Aldi does it too? Well, so do I!

I'm an idiot! I can't believe I've had my Fitbit for 2 years and have only just figured out the weight loss calorie adjustment!

I wondered why the heck it kept telling me to eat as much as I was burning, and then I ended up gaining weight after guesstimating a bit too much. I've now started using the food log properly, and though the first 3 weeks of the year now look a bit candy striped as I've apparently missed my goals loads without realising, I'm now on track to do better. But, 2lbs lost every week so far regardless. Heeey! 😇😇

Might as well use these tools, they're free! If you don't have a tracker but do have a smartphone, try these. I also used a combo of Strava, Runkeeper and MyFitnessPal. And yes, I wasn't obese then, so those things did help.🏃

One of the things I've learned is that protein is such a huge factor in levels of satisfaction and avoiding cravings. And so is fat! I used to avoid fat and really load up on starchy carbohydrates. But, I actually think I've cracked this malarkey now. I eat nuts, seeds, avocados... the very things I used to avoid. I'm not hungry, and I feel great.

I must fess up though, and it pains me to say, but that First for Wellbeing thing may well have been right about the booze. I may have had my dreams haunted by missing bottles of Malbec, but I have not just gained in the wallet. I've gained actual time back. It means extra minutes in the morning, extra energy to fit in my exercise, less ennui generally. I don't get hangovers... but I now recognise I was extra tired and hungry thanks to booze. So happy to be weaning myself off that. Wonder what I'll do when it gets to February? (38 cans of cider in the kitchen...)

Absolutely no problem getting up for the last 3 weeks of Parkrun, and getting faster each week. 🏃 I even ran in the rain today! Plus I've already won 2 Workweek Hustle challenges on Fitbit.🏆

I'm also looking to save money and pay off my debts still, so this weekend I thought I'd address my new-found weakness for protein-rich snacks. I've tried various ones from Aldi: the Pecan Pie crush bars; the Macademia and Coconut Paleo bars and both flavours of Cacao brownie - almond and raisin and peanut and choc chip. They are tasty, have no nasty extras, and fit my macros. Unfortunately, they're almost as expensive as regular chocolate bars, which I wouldn't have bought every day, so they are adding significantly to my brought-in lunch costs.

I found this recipe for 'paleo' bars that looked so similar to something I was tempted by in a café near work, I just had to give it a go. But I tweaked the measurements to make them more Brit-friendly.

150g blanched almonds
55g walnuts
35g cocoa
20 dates (just the ones I had, bought from the awesome grocers in the arcade in Gold Street)
orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice
pinch salt.

What that gives me nutrition-wise is this:



And cost-wise, this:
almonds: £1.49

walnuts: £0.55

cocoa: £0.33

dates: £1.24

orange: £0.16

Total: £3.77 - 31p per bar.

This compares very favourably to the Aldi Peanut and Choc Chip Cacao Brownie, which at £1.49 for 3 is 50p per bar, and much the same size.

Also, I can confirm, delicious!

I'm a tad busy writing tonight, otherwise I'd cosy up with a library book. I found The Doctor's Kitchen, which I've been listening to the podcast of. Soon, soon...

Bananas and Bin Bags

It's New Year's Eve, and I'm sleep-deprived but feeling great.

OH is very sensibly having a kip before we venture out into the madness of a pub doing a 70s/80s night. It sounds a very mainstream thing, but it's just our usual regular lovely real ale pub, with its predominantly rock and metal jukebox, and regular goth nights. 

Now, they haven't said it's fancy dress, but that didn't stop me making a fancy dress outfit. I felt some effort was required, you see. It's just a shame I've put on so much over Chrimbo, as I have a very serviceable puffball skirt in my wardrobe, but I think being able to zip whatever I'm wearing all the way up would be a bonus. Therefore I'm wearing a very forgiving chazza-sourced LBD (originally Autograph M&S, ooh swish!). And a tie-on skirt made of bin bags.

Bin-bags? 

Oh yeah!

I made this out of bin bags yesterday while watching old black and white films on the telly, and if you're thinking, ooh, that's very Blue Peter, that's exactly what it is! I remembered Caron Keating making a dress out of bin bags on the show in the 80s, and whilst it doesn't seem to have gone down in Culture memories as prominently as Anthea Turner's model of Tracey Island, I remember it. Can't seem to find any stills from that time, mind, but it definitely happened!

And the bonus is that it will fold away very easily in case of embarrassment!

Now bananas... I want to share a rescue recipe I tried when I discovered some mincemeat I wanted to use had opened to the air, so I needed a festive filling quick.

Festive banana pies!

You will need:

2 bananas, 8 almonds, a capful of brandy, 4 chopped dates, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.

Oh, and the shortcrust pastry. Butter, flour, bit of water. I don't even bother measuring anymore.

Oven - 180 degrees C.

Just blitz the ingredients in a food processor (I would chop the bananas first to be honest), add filling to pies in a buttered patty pan. 

