Day 19: Egg Fried Rice

Simple one today, was still feeling sick. Just leftover rice, eggs, carrots and corn. I ate maybe half the small bowl, if that. Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow!

Day 18: Pound Cake?!

This really is a filler post. I promised to take a picture of my dinner each day, but today I failed, purely because I didn't eat dinner! I was feeling very sick around dinner time and decided eating wasn't the best idea. So I did take a photograph of some pound cake I made the day before, which I had two thin slices of during today :).

Day 17: Kung Pao Chicken

Not much to say on this one, unfortunately wouldn't recommend it, it isn't like the kung pao I'm used to and was less then impressed with the flavour, so no recipe for this one, as it really isn't worth making!

Day 16: Chilli Con Carne

I've made this several times before, and am still working on the perfect recipe for me. I like my chilli con carne very hot and served with rice. Diction likes it mild and served with pasta. So I'm trying to find a happy medium of a medium spiced chilli. I shall share the ingredients, but not the process, as it is very basic, browning the onions and garlic, adding the chilli. Adding the mince and any other veg, beef stock and then all the spices. Cooking down for as long as you can.

Was very yummy, but too hot this time for Lisa, will add less chilli next time, damn!

For two people:

Onion
2 cloves garlic
Red bell pepper
Olive oil
2 tsp chilli powder
1 red chilli pepper
1 heaped tsp cumin
Half tsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste.
Beans - I used baked beans (haricot) but you could use kidney or whatever you fancy.
Creamed tomatoes, decided tomatoes or fresh tomatos, to your taste.
200g minced meat or Quorn
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp paprika
Beef stock
Half small bar of high quality dark chocolate, shaved. Add this right before the end.
Dash worcestershire sauce
1 tsp coriander powder.

Day 15: Pea and Bacon Risotto

Pea and bacon risotto, was inspired when I saw on my facebook state she was making a cheats risotto. After having a look about I decided to make a pea and bacon one, following Jamie Olivers recipe and adding fresh crispy bacon and petit pous.

Unfortunately my pouch reacted to this like it had reacted to pasta, a couple of tablespoons worth and I was well and truly done. Couldn't eat another mouthful, it sucked, but such is life. It as delicious however.

Jamie Olivers recipe can be found here: https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/risotto/basic-risotto-recipe

Day 14: Chicken Cacciatore.

I admit, I didn't know what this was when I was the title on another persons blog. I looked it up and saw it was an Italian dish, a hunters dish that was made for hunters apparently, to fill them up. Base of tomatoes, and traditionally wine. I used the recipe I found on:  http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/

This was so good! I was a little unsure with it being SO tomato based (I can't stand tomatoes, bad, I know!). I am goign to post the unedited recipe below, but I made a few changes. When I roasted the veg I added to large cloves of garlic, crushed and a sprinkling of rosemary. Mmm, it smelt so good! I don't think this even needs the dressing marination if you simmer it for a while in the tomato, perhaps. Ah, I also did not use diced tinned tomatoes, instead I used creamed tomatoes. There goes my tomato dislike again ;).

The picture I took was actually of Lisa's plate. I served mine with couscous too, but about half that amount (about 1/8 cup, dry).

Shelly's Chicken Cacciatore

1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper

7 chicken breast tenders cut into 1" piece, marinated in a few T's of Italian Dressing for 4 hours (at least)
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz S&W brand is my fav)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss onions and pepper with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in oven for 50 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking time.

Saute chicken that has been marinated till golden. Add Italian Seasoning and garlic. Add diced tomatoes. Simmer 5 minutes. Add roasted vegetables with all juices. Mix to combine.

Day 13: Casserole

Basic casserole today, yet another 'slop' looking dinner I'm afraid, and yet again the flash came out. I will be making dinner earlier tomorrow to avoid the flash, I'll take the picture outside if needs must!

No recipe as such, just chicken, carrots, onions, peas, chicken stock, herbs and a little polenta to thicken. Came out delicious and comforting as simple foods can do so very well!

