Fast Diet - Week 12 - #LoseDayTuesday

Kicking off week 12 of the 5:2 Fast Diet!! To find out more about it, read my original post here. 

This week was a much easier week, for one, I could breath in and out of my nose, so that was a nice change! And also, I just really wanted to get some good weight-loss results this week. I have a big birthday looming, and so I would like to still be a little closer to my goal than I currently am. I Fasted on Monday and Thursday this week and I think it made a big difference to my intake over the week. Spreading the Fast Days out a little more than Monday and Wednesday seemed to have kept me better behaved in general!

I'm going to keep today's post nice and short because I think i've been babbling on a bit too much in recent posts! So, onto the food!

Lunch - Chorizo & Butterbean soup

I just can't help it. This soup is so good. Have you tried it yet? Fast Diet aside, it really is so good! From Lavender & Lovage.

Dinner - Scrawny Shepherds Pie

I know that "low calorie" and "pie" don't often go hand in hand, but I decided to make it so. I used lean lamb, low calorie vegetables and not a potato in sight (which is a bit of shame I must admit!). It was very filling, the flavour was fantastic, fantastic enough that I could even overlook the fact that the topping was crunchy instead of soft and fluffy!

Ingredients (4 portions)
500g lean lamb mince
1 large courgette, grated
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup puree tomatoes
Dash of worchestershire sauce
For the topping: 1/2 courgette grated and squeezed

Method:

1. Brown the mince with onion in a large pot for 10 minutes.

2. Add the courgette, peas and tomatoes (both chopped and puree) and cook slowly for half an hour until the sauce has reduced and is nice and thick.

3. Divide the meat among 4 ramekin dishes and allow to cool. (I made three ramekins and 8 baby meals out of the meat instead, gotta make batch-cooking work for me!).

4. Lightly cook the courgette until it starts to brown and crisp up. Then place on top of each ramekin.

5. Bake for 20 minutes until the courgette is crunchy and the meat fully heated.

Snacks - Green olives

I have been craving salt this past week, which was a nice change from my more recent sugar cravings! I can't get enough salty green olives, but cut myself off at 10 for this fast day! Calories = 40 calories.

Drinks - Mint & Cucumber water

This week I tried a few different ways to get some more fluids into me other than just plain water.

The freshness of the mint and the G&Tness of the cucumber makes this water the most filling glass of H20 you can imagine. Too much of a stretch? Yeah, I know. But, when you can only drink glass after glass after glass of plain water, to have a variation in flavour is such a welcomed change that I thought it was worth sharing!!

Total calories for the day = 475

Exercise

Finally I beat my nasty cold so I could actually get back into a bit of exercise this week. I did my Reformer Pilates class and one hilly fast-paced walk. I was the only one in my Reformer Pilates class which was both good and bad. Good because I got a personal training session and technique fine-tuning, but bad because there was nowhere to hide and I am still aching in all kinds of places from the brutal workout!!! 

Each week when it comes time to do planks, I always always go from my knees. I have a weak lower back and have always had that as my reason for not trying to go on my feet. But, I decided that by my 30th birthday, I need to be able to hold a full plank for 90 seconds. Quite neatly, that worked out to being 30 days, so it is my "30 to 30 Plank Challenge". With 27 days to go, I am up to 20 seconds, only 70 to go!! I'll be Instagramming my progress over the month (and if you know some good tips or techniques tweaks I'd love the advice!!) and hopefully I'll be able to achieve my little "Everest" by the time I clock 30! 

Weight loss?

Total loss to date = 3.0kg (6.6lbs)

Okay so not a huge move this week, but lost the Christmas bulge, so that's a good start! Now, to push through this 3kg mark, hoping to reach 4kg by the end of the month!!

Goals for the coming week

My goals for this coming week are:

• Exercise 3 times this week
• Reduce dairy this week
• Continue my 30 to 30 Plank Challenge
• Brush my teeth during the day to prevent unnecessary snacking!