If you taste the mix now, it is sooooo sweet. Baking removes some of the sweetness, so don't panic if your teeth hurt.

Seal down pies, add prick holes, brush with milk or egg for glazing.

Pies are done in about 20-25 mins.

Whole like this, the bananas look very ostentatious, but won't chop down. 

Pieeeeeees!!!!!

Anyway... promise pics tomorrow, if not too hungover.

"Pie" and "Chips"

I came up with a bit of an (I think) ingenious use for those patty pan squashes my brother gave me... they look like pies. Why not make them into an actual pie?

First of all, I cut off the "pie" lid, and scooped out the seeds in the middle (I have no idea if they'd grow again, but I saved some nonetheless).

I scored the flesh slightly to make it cook up a bit mushier, then added a small, chopped clove of garlic, a few roundels of goats cheese and a splash of milk, then grated some nutmeg for extra umami. (Hindsight Tip: I would probably add cream instead, or a bit less milk, then halfway through, spoon some of the cooked flesh into the middle, then top up the liquid - but it still made a tasty gooey pie centre).

 It was ready in about 45 minutes at 180*C.

 For the "chips", I made sweet potato wedges (sweet potatoes from the cheap town grocers, 7 for £1), just roasted in the oven with a spritz of Frylight.

Served with grated carrot salad (dash of smoked paprika, white wine vinegar), oven roasted allotment tomatoes, lettuce and fresh olive oil vinaigrette, a chicken leg for OH and half an avocado for me. Yum!

Trapped by Chutney!!

My friend and neighbour came round today with a load of plums from his garden tree... and then shortly after came back with a huge bottle of vinegar!

And so without delay, I began the chutney production line: cleaning and sterilising jars, checking for recipes (I went with Good Housekeeping's Plum and Apple Chutney from the 70s). Quick pop to Aldi for more carrots and onions, and I had everything I needed apart from cloves... ah well, just put a bit more all spice in.

3lbs plums, 1lb apples, 1lb onions, 1/2lb carrots... 450g sugar (I don't know why I have both Imperial and Metric there), 225g raisins (donated this week by a friend who is returning to Weight Watchers, where they are an evil 3 points per spoon!!) and 1 and 3/4 pints vinegar looks like this.

Boil and simmer until thick.

Won't take long I thought. I'll just do a bit of editing while that's simmering, then pop to the allotment.

Oh my giddy aunt... that was hours ago! 

Recipe was supposed to make 5.5lbs. Well, I think I evaporated 2lbs. Just enough to fill all my spare jars, plus enough for this week's sarnies in a pot. I'll put some pretty labels on tomorrow. Or functional, depending on destination.

And things taking longer than they are supposed to is the story of my life, as I wanted to finish that editing job today, and that will need to be tomorrow now.

I have been trapped in the house by chutney!!

Whew... time for a glass of wine.

Boldly Going Where No Spud Has Gone Before

"What did you say this was?" asked OH.
"Patatas bravas," I tell him.
"Pardon?"
"Patatas bravas."
"What is it exactly?"
"Oh. Patatas bravas... con huevos."
"Are you speaking foreign at me. What is it in English?"
"Patatas bravas. With eggs."
"I give up."*

I can't help it... Patatas bravas is the dish! It is what it is. The English just won't do here as bold potatoes is the direct translation, which in itself is essentially meaningless. Just how are these potatoes being bold? They are hardly out fighting a war or making eye contact on the tube with Londoners. They are merely in a pan, being delicious, as all potatoes should be.

At the weekend I tried a new (to me) greengrocer in town as my train was early enough to catch the shops before they shut, so I picked up some gorgeous veggies. Two fat aubergines, Two big kohlrabi  and seven medium-sized sweet potatoes  for £3. For this dish, I used three of the potatoes and one aubergine... the aubergine to take the place of oily chorizo to make this dish more veg-packed and less fatty.

To begin, the sweet potatoes were peeled and chopped and roasted in a pan with some olive oil. Half hour medium oven should do it, as they don't seem to take the same time as regular spuds.

When they were nearing the end of their cooking, I sweated a small onion, two garlic cloves, the chopped aubergine, a chopped salad tomato and a generous shake of Aldi patatas spice (it was only 49p in the special aisle, but you could just use smoked paprika, thyme, marjoram and parsley). Adding the cooked potatoes to the pan, I then stirred in half a carton of passata.

As the sauce began to bubble, I made four wells and cracked in some eggs.

 You need to pop a lid on to get the whites to set. A bit of extra parsley on the eggs there!

 Finally I served it up with some olive bread (YS from Asda 10p) - all the better for dunking in that egg yolk.

A hearty, low fat, filling veggie meal. Sweet potatoes are lower GI than regular potatoes too.

Very much needed as the weekend was a bit too carb heavy, slightly denting my efforts to shrink. Back on it!

