Tossed?

And so the end of the first week at my new job beckons

.. and I don't think I could have asked it to have gone better than it did! I can't believe that only a few months ago, I was so unhappy and now I've got the rest of my life to do whatever I want without the worry and stress of working with horrible people.

As today was Friday, I was in London and I was surprised at how quiet both the train and the tube were - Loads of people seem to work from home on Friday so it was pretty peaceful getting into work and I got a seat on both the train and the tube! I also managed to do over 5,000 steps today, which isn't bad considering!.

Breakfast was a banana and a slice of malt loaf and for lunch, I decided to go out and wander around my work building and see what was there. I managed to find a place called Tossed which claimed to be 'A healthy eating place' and basically, it's like a buritto place, however rather than getting a custom made burrito, you get a custom made salad, instead! I was slightly scared at going up and ordering as I didn't exactly know what was going on so decided to buy a ready made on instead, however it was really nice so I definitely think I'll be going back there again at some point soon. One of the nice things about the ready made salads was - All the calorie, fat and saturated fat content of each salad was on the label so it was very easy to see what you would be putting in your body.

I managed to say hello to my new Boss today who is out and about on a very regular basis. He seemed to be happy with my progress and said as much - He also asked me to undertake some other objectives so I wasn't just sat at my desk learning stuff, I was actually being productive, which was nice.

After the train journey back home, I cooked a really nice dinner of pan fried salmon, rosemary roasted potatoes and loads and loads of veg. I'm finding sticking loads of veg on my plate is a really good way of filling myself up but doing it with 'good things'. So whilst it might not look overly posh or win any Masterchef contest, it tasted really nice.

Tomorrow I've got a really fun day planned and I'll be out and about with a friend for most of it. There will be a lot of stalls selling food and drink and if it was 2 weeks ago, I'd no doubt be stuffing God knows how much unhealthy food in my mouth... However not tomorrow. I plan to do a quick trip to Marks and Spencers before I go, so I've got enough water and food to last me a good 8-10 hours so I can continue my healthy eating :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Rain, rain, go away...

How can yesterday be so sunny and today be so rainy?

Breakfast: Steamed kipper, 1 slice of seeded toast, 1 poached egg
Lunch: 1 raw pepper, half a cucumber and a handful of tomatoes with houmous.
Dinner: Pan fried salmon with rosemary roasted new potatoes, sugar snap peas and carrots
Snacks: Small lunch box sized Malt Loaf

Last night my Boyfriend and I had a really lovely evening sitting outside and having a BBQ. We BBQ'd some lamb, after marinading it in some Moroccan spices which gave it a really nice flavour. Now I know that lamb isn't the most healthy thing you can eat, however I really like it - When was the last time I had it? Probably over 2 months ago, so I just ate mindfully, trimmed off all the fat and as it was BBQ'd, a lot of the fat also dripped into the BBQ. When will I eat it again? not for a while, so I don't really see a problem :-) We also BBQ'd a beef tomato that we bought at the Alton Farmers Market yesterday and I had mine with a lot of steamed carrots and peas as well as some rosemary roast new potatoes. As always, it was really, really yummy.

I also remembered to defrost one of the sacred fishies, so I was fortunate to be able to have a delicious kipper for breakfast this morning. However, rather than just have the kipper looking all sad and alone on a plate, I bought some bread yesterday, so transformed my breakfast into a slice of seeded toast, one poached egg and a kipper. As well as it being really filling, I didn't put any butter or spread on my toast as the egg was wet enough for it not to matter - Additionally, there are apparently a number of health benefits to eating kippers, namely:

Benefits to eating kippers

1. Kippers contain phosphorus, potassium, iron, zinc and vitamins B-12, A and E.

2. kippers are high in heart-healthy fatty acids such as omega-3, with about 0.2 to 0.7 grams of omega-3 per serving

3. Kippers are rich in DHA which is a fatty acid essential for the growth and development of brain. Studies show that DHA is most readily absorbed in the morning hours – so perfect for breakfast.

