Slow Cooker Beef Stew and Mash - 2pp/ 13pp

I didn't really think I was a fan of stews (memories of watery potato hash with boiled potatoes spring to mind) but they always look so nice so I decided to give it a go anyway. And loved it.

This was on another filling and healthy week so worked out at only 2pp but is a whopping 13pp if counting! Next time I think I would give the parnsips a miss and have extra veg on the side to keep the points down. Could also sacrifice 1pp of meat for a Yorkshire pudding :o

Serves 1
Ingredients
175g Tesco beef stir fry strips - 5pp
200g white potatoes - 4pp
1 x carrot - 0pp
1 x parsnip - 2pp
1/2 brown onion - 0pp
15g Flora light - 1pp
10g gravy granules - 1pp

Method
1. In a slow cooker add diced onion, chopped carrots and parnsips 200ml boiling water and the beef. Season with salt and pepper. 
2. Cook for 6 hours on low. When nearly ready to serve, check the water. If there is too much, take some out, not enough, add some then stir in gravy granules. Since you can only use a small amount of granules to thicken, it's better to have less water to start and be able to add more if required. 
3. Boil your potatoes in salted water until soft. Drain and mash with Flora.
4. Serve and enjoy!

I had mint sauce on mine too for 0pp. 

Jamaican Jerk Chicken - 2pp/ 10pp

This recipe came from here: http://simple-nourished-living.com/2012/01/skinny-delicious-southwestern-slow-cooker-chicken/ 

But I didn't have any of the south west seasoning so I Googled it and it doesn't seem to exist ready made in the UK supermarkets so I looked up how to make it and I didn't have half of the spices so I thought f*ck it, I'll use one I already have... And that is why it is now Jamaican jerk chicken instead :D

Serves 2
Ingredients
2 x chicken breasts (up to 140g each) - 6pp (free on F&H)
1 x 400g tin black beans in water (drained) - 6pp (free on F&H)
1 x 200g tin sweetcorn (drained) - 3pp (free on F&H)
1 x jar mild salsa - 2pp
40g Tesco half fat mature cheese - 3pp
Jamaican Jerk seasoning 

Method
In a slow cooker add the beans, sweetcorn and 1/2 the salsa. Massage seasoning in to chicken, add to cooker and top with the remaining salsa. Cook for 4-6 hours on low. A couple of minutes before serving, grate cheese over the chicken and allow to melt.

Easy peasy and soooooooooo tasty!

Sexy Chicken and Bacon Pasta - 2pp/ 12pp

I LOVE pasta, but being on Weight Watchers I just refuse to eat the stuff. A lot of points for not a lot of food and it just leaves me hungry and disappointed. On filling and healthy though you can eat "unlimited" wholewheat pasta (though I still can't stop weighing things. I can't trust myself not to over eat) so I decided to have a bash at a low ProPoint pasta dish.

What makes this so scrumptious is the sauce is actually tomato soup. Yum!

Now I can't take full credit for this little stroke of genius because it is actually down to my husband. I do all the cooking in our house (I know, how retro) but I had gone for a tattoo session last week and came back to my tea on the table. Bless. He'd done some Gordon Ramsay, just throwing things together sh*t and made a lovely pasta dish which I really enjoyed!

So I based mine around his tomato soup/ sauce concept but bulked it out with a bit more veg and it was gorgeous! Well done Mr T!

2pp on Filling and Healthy or 12pp if pointing

Serves 1
Ingredients
75g wholewheat pasta - 7pp 
1/2 tin WW tomato soup - 1pp
100g chicken (raw) - 2pp
2 x bacon medallions - 1pp
Cherry tomatoes
Spinach
1/2 brown onion
20g Tesco half fat mature cheddar - 1pp

Method
1. Cook pasta in salted water. Drain.
2. Preheat oven to 200°c.
3. Fry chicken for a couple of minutes, add bacon, onion and tomatoes and fry until onions are soft. Add spinach and wilt.
4. Add frying pan contents along with the soup to pasta and stir.
5. Pour in to baking dish, grate over cheese and cook in the oven for 15-20 mins.

