Sunday, December 03, 2006

Better late than never (I did Sam's challenge)

I know I am very late with this challenge but my excuse is that I went on holiday before the end of the challenge and have only just got back. I did consider chickening out but then thought better of it. Who would dare to ignore Sam's challenge so I continued taking photos for the full week (well when I remembered but you know what it's like on holiday and I didn't want everyone to think I was a total nut case). Overall it turned out to be rather a boring food week and I realise I have a very repetative diet especially when I don't have much time. I cannot download any of the free photo systems. I did try but apparently my computer systems are too old so should you read this there is no slick little slide show. This means I will just be posting day by day record with photos, this could be a big mistake, given I'm not a good photographer it's probably a bit boring:

I always start every day with a cup of boiled water when I am with Beccy she puts lemon in it I don't at home.










This is followed by a glass of freshly juiced fruit and veg as much organic as I can get and usual is apples, carrots, cue, pepper, celery, toms, courgette.

I always end the day with camomile tea.





Monday 20th
This winter I have started having porridge oats with fruit. On Mon it was blueberries and my last meal with Beccy before she took me to the airport.









I normally don't eat at the airport but I had a long wait so bought myself a sandwich and bottle of water; I could have chosen a salad but got tempted with this instead. However it was organic!









I was trying to take photos without drawing attention to myself. If anyone saw me take this they would have thought I was mad. Well Sam did say everything you ate, and I like to suck a sweet as the plane takes off.


Now this is where it gets embarrassing; returning home no food in the house and Mike saying let's have fish and chips. So I reluctantly agreed as I did not really want to cook. No one will believe me but I did only eat the fish (no batter) and very few chips leaving the rest. I should have taken a second picture what did not get eaten.




Tues 21st
Breakfast








Lunch of carrot and ginger soup.










Dinner- well I did have the healthy broccoli oh I nearly forgot to mention the little tipple.











Wed 22nd
Breakfast and lunch as yesterday.

A little afternoon snack of malt loaf (ok I confess it's not home made)









Braised steak with mushrooms and carrots (this needed a little more flavour I should have added some red wine) and mashed potato and purple sprouting.. Yes that is a wine glass you see and no I don't indulge every night.




Thurs 23rd
No change to b'fast also had juice and finished up the soup for lunch.







Fresh pineapple makes a delicious snack and I saved some for Mike.











Some thing quick has to be a bog standard pasta bake ( cheese and tomato) very unimaginative but Mike likes it.







Fri 24th
B'fast porridge and juice. I was so busy I didn't really stop for lunch it was an apple and a piece of toast which I forgot to photograph at the time.

Yes I hold my hands up- I found four squares of choc in my cupboard and I ate them without thinking, those who read my post for this day will know I have already confessed, so I had to photo the wrapper instead. I promise it was only four squares but that's four too many and there was no one around to share.






Just a quick bean sprout meal as I had a very busy day getting in food to leave for mum and Mike as I was leaving for the Costa del Sol the following day.






Sat 25th
Frantic morning, usual juice and porridge for b'fast, cooked a pack of sausages to leave for Mike who coud not resist eating one immediately- they were supposed to be for his lunch when he got back from driving us to Cardiff airport.
I had some natural organic yoghurt, strawberries and blueberries to use up so made us a smoothie, oh added a banana as well.









Lunch at the airport was a little something I prepared at home (houmous in the pot). I did have a mint sweet on the plane and a tomato juice didn't have the camera out to photograph.





Having arrived at our destination rather later than anticipated (useless taxi driver will explain in future post) we went for a meal in the pool restaurant. This believe it or not was supposed to be a lasagne and it was every bit as bland and boring as this photo. Serves me right I should have stuck a salad as I discovered later in the week the salads were good. Of course the challenge was over by then.

Sun 25th
Holiday or not I still started the day with boiled water, my porridge had dried cranberries added. It took me several days to get the consistency correct ( different microwave) sorry didn't photograph the gooey splodge of the first day. As you have guessed we were self catering but we only made b'fast in the appartment. I didn't have lunch but did have a few nuts and crisps with a glass of Sangria again didn't take photo but I am owning up.

We decided to try the paella for dinner, it was meant to be for two but would easily have been enough for the three of us. I was even halfway through this before I remembered to take a quick snap; this is why it looks a bit messy as it's half eaten. I left quite a lot of the rice but I have discovered that I actually like mussels and I cannot remember ever having had them before.

I know there were far too many calories consumed by yours truely and I have told myself that now I am back from holiday I will be watching what I eat. The trouble is there is a lot of socialising to be done leading up to Christmas and who can be careful over the festive season. Well I am full of good intentions but maybe that's for the new year !!
I'll start telling you about my holiday tomorrow. I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on as well.

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22 Comments:

At 4/12/06 00:48, Blogger Sam said...

way hey mum - good job - you have done me proud!

thank you.

PS - I cook up my porridge in a pan. I use steel cut oats and do it properly the old-fashioned way because they are better for you and cheaper to boot. I do enough for a week and then just reheat as I need throughout the week.

 
At 4/12/06 07:34, Blogger ChrisB said...

Thank you Sam not sure about reheated porridge though. Hope you enjoyed Penny's b'day.

 
At 4/12/06 07:44, Blogger Beccy said...

Well done Mum, fantastic post and worth the wait!

 
At 4/12/06 09:58, Blogger sallywrites said...

Hi Chris

Hope the hold was good!