Not much more to say on this one really, apart from casseroles are delicious, and if you live in the UK, never fall in to those little sauce mix packets you can get. The main ingredient is FLOUR or THICKENER. Do it yourself with store cupboard ingredients!

Day 12: Spaghetti Bolognese

Mmm, I'm so glad I switched from jarred spaghetti sauce to making my own. I thought I just didn't like it anymore, but it really wasn't the case, once I made my own I realized just how delicious it is when you decide on the taste and flavourings yourself :). Don't be scared of the carrot, you barely notice it, it adds bulk and makes a more traditional Italian sauce and flavour.

This recipe is just something I sort of...looked at other recipes and then added to from there along the way to come up with what I use each time now. I serve it with spaghetti or tagliatelle. This time I tried ciao carbs pasta, made with soy and pea protein...honestly I wasn't keen. I grate parmesan on top.

For two people.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 carrot, grated.
150g minced meat, I use Quorn, but you can use beef, lamb, turkey, TVP, soy etc.
400g passata
200ml water
1 tbsp tomato paste
Beef stock pot/cube
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1 tsp celery salt
2 tsp chilli powder - use one tsp if you don't like any heat at all, but keep at least one tsp in for flavour.
Half a lemons juice.
Salt and pepper to taste.
About 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg.

Really simple, olive oil, onions and garlic in the pan, then add the rest of your ingredients, everything! Adding the passata and paste first. Add the mince, if it is meat brown it off first with the onions and garlic, but with Quorn, TVP etc you can just pop it in and use the water to break it up. Add the remaining ingredients apart from the balsamic and lemon. cook for 30 minutes, then add the vinegar and lemon, then allow it to have another 15 minutes while you cook the pasta. Serve with grated parmesan.

Day 11: Orange-Hoisin Chicken

This recipe I found on recipezaar, now food.com. I've made it several times since and it is delicious! I added carrots and baby corn to it, but honestly, it doesn't need it at all! I do add onion to mine however.

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Here is the recipe!

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

Servings Size

• 0
  

• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili paste
• 1 large garlic clove, pressed
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon ginger paste or 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup orange marmalade
• 2 tablespoons scallions, chopped for garnish
• 3 lbs chicken legs with thigh, with skin 

1. 1 Combine ingredients up to marmalade in a large bowl and mix well.
2. 2 Wash and pat dry the chicken legs and thighs.
3. 3 Place chicken and marinade in a large ziplock bag and refrigerate for up to 2 hours, but at least 30 minutes.
4. 4 Preheat oven to 375°F.
5. 5 Place the chicken in a large shallow roasting pan and roast for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the chicken is golden brown. (Time also depends on how plump your legs and thighs are - the fatter, the longer the time).
6. 6 Baste with juices one or two times during the baking process.
7. 7 When finished, remove chicken from roasting pan onto serving platter. Spoon some sauce over it and garnish with the scallion. Serve immediately.

Day 10: Three-Cheese Ravioli

Today I managed to pull something in my neck, ouch. I didn't realize the work that went in to rolling, and rolling, and kneading and rolling homemade pasta. This was the first time i made it. It was very good, but a pasta gadget next time please! Plus it needed to be rolled thinner, it was a little too thick!

I used this recipe for the pasta part of the ravioli: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Homemade-Ravioli

I'd recommend it, though next time I might try semolina flour instead. For the filling I used a basic mix of ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, basil, oregano, salt, pepper and one egg. The sauce was just passata that I added garlic, salt, pepper, water and balsamic vinegar too, then heated up, simple!

Day 9: Chicken Skewers

Nice, simple but really tasty.

I used one large chicken breast between two of us, but you could use thighs. Chopped it and marinated in in the natural juice drained from a tin of pineapple, garlic, teriyaki and pepper...just a dash of everything in the juice. Left it to marinate for several hours, but even 30 minutes would do. I then pre-grilled (broiled) the chicken while I chopped up the veggies - red onion, green and red pepper. You could also use courgette (zucchini) and/or mushrooms. Once all was done I threaded on to presoaked skewers (an hour in soak will prevent burning) and grilled for a few minutes on each side.