4. Kippers are are low in saturated fat and total calories, so if you're watching calories, you should be watching kippers going into your mouth....  :-)

I appreciate I'm not going to win any awards for food photography, however it tasted a lot better than it looked on my plate and if you mashed the egg up onto the bread, it wasn't dry at all. Once I'd eaten breakfast and had a lovely cup of tea, I headed off to see my sister and my niece and unlike yesterday, I decided to plan my lunch so I didn't need to default to yet, 'more meat'. Whilst my sister lives near Swindon, they have managed to get electricity where they are (I was born in Wiltshire so am taking the mick out of myself, more than anyone else :-)) and as such - I was able to put my houmous and veggies into her fridge.

When I arrived, my niece was having a nap - I took the chance to catch up with my sister which seems like something I could do every time I see her, however it seems to be the case that when you have small children, you spend 99% of your time focussed on them, so talking to each other becomes a lot harder. By 12:30, my niece had finally gotten up - It was nice to see her and she decided it wasn't too bad seeing me either, showing me her pink watering can and preferring to water the patio than any of the plants.

Unfortunately the weather in Swindon was utterly dire - we were planning on going to a local park, however it mostly rained all afternoon so instead we just drank a lot of tea on the sofa and played all kinds of games with my niece including 'multicoloured worm' with a coloured tunnel and 'let's name all the fossils', which involved my niece showing me, my sisters fossil collection and naming all of them.

Unfortunately Aunt Flow also decided to make an appearance 2 days late, so I'm writing this with rather bad stomach cramps, even though I've taken ibruprofen and am feeling really sorry for myself. Driving back along the M4 was pretty bad and it took me quite a lot longer than it took me to drive down there as it was 40mph for most of the way. After I got back, I made myself another couple of tea and settled down on the sofa with a hot water bottle and watched a couple of episodes of 'Whitechapel' which I'm really getting into at the moment. God knows what I'll watch when this is over, it's hard to find any horror / murder / thriller things on TV.

Dinner was another fish dish - pan fried salmon with rosemary roasted potatoes, carrots and a new addition - sugar snap peas! I got them in my latest Riverford delivery and unlike the greens or the lettuce, they've lasted a couple of days which is awesome as I've run out of frozen peas and couldn't be bothered to buy any more. In a weeks time, I'll be able to go food shopping whenever I want to :-) It was nice, but I now feel stuffed... I really do think I'm doing too much, even though a lot of it is just vegetables.. 

Tonight I'm off to see my lovely work friend - It seems we're spending a lot of time together at the moment, I guess it's kinda like 'hysterical bonding'? We know things will change in a week, so we're making the most of it. I know she'll still be in my life, however I won't see her every day like normal. 

However - not all change is bad. I'm still motivated to change my lifestyle and to see my body change.. so will be keeping up the motivation for next week - MY FINAL WEEK AT WORK!!!!! 

I'm famous!!!!

So in the grand scheme of things, I'm saying 'famous', however I guess it's all about context :-)

I buy two magazines a month and have been buying the same magazines for over 3 years. I've got my BBC Good Food Magazine which is great for telling me when the latest food festivals are, what interesting food is out there to try and giving me some really interesting new recipes to try - However, the magazine doesn't focus on healthy food. There may be an article or a few pages devoted to low fat / low calorie / low carb recipes / gluten free recipes etc, however it's not a regular thing and whilst all recipes give you the calorie content, fat content and all the other usual contents, if you're trying to eat healthy, it's not the best magazine to support your goals.

I also get the 'Healthy Good Food Magazine'- half the size of the BBC Good Food magazine and not as much content, however it's purely focussed on eating healthy so every recipe you read about, is good for you and not laden in fat or calories. I like both magazines and tend to rip out any that I want to try and put them in my 'owl folder' - a massive lever-arch binder that has a picture of an owl on it (Classy, I know). Last month, when my magazines were delivered, I tweeted 'My new Healthy Good Food Guide has arrived!' - This month, when my magazine was delivered, I started reading it and... I'm in print! Wow! Check it out! :-) Form an orderly queue for autographs.....