Wishing you a great week and I hope you're having some good results on the Fast Diet!!

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!


  

He's her Lobster... Gordon Ramsay's Grilled Lobster

"C'mon you guys. It's a known fact that lobsters fall in love and mate for life. You know what, you can actually see old lobster couples walkin' around their tank, ya know, holding claws like... "

And if you don't know what on earth I am talking about, we can no longer be Friends (you see what I did there hehe). 

Lobster, the undisputed king of the ocean. 

And something I had never attempted to cook before. It's always been to scary, all that shell and not having a clue when it's actually cooked. But alas, your good old fishmonger will take the stress out of it for you, who knew!! 

Fresh COOKED lobster!! Genius. So all you have to do is eat it, well I can do that part quite well!!!

I was watching another Gordon Ramsay episode which inspired another delicious dinner! All you need to do is decide on the flavouring of butter you want to pack into your already cooked Lobster and away you go! 

I even had my fishmonger slice my little guy in half for me (we still had our rubbish knives then, so I didn't stand a chance of cutting an orange let alone a lobster!).

I went with garlic, chilli and parsley, which I just finely cut and mixed in with the butter.

All you need to do then is pack it into the Lobster, wherever there is meat.

And since the Lobster is already cooked, the next stage is really just to melt the butter and grill it all a little. I don't have one big pan, so separated the claws/legs from the body and cooked it for a few minutes in two separate pans. It only needs about 2-3minutes. 

We had an entree of steamed mussels (yum) and then had the grilled buttery lobster served with oven baked fries. It didn't need anything else because the lobster was happy to take centre stage, the chips were jus the back up dancers, not really adding anything to the musical spectacular but they make the production look prettier!

So easy, so delicious and so having that again! They aren't cheap of course (there has to be some reason we don't all eat lobster everyday) but as a special meal to celebrate a special friends' pregnancy, this more than did the job, and does well being accompanied by some darn good bubbles too! 

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

Christmas: North vs South

It is nearly Christmas (today I have a case for stating the bleeding obvious it seems).

I am so excited for another Christmas in the North(ern hemisphere) but speaking to family this past week has had me feeling a little nostalgic about what Christmas was like back home in the South(ern hemisphere).

I was approached by a Travel Blog called Gogobot to add my thoughts about their recent article Warm vs White, and so rather than talk about the difference between a snowsuit and a swimsuit, I thought I would write about what I am most passionate about, food, and how it differs in the two climates!

The menu is vastly different for a Christmas in Australia versus a Christmas in England, and planning our 4th Christmas in the North(ern hemisphere) got me thinking about just how different it all is, but each with its charms!

Christmas in Australia

Growing up in Australia we would usually spend most Christmas's at my Gran's house in Byron Bay. It was hot, really hot (35C/95F). It was a very rare occasion that we would have a roast for Christmas day, because back in those days we didn't have air-conditioning and so the thought of putting the oven on was just not worth it!

So instead, whether it was in Byron Bay, Brisbane, Melbourne or wherever else we were that Christmas, we would always find the freshest seafood and buy a couple of kilo's of fresh prawns and we would sit and peel prawns and (when we were older) drink some cold beers and white wine.

If I were planning Christmas at home this year I would go for some fresh seafood without a doubt. It is the signature Australian Christmas feast and should be the focal point for a Christmas lunch!!! My mouth waters just looking at this photo! Mango season in Australia is just awesome! There's even  now a charity auction for the first tray of mangoes in Australia, which this September went for $68,500! Not sure I would (haha or could) pay that, but they are divine. 

Delicious Magazine Prawn & Mango Salad

The next item would be a ham, but not an oven baked, it would be barbecued of course. The glorious ham would then be used for the next few days on fresh white bread with hot chips at the beach, or to jazz up a salad.

Taste.com.au Sticky Orange Soy-Glased Ham

For dessert, there's so many great choices because so many desserts are served cold. But I found this frozen pudding that looked like so much fun! I love the idea of taking something traditional but reinventing it a little. 