Salmon Fishcakes 0pp/ 10pp

Another filling and healthy week for me as the past 2 weeks I have PUT ON even sticking within my points so I thought another change up was required. Unfortunately F&H means a lot of cooking from scratch and a couple of days searching for recipes *snores*

I just stole the recipe from Google and adapted it to fit in with Weight Watchers. Very tasty and filling. I served mine with mashed carrot and swede, 15g flora light (1pp), broccoli and cauliflower.

Serves 2
Ingredients
2 x tin skinless & boneless salmon - 13pp (but 6pp each)
1 x slice Nimble wholemeal bread - 1pp
1 x medium egg - 2pp
200g potatoes - 4pp
2tbsp tomato ketchup - 1pp
10g mustard - 0pp
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped dill
1 lemon

Method
1. Peel, chop and boil potatoes in salted water until soft. Mash.
2. Drain salmon and combine with mashed potatoes, ketchup, mustard, parsley, dill and lemon zest. Mix well then shape in to fish cake-type things. (I made 4 large fish cakes.)
3. Toast the bread and blitz in a food processor or, if you are lacking in such gadgets, grate on to a plate.
4. Add egg to another plate. Dip fish cakes into the egg, then the breadcrumbs. 
5. Spray a baking tray with fry light and grill until nice and brown on both sides.
6. Squeeze over some lemon juice.

Slow and Steady...

When I joined Weight Watchers in January 2012 my main goal was to lose weight as quickly as possible before my holiday to good ol' Magalluf on 12th May. I think I did quite well in this respect losing 33.5lbs in 18 weeks and going from 14st 5.5 to 12st and a UK size 14. 

The main problem with this approach is that I didn't learn anything. I had spent those 18 weeks sticking rigidly within my daily points, drinking diet coke on nights out and if I ever dared go for a meal out I would stick to 0pp foods all day to make up for it. And I would be starving. So yes, I can drop the weight when I want, but I ain't half miserable doing it! 

After the holiday I didn't get back on plan and my weight slowly but surely crept up and up until I got to my highest weight of 15st 2 in January 2014. Even after starting again last year I still messed about and fell off the wagon around September only to put on 14 of the 21lbs I lost. Fail!

So this year, I relaxed slightly. This is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Life does get in the way sometimes and that's ok. I've allowed myself to enjoy nights out, events, restaurants, birthdays and holidays. I've allowed myself treats and used my weeklies when I needed them. Ok so my weight loss hasn't been the quickest and I still do get totally jealous of those people who have completely transformed in a matter of months but this time next year when I'm wearing my size 10 dress telling people I have lost 5 stone all that will matter is that I got there, not how quickly I did it.  

Just a small note to say I do zero exercise. I mean, none. I walk from my house to my car, car to office, sit down all day, car, home. I could really help myself more by exercising and I swear I will but wow I hate it so much!

My whole point to this is that this is the first time I have stuck to a "diet" (lifestyle change, whatevs) for more than a few weeks. Ok I have the odd day or two off plan but then I get straight back on it and can usually undo the bad within days and what a difference that makes to motivation! Knowing a couple of bad days hasn't ruined everything. I'm not suddenly gonna be 3 stone heavier again and have gone completely backwards. I feel so much more in control now and I genuinely hope this is how I will be going forward. 

Below is how I track my losses. Yes, I am insane. I work on spreadsheets every day and I ruddy love the things! So far my loss is 31.75lbs in 34 weeks averaging 0.93lbs a week, but you know what? It's been a hell of a lot easier than ever before! Saying that, I still almost had an emotional breakdown when I was hungry and had promised myself I wouldn't have cake at a friend's birthday party and my husband had curry and a selection of cakes... but it passed! Lol. 

Breville Halo Review

I get loads of people on Instagram asking me how I cook my potatoes because they look so goddamn tasty and my (not so secret) secret is.... the Breville Halo! 

As happens every December, I get sick of being over weight and swear I will do something about it in the New Year. So for Christmas I asked for some things to help me on my skinny way, one of which was this new fandangled contraption that could cook chips with 1tsp of oil and with no par boiling! Exciting stuff.  

I did have a little panic that I wouldn't end up using the thing (my Blend-Active sees the light of day once every 3 months or so) but I needn't have worried. I use it every. Single. Day.

Because I am tight with my ProPoints I never use oil. I just spray the bowl with fry light, add the potatoes, another few sprays of fry light, some salt and 30 minutes later you have really scrummy chips!

