Feta stuffed burgers

It's a familiar scene for everyone - peering into the fridge only to be uninspired, to the freezer to be even less inspired, to the cupboard, er, yeah, don't even go there. Back to the fridge - mince! Feta! Surely I can do something with them?

Burgers it was. The mince, cayenne pepper, chopped garlic, soy sauce, nutmeg and some breadcrumbs all went into a bowl and in went my hands. I mixed it all together and shaped as many burgers as the mix would allow. Then I pushed a couple of large cubes of feta into each and sealed by pressing the meat over the hole.

I flash fried the burgers in a hot pan on each side for a minute each and then grilled until cooked.

Serve with whatever you want, I had coleslaw and grilled tomatoes. I made the coleslaw with grated carrot, beetroot and cabbage, added natural yoghurt and finished with a squeeze of lime. Mmmmmmmm!

I'm not losing!

I'm struggling. After the initial weight loss I've come to a grinding stop. Last time I weighed myself I was 2 pounds heavier even though I'd had a really good week. Every time I'm weighed myself since I've yoyo'd up or down 2 pounds. I can't understand it. I did wonder if it's because I ate pasta, I haven't for years you see.

So, after a few weeks of feeling frustrated and generally a bit rubbish and wondering what the point was, I've given up weighing myself. I'm still sticking to the plan though. I have no idea how I'm doing weight-wise but inch wise I appear to be losing. The tape measure proves this and I feel so much better in my clothes. I think what I may do is weigh myself once a month as I felt so discouraged last time.

So, those of you experiencing a slump, let's get through this together. Get those tape measures out, let's support each other and not give up!

Moussaka

Wow. This was incredible. That's all I'm going to say before giving you the recipe, except that it's free (apart from the cheese from your allowance) on both green and red days - honestly, delicious. This recipe makes 3 massive servings and it freezes well.

You'll need:
1 small pack of Quorn mince (300g)
1 large aubergine
1 large onion
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Tomato puree
1 tub of Quark cheese
2 eggs
Reduced fat cheese
Ground cinnamon
Whole nutmeg
Bouillon
Salt & pepper

This is a variation of a recipe that can be found on the Slimming World website.

Slice a large aubergine into discs, pat dry with kitchen roll and griddle in a pan using fry light until browned on both sides. Set aside.

Fry one chopped onion with fry light until soft, then mix with chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, chopped garlic, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a tablespoon of bouillon and a small pack of Quorn mince. Heat in a large saucepan until hot (adding salt and pepper while you do so).

Arrange the aubergine slices on the bottom of a rectangular oven dish and spoon the Quorn mixture on top.  Then cover with another layer or aubergine.

Mix a pot of Quark cheese with 2 beaten eggs and 3 times your daily allowance of reduced fat cheese (grated). Spoon all of this mixture on top of the aubergine and Quorn mix layers. Then dust the top of the dish with grated nutmeg and pop in the oven for 30 mins on a medium heat. Don't forget like I did (see the burnt corner?!).

This is a diet? REALLY?

Red day saviour

I love my meat, but I also loves my carbs. I made delicious burgers the other night (I'll post a recipe later in the week) but it was cold and I didn't just want to team them with salad. So instead I made use of the butternut squash I had in my vegetable box.

I simply sliced the squash so I had discs, steamed them for 3 minutes and then brushed with egg before dipping into breadcrumbs (from my healthy extra allowance). I then cooked them in the over for 25-30mins on a medium heat.

Delicious and filling!

Oh noes!

What happened? Stepped on the scales this morning and have GAINED 2 1/2 pounds. How does that work?


I've been so good all week - ok, I went to a Thai restaurant, but I had a salad as a main and despite having desert there wasn't much of it and I saved all my syns up for it. Have been in the gym or swimming every morning before breakfast too. I'm hoping it's time of the month/water retention from eating pasta. Whatever it is I'm feeling slightly disheartened. 


Going to flush out with water over the next few days and honour my weigh in on Sunday and see what happens. 



I made the Slimming World baked cannelloni last night. The recipe can be found on the site. I had some butternut squash come in my veg box though so I cooked it up, masked it and added to the spinach and cottage cheese mix. I also used my daily allowance of cheese instead of parmesan too.

GAH

Just been editing some photos from Thursday night and there were some on the camera that someone took of me when I wasn't looking and I look hideous! Double chin galore. Gah. Was feeling quite good after losing this 12.5 pounds. Am going to be extra good this week and hope for another 3 pounds next week. Hating seeing myself!

On a side note, does anyone else find they lose more when they use their syns? The weeks I don't use them much I don't seem to lose much. Maybe it's a metabolism thing?


