What I ate today – Porky Sunday!

Porky Sunday!

Another post for the April writing challenge.

This one’s funny because it’s what non social media people think the only thing we post about it what we had for dinner. Well this actually is.

A hearty breakfast before a day of spring cleaning,  planting new veg and flowers in the garden and today’s couch to 5K run.

• Bacon, hickory smoked sausages, beans, tomatoes, seeded brown bread

We ate breakfast quite late so I didn’t eat again until our dinner…

• Roast pork, roast potatoes, Chantenay carrots, Broccoli, peas, gravy
• Home made apple and blackberry crumble

I have two weeks left of my Couch to 5K programme and I pig a bit more at the weekends but I’m going to try to be good this week and not eat too much.

Stace x

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Veggie week seven day challenge

After being inspired by Hugh on his River Cottage Veg programme we decided to try and go veggie for a whole week. We often eat meat free meals anyway but we set ourselves the challenge to see if we could do it. (We had to overdose on fillet steak on Saturday night before we commenced though!)

These are the meals we had.

Sunday – Butternut and sage risotto

Monday – Roast vegetable couscous with feta cheese

A Stacey throw together special. Roast peppers, onions and tomatoes, make cous cous with a nice stock (I use Knorr veg stockpot), mix it all together, crumble feta on the top (in my case 4 syns worth). Job done.

Tuesday – Sweet potato and spinach dhal

Wednesday – Veggie sausage casserole

I cooked leeks, carrots, butterbeans, a squirt of tomato puree, smoke paprika and veg stock on the hob while the Cauldron Lincolnshire sausage were in the oven. When they were done I cut them into bite size pieces and mixed it all together before serving. I quite enjoyed the Cauldron sausages, peppery and herby and I didn’t really feel pork deprived. *Insert your own joke here!!*

Thursday – Spinach & Mushroom Lasagne

Just my usual recipe, I used fresh spinach, dried wholewheat lasagne and made a mushroom sauce with some Light Philadelphia. Virtuously resisted having garlic bread with it too.

Friday - Hot-crumbed baby mozzarella, beetroot and potato salad recipe

This was niiiice. I’m not much of a salad muncher preferring hot food but you can’t go wrong with hot melty cheese.  As usual I got a bit excited with the chilli flakes but it did great for my winter sniffs.

Saturday – Veggie burgers

These were much tastier that I imagined they would be, I could’ve eaten the mix on its own. Next time I won’t use honey though as I prefer a more savoury taste. So filling I ate them on their own with no buns.
All in all we did well. A couple of bacon cravings but it’s definitely made me realise we could eat even more meals without meat.  Let me know of your own favourite veggie recipes.

Happy eating.

Stace

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The Secret and my Secret Shifters

So after a shocking couple of  weeks mainly due to the stress of work and related crapola I have had to take desperate measures to pick myself back up.

I downloaded ‘The Secret‘ by Rhonda Byrne for my Kindle. Up until now I thought it was going to be another load of Americanised culty therapy crap (which it may border on). BUT it is making me think. I’ve always been an advocate of the power of positive thinking (as many of my close friends and family will know) but The Secret takes it to a different level. It also helps you to think about all the things you want in life and getting them too.

The idea of it is based on the laws of attraction. Like attracts like therefore if you have negative thoughts you will attract more negative thoughts and experiences. Makes sense if you think about it. You know when something starts your day off badly so all your thoughts are negative from that point on and the rest of the day continues to be even more crapola? Well if you can change your thoughts to be more positive then you are more likely to attract more positivity. Quite simple really but I would advise you to read it too and see how it’s explained in a much more comprehensive way than I can. This is just my simplified take on it so far.

In the book, ‘Secret Shifters’ are those things which can shift our mood when we are down or feeling negative in other ways. Whilst sitting in my sunny garden today I thought I would make a list of my ‘Secret Shifters’.

Music

Anything I can mosh to – the heavier the better

Anything I can singalong to – the cheesier and lamer the better!

Food

Discovering and making new healthy recipes

Eating out in a new place

Cooking for others ( I am a feeder!)

People

Luckily for me I have a lot of Secret Shifter people. These are people that I know will make me feel better and who I know will support me when I need it. One thing I have to learn is that I can draw on these people when I need to. I don’t have to be the one who keeps everyone happy all the time, they can make me happy too. Hoorah.

My JB, my Mom and Stepdad Tom, my brothers Ricky and Joe, my friend and business partner Lynette, my friend Ruth who I ALWAYS laugh with, similarly my cousin Charlotte, seeing my Nanny Jean, cooking din dins for my Dad and my in laws Pam and Bill who are great. There’s loads more. I am lucky to have so many brilliant people in my life. Like attracts like, love attracts love though. : ) I love a lot.

Activities

Singing

More recently walking and running

Reading in silence

Tweeting and reading people’s funny tweets makes me smile

Comedy on the TV

Funny YouTube videos

Environments

Sunny gardens, parks, the countryside, the seaside, camping and walking in the open air

Helpful

EFT, counting my blessings, asking God/the Universe

I’m only half way through the book so I’m going to keep going. If it helps then it can only be a good thing.

It may also be another thing I will bang on about so beware!

Onwards and upwards!

Stace x

Seven Essential Foods I like in my tum :)

Steak

Ethically I would like to think I could go veggie but in reality….no. I love MEAT. Especially steak, especially fillet but as long as it is Medium please. Thanks.

Milk

I am a Dairy Queen. All things dairy. I battle with it but I HAVE to have milk. There’s worse addictions I’m sure but milk is mine. Weirdo.

Cheese

Most cheese, I’m not fussy. I love feta, I love baked Camembert, I love Stilton (brilliant in a good steak pie or with Broccoli in a soup). When we go to the Good Food Show at the NEC we taste and buy so many different cheeses we are in cheese heaven. Mmmmmm cheese. I am much better with managing cheese cravings. The simple rule is if I don’t buy it I can’t eat it. Then it’s more of a treat when I do.

Cheddars

Supermarkets that put offers on these things are evil. I have zero willpower when they are around and can quite happily eat the lot in one go. They are another thing not to buy because I WILL eat them until they cease to exist. Breadsticks were also a contender for this spot.

Spinach

A handy food to love as it is so good for you. I’m not too much of a salad fan but raw Spinach I can eat. Even better cooked with garlic, pepper and a bit of cream with the above fillet steak!

Mushrooms

I should have shares in chestnut mushrooms. I cook with mushrooms a lot. One of my specialities is mushroom risotto. Always a winner and easy to just scoff down.

Baileys Haagen Dasz

I shouldn’t have to explain.