MWWWD (or Moonwatcher's Weight Watchers Diary!)

[Atomic pink]

The passionfriuit cider is gorgeous isn't it? Although it dangerously doesn't taste alcoholic at all i find.

It may interest you to hear that M+S have a new range of alcohol which includes rhubarb vodka, raspberry vodka and gingerbread rum. I am getting some gingerbread rum for chirstmas, already tried the vodkas and the raspberry is lovely, the rhubarb a little disappointing.

A couple of days of not counting as precisely won't do much damage. I find that after a while you kind of instinctively make choices over a day that add up to roughly what they should.

 

[moonwatcher]

The passionfriuit cider is gorgeous isn't it? Although it dangerously doesn't taste alcoholic at all i find.

It may interest you to hear that M+S have a new range of alcohol which includes rhubarb vodka, raspberry vodka and gingerbread rum. I am getting some gingerbread rum for chirstmas, already tried the vodkas and the raspberry is lovely, the rhubarb a little disappointing.

A couple of days of not counting as precisely won't do much damage. I find that after a while you kind of instinctively make choices over a day that add up to roughly what they should.

I expected the passionfruit cider to be 'ordinary' brown cider colour, so was caught out when I saw it was clear! It is now one of my favourites though. Ummmmm, I especially like the sound of the gingerbread rum.

Well, the scales are not my friend this week. I am up by over two pounds this morning, so now 15st 13lbs. Although I didn't count on Sat and Sun, I know I wasn't drastically over, and have been on track this week from Monday. Pretty fed up and to add insult to injury I have to wear a yellow tutu in the panto as a magic chicken. Not terribly impressed with that idea either.

Not sure where to go from here. I obviously need to reassess my calorie intake in some way, just don't feel I can be bothered at the moment, but do not want to keep putting on. I seem to be gaining more now I have generally cut my calories than I was during the reset. Aaaargh! Fed up doesn't cover it.

 

[moonwatcher]

Shattered today. Heating gone wrong in the library at school so came home to change into something warm at lunchtime, as I was reading/scribing for mock exams, and two hours at a time sitting still in a very cold room is no fun. The kids had their coats on bless 'em. They just got on with it.

The storm surge has badly battered the coast around here. Thankfully we are far enough inland that we have not been directly affected at home, but thousands of homes were evacuated last night to centres, schools and village halls, sea walls and other sea defences destroyed in places and now inaccessible, cafes and beachside homes fallen into the sea, towns flooded, lifeboat houses destroyed, beach huts destroyed, Cromer Pier badly damaged and closed off... The list goes on. Thank god no one seriously hurt in the area as far as I know, but it is not a happy time around the Norfolk coast at the moment - the same for many other coastal towns. All of the places we go to regularly at weekends and in the summer have been affected, and probably changed for ever. It is nature, but it is sad to see. Around 400 seal pups are suspected to have been killed in the tidal surge on local seal sand banks, as this is their breeding time. There are probably only about 50 survived.

Food good today -

Breakfast - maple gluten free cereal, coffee and cream

Mid morning - lime and coconut macaroon, coffee and milk

Lunch - gf white bread as a sandwich with sweet chilli philly, chopped jalapenos, cherry toms, an apple, pukka brand 3 ginger tea

At home after school - packet of ready salted crisps, a twirl, earl grey tea and milk

Dinner - delicious meal of rustic bubble 'n' squeak - with potatoes, carrots, cabbage, parsnip and caramelised onions, a portion of peas and salmon fillets cooked with chilli and garlic flakes, fresh lime juice and zest, tamari soy sauce and honey, a glass of Rekordalig spiced cider

Other drinks - water

Calories for the day 1975/1950 (25 over, but used them up walking home and back at lunchtime!)

Scales are absolutely all over the place at the moment. Tomorrow is one month since I cut my calories, although a) not every day (most though) and b) it seems, without a positive result. I expect to have gained in that month. I have just been reading how giving up wheat can result in a weight gain after a while (if you have an intolerance to start with). Apparently it is to do with the fact that your body doesn't digest/absorb the nutrients from your food properly and once it has had a chance to adjust to the regular wheat free food, it can then begin to remedy this, and hangs onto it, resulting in a slight weight gain as you become more healthy. Hmmm, I'm not totally sure - it would perhaps be nice to have an explanation, but I do not want to cling on to one 'excuse' after another!

