Dodgy days... Part 1

Training courses. Killers aren't they? There you are, locked up for a couple of days with a group of people you've never met, in a small, windowless room with a plate of biscuits on the table in front of you just begging to be saved from going soft. So, being the kind-hearted person you are, you help out by eating one or two. Well, actually, you eat four on Thursday and then another four on Friday! OK, so you didn't touch any of the chocolate-covered ones - but you did munch the crunch cremes. Er, no, wake up! That is NOT being virtuous.

Then there's the lovely lunches that the trainers thoughtfully provide for you. You start off with great intentions - just one little sandwich, or maybe two depending on the filling, and you are going to fill up by grazing on the inevitable salad garnish, with an apple or a banana for dessert. You are going to have absolutely NONE of those deep-fried tidbits, no way, no how.

Until you see them, that is. They look and smell delicious, and you are, of course, hungry now, after all that sitting on your bottom, hard work and concentration. So maybe just one? But you are chatting and you don't move away from the table - so one becomes two, then three, then... oh dear! And that sweet chilli dip goes so very well with them. Seems like you've blown it now anyway so, what the hell, a mini cream-filled choux pastry chocolate eclair won't hurt you much more. No point having an apple at this stage, eh?

Then comes Friday night and you've worked really hard this week. There's a busy weekend ahead so you deserve a little R & R, don't you? A take-away curry, with naan bread of course, seems reasonable. So does that beer you buy to go with it.

And Saturday arrives. As predicted, a whizzy, whizzy morning so breakfast was a quickly grabbed piece of fruit and some bread. No time for lunch at all. Cooking all afternoon and cleaning the house up for your overnight dinner guests. By now you are very, very hungry (tummy growls LOUDLY) so plans to be abstemious go right out of the window after one glass of bubbly. Instead, you indulge yourself with all the goodies you cooked 'just for them'. You eat some of the cheeses you bought in lieu of a 'naughty' pudding too, and drink copious quantities of wine! You fall into bed far too late, tired, a bit inebriated and stuffed to the gills!

Sunday starts well, but then it turns into 'what shall we do with the leftovers' day. You can guess the rest.

Monday morning dawns and, surprise, surprise - the weight you'd put on during your holiday is back. Just as the scales had started on their downward journey once again, you blew it!

And the bad news? This week is a busy one, bringing a meal out on Thursday, and then there's another two days training still to come. It's not looking good.

Attack of the Munchies

OK, what's going on? I'm not sure whether it's because today has been dreary, gloomy and drizzly, and it's now quite dark, or if I'm just having an off-day, but I've developed an afternoon case of the monster raving looney munchies!

So far today I've eaten my lovely, and supposedly long-term filling (huh?!?), porridge for breakfast and a nice crispy apple with some dried berries at break [...giving myself a stern warning to avoid the chocolate, my girl!]. Then a bowl of my lovely hubby's bean & veg soup (given extra pep with a shot of hot Louisiana chilli sauce) and some fresh strawberries, blueberries and grapes for lunch. Up to then, not too bad.

I did have a wee taste (just the size of little fingernail... honest) of cinder toffee earlier, as it's Bonfire Night, and found that I am not all that keen on it any more. I'm now nibbling fresh physallis with a cuppa (usually quite a satisfying treat).

But, I just came really, really close to buying cake - a big slice of buttercream-topped lemon cake to be accurate. Huh? It isn't one of my favourite ones, even if it did smell nice. I *know* that I actually don't like buttercream very much at all, and *always* regret eating the oversweet, sickly, gooey stuff, so why did I even consider it?

As I write, I'm still filled with a silly urge to buy 'something bad' and stuff my face. And, mentioning Bonfire Night a moment ago, now thoughts of a big plate of bangers, fried onions and buttery mash keep creeping into my head.

I'm at a loss to understand why. It can't be carb cravings - porridge and beans should have satisfied those through the day. Shouldn't be wanting a strong flavour - both soup and physallis hit that spot. So why on earth do I want eat so badly, if needs be to tear the leg off the nearest table and munch, munch, munch?

Right now I'm managing to resist, but it's a big struggle.

More super soups?

Aaaahhh, yes. A steamy bowlful of warming soup with a hunk of crusty bread! As you'll have gathered, this is a subject very close to my heart - and pretty good for it too... well, mostly.

This time, though, the potentially delicious bowls of delight don't stem from the mixing spoon of my lovely hubby. I found these beauties by happy accident whilst looking for veggie winter warmer recipes. Just by chance I stumbled across a whole section of 'super soup' recipes on dear old Delia's website. Serendipity, or what?

Some of them (like the Roasted Tomato Soup with Purée of Basil and Olive Croutons and the Polish Beetroot Soup) sounded just wonderful and made me want to try them out right now. Check out the deliciously deep ruby colour of the beetroot soup - wow!

I really do struggle with the idea of sticking slavishly to a recipe though - I may just have to suggest to my darling that we use these as a starting point for an evening of soupy experiments. Happy stirring!