Had it with fresh corn on the cob, delicious!

Day 8: Curry

I was semi lazy yesterday. The curry was all fresh apart from, you know, the cheat part. The curry paste. I simply used a mixture of Patak's Madras and Rogan Josh curry pastes, which I cooked up in to a chicken and vegetable curry - onion, carrots, peas, sweetcorn, peppers. Along with a mixture of spices I like a lot of, such as cumin, coriander seed and, you know, chilli.;).

I had it with some rice and a single slice of allinsons wholemeal loaf, both of which I ate about half of. I promised myself this would be last time I ate bread with a curry, but my fibre was low that day, bad excuse, I know!

I apologize for the AWFUL photo, it was late, very dark and I couldn't be bothered to get my lamps, so I used flash.

To make up for the crap dinner photograph I have some more attactive pictures of the granny smith apples growing in my backgarden.

And even more interesting, Swede chips (aka rutabaga fries).

I just chopped a swede in to chips, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper and chilli powder. Sprayed a baking tray, oven at 200oC (400F) and cooked for 30 minutes, flipping once.

If you don't like chilli you could use paprika, cumin or even garlic powder perhaps.

Diction thought they were home made oven cooked chips made with potato till I told her! Great dipped in ketchup :).

Day 7: Chicken Paprikash

German or Hungarian depending on how it is made and what it is served with :). first time I've ever made this. I didn't follow a recipe completely, just did my usual of looking at lots of different recipes and making one up I think will work from it :).

This was pretty good, but next time, more chilli for me.

I'll make something one of these days that actually LOOKS attractive!

Recipe:
- 2 free range chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 large onion, sliced
- Half a red pepper (bell)
- Two cloves of garlic
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/4 sour cream or plain yogurt

In a frying pan, heat your oil and pan fry your chicken through until white all the way.Add onions and fry until softened and brown. Add red pepper and garlic and cook for one minute, bring the heat down low. Add paprika, chilli powder, salt and pepper. Slowly sprinkle in the flour and cook for another minute. Pour in your chicken stock and add tomato paste, stir thoroughly and bring to boil. Once boiling turn to a medium heat and simmer. Add sour cream or yogurt and heat through.

Day 6: Cottage Pie

Delicious cottage pie...I don't know anyone who doesn't like it! Please note cottage pie is made with any meat OTHER then lamb. If you use lamb it is then called 'Shepherd's Pie'. Shepherd = Lambs after all :).

Made this with a non recipe again, so will just give a rough idea of how to make it, but cottage pie couldn't be more simple really! Delicious comfort food, and so filling.

It is REALLY hard to make cottage pie, dished out, look pretty. It looks like slop basically!

Simple recipe, I use about 1/4 potatos to 3/4 swede (rutabaga) as a topping! Just boil your root veg you wish to have as a topping to mashing point (you could use any root veg for the topping - potatos, swede, turnip, parsnip, carrots, celeriac etc). At the same time boil down your meat (or in my case, Quorn) with some water, beef stock (I use Knorr stock pots), worcestershire sauce, carrots, onions and peas and any herbs or spices you fancy - I use rosemary and thyme. You can also use gravy granules to thicken it if you wish, or just boil it down. Mash the root veg as you would normally.

Oven on at 200oC, pop the meat mixture in a casserole dish, or oven proof dish, top with root veg/potato mix - you can slather it on, pipe it on, or fork it on. Some people add cheese on top, but I'm happy without. Pop in the oven for about 30-45 minutes until nice and hot and cooked through.

I eat mine with HP sauce, a bad but delicious habit ;).

Day 5: Salmon Patty

Was feeling rough today, after the stables yesterday my back was really hurting me, and lovely Diction offered to make dinner, so I'm not sure of the recipe for this one, but think it is a fairly basic salmon patty recipe :). will update with the recipe at some point.