 

[StillTryingJoJo]

Shattered today. Heating gone wrong in the library at school so came home to change into something warm at lunchtime, as I was reading/scribing for mock exams, and two hours at a time sitting still in a very cold room is no fun. The kids had their coats on bless 'em. They just got on with it.

The storm surge has badly battered the coast around here. Thankfully we are far enough inland that we have not been directly affected at home, but thousands of homes were evacuated last night to centres, schools and village halls, sea walls and other sea defences destroyed in places and now inaccessible, cafes and beachside homes fallen into the sea, towns flooded, lifeboat houses destroyed, beach huts destroyed, Cromer Pier badly damaged and closed off... The list goes on. Thank god no one seriously hurt in the area as far as I know, but it is not a happy time around the Norfolk coast at the moment - the same for many other coastal towns. All of the places we go to regularly at weekends and in the summer have been affected, and probably changed for ever. It is nature, but it is sad to see. Around 400 seal pups are suspected to have been killed in the tidal surge on local seal sand banks, as this is their breeding time. There are probably only about 50 survived.

Food good today -

Breakfast - maple gluten free cereal, coffee and cream

Mid morning - lime and coconut macaroon, coffee and milk

Lunch - gf white bread as a sandwich with sweet chilli philly, chopped jalapenos, cherry toms, an apple, pukka brand 3 ginger tea

At home after school - packet of ready salted crisps, a twirl, earl grey tea and milk

Dinner - delicious meal of rustic bubble 'n' squeak - with potatoes, carrots, cabbage, parsnip and caramelised onions, a portion of peas and salmon fillets cooked with chilli and garlic flakes, fresh lime juice and zest, tamari soy sauce and honey, a glass of Rekordalig spiced cider

Other drinks - water

Calories for the day 1975/1950 (25 over, but used them up walking home and back at lunchtime!)

Scales are absolutely all over the place at the moment. Tomorrow is one month since I cut my calories, although a) not every day (most though) and b) it seems, without a positive result. I expect to have gained in that month. I have just been reading how giving up wheat can result in a weight gain after a while (if you have an intolerance to start with). Apparently it is to do with the fact that your body doesn't digest/absorb the nutrients from your food properly and once it has had a chance to adjust to the regular wheat free food, it can then begin to remedy this, and hangs onto it, resulting in a slight weight gain as you become more healthy. Hmmm, I'm not totally sure - it would perhaps be nice to have an explanation, but I do not want to cling on to one 'excuse' after another!

Wow I didn't realise ye were having such bad weather over there.. All those poor seals!! Are the coastal buildings flattened like? Hope nobody gets seriously hurt!! What about upping your exercise a bit a couple of evenings a week MW or do you do much normally? x

 

[moonwatcher]

Wow I didn't realise ye were having such bad weather over there.. All those poor seals!! Are the coastal buildings flattened like? Hope nobody gets seriously hurt!! What about upping your exercise a bit a couple of evenings a week MW or do you do much normally? x

Yes, we've had it pretty bad, although now the sun is shining and I'm shopping without a coat, scarf or hat! Most of the buildings affected were on the cliffs or the dunes. The thing is, the sea has encroached so far inland over the years that houses that were say half a mile inland are now right at the sea front! There was one couple whose bungalow had just slid down into the sea - must be so awful for them. People are so brave and stoic about it though, I suppose it is just a risk you accept if you live somewhere like that. Cromer Pier has just had some maintenance work running to millions of pounds, but they reckon it probably wouldn't have survived at all if it hadn't had that strengthening work already done.

Re the exercise, I do very little now, apart from walking to and from work and round the school at work. Last year I was doing an hour or more every day, although I was only working part time then. It didn't have a huge impact on my weight loss then, but I do want to get back into it, as with the extra calories now, it should come back into the equation - my body should be working more efficiently with the extra calorie intake! Have just been so tired lately though. Although perhaps I have more stamina than I thought - after staff panto dance rehearsals the other day, one of the lads (who, I should add, helps to teach PE!) was moaning about how worn out he was and how he could hardly walk, but I was fine, and he is literally less than half my age. Made me feel a bit better!

New Year resolution will be to get back into exercise I think. Realistically have got so much on over the next two weeks that I know I will just stress myself out if I try to add it now!

