pate and then some onion bhajis!

B&L - 2 fried eggs on toast (3 for butter) which was smothered in some of my leftover rancheros sauce (HEB), 2 rashers of bacon and some leftover mexican potatoes (1.5) and some HM salsa

Snacks - apple and 3 mini quiches

D - Thai Chicken Curry (1 for sauce) (HEA for phili) with rice and rainbow stir fry with 3 bhajis (4.5) Greek yogurt (.5)

EDIT: the Chicken smelt a bit funky and i am weird about chicken so I had prawns which was lovely. Someone on here mentioned using the muller Greek coconut yogurt in the thai curry, which I tried, but it was too sweet - I wouldnt use it again.

EXERCISE: 20 min on trampette, 10 mins on free weights and dynaband, jogging - 3 laps (jog/walk), step ups and press ups








SYNS - 10.5

All in all a good weekend. x

 

[Charleybarley]

Monday 11th June - EE

B - Chicken Liver and Bacon Pate on Toast (HEB)

L - Leftover Mexican Potatoes (1.5) and HM tomato sauce with cheese (HEA)

D - Mexican Potatoes (1.5) and onion bhajis (3) and Salsa and Pasta in Sauce (1)

Snacks - Apple, 3 mini quiches, yogurt, pink and White (2.5)

SYNS - 9.5

 

[Corblimey]

Did you see the other week where the woman drank 3 pints of Magners whilst she was cooking dinner (and picking on the dinner whilst she was preparing) and then had four mahoooosive rum and cokes in a pint glass and wondered why she was gaining weight....I myself was wondering why she wasn't bigger than she was!!!!

oh no I missed that one, to be honest I have deliberately not watched the other episodes as I knew they would wind me up and I was right! I like a drink (ahem...lol) but I wouldn't be getting up in the morning after drinking so much on a school night

 

[Corblimey]

Your Mexican evening looks fab - except the starter, I'm a weirdo and can't stand runny eggs they have to be cooked solid. I've been looking for some Mexican recipes myself ready for the weekend. I've decided not to do the usual chilli, taco shells, fajitas as they have been cooked to death at my house and wanted to push myself to try something more unusual. I just need to stay away from all the naughty tortilla wraps and nachos, but I've found a lovely looking seabass one by Thomasina Miers so thinking of trying that.
Hope you have a good week xx

 

[Charleybarley]

oh no I missed that one, to be honest I have deliberately not watched the other episodes as I knew they would wind me up and I was right! I like a drink (ahem...lol) but I wouldn't be getting up in the morning after drinking so much on a school night

Oh yeah, I love a drink - in fact I often scoff a bottle of vino on a Friday/Saturday night and don't count it in my syns ?. But 3 pints of magners while preparing the meal?? That's most evenings she was doing that!! And rum and cokes in a pint glass? That's a lotta calories!

 

[Charleybarley]

Your Mexican evening looks fab - except the starter, I'm a weirdo and can't stand runny eggs they have to be cooked solid. I've been looking for some Mexican recipes myself ready for the weekend. I've decided not to do the usual chilli, taco shells, fajitas as they have been cooked to death at my house and wanted to push myself to try something more unusual. I just need to stay away from all the naughty tortilla wraps and nachos, but I've found a lovely looking seabass one by Thomasina Miers so thinking of trying that.
Hope you have a good week xx

I love Thomasina Miers, did you watch her shows? She has a few restaurants dotted around and I would love to go to one of them, it's like true Mexican foods, the restaurants are called Wahaca or Wajaca or something like that. In fact there is one near me in Bluewater, I might treat myself when I lose a stone

Hhmmm, get going with the seabass Vickie, I have ordered it in restaurants but never cooked with it myself.