*disclaimer... not entirely how the conversation went! If anything it was the clarity of my Spanish at fault.

Glorious Bounty!

Hello everyone. I thought I'd share this picture of the railings by St Giles church in Northampton. I passed last week when I was in town sorting out things for the launch of a book I edited. These shoes look a bit too pristine to be recycled, but what an idea! An interesting way of displaying plants while celebrating Shoe Town.

 

 Part of me likes to think these might be the shoes of drunken women exiting Bridge Street clubs in the wee small hours, cast off Cinderella-like to the gutter, only to be ignored by the be-Ben-Shermaned princes of the town. Alas.

Anyway, despite the weather being hotter than Aiden Turner (i.e. very, very hot), things on my allotment are still alive! It's looking very fruitful indeed.

 

I got given a load of spinach by one of my allotment neighbours, so I made spinach and ricotta cannelloni! OMG, this was flipping tasty.

I got the broad idea from Jamie Oliver's website, except if I had followed his recipe, this would have been a lot more expensive.

I used no-pre-soak lasagna sheets for the cannelloni, and just soaked them a bit so I could shape them, which was filled with a mix of cooked spinach with nutmeg, a tub of ricotta  and an egg. I topped this with a sauce made of passata, flavoured with garlic, bay and basil.  Jamie Oliver's recipe called for Mozzarella and Parmesan on top, but I didn't want to go out to buy fancy cheeses, rendering the dish a lot more costly, so I made a small amount of white sauce and grated over cheddar instead.

After 40 minutes at 190 C, it was ready!

And I ate way too much...

Really enjoying being back to veggie. No more weight off, but I feel trimmer.

Right, will finish this blog post now, but will be back to talk about my amazing weekend!

Delicious Things That Can Poison or Sting!**

Hello everybody! I'm feeling pretty cheery today as I've managed to get a lot of creative bits and bobs done this weekend: some writing, rehearsals for a show I'm in this month... and these foodie lovelies.

We've been feeling the pinch a bit  as we've launched OH's new career and had to pay out a fair whack for that, just as we've also had to do a lot of travelling to see a family member in hospital. So hey ho, it's June, the sun is shining (oh heck, that's a lie, it's been stormy all day) and we've not got much spare.

Never mind... we've been making the most of what we've got.

In the picture, you see rhubarb liqueur. Made from homegrown rhubarb, stewed and syruped in a slow cooker. We used the stewed fruit used for desserts, and bottled the liquor with about half vodka. This means it's sweeter and a bit less potent than regular rhubarb vodka, so you could have it neat over ice or with a tonic. I think with all the booze and sugar it should keep well, but I've got it in the fridge. Yummy!

And the green stuff is my ever awesome nettle pesto. I gather my nettles from a patch at the nature reserve fringed by triffid-tall thistles and nettles that I think most dog walkers would be scared of. My peasant's pesto is made of  about three fists of mixed blanched nettles, one garlic clove, one slice of wholemeal bread, French-toasted, a lump of leftover French cheese, and whizzed together with rapeseed oil - or regular vegetable oil as it tends to be these days. I stirred it into some veggie spaghetti the other night - the spaghetti was cooked in the nettle stock from blanching the leaves for extra flavour. If you've never eaten nettles, they are more spinach than spinach. Awesome free things!

Talking of free, I'm not really one for dumpster diving, but I procured some overripe bananas by someone who couldn't contemplate using them, as I said it was such a waste to throw good food away. Some went into smoothies, some went into a cake*, but my favourite thing to do with overripe bananas is to make super-healthy ice cream.

How do you do that? Well, chop up the banana into pieces and freeze it. Just before you want to eat the ice cream, take it out of the freezer so it thaws a bit. For 3 medium bananas, I added a dessert spoon of smooth peanut butter for a nice texture and flavour (you can do without if you don't have/don't like/can't eat peanuts). Then whizz it  in the food processor until it looks like soft ice cream! Simple, lovely.

Anyway, thought I'd share those with you.

*the cake was a Hairy Dieters recipe. Got the book from the library. We're still eating said cake, but the recipe calls for waaaay too many bananas, I think. Took ages to cook. Probably the worst cake I've ever made. Will just make the one from my Good Housekeeping book in future.

**Yes, nettles are the stingers. Rhubarb is lovely, but you know never to eat the leaves, right?

Happy No Beers!

 Hello and welcome to the future! I hope you're enjoying your hover-boards and self-tying trainer laces! Remember kids, hover-boards don't work over water.

A few people have asked me if I have any New Year's resolutions, and I realized that the thing about "resolutions" is that you can't say "resolutions" without sounding a bit sloshed.

Try it for yourself right now. Resolutions, resolutions, resolutions. See?