Was lovely with the fresh lemon over it. Had it with a simple green leaf salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Thank you D!

Day 4: Tortilla Pizza

Had a very quick dinner yesterday as had a busy day at the stables with D and then X-Factor started last night for 2010, yes I am that sad ;).

Tortilla Pizza! which I forgot to take a picture of until I had started. Yes, I salt my pizza. As healthily as I eat nowadays salt is my crutch I don't want to give up.

Easy peasy to make. You need a tortilla, tomato paste, cheese and toppings. Oven on at 190oC. Spray baking tray with frylight, pop tortilla in for about two minutes, remove and flip, spread on tomato paste, sprinkle on grated cheese of your choice, and toppings. I added peppers (bell), turkey ham, onion, pineapple, sweetcorn, cheddar cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan on top. Pop in over for about ten minutes. Delicious!

Day 3: Chicken and Bacon Root Vegetable Bake

This one was just a bit of a throw together, I'm a bit of an idiot though, I completely forgot to take a picture of this one cooked, but luckily snapped a picture before cooking as it looked pretty even while raw :).

No recipe really, it tasted good though, was just a large chicken breast wrapped in two slices of streaky bacon, on a bed of root veggies - carrots, parnsips, swede (rutabaga), sweet potato - you could use turnip if you wished, maybe potato too if you wanted to add more starch. Everything was then sprinkled with salt and rosemary.

Day 2: Nasi Goreng

Or at least my half take on it. Indonesian fried rice basically, and delicious at that. Diction gets excited when she finds out it is nasi goreng for dinner. I really enjoy it too, and we have it maybe once every two or three weeks.

I don't really measure things for this, so what I have written down is an estimate really, give or take as you like.

For two people, multiply as needed.

One cup of uncooked rice (this was way too much for me and D, but I had some left over rice for the dog).
One cooked large free range chicken breast (two would be good too, but meat is expensive and I eat little).
Three medium free range eggs.
Half a green pepper (bell).
Two cloves of garlic.
One large onion - any colour, or spring/green onions.
One medium carrot.
Half cup sweetcorn.
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground paprika
3-5 tbsp hot curry powder (could use mild or medium. Normal, garam masala or madras powders are all good).
1 tsp sesame oil
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons light soy sauce.

- Cook your rice earlier in the day, or even better leftovers from the night before. Make sure your rice has cooled completely.

- Shred chicken - I used a breast removed from a whole bird after roasting. Julienne carrot, chop onions, slice pepper, crush or chop garlic finely.
- Using oil or frylight saute onions and garlic, adding remaining vegetables apart from sweetcorn after a few minutes.
- Once onion has browned add chicken, and soy sauce, and allow to cook for several minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add all spices apart from curry powder, add sweetcorn.
- Once thoroughly coated in spices add rice, keep heat relatively high and stir quickly, making sure the rice cooks through, as hot as possible.
- In a bowl, crack three eggs and mix, add sesame oil and salt and pepper. 
- Turn down heat a little and scoop everything over to one side, add a couple of sprays of oil and add egg mixture, mix now and then as it cooks through, once white but still quite wet mix through the rice mixture and sitr everything together, turn the heat right up and stir rapidly for two minutes, until egg is properly cooked through.
- Add curry powder and mix through at a medium heat.
- Done!

Once you have made this once you will probably never need to see the recipe again, it is so easy and quick :).

Day 1: Poppy Seed Chicken

Poppy seed chicken for dinner today. Didn't have it with anything else, the vegetables included within it were enough, and gave two good size potions (I cut the recipe in half).

Was rather good, but think next time I might add some herbs or spices to bring the taste up a notch or two, plus double the onion :). I added half a cup of petit pous and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese to this recipe. Tooo many poppy seeds, I slipped!

Taken from The World According to Eggface.