It doesn't look boring at all. Lots of fresh fruit. Delicious!

Sam just out of interest, why do you make lots of porridge and then reheat it? It only takes a couple of minutes to make it from scratch in a pan each day, and I personally like it a bit sloppier. I do use proper oats too btw. Just wondered!

Sally

 
At 4/12/06 09:59, Blogger sallywrites said...

Should have read "hol" not "hold"!!!!!

Apols!

Sally

 
At 4/12/06 10:40, Blogger ChrisB said...

Beccy I would still like to do clever things with slide shows etc.

Sally I had a lovely hol thank you. I will be posting about it over the next few days. I do try and buy a lot of organic food. I don't know why Sam cooks a weeks supply of porridge. I'm just lazy and don't like cleaning the pan which is why I tend to use the microwave.

 
At 4/12/06 15:27, Blogger Sam said...

Sally

To answer your question read this and href = "http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/dining/05WELL.html?ex=1262667600&en=a608fea2a54e9aa1&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt">this which should answer your question. Not all oats are created equal. If you are cooking them that quickly ou are probably using instant oats which aren't as good for you, as the steel cut or even the rolled ones ones which take much longer to cook:

"Whether old-fashioned or quick-cooking, steel-cut oats or rolled oats contain two grams of soluble fiber in a serving. With a couple of exceptions, all the others contain only one gram, even though they still promote health advantages."

 
At 4/12/06 15:29, Blogger Sam said...

ps - i dont like cleaning the microwave which is why I use the pan (but only once a week)

 
At 4/12/06 16:27, Blogger ChrisB said...

Sam its mummies who are supposed to teach their children not the other way around I'll have a look at the link. Porridge doesn't get my microwave dirty well not often especially if you cook it in a jug. But I may have to rethinknow you've told me all this.

 
At 4/12/06 18:57, Blogger Sam said...

I had my steel cut oats this morning with half a dried pluot, real maple syrup and creamy local jersey yoghurt for breakfast and it was so absolutely delicious and only 3.5 Weightwatchers points, I can't begin to tell you how much I love it.

Unfortunately oats are not indeginous to CA, and its not a local food, but since they are indeginous to my homeland and vital to my physiological make-up, I make an exception for them. (Does that excuse seem believable?)

It is a noble mother who can accept the wisdom of her daughter too.

 
At 4/12/06 19:47, Blogger cookiecrumb said...

I can't believe how healthfully you eat. (Little pangs of guilt for your lapses -- too cute.)
Nice photos.

 
At 4/12/06 20:09, Blogger ChrisB said...

cookiecrumb healthy eating maybe but obviously too much on the plate as I don't loose any weight. To be honest there weren't many temptations around that week. Now today when I went to the post office what did I buy 'gums' albeit a very small packet. I'll blame you for this temptation (joke) as I had just read your post about gummy bears.

 
At 4/12/06 21:32, Blogger Sam said...

that's funny - every time we eat a jelly sweet now we think of Cookie crumb.

Another thing I thought of - the porridge in your picture loks white, mine looks brown. Are you sure you are getting enough fibre in your diet?

 
At 4/12/06 21:46, Blogger Beccy said...

That was my porridge oats sam, they're rolled, organic oats so I would think they'd be pretty good. Porridge oats are cheap here so it's one thing (along with carrots) I can always buy organic.

I often make a muesli for breakfast with them. That was the pink gloopy stuff on my food diary. I add seeds, raisins, grated apple(and/or pear) and an active raspberry yoghurt. Looks gross, tastes delicious).

 
At 4/12/06 21:57, Blogger Sam said...

I am not sure what the difference between rolled and steel cut is. Maybe steel cut is even cheaper? Mine current batch are actually Irish. How long do the rolled ones take to cook?
Need to look into this a bit more...
Mine definitely look browner, now why is that?

 
At 4/12/06 22:14, Blogger ChrisB said...

Sam I don't know about the oats Beccy's are much whiter than mine which seem slightly greyish when cooked.

 
At 4/12/06 22:17, Blogger ChrisB said...

Sam I won't say what your oats look like maybe ours are too refined even if they are organic ( which my current batch are not).

 
At 4/12/06 22:42, Blogger Sam said...

Hmmph. You should not be worried about saying my oats look like "absolutely delicious". You're as bad as Fred - he was turning his nose up at them earlier too.

 
At 4/12/06 22:55, Blogger ChrisB said...

Sam I expect they taste OK

 
At 5/12/06 02:45, Blogger Barbara said...

Welcome home Chris. Your vacation apartment looks great. Well done on completing the challenge. I need to get into this porridge discsussion. I can't find steel cut oats in the the shops here. I buy rolled oats and as a reader of labels it annoys me that the rolled oats imported from Australia sell at about .50cents less than the NZ produced. I make enough for the entire family each morning in a pan on the stove. I add grated apple, sultanas and macadamia nuts and serve it over frozen blueberries. The heat of the porridge will defrost the blueberries. We don't add any sugar or syrup and only Bryan adds milk.

 
At 5/12/06 12:03, Blogger ChrisB said...

Barbara I have always bought rolled oats and I have not specifically looked for steel cut oats. Oats are generally a very cheap food here but I am going to look more in depth at differences next time I need to stock up which won't be for a while as I have plenty in my store

 
At 5/12/06 23:07, Blogger Sam said...

ok?

OK!

they taste blimmin' marvellous, mum. cheeky.

 

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