I really only have one goal that I'm not already working on, and that's to try to be healthy - properly. And so OH and I are going to have a go at sobriety. Pfft! As OH is also in training for his first half-ironman, I think we need to go a bit beyond January, but we're inspired by the likes of the Hairy Dieters and Tom Kerridge who've basically just cut out the booze and done a bit more moving to get amazing results:

Ah... so one picture is long and the other is short. I see...

We kicked off the New Year with an intrepid six-mile hike round the Northamptonshire countryside. A good way to break in OH's new walking shoes.

En route, we saw a woodpecker. Can you spot it in the trees?

 

Our walk took us through the boggy fields of the nature reserve, and around the picturesque village of Boughton. We saw a flock of partridge scatter as we passed. Our destination was the ruins of 12th century Boughton village's original St John the Baptist Church - the beautiful Gothic architecture is slowly being taken over by nature. Here, OH's attention is taken by the sudden hoot of an owl.

An unlikely member of The Cure, yesterday.

The church was in use until sometime towards the end of the 15th/early 16th century, and sketches drawn in the 1700s show the tower was still standing then, though the walls were down. There is a field nearby which was the old village green, where evidence of an abandoned medieval village has been found around it. Strangely, the churchyard itself is still in use as consecrated ground and there are recent graves dotted among the Victorian stones there. The green itself was where the annual fair was held until 1916 - the biggest in the country, locals claim. Wouldn't it be great if they held one for the 100 year anniversary?

We also spied one of the Boughton Hall follies - the famous obelisk, now surrounded by a housing estate. We didn't spy any of the famous black squirrels, though. Another time, maybe?

In more Christmas leftover news, I found something to do with leftover mincemeat and 3 dark brown bananas from the much-neglected fruit-bowl.

Mmm, I think Paul Hollywood would see through the icing sugar disguise!

Banana and Mincemeat Tea Bread
200g self-raising flour
1/4 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 level teaspoon salt
75g butter (unsalted)
100g sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 ripe bananas, mashed
a handful of almond flakes (optional - or use any chopped nuts)
80g mincemeat (this was 1/4 jar that we had left)
25g sultanas (add a few more if you like)

This was a bit of guesswork, but I knew that you can adjust the sugar in a traditional tea bread by adding other sweet things. It happened to turn out pretty well like this.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius: It's a slow baker, so you will also need to protect the bread from over-browning by making sure the shelf level is appropriate before you start. I didn't and ended up swearing a lot, not realizing OH was on the phone to his mum.

In one bowl, sieve together the flour, salt and bicarb. In another cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then mix in the eggs, little by little. Add the mashed banana and mincemeat, mix well, then gradually stir in the dry ingredients and the extra sultanas and nuts.

Pour the mix into a greased, lined 1lb loaf tin. In hindsight I would add a paper cover to prevent over-browning from the very start as this will take 1 and a quarter/half hours to cook through (knife comes out clean).

Mind fingers and remove from the tin to allow to cool on a wire rack.

Make a brew!

Move Over Leftovers - Cant Knock the Gnocchi!

Christmas food... Will it never end!?

We still have some mincemeat and baddies to chomp through, but yesterday we tackled the leftover mash.  Shoved in a box with some cabbage and sprouts, bubble and squeak sprang to mind.

And then I thought, no! Away with your boring and predictable squeaky thing. These lovely spuds have been finished with truffle oil* - is that any way to treat them?

Peering in the fridge, I also saw we had leftover cream, a few almonds that had been mixed in with the sprouts, three lonely and forlorn-looking mushrooms and a butternut squash. I thought, put me on Ready Steady Cook right now, because I know what I'm going to do with these babies.

How do you make gnocchi? Well, they're so easy - I think these little potato dumplings are far easier to make than your normal egg pasta.

In a bowl, I had about 300g of mashed potato (by sight, this is a fairly hungry person's single portion of mash, or about 5 scoops) and mixed in one egg. Then I sieved in some plain flour, bit by bit, stirring with a wooden spoon until it started to clump in a dough-y way. You need to get your hands in to be sure you've put in the right amount of flour, but you should end up with something a bit squidgier than play-dough, not dry and crumbly, not stuck to your hands either, and it will be just less than double the size of the mash you started with.

If you think this is a bit slap dash, it is. If you want the posh way of making gnocchi with potato ricers, and paddles and faff, try the Guardian website. Honestly, cooking spuds specifically for gnocchi is a waste of time and energy; I think you get better results with cold leftover mash.

Once you have your dough, grab lumps and roll into sausages with your hands, then cut into lumps and roll with a fork to make little notches (very important for holding the sauce).

Her's my motley crew.

Look, I didn't say I was Gennaro Contaldo.

You want them to be the same size really, because that will affect the cooking. I am a maverick when it comes to the shaping and sizing of my gnocchi.

Put a pan of water to boil and add the Suzie Salt just as it's bubbling (salted water takes longer to boil and I am Richard Osman). put the gnocchi in - they will sink. They will take 4-5 minutes to cook. When they are ready they will come to the surface, but leave them a few seconds bobbing up and down before removing from the pan. Fry them if you want to. I didn't.