Shelly's Poppy Seed Chicken

1 cup chopped broccoli, steamed
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 zucchinis, chopped
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced into 1" pieces
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can of cream of chicken soup
salt & pepper to taste
10 ritz crackers
poppy seeds
butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Steam broccoli and set aside. Saute onions and zucchini till golden. Remove from pan. Saute chicken until golden cooked through. Add broccoli, onions and zucchini back to pan. Mix sour cream and cream of chicken soup together and pour over. Stir to coat. Salt & pepper to taste. Pour into a casserole dish. Crumble crackers in a ziplock baggie, add poppy seeds and sprinkle mixture over the top of chicken. Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter in the microwave. Drizzle melted butter evenly over crackers. Bake 30 minutes, until crackers are golden brown.

Starting fresh, 365 day photo project!

Well, the taking a picture of EVERYTHING I eat just wasn't possible, it took up way too much of my time, and basically became to difficult to do. So much so that I just gave up in the end, which was sad really.

Instead I've decided to attempt a 365 day photo project. I aim that for one year I will take a photograph of whatever it is I eat for my dinner. Just my dinner. Like before I will be concentrating on keeping the carbs down when possible, keeping the protein up, small portions of course and trying new things, new recipes, new ingredients and branching out, along with eating some old favourites and the occasional dinner out.

Boring weight loss bit: I'm hoping this will not only be a fun project but help me behave, it is so easy to go off course, so very easy. But I'm determined to get to, or close to, my first goal of weight loss by Christmas.  I want to get down to, or close to 9 stone (126lbs) by Christmas. That is a loss of about 3 stone (42lbs!). About two lbs a week. I have a mini goal of getting to my 100lbs lost which is 13lbs away, I hope to meet this goal by the 1st October.

Joining me will be the lovely Lisa, who also hopes to loose about 35lbs by Christmas, she will be eating the same amounts and same things as me each day.

I will be using recipes I was taught, recipes from blogs I read, recipes from cookbooks and magazines - anything really!

We don't talk about sundays...

Well, not this Sunday anyway! Was feeling a bit ill and just didn't think to take pictures of anything apart from one thing which was breakfast.

Just Marmite toast for breakfast today, taken with flash at my desk as didn't really feel up to taking a better photo unfortunately.

Didn't have any lunch, but had less then 1/4 plain egg foo young with a little curry and sweet and sour sauce, and a few prawn crackers from the takeaway - didn't enjoy it at all really, hence eating such a tiny amount.

Later on in the day I was hungry, so had one tin of WW cream of tomato soup, with one and a half slices of bread.

That was all for Sunday.

Back on track!

Yup, back on track with posting on the day it is meant to be posted on, so I am actually posting on the day I ate it, which makes things so much more easy!

Feeling a bit sick this weekend due to painkillers, not as bad as I used to though due to having to take less due to weight loss, yay! Managed to make dinner tonight, which was unheard of in the past with painkillers. Still working on my fluid intake today. I have so far drunk three cups of fluid, aiming for three more to bring me up to about 1.5 litres. I only woke up at 6pm due to a very late night (as in, went to bed just before afternoon!) so missed breakfast, but had a late lunch and late dinner - so I have time to drink my fluids as I will be up late again tonight no doubt.

Exercise has been crap due to weekend spent in, I'm hoping to start walking on Monday, maybe meeting my housemate after work or something like that to walk back up the hill and whatnot. Every little helps! WII fit may have to come out again too!

Lunch, made by my housemate - thanks D! As it was so yummy before, decided to have cheese on marmite toast again, one slice as I wasn't very hungry.

Dinner! This time I made the curry ;). There was no burning to the bottom of the pan twice and no burnt bits, hehe. Different curry this time - Rogan Josh. Made with Quorn chicken pieces, and served with a little rice. I ate all the Quorn and about half of the rice. It was good, but I wanted more SPICE.