X

 

[Charleybarley]

Tuesday 12th June

B - 2 LMc sausages and 1 boiled egg

L - Chicken Liver and Bacon Pate on ryvitas (HEB)

D - Shepherds Pie (HEA) and broccoli and sweetcorn (3) for gravy

Snacks - Apple x2, peach. Mini cupcake thing from m&s (4.5) tasty but so tiny and over in two bites - and that was me pacing myself! Coulda done it in one! Not really worth 4.5 syns but it was my friends birthday at work and she thought that these would be acceptable for my diet, bless her.

Syns - 7.5 so far.

EXERCISE: 10 min cardio from app

 

[Corblimey]

I love Thomasina Miers, did you watch her shows? She has a few restaurants dotted around and I would love to go to one of them, it's like true Mexican foods, the restaurants are called Wahaca or Wajaca or something like that. In fact there is one near me in Bluewater, I might treat myself when I lose a stone

Hhmmm, get going with the seabass Vickie, I have ordered it in restaurants but never cooked with it myself.

X

Yes I did watch a few of her shows she made some amazing looking things, I will watch ANY cooking programme TBH, much to the despair of OH. I remember doing Cambridge Diet and sitting crying watching the hairy bikers as I couldnt eat ANYTHING, I only lasted 1 and 1/2 days, I was even crying cutting up cucumber for Rick's lunch, that's when I realised it wasn't the diet for me! Anyway back to the subject - this the recipe I was looking at cooking this weekend, it's free if you leave out the olive oil but will probably use some syns for it

Sea bass with spicy tomato sauce: Recipes: Good Food Channel

xx

 

[MinkyDinky]

I must say Ms Charley that your food has been looking A-MAZ-ING! I love the look of the prawn thai curry and stir fry, OH hates prawns though which is a shame The mexican again, looks so good! I have looked at the thread for the recipes/foods of the world and am defo down with the challenge, just need to research what I can cook and get on it (prob be next weekend once I have been paid but plenty of time to research then ) The frozen Pina Colada looked wicked too!

Any thoughts as to what July will be or is that a total mystery up until the 1st of the month?
Oh! And I must ask you, how do you do your chicken and bacon pate and also your bhajis?

Hope you are having a good day sweetie xx

 

[Charleybarley]

Yes I did watch a few of her shows she made some amazing looking things, I will watch ANY cooking programme TBH, much to the despair of OH. I remember doing Cambridge Diet and sitting crying watching the hairy bikers as I couldnt eat ANYTHING, I only lasted 1 and 1/2 days, I was even crying cutting up cucumber for Rick's lunch, that's when I realised it wasn't the diet for me! Anyway back to the subject - this the recipe I was looking at cooking this weekend, it's free if you leave out the olive oil but will probably use some syns for it

Sea bass with spicy tomato sauce: Recipes: Good Food Channel

xx

Oh Vickie, some diets are just plain wrong, that one is one of them. Any diet that doesn't encourage wholesome healthy food which includes carbs/veg/protein is not a diet in my book. They leave you feeling sad and like you are missing out. Foodies like us who live to eat and like portion free food would not be able to live life happily under such strict regimes. Also if you do lose weight on these diets, once you have finished that diet, the weight comes flooding back quickly! I am loving the seabass recipe. Another one to try - thanks!

 

[Charleybarley]

I must say Ms Charley that your food has been looking A-MAZ-ING! I love the look of the prawn thai curry and stir fry, OH hates prawns though which is a shame The mexican again, looks so good! I have looked at the thread for the recipes/foods of the world and am defo down with the challenge, just need to research what I can cook and get on it (prob be next weekend once I have been paid but plenty of time to research then ) The frozen Pina Colada looked wicked too!

Any thoughts as to what July will be or is that a total mystery up until the 1st of the month?
Oh! And I must ask you, how do you do your chicken and bacon pate and also your bhajis?

Hope you are having a good day sweetie xx

Gee thanks Minks, Mick hates prawns too, which really annoys me as I would love to do a chicken and seafood paella. I usually have these things when he is out or we are 'doing our own dinners' by that I mean he usually gets his pre-prepared lasagne (yuck) and I do something delish and healthy. You should see him, a big man with a tiny little teaspoon in raptures trying to dig out the remainder of the lasagne dish!