As well as the paddle which turns the chips in the bowl, you can remove it and use the wire rack (provided) meaning the Halo acts as a grill :o It takes some practice as to timings as things cook a lot faster in the Halo than under a grill or in the oven.

The bowl wipes clean with just kitchen roll though can be easily lifted out to wash should you cook anything messier than chips!

Some of the things I have cooked in my Halo:

Chips/ sweet potato chips

Roast potatoes & new potatoes

Wedges

Bacon

Sausage

Fish fingers

Chicken

Salmon

Rosted Mediterranean veg

Hash browns

Mushrooms

Butternut squash

Burgers

I have also heard of people using it for chillis, stews, pastry, toasties, cakes, bread, jacket potatoes, frozen chips, croissants... So I have a lot more experimenting to do!

And here are pictures of some tasty things cooked in my Halo:

 Dusted fish and butternut squash

Roasted new potatoes

Roast potatoes

Chips

My Filling & Healthy Week

When I first started Weight Watchers in 2012 they didn't have this Simple Start or Filling and Healthy malarkey so I had gotten used to the ProPoints system and trusted it (can't go wrong with calorie counting). Then F&H came in last year (I think) and my first thought was "it's just like Slimming World" and "it won't work for me" so I pretty much ignored it and got on with pointing. 

If you read my first blog post you'll know I re-started WW in January this year and, after nearly 8 months on plan, I was feeling a bit stuck in a rut meals-wise. I was having the same maybe 10 things for dinner on rotation, salads for lunch and bagel thins for breakfast. I felt like I was using as few points as possible in the day in case I was hungry after tea and wanted something else... but then I wouldn't be as hungry as I thought and the points would just go on chocolate and general rubbish. Not good.

So I thought I would try a whole week on Filling and Healthy to shake things up a bit and swore to post everthing I ate on Instagram so, if I put on weight, my fellow fat fighters could tell me where I went wrong! 

The main problem I foresaw was that I am a greedy cow and don't trust myself not to eat just because I can and not because I'm hungry. I got obese in the first place because I ruddy love food, eating makes me happy and I love the feeling of being full (especially if it invoves cake, chocolate and freshly baked cookies mmmm...) So give me free reign and I'll be like a pig snaffling truffles. 

I had to really remind myslef to listen to my body and go off hunger cues and not eat just because I'm bored/ watching Bake Off / fancy chocolate.  

Days 1 & 2 were a bit of a nightmare. I had totally forgotten that my TOTM was due and spent 2 days climbing the walls with hunger but too scared to eat in case I over ate. Then on Sunday afternoon shark week began/ the painters were in/ I surfed the crimson wave and on Monday the gnawing hunger had disappeared. Coincidence? Maybe but wow I felt loads better! 

I tried to stick to my usual 3 meals a day (I don't usually bother snacking), the main difference being I didn't get my evening Toffee Crisp but one night *cries* 

I couldn't help but keep swapping my tracker from F&H to Counting to see how many dailies I was using and I was surprised to find that there was a few days I didn't even use all my dailies! Obviously other days I went over (especially if I ate Shredded Wheat. Heaviest. Cereal. Ever!) But swings and roundabouts.

I did find it annoying as to how many weeklies I ended up using. I thought I wouldn't have to use any seeing as I could eat unlimited foods from the list but, being honest, if you want your food to taste like anything you need the points for cheese and condiments and sugar and toppings and CHOCOLATE! I wasn't looking forward to my meals like I usually do and felt myself not "fancying" anything. If nothing else it stopped me eating as much! 

The other annoying thing was making everything from scratch. I didn't realise what a lazy cook I am but I do eat Heck chicken sausage, Birds Eye burgers and Tesco dusted fish a lot!

I had a slight fail on Wednesday where I caved and ate a chocolate cornflake cake that a colleague had brought in work (about 9pp) and then had a cookie (6pp) in the evening whilst watching Great British Bake Off. So that took me waaaaaaaaay into my weeklies. Damn you Bake Off!

So it's Friday a.k.a. Weigh In Day and the results are in *drumroll*

2.25lbs off! Not the most epic loss in the world but I'm just happy I didn't put on!

In conclusion, the Filling and Healthy plan was a nice change and I have tried a few new things but really I feel the main thing I have learned is to appreciate the ProPoints plan more. I have missed you... and my ready made foods... and my Toffee Crisps.