On that note, had this for lunch ('scuse the rubbish photo) - a massive plate of salad and spinach with chickpeas tossed in lime juice and balsamic vinegar and topped with 42g feta, 8 pitted kalamata olives (1 syn), some tomatoes and pomegranate seeds. Wholeheardedly recommended, it was delicious.

Weigh in day

This week: 3 1/4lb. 
Total: 12 1/2lb


Why did I pick Sunday as a weight in day?! It happened accidentally and there's no way to change it now, so I've been weighing myself on Saturdays instead. Though this morning showed no change from Weds so I already knew what was coming. Have been feeling a bit flat about it all this week for this first time even though I've been swimming every day with the odd gym visit. Sure I'll pick up again next week (fingers crossed).


Had my girlfriends over for dinner last night, made a feta salad as a starter and pork with roasted root veg and a pomegranate and cognac sauce. I made the sauce by reducing the juice from an orange, a few teaspoons of honey, some soy sauce, some ginger, some sliced onions, pomegranate seeds and a little bit of water adding a splash of Courvousier at the end. Was delicious and I stuck inside my syn allowance. 


Did feel rather indulgent though so I'm off to the gym on a mo! Also reverted back to fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I do find it does really fill me up though, who'd have thunk it? 

Mmmm... Saturday

I love Saturdays. Nothing better than a Friday night in and a hangover free Saturday. I try and make sure I have some salmon at least once a week as intake of essential fats is crucial to weight loss and there's nothing more indulgent than smoked salmon folded into eggs for breakfast. It actually makes for a perfect hangover buster too, protein and good fats with the carbs of the toast - perfect.



I simply heated up beaten eggs until they started to scramble and then folded in strips of smoked salmon, piled on top of toast (I spread the toast with a little sweet chilli sauce - 1.5 syns for a level tbsp) and then topped with pan friend mushrooms (using Fry Light). NOM. You can always add some parma ham on top (just stick in the pan with the mushrooms) but I opted out because I am skint!


I accompanied with my favourite tea too - Liquorice and Peppermint from Teapigs. So good and a perfect sweet morning brew.


Happy weekend everyone!

Getting over it.

Beaujolais Day or Beaujolais nouveau is the release of the years first bottle of a red wine - Beaujolais. Obviously, it's traditionally a French celebration but it's also celebrated around the world.


So, in a little pub called The Basketmakers in Brighton on the third Thursday of November 2009, myself and some friends laughed, caught up, met new people, indulged in french food and drank Beaujolais until we had drunk the pub dry. We vowed to make it a little tradition.


How quickly a year goes by. Instinctively, I thought the best option was not to go. All that wine, all that lovely french food and all those lovely friends. Then I thought about it some more and if this diet was going to be maintainable I needed to get over these hurdles.


So I saved my sins, had a large lunch of free foods with my healthy extras and put a quorn chilli in the slow cooker for my return. I got to the pub and had a small glass of the wine, followed by a soda water. Then I had another small glass of wine and found that 3 hours had passed. I was having fun even though everyone else were very drunk. Then I thought about my chilli at home and I happily said my goodbyes and pootled home. 


My flatmate came in at the same time as me and she'd been drinking wine too. She tried her best to convince me to go halves on another bottle from the offy but I suggested having cognac with me instead which was still in my syns allowance. We sat, we sipped and we had a good natter. 


I woke up feeling great this morning, unlike those I left at the pub - plenty of thick heads all round! One friend couldn't remember getting home and another felt really annoyed he'd let himself get so drunk. 


Smug? Me? Never. 

Week 5 food

I've been so busy over the past few weeks, food has been a little 'on the go'. Slimming World and on the go takes a little thinking about but it's so doable. I've been finding I've been eating a lot of cheese and onion toasties for lunch, these feel like such an indulgence and even more so with a sprinkle of nutmeg. Also, really easy to knock up is a feta and chickpea salad - spruce up with a little pomegranate which are in abundance this time of year, squeeze some lime over and you've got a delicious lunch that is also very attractive. What is even better is a frittata - you can make it while you make dinner and leave it in the fridge for the next day, they're so easy to make and you can chuck anything in.

I fried onions until browned and added sliced sweet potato and cabbage, I then added about a cm of boiled water and covered to let the vegetables soften (this is termed steam frying). Next I beat four eggs and added half to a smallish and deepish ceramic roaster. I then added the rest of the veg and covered with the rest of the egg, roughly mixing it all in and seasoning. Because the frittata will be lasting me two days, I doubled my healthy extra allowance of feta (so ended up with 84g) and crumbled it on top, finishing off with some thinly sliced tomato. You can add anything to the mix - olives, Prosciutto etc. After 25 mins in the oven on a medium heat, et voila, here it is straight from the oven. Frittatas are best eaten at room temperature so allow to cool before eating. And just so you know, I had it for lunch today - as my two year old niece would say 'mmmmmmm... delic-li-lus!'

