Is ironing considered a good workout?

I hope so because that’s all the exercise I’ve had today 🙂

I got up early this morning to make sure Himself (aka hubby David) got up for work. I was full of energy, made his breakfast and fed the kittens, even had a cup of green tea myself! But as soon as I waved him off and Corrado stumbled into our bedroom with Biscuit over his shoulder, I was ready for another sleep.

Off the two of them went to do a bit of male bonding while Rosie stayed with me to keep my toes warm. After a lovely hour’s fitful snoring (I’m sure) I was wakened by the sound of space invaders in my left ear. It was Sam playing a “matching” game on his iPod. He was in his new Christmas fleecy onesie from Eleanor and Paul (I’m starting to rely on you guys – I didn’t bother buying any this year!!) and still smelt of mint choc chip bubble bath from last night. What a welcome to the morning! He grinned down at me while Corrado literally tumbled into the room juggling two kittens.

I’d taken a risk and asked the kids again what they wanted to do today. Bless their little polyester socks, they just wanted to stay home and play with the fur balls that are Rosie and Biscuit. But mummy needed a bit of natural daylight so they voted for a window seat at Pizza Hut! Genius, the kids’ buffet is only £3.99 and will fill them for the day. I tried to be good.  This is what I ordered for myself …

but I didn’t starve. I knew I wouldn’t.  Corrado and Sam love the idea of the salad buffet and enough pizza to fill your boots, but they usually end up just eating the pasta. So I ate lots of rejected grated carrot, raisins, pickles, jalapenos and pizza crust (which was enhanced with the jalapenos). Was upset that I didn’t get a go at the spinach pasta, but it wasn’t my day. (It’s not that nice, tastes of flour but it looks good!). I’m not being stingey by not ordering my own meal, but I don’t care for the PH salads and their pastas are humongous calories each. I did drink all my water though 🙂

We were supposed to go to the cinema to see Frozen after but Corrado had overindulged and was feeling pukey and Sam had brain freeze from an overdose of icecream, those plans were urgently reviewed.

I wasn’t going to suffer that on my own, so shared the burden with my parents and, bonus, my older sister who called in after shopping. Sam finds it hard to break a habit but today’s chocolate chip cookie at granny’s wasn’t finished, despite his gallant efforts.

By the time we got home and David returned from work (he was early – the fool that he is!) it was time to make the evening meal. There was a small stuffed duck that needed to be used up (a bargain post-Christmas find at Tesco) so I put Corrado to work preparing baby potatoes and parsnips to serve with it. There were peas and samphire too, but they didn’t need his help. I have no clue how many calories I fed David tonight, but I was happy that I wasn’t very hungry and made myself a plate of champ. The favoured comfort food for the population of Northern Ireland.

The Hairy Dieters have a recipe for it, but whilst I celebrate that because every nationality should enjoy champ, I followed my own method (I was brought up on potatoes and scallions!) and resisted the tradition to make a well and add a heart-stopping dollop of butter.

I didn’t deny myself the lovely samphire though, I piled the champ high on top of a generous helping! Tip: no need to season the spuds (except with a grating of black pepper), the samphire is salty enough.

What am I thinking – I almost forgot to share the good news! Despite my misgivings about our apparent overindulgence this past week, neither David nor I put on any weight! Weigh-in was a successful “maintenance” – ie the same as last week! Who’d have thunk it?

Happy happy us! And a happy new year’s celebration tomorrow night – we will be indulging in a little charging of our glasses (we dare not break with tradition) but it will be our last for a while. My challenge is to wait for my 2 stone celebration, however David wants to take it further and give it up forever (or until he discovers that bottle of Captain Morgan’s he got as a Christmas gift – neither of us has tried it but how long can we keep saying that? I want to open it now!!).

Where was I – oh yes, ironing. As I did nothing more than press pedals on the car and bending to empty the dishwasher today, I felt obliged to have clean clothes for the family tomorrow by doing a bit of an ironing workout. I stuck with it for the whole of “Doggy Styling” (what the heck??) as light entertainment but as soon as Dobby the Giesha was announced the winner, I felt the need to sit down and take a reality check.

Speaking of light entertainment, I clicked a link to a casting call for two new models for Height Goddess (I qualify for the height bit, being 5’11.5″ inches tall) and laughed when the maximum dress size was 10. The US size 10, mind you, but even then is that realistic for a healthy woman of 5’9″ –  6’1″? Maybe. In a year’s time! They kindly don’t mention an upper age limit. @kenco_al is a great one for boosting confidence and @daisys82 is another tall mama (but closer to the Height Goddess criteria than I am!) so we had a bit of fun with going for the job.

As my 10 year old son would say “dream on kiddo”.

Happy new year’s eve tomorrow!

SOUND FAMILIAR?: RESOLUTION #2:

    1999: I will get my weight down below 180.
    2000: I will watch my calories until I get below 190.
    2001: I will follow my new diet religiously until I get below 200.
    2002: I will try to develop a realistic attitude about my weight.
    2003: I will work out 5 days a week.
    2004: I will work out 3 days a week.
    2005: I will try to drive past a gym at least once a week.

Final pig-out of Christmas 2013

Definitely. No more over indulgence for me. It doesn’t actually feel good at all!

I did have a bit of a bad week, despite my promises to myself to go easy and not eat unless I was hungry (except Christmas Day).

I had the munchies last night, not good. I’d a few glasses of vino as it was Saturday night and that was my undoing – I got peckish. Luckily we didn’t have crisps or other really bad stuff in the house and I wasn’t tempted by the kids’ selection boxes. But I found a bag of pistachios and wolfed down half the packet. I had a wee nibble at the cheese too and some oatcakes.

This was after a lovely dinner, so I had no business being hungry.

Last night I made the Hairy Dieters’ Argentinian steak (Halloumi cheese slices for me) – it’s definitely a firm favourite of both David’s and mine – the fresh herb dressing is so moreish. I didn’t have the frying steak that I normally use, as per recipe, I was using up meat from the freezer – so it was a tuna steak! And I remembered to take a photo of it but not my own – don’t know what I was thinking, was probably too hungry.

In an attempt to use up all the very naughty food (a bit like Shrove Tuesday) I had a croissant for breakfast today. David served it so it was rude to refuse. It went very nicely with the pot of Starbuck’s coffee that came with the hamper my sister, Marion, gave me for Christmas.

But it wasn’t going to be a lazy day – we’d asked the kids last night what they wanted to do today and they voted for a trip to the beach with the BBQ! And why not? It was a lovely sunny winter’s day and the forecast was for rain from this evening and all day tomorrow. Armed with matches, kindling sticks and flasks of soup (to keep us warm while the fire got going) off we went to Brown’s Bay.

David’s favourite thing in all the world is sitting in front of an open fire, preferably an outdoors one where he can happily poke at the embers with a long stick. So we left the fire bug to it and combed the beach for driftwood. There was slim pickings today but we managed to find a few dry-ish fallen branches.

We toasted lots of bread and enjoyed the sound of a bunch/paddling/raft/safe/skein/sore/string/team of ducks. Who knew there were so many collective nouns for a flock (that’s what I was going for but it’s not right apparently) of quacking birds! They paddled up and down the beach, occasionally taking flight when Sam got too near.

Apart from a metal detector enthusiast and the occasional dog walker, we had the place to ourselves. Strange that, an empty beach at the end of December!

After all that fresh air, we were in need of a warming dinner on our return home. I had a bag of baby potatoes so used them to make (oven) wedges, skins on. I had mine with a beetroot salad. David had a rump steak (another freezer find) and the boys had tinned tuna with the bits of salad they like.

Sounds harmless, doesn’t it? BUT! I made a bread and butter pudding too. The panettone, given to us as a gift, was getting stale. Corrado was the only person to enjoy it up until then (it was very dry) so I thought I’d waste-not want-not and add some raisins, custard and mixed spice and bake it. It was delicious – I had quite a big portion too (I’m ashamed to say).

As always, I’m not looking forward to tomorrow – [danger music] Monday weigh-in. I know I’ve gained, I’m not kidding myself with even hoping for a maintenance weight of the same as last week. Bob Hope and no hope.

But the good news is that I’m ready to start again. I’m ready to plan and execute more delicious recipes from my favourite cookbooks – the Hairy Dieters.  I feel better just thinking about it 🙂

 

Christmas Dinner at home and the diet wasn’t invited!

Santa’s eaten his mince pie, the turkey’s been stuffed and pudding’s been steamed … Christmas must be over for another year!