My gnocchi then, served in a sauce made by softening some onions and crushed garlic in pan with butter, adding chopped mushrooms and roasted butternut squash, white pepper, sage, nutmeg, a slosh of cream, and finishing with some grated cheddar. It's lumpy and pale orange, but lush.

Ah, I'm a maverick when it comes to presentation and artful photography too.

*Truffle oil was a freebie from someone who had been given it but didn't think they'd ever use it. I know!

Wench's Diets: This Week I Have Been Mostly Making - Yoghurt

...and I'm utterly converted!

I suspect I have turned a corner and am now unresignedly geeky. But heck, so's Amy Farrah Fowler, and that's pretty cool.

Secret yoghurt-eater. Rumbled...

Again, Huge Furry Wotsit is to thank for my basic recipe. I did exactly as he did and the result was a lovely, smooth, thick yoghurt that I ate for  lunch today with some honey and snaffled strawberries from a buffet we had today.

However, I only used approximately 1 tablespoon of yoghurt as a starter culture and it worked very well.

I think I was a tad impetuous with my purchase of dried milk powder. I bought Asda's 340g for £1.88, which has the benefit of added vitamins A & D, but only saves me about 10p on a bought tub. In future, I will go to Sainsbury's for their basic milk powder at £1.15 a pop, and 4pt Aldi whole milk at 95p a bottle. I am also going to scale down to 400ml milk to better fit my thermos and avoid wastage. This will mean I am making a big tub of yoghurt for about 20p.

That will give me something to 'raita' about, eh? Eh?

Wench's Diets: This Week I Have Mostly Been Baking...

Custard Cookies.

Because both OH and I had promised to take food to work for different things, and because I didn't want to spend any extra money, we made these biscuits using stuff from the store cupboards. Original recipe here.  We swapped marg for butter, and sized up to make a few more.

INGREDIENTS:
icing sugar 100g
butter 200g
plain flour 165g
custard powder 70g

• Cream icing sugar & butter
• add flour & custard powder & mix to dough
• Form into a sausage shape & chill in plastic bag/ cling film for 2 hours
• remove from plastic and slice into 32 'rounds'
• place on baking tray & bake for about 10 minutes at 180

Verdict: Yum! Very Vanilla.

 Bacon and Cheese Muffins

Made in anticipation of a picnic that never happened, these ended up being breakfast, snackage, then breakfast again. They are great hot, bit taste really nice cold. Adapted from a Huge Furry Wotsit recipe to suit my available ingredients.
Makes 12.

100g streaky bacon, cut into 1cm pieces
1 red onion, finely diced
75g wholemeal strong flour
175g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs
80g Flora cooking liquid
200ml plain yoghurt
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
100g smoked cheddar, grated

Heat the oven to 200C and line a patty tin with 12 paper cases.
I fried the bacon in a non-stick pan to avoid using extra oil and drained the excess grease on kitchen paper. I cooked the onion in the same pan, again, no extra oil, then set aside to cool.
I mixed together the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Separately, I whisked the eggs, cooking liquid (which I got free from the Good Food Show) and yoghurt, stirred them into the flour mixture, then folded in the bacon, onion, some chives from my garden, and most of the cheese. I didn't use as much cheese as Hugh, as I didn't have much left from the Good Food Show, and thought the bacon would carry most of the salty flavour anyway.

After putting mixture into the muffin tin, I realized there wasn't much cheese to sprinkle on top, like Hugh said, but I did so anyway, just a few strands each. The muffins were baked for 18 minutes. They are cooked when you insert a stick into the centre of a muffin and it comes out clean.

Live Below the Line Day 1

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I had thought I could wing my way through this week Masterchef invention test- style,  but as Sunday was awesomely hot and as I noticed the use by dates of some of the food I had bought were a bit close,  I rethought what I had planned to do when,  and how I was going to store stuff.

The liver went in the freezer for defrosting Wednesday night for Thursday's tea. Half the milk went in the freezer too. Taking a tip from Kath Kelly,  I also froze the bread. There's only just enough for 2 slices each per day,  and I knew I would be heartbroken if I came to use it and found it was mouldy. Separate slices can be prised off the loaf, and sandwiches made by spreading the frozen bread (if you're using any, mine have to be dry this week). In weather like this they are defrosted by the time you've finished making the sandwich. By lunchtime, that's a certainty.

Day 1 menu was:

Breakfast: 40g porridge cooked in water and whole milk. I took this to work a) so I could use my work benefit sugar  allocation,  and so that there would be less of the day to feel hungry.  This involved military tactics of careful transportation and judiciously careful microwaving. I'm well-renowned for explodey porridge at work...


Lunch: ham sandwich. 2 slices of bread,  1 of ham. Plus lettuce and cucumber sticks.  I also took a pear but managed not to need to eat it so that's a treat for today.  The air conditioning was broken at work,  so a very hot office probably helped to kill my appetite.

