I Don't Want to Quark About It

I saw a fellow Weight Watcher post the other day that after being back off her holiday a week she’d now undone some of the damage and had “only put 8 pounds on” After getting back from my holiday I fully sympathise I appeared to ignore all the fruit, salad and healthy options and instead tuck right into fried breakfasts, pasta and then there was the chocolate fountain. Man those things are fun, what’s not to love about sticking a piece of marshmallow on a piece of wood and then shoving it into vat of melted chocolate? I’ll tell you what’s not to love about it getting on the scales when you get home!

  So since my return, I’ve really gone back to basics and have even started cooking things from scratch! Now if you read my blog regularly, you will know I’m not one of those people that posts pictures of how lovely their meals are and boasts about what a great cook they are!

  To recap, this was actually a crock-pot after an “over enthusiastic” casserole.

No one was injured in the damaging of this crock pot

  This was my attempt at a pancake

No really it's a pancake

And this was my popcorn effort.

mmmmm tasty 

 Although I’ve since bought a healthy popcorn maker so my corn now looks more like this (hurrah)

When in doubt buy a machine to make it for you!

  I’ve had my cookbooks out and decided to give the Weight Watchers “Filling and Healthy” a go; basically it encourages you to eat foods that keep you well … full and healthy. So this week some weird shit has been going down in my kitchen, (not in a Walter White fashion I hastened to add!) I’ve made my own tomato sauce using Passata. I’ll be honest I had to Google what passata was, I had a vague idea it would be something to do with tomatoes, but wasn’t sure.

Passata...posh word for tomatoes in a jar!

  I’ve also started using Quark. Again a product I’d never heard of,  but once you get used to the slight bitter taste it’s OK and I have crafted this into a make shift mayo to go with tuna and also into a nice red pepper dip.

  It makes me laugh that I’m using these ingredients in my cooking, when I didn’t know what Ciabatta was until I went to university. I remember a friend ordering a bacon and Brie Ciabatta and I shyly asked for the same, thinking well I know what bacon and Brie are, so it will probably be OK. When it came it turns out Ciabatta is Italian for “really hard bread”

  After just a few days back on the straight and narrow and my culinary efforts are paying off because I’ve already lost a couple of pounds, so hopefully by my next weigh in I’ll be back on track.

  At the weekend I’ve been persuaded to try a roast beetroot and trout salad, I’m still reeling from the news you can roast a beetroot and not just buy them pickled in a jar!

  Any healthy recipe (Katie friendly) ideas you have feel free to post them!