I used to ALWAYS drink with my meals - it was the only time I drunk in a day. After bypass surgery you should not drink with your meals - ok on special occasions once you are healed, but ONLY special occasions, and even then you should try not to. After over two months of this I think I am finally getting used to it, I don't crave a drink as much as I eat anymore - but still do BADLY after I've eaten and cannot wait for half an hour-to one hour to pass so I can drink again.

Will edit this with any snacks later :D

Bit of a boring one!

Today was a bit of a boring one - was feeling tired today and didn't fancy cooking completely from fresh today! This is another backdated entry due to my failure and not keeping up perfectly, but I am still posting, and that is the main thing, catching up :D.

No breakfast again as explained in my last journal entry - boo!

Lunch! D made this for me :). It is weight watchers tuna and sweetcorn in light mayo with cucumber on two slices of bread. I managed all four pieces, I was pretty hungry! It was lovely, but not as nice as normal tuna sandwiches with plenty more sweetcorn!

My too tired to cook properly dinner! Quorn mince in jarred (Dolmio Light) Bolognese sauce, a little spaghetti pasta and some grated cheese on top. Not bad, but a bit bland - normally I take the jarred stuff and add my own spices and extras, but just couldn't be bothered tonight!

Snack! 20g of cheddar.

Distinct lack of fruit and veg today, need to change that! Fluid was pretty awful today, maybe a litre. BAD Glor!

Nom

Backdating these entries as I am late with them!

Things are continiung to go well, however, breakfast has been a failure unfortunately and will be for the remainder of this weekend due to keeping odd hours. Come monday though, will be back on track, 100%.

Been rather stressed out, so insomnia unfortunately, which means finally getting to sleep at stupid hours and sleeping in till odd hours.

Lunch this Thursday. Fancied Marmite toast, then while looking at it felt guilty at the lack of protein - hmm, the grill is still on...

Some grated cheese and a grill later - lunch became much more protein-ful ;). Cheese on marmite toast is extremely good!

Mmm, dinner! Something new again! Nasi Goreng. Basically Indonesian egg fried rice, which includes chicken, peppers, onions, soy sauce, curry paste/powder etc. This was extremely good!

Red grapes as a snack, they were delicious :). Much prefer red (or black ideally!) grapes over green. Sweeter and juicier.

Liquids were ok today, I'd say just under a litre and a half, not bad at all.

The road goes ever on!

Decided not to have the tea before bed tonight as my insomnia is playing up terribly due to stress :(. Ugh, stress! Never mind!

Another good food day, though I have to admit my pouch has been a bit achy recently, which is weird as it has been fine till now, wondering if it has something to do with it being that time. Hmm, I'm sure I will learn as time goes on.

Decided to cook from scratch again today for dinner, after some debate with D (housemate) on what to have we agreed in the end on Cottage Pie. She isn't so keen on it, finds it boring. I like it once in a while, but honestly only really bought frozen ones, so never made one from scratch, so there you go.

I was impatient, this was taken with flash ;). Breakfast was kind of crappy, tried these new honey waffle things, they were...not honey nut cheerios, hehe.

 

Lunch was much more satisfying, two slices of bread with smooth peanut butter and strawberry jam, yum yum. Also a Mandarin orange. I ate three sandwich triangles and about 3/4's of the orange. Aragorn (my dog) enjoyed the rest.

My first homemade cottage pie, came out rather nice if I do say so myself :). Used about 3/4 potato to 1/4 swede (rutabaga). Remind me next time to chop the swede up smaller chunks then the potato so they are ready about the same time. Mashed the potato and swede with a small knob of butter and some semi-skimmed milk. Added HP sauce (as still out of lea and perrins!) to the mince. The mince is Quorn and it also includes diced carrots, onions and several herbs and spices including nutmeg and thyme :). Topped the mash with cheddar cheese, something my mum never did, but D's mum did - it was pretty good, but I wouldn't miss it if I didn't add it next time.

Much less exciting! Bad cramps, and had run out of my usual tablets, so used some of my effervescent tablets that they gave me after surgery. Dis-gust-ing. Glass of milk to chase it, and some leftover cheese.