 

[moonwatcher]

Saturday 7th December

Breakfast - gf maple cereal

Left OH at home fixing a night storage heater and some other jobs and popped into the local town for a Secret Santa pressie and some other Christmas bits and pieces. Didn't have lunch as such, but a gingerbread latte and a gf choc brownie at Costa's. Found a teddy style hat in Poundland (with ears!) to start my panto teddy bear outfit, then some PJs at 20% off, also for the teddy outfit, and some animal print padded slippers which will double up as part of the teddy outfit and the back of the cow! Also found a long T- shirt as part of my chicken outfit! Yep, I am playing a chicken, a bear and the back end of a cow, as well as an evil henchman! Oh yes I am! Many swift costume changes - especially chicken to teddy bear and back to chicken again over three scenes. I think it is likely that at least one of the chickens may be wearing one half of a pair of pyjamas!

I also found some Nordic style red and white knitted stockings in Poundland, so picked up four - one for each grand daughter and one each for us to hang at the bedroom fireplace, plus a flashing snowman brooch and matching ear rings for the 'Wear Something Christmassy Day' at school in the last week, plus some reindeer nail stickers, oh and quite a few more Christmas bargains, which I absolutely had to have!

Back to food - Dinner - a Lidl pork shank in peppercorn sauce, large jacket spud with a little butter, peas, fresh pineapple and pear chunks with a mini meringue nest and a few small pieces of ginger in syrup, small glass of Rekorderlig winter cider,

Snack while waiting for it to cook - handful of sweet chilli and sour cream crIsps

One coffee and cream, water

Calories 1985/1950 (35 calories over)

Spent the evening in front of the TV and the fire, cutting out some felt gingerbread men decorations to sew during the week. Haha - like I need something to do, between school trip to cinema, late meetings, school drama performance of 'Winter's Tales', panto rehearsals, decorating two trees with the SEN pupils, school canteen Christmas dinner, department evening Christmas meal, OH's work Christmas meal, school carol service, panto dress rehearsal, the panto itself... might fit some actual lessons in there somewhere!

 

[Atomic pink]

Think you are being brave with the panto! Should hopefully be a good laugh though and quite good for the confidence that your stamina is better than the PE teacher!

Its frustrating about the scales. I am feeling a similar thing at the minute, although i am lucky in that my weight hasn't gone up since cutting calories. Just not really gone down. Interesting about the gluten free thing you mentioned - wonder if that might be at least part of the explanation for you. When you calculated your TDEE what exercise did you input? I remember you had intended to fit in a few formal exercises sessions a week as well as the walking, did you change your TDEE when those didn't happen? The other possibility is that your body hadn't completely finished the reset. From reading around the calories often seem to need a bit of tweaking to get the right formula for each individual. I think i am going to put all my effort into finding the "magic numbers" after christmas. In the mean time I am looking forward to enjoying my first christmas for several years where there isn't a sense of dread surrounding all the usual food and drink. I like the psychological changes the reset has given me. Just hoping for some positive physical ones for both of us in the new year!

 

[moonwatcher]

I appear to have another panto role now - that of Sparkle-Sparkle, the dim witted but diamond loving daughter of the baddy! I even get to sing a solo of 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.'

I was thinking about the TDEE/exercise thing the other day. I didn't re-calculate to take off those exercise calories, mainly because I hadn't gained unduly during the first eight weeks reset, so I assumed that was a reasonable level to work with. Thinking back though, I had a couple of times during that eight weeks when I wasn't well, in addition to adjusting to the longer term gluten free diet, which affected my calorie intake at the time. I came to a similar conclusion to your hint above, that maybe I should have extended the reset period to give my body a chance to truly adjust to the changes in intake. With only two and a half weeks to go to Christmas, I have decided to stuck to between 1950 and 2150 per day at the moment. I have noticed that I tend to hang on to/gain pounds when I don't have a mid morning snack and also that several times over the last few days I have had the hunger feelings similar to those of the early reset time. Both of these suggest to me that perhaps my reset wasn't really, er... reset!

Being realistic here, I am not going to lose with all the lunches, dinners, events etc., that I have to fit in over the rest of the term, or over Christmas, so I am going to enjoy it, as you say, without the guilt, but still counting within those limits, (not for Christmas and Boxing Day) and then recalculate and knuckle down in the New Year.

 

[Sweet as pie]

Think that is a good idea to up your calories a bit until January and see how you go, hopefully then in new year will will happen for you

 

[moonwatcher]

Sorry I haven't updated for a whole week! Had a very stressful week. OH's current work situation is taking its toll on both of us. They are 40% down on staff in their section, but still expected to do all the work,which was practically impossible to do with the full complement of staff. 3.15am and 4.00 alarms do not suit very well. He is absolutely exhausted and I'm not much better, as I don't really go properly back to sleep, even if I do stay in bed after he leaves. We have had three months of it and are absolutely sick of it. Now the company are trying to say they won't pay the overtime as they 'said this temporary contract would be tough at the start.' Grrr! I had a great plan for Christmas preparation etc., but have been too exhausted in the evenings to do anything except cook dinner, so his employer's lack of planning and selfish behaviour have even impacted on my Christmas, as now have a mad rush to get everything done, which is the one thing I really wanted to avoid this year (double grrr!)

