The Big Fat List and the Days of Doom (TM) Part V - Once we were plump but now we are thinner, and looking forward to our Christmas Dinner! (Also incorporating the New Year weigh in confession thread)

[grinningbee]

So, here we have our nice new little thread. No food type is banned from being mentioned. It is Xmas afterall . So pull up a comfy chair, I've put a good film on the telly for you, put some logs on the fire and laid out some snacks. We have stollen, mince pies, chocs, shortbread, smelly cheese and crackers, wine and baileys.

Feel free to add anything else!

This thread will self destruct later in the new year, so don't worry about confessing to eating naughty nibbles, or putting on the odd pound (or 8).

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ps That Peter Bowles fellow was there. I had to push past him to get to my seat. Dressed EXACTLY like he was in To The Manor Born

Evening all

RIGHT, have turned over new leaf and started afresh with a bright green day today and a strong resolve to get to target and stop fannying around.

Have just been catching up with the thread and am struggling to keep up with the pace.

bee so sorry to hear about your friend and so impressed to see that your determined march towards target continues inspite of all the stress marzipan incident aside, oh I love marzipan!
Hope things are looking up on the house and sleep front.

cheese I'm with you on needing a kick up the arse, think I'm back in the zone though.
Hope you enjoy your last days of mat leave. I'm 6 weeks back into work now and after the initial shock to the system am starting to enjoy the challenge again. I do really miss the DC, but it reminds me how much I enjoy the 4 days I have with them.
Also find it much easier to be organised about food on work days.

TSP it's lovely to have you back on the thread, your writing is inspirational and amusing in equal quantities. Your food sounds yummy too, can you tell us more about the Mint salad thing (was it Vietnamese maybe?)

kid am impressed with your cooking efforts, you still exercising so much?

debka am very impressed with your running, I really need to do some exercise, it's C25K or Shred both of which I've attempted (and not completed) before . I've got trainers, iPhone app and a park next door but just can't seem to get motivated / started.

CSWS your food sounds v organised, you are the Queen of Superfree

Sorry, will have to wave to everyone else and catch up later as DS2 is having a pre squawk snuffle and need to get into PJs before he wakes again

Anyway, to recap, this is the all new fresh beginning of direct journey to target, incorporating early nights (more / adequate sleep and less late night snacking) and some exercise along the way.

DS1 adores Black Books not sure it's suitable

just bookmarking - early night for me...

He has superb taste then! Seriously, not sure how old he is but it's roughly 1000 times less offensive than something like Family Guy or The Inbetweeners. Erm, both of which I love

Sleep well Ria!

Hhahahahahhahaah Bernard? How I love that show, we watched a whole series during my labour. I am so shite at paperwork - there is a reason I don't work in an office. I am trying to make an all singing all dancing what to do in our area guide for the nanny. So far, I have made a very pretty table with all the children centre activites in. . O h and discovered I am going to have to dash to Manchester On Thursday as I have faied to post off some paperwork in time. DH is going to kill me.

Glad the theatre was good, jealous of you being out and about in fancy landan town. I am off to google it.

Hi lake maybe we can routinely kick each others backsides into gear? Glad back to work is going ok pal. I am also worried about exercise and back to work. I should shred I suppose.

Right, I am off to find slinky, she has gone MIA

Oh hello Lake: smashing to see you! And thanks!

Vietnamese chicken salad is awesome and I eat it at least once a week, and often more. It's Nigella and I think it's in a section called 'Temple Food' in one of her books, supposedly for when you've been overdoing it which surely is every night chez Nigella

It is easy but involves insane amounts of shredding - you can use the grater attachment on your food processor but I find that reduced the veg far too much, and you don't get lovely crunchy bits.

Here it is:

Stir together 2 tbsp lime juice, 2 tbps fish sauce, 2 tbsp mirin (or you can use white wine vinegar and a touch extra sugar), 1-2tbsp caster sugar. Add finely chopped red chilli (to your taste), some finely chopped garlic and one very finely sliced onion. Leave this to one side to let the onion steep.

Meanwhile shred some cooked chicken (I'd do 100g to serve 2), and shred 2 carrots and a big chunk of white cabbage.

Finely chop a large bunch of mint.

Then you just mungle it all up really, making sure the veg is thoroughly soaked in the sauce.

this makes a huge quantity but it's mostly air and water, and takes forever to eat with chopsticks, so it fills you up and keeps you entertained!

Hi Lake
I am impressed with my cooking too, but unfortunately, I can't seem to manage the cooking and the exercising. I do plan to get back to the gym 2 or 3 times a week and I probably should start Shred again but I am so tired all the time.

I find it so hard to balance everything. At the moment, I am doing lots of cooking from scratch and my house is reasonably tidy and I am finally getting on top of all the washing and ironing. But, that means I can't manage the exercising too.

I feel quite proud that I managed to help DS avoid a migraine tonight, he has always got one after a match so tonight was the first time without one. The problem is, I made so many changes, its impossible to know which change prevented it. The main thing is that he didn't get a migraine.

You know I said I was planning my meals for tomorrow, well I still need to plan them. Oh well, still got to iron shirt, make lunches and hang up washing. I'm beginning to understand why I am always so tired, its because I leave everything until so late in the evening that I get to bed later and later each night. Oh well, perhaps I'll go to bed a bit earlier tomorrow?

I'm rubbish at going to bed at a sensible time too kid. Should be there now really.
Have you tried menu planning a week in advance? I am doing a few days at a time now, in order to plan my ocado orders better and thus cut down on waste and theoretically make it cheaper . It also means that when dh wants to know what's for lunch/dinner I can give him 'the look' and tell him to check evernote (the app we use on iphone/ipad to share the menu).