Fluids were ok yesterday, I estimate between about one-one and a half litres. Still need to work on it!

Chicken Kevins!

Kievs, kevins - both the same for Kara ;)

So today I decided to cook dinner from scratch, oh yes! I took two chicken breasts from the freezer last night in readiness. I took my '200 chicken recipes' book to my bedroom and had a look through all the recipes to find one I had all the ingredients needed for and fancied, determined to try something new, yay!

Well it wasn't new, I've had chicken kievs (mmm, retro dinner party food!) before, but I have never made one from scratch, so I thought I'd start with something new I knew, pretty much, that I would enjoy as it would suck to try something new and hate it ;). So kievs it was!

Today has been another excellent day food wise, and my liquid is much better - about 1.5 litres (not including tea), still aiming for two, It is ironic that it is THAT time for me, and my cravings just don't exist like they used too, yay!

Unlike Kara, I didn't exercise today, but was on my feet cooking, which tires me out honestly. I keep forgetting that surgeries take so long to recover from.

Keeping my BioOil habit too - hope it helps! I do NOT want a tummy tuck - I want tattoos on the scars! hehe

On to the fooooods!

Breakfast time. Got up for breakfast earlier today so had a bit of time to make something. Cheese on toast time! Half a mandarin orange too. Was very tasty.Yes, I cut my cheese on toast in to soldiers. It sadly lacked lea and perrins as we are out of it :(!

Lunch, kind of a boring one I'm afraid, wasn't hungry at all after my delicious cheese on toast, but knew I needed something so I wasn't ravenous by dinner time. Weight Watchers Tomato Soup with a pinch of chilli powder for nom.

I so wish I had gotten a better picture of this! My dinner of homemade chicken kiev and boiled carrots. Decided to make extra garlic and herb butter next time to freeze and add little knobs of it to boiled carrots and things as they tasted absolutely gorgeous in it! The kiev was DELICIOUS. Not hard to make from scratch and I will never buy frozen kievs again. Added about two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to the garlic butter, and it cut through it beautifully!

I'm afraid I fancied some comforting tea today and nothing was going to stop me, I had to have a treat today. The absolutely delicious Whittard's Original black tea. Right up there with Ceylon and Sencha for me. Keemun too, mmmm.

Onwards and forwards to tomorrow!

So far, so good!

Today went very well indeed! A bit sad as was meant to get up early this morning and have eggs for breakfast, but it didn't happen, so cheerios instead, but nevermind. Food went perfectly well today; breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. Liquid was a bit crappy today, didn't drink enough - just under a litre of squash and a large cup of tea, damn. Need to do better.

Bought some veggies and fruit today however, didn't get any salad greens though, will need to get those next. Really need to do a shop when some money comes through.

Dinner wasn't exciting at all, but it was tasty. I have some chicken breasts in the fridge to defrost overnight and intend to try a new recipe with them tomorrow for dinner, wish me luck!

Breakfast! Honey Nut Cheerios, yum! Looks like I have loads, but the bowl is just very tiny, must be about 30ish grams in there.

Poached egg on one slice of toast for lunch. Was rushing to finish this, so the egg is a bit of a mess, but it still tasted absolutely lovely!

Dinner was one Quorn escalope (Lemon and Black Pepper) with about half of a tin of Heinz baked beans. Didn't have any sort of potato/carb with this as the breading on the escalope is more than enough.Before the op I would have laughed at the idea of a dinner with no side carbs!

Snack time! About 1/3rd Mandarin, two cherries, 1/4 Gala apple, five or six grapes, 20g of cheddar cheese and about half a tablespoon of smooth peanut butter. Got to get the protein in my snacks too if possible. This was delicious!

Another new tea to try today, my housemate seems very set on trying new teas, so why not. Someone on Picturing Food recommended this one (Chai). I've had Chain before but not a green Chai. It was lovely, but I am a black Chai fan over a green I think.  The spices were delicious however, not too overpowering, while still adding that nice, almost, mulled flavour.