This year, for the first time ever, we dined at home as a foursome. In the previous 20 years since were were married, David and I have usually gone to my parents’ for Christmas Day. There were a few alternatives to that along the way, but as it was our first Christmas since Linda (my sister-in-law) died we invited my in-laws to spend it with us. However, on Christmas morning my mother-in-law wasn’t feeling too well so we were left to our own devices.

Santa must have struggled to get down our chimney with all those presents for the kids. Sam got a “bigger bike” (it’s never called just a bike) and Corrado got an Xbox – something he wasn’t expecting and didn’t know he wanted! 🙂 Santa is a very clever man when it comes to knowing what a child wants when they don’t have a clue themselves!

Christmas breakfast in our house is very important – it’s always the same and always as popular. Smoked salmon and cream cheese on toasted sesame seed bagels. Or sun-blushed tomatoes for me instead of the salmon (and the cheese was low-fat). It’s the only 2 minutes in the whole day that the kids are almost quiet as they yum yum their way through it.

We bought ourselves (the adults) a  Nespresso coffee maker as our gift to each other – as you do! That first cup of fancy espresso from our luxury toy was heavenly. I’m hooked!

While David took Sam out for a burn on his bigger-bike and Corrado got his thumbs twiddling on the Xbox controls, I disappeared into the kitchen to get the Christmas dinner underway.

I’d prepared all the veg and stuffed the turkey the day before, so I’d nothing really messy left to do. Strangely enough, my volunteers to help set the table were suddenly busy! But we were keeping it simple with all our usual settings with the addition of a simple Christmas themed table runner.

I’d only just decided on Christmas Eve what I was going to make for my own main course – I was torn between the Lentil, Parsnip and Pecan Bake (recipe given to me by my friend Karen) and Melty Mushroom Wellington. The decision was made when I remembered I was serving honey roast parsnips with the veg so I’d be having them twice. The Wellingtons were so easy to make, another good reason to do it!

I’d never had red cabbage on this occasion before but I’d seen it used on a few Christmas cookery shows in the last couple of weeks and there was a red cabbage in my organic veg box from last week. I used a recipe that included pears and leeks – a strange sounding combination but really tasty!

Melty Mushroom Wellingtons with all the usual Christmas vegetables

Starter was celeriac and apple soup, followed by the main course of Roast Turkey (a Jamie Oliver recipe) but converted to a turkey crown Honey Glazed Gammon from who else but the Hairy Bikers!  The dessert was a new one for us – sloe gin and fruit sponge puddings (a BBC Good Food creation by Tim Kinnaird).  (Incase our social worker is reading this – I made separate ones without the gin for the boys!)  I did forget to take a photo of the puddings, they were gone in seconds!

I have to be honest and say that calorie counting did not feature in my Christmas Day. I think everybody deserves a day off! (Or in my case, a day or 2 or 3!!). Next Monday’s weigh-in will be ugly, but the new year always brings a new start and I know I now have the commitment to get to my target in 2014.

After that gut-busting meal and the bottle of wine I shared with David (after the bottle of Prosecco we shared as I was finishing the dinner preparations), I lay down for the first post-dinner nap of my life! I was so tired, which isn’t like me as I love all the festivities. I was fast asleep in minutes and slept for two whole hours. Old age or too many carbs? Couldn’t be the wine – I’m used to the wine!!

That meal kept me going for the rest of the day (almost). It’s not Christmas without a cheeseboard, so we had a few crackers and some stilton and brie at about 9pm during Downton Abbey.

After that, there was nothing left to do but snuggle down just like the kittens and sleep like I’ve never slept before.

Since Christmas Day I have been eating a little bit more than usual, but as I said, I’m not concerned about the calories I have consumed this week. I have been exercising – who else picks up the packaging and finds somewhere to put the toys and generally keeps the mess to the height of a small hill instead of Slieve Donard, if the male members of the family were left to do it.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

You will never believe what I did or didn’t do today – I completely forgot to weigh myself first thing this morning! Mondays are my weigh-in day and first thing in the morning before breakfast. But, because it wasn’t a school day and it felt like a Saturday, I didn’t realise I should have been on those scales holding my breath!

Ah well. I did step onto the scales of doom around midday and they showed the same weight as last week – hooray! That’s the best I was hoping for but it wasn’t the exact science of being measured at the same time every 7 days. Could I have been 3 ounces lighter 5 hours previous?? I’ll put it down as zero gain/zero loss. Not bad after all I consumed on Saturday night.

Only 2 more sleeps until we see how good or bad we’ve been this year. I’ve been good – honest! I am so looking forward to Wednesday, for the first time ever we aren’t planning on stepping over the threshold, unless it’s to give Sam a go on his new bike (if Santa has one for him, of course!).

We’re having my mother- and father-in law down for Christmas day. It’ll be our first year celebrating without our darling Linda, who enjoyed Christmas as much as any child. It was all about the wall-to-wall movies and exploring those mysterious packages under the tree. It will be a day of mixed emotions but we were all delighted with the tribute she was given in the Camphill News.

LINK TO CAMPHILL NEWS – TURN TO PAGE 25

The in-laws aren’t big fans of turkey, but they love honey-glazed gammon. I’m quite excited about cooking – I haven’t had that privilege in many many years. My menu is planned down to the very minute – I suppose it brings out the control freak in me, timings are what I thrive on! In control of my own kitchen, I can produce a schedule that involves lots of timers going off to jolt my failing memory/time judgment that it’s time to do the next step.

To balance all that out, the table setting will be relaxed and designed by Corrado (but will include matching cutlery and stemware!), the meat can relax as long as it likes and a blind eye will be turned to those who do not want to eat their 5-a-day. I know I didn’t want to fill up on the veg when I was 8 or 10, the only food group I was loyal to then was the selection box.

After lunch today, it was action stations – we zoomed up the road to Ballymoney to make our pre-Christmas visits.

We came out of the Elliotts with wrapped surprises for the new kittens and then went on to the Kinnairds where our kids were indulged in hide-and-seek.

On the way home we called into Sainsbury’s for a bottle of Sloe Gin, because I needed some for my puddings. It wasn’t the bun-fight I was expecting, there was no need to sharpen my elbows and I shopped and paid for that vital ingredient in record breaking time.

The excitement of the build-up is impacting on the appetites of the kids – they didn’t want dinner tonight but were quite keen on knowing what sweet treats were available for afterwards.  They were forced to eat some pasta carbonara 🙂 (quick, no thinking and a sure-thing with the boys)  while I cooked up a chickpea spice-fest for the adults after the kids were packed off to bed.

I’m guessing, but the chickpea curry could not contain more than 450 calories per portion. I can’t see where the fat was, apart from the slightest drizzle of oil to fry off the onions and spices. The rice was the biggest culprit in the calorie count, but it was boiled with green lentils so has the mythical protein celebrated by vegan nutritionists. Apart from all that, it was delicious, a tad fiery, the individual spices gave their own hit and overall it was very comforting. It was my own recipe of spices but I think it was excellent!

Cathy’s Chickpea Curry

Can you diet and enjoy Christmas?

That’s me, the one in the red dress beside the photo-bombing guy in the mankini!

Of course you can!

Unless you are in a race to win “The Biggest Loser”, there’s no reason why you have to give up the diet, or even not start, in December. Just lower your sights and, at worst, go for “no gain” at this tempting time.

Find the right eating plan and you can do it.  For me it’s all about portion size and a kick up the backside. This is what attracted me to the Hairy Diet in the first place – reading the recipes, you wouldn’t know you were dieting. (To me) the secret is heeding the portion size. If the recipe says “serves 4” and you’re only cooking for yourself, you need to have 3 storage boxes lined up beside your plate ready for dividing up the end result. It becomes second nature after doing this a few times and then you realise the benefits – after a couple of weeks of industrious cooking and variety, you can take the next few weeks off and reap the benefits of those freezer portions. Sometimes the flavours develop in the cooling process or the texture changes for the better – last week’s moussaka is a perfect example.

Anyway, getting back to Christmas. Last night, I went to a Christmas Party Night, much loved of office workers and other large groups. It was a typical hotel function – book food in advance, have it served as soon as you sit down, everything cleared away and the loud music begins. We were the “Cathy Mullan Party”, as the laminated A4 table display told us! I do wish I’d thought of a better booking name. We could have been the “Putting the World to Rights” or the “GIPSies” after the school our children have in common. The world was our lobster.