Donna Hay Frozen Christmas Pudding 

I do love plum puddings, and even though it was hot, we always had one on Christmas Day growing up, but equally there was also always a pavlova too. A cute Christmas idea would be to make it into a wreath like so...

Cuisine Christmas Pavlova recipe

But a few months ago when I was home I experimented with a caramel pavlova, but it didn't quite work out, but I would be trying to perfect it because I just love the concept, so I would try out this recipe this Christmas.

From Taste.com.au

A few very Australian treats are also White Christmas (ironic no?)...

Exclusively Food White Christmas 

...and these Caramel Cookies made me gasp in disbelief that I had never thought to do this! You may have heard my rants about my love for Jersey Caramels and how much I miss them over in the UK (my Mum has been known to post me a pack costing three times in shipping than the value, but that would be the value to a regular person, to me they are priceless). Anyway, I'll be making these (gluten free) when my next delivery arrives!!

Donna Hay Caramel Cookies

Eggnog is multi-hemispherical, no matter where you are in the world there is always space for eggnog! I bloomin well love the stuff and just can't get enough. In Australia we would make it around lunch time to allow it plenty of time to chill completely before serving. Totally not necessary in the UK, it is actually quite lovely served warm, although I must say, it's still growing on me, I still prefer it with icicles floating amongst the nutmeg. 

Christmas in England

I can't believe this will be our 4th Christmas away from home! The first year was in Oxford, when we were lucky enough to have a very white Christmas living in the grounds of Magdalen College. All I wanted for Christmas was for it to be white, and as you can see, Santa was very good to me!

The next year was a very understated Christmas in London, just the two of us, me pregnant and sick in bed with a migraine, so we didn't really take many photos!

Then last year we had Christmas in Charlotte, North Carolina and had a traditional "Southern" Christmas complete with grits, hush puppies and many flavours of sweet pies for dessert. 

This year we are having my brother and his family up from Jersey to London to spend the Christmas week with us. We haven't had a Christmas together in 5 years and I am beyond excited to see our four little kiddies playing together in their little Christmas outfits on Christmas morning (shhh secret outfits). 

Planning a British Christmas feast is kind of fun. There are no limitations! The hotter the better!! The only issue really is oven capacity, so we may have to space out the 4kg gammon (ham) and the 5kg turkey (turkey). 

It is hard to go past "The Best Turkey in the World" curtesy of Jamie Oliver. This recipe stuffs flavoured butter under the skin before roasting, which really sounds pretty heavenly doesn't it?

Jamie Oliver The Best Turkey in the World

And if you have a buttery-skinned-turkey, you kind of have to have goose fat potatoes on the side don't you think?

BBC Good Food Goose Fat Potatoes

I have been looking for a range of other sides that are warm and slightly more healthy, and of course everything will be gluten free! I have found some yummy looking vegetables that just look so pretty!

Spring Vegetable Bundles

And for dessert this year, well, where to start?! My sister-in-law has found a mini Australian gluten free plum pudding for me, so I will be making a regular plum pudding for everyone else, from no other than Delia Smith.

Delia Smith Traditional Christmas Pudding

I know Plum Pudding isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I really enjoy mine with a generous helping of Brandy Butter and vanilla custard. Same goes for Mince Pies. They have to warm, dusted with icing sugar, and served with Brandy Butter and custard, or, ice cream.

Mince Pies made the cross-over to Australia, thank goodness, because I for one love them! My favourite memory though would have to be at our Oxfam Christmas Party in Oxford, when the Staff Health team put on a Christmas morning tea and served Mince Pies alongside syringes of brandy, for you to inject your own Mince Pie to your liking! Amazing! I make a batch or two each year but haven't attempted GF before, so will give this recipe a go this year.

Alex Stuart Gluten Free Fruit Mince Pies

I will also be making some gluten free gingerbread truffles. They are similar to regular rum balls, but instead of using a vanilla cookie to crumble, I will be using ginger stem cookies and rolling them in coconut. I'm really excited to try them, and will definitely post about them if they work out!

