Category: Challenges

Rather nice egg muffin with chorizo, pepper and onion for breakie, with fruit and yogurt. Did not want to get up – bank holiday weekends always do this to me. Just when I get used to not having to get up, POOF! time for work again.

Hot shower helped wake me up (thanks to hubby for fitting that over the weekend) but still hit the coffee bar before 10am looking for a caffeine fix.

Fortunately I put in the extra effort yesterday and had a yummy lunch to look forward to; roast butternut, feta, peppers and toasted pinenut salad, with a boerwors garnish 🙂 Colourful food always makes my day better – well, sometimes only my lunch ‘hour’ but still better than nothing.

Returned home to a stack of dishes, but tried to be disciplined and house proud and cleared the lot before turning on the TV. Kept dinner to 1 pan so I didn’t mess up my nice tidy kitchen; just some steamed veggies with cold, lamb and sweet potato koftas. Simples 🙂

OH went for a morning run again, so again I overslept. Popped out to have a late brunch at Café Rouge and pick up a few more bits from Waitrose and Tesco. Lovely and sunny so got things ready for a braai; green bean and feta salad and a coleslaw. While I was in the kitchen I thought it best to crack on with prep for the week ahead. As well as the huge tub of coleslaw, I now have a whole pack of hard boiled eggs (peeled), a dozen egg muffins, lamb and sweet potato meatballs and a weeks’ worth of chopped fruit salad, AND made packed lunches for work tomorrow. Should make things a little easier. Still not managed a run.

OH went for a run in the morning so I overslept. No serious side effects from the bread yesterday.

Had sticky chicken drumsticks and some more pork, beef and chorizo burgers with roast butternut squash wedges for dinner.

Adding this retrospectively as I’ve not been able to post for a couple of days. Worryingly I actually can’t recall much more about Sunday.

Long lie in and OH actually didn’t go for a run in the morning. Quick brunch of coffees and egg muffins before hitting the farm shop for a few long-weekend braai provisions, and a lot of mince. Spent my afternoon culling 7 years’ worth of food magazines – actually quite an emotional job.

Left lunch a bit late so went to a local pub for a drink and some seafood. Had a few bits of bread too so will see how that goes….

Beef, pork and chorizo burgers for dinner. Just wrapped in lettuce and no sides as couldn’t be bothered.

Good start – working from home so got to wake up late and enjoy a coffee in bed and chorizo, pepper and egg muffins mid-morning. Should have used the opportunity to have a hot, cooked lunch but actually quite warm so stuck with herring rollmops and raw veg salad. Tried to enjoy al fresco, but scuppered by a bloody wasp!

Lamb curry with a side of spiced cauliflower, and more gooseberry fool for dinner 🙂

Very nice omelette with chorizo and fresh tomato for breakie – good start but banging headache stuck around most of the day. Not even finished the month, but already planning for September to be an eat-whatever-the-heck-I-want month – highly unlikely that I’ll be able to convince the OH that this is a good idea!

Had yummy smoked mackerel salad with Swedish mustard dressing for lunch, and managed to decline the most amazing looking chocolate brownies baked by a colleague. Smelled divine, but I think that much sugar would be a mistake right now – boing boing boing!!!

Veg box delivery arrives tomorrow and the fridge is still jam packed with stuff, so dinner will be left over beef stew with as many veg as I can sneak in. The hard stuff is fine, I can just freeze it, but there’s not a lot you can do with lettuce and celery – without a lot of dip 🙂 A couple of glasses of red wine, and gooseberry fool to complete – yumm.

Woke up absolutely starving. Don’t know how – ate tons yesterday. Got to make another batch of egg muffins, and start eating 2 with breakie. Bank holiday long weekend ahead, so trying to write a big to do list and get through all the little tasks that have been annoying me while I have the energy. Moved in 9 years ago, and still have no pictures hung in the living room or bedrooms! It’s the onset of Winter – puts me into nesting mode 🙂

Filling chopped salad with tuna, egg and cheese for lunch kept me going for a bit, but the thought of driving so close to a McDonalds was very tempting. Why? No idea – I don’t even like McFood. Went to a colleague’s leaving drinks after work so had a nice glass of wine and a bowl of sweet potato fries – love that pubs do these now. Home early to make dinner (chicken and mushroom stroganoff with cauliflower rice) and off to bed at a reasonable hour. Still not run all week, but tomorrow is a new week 🙂

Funny, even after all these weeks of trying to be good my pavlovian response to stress is still food. Think I might even try some of those Chicken McBites things I’ve seen advertised on TV. 55% chicken in comparison to the McNugget @ only up to 45% – practically whole-food!

Managed to get home without going via any food establishments, mainly because I knew dinner was already prepared and ready to scoff. Still got through a bag of veg crisps with salsa and a few ricotta stuffed pepperdews before beef stew with steamed pak choi. Prepped some gooseberry compote to have tomorrow night if I still want that custard 🙂

Bank holiday weekend coming up so tempted to say sod it, and just live with the fall out.

Monday’s officially suck. Felt like I took a bit of a kicking at work (why are some people so mean?!) – spent most of my day resisting the vending machine 🙁

Had an egg muffin with my fruit salad breakfast; think they have a much nicer texture after a day or two. The coconut flour can be a bit dry on the palate, so keeping them for a few days seems to make them a bit more moist. Will make more tonight. Nice tub of soup for lunch to keep the cold at bay, supplemented with a teriyaki beef mooli wrap as I was ‘literally’ starving – think I might be preparing for hibernation due to lack of sunshine.

 

Scheduled to make a beef short-rib stew for this week, as Summer has forgotten to come back, but not a cut of meat easily found at Sainsbury’s. Had intended to head out to the farm shop today, but when I phoned they said they don’t do them. They certainly used to! Just had to use shin of beef instead – first world problems, I know!

Had a tasty beef keema with fried, shredded sweet potato for dinner; pretty tasty. Tried to pig out on snacks to make my crappy day better, but too used to avoiding certain aisles so only managed plantain chips and guacamole. Did get a tub of fresh custard so might scoff that tomorrow night.

Saturday was going to be a long day. Early morning park run, birthday party and shopping all to be done. Did have a little birthday cake (it’s the law!) but otherwise managed to eat plenty of good stuff with some red wine. Was feeling a bit lazy come dinner time so went for chicken wings, ribs and sweet potato wedges which could all be baked in the oven. Knocked up a batch of coconut flour egg muffins to have with breakfast this week. Had cooked up quite a storm on Friday night so had paleo-vegan carrot cake bites for dessert.

Sunday made sure we had snacks for the train journey (egg muffins and sausages) and got a big, cooked breakfast before a day at the rugby. Instead of getting burgers and stuff at the ground we had leftover lamb dosa, sausages, mini pork pies (party food) and nuts to snack on during the day, but still had a couple of beers too. By the time we got home, neither of us was particularly hungry, so just had a cup of tea before bed.