Pickled's food diary

[Pickled Tink]

Oooh I might get some sugar free jelly. I didn't think of that cos my OH doesn't like jelly so it isn't something we have in the house - and on the plus side, cos he doesn't like it, I can eat it all myself!! lol

It's raining here too today, after a lovely day like yesterday I kinda hoped it would last a little while but hey ho, that's the good old British summer for you

 

[systema]

I usually buy Hartleys ones but Tesco recently had Weight Watchers ones on offer (don't know if they still are) and they are nicer.
Sometimes make them half strength and add yoghurt to them to full strength so they are like blancmange.

Hopefully the sun will have its hat on from Friday - still waiting here for it to stop..:sigh2:

 

[Pickled Tink]

I got some Hartleys jelly powders, and there is one in the fridge already

I've also made the first (of many) SB cake - another cherry bakewell .. nomnomnom :8855:

 

[Pickled Tink]

Thursday 19th July

Got woked up from a horrid dream but couldn't remember quite what it was. I tried to go back to sleep to get it back, but no joy there. Consequently I've felt a bit out of sorts all day
I also put my lenses in and managed until 6pm, but my eyes are now streaming again. The infection has obviously not gone, so it looks as if I'll have to start over with that nasty gungarama oinkment. Hey ho...

Brunch (cos my lad was on the first day of his school summer holiday, so I treated him) - potato slices (in fry light), bacon, eggs, tomatoes and baked beans... Nommo
Mid afternoon snack - ML yoggit and an apple
Dinner - beef casserole, baked potato, cauliflower, carrots and broccoli
Made a cake this evening, had about a quarter so 2 syns. Also had ML yoggit and bran flakes for supper.

HeA - milk
HeB - bran flakes
Total syns for day = 2

Prolly shouldn't have eaten supper, but I had to make sure the cake was nice, and I had to have my HeB too... That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it

 

[Pickled Tink]

Friday 20th July

Brunch - sliced, sauteed potatoes, 2 rashers bacon, 2 eggs, baked beans, mushrooms and tomatoes (musn't form this habit but this is his last 6 week holiday, next year he'll be working through it!) - and anyway, all the bacon is gone now! lol
Midafternoon snack - a small slice of cherry bakewell (just to check it kept overnight without any problems), just .5 syn.
Then I did some baking, and made a spicy tea bread - 9 syns for the whole loaf - the piece I eated (just to taste test it mind) was worth 3 syns. And it was worth every single one of them, it is divine...
Dinner - 2 x Tesco light choices Cumberland sossies (2 syns), baby roast potatoes, carrots, broccoli and mange tout - topped off with syn free gravy
totally stuffed...

HeA - milk
HeB - dunno yet
Total syns for the day = 5.5

My boy even likes the cakes, praise indeed


Eyes still bad, left ear is throbbing. Feel that there is less of me, and okay really, but anyway just slightly under the weather somehow. Perhaps it is yet another rainy day getting me down - oh how I long for some sunshine...


By the way, this time I baked in the microwave, which is a first in itself because who really eats nuked food but I have to say that the consistency of the cake is way better for it. It actually looks and feels like cake, rather than a kind of stodgy omelette.. rofl :8855: I also cooked the jacket potatoes in the microwave and then crisped them up in the real oven - I shall be doing that in future cos they were yummy and it saved bucketloads of time.


The rest of the day I have spent working on my website, toyboks can now be found via a google search so some of the SEO work is paying off. I think though I may have to read those books many of my friends are raving about (you know, the many different nuances between black and white), just so I can write better links to the bondage section... lmao

 

[Pickled Tink]

Saturday 21st July

I must make time to fill this out every day, cos I've already forgotten all the stuff I might've snaffled...

Brunch was bacon, potatoes, mushrooms, beans and egg - with two pieces of toast!
Dinner was mushy pea curry sauce on chicken, with baked potato wedges and a side salad. The curry wasn't the best

Total syns for the day = prolly 15, I had two glasses of wine during the evening.

Went for a long walk with the pup-pay, loved it. He's such a cutie ♥
I love mah weekends, just chillin'...

 

[Pickled Tink]

Sunday 22nd July

Brunch - Fruit and yoggit, followed by a piece of spicy tea bread (1 syn).
Mid afternoon - an apple and a piece of scanbran coffee fudge cake (1 syn)
Dinner - roast chicken, roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots and cabbage with syn free gravy.
Total syns for the day - 15 (a glass of wine with dinner).

I baked a coffee cake today, I don't know if it's the sweetener or the yoghurt that's given it a strange after taste. I wonder if using Stevia would make a difference...

Another day of chilling, the weather was much better so we spent a good while in the garden

 

[Pickled Tink]

Monday 23rd July

Weigh day... well I never, 3lbs gone )

Breakfast - an apple and a pear.
Lunch - 1 slice bread, potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, leftover chicken, baked beans and egg. Nom.
Dinner - Spag bol with courgettes and carrots, 2 slices coffee cake (1 syn), a yoghurt, 2 plums and some grapes.