TSP - does that recipe really make enough to serve 2? With just 100g of chicken? We would eat about 3 times that amount each here! I guess one could use sweetener in place of the sugar.

Bravo for steamer debka! I used to use one loads, but the clips kept breaking on my tefal ones, and then I had a john lewis one which was completely rubbish, and I finally got them to give me a new one on the basis that it must surely have been faulty, but I don't think the new one is much better either! And we eat too large a quantity of everything for it to fit sufficient in for us all!

I have a horrid feeling that I haven't lost anything this week, and I shall be mightily annoyed if that is the case, since I have been on plan and had 2 good gym/swim sessions plus a short bike ride. Will find out at official WI tomorrow.

Food for today (green day for a change)
B wholewheat spaghetti
L easy bean moroccan tagine (the only ready meal I use - highly recommend it) with cous cous
S Bit of leftover butternut squash risotto, cause I is a pig!
D Baked potato, cottage cheese (praying it doesn't affect the boys), onion, sweetcorn, lettuce/toms/cucumber, balsamic
S toast (1x HEb), butter (3-4 syns), red grapes.

I have finally made it to bed. I ironed 2 shirts so i won't need to do any until Wednesday night now.
I still didn't get around to planning so I'll have to think fast in the morning. Breakfast is sorted, weetabix, milk, banana.
I think I'll do pasta, leeks, peas and philly for lunch plus some fruit and a yogurt.
Dinner will probably be chicken or maybe prawns.

I have some steak in the freezer but I need an amazing sauce for it. Dh loves steak so I'd love to show off and create something amazing out of it, if that's at all possible on sw.

Think its sleep time now, got to be up in just over 6 hours for work.

Yawn, morning all!

I've been meaning to try an easy bean tagine, thanks for the heads up csws. I'm also looking like a gain
I'm not even going to have a good week, we are away in Cardiff this weekend visiting pals. I can guarantee it won't be SW friendly

Food:
B: poached egg on toast (heb)
L: tuna, salad, green beans and pasta
D: sausage and root veg casserole (1.5 syns)

Kid - mushrooms, garlic, whole grain mustard (syns), Philly and a tablespoon or two of veg stock makes a nice sauce for steak.

CSWS soz, you are quite right - I meant to say '100g chicken per person', not for 2 - God, calorie counting is quite stringent enough without actually starving to death

That mushroom sauce sound gert lush.

I done a sneaky weigh in this morning and I think I'm going to be OK

food today:

B - skinny cappucino, Belvita
L - vegetable sushi, mangoes/pineapple/melon salad thing
D - Er, a sort of prawn stew thing, with tomatoes and butternut squash and peppers, then apples stewed with honey and cinnamon and some Total 0% yoggit.

Cheese I feel for you re. socialising and sticking to plan. It's so bastard hard. I have already told a pack of lies this week to get out of a binge-up type night on Friday. I feel awful about it but I can only do this if everything is on my terms and I am being a total control freak.

On the plus side, I am sure that even if you can't actually do SW (and you might find it's easier than you think - like having loads of roast beef and veg but passing on the spuds, so that you can get away with a bit of pudding and the best part of a bottle of chianti ), the very fact that SW is sort of background noise in your head will probably keep a bit of a rein on things...

Well I've already been asked to bring a cheese board. It's our annual uni meet up. I'm planning on 1 glass of wine Fri night and then sticking to gin on sat night. I will decline pud and cheese so hopefully I won't fall too far astray.

What excuse dd you use to get out of fri then? Headache?

Best go dd has her head in the washing machine

A subsequent engagement, Cheese

ROFLing at head in the washing machine...

Morning ladies. I am super-determined this week. Had a massive cookign session at the weekend and made about 6 different meals to put in the freezer. We are living with my parents at the moment and we share the cooking, but she is understanding of the SW thing so makes meals as SW-friendly as possible.

I have also done Pilates, been to the gym, done Zumba and walked loads. I have a sore ankle but I hope for a decent weight loss tomorrow!

Wow, I am impressed dorothy. Get you, I will have my fingers crossed for you.

Thankyou. I have a fertility clinic appointment in a few weeks and I am several stones heavier than I should be. I aim to lose as much before then as possible to at least show I am making progress.

Oh well done from me too Dorothy. We are in a similar boat. I have to lose around 20lb before I can get my referral to the FC, but DH and I decided that for the good of my health (including my mental health ) I should aim to lose 40lb so that I have really got to grips with a lifetime of obesity before grappling my fertility problems. One step at a time and all that

Well I have already lost 1 1/2 stone but I need to lose a lot more!

Well, see, the thing is, if you've lost 1.5 stone you can lose 2, and if you can lose 2 you can lose 3, know what I mean?!

Sod it I'm PMing you. There goes my resolution to never discuss TTCing with anyone ever again ever

Home from work and i didn't take anything out of the freezer for dinner so i need to sort something out. I'm sure I'll find something sw friendly as I stocked up recently.
Actually, I think I'll try making my first ever soup. Hope it turns out okay or I'll never be brave enough to make another soup!

I'm on my phone so can't remember off the top of ny head for personal replies but fully agree about the being able to lose 1.5 st means you can lose 2 or 3 stone. Stick with it and good luck.

That programme is on again, cbbc @ 5:45pm.

Urgh a long boring and wet day here. Dd is full of cold and miserable, quite rightly. We couldn't even get out the house as its so awful out. I did a few laps around the block during a break in the rain to prevent insanity breaking in. I've been good food wise though.

Good luck with the soup kid