Wednesday’s meals – Challenges of Working at Home

So today I worked from home.  Whilst I didn’t need to prepare anything last night for today to eat, I still didn’t want to spend a lot of time cooking.  My’ working at home days’ are usually days where I can catch up with my work without interruptions.

I’m still up at the same time with the dogs.  Even if I had any ideas to have a lie in they would tell me different, so i’m at my computer by 7 am.

The challenge when you work from home is to make sure you eat good filling meals so you are not tempted to pick during the day!  My husband has a very sweet tooth so there are always lots to tempt me.  Thankfully I’m pretty good most of the time, but if i’m hungry that’s a different thing!  As I said I don’t want to spend a lot of time preparing food so I can concentrate on working, so its so easy to go for ready made snacks such as biscuits, chocolates etc if i’m hungry and between meals.

Today is also my Slimming World Group, so not only am I going to get weighed I am also going to be eating later than usual!  Planning is the key here!

The positive of working at home is that your food can be prepared fresh, so you can vary it from what you usually take to work.  I love bananas but obviously they don’t keep well if you chop them up the night before for the next day.

Breakfast

Today I had a fat free yoghurt topped with a banana, fresh blueberries and 20g of Grape Nuts.  40g of Grape Nuts are your HEB.   They are high in fibre and protein so great for filling you up! I only had half so that I could save the other half for an Alpen Light to take to group, to keep me going until dinner.

Bananas are high in vitamin B6 and B12, as well as magnesium and potassium. It also contains some fibre and protein.  Blueberries are also high in fibre and vitimin C, so this is a really healthy filling breakfast.  This week Slimming World announced that blueberries were now speed food so if you are doing a speed day you can include them.

Keeping hydrated is also a good way to kerb hunger.  I ensure I drink plenty of cups of Green Tea and water with a drop of sugar free cordial in.  Green Tea is an acquired taste.  I got into it thanks to my mum.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012.  My mum had read that it helped to prevent cancer.  Green tea contains substances called polyphenols, which scientists think contribute to its anti-canceractivity.  I thought I had nothing to lose so gave it a go.  Apart from the odd peppermint tea its all I drink these days.

Green Tea has grown in popularity over the years and you can now get it in lots of different flavours.  My favourites are lemon, jasmine or mango.

If you are thinking of trying it, my advice would be to start with a flavoured one and make sure you drink all 40 cups in the pack! Obviously not in one go but over the week!  It takes a while to get used to the flavour so don’t give in too quickly!

Lunch

Well I got through to lunch without picking except for an apple, which is absolutely allowed.  My youngest dog was extremely happy at my choice of snack as she loves apples.  You have to watch the seeds as they can be poisonous to dogs, but having spoken to my vets the little amount she may consume shouldn’t harm her.

As you will know from my previous blogs, I’m a big fan of omelettes.  They are really filling and you can vary the fillings so much that you don’t need to get bored of them.  Keeping to my theme of cooking food without spending too much time, at home I like to use my omelette maker.   If you don’t have one then my usual cup method in the microwave is just as good.

I love my omelette maker as I can put the mixture in and just leave it to cook for about 10-15 minutes depending on the fillings I use.  I also use it to make Slimming World friendly pasties.  I will share this with you in future blogs when I talk about recipes.

Amazon sell  omelette makers for around £10 so they are inexpensive.  This one is one of their best sellers at the moment and sells for £9.99. http://amzn.to/2rn3tzy

Today I put 80g of cottage cheese, 3 eggs, two large handfuls of fresh spinach, the last of the chicken that I cooked on Monday, and a good serving of left over broccoli into a bowl and mixed it all together before putting it into the omelette maker.  I servedit with the left over baked beans from Sunday’s lunch preparation and another 70g of cottage cheese.  The pot is 300g so I still have half left which I will use for another lunch or possibly a cheese sauce!

It doesn’t look attractive uncooked but is delicious.  Cottage cheese seems to take on a completely different taste when its been cooked.  I was absolutely stuffed afterwards.  Its also very warming on a cold day!

Dinner

True to my word I took an Alpen Light bar to eat during my Slimming World group.  Obviously I didn’t eat it until I had been weighed!  Every ounce counts right!  Do any of you also weigh the clothes you are going to wear to group to make sure they are the same each week!!  Mine has to be 0.3kg or I don’t wear it!

Wednesday nights I usually have something in the slow cooker so I can eat the minute I come in but tonight I thought I would do something when I got home.  Nothing that would mean we ate very late though.  Tonights choice was pork medallions.  I served it with a selection of vegetables (leeks, yellow pepper, carrots and radishes) which I dry roasted in my amazing roasting tin.  Towards the end of the cooking I added in half a bag of fresh spinach to wilt down.

The pork was cooked in one of my pans with the lid on.  When they were cooked I set them aside.  I added some boiling water to the pan to pick up the juices from the base of the pan together with 5 light cheese triangles which are my HEA.  I whisked in on a low heat until the cheese had melted.  OMG the sauce was absolutely amazing. The whole meal took only 35 minutes to make too!

You will notice that so far this week apart from Sunday there are no carbs in my meals.  This is because my husband follows the banting diet Monday to Friday.  He is South African and its big over there.  It means he can’t eat any carbs or sugars but can eat full fat everything.

Having two people in the house doing different meal concepts could be difficult but I have been able to mix the two.  If I want carbs I just add them.  He will have fat and skin on his meat and has full fat options to my fat free options such as yoghurt etc.  I never cook 2 meals, I just vary one or he has the same as me.  For instance, whilst I will have the light cheese triangles in my leeks, I would separate his off and add cream.  Its win win for both of us.

I hadn’t had any syns today so I thought I would treat myself to a couple of my new favourite drink – Rhubarb Gin with slimline tonic at only 3 syns each!

Another day on plan and all using my Lidl shop.