The vegetarian choice wasn’t much of a choice and, to my constant exasperation, it bore no relation to the season or traditional menu.  It was spinach and ricotta cannelloni, which is the perfect pub grub for me – garlic bread and salad on the side. But I do love Christmas veg – carrots, roasties, mash, Brussels sprouts. Luckily for me, the server offered a side plate and a bit of everything from her silver tray. I ate that first – it was very well cooked, slightly al dente (except the mash and roasties) and still brightly coloured. The pasta was OK, but it was just fuel to me.  The side salad had no business on the table, it wouldn’t be served on Christmas Day in our house!

Festive pasta!

Karen M: Five pepper-Corn Rib Eye
rib eye of beef cooked in a five pepper-corn crust – really?

Karen H: Roast turkey with a bread stuffing served with all
the trimmings and a roast gravy

Memo to Christmas party venues: the vegetarian likes to celebrate the season too – allow him/her to enjoy the vegetables that are traditional for December! An old fashioned nut roast or similar with a tasty sauce would be perfect. Makes us feel less “look at me, I’m making a point here”.

I haven’t eaten that much pasta in a long while so by the time the dessert was served (my choice was raspberry ruffle cheesecake) I was full up. I couldn’t do it justice, sadly.

The rest of the night was good craic – the people watching from our vantage point of a table on the side of the dance floor was great fun. As Karen M posted on Facebook “I have never seen so many bald men in one place”!! And they weren’t just groups of bald men, they were bald men in Christmas jumpers! Their counterparts, the Christmas Party Women, were in a uniform of short black dresses, bare legs and platform shiny shoes. Whether they fitted into their outfits or not! Meow!

I’m no oil painting myself, so I am qualified to judge – ladies, you let the side down. Haven’t you seen the foundation underwear displays in M&S? The good news, from what was on display last night, is that cellulite is a fashion accessory these days!  Brilliant! I have enough if anybody needs some!  Karen H and I were the only women in longer dresses – did we miss a memo?

We danced along with DJ Robbie Magee but didn’t reckon on the cabaret singer first – it was cheesy but in a fun way!

We might have eaten about 3 million calories each but we worked off at least 50% of that during one dance – Baggy Trousers (Madness). We deadpanned the traditional dad-dancing style to that tune but didn’t reckon on the full-body workout it gave us! I couldn’t speak for 10 minutes after!! Karen H, I do hope you have deleted that video!

The good news is that I went home semi-sober at 1.30 am and when awakened by the two kids and two kittens this morning, I was able to lift my head without wincing and actually smile, despite the cone shaped hair on top of my  head.

Corrado suggested we all drink some extra vitamins to make sure we weren’t sick on Christmas morning, so I got the juicer out and we clinked our glasses full of carrot, apple and ginger juice. A force to be reckoned with – I was like the Duracell bunny for hours!I’m under no false illusions about weigh-in tomorrow. I have overdone the quantities in the last day or so. But I’m hoping for a zero gain at best.

Wish me luck!

One more sleep …

… and I dance off the humongous calories I eat tomorrow night at our Christmas Party Night! Can’t wait. I have a new long red dress and a fab bling bling necklace and shoes. It’s our “office” night out – the office being the school gate (until Corrado left in June this year). Karen and Karen better not out-bling me, I will be upset 😀 .  Libby won’t be there, so I will be the oldest swinger in town (yeah Libs, you were supposed to keep me company in the pensioners’ corner!!). 😀

I haven’t done anything yet to prepare, apart from buy the outfit. But I’ve been promised an afternoon of the house to myself to get myself ready. That’ll take 10 minutes and the rest I’ll just sit as hard as I can and chill. I wish I could take longer getting ready but I really haven’t a clue about fake tans, curling my eyelashes and gel nails. I wish I did and I wish I cared enough but maybe when the “new me” is revealed (in 2 stones’ time) I will put more effort into stuff like that!

The kids finished at midday today and I had to collect them for a medical appointment, so this morning was a blur of tidying and clearing out to make room for Santa’s gifts. Sam is a bit of a cuddly toy addict and collects them or is given them everywhere he goes. I filled 6 black bin bags between the boys’ rooms of cuddlies and other toys and stashed them in the loft and so far – 7 hours later – they haven’t noticed anything missing! Apart from the half baked efforts at wallpapering (will finish on 6th January) their rooms are now as sharp as a tack, fresh as a daisy and clean as a whistle.

Bless me Father for I have sinned, this is my sin … I ate a chip butty for my lunch!  I know! And me saving my calories for tomorrow night! But I have been very good all week and have a good feeling that the next weigh-in will be fine – probably zero loss but no backward steps.

Because some silly woman blocked me in at the school car park because she couldn’t get her car past the yellow buses (you could have got an Ulsterbus through the space, sideways) I was stuck in the school car park for 15 minutes longer than plan. We didn’t have time for lunch before our appointment, so we called in at the chippy on the way. Actually, Sam wanted a tuna sandwich from Subway next door to chippy but once I went in with Corrado to buy a burger and chips, I was not leaving without my own. Salty, vinegary, cholesterol raising yumminess.  I did donate the majority to Sam, mind you, I only wanted enough to fill the bap.

The weather didn’t inspire the boys to nag me to play outside so I had a fun “crafty” afternoon with Corrado making a Santa Stop Here sign and upcycling a wooden box into a cat house. Sam was content with back to back episodes of Bananas in Pyjamas while the kittens napped.  I am a bit of a craft geek but can only indulge in it when I’m accompanied.

I had planned to make Hairy Dieters’ meatloaf for dinner tonight but the pork mince in the fridge called out to be made into sausage rolls this morning! I was up a wee bit too early (I blame the cats) so had time to indulge the boys in their favourite snack. David did the decent thing and brought the rest into work to stop the family from over-eating.

So I was left with just the beef mince – what to do?  The majority vote was for tacos. Unfortunately. I don’t like tacos – I refer my tortillas soft and wrapped around a smokey selection of veg. Luckily I had those frozen moussakas from the other night, so I stuck one in the oven while I brewed up some tacos.

The lentil moussaka was even better since it was frozen – the texture had improved and the cinnamon flavour was intensified. I loved it.  I served it with a simple rocket salad and really enjoyed it.

I had a photo but it just refuses to upload, getting fed up trying now. Want to have a wee play with the kiddies and kittens before bedtime!

 

at last … here we go

Second time round vegetarian moussaka!

Airbags, curry and panto – all in a day’s work :)

It’s been a busy couple of days.  Didn’t update the diary last night because this time yesterday I was just about to lie in a heap in the living room in front of a roaring open fire. Oh yes I was!

Had to try and get the car sorted yesterday – the SRS light came on to tell me something was going on with the airbag or seat belt. Took it to our usual guy in Broughshane but he didn’t have the right “key” to do a diagnostic.  Yaddy yaddy yah. To cut a long story short, I drove all the way home again, via Ballymena, with that light still glaring at me. I HAD to stop in Ballymena, it was such a waste of petrol to go all that way and not stop to shop for “essentials”.

There was a lovely lady in the Fairhill mall that embroiders stuff while you wait. I wanted to buy a personalised blanket for all the pet-children we know but, rather than sacrifice the holiday wine tokens, I bought just one to get it out of my system. I won’t say which woof woof it was bought for, incase her mummy is reading this 🙂  I didn’t get one for the kittens, they can’t read yet, so a generic paw print blanket will do them this year. Please don’t call me scrooge!!!

It was lunchtime while I was there and I decided to go to M&S cafe for one my their yummy mushroom and emmental toasties (485 calories!!).  I had my trusty Kindle in my bag and was 91% of the way through my book, so pictured a leisurely break with all thoughts of the breakfast dishes (I left the house straight after the school bus arrived) and unmade beds banished to someone else’s conscience.  But I was saved! There was a mighty queue of freshly permed ladies and their bag carrying husbands waiting patiently in line for the pots of tea and scones. I’m not known for my patience, so I went to the food hall instead and bought a superfood salad and brought it home. I didn’t get to read my book and still haven’t finished it! It’s not the same taking a break in your own house, is it?

But, look at all those calories I saved! There might have been about 300 cals in my salad but there was no fat (I didn’t use the dressing – not my cup of char).

Dinner last night was a Hairy Dieter curry – the fiery beef madras (sans beef) from the freezer. It was one of my aubergine creations and it was as fresh as the day it was made! I made the beef version (times 6) for David to eat last night and bring into work today. Along with the extra portions of chicken tikka masala from last night, he was was treating his colleagues to a traditional Christmas curry. It’s our tradition, anyway.