Dinner: spicy salmon fishcakes with salad, potato crisps and mixed veg.

I cooked the potatoes (175g per portion) in their skins so as not to waste any through peeling.  I'd not done that before,  and when I was peeling off the skins it occurred to me that I could use those too. I put them on a tray and popped in a 175 degree oven for half an hour or thereabouts while I got on with the rest of the dish.

1 and a half onions were fried and mixed with the potatoes, salmon (a pack of trimmings), 2 teaspoons of cumin and these shaped into patties and returned to the pan. I used a nonstick pan, no oil, so ended up with something akin to fishy bubble and squeak.

Some lettuce leaves and the rest of the second onion sliced made up the salad.

This was served with 80g frozen mixed veg per portion cooked in a little boiling water.

 I must admit, it doesn't look much, but it was tasty, and very filling. OH declared me a genius for using the potato skins as I did. It added a nice bit of crunch and flavour to the salad. I'll do that again!

Let's see how that stacked up as nutrition for the day. I built these charts using Weight Watchers and My Fitness Pal, before I decided not to eat the pear. My Fitness Pal tends to be a bit anti-sugar, so I don't let the red alarm me too much (important to watch if you need a low sugar diet). I can see it's broadly nutritional, but lacking in healthy oils - and, crucially, calories. There's not enough of anything there. Not even for a diet! I'm sure that will be rectified on day 2. Bigger helping of porridge for a start...

And yes, OH had his cakes yesterday too.

Doing this has made me mindful of my garden's potential to feed me and how I should be making the most of it. Unfortunately, the sage and parsley I planted out on Sunday in our very heavy Belfast sink planter looked cat-attacked today. I tried to save them as best I could, but I think only the chives, mint and possibly thyme stand a chance. The sink is now covered with the grill from our old broken barbecue to keep the cats off. I used the rest of the brick barbecue to make a Jenga-style cold frame and planted out some more basil, lambs lettuce and oak leaf salad. Tonight I want to weed and net the strawberry patch, to give some of the very tiny strawberry flowers a chance to grow into fruit. Life's good.

The Long Haul

Apologies...

Apologies, dear reader, for my absence. Life suddenly got very hectic. I have been doing so much work in the evenings I've not had time for my blog. Neither have I had a lot of heart as some of our financial plans were thwarted by unforeseen circumstances. Dur du-duuur! I see this blog as being about positivity, and need to be in a chipper frame of mind to write that way, hence I didn't write. However, plans are adjusted following our disappointment, so the mood lighting of this scene is a tad warmer and accompanied by some soft jazz. Chill... everything's gonna work out just fine...

Hello, hello?

 

Hello new follower, Bruce! Welcome.  I promise it's not always this chaotic round here. 

I am a Horror Writer. Welcome to my Darkplace...

Author... Dreamweaver...

What a couple of weeks I have had!  Over in writer/editor/science fiction land I have been working like crazy. A short  story has been finished and sent to my editor for publication a little later this year,  and I have been busy with BSFA Award stuff too. They will be announced next week. Editorial work has been taking up most of my time, though. I'm currently working on a memoir for a private commission at the moment which is very intensive, but the old East End character of the writer's voice shines through, so I'm thrilled to be helping with what will be a lovely and unique family heirloom. 

Over on the Northampton Science Fiction Writers Group blog, co-Chairman Ian Whates has summarised everything we've been up to in 2013. It already looks like this year is going to be even busier. Except I'm not getting married again. Apart from that, really, really busy.

One thing OH and I are getting up to this year is script-writing with comedian Tom Young, the purposes of which I will keep shush for now. Very excited about this project though. A clue... it's pretty geeky.

If Your Name's Not on the List, You Might Still Be Able to Get In, I'll Just Check...

I have also been bouncing again.  This time for Robin Ince, who this time came to NN with Jo Neary (who I performed with in the old Fishmarket a couple of years back),  George Egg and Grace Petrie. What a marvellous night! Robin was doing his Dirty Book Club - like the Bad Book Club, only more sexah.  My verdict: very, very funny - all of them. I  love Grace Petrie's songs, too; I have been listening to her for a while.  Also, I got to try maple bacon as cooked by George Egg. Egg does bacon pancakes very well. This might sound like I was so impressed with the acts I ended up staying for breakfast,  oo-er, but it was an act thing and I don't want to describe it in detail,  as you may very well go and see him do it,  which you should. 

Robin Ince: dressing like he means it.

I've Seen Bigger...

I have also been complaining. I'd like to say my complaints were always as successful as this one. You know about Mars' recent health-drive to save us calories? Well, they've improved the recipe and downsized their chocolate bars. Very worthy, and I can't argue with that. But I did take exception to paying for a load of air.

But I got an apology from them - their cutting machines had cut my bar too short they reckoned. And a sweet £2 voucher. Get in!