I wanted to make a cake as well, but given we will be having plum pudding, didn't want to make a traditional Christmas Fruit Cake as well. So I thought about a Gingerbread Cake. I think I might be a little too into my ginger this year, but I love the warmth of ginger and spices and so have found this recipe to make a gluten free cake based on these key flavours. 

A Girl Defloured Gingerbread Cake

I think that should be enough food for a few days for the four of us adults! I am so excited to be spending a few days huddled inside together playing games and cooking amazing food together. As much as I love Australia and will be missing our friends and family at this time, there is just something more Christmasy about a cold Christmas. It is what all the carols sing about (unless the "frightful" weather outside they are talking about is in fact 41 degrees celius with 97% humidity, it is possible) and it is what all snowy and white cards portray. 

If you have celebrated both a warm and white Christmas, which do you prefer? Do you prefer having your eggnog hot or cold?

Wherever you are going to be this Christmas, I hope you have a cracking menu planned to share with all of your loved ones (or as many as you happen to have in your hemisphere anyway!!).

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

Fast Diet - Week 6 - #LoseDayTuesday

Week six of the 5:2 Fast Diet!! To find out more about it, read my original post here.

I'm really enjoying the Fast Diet community. Its been fun finding other Fast Dieters on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook etc and seeing other people's results, motivation and meal ideas has been really inspirational for me this week.

I am definitely still enjoying my non-fast days far too much, I really have to remember that I am actually trying to be healthier and lose weight, and shouldn't be putting 100% of the pressure on the two fasting days!! I have had a bit of shift in mindset though this week. Rather than waking up on a Fasting day with the first thought being "bugger, no breakfast", I now have managed to think about it as such an opportunity day. I always feel better about myself after I've done a workout (not the endorphin rush kind of better, just feel more empowered and proud of myself), and so this feeling I now get in the mornings is similar to that, and I try to carry that feeling and remember it when the hunger pangs hit around noon.

In reaching out and connecting more with the Fast Diet community, I have stumbled upon a few awesome recipes that I am keen to explore more over the coming weeks and tried out another awesome recipe from the Fast Diet Recipe Book. 

Again I am finding that in putting off eating my first meal as late as possible, I am not nearly as hungry for as long in the day now. Its as though my system forgets about food overnight, and it isn't until I remind it what its missing that it starts growling for more!

Lunch - Chorizo & Butterbean Soup

I made this soup once. And then twice more that week! On one of my Fast days I actually had it for lunch and dinner, it's THAT good! I added some extra chorizo in mine when I had the spare calories because, well you can never have too much chorizo. 

I love how simple and easy (and affordable) this soup is. I am not going to reinvent the wheel, so here is the fabulous recipe from Lavender & Lovage. 

Snack - Green olives

Yes, the same snacks as I've had before, but I got some flavoured ones this week, so have added a few extra calories to the total for the pesto and pimento olives! Instead of 60 calories, I have had to guestimate about 100 calories. 

Dinner - Masala Prawns (with chickpeas and spinach)

I really do love reading a recipe, wanting to cook it, and finding out you had mostly everything you need already! Very neat. I followed the recipe from the Fast Diet Recipe Book for Masala Prawns, and given that I had had a very low calorie day thus far, added in the chickpeas and spinach. My husband even had the same meal as me, no rice, no bread, nothing bulky at all, and he commented that he was full without all of that starch!

The recipe from the book is as follows:

Ingredients (serves 2)

2tsps cumin seeds (I used ground cumin)
1/2 cinnamon stick (I used 1/2 t ground)
3 cloves (I used 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves)
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
Salt and pepper
2 tsps chilli powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
2 tsps butter
150g raw prawns
coriander leaves

And my other changes were the addition of 120g of tinned chickpeas, 2 tablespoons of no-fat yoghurt and 2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves.