We went to the Ballyearl panto – Cinderella – last night, Granny and Grandad Mullan’s Christmas present to the boys. Wasn’t a great night to be out gallivanting, there was quite a storm blowing. But it was local to us, so didn’t have the city traffic to negotiate.

It was brilliant! A great show, far better than the over-processed big-money has-been “star” shows in the city. For us, anyway. My boys don’t like the big productions, we spend most of it out in the hallway taking deep breaths! But this was great – there were only 6 actors and we were about 12 (there are 14 rows in the theatre) from the front. Buttons was the favourite character, he was funny and energetic and the jokes were (mostly) for the kids.  Mind you, there were more parties of adults than children! One lady was there to celebrate her 101st birthday!

After seeing Santa on the way out of the theatre and meeting the characters from the show, it was off home to calm the wee’uns down and get ready for bed. Eventually, I flopped onto the sofa and it was far too late to blog!

So, another day dawned and another trip to a garage to get the car sorted. The Honda franchise in Ballymena was cheaper by more than half to get the problem diagnosed, so off I went despite the radio reports that snow was falling fast along the route I was taking. I didn’t see a single flurry but was bemused by the DJ reading out texts from listeners in Glengormley, Mallusk, Antrim – all along the M2 I was travelling on – saying there was white stuff falling from the skies! Just 50 minutes after starting on a free coffee and watching BBC news and checking messages on the mobile, I was sent on my way with no annoying light on the dashboard. Yay!

I celebrated with a cheese and tomato toastie and green tea for lunch and set about wrapping Christmas presents before the kittens got bored.

Dinner tonight was a simple affair. After David filling his boots at work with curry (his colleagues loved the spice-fest and some have committed to Hairy Dieter-style eating from January) we decided to have a salad.  With mine, I had a jacket potato and a smattering of Parmesan and for David, I cooked the Argentinian steak he enjoyed the other night.

I have to apologise, I have kitten brain and forgot to take photos of our meals! I am getting slack.

But on the other hand, I think I’ve done exceptionally well this week with the eating. I have been disciplined, as far as food is concerned. HOWEVER, I am typing under the influence – David and I opened one of our bottles of wine bought for the festive season. A Chilean something in red. Can’t be bothered going to the recycling bin to remind me what it was – yes, it’s finished! I never claimed I was a saint!

Only one more diet dinner before my Christmas big night out! Pasta is the vegetarian option at Corrs Corner – not ideal (won’t go with the usual seasonal veg, my favourite part of Christmas dinner) but it’s not the food we’re going for – it’s the F.U.N. !! I’m wearing a new long red dress and glittery heels – so exciting for someone whose normal idea of dressing up is matching her scarf with her hat! I’ll take photos 🙂

If I remember!

Aubergine Tikka Masala

I’d bought pancakes for the kids’ breakfast and meant to keep more for tomorrow but they smelt so good. Oh oh. David and I scoffed the rest of them.  Sounds worse than it was – only 80 calories per pancake plus a smidgeon of Lurpak Light. Not that bad and I didn’t get a chance to eat anything else until about 2pm.  Mind you, that wasn’t the healthiest meal – a sandwich! Can’t remember what all was in it but there was Emmental amongst it. I’ve blocked out the rest.  Will that work?

My busy morning included wrapping presents while trying to swat kittens off the paper, texting my neighbour about providing storage for Santa and winding up the customer services department of G4S , who annoyed me over the weekend.  Busy indeed! I did put on about 500 washes and folded about 3000 socks too.

I have the ingredients in the kitchen for another batch of celeriac and apple soup but is there enough room in the freezer to hold onto it until we’re in the mood? Memo to self: clear out the freezer! I might use it for a Christmas Day starter – if I clear out the freezer in the next few days and get myself organised!

Did my usual rush around the kitchen at school kicking-out time and made some sausage rolls for an after-school snack.  It’s a safe enough option – I have no interest in puff pastry, never mind sausage meat. They were just coming out of the oven as the bus turned the corner.  Too hot for Sam (he only tolerates lukewarm or cooler) but perfect for Corrado.

Dinner tonight was a sample portion of the Hairy Dieters’ Low Cal Chicken Tikka Masala.  Why a sample? David has requested a batch of it and the HB fiery beef for his HR colleagues for lunch on Thursday.  This is a regular request – as long as he’s making the onion bahjies, I’ll make the rest.

For my own version, I marinated a chopped up aubergine instead of chicken breast and cooked it as per recipe for chicken. As you know, I love an aubergine and prefer it almost over-cooked. It was lovely, but a bit tame for me, so I added a sprinkling of dried chilli flakes to spice it up a bit. I served it with wholegrain basmati and a small chapati (homemade, easy to do, just wheaten flour and water and I like a smattering of black onion seeds in there too).

Aubergine tikka masala with homemade chapati (just flour and water!)

As it was a “school night”, the usual beer with curry was not an option. BUT we had a few bottles of wine in stock and made the most of a bottle of sauvignon blanc to wash down the curry. Oh dear, that’s bad, isn’t it?

 

… and curry, it makes a lovely curry (must tell you about aubergine and tomato curry sometime – to die for!)

I did it! One stone off before Christmas!

Self-award!

I hadn’t actually set that as a real target, I’ve just thought of it, but I am quite delighted with myself!

As I said yesterday, I didn’t think I’d have good news from the scales this morning. I really really thought there would be an increase but was hoping, at best, for the same weight as last week, ie “maintaining” as they say in slimming circles.

I celebrated with an extra large bowl of porridge – no more “slippages” for me! The porridge is a great start to the day, but I keep forgetting. I intended to have a banana for my elevenses but Corrado snuffled the last one into his schoolbag for his morning break at school (I’d already packed him an apple). That’s my excuse. Instead I tripped the electricity with the toaster as I attempted to heat up a piece of wheaten bread. I never have any luck with toasters – what on earth am I doing wrong? After a year (or less) my toasters do that – turn off all the sockets in the same circuit!

At lunchtime I was in Tesco, with only half an hour to get to school for Sam’s cookery club. I’d no time to drive home and make myself some lunch so I went upstairs to the Tesco cafe and queued behind the festive diners ordering scampi and chips! (No Christmas dinners on the menu board, Tesco??)

I  was weakening, I smelt the vinegary chips and wanted them. In my head I was saying “chips please” but I was actually saying “have you any soup left?”! Honestly, it was like I had no control over my gift of speech! There was no soup in the kettle but apparently there was some “in the back”.  I wasn’t sure if I was feeling proud or hard done by!

It was nice soup, but it wasn’t chips 😦

Today’s lesson was Christmas cake pops.  I’ve never been tempted to make cake pops before, it seemed like a lot of faffing about. But it was quite easy! Still a lot of faffing about though – Sam kept walking away to inspect his friends’ efforts and sneak another few jelly tots that were supposed to be used as decorations. We also made a meringue snowman – not the pure white model as per demonstration but still edible!

Christmas Cake Pops and Snowman Meringue

I had received my instructions at the weekend to prepare a party for this afternoon. The occasion? The first episode in the new series of The Dumping Ground! Corrado has always loved the Tracy Beaker series and has continued this through to this spin-off. So, party food for the kids’ dinner it was!!

Not a morsel left for me to nibble on!

For the adults, it was the The Hairy Dieters’ Moussaka.  A very satisfying and warming dish for only 323 calories! What’s not to like?

For my vegetarian version, I used a tin of green lentils, which is half the calories of the lean minced lamb. So I suppose my moussaka had only about 250 calories!

It was a lovely meal, we had it with a crunchy side salad (no dressing except a squeeze of lemon – we don’t like salad dressings).

Hairy Dieters’ Moussaka

I think I’m back – I’m committed again to this diet. With meals like this it’s easy to cut down on portion sizes. And the bonus is the other 4 portions (2 meat, 2 veg) that have been frozen for future use!

Looking forward to another culinary successful day tomorrow.

Kittens, kittens and more kittens :-)

Sorry blog world, I have been neglecting you, but I took a bit of a sabbatical. I have had literally not put my backside on the sofa for longer than 5 minutes at a time since the kittens came along!

The little darlings arrived on Friday afternoon and made themselves at home immediately. My favourite ginger colour suede boots are now theirs, whether I’m wearing them or not! As I couldn’t wait for the school bus to arrive in its own time, I collected the boys myself as a surprise and told them about the cats (they thought the arrival date was Monday!) just as we were pulling into the driveway.