Total syns for the day = 1

Exercise was cleaning a four storey house!!! Nuff said.

 

[systema]

Have you used Stevia before - I bought some to sweeten my drinks and that left a really strange after taste.

1 syn wow - I had 18 the other day - was only going to have 1 glass of wine but thought there was only a little left in the bottle so not worth saving - when I measured it was quite a large glass buy hey ho!!!!

Feeling better now the sun is here - like walking in it when I am wearing my hat so went quite a long way today but ended up in M and S and couldn't resist the new sweat shirts they had in there.

 

[Pickled Tink]

Good morning systema... :wavey:

I haven't used Stevia before, I thought they said at my old group that it doesn't have the same after taste as other sweeteners so I wondered whether it was worth giving that a go, but if you say it does, it's rather a lot of money to fork out for something that won't solve the problem. Hey ho.

I miss my old group, they were a really lovely bunch of people and my consultant was the best. I've recently moved and I did try my new local group but couldn't get on with the consultant. She kinda told me off on my first day in front of everyone because I'd only lost a pound (it was a 6 day week because of the change in group night), and even though I explained that I've always been a slow loser she challenged me on that and said that if I had followed EE honestly I should be losing 3-4lbs a week. That made me feel like a cheat and a liar and I'm so not, so it didn't sit well at all. I didn't go back after that
I have to say that this site is my saving grace, there are so many recipes and hints and tips that make it possible to carry on at home. I've never had a sweet tooth but moving in with my partner (who is used to puddings) has meant that I've had to find sweet/cake recipes that fit in with the plan and I'm really enjoying the creativity and the baking. The coffee cake I made I kinda made up as I went along and it's really nice, really coffee fudge cakeish - although it's a shame about the after taste. The cherry bakewell is to die for too...

I know what you mean about the wine. My OH buys from Virgin Wines so we've always got lots in the house - it's so hard to say no sometimes and then after one glass, I relax a little and one becomes two and suddenly I've gone over my syns. That's why it's good with the days where I've just had 1 syn, I figure they kinda balance out the wine I might've drunk at the weekend :$
We've a wedding at the beginning of September (OH's brother) and I so want to look nice in my dress, not all bulgy and fat rolly... I need to find some shoes, my feet seem to shrink when I lose weight so I'll have to go a size smaller than normal, not least cos I want them to be really, seriously high!!
We're off to Spain before then, OH's mum lives near Alicante, so that's another obstacle I have to negotiate on my weight loss journey. I'm sure I can find lots of fish dishes to eat, and I will try my best to steer clear of the alioli, even though I love, love, love it. I need to go shopping for the trip but am waiting so that I have lost as much weight as possible before buying anything. I have decided this is the very last time I will buy something for myself in size 14. After this, it's going to be 10s or 12s at most!!

Anyway, that's enough morning waffle for now (does that count as breakfast waffle...? lol).
I hope you have a great day!

 

[Pickled Tink]

Tuesday 24th July

Breakfast - couldn't face it today.
Lunch - left over spag bol , frewit
Dinner - Forloren Hare, oven baked crispy baked potato wedges, big salad, homemade syn free alioli (nomnomnom), 2 chocolate orange cupcakes (at max 1 syn each).
Supper - 2 apples and 2 more lush cupcakes

Total syns for the day = 4


Gosh the hare was good today, I baked it dry rather than in stock and it tasted so much more concentrated. Child and OH loved it too :-D
By the way, Forloren Hare is a Danish dish - it means mock hare. It's basically a meatloaf with spices, covered in bacon and roasted in the oven... Nomnomnom...

Off for a walk in a bit, haven't done any exercise today - it's too hot! :character00238:

 

[systema]

Tuesday 24th July

Breakfast - couldn't face it today.
Lunch - left over spag bol , frewit
Dinner -

Total syns for the day =

Do you come from Yorkshire - my son (an none Yorkie) says that is how I say fruit.

 

[Pickled Tink]

No I don't come from Yorkshire though I live here now. I have lived so many places (even in Denmark for 10 years) and I pick up accents very easily. I have always called frewit frewit though, because that is how it's spelled! I think it's a John Cleese thing - lmao :silly:

 

[Pickled Tink]

Chocolate Orange CupCakes

Today I made some chocolate orange cupcakes, they work out at maximum a syn each. Here's what, when, how...

Makes 12 nommy cakies

3 eggs
4-5 tbspns sweetener
1 tspn orange extract
Sachet Options chocolate orange mixed with 28g wholemeal SR flour (2 + 4.5 syns)

Separate eggs, whisk whites until standing stiff.
In another bowl whisk egg yolks, sweetener and orange extract.
Fold in approx. 1/4 of the whites to loosen the yolk mixture, then gradually add and fold in the flour/options mix.
Fold in the remaining egg whites and put in 12 cupcake cases.