Method:

1. Make the masale paste by heating a pan and adding the cumin, cinnamon and cloves, dry frying for a minute. The smell that this creates is amazing!

2. Remove from the heat and crush in a pestle and mortar (I don't have one, so I figured the ground spices made up for that).

3. Put this mix in a blender with garlic, salt and pepper chilli powder, turmeric and oil and whizz to a paste (again, I didn't do this step, but stirred it well into a paste in the pan instead).

4. Melt the butter in a heavy pan and add the paste and fry for two inures.

5. Add the prawns (and chickpeas) and stir gently until cooked through. Meanwhile cook the spinach.

6. To cook the spinach, turn a pan on and wait for it to be a little warm before tossing two handfuls of spinach leaves directly in the pan. Toss gently and the spinach will begin to wilt almost immediately. It will need to cook for no more than a minute in total.

7. To serve, I stirred through 1 teaspoon of yoghurt just before serving and dolloped one teaspoon on top before  sprinkling fresh coriander over the prawns.

The masala tasted like authentic Indian curry, without all the oil! It was filling and full of flavour.

Drinks

Lots of water as usual and some more of my new favourite Teapigs Rooibos Creme Caramel herbal tea. (2 calories). And what better vessel to brew it in that my brand new Fast Diet mug! Woohoo!!!

Total calories for the day = 477

Exercise

Reformer Pilates, lots of incidental walking and one Heath Hills walk! I had a bit more energy this week and so made sure I made the most of it! I still find designated exercise unlikely on a Fast day, but walking half an hour each way to take Maddie to her swimming lesson is still on the agenda!!

Weight loss?

Total loss to date = 2.7kgs (5.95lbs)

I was stoked to see the number on the scales this morning, I was sure there wouldn't be any change at all! I have two targets that I've set myself, and the first one is 4kg by Christmas (yay, only 1.3kgs to go), and then I want to be at my goal weight by my 30th Birthday in February (4.3kg to go). I am starting to believe it might just happen too!!!

On a very unrelated note, other than ticking off items on my Non-Food Cuddles list this week, here's a project I have been working on that has kept me busy and kept my mind away from food thoughts!!

Click here to view the meg-made Christmas 2013 catalogue on GLOSSI.COM

I have put together all of my favourite items that are on my Etsy store in one easy to read e-catalogue. If you're looking for some Christmas gifts or decorations, you might just find a little sparkly piece of London that is perfect for your Christmas!

I hope you have a great week! One Fast Day down, one to go!

Potato and Beetroot Gratin, curtesy of Gordon Ramsay (again)

Another Gordon Recipe recipe. Did I mention that I love Gordon. Well I do.

I've been a fan of potato bake for as long as I can remember, well before I knew that it didn't actually count as a serve of vegetables for the day! Shame. It should, I would eat five serves every day. 

I love finding a new way of twisting an old favourite into something with a bit of a modern kick. When I saw Chef Ramsay's take on a potato gratin which included red beets, I was intrigued to give it a go. 

Ingredients

750g large potatoes, peeled

500g cooked whole beetroots, peeled

500ml double cream (I used Emla)

Salt and pepper

Method

1. After you have peeled the potatoes and beets you need to slice them all into rounds, approximately 1cm thick. There is no need to precook the potato.

2. Layer the potato around the base of your ovenproof dish until it is all covered, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. Place a layer of beetroot on top of the potato, and repeat until you have used all the potato and beetroot to form complete layers. 

4. Pour the cream around the entire gratin and bake in a moderate oven (180C/350F) for an hour. 

The colours are gorgeous and the beetroot really gives the potato such heavenly flavour.

There aren't many bad ways to eat potatoes thats for sure, but this has to be one of the best ways! Not really an every day side dish, but I cooked this when we had Brisket a few weeks back, and it was just sensational.

So if you want to double the flavour and halve the carbs, add some beetroot and make this gorgeous winter Potato & Beetroot Gratin!