Food hasn’t been much of a consideration this weekend! I have neglected the diet a bit, I have to be honest. Tomorrow’s weigh-in is not going to be a happy occasion 😦

Question: do I allow myself to relax it a bit over the Christmas season or do I keep going, keep strong?  

I think I’ll keep going, as much as I can, anyway. I might have to forgo every meal being cooked fresh because there so many pressures on time. I don’t like the idea of that – ready meals aren’t that tasty and filling. OK, scrub that, no ready meals – but there might be plain uncomplicated meals on the menu like sausages and mash, fishcakes and jacket potatoes, stir fry with rice. Just smaller portions! The easier Hairy Dieter recipes that I’ve made before are also good – the tortilla pizza, easy chicken bake. Just nothing new, where I have to concentrate!

That’s that sorted, I think!

I had an impromptu night out with the girls on Friday to do our Secret Santa gifts – I got a “ring for a drink” bell, which will be well used and, most likely, ignored. And a cracking little mobile phone cover that I have to cross stitch myself! I’ve never done cross-stitching but love a new challenge – especially one where I can sit quietly on the sofa at night with my bell beside me and the fire roaring. Looking forward to that. Thanks Secret Santa!

Back to the new babies – awwwww.  They are adorable.  Rosie is the little tortoiseshell and Biscuit (or Ginger Biscuit to give him his full title) is the ginger one. Rosie is a delicate little lady, tiny compared to her big bruiser of a brother. They are around 16 weeks old and are experts at using the litter tray and keeping the food in their bowls 🙂

At this time of year, we don’t need to buy toys – the lower baubles on the Christmas tree are the perfect playthings! May as well give up trying to keep them away from the tree.  It’s fun to watch!

The human loves putting these back on the tree, so I’ll just keep knocking them off!

What will I buy my mummy for Christmas?

See Mum, I told you it was him! I’m just sitting here keeping out of it.

The boys adore the kittens, although Sam is a bit wary and only handles them with gloves on. Corrado would sneak them up his jumper and bring them to school tomorrow if he had his way!

Auntie Marion has taken Corrado and Sam to Belfast Zoo today for their annual visit to see Santa there, bring clothes for the monkeys to dress up and wrap gifts for the animals. So I’m chilling with hubby and the kittens, catching up with emails, blogs, drinking copious amounts of coffee and watching Sunday Brunch.

Adoption, halloumi and Argentinian style steak

Where do I start?

At the beginning, I suppose!

I’ve been hankering after adopting another cat for a while now, but had to convince the other half and get the kids ready for it. Our last beauty, Holly, passed away aged 15, four years ago next week. She was our baby for 13 years, so she was a teeny weeny bit spoilt! Just a few days ago I heard about a litter of kittens needing new homes and made contact with their rescuer. I was under strict instructions to enquire about two – tops!

To cut a long story short, I went up to Ballynure today to see these little bundles of joy and brought Corrado with me.  He has been really sick for 2 days now – grey pallor, not eating and talking like he’s got a whole toilet roll shoved up his nostrils. From the moment I told him about the kittens (when I drove into Catwoman’s drive) he’s had rosy cheeks, been very animated, ate a pie for dinner and has talked non-stop, so much that I had to ask him to “zip it” earlier this evening! But he was feeling fit enough to go to Ju Jitsu, so back to school for him tomorrow morning.

Just got call from Catwoman – she’s bringing the kittens tomorrow and not Monday as discussed! I’m not telling the kids, they will find out at 3.30pm when they tumble off the school bus demanding snacks.

Speaking of snacks, I did OK today in the eating stakes. Not great enthusiasm for the diet, at first, but I recovered.

David decided to do a bit of a “Pepsi Challenge” with porridge. I mentioned that I called upon him to buy some the other evening on way home from work – he did, but decided to buy the usual Quakers Oats and a bag of Tesco own-brand and let me make both up to test him. Since we got married in 1993, we have been faithful to the Quakers brand, we’ve dabbled in posh designer oats but always preferred our Quakers. HOWEVER, I made up own-brand and thought it was a bit knobbly, with some husks in there, but David guessed it was the good stuff!  Wasted on him 😀

Lots of fruit eaten today and this buoyed me up a bit. So my plans to make the Hairy Dieters’ Argentinian-style Steak with Onion and Radish Salad went ahead. Having consulted with @chilliupnorth who made it the other night, I made my veggie version with Light Halloumi.

I wasn’t going to blog tonight, as I am so tired, but David marched me over to the PC to tell the world that this meal was the best he’s had to date since our commitment to weight-loss started! The chimichurri sauce was effortless (thanks to the food processor) and so fresh.

Before I show you the photo, I have to tell you that radishes are not in season in our local Tesco, so I had to improvise, adapt and overcome and substituted the crunchy salad vegetable with mangetout and scallions (spring onions to you heathens out there!).  And I used red onions instead of going through the steeping white onion pallaver – just not enough time! I also added a bit of mixed salad leaves into the prescribed veg mix to make it look more, otherwise I’d have been missing the pre-diet chips!

Halloumi Chimichurri with Onion and Mangetout Salad

I think I’ve been revitalised, so it’s back to being good from now – no more shortcuts. Except I’ve to meet “the girls” tomorrow night to swap our Secret Santa gifts! No doubt there will be much clinking of glasses. Should I stick with maintaining weight rather than losing until after the Christmas feasting?  Probably!

Q: What do you call a pile of kittens?

A: A meowtain! 

Happy Pasta!

My poor 10 year old, Corrado, was sicky bad today 😦  I really felt sorry for him and wished I could take it all away – he is bunged with the cold and it’s not something he normally suffers from. His nose was running like a leaking tap and his voice was all croaky at 3am when he came into our room for some sympathy. However, he was up with the larks as usual and seemed happy at 7am when he demanded breakfast! It wasn’t to last and he quickly lost all his colour and energy and didn’t even brighten when I told him he was staying home from school today.

So, we had a lazy day, him watching television between naps and me trying to tempt him with a variety of warm and cold drinks. He really cheered up at lunchtime when the organic fruit and vegetable delivery arrived – we feasted on juicy apples and I made him a banana smoothie. It seemed to do the trick, he was a bit more energetic later and insisted he went to the Newtownabbey Racers Christmas Party this evening. I had my reservations but decided to go along with it and had David on standby to come and collect him so I wouldn’t have to interrupt Sam’s fun.

In an attempt to brighten him up, he chose tonight’s dinner – pasta bolognese. I didn’t have all the lovely ingredients for the Hairy Dieter’s version, so had to improvise but I used their method, which required no oil. Veggies were chopped up really small to be beyond recognition (for Sam). I used wholemeal fusilli – the boys like the shape and I prefer the taste of wholemeal.

Corrado managed a couple of tablespoons, more than I’d hoped for. Sam, on the other hand, didn’t just have seconds, he had thirds! He loved it. “Mum, this pasta makes me very very happy”!!  Phew! A happy Sam is a happy mummy! 😀

Sam’s first portion!

For my own version, I skipped the sauce, I just wanted a light meal so added a teaspoon of grated Parmesan, another of olive oil and lots of chopped basil, chilli flakes and black pepper.

Can’t believe I had such a small portion and am still not hungry!

The Racers party was great – there was an abundance of sugar in every form! Corrado did well, he joined the “bigger boys” for a game of 5-a-side but had to take regular breaks (David was called soon after) and Sam worked up a sweat (he was soaking) in Playzone (one of those caged climbing frame play areas).

The main man put in an appearance towards the end and then it was time for me to try and catch a hyped up Sam and take him home – not an easy task!

Not sure if it’s my camera or the sugar rush that’s caused Sam’s scary eyes!

<

p>Not much of a diet update today, I feel like I’ve stumbled and am on a slippery slope 😦 but guess that I will be missing my Riding for the Disabled Christmas lunch tomorrow, I doubt Corrado’s going to be fit enough for school (and the Christmas play!). At least that might help save me – being confined to quarters with only a fruit bowl for company!

I’m off to bed myself now – I’m exhausted! I’ve been thinking of my dad and his two remaining brothers who have travelled to Scotland today for Uncle John’s funeral tomorrow. Can’t think of them as pensioners, but they are and the task of burying two brothers in less than two weeks is bound to take it’s toll 😦

Night night x

Christmas has now officially started!

