Garden Find

Well plodding along with my diet. Had for breakfast a yogurt and two oat bran muffins. Lunch was cottage cheese and a fillet of smoked mackerel. Evening meal was salmon marinated in curry powder and a few slithers of hot chillies. I cooked this in foil in the oven and had with a curried yogurt sauce. For my snack at work tonight I have  cottage cheese with some smoked salmon trimmings mixed in. Can't wait to get onto the phase where I introduce veggies into the diet. We have been invited to a BBQ Saturday evening but I think I may drive so I'm not tempted with booze and spoil the diet too much. 

I went out to water the veg patch after tea and noticed something move. I turned off the hose pipe and went to investigate. I found a tiny baby sparrow caught in  some netting I had over my strawberry plants. Called daughter No2 to come and help and together with the help of daughter No3 we cut the little fellow out of the netting. I pulled the netting off the strawberries to throw it away and there was a second chick caught in the netting. We rescued this one too and went to find a box to put them in. I set about digging worms out of the garden to try and feed them because we had no idea how long they had been there. I tried to see if I could see their nest  so we could pop them back but I could not find it. I don't think they would have stayed in the nest if I had  found it because they were flying out of the box as we tried to feed them. So if they are still alive when I get home in the morning I shall take a picture of them. I have reared abandoned chicks and chicks the girls have found to good health in the past. So lets hope we found these before they got too weak. We are a soft bunch and cannot bear to see an animal in distress no matter how small it is.

Menu Week 25/07/11

MONDAY - Roast pork, yorkshire puddings, veg, potatoes (did not get around to having this yesterday)

TUESDAY - Roast chicken, salad, pesto pasta, homemade coleslaw and garlic bread

WEDNESDAY - Chicken stirfry and noodles

THURSDAY - Italian meatloaf, roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy

FRIDAY - Fish in butter sauce, mashed potatoes, carrots and peas

SATURDAY - Lasagne, wedges, salad and homemade garlic bread

SUNDAY - Not sure yet as may go out for the day so maybe a quick pasta dish

Kept to the budget today but did not bother to take any pictures today because I went shopping later this afternoon and by the time I arrived home and saw the time I thought I'd better get it all put away and get dinner started. I though I might go over budget today with buying extras for my diet but I did okay.

Me and diets!!! Always starting one and never get very far with one!!! I am now trying the  http://www.dukandiet.co.uk/  I have seen good results  on another blog I follow. The blogger has lost a lot of weight. It will be harder for me because I don't eat meat, only fish and shellfish. So for the next 3-7 days I eat just protein, nothing else. Today I had omelet with cottage cheese for breakfast. Cottage cheese with prawns with an oat bran muffin for lunch. Smoked haddock and poached egg for dinner and a fat free yogurt. I have been stuffed. No hunger at all today. I must buy some tofu this week because I don't think I will be able to cope with so much fish. So here I go again, trying another diet. Lets see how far we get with this one.

Menu Week 30/05/11

MONDAY - Homemade salmon fishcakes, wedges & peas
ME - Same 

TUESDAY - Sausages, potato cakes, eggs, baked beans, grilled tomatoes & mushrooms
ME - Same with veggie sausages

WEDNESDAY - Fish in butter sauce, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots & broccoli
ME - Same with boiled potatoes

THURSDAY - Homemade roasted vegetables & cottage cheese Ravioli with a tomato sauce
ME - Same

FRIDAY - Breaded cod, chips & mushy peas
ME - Same

SATURDAY - Homemade lamb burgers, wedges & homemade coleslaw
ME - Same with Spicy bean burgers

SUNDAY - Toad in the hole, vegetables, roast potatoes & onion gravy
ME - Same with veggie sausages

Well, what a truly miserable day! It's pouring it down and silly me forgot to bring in all my washing hanging on the line last night and now it's all soaking wet. No plans for this Bank Holiday Monday. Hubby will continue to fit the new kitchen and I shall tackle a pile of ironing and may do some baking.

On the weight loss - 2lb lost this week. Could have been better. I succumbed to the tuck shop at work and had a packet of crisps and a small chocolate bar. I also nibbled some extra bits this weekend, slap my wrist. So I could have had a better loss but 2lb is better than nothing. Back on track today.

I made this lunch time River Cottage Lemon curd marble muffins http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/lemon-curd-marble-muffins/

I didn't have any yogurt so I replaced it with extra milk and it seemed to work. They came out well but I did have a disaster with some of the muffins. I ran out of muffin cases so had to use bun cases which were rather small and the mixture overflowed  so these looked a bit of a mess and were excluded from the picture. I used my own homemade lemon curd in the recipe. I've resisted the urge to eat any and shall quickly get them in the freezer out of temptations way because they are for packups when the girls are back at school/college.



Are you up to anything exciting  on this Bank Holiday?

Normality Resumed

Everything back to normal now. Baby's out of hospital and all seems well. She's to return to hospital in 3 months to have some dye injected into her kidneys to double check they are still okay. She's a bit clingy at the moment which is understandable and her mum is still worrying over her but time will ease this. Thank you all for you kind messages, much appreciated.

We had another party to attend yesterday, my mother-in-law and father-in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. A big party was held at their house and lots of eating and drinking took place. I did not drink but I ate because I was driving and now all parties for the moment are done with I think I need to get my eating under control. I weighed myself this morning and I'm now 11st 9.5lb and at 5ft 6inch that's overweight. So, come tomorrow morning I shall be back to healthy eating and on that long road to loosing weight. It makes me unhappy being overweight and I'm getting to that stage again when I feel really frumpy and fat and unhappy. I'm going to keep posting my losses on my blog to keep me motivated. Think I'll get daughter to take a before photo of me later and I'm going to take my measurements too. 

Having a lazy day today. With everything that's been going on, looking after grandaughter No1 and a party yesterday I feel really tired today. Just a quick tidy round done, put a chicken in the slow cooker for dinner and I just need to iron work wear and uniform for tomorrow (will iron this later) Going to sit and watch a movie now, if I can stay awake.