Hairy Bikers healthy chilli

Hurrah! No more work for two days...

Today wasn't too bad - The interest from recruiters has increased and I've got one interview booked! I'm just so paranoid at the moment... sitting next to my Boss, wondering if the way he said 'Good Afternoon' is because he's annoyed with me, wondering if the reason he has 4 'private' appointments in his diary next week is because he's interviewing people to take over part of my role, wondering if he's having a long meeting (with the woman who I believe he's sleeping with) to discuss how useless I am and how she can take over various things. It's hard going in day after day, but you do as you're an adult and you have bills to pay - However life is too short to be unhappy.

One of the things that really, really annoys me is when people moan about stuff but don't do anything about it - I've never been like that. Work is upsetting me and it's gone from being something I love, to something I feel sick about every morning, so I'm going to do something about it and find another job. It's the same with my weight - it's not where I want it to be, so rather than moaning about it and shoving another Mars Bar in my mouth, I'm doing my best to change things in my life so it stops being an issue.

Anyway, no work for 2 days so I'm going to park the moaning and focus on the fact that my eBay things came today :-)

I'm a bit of an eBay addict and I like buying clothes and jewellery - clothes especially as when I'm losing weight, I don't want to spend ££££ on things that will (hopefully) be too big for me in a few months time. So when I won this lovely Dorothy Perkins top for just over £5, I was rather chuffed - the same with the Kit Heath earrings for £12 as I love simple, small things. Both are pretty awesome and I'm currently writing this Blog, wearing my lovely new top (it was washed before it was sent!) and feeling smug that it fits well, looks really, really nice and as I'm sitting here, typing this on my laptop... my tummy doesn't look like it's protruding as much as it did a few weeks ago.

Is this my imagination? Or is this another positive thing to note about my weight loss journey? I guess the scales on Sunday will provide an indication as to whether that could be the case or not!

After getting home, I had yet another lovely delivery - my monthly Healthy Good Food Magazine! I get 2 magazines a month: BBC Good Food Magazine and the Healthy Good Food one. I like both, as I am a total foodie and the HGF magazine focusses on healthy recipes so I usually find one or two new ones to try a month. This really keeps my motivated as I love trying new things. I find it quite boring to always have the same thing (apart from my breakfast porridge... for some reason, I'm happy eating that for weeks on end at the moment)

So, I got changed into my new top... and set out to make dinner for my friend and I, before settling down to read my magazine before she arrived.

HGF Magazine isn't too bad this month - There's an interesting article in it about 'wrong turns on your weight loss journey' which details 8 things you might do which aren't necessarily going to help you:

1. Choosing food and drink labelled 'no added sugar' (it could be high in sugar so you should find thigns that are less than 5g per 100g or 2.5ml per 100ml)
2. Cutting out fat (some fats are good for you!)
3. Snacking on rice cakes (choose things that enhance your diet)
4. Thinking 'raw' means healthy (be selective about what 'raw' products you eat, they're not all good)
5. Falling for the latest food fad (sustainable weight loss differs from person to person, find what works for YOU!)
6. Blending and juicing everything (Juicing is fine, but only counts as 1 of our 5 a day)
7. Choosing to go dairy free (dairy products are an important part of a healthy diet, despite what the media say)
8. Denying yourself all treats (Eat treats mindfully, but don't deny yourself everything)

Makes sense I think? :-)

Dinner was the Hairy Bikers recipe for Chilli Salad Bowl, however as I had run out of wraps (and I find them quite tricky to do, anyway) I made it with rice and salad. Here's a thing - I made a concious effort not to do as much rice as I was going to allocate at least a third of the plate to salad. Once I'd poured the rice into the saucepan, I saw on the side that I'd actually already poured THREE recommended portions into the saucepan. Wow.. yet more evidence that I really do need to watch my portion sizes - I think that's the thing, when you overeat for years, it's so hard to know what a 'portion' is.... Back into the packet you go, you evil rice! :-)

Low calorie Beef and Ale stew

You really wouldn't know it's a low fat stew, which is exactly what I'm looking for

After a good walk, there's nothing nicer than having some hearty meal, especially if it's not full of fat or calories but still full in taste. This recipe comes courtesy of the Hairy Bikers, or should I say 'Hairy Dieters' and is in their book 'How to love food and lose weight' - They've now got 3 healthy cookbooks out and whilst I have all 3, I certainly think I use the first one (the white one) the most.

As per usual, we didn't totally stick to the recipe as we didn't use parsnips, we used 'Kohlrabi' which is a German turnip! I had one of these in my vegetable box yesterday so thought we could put it to good use in the casserole.

We also chucked it in the slow cooker for 4.5 hours, rather than put it in the oven - Did it matter? not at all.... Slow cookers are great for anything and it worked really well! 

Beef & Ale casserole (serves 6) Less than 400 calories per portion (more if you're eating with mash or potatoes):

Ingredients 

1 tbsp sunflower oil 

2 medium onions, chopped 

4 tbsp plain flour 

1 tspflaked sea salt 

2 tsp dried mixed herbs 

1 kg lean braising beef 

1 bay leaf 

500 ml dark ale or stout 

250 ml beef stock, made with 1 beef stock cube 

2 tbsp tomato puree 

2 tsp caster sugar 

5 medium carrots (about 275 g), peeled & thickly sliced 

2 parsnips (about 300 g), peeled, halved lengthways and sliced 

freshly ground black pepper. 

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 180 C / Fan 160 c/ Gas 4. 

Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish. Add the onions and fry them over a medium-high heat for about 5 minutes until lightly browned, stirring regularly. Remove the pan from the heat. 

Put the flour, salt & dried herbs in a large bowl and season with lots of freshly ground black pepper. Trim the beef of any hard fat and sinew, then cut the meat into rough 3 cm cubes. Toss the meat in the flour until evenly coated, then tip it into the casserole dish with the onions. 

Add the bay leaf, ale, stock, tomato puree and sugar. Stir well and bring to the boil, then cover with a lid. Carefully transfer the casserole to the oven and cook for 1.5 hours. At the end of this time, take the casserole out of the oven and stir in the carrots and parsnips. Put the lid back on the return the dish to the oven for a further 45 minutes or until the beef and vegetables are tender. 

Stuff in face :-)