Protein pots are taking over the world

Oh my Goodness, 4 hours of driving to get home

I'm so tired! There were massive delays on all the roads I was driving on, and as I use my phone for Sat-Nav, I was petrified the battery was going to run out and I was going to be lost. Thankfully, I made it home with 7% to spare, but 4 hours of non-stop driving and bad period pains are not a fun thing at all.

Apart from the drive home, it's not been a bad day. I can't say my hotel was great as it was an odd time share, thus there wasn't a main building but loads of 'lodges' which meant there wasn't a main car park either. Having got back at 11:00pm last night and finding the main car park full, I decided to lovingly dump my car under a tree, on a grassy verge and hope that it wouldn't get clamped or the hotel get annoyed with me. Turns out, nothing happened to it - apart from a loving 'deposit' from a local bird as I realised this morning that I'd parked it under a rather large tree....

After waking up, I discovered that I had started my period (well done body, bang on time this month) and as I suffer quite bad cramps, would need to take some Ibruprofen in a couple of hours. I didn't want to take it on a (very) empty stomach, so decided to investigate the hotels breakfast offerings before heading off to the company event again. 

I used to be so self conscious, the thought of eating breakfast on my own in a strange restaurant would have scared me enough to go hungry, however as I used to be a Consultant, I got used to eating alone quite quickly so I just brought my phone with me so I could browse the Internet and got settled at a table after asking for a nice cup of tea. 

Despite not eating much yesterday, I didn't want to go crazy, nor start the day thinking 'I can eat more as there is a deficit of calories at the moment', so decided I'd go for a cooked breakfast, but moderate what I ate - therefore filling me up but not going crazy. Looking at my plate, I have to say, I'm quite chuffed that once again, I'm not making bad choices - I cut the fat off the bacon and chose a fried, rather than scrambled egg as I didn't know if they scrambled egg had been mixed with anything - butter, or cheese, for example. I also had some orange juice, but was careful only to have a small glass as I know that there are 'hidden' calories in juice and whilst it's healthy, it also contains a hell of a lot of fruit sugar.

I also didn't feel guilty - You don't usually equate 'cooked breakfast' with 'healthy' and I'm sure I could be even more healthy by eating fruit etc, but I want to be realistic and not deprive myself of everything - Plus, I was impressed I stayed away from the pastries section :-)

After a lovely breakfast, I checked out of the hotel, picked up my non-clamped car and headed off to the nearest Superstore to buy some supplies for two of my colleagues who are organising the event. In Berkshire, you don't really get such large Co-Op's, it's usually either Tescos, Sainsburys or ASDA that take up that space, however this was literally the biggest Co-Op I had ever seen and it was so clean, so tidy and everything was perfectly arranged on shelves... 

As well as buying copious amounts of orange juice and Mountain Dew for them, I picked myself up some lunch in the form of a protein pot - It had half an egg, some hot smoked salmon and some red quinoa in a vinaigerette - It's as if everyone is now doing these protein pots! I bought one from Marks and Spencers last week that contained eggs and spinach and it was the first time I had seen them, but they now seem to be taking over the world.

Despite everyone else eating burgers, hotdogs and all kinds of other things, I was quite happy with my find in the Co-Op, especially as I still had a full punnet of strawberries left from yesterday and a Bakewell Tart nakd bar in my handbag... Almost sounds like a proper meal :-)

After getting home from the nightmare journey, I discovered that amongst other tasty treats, Riverford had delivered me some really nice new potatoes, greens and carrots, so I roasted some potatoes with rosemary and steamed a couple of carrots and some greens. Thankfully, I had one Quorn mozzarella and pesto escalope left and as such, I didn't need to go out food shopping which I was so happy about, considering the last 4 hours :-)

Unfortunately, my hair appointment has been cancelled tomorrow due to the hair stylist being ill, so whilst that's a shame, I can't deny I'm looking forward to a massive lie in, a nice cup of tea and eating some kippers that I bought with my boyfriend in Northumberland - Maybe I can revisit our holiday, if only from the food I eat!

Another awesome use of Quorn

Salads don't have to be boring

Sometimes I really don't want to cook for hours on end, but don't really want to have a ready meal either. No matter how 'good' the ready meals are, they still don't seem to taster as good as a meal I've prepared myself.

So what's the compromise? Well, tonight I made a salad, but didn't really fancy putting chicken or meat with it, so decided to try one of the new Quorn products. 

This looked a little bit more interesting than the normal Quorn and I'm partial to anything that has the words 'Southern Fried' in it - especially when those words aren't accompanied by massive amounts of fat or calories!

It was a basic salad - beetroot, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce with some croutons and a small amount of cheddar cheese. I then popped the Quorn in the oven for 18 minutes (it said 12, however I had frozen them beforehand for 6 weeks - they were absolutely fine to freeze and defrost) and chopped it up to put over the salad.

I'm not really keen on most salad dressings, they're either too vinegary or too creamy and if they're creamy, you can guarantee that you've 'undone' all the good you're planning on doing to your body with vitamins if you're going to shove lots of full-fat dressing in your mouth as well. Well, worry not - Hey presto, this stuff is brilliant!

Less than 0.5g of fat per 15ml serving and only 42 calories. It's so much lighter than other dressings and tastes really, really nice.

The entire salad was rather yummy and took less than 20 minutes to prepare, including oven baking the Quorn. My boyfriend didn't even realise it was Quorn until I said something!

Certain Quorn products aren't revolting

Some Quorn products actually seem to taste nicer than meat

I'm a meat eater - I've been able to 'go vegetarian' for months at a time to try new recipes and I don't mind at all as I like vegetables, however I always go back to meat. About 10 years ago, I thought all the 'non-meat' products were disgusting - the sausages tasted bland and had the texture of sawdust and tofu was just a rubbery, squidgy 'thing' that you could use to bulk up stir-frys.

However, I decided to try some of the newer Quorn products and some of them are absolutely gorgeous. I have to say, I still think the sausages have a way to go and I don't really like them, however the Quorn 'Mozzarella and Pesto' fillets are lovely and I've eaten them on many occasions. As they can be stuck in the freezer and only take 20 minutes in the oven, I decided to eat one of those tonight, with some of the lovely fresh vegetables I got in my Friday delivery from Riverford.

Yum, yum, yum - I got lovely fresh spinach, carrots and some potatoes which I peeled and made 'Home made chips'. It was lovely and I really made sure I tasted my food, as opposed to just eating it really fast. 

I always like something sweet at about 9:30pm - I don't know why, I just do. I've been really trying to keep my cravings in check, so bought 3 of these 'NAKD bars' from Tescos as they were doing a '3 for 2' offer. They're Vegan and come in really nice flavours

I think tonight I'll try the Rhubarb and Custard one!

So todays' food has been:

B - Porridge
L - M&S Turkey, Pastrami and Emmental wrap and Honey BBQ wholegrain snacks
D - Quorn Mozzarella and Pesto escalope with fresh veg

Snack - One of the lovely bars on the left.

I'm quite happy with that - Roll on the weekend!