Anyway, I haven't recorded calories every day, but have generally been keeping a running total in my head and just eating according to common sense (although have succumbed to chips twice this week, out of sheer tiredness, and had one works Christmas meal out (picked fish for starter and main though, and banana split dessert). This week I have dropped back down to 15st 10.2 lbs, which is about 2-3 lbs down from last week (not sure as I didn't record it last week) Christmas meal out tonight. Think I have decided to completely give up on trying to work out how my body works until next year!

 

[moonwatcher]

Just had a bacon butty, with Tiger Tiger brown sauce, on gf bread for breakfast. About to go shopping for some stocking fillers for the kids and us (the big kids!) Had planned to have this done last Monday, but OH wasn't back from work in time. Have got the Christmas songs on to get us in a festive mood!

Will be sorting out the freezers and pantry tomorrow, ready for Crimbo food. No more shopping time until Friday afternoon after today as busy every evening next week with school stuff! Roll on Friday lunchtime!

 

[Atomic pink]

Not surprising you are feeling knackered and a bit out of sorts with those crazy o'clock starts! I feel hard enough done by with by 2 5am starts and 5 6am starts in a week.

Good news that the scales have gone done, although i guess it is a bit confusing. I've had a similar experience - eaten out hundreds of times this weel (well 4/5 anyay), not had time for the gym and had a tiny loss when fully deserved a reasonable size gain. It makes me even less convinced that close monitored of the scales is the way to go about this each week.

Hope you had a nice day Christmas shopping. At least when you are doing it a bit later it feels a bit more festive. Stress and panic is seasonal, right??

What is on your Christmas menu?

 

[moonwatcher]

Not surprising you are feeling knackered and a bit out of sorts with those crazy o'clock starts! I feel hard enough done by with by 2 5am starts and 5 6am starts in a week.

Good news that the scales have gone done, although i guess it is a bit confusing. I've had a similar experience - eaten out hundreds of times this weel (well 4/5 anyay), not had time for the gym and had a tiny loss when fully deserved a reasonable size gain. It makes me even less convinced that close monitored of the scales is the way to go about this each week.

Hope you had a nice day Christmas shopping. At least when you are doing it a bit later it feels a bit more festive. Stress and panic is seasonal, right??

What is on your Christmas menu?

Hopefully only another week and two days (although I won't be working for the last two days). We did enjoy the shopping - deliberately only dId a few hours as we were going out in the evening. We went out to OH's works, which was an absolute disaster! I had pre ordered my gf stuff, but one of our party was lactose intolerant, and was asked to ring up to arrange his food. He had rung them five times and they kept promising to ring him back but didn't, so when we got there they said they would come and sort it out with him at the table, but then they tried to bring out the other starters, without even talking to him about his food. Then they messed up the other starters, forgot a main course completely, didn't bring the sauces for the mains out until we had nearly finished, the mains were pretty rough, they got the desserts wrong, (they had offered the lactose intolerant person a kid's jelly as a dessert!) The waitress was pretty bad tempered all the time too. We complained and they realised it was so bad that they refunded the whole bill! The evening was spoilt though. Such a shame.

Was very surprised by the scales. I think that I possibly eat less when I completely relax about what I am eating! Today I have been cleaning and tidying the pantry ready for Christmas, with some major throwing out taking place too!

Breakfast was gf cereal and milk with earl grey tea with milk

During the day had one and a half small packets of crisps, a Mrs Crimble's chocolate macaroon, a coffee with cream and an earl grey tea with milk

Dinner - one of OH's colleagues had given him a fresh rabbit (fortunately skinned and prepared) so we had slow cooker rabbit stew with wine, carrots, onions and potatoes, followed by a 'childhood dessert' of reheated yorkie (one of my own gf ones, previously frozen), reheated and served with maple syrup and cream.

Also... two glasses of homemade mulled cider and a mini curly wurly.

Haven't planned much of the Christmas food yet. I have a turkey crown in the freezer, which we'll probably have with either pork or beef on Christmas Day (or both - love plenty of cold sliced meat at Christmas). I usually tart up the veggies, and try to find something different to do with at least one of the veg. We're having a ginger spiced steamed pudd instead of christmas pudd for a change. Also have two red legged partridges in the freezer, so will look for something to do with them.