One of hubby's super soups

My lovely hubby made a great soup in our slow cooker for dinner last night. I've just had another portion for lunch and it tasted even better the second day. So good, in fact, that I thought I'd share it.

The recipe is purposely left a bit vague - soups always seem to taste best if you play it by ear, adding in what you actually like, and don't stick rigidly to a recipe. Actually, that seems to be my mantra for cooking in general. Best not apply that logic to meringues though.

Hubby's Mixed Bean & Vegetable Soup (makes about four servings)

About 250g of dried mixed beans (this mix included, pinto, black, green & red lentils, pearl barley and several others)
2 large carrots, chopped into half-moon rounds
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
Half a small savoy cabbage, roughly chopped
A little olive oil
About a litre and a half of stock (whatever type you have)
A healthy dollop of tomato puree
Small handful of storecupboard dried herbs (again, whatever you have)
A spoonful or so of black pepper to taste (or paprika or chilli if you prefer)
A ham bone, or chopped meat (spicy sausage is nice) can be added if you want to

Soak beans overnight, then discard soaking water. Add fresh water, bring back to the boil and boil fairly briskly for ten minutes, then discard water again.

While beans are boiling, gently sweat the vegetables in the olive oil, until some of them are lightly browned. Place beans and vegetables in the slow cooker whilst still hot, and sprinkle with your herbs.

Make up stock with boiling water and add the tomato puree. Add this to the slow cooker, whilst still piping hot. Add the meat now if you are going to use it

Cook (on low setting if your cooker has one) for 8 hours. Taste for seasoning and add black pepper or paprika until it tastes the way you like it. Remove ham bone before serving, if used, and serve with hunks of crusty granary bread.

I hope yours turns out to be as delicious as lovely hubby's one. Enjoy it!

Good news... and a bit of bad?

Well, we had a wonderful, wonderful break, with a resident woodpecker in the tree outside our window. Crazy weather, with a bit of everything. It even snowed for us! What a lovely treat to wander through woodland that looked like a scene from a fairytale, complete with gorgeous views, red kites flying overhead, roaring waterfalls and beautiful icicles. Magical!

We quite surprised ourselves as we didn't go mad, even given the multiple celebrations. We mostly ate pretty sensibly (with lots of whole grain things and vegetables), but I expected the scales to have gone up a lot more than they have done as we definitely didn't count the calories in any way. What with one thing and another (er, including several Accident & Emergency visits) we didn't even do that much walking. But even though we 'treated' ourselves to a few naughty things like a couple of bottles of wine, the odd pudding and deliciously lovely full-fat cheese for a change, I've only put on a couple of pounds in total. I'm still happy at 75kg.

And the bad news? All the lovely relaxing time we spent seems to have gone right out of the window, all in the space of one morning - yesterday, to be precise. And why? Stress!

I've come back to a very hectic couple of weeks at work and have already been hit by a variety of problems I hadn't anticipated, as well as the ones I guessed I'd come back to. My boss wants to meet me 'urgently' and hasn't mentioned either when or why. It's going to take me an age to catch up with the massive pile of email and post. I'm off to the physio tomorrow, and then I'm away on a training course from Thursday. The timing could not be worse to be honest. We even have a busy weekend coming up - with a dinner party as part of that. "Oooh", you must be thinking, "the poor fat lass"!

All this is going to make it very hard to get back on track though - especially with readjusting my attitude. I need to get back into a decent morning exercise routine and good healthy food choices. It didn't help that I didn't have much time yesterday morning as I had to leave a bit early - so what did I do? I chucked some cereals in for my lunchbox - hmmm, not very appealing! OK, I ate my apple at break (well, an hour or so later) and bought myself a banana to eat with my lunch, but what I very nearly did was to say 'pooh' to it all and go for a baguette and a choccy bar. Oooh, that was close!

Oh yeah, a tip to the wise - packets of generic soup-in-a-cup look like a reasonably low calorie, warming choice for lunch or a break, don't they? Not so. They are really chemically and crap. Don't even consider buying them! I had something red and glutinous that purported to be spicy lentil soup yesterday. I don't know what was in it, could not have identified it had I been blindfolded, and am not sure I want to know as it might have been anything. It tasted truly disgusting!

Today has started in an odd way - I was inadvertently party to murder most 'fowl' this morning. Sort of a re-run of 'Who killed Cock Robin?'.

There was a little bundle of feathers in my path as I walked to catch my bus - a robin. He was obviously hurt/dazed. The poor little thing fluttered onto the middle of the road as I walked towards him and I couldn't leave him to get run over so moved closer to him to gently persuade him to move further across the road and onto the relative safety of the pavement.

I'd only just turned away to leave him to recover when a sparrowhawk pounced on him! End of robin, with only a small squeak to mark his passing. Just a couple of feet away from me, it was. I can only assume that's why the poor wee thing was a bit dazed to start with. At least it was a quick end.