Bake at 180 degrees (or 170 degrees in a fan assisted oven) for 10-12 minutes.

Leave to cool.

They can then be topped if liked. I mixed quark, sweetener and a drop of orange extract and piped it on. I then used a diddy Dr Oetker chocolate nobbly fing to finish them off (I don't know how many syns one of these is, but not much which is why I say max 1 syn per cakie)


Keep them in the fridge if they are topped with quark, although they won't be around long enough in my house for me to worry that they'll go off... lolz

 

[gina_1685]

I am intrigued by your bake well cake and coffee cake!! Would you mind posting the recipes please?

Thanks in advance
Gina xx

 

[starkissedx]

Found you can you give me recipe for your syn free aioli please! Xx

 

[Pickled Tink]

Here are the recipes you've asked for Georgina, though do bear in mind I tend to make it up as I go along and adjust if I feel (and I do bake with my heart, the results are always better when love is an ingredient ... ) necessary.

ScanBran Cherry Bakewell
5 scan bran (5 syns)
2/3rds of a fat free cherry yogurt (Mullerlight etc)
4-5 tbspns sweetener
4 capfuls almond essence/extract
2 eggs

Soak the scan bran so it's soft, mash and add egg yolks, yoghurt, sweetener and almond essence/extract.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until standing stiff then fold into the yolk/yoghurt mixture.
The first time I made this I put it in a Victoria Sandwich tin and baked it for 20 mins @ 180C.
The second time I popped it in a silicone loaf tin and gave it 7.5 mins in the microwave (800W). This was the better result I feel.


Coffee fudge cake
5 scan bran (5 syns)
5 heaped teaspoons instant coffee dissolved in 1-2 tbspns boiling water
WW toffee yoghurt
4-5 tbsp sweetener
1 capful vanilla essence/extract
2 eggs

Soak the scan bran so it's soft, mash and add egg yolks, coffee gloop, sweetener, yoghurt and vanilla essence/extract.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until standing stiff then fold into the yolk/yoghurt mixture.
Pop the mix into a silicone loaf tin and nuke it for 7-8 mins in the microwave (800W).



Having said this, these are great ways to eat ScanBran but today I have made cupcakes using a limited amount of flour (just 28g which is 4.5 syns worth) and spread across 12 cupcakes, it's less than 0.5 syn per cake. The consistency of these cupcakes was way superior to the ScanBran cakes, which are a bit 'eggy'.
I will definitely be trying these two cakes with flour instead of ScanBran and will let you know how they turn out...

Happy baking

 

[Pickled Tink]

And now for the syn-free alioli star

I used half a tub of quark, 1 teaspoon of cider vinegar, a sprinkling of sweetener, a pinch of salt and a small teaspoon of English mustard powder. It is best to add only a little then taste and add more if necessary as it can very quickly become overpowering.
I have a magic garlic musher (a ceramic plate with sharp ridges on it) which turns cloves to juice - I mushed 4 cloves and beat them in well.
I wasn't completely happy with the consistency so I added about a tablespoon of 0% greek yoghurt to loosen it up - perfick!!
I left it to stand in the fridge for 30 minutes - and :wow:!!

It sure packs a garlicky punch, and needless to say, it's nearly all gone...
My OH is half Spanish and he ate at least as much as me, with a big fat grin on his cheeky chops so I guess it's gotten a seal of approval...

We do smell rather though lolz

xxx

 

[starkissedx]

And now for the syn-free alioli star

I used half a tub of quark, 1 teaspoon of cider vinegar, a sprinkling of sweetener, a pinch of salt and a small teaspoon of English mustard powder. It is best to add only a little then taste and add more if necessary as it can very quickly become overpowering.
I have a magic garlic musher (a ceramic plate with sharp ridges on it) which turns cloves to juice - I mushed 4 cloves and beat them in well.
I wasn't completely happy with the consistency so I added about a tablespoon of 0% greek yoghurt to loosen it up - perfick!!
I left it to stand in the fridge for 30 minutes - and :wow:!!

It sure packs a garlicky punch, and needless to say, it's nearly all gone...
My OH is half Spanish and he ate at least as much as me, with a big fat grin on his cheeky chops so I guess it's gotten a seal of approval...

We do smell rather though lolz

xxx

Thankyou oh and I are garlic fiends ha, so gona give this a bash with the sw KFC chicken soon, or maybe with a chicken type kebab..yum! X

 

[systema]

My OH is half Spanish and he ate at least as much as me, with a big fat grin on his cheeky chops so I guess it's gotten a seal of approval...





Explains the wine - I will be back in our home there by next Wednesday - when are you going to Alicante?
We live a lot further South than that.