So.. here I am

This is me in September, stuck in a traffic jam on the way to a festival. I'm not going to disclose what weight I was until I've lost a little more (I hope you don't mind). Obviously I've lost a stone since then so I'll update a picture when I have one but I wanted you to meet me before I started.

My story

"How can I slim when I write for a food magazine? And how can I exercise when I've completely borked my ankle?". But after a two stone weight gain over as many years, it's no time for excuses. Valid excuses maybe, but still excuses. 

Well, come on in, take off your shoes and I'll get the kettle on so you can have a read of my story. Over ten years ago when I was twenty I weighed 21 stone, I honestly don't know how I got there - though I'd always been a 'big' child and I don't suppose many evenings with an old boyfriend getting stoned and combatting the munchies helped much. I honestly had no idea how I looked until I saw some pictures of me at a leaving party and I was horrified. I joined a gym, ate foods with as little fat content in as possible and my life became one big diet. I pretty swiftly dropped 9.5 stone. But I wasn't healthy. My emotions were everywhere which I'd imagine was a result from my exercise addiction and my diet of 'healthy choice' ready meals. I was up every morning at 6am for my daily ritual - 40 lengths in the pool. I'd then be back in the gym straight after work for kick-boxing, step, cardiovascular work or whatever else I could find to do. I'd then go home, eat my ready meal while watching some poor TV drama and then I'd hit the hay in preparation for tomorrows exercise schedule. So I was slimmer but not happy. 

So, in a rebellious response, I gave it all up and partied. Hard. Weekends were a whirlwind of drum'n'bass, dancing, no sleep, even less food and lots of vodka. Needless to say all that weight stayed off, but still - not healthy nor overly happy. 

So I moved to Brighton and started studying nutrition and, man, I felt goooooood. I was balancing my blood sugar, I had my hormones under control and was generally treating myself well. I had finally found a balance - I had great friends and a wonderful social life. Trouble is, pounds started creeping back on despite my regular gym attendance and the miles I'd walk around Brighton each day. I think I'd gained about a stone when It happened. The car accident that was to change my life forever. 

The long and the short of it is this - my ankle got crushed. I can still walk, albeit painfully, but I certainly can't run or walk into town to meet friends listening to my iPod. It hit me and my body hard, I piled on 2 stone. I'm not sure how long it took me but I do know I was really unhappy. I wasn't eating badly and I was still exercising regularly but compared to what I was doing before, it was nothing. Add to that, I was working a part time job that wasn't really challenging me. I was officially in a rut. 

January of this year I promised myself I'd start a fresh: I'd make a success of myself and lose some weight. By March I had lost a stone and a half by eating little and exercising as much as my ankle would allow. I also started establishing myself as a photographer. Then came Edible - a magazine that I produced with two friends. As I threw myself into work the diet went to the wayside and I was shocked when I stepped on the scales in September and found I had crept back up a stone. I'd been feeling self conscious about my weight so it shouldn't have come as such a shock. I was now a size 18 and hated everything I wore. 

It's amazing how being overweight can keep you down - though I was out a lot I'd be drinking to overcome my self-consciousness and I was constantly worried about what people thought of me. 

So when a few friends of mine lost loads of weight on Slimming World my ears pricked up. I had a quick Google and read about it a little but a lot of people were saying they still ate chocolate on it. Well, I never ate chocolate! Maybe the diet was just for people who ate really unhealthy. So it got dismissed for a month until I was visiting a friend and was flicking through her Slimming World magazine. The recipes were attractive and I read some of the success stories. "Ah, bugger it, what have I got to lose?"

Well, almost a stone in a month by the looks of it. I can't tell you how thrilled I am. Already my confidence is rebuilding and for the first time ever I feel optimistic about getting weight off. Someone asked me how the diet was going last week and I told them I was really enjoying it - fancy that!

Obviously, being the Editorial Director of a food magazine was always going to pose problems but with Slimming World I am finding ways around it. Social occasions are easy, I just save my syns for the evening and drink a few gin and tonics. I've even had two Saturday nights where I've been out until the next morning and still managed to lose weight those weeks. 

I did find extra easy did nothing for me - I seemed to be eating everything I was before except without the olive oil and the like. It was when I switched to alternating green and red days (with an emphasis on green) when the weight really started dropping off. 


But I know it's not always going to be this easy so I've created this blog because I hope to inspire others with recipes and photos, but I also hope to build a bit of a community, let's do this together.