Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Sunday, 12 August 2012

Busy Week...

What a week! As any reader here will know, I don't exercise... not in the traditional sense. Instead, I have devoted myself to healthy eating and lots of housework. My home has never been so clean and tidy... only I'm wondering how long I can keep this up for! There are no more cupboards that need cleaning, no more doors to scrub... the carpet is being worn away with vacuuming every day, and the house smells permanently of orange scented polish.  There's an advert on the television (here in the UK) that asks how people would score your loo. Mine was probably around a two out of ten... bad! Now it's a ten plus! I spent four and a half hours on Thursday, scrubbing every part of that bathroom - ceilings, pipes, bath, walls, toilet, sink, floor, skirting, window blind, toilet seat... not an inch was spared. How awful it was, thought I, that I had let dust settle upon my skirting boards! Next to tackle was the bedroom. I just can't sleep, so I thought that maybe changing it around might help. It took four hours to change around that heavy wooden furniture, unloading drawers and cupboards and then re-stocking them again. I was shattered! Just gone midnight, I snuggled under my clean sheets... and didn't sleep a wink! I have no idea what's wrong! I do prefer the bedroom as it was before the 'big tidy'... but it's cleaner and tidier now - and I cant watch television in bed any longer (which is a very good thing). Still I cannot sleep. All that hard work, all that change... all those calories burned :) but still no sleep.

Still, no sleep means that I am getting things done. Last night I prepared todays meal and went grocery shopping online for some ingredients for a few meals as well as the rest of the items I need to make this and next years Christmas cake ( I am so behind with the preparations this year!). I painted the top of my jewellery box (it's a big stand-alone piece of furniture), and rubbed the edges with gold buff to make it a bit shabby-chic. Next I caught up with all the washing, watched a couple of episodes of "Once Upon A Time" and then started a big cooked breakfast for my darling hubby, as it was by then nearly 9.30am.

Still no rest for the wicked... I've been preparing meals and cooking all day!
Chinese noodles, asian barbeque chicken (for tomorrow), carrot cake with frosting, raisin and cinnamon bread, potato-bake crumble, braising steak stew, a spice mix for goat curry, sweet chilli pork crackling and plain pork crackling (it's in the oven right now!)... and clearing up after everything too. All in all, I've spent over six hours cooking and cleaning today! My kitchen is still spotless, and I really have no idea what I shall do for the next few days!

I'm sure I'll think of something.
I'm a bit nervous about my weigh-in tomorrow - I succumbed to a small slice of carrot cake WITH the frosting on top. I don't think it's the actual food that fills me with calories... it's the weight of the guilt I carry! lol

WARNING!!!
Photographs of gorgeous food ...

The carrot cake (with clementine and cinnamon) and cream cheese frosting...

and the beautiful (half-eaten by daughter and her boyfriend) raisin and cinnamon bread -
Still hot from the oven! 

Monday, 6 August 2012

Missing Mojo

Today has been uber-tough!
I couldn't sleep last night, so I spent the night cooking.  I diced up a fruit salad, tossed together a salad and special dressing for dinner today, and made a fantastic vege-bolognese sauce. It smelt so good... I so wanted to sit and eat the lot!
My eldest daughter came to visit today with my future son-in-law... and I cooked for them too. There was chocolate and cream cake in the fridge, and then my youngest went to the local shops and came home with cheese and huge bars of Galaxy chocolate (my favourite!) as well as cookies and biscuits.
The world went in slow motion as I watched her unload the shopping bag full of those scrummy goodies!
BUT... I was good. I mean... I was REALLY good! I stuck to my salad and didn't touch the chocolatey goodness of biscuits :)
I do feel quite proud of myself. What really chuffed me today is the comment that my future son-in-law made when he came inside the house today...
"You're half the size you were a few weeks ago!"
I'm not... but I liked the fact that there seems to be a difference that people can notice :)

Right... off to stare at my size 12 jacket hanging on the wardrobe door (motivational push) and sup on a hot chocolate  - Options of course, with less than 40 calories :)

I also have to get my head around the fact that I really need to exercise... get the fat burning and the muscles toning! I just don't seem to have the push to get myself going... sometimes I lay in bed thinking that the following morning I'll get up and be all energetic... but it doesn't work that way in reality! Beacause of the rheumatoid arthritis I have, I wake up feeling achey and tired and just about ready for more sleep, rather than jumping around and losing weight! Hopefully soon I'll get my mini-trampoline back and be the right weight to use it (15 stone - which is 210 pounds - or less). I miss that little trampette... it's perfect, as there's no impact on my joints.


Oh, and if anyone likes a salad dressing with zing, here's what I use (bear in mind that I love the taste of vinegar!)

2 tablespoons of vinegar
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
a pinch of sea salt
a LOT of fresh-ground black pepper
a good pinch of cayenne pepper
quarter teaspoon (or more - to taste) of dried garlic powdered granules.

Shake it up in a jar and leave for an hour or so... then pour over salad and enjoy.