Sometimes You've Got to Crack a lot of Eggs!

I am 16 days into my 21-day plan to make sure that someone in my list of priorities I come first…. I reckon that for about 12 of those days, it’s been the case. The days it hasn’t happened, I’ve checked myself and put it right the following day… it’s a learning curve right?

  So far in the 16 days, there have been trips to the gym, dog walks, reading, watching films, catching up with friends and some evenings where I’ve allowed myself to give into how tired I am and just unashamedly got into bed at 7pm and slept!

  My 21 day KT plan has also involved making sure that I eat right, so I’ve invested in a couple of cook books.

  This is what I’ve leant, if its green it’s good for you (green jelly babies don’t count) if it’s some form of protein that’s good for you and don’t be scared of fat, some fats are good for you.

SORTED!

  I’ve also learnt that already slinky people cook from scratch! They use things like Tahini and turmeric and tender-stem broccoli, which is apparently different from tough-stemmed broccoli. See I’m learning stuff.

  I now eat a lot of stuff cooked in a slow cooker or a wok, I work on the “shove it all in and let it cook” method and so far my one pot culinary skills have not let me down!

  Today though, today I got cocky! One of my favourite things in the world is dippy eggs and because I don’t have time to eat them in a morning, I sometimes have them for lunch. Check me out with my lunchtime protein, which keeps me full till teatime.

 Today I thought I’d step it up a gear, I’d seen this recipe where you got some large mushrooms and then you cracked an egg into the mushroom, added a bit of ham and cooked them. They looked nice, they looked easy to do and they were healthy!

Things I have learnt today…. Cracking an egg into a mushroom is not easy!

The Great Katie Bake Off

First full week back at Weight Watchers and I’ve lost a pound. Secretly I was hoping it would be more, but hey a pound off is a pound gone and it puts me back on the weight loss road! I've also managed to fit in two zumba classes, one Just Jhoom class and I even turned down a bit of caramel shortcake one  particularly stressful!

Now as much as I love cake, I hate watching programmes where people cook, I just don’t get the attraction. The fact people get so wound up about TV shows like “The Great British Bake Off” amazes me. However the headline “Baked Alaska Scandal”, which apparently was worthy enough to make the front of most British newspapers and “Heat” magazine (step aside alleged Beyoncé / Kim K feud,  dissing someone's baked goods is where it's at) 

   From what I can gather some bloke with a beard made a Baked Alaska and some woman with grey hair could have possibly left the fridge door open and ruined it. He threw it in the bin and she left because she wasn’t very well. The beardy man has since said it was nothing to do with the lady, he just made a crap Baked Alaska. CONTROVERSIAL! And if I'm honest I have no idea what a baked Alaska even is!

  I decided it was time to create a bit of controversy in my own kitchen this week by actually using it for something other than making a cup of coffee!

  So on Saturday afternoon as the mighty Stags took on Burton Albion and the commentary blared out, I decided to get my bake on.

  Having trawled my Weight Watchers cookbooks, I decided to give sausage rolls a go. Now let me say if you’ve never made sausage rolls, they’re quite hard to do, the difficulty rating of "1" on the recipe was in my opinion a blatant lie! I bought some low fat sausages and for the first time ever filo pastry graced my shopping bag. I have learnt that I have a look at the recipe, get a vague idea of what should be happening and then do it my way (I blame my love of Frank Sinatra for this)

  I squeezed the sausage meat out of the sausages into a bowl, added some chives, some black pepper and a chopped onion. I then put it into some filo pastry and rolled them up. If I do say so myself they looked OK.

 

There are actual sausage rolls under what looks like a mess of crispy pastry!

 I bunged them in the oven and waited. It soon became apparent that one sheet of filo pastry was not going to be enough, so I kept adding more and more layers, until eventually I think I’d used about 4 on each one. By the time they were done, I’m pretty sure Greggs weren’t having a re-think of their sausage roll strategy!

The sausage roll aftermath (which sounds like a good title for a horror film!)

  I think points wise, the sausage rolls were probably about 5 points each, but they tasted OK and everyone that ate them is still alive and didn’t end up in hospital with a crippling stomach condition, so that in book makes them a success!

  Maybe I should sign myself up for “Master Chef” afterall!

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!

Any Excuse for a Cheap Tossing Gag

Anyone who works or has ever worked in radio will tell you that Pancake Day is one of their favourite days of the year. Why? Is it because it’s an excuse to eat yummy pancakes live on air, when eating in the studio is normally banned in case you drop a crumb into an important bit of equipment? No it’s because legitimately you can say the word “tosser” repeatedly on air and even ask listeners if “they’ll be tossing tonight” and no one will phone OFCOM to complain!

  This blog will probably just prove that you can take the girl out of radio, but not radio out of the girl, so there’ll probably be a few cheap tossing gags!

  I really feel like I’m back on track now and even though I stayed the same this week, I am focused and really trying. I’ve been to the gym, walked miles with the dog and started wearing my pedometer everyday. Yesterday at work I earned 7 points just walking around a classroom!

  I’ve also been experimenting with different Weight Watchers recipes, because I felt I was getting into a bit of a food rut. I have inherited many good qualities from my Mum, however I also inherited her inability to cook! 

  At Christmas having seen a picture on Pinterest of a wreath made out of cupcakes, I felt inspired to give it a go. I didn’t intend to eat the cakes, Lucy was going to take them into work, but I felt a Sunday afternoon of baking would be fun and relaxing. Now the cupcakes themselves were perfectly edible, however cake decorating really isn’t a talent and my kitchen looked as though the Incredible Hulk had broken in and had an accident all over the work surface.

  Even 3 months on, this picture still makes me giggle!

mmmmm, yummy Christmas cupcakes, which are meant to resemble a wreath!

  Anyway undeterred this week I decided that rather than buying cooking sauces I would make them! They'd be delicious and point free! With the aid of chopped tomatoes, garlic and a herb rack that's sat unused in the corner of my kitchen for 10 months I got to work.  The sauce itself was successful and I left my dinner happily cooking in my slow cooker so that when I returned from the gym, it was a case of dishing  it up. It however turns out my slow cooker had other ideas.

R.I.P slow cooker

  Despite intensive research, I am yet to discover another person who has burnt off the bottom of their slow cooker!

  You’d think I would have given up, but not me! Every year I promise myself I’ll cook pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and every year I forget and decide I’ll do it next year! Not this year, this year I tossed with the rest of the population! We got off to a slightly shaky start because the Weight Watchers recipe specified blueberries and I had strawberries and I don’t own a frying pan so I had to use my wok. I like to consider myself a problem solver.

  My pancake got off to a winning start.

Looking good!

And then it didn’t.

Are they meant to look like this?

Making pancakes is hard, anyone says differently is a naughty little teller of fibs and warts will grow on their tongues

  Still you didn’t grow up in the Trinder household with chef Pamela without having a cast iron tummy so I ate them anyway and although they looked horrible, they tasted pretty good, but that could have been the strawberries and golden syrup.

It's normal to eat a pancake out of a bowl right?

  You’d think it would deter me from cooking altogether, but I’ve found that my dishes make me laugh so much that I actually enjoy cooking! But a word to the wise, just for now if I invite you round for dinner, suggest we go out instead!

  Oh and instead of giving something up for Lent, I’ve taken something up instead. For the next 40 days I’m doing my own version of the plank challenge, I did start this last year, but on day 20 I went on holiday and it fell by the wayside, so I’m trying again!