Not much happening at Chez Mullan today. Was feeling a bit sorry for myself because of a few aches 😦 . I hobbled about putting up Christmas decorations but wasn’t confident about seeing a recipe through, so it was time to dig deep into the freezer.

Email sent to David to get some “essentials” at the supermarket, so he came home with a tub of low fat hummus and a bottle of red wine! (He did get some real necessaries like milk and porridge oats too).

The house looks very festive now, I’m pleased with it. Still masses to do before the big day – but I think I’m going to have to postpone finishing decorating the boys’ rooms – but I think they’s enough distractions at the moment!

I reduced the size of our Christmas tree last year (ie bought a smaller one) because our previous one, which was getting quite bald, took up a lot of floor space – which was fine when it was just the two of us, but Corrado and Sam do a lot of hopping around! The new one doesn’t need as many lights as before so I have two spare sets – this year they are decorating the kids’ rooms. Corrado has his switched to full disco flashing this evening and Sam was upset that his are static, so I told him to open and close his eyes quickly 🙂 !!!

After half an hour of “wows” and “awesomes” when they returned from school, Sam suddenly shouts that Diane (our neighbour facing us) has exactly the same tree as ours. He was getting excited about the reflection of ours on her full length window!! Took a while to convince him 😀

Lunch was more freezer fodder – I grilled two Linda McCartney sausages and 2 tomatoes. Quite filling, I didn’t feel hungry at all until dinner. Good comfort food too, especially when there wasn’t much inspiration in the fridge.

I’d bought some lamb neck fillets the other day so made Irish Stew in the slow cooker yesterday for David and the boys. The reason I made it in advance was to allow it to cool and the fat to harden on the top, so I could scoop it off – it worked a treat.  It was just a matter of sticking the slow cooker back on this evening to reheat it – easy!

Low-Fat Irish Stew

My intention was to make a vegetable and bean stew for myself, but as I mentioned earlier, cooking wasn’t going to be much fun today. A New Covent Garden “Skinny Souper Green with Italian Basil Pesto” was lurking in the top drawer (I bought a variety of these soups a few weeks ago when they were reduced to 50p), so that became my evening meal. And as it was my evening meal, I ate all of it! It was only 108 calories per portion – half the carton.

It is indeed very green and, despite being frozen, the peas and green beans still had a bit of a crunch to them. However, I didn’t get the flavour of the basil pesto.

Skinny Souper Green – second from the right

<

p>Now, kids are in bed, fire is lit, tree lights glowing and one glass of red wine is in order, along with a cheeky dollop of (low fat) hummus and half a pitta. Purely medicinal, of course!

So near but yet so far :(

The weigh-in this morning didn’t bring me any joy – nul points. I didn’t lose an ounce, not a gram. But, as my faithful Twitter friends have been reminding me, I didn’t gain any weight either. What has annoyed me most of all was that just one more 1lb would have been a grand total of 1 stone off!

@cathymullan don't get downhearted, your diet has only just started! There's more to life than losing weight, trust us – you're doing great.

— HB Diet Club (@bikersdietclub) December 9, 2013

@cathymullan Lets face it. As Peter Kay said, "I've shit a pound". Keep going. You are doing great

— alistair meechan (@kenco_al) December 9, 2013

https://twitter.com/DaisyS82/status/410010307164405760

@cathymullan Sorry to hear it – could bread be the culprit? Lost one pound this week in spite of puds but not eaten any bread.

— Babs McInnis (@BabsMcInnis) December 9, 2013

@cathymullan but you didn't gain. So be happy….. You didn't put on.😃😃😃😃😃

— AlbionQuin (@ponsonby42) December 9, 2013

Is this the plateau that the majority of dieters (including Si and Dave) hit around week 4? Or was it me guzzling too much at Saturday night’s party? Who knows, but today starts a new week and I don’t expect much temptation in the social calendar this week. Except tonight – we’re going for a curry! Oops!

I did a bit more calculating with the numbers this morning and checked my BMI – if I lose another 2lb I will be borderline overweight/obese! So next week it is then. I. Am. Going. To. Do. It.

As it’s Monday, it was a school day for me – today we were decorating Christmas shortbread. Sam and I made some very impressive Santas and melting snowmen. I did bite a tiny corner from one of Sam’s to test the shortbread – it was lovely but thankfully I wasn’t hungry at the time so didn’t eat the lot. One of the lovely grannies outside school paid me a compliment – “You’ve lost a lot of weight”! 🙂 I was delighted! Thanks Gloria!!

We’re getting good at this!

But I’m not in top form today, my old war wounds have been giving me bother and I was hobbling around for a bit. Pain clinic appointment in January – I’m expecting miracles! That will definitely be the start of a healthier me – no more excuses for putting off exercise!

Finally, with seasonal shortbread in us, we started putting up the Christmas decorations. I managed to get into the loft to bring down a few small boxes, so the kids are happy with their miniature trees in their bedrooms for now. I’ve promised them I’d put the proper tree up tomorrow – there will be trouble if I don’t!

Dinner was easy – we bought one of those voucher thingies a while back for a meal for 4 at the Sonali in Belfast but never got around to using it – it expires today! It was a main course with poppadoms. At least it’s at the beginning of the week – I’ve another 6.5 days to make up for it! It was great to not have to cook or wash up, but to be honest I would have preferred one of my own curries, the vegetable sag was a bit salty and I couldn’t distinguish the individual spices. We’re spoiled rotten these days with all this home cooking!

The chips are Sam’s – honest!

As a bedtime treat, the boys gave us a private performance of Away in a Manger, which they’re singing in their school nativity play this Thursday and Friday. They have such sweet warbly little voices. I can’t wait for their first show in the same school! But I’ll have to wait until Friday, I’d booked tickets to both days but the Riding for the Disabled Christmas party is on Thursday and I can’t do both 😦  But David’s doing the Thursday shift at the school play and I’m doing the Friday.

 

Q: What do elves make sandwiches with?

A: Shortbread!

Dear Santa, I’ve been a very good girl …

Well, that didn’t go too badly.  I might have dipped too many tortillas but I didn’t eat the “Irish Coffee” chocolate mousse or had the Baileys cocktail. I was even sensible enough to call for a taxi home before the Christmas party revellers snapped them all up! Thank you, Marion, for a lovely evening – the company was good and the drinks were imaginative but excellent.

Santa paid us a visit and brought us all lovely presents. Very thoughtful too because I was the only one not to receive an edible gift – they were for the skinny people only 😀

That’s me in the middle of the picture (mouth open as usual!)

<

p>Massively long lie-in this morning, woke up at 10.30 am with a start! The kids were still in bed too – that’s a first! I was still very tired though and stayed there while David put the porridge pot on and I had a child at each elbow trying to keep them apart. Just before they put in an appearance, there was an almighty roar from the kitchen – Corrado’s advent calendar was empty! Sam. At his old tricks. His own calendar was empty within the first few days of the month and he had another “accident” this morning. If nothing else, Sam is brave!

Eventually, when we were all ready to face the day, we went to see Santa in his Grotto at Dobbie’s Garden Centre – we had intended to go to our local garden centre but the queue to the carpark was right down the road. I don’t have the patience for queuing.

The boys were much taken with Santa – he greeted them by name and agreed with everything we said about listening, behaviour, staying in bed. Probably in one ear and out the other though with the kids! When Sam asked Santa what would he like for his snack left out on Christmas Eve, he replied “carrots”! Apparently he is getting too heavy with all those mince pies he’s too polite not to eat that he’s trying the carrot diet. So take heed! We had lunch while we were there and I nodded to the festive season by having a dollop of cranberry sauce with my jacket potato and cheese. I’m not counting the calories in it, I don’t want to know!

Both David and I fancied a nice spicy Thai curry for dinner tonight and he suggested we go to the supermarket for a Thai-ding. The thought! I had enough veg in the house to have a go at a made-up one that would be far more satisfying than a a ready meal. Maybe not the traditional ingredients, but they were to our tastes. Aubergine, low far coconut milk, spinach, scallions (that’s spring onions to the rest of you!). I love aubergines, especially chargrilled ones, it adds so much to the taste. So, out came the trusty chargrill pan and the aubergine was given lovely smokey bars across it.

I’m not looking forward to the scales in the morning, I’m tempted to skip it this week. I honestly believe I have added a couple of pounds, but apparently that happens after a month. I am still committed to becoming slimmer and healthier but I’ve had too many reasons/excuses to comfort eat lately that I’m struggling.

The news of Uncle John’s passing had me reaching for bread. Immediately I felt awful but I couldn’t help it, I couldn’t leave it alone.