Scratting About

I also gained 25p in 'Found money' this week for my Sealed Pot Challenge. I put a quid's leftover change in 20p pieces into OH's much depleted Doctor Who DVD collection, and earned my first Quidco cashback. 69p. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

  

I Appear to Have Gone Bananas

 So, I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger.  What did I do with the rest of the bananas? 

Well,  I made chutney.  So you can breathe now.  Right after you've stopped spluttering.  Banana chutney? Yes indeed.  Very lush it is too. 

 

*Imagine here a picture of the actual chutney I haven't taken yet*

We're talking 8s and 9s here

 I used: 5 overripe bananas

1 wrinkly Golden Delicious

8 pitted chopped dates

1 red chilli (this was a yellow sticker buy)

3 really small onions from a  savers bag - one medium one would be equivalent

pinch salt

250ml white wine vinegar

100g soft brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground ginger

Really was as simple as frying the onions and spices, adding the fruit and vinegar, then the sugar, bubbling it away for a bit, then storing it in jars as you would jam. I sterilised my jars first, and added a greaseproof disc to the top of the chutney. This stops the metal tainting the chutney. Then, to properly seal, I boiled the closed jars in some water for a few minutes. A great way of using up fruit that's no good for eating as fruit anymore.

How Not to Be a Right 'Nana.

 

How are we all doing? Keeping up the resolutions? Good, good...

 

I have to say I am feeling pretty proud of myself so far...  firstly, I did the very first Parkrun of the year even though it was tipping it down with rain!! As a 'well done' I was allowed entry to a competition to win a place at the Virgin London Marathon. Maybe I'll do a marathon this year then? Or not... Oh Cripes; hope I don't actually win...

 

Then when I got in, I noticed OH had accidentally opened a letter for me from the bank. Apparently I'd gone over my overdraft limit and they were going to charge me £10. TEN SQUID! I was livid!

 

I have signed up for a text alert so I get notification if I am nearing my limit within £50 or so. I can then go into my account online and pay in money to my account before 3.30pm to make sure I don't get charged. On the day in question I got the alert because I was close to the limit. So I went online, made sure I wasn't actually over, and then checked again at various points through the day. So I knew darn well I hadn't been.

 

Most people would just shrug their shoulders and eat more chocolate at such news. But I work hard to earn every tenner and I'm not going to put up with a charge like that. I mean a tenner - that's a round!

 

I decided to call in at the bank in person and sort it out. If you are ever going to do this, you must remember the golden rules of (cuts both ways) customer service:

 

• Remember the person serving you is a human being; never be aggressive or rude. Keep your eyes friendly, your voice calm.
• Use phrases like, I understand why you have to say that, but; I appreciate your position on that particular issue, however. Basically, soften up before you say 'but'.
• They do have to be a gatekeeper and say no, but be persistent. And persistence shouldn't become aggressively persistent. If you reach an impasse, pause before going back to an earlier point.
• A good way of getting them to understand where you are coming from is to ask questions. "If these transactions were done overnight, shouldn't I have seen them on my statement in the day?"
• Don't argue about anything you know you are wrong about - you will trip up. They've seen it all and can spot chancers a mile off.
• Remember to say thank you - a lot. Thank them for checking the facts again, looking things up for you, and thank them after they have helped.

 

And, dear reader, you will be pleased to know after a bit of persistence, I got my money back. And then the same person was an absolute lovely and helped me bag up my post-Christmas piggy bank change so I could bank it.

 

It's worth noting that when you sign up to an overdraft facility it's at the bank's discretion. But they look at the long-term benefits of letting you have access to services like that (because they can make more money) and as long as you don't become a credit risk or a bit of a banking lemon, it does them more good to keep you on side. Hence, going into my branch  - often - works for me.

 

And then I ate the chocolate anyway.

 

So, week 1 of 2014 and I'm making the most of what I can get, which this week was bananas. I picked up a bag of 15 for 19p. Some of them were still good eaters, but there were a couple turning very brown, some black. This is the state people think chuck/banana cake, but we wanted to do something a bit different. I had a special request from OH, who doesn't really do breakfast, but wanted some energy bars to help fuel morning exercise. I adapted this recipe from one in an old, old Weightwatchers book to do the business:

 

Banana Energy Bars

 

Yes, they're full of sugar, so have limited claim to actually being 'healthy'. But they are full of all natural ingredients and you get slow release energy from the oats as well as fast release from the sugar.

 

Ingredients and facts:

 

 

• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C, Gas mark 4. Line and grease your tray (about 17 x 25cm - I used a lasagna dish).

• In a saucepan, slowly melt together the 100g spread, 50g sugar and 50g honey. When it's all melted, set aside to cool down a bit.

• Sift 100g self-raising flour and a pinch of salt in a bowl, add the 125g oats, 50g sunflower seeds and 40g chopped dates.

• Mash the bananas together, mix in beaten egg. Add this to the flour mixture.