Today has been pretty awesome. Firstly, My boyfriend and I went to an antiques auction which unfortunately meant we needed to get up at 7:00am - This was quite painful for me as I haven't been sleeping well recently, however the prospect of adding to my already crowded house was impetus enough to get up, have a shower and reacquaint myself with another kipper for breakfast. Mr Kipper shared the plate with some scrambled egg (made from the last egg I had left in the box) Whilst small, it was enough to keep me going for a while, healthy and also made a change from the last 5 days worth of porridge.

After we got to the auction and had a look round, I was rather disappointed. Nothing stood out and shouted 'Buy me! it doesn't matter that you've already got 5 Oak coffers in your two bedroom house, you *need* me as well'. That being said, I did find a golden mirror that looks pretty gothic and a small camphor wood chest which I thought might make friends with the two camphor wood chests I've already got in my house, so I did an absent bid and we headed off to another auction house before gong back home to grab some lunch.

In my vegetable box this week, Riverford had kindly given me broad beans. I haven't eaten broad beans in years and don't think I've ever cooked them before. When I first saw them, I was flummoxed as to what I could use them in, however Riverford had thoughtfully provided a few suggestions on a recipe card - One of them being 'broad bean dip'. I decided this was a good idea as it seemed like a different type of houmous and as we know.... I love houmous :-) It was really easy to make as well:

1. Grab loads of broad beans.

2. Shell aforesaid bean into a saucepan

3. Boil for approx 4 minutes.

4. Stick in colander and cool with cold water.

5. They'll look all wrinkly, so it's easy to pop them out of their harder, lighter green shell.

6. Once you've shelled them all. Place into blender.

7. Add a squirt of lemon juice, some cumin, some salt and one clove of garlic

8. Add some half fat creme fraiche to make it taste a bit richer and blend!

Done :-) 

I have to say, I thought I did rather well for a first attempt. After eating the lot of it, my mouth did taste quite strongly of garlic, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as I wasn't planning on going clubbing and kissing anyone! 

We headed off to Malborough for yet more antiques shops and after we'd wandered round them, we headed back home, at which point, I get an email from the auction house telling me that I'd won everything I'd bin on! Hurrah - God knows where I'm going to put things, however I'm sure I'll find a space and when I've got them back to my house, I'll take photos and proudly display them on my blog :-) 

Once we got home, we watched an episode of 'Kevin McCloud's escape to the wild' or as my Boyfriend likes to call him 'K-Dog' (If you've never read about the Grand Designs drinking game, you should Google it, it's really amusing) A bit of 'chill time' was really welcome before we embarked on the mammoth task of dinner - I say 'mammoth task', my dinner was incredibly easy to make as I'd decided I'd make sashimi.

If you have a COSTCO near you and like salmon - Go and investigate! My boyfriend found a 1Kg salmon for under £13 and the quality was stunning. I grabbed some from one end and cut it into strips, whilst frying a small top side steak I found reduced from Marks and Sepencers. I love my steak blue, so it took me approximately 3 minutes of effort to cook. Most effort came with making the sushi rice, which to be fair, just needed to be boiled for 12 minutes and then left with the lid on for 45 minutes and hey presto... Dinner was ready.

As it's been such a beautiful day, I suggested we eat dinner in my garden, sitting on a blanket. My boyfriend had cooked the rest of the salmon and as he's doing his Atkin-esque diet, decided to just eat that on its own with some salad cream. It looked nice, but for me, that type of eating wouldn't be sustainable and therefore we were very happy to help each other in the kitchen, but stick to our own meal plans.

It's been a lovely, lovely day and we're now going to head out for a quiet drink at a lovely pub and enjoy the nice weather. 

Happy Saturday everyone!