Uncle John was another kind man, he had a massive family, being the eldest of 7 brothers and having 9 children of his own but his extended family were still important. I’ve drawers full of holy medals and letters from him, some ornaments and the kids have great souvenirs from their visits to Scotland. When his youngest daughter was getting married last year, he struggled with writing the two speeches he needed to deliver – the one for after the actual wedding service and the one for the big fat family party a week later. He asked me to help and I was happy to oblige – it was a great honour to write the words he delivered and be involved in such an important occasion. I got to make the wedding cake (my first ever!) and it even survived the ferry over. He wasn’t that old, by today’s standards but he had been frail for a few years.  He loved Belfast Bap (who doesn’t?) and we brought some over, fresh out of the bakery’s oven) the last time we visited – he had it sliced and buttered and finished off before anybody else knew it existed! Great character, he will be missed :(.

I’ve got to put these two little angels to bed now – they’re in their rooms rehearsing Away in a Manager at the top of their voices – the school play is at the end of this week – their first ever at the same school. It’s going to be brilliant!

Another rollercoaster of a day …

Woke up in a great mood this morning – we had a lot planned and there was no point in facing it without a smile :D.  Corrado and Sam were doing their swimming level tests and then we were going to the Continental Market in Belfast City Centre. As an added extra surprise, I decided to wear one of my favourite tunic t-shirts (actually a dress for “normal” height people but on me it’s a t-shirt!) and for the first time this year, I wasn’t tugging it down over my hips – it hung down all by itself! I was delighted with myself and couldn’t wait to get going.

Corrado was awarded his level 8 swimming certificate but unfortunately Sam didn’t make level 2 grade – but he was given a Dipper the Dolphin certificate of achievement to soften the blow. I was so proud – they have achieved such a lot in a short time.

Sadly, I got word that my Uncle John had died this morning. This was the second of my dad’s brothers to have passed away in just over a week. I will dedicate tomorrow’s blog to him because I need time to reflect on all the happy times we shared, I am still trying to take in another loss so soon.

I didn’t feel like going ahead with the rest of today’s plans but I couldn’t let my two little monkeys down – they were really looking forward to it and it was postponed from last week due to the awful wind and rain. So off we went. I don’t know why, but the market wasn’t it’s usual overcrowded self today – perhaps everyone has upped the ante on their serious Christmas shopping and have no time for fun! Or maybe the majority of Christmas parties were held last night and half of Belfast was feeling a little delicate!

We didn’t have to queue for the gi-normous sausages that are so popular. David and the boys shared one between the three of them (David is indeed being very good on this new eating regime!). Disappointingly, the only veggie option today was noodles – plain, boring noodles. They claimed to have vegetables in them and I did see one sliver of dark green cabbage in the box, but that was it. Belfast – you’ve let me down again! In previous years I have managed to enjoy a falafel or three or a pot of garlic mushrooms, but it was noodles or cake today.

After a little turn on the carousel (the boys, not me), I did some recreational shopping and bought some unusual cheeses as a hostess gift to bring to Marion Murphy’s. There’s a jalapeno pepper, a firey cheddar and a lemon and cumin cheese – I’ve wrapped them now and can’t remember if they’re all cheddars.

Decided not to bother with the Donkey Sanctuary Christmas Fair as we were all tired so we came home and slobbed about for a while.

As I’m trying to resist the party food tonight, I had a bowlful of last night’s Big Soup to keep me going. For the rest of the family I made the Hairy Dieters’ Low Calorie Doner Kebabs – now established as a firm favourite.

Help yourselves lads

I’m about to spend my evening being tempted by copious amounts of cocktails and nibbles. It’s not going to be easy 😦

PS Sorry! I thought I published this post last night before I went out – duh!

Exercise: shopping, discos and maths.

As David had booked his car into the garage for new brake pads on the day of his Christmas lunch, muggins here had to bring it up to Ballymena early this morning while he got his boss to take him to work. What was I going to do for 4 hours in Ballymena? SHOPPING! So, no hardship :-).

Fairhill Shopping Centre wasn’t too bad – no hordes of buggies trying to run down invisible me or crowds of people standing chatting in the doorway of the shop I’m trying to get into.  I was an hour into the shopping when I realised what was wrong, I needed coffee. I’d green tea with breakfast and that wasn’t going to sustain me.

O’Brien’s make nice coffee, not bitter like other cafes (my personal taste, of course), and they tried to tempt me with salted caramel syrup, their Christmas special, but I resisted. But they continued with their sales job and I sat down with a skinny latte and a toasted bagel with a smidgin of cream cheese and sunblushed tomatoes – it was only 10.30 am, so that saved me from going the whole hog with side orders, a tray bake or muffin. I reckon that was a whopping 450 calories or thereabouts as it was! Only a short month ago I would not have thought twice about that and probably eaten twice as much!

But (here comes the science bit!) if I’d been at home I’d have been sitting (humour me), which uses 84 calories an hour, instead I was shopping, which uses 156 calories an hour, times 4 (hours shopping) equals 288 calories burnt more than was planned (sitting).  Result = my early lunch meant I only gained 162 calories 😀 :D. See? Not that bad!

It did actually turn out to be an early lunch because I forgot all about eating around midday! That’s how those footballers wives get to be so skinny – they shop!! Maybe I’ll try that diet next 🙂

As David was at Made in Belfast for his Christmas lunch with colleagues, I didn’t have to cook a big meal for tonight. I’d been meaning to cook the Hairy Dieter’s A Big Soup for a while now and today was as good a chance as any – it would serve as a light snack for David for later. I left out the chorizo in my pot, but added extra smoked paprika and the rest of the pack of green beans (there were about 100g more than the recipe called for). I didn’t have any curly kale, but round green cabbage was in my veg box this week, so I used a few leaves of that and the rest of the (frozen) beetroot leaves I got a few weeks ago. (According to the ayurvedic doctor I went to in October, beetroot leaves are a great antioxidant so Helen’s Bay Organics kindly included some in one of my deliveries).

A Big Soup – and it was!

The kids’ leek and potato (and other hidden veg) soup with chicken wraps.

The soup was delicious – the vegetables still crunchy and the tomato and stock base was slightly smoky from the paprika and well seasoned with black pepper. Very low in calories (157) but high in nutrition. I had a giant portion, but without the chorizo it would be a very low calorie giant portion! With the cannellini beans, it could be compared to minestrone, but without the pasta.  The kids weren’t having any of it when they saw the picture in the recipe book, so they had leek and potato soup and chicken wraps instead. Actually, I billed it as leek and potato but there might have been other vegetables hidden in there too!

No sitting around tonight either – it was the Christmas Disco for the local Special Olympics groups. Eventually (many changes of t-shirt) later, Corrado and Sam were throwing some shapes on the dancefloor. I have no idea what those shapes were but they were obviously hard work judging by the glow on Sam’s face!  (There’s also a quarter pound of chocolate in those cheeks!).

Dancing in the dark

The kids stuffed their little faces with crisps, biscuits and Cadbury’s Roses while the adults got to wet their whistles with a hot beverage.  I was very very good and managed not to lift a shortbread biscuit or dip into the tin of sweets – Lorna was there and she would have seen!!!  We were both paragons of virtue and just drank the tea and coffee :D.

This had better be worth it on Monday morning!

A Dieter’s Prayer

A dieter’s prayer for Christmas:

“Lord, grant me the strength that I may not fall
Into the clutches of cholesterol.

At polyunsaturates, I’ll never mutter,
For the road to hell is paved with butter.

And cake is cursed and cream is awful
And Satan is hiding in every waffle.

Beelzebub is a chocolate drop
And Lucifer is a lollipop.

Teach me the evils of hollandaise,
Of pasta and jobs of mayonnaise.

And crisp fried chicken from the South —
Lord, if you love me, shut my mouth.”

— Quoted by Stephen A. Pickert, MD

Fish(less), chips and mushy peas

We took a right old battering in the UK today with those winds. I don’t like the wind for a number of reasons – it blows in my face (hate that), it wakes the children and it blows the bin over! Well, it did today anyway, didn’t have it close enough against the wall – oops.

Week two of my “job” with Riding for the Disabled went ahead, despite the loud rattling and banging in the arena. The horses were a bit nervous and some of the kids were crying when they arrived but everyone settled down once the lessons got underway (and I might have overdone the star jumps I had them doing to get them warmed up – sorry teachers!).