• Stir in the syrupy mixture.

 

• Pour into the baking tray/lasagna dish/whatever you have, and bake for 25 minutes or so. It should be firm to the touch and golden brown.

• Let it cool for a bit, then cut into 10 bars.

 



 

Of course, this didn't use many of the  bananas... tomorrow I will let you know what I did with the rest. Nothing rude... just another recipe thing.

 

In the meantime, listen to a creepy story read by creepy old me. It's live now on Pseudopod. I read The Violin Family by James Douglas, which won second place in the Escape Artist Forum's Flash Fiction Contest 2013.

Sweet Treat: Date and Hazelnut Cookies

First of all, apologies if you are trying to avoid sweet temptations in the run up to Christmas.  I made these lovelies to be a pick me up for OH who is going back to work today for the first time after his operation.

However,  rest assured that I am also trying to watch my intake,  trying to mostly "eat clean", and have worked out the damage on My Fitness Pal.

You will need;

75g butter
75g light brown sugar
75 dark brown sugar
175g self raising flour
1 egg, beaten
Pinch salt
50g chopped pitted dates
50g chopped hazelnuts
A few drops almond essence

First cream together the butter and sugars, then add the egg a little at a time. Add the essence.  Sift in the flour, salt and add chopped nuts and dates and fold in.
Spoon onto a greased baking tray.  This makes 20, so you'll either need 2 trays or do in 2 lots.
Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 10-12 minutes.  Allow to cool on the tray for a minute before transferring to a wire rack.

OH managed to eat 2 from the rack when I wasn't looking.

The damage is 112 calories per cookie,  or 3 Weight Watchers Pro Points. Dates are currently 89p for a huge bag in Home Bargains,  making them less than half the price of the ones at our market.

Taking the photos was another challenge. However,  I did some research and worked out how I could improve my images. We have a dark house,  and taking photos at night on dark wooden surfaces makes things look old and dowdy.

I used a light background to help reflect more light.  Out of shot are a white cloth behind the chairs, 2 deflated silver party balloons and 2 bike lamps. Crucially,  I didn't use flash. Result: much better photos,  just using my phone!

Took a break last night to watch Masterchef.  Did you see it? The chefs were challenged to produce two fine courses from 'kitchen scraps' such as fish heads and skin,  blackened bananas,  overripe brie, beetroot tops, broccoli stalks and stale croissants. They looked a bit daunted, but it was the perfect business lesson for them,  I thought.  Was anyone else thinking, "Easy!"?

I love getting comments,  so please do say hello.

£7 Food Challenge Day 3: Curry to Combat Friday Night Bus-Fail

Hello Peeps. Bit of a fail on efforts to keep money in my purse as Stagecoach buses couldn't get me home. After waiting the best part of an hour in Milton Keynes for my bus, then the bus after that, I got a glimmer of hope when I saw the golden bus drive come the road - and skip the bus station. That meant it would be another half hour wait at least, and then a long journey home in what I knew would be heavy traffic. I finish work at 5 - I wouldn't have got home until 8. So £8.50 for a single ticket was flensed from me and dripped in sacrificial offering down the slots of the  London Midland trains ticket machines. That really hurt. At least the train was on time.

I read the free copy of Evening Standard on the way home. I promised I would scrape my brain later, but I've probably left it too late as I realised the film My Sister's Keeper is on now and I quite fancy watching it.

To cheer myself up though, I thought I'd pop into the museum on the way home to see the Private View of the Northampton Town and County Art Society 100th Annual Show. This is from the promotional leaflet.
There are some fantastic pieces on display - some for sale, others not. Pictures include portraits of Alan Moore and Jim Tom Say!

I really enjoyed the exhibition, but besides the lovely Haneke, there weren't too many people there I knew, and it really was busy, so I finished my wine (free wine, free wine) and left before the presentations.


The exhibition runs until 5th January 2014.



So home alone, I decided to give myself a Friday night treat - a most inauthentic chick pea curry with coconut rice.

It's a skinny curry, made without using oil. Sorry!

I dry-fried onion, garlic, ground coriander, ground cumin and garam masala - and some madras powder to cheat (about a tsp of each spice) - then added some grated carrot when the onions had softened, and when they had also softened, a lonely mushroom. To that, half a tin of chickpeas (okay, 2/3 - greedy) and half a tin of plum tomatoes, mashing while stirring. Boil, then simmer. Meanwhile, for the rice add a dessert spoon of coconut powder (brilliant stuff - bought a huge box for 35p in Home Bargains) to 55g rice, cover with cold salted water to about 2cm above the top, cover and bring to boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes or until the liquid has absorbed.

Sprinkle the finished thing with coriander leaf to look pretty. Shove in gob.

Right, let's kick back and watch this girly film then. And let’s have a proper hot chocolate  - with marshmallows!

Shopping - Today £0. Total so far: £5.09.