SLIMMING WORLD - The futures bright - the futures Red, Green and erm Extra Easy....

[TitsalinaBumsquash]

Hope nobody minds me starting anew thread?

Long threads crash my PC!

I hope everyone is doing ok.

Kepp up the good work everyone.

Thank you ladies!! Hope you all do well this week. If anyone has any more easy chicken or pasta recipes I would appreciate that. Looked at a few on the website but a nothing caught my eye. Any tried and tested for a family would be great thanks.

Ok, first week back on slimmingworld, Done everything by the book (literally) and what? Zip, diddly squat, zilcho. Why ???????

Well done on all the weight losses!

Ria I wish I'd weighed myself before my haircut a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't had it cut for 3.5 years!

Right then.

Tuscan Chicken:

1 onion, chopped
170g/6oz button mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, crushed
284ml/ 1/2 pint chicken stock made with bovril
227g/8oz plum tomatoes skinned and chopped (or use canned)
few sprigs of rosemary
142ml/ 1/4 pint red wine
8 chicken thighs, skinned
salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

For the polenta:

397ml/14 fl oz water
113g/4oz instant polenta
1/2 red chilli deseeded and chopped
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1. Put the onion, mushrooms, garlic and stock in a heavy based pan. Cover and bring to the boil. Continue boiling for 5-10 minutes, then uncover and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are golden and cooked, and the liquid has been absorbed.

1. Add the tomatoes, rosemary and red wine, stirring well. Add the chicken and some seasoning, cover the pan and simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Check the pan from time to time to ensure that the sauce does not stick and get too dry. Add more stock if necessary.

1. Meanwhile, bring the water for the polenta to the boil in a large pan. Add a good pinch of salt and then add the polenta to the boiling water, stirring well with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat and continue stirring for 5-10 minutes, until thick and smooth. Season with black pepper and stir in the chilli and parsley. Pour into a shallow tin, cool a little and then cut into squares.

1. Serve the Tuscan chicken in its sauce with the polenta, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Serves 4
6.5 sysns on both red and green plans

I used chicken breasts cubed instead, and also a block of ready made polenta which I baked in the oven and then sliced. If you don't use the polenta you can knock off 5 sysn on the red plan.

Hope you like it!

shiver - my first ever week I only lost 1/2lb, the consultant said it would show the 2nd week.

Tusacan chicken recipe sounds really tasty, and dh would happily eat it. What is polenta though?

So far today I have had nothing but coffee as predicted. I'm going to use my milk as my HEA like you suggested RIA. I've measured out my allowence for the day all bar the splash I used in the cafe.

For lunch I'm going to have eggy bread with the bread as HE, havent got any bannanas left though as dd munched them all. Thanks for the suggestions RIA

Think I'm beginning to get the hang of it

shiver-dont get put off-as you can see from my posts that happens a lot to me and suddenly it all comes off in one go-its very frustrating but stick with it and you will see results.

phew, have been cooking all day (well it seems like it).

I made veggie paella for lunch, which was interesting (!) and filling. There is enough for about a week! Am going to try some leftovers tomorrow inside pepper halves then roasted with a HE of mozarella. Like all SW veggie recipes though it could do with some crispy bacon! (sorry to any vegetarians on the thread).
Having chicken pasta bake for tea, packed with veg and hardly any chicken. Hope the DCs will eat it as they need a "proper" meal.

well done letsgo on the 5,5lbs, that's brill - and hopefully as you say you'll be down a half stone by this time next week
the veggie paella in pepper halves with mozzarella sounds really good ria - amazing to think that you can have that on this diet! what about quorn bacon? i know it's not the same, but it still has the same sort of taste, and i reckon it would probably crisp up a bit with the frylight..... (will have to check if that's free though, altho it prob is as the quorn ham is)
will be trying that tuscan chicken recipe grinning, thanks very much for that
shiver, i just reckon our bodies are a bit weird sometimes and you'll probably find that you do lose next week - don't get discouraged. it's definitely definitely worth keeping on with it.
how are you making sure your chicken pasta bake is moist enough ria?

the pasta bake had 2 tins of tomatoes in. (I used to make it with campbells low fat chicken soup, but I hate wasting syns of food) the top goes a bit crisp, but I like that. I suppose to stop it going crispy I could put foil over it. Have sent DS1 to bed early as he was being a pain in the arse and then picked all the pasta out and starting fafing and making sick faces at the veg, DS2 in bed also for being naurghty with DS1 before tea, and DS3 in bed cos he was worn out. Nice.

Unfortunately I now have to go and pretent I understand maths enough to submit my TMA on Saturday. Hopefully Dsis will ring...

What's a TMA ria?

it is the work of the devil trixel - open university tutor marked assessment. Am not having fun!

Youch. Good luck with it!!
Have been pleased not to syn to the max today as have been feeling fairly rubbish. Went for a day out to Clumber Park yesterday, about 1.5-2hrs from us, with the bikes, DH and DC (5 & 3). At 5pm got a cricket ball whacked into our windscreen, smashing it fairly decisively.
Ended up faffing around with the insurance company for ages, then with the AA. In the middle of all this, at about 6.30, happened upon two lost and crying eight year old girls so took an hour out to reunite them with family (walking a fair couple of miles or two in the process - result!). Then finally became clear there was no way it was going to be fixed so AA had to recover us - spent 3 hours in a layby (park now closed), then AA finally arrived at 11.45pm - got home at 1.30am!! K-nackered today, plus v snotty - but DIDNT get takeaway pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I lost one measley pound this week...i know its better than nothing but ive been so bloody strict...i even sat on my hands while dh ate 8 triple choccy cookies and FIVE custard doughnuts!!!!!! AND ive exercised everyday!