The frozen pina colada was excellent - I really really enjoyed it. I am not a good ice cream maker as I tend to shove it in and forget about it and then it gets all crystally - but I remembered it a couple of times throughout the afternoon and it was really really good.

Chicken Liver and Bacon Pate

Tub of chicken livers (these are gross, even me who is quite adept at having my hands up inside chickens etc (obviously when they are dead, I wouldn't do that whilst they were still clucking!) found these to be pretty gross to handle - on the plus side they are like 40 - 50p in the freezer sections

1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
Herbs - I used sage, parsley and thyme, I just chucked them in, but not too much of each
salt & black pepper
4 rashers bacon, chopped
FF fromage frais

Put onion, garlic, & herbs in pan and fry in Fry Light until the onion is soft, add liver and bacon cook for about 8 mins. Make sure the liver is cooked all the way through. Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Add fromage frais a spoonful at a time until the consistency is the same as shop bought pate.

So simple. I would let is cool and then put it in the fridge and don't eat it until the next day so the flavours settle. It is really nice and syn free!!

Onion Bhajis

These were from the Curry Recipe Book, but I couldn't get 12 balls from the small amount of mixture so I did less and made then 1.5 syns each.

200g onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
60g Gram Flour
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 tsp deseeded and chopped fresh green chilli
1 tbsp freshly chopped coriander leaves
¼ tsp baking powder
Salt
Fry light

Instructions:

• Place the onions, gram flour, lemon juice, cumin, coriander seeds, green chilli, chopped coriander and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Season with salt and add a few tablespoons of water to form a thick batter that coats the onion. Leave to rest for 15 minutes and then, using your fingers, mix again to combine thoroughly.
• Preheat the oven to 220c/Gas 7. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment and using your fingers or a dessertspoon, drop small mounds of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet to give you 12 bhajis
• Spray with fry light and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and serve immediately sprinkled with the paprika.

These were really nice, although I had to go an buy a huge bag of Gram Flour as they didn't sell them in small bags - I have enough to talc myself in it for a year!

 

[Corblimey]

Oh Vickie, some diets are just plain wrong, that one is one of them. Any diet that doesn't encourage wholesome healthy food which includes carbs/veg/protein is not a diet in my book. They leave you feeling sad and like you are missing out. Foodies like us who live to eat and like portion free food would not be able to live life happily under such strict regimes. Also if you do lose weight on these diets, once you have finished that diet, the weight comes flooding back quickly! I am loving the seabass recipe. Another one to try - thanks!

Definitely, I knew that a diet that made me cry because I couldn't eat cucumber was just wrong, even my Mum was against me doing it so it must have been stupid

I'm jumping in here but I will nick your pate recipe too, I had completely ruled out pate on SW so great news that there's a free one - thanks

 

[MinkyDinky]

Cheers for recipes Hun! And no worries here about me being put off by livers - I love them. Got a tub in the fridge waiting to be eaten (took them out the freezer this morning!) and all I would need to get is the ff fromage frais as I have everything else. I love pate too which is a bonus - no butter or cream in sight.

I love liver with a fried breakfast and at Xmas the family fight over who gets the turkey livers xx

 

[Charleybarley]

Definitely, I knew that a diet that made me cry because I couldn't eat cucumber was just wrong, even my Mum was against me doing it so it must have been stupid

I'm jumping in here but I will nick your pate recipe too, I had completely ruled out pate on SW so great news that there's a free one - thanks

Please nick away Hun, it is well worth doing., it really does taste like you are eating proper pate....and so cheap too.

 

[Charleybarley]

Cheers for recipes Hun! And no worries here about me being put off by livers - I love them. Got a tub in the fridge waiting to be eaten (took them out the freezer this morning!) and all I would need to get is the ff fromage frais as I have everything else. I love pate too which is a bonus - no butter or cream in sight.