That is it for today! On to tomorrow!

Just to say I am thrilled that Kara has decided to do this too, and I hope Nutty and Monday join us three too :)

Here we go...

Feel free to skip this part to get to the photos!

First post in the new blog. Must keep up with this one :). I've been looking at and reading food blogs and journals for years, not until now have I decided to make one. As my profile explains I had gastric-bypass surgery November 2009 so my eating habits have changed dramatically (and for the better!) recently. I've also lost nearly 50 pounds so far and 31 inches, so it is working - but it is hard work which I am willing to do.

Before my surgery I was a carboholic. Seriously. Bread, bread, rice, pasta, bread, bread, rice, pasta and bread. Yum! I would happily eat toast for breakfast, pasta for lunch and lots of rice for dinner. Of course I cannot do that anymore - while carbs are brain food and I will never give them up completely I need to eat as much protein as I can per day for slow release energy. My stomach is the size of a large egg, and can fit about a sideplate full of food in it. Not much space to get in as many nutrients as possible!

I do not want to get in to old, bad habits now that my stomach is almost healed - it is unlikely as food is not such a big deal in my life anymore - not like it used to be. But I thought this blog would be a good way to record what I'm eating and remind me I have to take a picture if I reach for that bag of crisps! I aim to take a photo of absolutely everything I consume in a day - food and drink. Meals and snacks. Cheeky snacks too!

The other reasoning behind this is I got in to the habit of eating the same old foods over and over before surgery, and I want this to change - I want to try new recipes AND ingredients! I'm not a veggie lover, but I want to find ways to love them. I'm nervous of trying new foods, so it is time to branch out and try new things. What is the worst that could happen apart from not caring for it?

As the title kind of gives away I absolutely love tea and curry. Black, green, white, herbal and fruit teas are all delicious. I'm a fan of Indian curries - but like to try other types too :).

I was a vegetarian for ten years (not anymore) and so am very fond of a meat substitute called Quorn so it will pop up a bit. I'd recommend it to anyone - I think it is delicious when cooked correctly and is a low fat, healthy form of -good- protein :). All animal products (meats, fish, eggs, poultry etc) I ever use will always be 100% organic, free-range, quality assured and in bird cases; woodland. I love chicken and turkey. I like pork and bacon, I also like beef and venison when roasted/well done. Fish - hmm. I like tinned tuna! I have some salmon fillets in the freezer I want to try and would like to try white fish such as tilipia which I've heard is very good and not too 'fishy' haha. Ah yes, cod and haddock is good, but I've only ever had it breaded or battered, uh oh!

Anyway, enough rambling and on to today. I only started at dinner time today, so it is just 1/3rd a day, but tomorrow I start in earnest!

Above is my dinner, this is a chicken curry. The curry is an Indian one named Jalfrezi which takes flavour from green chillis, (bell/sweet) peppers and a mixture of spices. I made this curry with a paste from the Patak range. The paste is a mixture of the Jalfrezi spices and you do the rest - very simple curry making! Long grain rice too. Curry is rather hard to take a good photograph of! Tastes better than it looks, promise!

Above is some new tea to try. I normally drink Whittard's, but a friend sent me some Stash teas to try and I thought I would try the green and white fusion first. This was pretty good, but I must say I prefer the lightness of a white on its own, and prefer more flavour from a green - not bad though.

I'm not sure if I will take a picture of ALL the squash I drink in one day, I think I will just do this once and write about the squash in future! For those who are unsure, squash is a flavoured cordial you add to water, sort of like crystal light - only in liquid form. This one is orange flavoured and my favourite. I drink about 1.5-2 litres every day not including tea or juices. I'm afraid I dislike plain water. Also in the picture is my nightly ritual of tablets (something I NEVER did before bypass) Sanatogen Gold A-Z vitamin tablet, two calcium/vitamin D tablets and one B12 tablet.