I am planning a trawl through some more recipes on Wednesday or Friday night, and then shopping at the weekend. Cheese will be on the shopping list though! What will be on your Christmas table?

 

[Atomic pink]

That dinner does sound a diaster I had a Christmas dinner out with about 10 of my friends Sunday before last and it was bad but not *quite* that bad. My dessert came out frozen (it wasn't meant to be!) and went back 3 times and was still partially frozen. The people that ordered the turkey dinners had salad leaves beside their roast potatoes instead of the advertised "seasonal veg". We were not impressed!

The rabbit stew sounds lovely. Our butcher often has ferretted rabbits in but you have to order it and its never clear exactly when it will be in so I always forget. Might have to order some in the new year. Have you investigated the gingerbread rum as yet? I am reliably informed I have a bottle wrapped up for me upstairs from the presents my mum brought up at the weekend. I am inpatient to try it! Especially given I plan to have a January with no alcohol at all.

Christmas food plans sound nice. My family always used to do a couple of different meats for Christmas which was lovely to have a bit of everything and then, as you say, have lots of options for cold meat. We always have duck. Sometimes I make confit duck legs and sometimes slow cooked whole duck with smoked sea salt crust. We have the latter this year. Which will be served with a tamarind and port sauce in addition to the gravy. Well that is if I buy one. I have looked for the last week when I have been shopping with the idea of shoving it in the freezer ahead of time but everywhere seems to have sold out by the time I get there. Worrying! The ginger steamed pudding also sounds nice. I made a stem ginger version of sticky toffee pudding earlier in the year which I suggested for Christmas but I got outvoted by OH who has insisted on a repeat of last year dessert - the maya gold chocolate tart with thyme and clemetine pastry. It was pretty good, even if I do say so myself

 

[moonwatcher]

That dinner does sound a diaster I had a Christmas dinner out with about 10 of my friends Sunday before last and it was bad but not *quite* that bad. My dessert came out frozen (it wasn't meant to be!) and went back 3 times and was still partially frozen. The people that ordered the turkey dinners had salad leaves beside their roast potatoes instead of the advertised "seasonal veg". We were not impressed!

The rabbit stew sounds lovely. Our butcher often has ferretted rabbits in but you have to order it and its never clear exactly when it will be in so I always forget. Might have to order some in the new year. Have you investigated the gingerbread rum as yet? I am reliably informed I have a bottle wrapped up for me upstairs from the presents my mum brought up at the weekend. I am inpatient to try it! Especially given I plan to have a January with no alcohol at all.

Christmas food plans sound nice. My family always used to do a couple of different meats for Christmas which was lovely to have a bit of everything and then, as you say, have lots of options for cold meat. We always have duck. Sometimes I make confit duck legs and sometimes slow cooked whole duck with smoked sea salt crust. We have the latter this year. Which will be served with a tamarind and port sauce in addition to the gravy. Well that is if I buy one. I have looked for the last week when I have been shopping with the idea of shoving it in the freezer ahead of time but everywhere seems to have sold out by the time I get there. Worrying! The ginger steamed pudding also sounds nice. I made a stem ginger version of sticky toffee pudding earlier in the year which I suggested for Christmas but I got outvoted by OH who has insisted on a repeat of last year dessert - the maya gold chocolate tart with thyme and clemetine pastry. It was pretty good, even if I do say so myself

Sounds like your Christmas will be quite food based - as will mine! I toyed with buying duck for between Christmas and New Year, but had already spent so much that I decided to leave it! I do have some red legged partridges in the freezer though, to do something exciting with.

I have decided to sort of update with my food over Chrismas and New Year, although with no calorie counts and probably not very accurate numbers either!

Christmas Eve

Breakfast - gf cereal

Whilst cooking - random amounts of home made sausage rolls and mince pies (purely for testing purposes of course), carrot cake with raisin and cranberry batter out of the mixing bowl (for tidying up purposes of course!)

Whilst watching 'It's a Wonderful Life' - ham and mustard gf sandwich, kettle crisps, small twirl finger, two clementines, two glasses of mulled cider, cherry coke

Dinner - fillet steak, home made real chips and home made real battered onion rings with peas, but the absolutely amazing part of this meal was the sauce for the steak - coarse grain mustard and honey Jack Daniel's cream sauce. It was probably the best sauce I have ever tasted!