Week two officially sucks

FIVE?!?! blimey, he'll turn into one. that is how it works isnt it? that's what i tell my DC's anyway
1lb is grand on a second week. It just seems not so great in comparison to what you always lose in the first week. But are you eating your Healthy Extras? And some syns?? There were two in my group this week who had stayed the same but said they'd been really strict and the leader said they needed to make sure they'd eaten all those, as that's when the diet really works. I can't comment from experience yet I'm afraid (also a newbie) but maybe that's the key?? anyone else?

Humph, hes in the forces and is very fit, works out daily and exercises for 'fun' so no chance hel be looking doughnut like in the near future

Im eating my HE but im bfing so not sure if im meant to have more than normal? Have stuck with whats in the book for the minute...and havent synned at all if im honest....well part from some angel delight one night but i think thats 4syns anyway...

I too am very of dh's abiltiy to eat FIVE doughnuts and not look any the worse for it. I'm also that anyone would actually excercise for FUN!!

You are burning mega calories by bfing kmummy, so you may need more, congrats on the weight loss, thats better than a gain.

Sounds like a bloody awful day Trixel, you did well not to comfort eat - not sure I'd be as strong. I'm crap when stressed, willpower flys straight out of the window (and the calories fly straight onto my hips!)

DH wants us to have fish & chips tomorrow. What he actually means is that he wants fish and chips. I've looked in the book, chips are mega syns though, how does anyone manage to have a chippy?

for F&C I read in one old mag that what you do is buy yourself a small fish and mushy peas, take all the batter off and make your own SW chips to have with it (IIRC). TBH I would flexi-syn it.

For BF you have extra HEs depending on the age of your LO, and you're meant to have the full 15 syns every day. I think the full recommendation is on the old thread. It is on the SW website too, with being PG, if you search about for it.

for your day yesterday trixel. well done on staying strong though.

I have just had a salad sandwich (forgot to have a HEB today) and a lager to celebrate finishing my assessment. 3 weeks til my next tutorial so time for a break I think (novels, embroidery, old SW mags...)

Making my own chips would definalty take the fun out of a chippy! I don't think its a good idea for my first week anyway, just have to suffer whilst I watch DH eat it.

What is flexi-syn? Is it sort of like saving your syns up?

Very envious of your alcohol!

flexi syn is (I think. correct me if I'm wrong) where you know you're going out/fancy a treat more than 15 syns, and you set yourslef a maximum of syns to be allowed for the treat (eg, 2 glasses of wine, main course out and pudding), so say you worked it out to be 25 syns, you keep counting and have 25 syns and no more. I think the idea is to stop you falling into the mindset of "oh, I've had x and y now, and gone over my syns, so I might as well have z too, and then some more". IYSWIM. This way you still have a proper element of control

must go to bed...

Well I put on a pound this week, despite having been uber strict. So narked off it's not funny, and yesterday was a bad enough day without that.

There are a few things I think may have helped this, including a differen consultant hence different scales last week, not going to the toilet yesterday (sorry TMI) and having a few green days last week.

So here we go again - another week. Going to write every single thing down including the sugar free squash I drink.

I know someone is going to say it's only a pound but when you have hundreds of them to lose it makes all the difference.

While I'm here anyone know roughly how much milk is in a mug? I'm in work and trying to work out how much milk I need to have today and don't have anything to measure it with. Thats another thing I'm going to do is make sure I have my full milk allowance!

Chicken something I can't spell

1 tbsp garlic oil
75g/2½oz pancetta cubes
6 spring onions, finely sliced
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
500g/1lb boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
½ tsp celery salt
125ml/4½fl oz white wine
1 x 400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
½ tsp sugar
1 x 400g/14oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (optional)

Method

1. Heat the garlic oil in a pan and fry the pancetta, spring onions and chopped rosemary for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the chicken pieces, sprinkle in the celery salt and stir well.
3. Pour in the wine and bring to a simmer, then add the tomatoes, bay leaves and sugar. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Add the drained cannellini beans, if using, and simmer until the beans are warmed through and the chicken is completely cooked through.
5. To serve, divide among four serving dishes.

I'm going to substitute the pancetta for bacon and maybe leave out the beans and have it as a red day meal. This is for 4 people - I'll halve the quantities because I'll be cooking it for 2. Not sure how many syns - I did write it down somewhere!

Thanks for all these recipes they are really helpful. Look yummy and easy enough even for me!!

Where is everyone?

I'm here. got a mega grizzly baby on my lap feeding, so at least she's quiet for a moment!

wonder where everyone else is?

oh and polenta puppyloves, is ground corn.

i'm making veg paella tonight. hopefully it will be nice...

dh rang me earlier while stuffing his face with a mars bar. wouldn't have known except he told me . still, i bought some curlywurlys yesterday. not been having my 15 syns

sorry for one handed typing!

I'm at work

Have you got the recipe for the vegtable paella grinningbee? I love paella. Is ground corn nicer than it sounds

Not sure how much milk is in a mug as I'm not at home so can't measure, your recipe sounds delish btw. I'm sure you'll lose next week.

RIA flexi syn is a really good idea, I always think 'oh I've blown it now, sod it, bring on anoother slice of the chocolate cake'

Does anyone know if Rocks juice has syns?