I love liver with a fried breakfast and at Xmas the family fight over who gets the turkey livers xx

I love liver too and lambs liver is fine, but those little squirmy looking things in that tub made me wanna gip! I will however put my gippy feelings aside as this is a stunning dish. People do use quark in it, so if you have some of that handy rather than going out to buy the from frais. I have a huge tub of frais now and I don't know what to do with it, any ideas? I have never really bought it or used it for SW before, I prefer Greek yog or cottage cheese - I don't like quark much. Can you eat frais like yogurt? I might shove an options in it later on tonight and see how that turns out!

 

[MinkyDinky]

I would just chuck some quark in it or sweetener and berries if you want syn free. I usually have quark and fromage frais in the fridge but didn't get either this week
Shall see if they have any up the road when I go to WI. Love a bit of pate and you could have it with a WW petit pain as a HexB option so feels like a proper naughty sesh!
Cheers again sweetie xx

 

[Charleybarley]

I would just chuck some quark in it or sweetener and berries if you want syn free. I usually have quark and fromage frais in the fridge but didn't get either this week
Shall see if they have any up the road when I go to WI. Love a bit of pate and you could have it with a WW petit pain as a HexB option so feels like a proper naughty sesh!
Cheers again sweetie xx

Ooh that sounds amazing! WW petit pain! I never heard of them but they are so going on my list this week!

Good luck at weigh in Hun! X

 

[MinkyDinky]

Chicken liver update!
Sat in the fridge a day too long and don't smell right pate will have to wait. Boo!
WI went well thanks - lost another pound so half a stone in 2 weeks.
Yours tomorrow - dun, dun, duuuuuun! xx

 

[Charleybarley]

Chicken liver update!
Sat in the fridge a day too long and don't smell right pate will have to wait. Boo!
WI went well thanks - lost another pound so half a stone in 2 weeks.
Yours tomorrow - dun, dun, duuuuuun! xx

Gutted about your livers (chicken that is, I am sure you liver is fine!) - although the beauty (if I can use the word beauty when discussing chicken livers..) is that they are so so cheap. Make it on the weekend, they are amazing with ryvitas and sliced toms on top. I am going to push the boat out and make some crab pate this week I think!

WEll done on your pound, you are going great guns. You do lots of exercise now, when you started exercising did you notice that your losses got better? I have just re-started exercising. I am quite active anyway, but your body gets used to walking and low impact things, so my sis in law is teaching me to jog properly. I was out at 6:30am this morning doing laps!

 

[Charleybarley]

MUM'S SHEPHERD'S PIE

I loved this Shep Pie, actually made with beef so officially cottage pie. It is done the way my mummy makes hers, with hidden veggies! Although I add my own herby/spicey twist to it.

Recipe:
Pack of EL Mince
1/2 pack of frozen casserole veg
Mushrooms
Carrots
Beef Oxo Cube
Herbs/Spices - Thyme, All Purpose, Curry, Jerk - I guesstimate between 1 - 2 tps of each
Worcestershire Sauce
84g LF cheese (optional)
Potatoes


Boil the kettle and make the stock up, you don't need much water and add the frozen cass veg to the stock and let that cook in a pan for 10 mins until the veg is soft, not too much water, just enough to almost cover the veg. Once that is done, let it cool down a little, then liquidise into a thick soupy looking sauce. Add you worcesteshire (as much as you think) and the spices and season and stir together.

Brown the mince, once thats done add your carrots and mush

Add the soupy sauce and mix well - I let this cook for a while (45 - 1 hour). Taste the mix, if its under seasoned, now is the time to season more. Don't worry if its a little loose and watery at this stage.

Boil and mash your spuds (I used enough to feed four people if having mash on a Sunday dinner - I usually cook too much but thats fine.

Put the beef mix in a ovenproof dish and add the mash on top. I usually leave that to cool down and then fridge it overnight so the flavours mesh well.

When ready to eat, put the dish in the oven on 180 for 30 mins, take out and add your optional cheese, put back in for another 20 mins or so.

ITS AMAZEBALLS!