Coffee liqueur floater coffee, Amore creamy mango yogurt,

Calories - far too many I'm sure, but every one thoroughly enjoyed!

 

[moonwatcher]

Christmas Day

Breakfast - two home made gf pancakes with lemon juice, golden syrup and sugar - had to find a gf replacement for our usual pain au chocolat, and these definitely hit the spot! Earl grey with milk.

Christmas Dinner - brined and roast turkey crown, roast pork, pigs in blankets with dates, gf sausages and streaky bacon, cranberry, prune and toasted almond stuffing with sloe gin and orange, roast sprouts with nutmeg and chestnuts, roast carrots and parsnips tossed in honey Jack Daniel's mustard and sesame seed dressing, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, apple sauce, followed much later by ginger steamed pudding and extra thick cream

Random other food and drinks during the day - cava, sloe gin, cherry coke, pineapple juice with coconut, Quality Street, Thornton chocs, two Dairy Milk chocs, packet of ready salted crisps, liqueur coffee,

 

[Atomic pink]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I might well be coming to yours for Christmas next year, Moonwatcher All sounds delicious. I am especially like the christmas eve menu. We had beef and chorizo meatballs with reindeer pasta and posh mozarella. Its about the only proper "Christmas tradition" we have built up as a couple - pasta and meatballs and die hard and harry potter for Christmas eve

Hope you are having a nice time. And don't worry about the calories. We all worry enough about them the rest of the year! x

 

[moonwatcher]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I might well be coming to yours for Christmas next year, Moonwatcher All sounds delicious. I am especially like the christmas eve menu. We had beef and chorizo meatballs with reindeer pasta and posh mozarella. Its about the only proper "Christmas tradition" we have built up as a couple - pasta and meatballs and die hard and harry potter for Christmas eve

Hope you are having a nice time. And don't worry about the calories. We all worry enough about them the rest of the year! x

Love the sound of the chorizo in the meatballs. I presume that is reindeer shaped pasta and not pasta made from reindeer! We have had a lovely time so far Atomic. Hope you are enjoying the holidays too. We have had three whole nights of getting enough sleep, which has been bliss after the last three months of early alarms! It's been a very lazy and laid back couple of days with only the two of us to think about. OH is in work today, but even that was a later start, so alarm didn't go off until 6.45. I should be thinking about breakfast, but am still stuffed after yesterday! OH's son and his family are coming over tomorrow, so in a while I will be cooking goodies for a buffet style lunch for that, but first I am going to have half an hour with a cuppa and one of my pressies from my OH - the new Stephen King book - an actual hardback book with real pages, which I am really looking forward to. I love my kindle/kobo/phone as they mean I am never without something to read, but you can't beat a real book!

 

[moonwatcher]

Food for Boxing Day

Breakfast - 2 home made gf mince pies with a teaspoon of extra thick cream on each.
So far, the gluten free pastry works amazingly well with sweet fillings, not so well with savoury. I used to use ready made frozen puff or flaky pastry for my sausage rolls, but obviously couldn't do that this year, so used the shortcrust gf instead. They were ok, but I think I'll try and see if a gf flaky works next time. The pastry is quite dry and crisp, which we both love with sweet fillings, but doesn't work so well with sausagemeat! Oh well, plenty of brown sauce with them!

Lunch/Dinner - at 4.00pm - roast beef, yorkies, sprouts, carrots and roast parsnips, home made horseradish sauce (veg much more plain today) roasties, one glass of cava

Random drinks and food during the day - five gf sausage rolls with tomato sauce, 12 Thornton chocolates, one ounce packet of cheese and onion kettle crisps, two small twirl fingers, diet cherry coke, ginger beer, two spiced Morgan Gold rums with ginger beer, one liqueur coffee.

I feel as if I ate more than that, but that is definitely it - didn't even finish the roast dinner!

 

[Atomic pink]

6:45am is a much more respectable start! We have also enjoyed the lay for the last 3 days (although I have still had to get up at 6am every morning to do the cat's insulin but did at least get to go back to bed). Boxing day dinner sounds lovely. I have always made sausage rolls with homemade shortcrust, but its a more crumbly shortcrust than most as its got egg yolk and a little yogurt in the pastry. It wouldn't be Christmas without the homemade stilton and pork sausage rolls. They didn't last long though so might have to make some more.

Hope the family visit goes well. Bet they must love coming to yours for a buffet - you food always sounds gorgeous

And yes, the pasta was just reindeer shaped