A baptism of fire for me – I started my “green card” training today (basic training) to work towards getting my trainer’s certificate! And there’s me thinking I was going to be licking envelopes and making tea :).

I had to walk alongside one little totally-blind girl who was a bit jumpy because of the noise the wind was making. We were soon singing

 (that was Corrado’s first nativity play, so I knew all the words!) Now, I’m not the best singer in the world (OK, my voice can strip paint) but we were soon “baa baa grump”-ing our way around with the horse when the wind was at its worst.

I loved it and can’t wait until next Thursday – the Christmas party! We all get to ride in the carriages and meet Santa. Then the trainers all go for lunch to celebrate the end of this term. I’ve landed on my feet with this role!! I am so privileged to be in the position to do volunteer work  – long may it last.

I knew what I wanted for lunch but didn’t have it in the house – a Chinese stir fry. Popped into Tesco on my way home and found a perfect looking bowl of stir-fry veg in the clearance fridge for only 40p, so I used that with a sachet of Blue Dragon Cantonese (surprisingly spicy) sauce (two portions per sachet but I used about two-thirds of it, it was only 120 calories in total and the veggies only had 43 cals in them!).

Cantonese veg stir fry

So I sat with a mini furnace in my happy tummy catching up with my emails before I remembered I’d promised Corrado and Sam I’d make them sausage rolls for their afternoon snack! I had the pastry and sausagemeat ready so it was just a matter of assembling it. Corrado asked for a “really long” sausage roll, so I obliged :).

Boy -v- Food

Sam ate two little ones and one and a half big ones!

Corrado was doing his Ju Jitsu tonight as he couldn’t make it on Monday and such excitement – forms for the first grading (white belt) were handed out and the big day is 21st December. We have lots of homework to do.

In the meantime, back at the ranch, Sam had the munchies and ate one of the long sausage rolls pictured above along with the half Corrado didn’t finish!  So, Sam, how do you feel about having a yoghurt as your after-school snack tomorrow?

Remind me next time I leave stuff to cool, not to leave it within reach of Sumo Sam!

Eventually sat down to a (Si and Dave turn away now) non-Hairy Dieter recipe! Actually, that’s not 100% true – I made the paprika chips that are included in the Turkey Burger and Chips recipe from the Eat for Life book. We had mushy peas (a recent craving of Corrados) and instead of the breadcrumbed fish pour moi, it was a Meat Free Quarter Pounder. Probably 400 calories in that meal but well worth it – it was the perfect (non) junk food after a busy day. I think I earned it.

Junk food diet-style

Chilli Lemon Tuna and Broccoli Spaghetti – sort of

David didn’t fancy porridge this morning – could he finally be getting fed up with it? It’s only once a day I’m feeding it to the family – it’s not like it’s every meal :D.

So he had a rindless bacon sarnie and I had a couple of slices of toast with a poached egg. To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. The egg was lovely but the toast annoyed me, every mouthful was a chore. (It didn’t occur to me to stop eating it though!) Maybe my body was trying to tell my brain that we don’t do toast anymore, it’s not that nutritious and full of empty calories? Or, more likely, 50/50 bread isn’t nice!

It wasn’t as cold outside as I thought it was going to be today, there was no drastic drop in temperature (according to my meteorological bones), but I still didn’t take any chances and I ignored the garden, which is in desperate need of a tidy up before the predicted high winds arrive. So I stayed indoors and put off house tasks too. I probably spent too much time online today! Loved seeing all the lovely flags from the countries of readers of my blog today. To all the new people, “welcome”! It made me very 😀 😀 😀

So, for lunch I did my Wednesday thing and cleared out the salad drawer in preparation for my organic veg box arriving. I had a rainbow salad – that’s what I decided to call it, I wasn’t following a specific recipe. There was spinach (left from the yummy curry last night), pomegranate, tomatoes, olives, celery and I added a small handful of mixed nuts. I never dress salads, I find it distracts from those lovely textures and flavours, but it wasn’t dry at all. I felt a bit smug afterwards – how pure and healthy am I? LOL!

Cathy’s rainbow salad

That didn’t last, just before it was time to pick the kids up (they wanted me to do it today instead of getting the bus) I sat down with a coffee and scoffed one of Corrado’s new favourite chocolate biscuits – Club Fruit. (If you want a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our Club) A wee trip down memory lane, they were very popular biscuits in the 1970s and 1980s but seem to be making a comeback! Club Milk was my favourite, but Tesco doesn’t do them. I only had a salad for lunch, so I’m not going to beat myself up about it – I didn’t check the calorie count, I hid the wrapper from myself too quickly to check that. But I’m sure it’s not that bad?

Anyway, the obligatory visit to the bakery on the way back from school didn’t tempt me as much this week, maybe the Club did me a favour!

Dinner tonight was pasta. Chilli Lemon Tuna and Broccoli Spaghetti, to be precise. OK, maybe not tuna – I defrosted salmon by mistake. And maybe not spaghetti – I used bucatini. And, I’ll admit I had to use regular round broccoli – there was none of the fancy tenderstem (which is actually nicer because it doesn’t turn to mush if you slightly overcook it). But it was almost the same! Chilli Lemon Salmon and Broccoli Bucatini. Sounds good.

With …

… without

I had been avoiding cooking pasta – I had no idea how calorific it was until I started reading the labels in early November. But I missed it and this recipe looked fresh and tasty – and spicy. What’s not to like?

For my meat-free version I just had the pasta with chilli oil and a sprinkling of Parmesan.

It was delicious. I loved the spicy kick from the chilli oil and the crunch of the broccoli along with the softness of the tomatoes and the tang from the lemon. It was superfast to make too – everything was prepped and ready by the time the pasta was cooked.

David loved the salmon. I know that salmon is slightly heavier in calories than tuna but the bucatini is slightly lighter than spaghetti so in my confused head we’re even stevens!

One word of warning – if you haven’t tried bucatini before and your favourite part of a spaghetti meal is to suck it off the plate until the sauce splashes all over your face, this is not the pasta for you. It’s hollow, so not as much fun!

I yam what I yam

… most of you will have absolutely tootley no idea what on earth that headline means! For anyone else of a certain age, you might recognise it from Popeye – the sailorman who ate cans and cans of spinach. I needed some spinach this morning, if its claims were right, but had to settle for having it with my evening meal.

My eyelids were glued shut for quite a while – thank goodness for autopilot mode. David insisted that I sit down with the Kindle when I got the house to myself, but even Dan Shepherd tracking down Ahmed Khan couldn’t distract me from the inside-out wardrobes in the kids’ rooms (ie empty hanging space, every other surface covered in clothes), the ground-in glitter in Corrado’s carpet and the empty fridge. After a cursory shake of the duvets, refill of dishwasher and random dark items shoved into washing machine, I sat down with a green tea (not deliberately healthy – there was no milk for coffee!) and planned the menu for the next few nights.

The lamb, spinach and potato curry from the Hairy Dieters’ first book called out to me. It sounded like the best restorative meal for a flagging not-even-half-way-through-the-week Mum. This was the chickpea opportunity I was looking for!  I love chickpeas and they’re an easy solution for making a meat-free curry. Add spuds and spinach and you’re bound to be breathing healthy vibes into the atmosphere for a few days! Only needed to shop for a few items, I had the rest in the “store cupboard” so it was a cert.

Unfortunately, this meal is not something I can persuade the kids to enjoy – yet! They wanted pizza and I was happy to oblige – I had tortilla wraps in the house and everything else was easy.

Speaking of the kids, I said I would let you know what Corrado bought at the school “toy sale and other stuff” sale yesterday. Unpacking his bag started out well – a giant donut baking set (still sealed), a wooden beaded necklace (my surprise Christmas present), a crafting beading thing and the pièce de résistance – a mouthguard. In his little 10-year old wisdom, he figured that it might be a good idea to have one of these dayglo items for play-fighting with Sam. Perhaps, but I was unsure if the packaging was opened before he bought it! Yicky yick. Right, swiftly moving on …

The oven-cooked (mostly) curry was absolutely gorgeous. It was a lovely hearty spicy stew for a cold December night. I had doubts that it being served without rice, naan or other accompaniments would satisfy us, but it did.  Definitely a keeper. I score it 10 but David only scores is 9 out of 10 – it lost the 1 point because it was only Tuesday and we are trying to lose weight and it would go down a treat with beer, naan, etc etc!! 

Chickpea, spinach and potato curry

And the original lamb, spinach and potato recipe for David