Taking a break

 Hi.  Just to let you know I'm taking a break.  I'll be back.  xx

Monday, 28-09-26

Good evening, all.  

No breakfast - I wasn't hungry!

I met Alex in town and we ended up going to Zizzi where I had a chicken Caesar salad.  This photo is from the site.
It was delicious, around 750 calories (so not too bad really) and very filling.

Later on, I had a banana.

Pretty much the same as yesterday because leftovers.  I found some swip free gravy in the freezer so I had some of that and I drizzled over hot honey as well.
One swip.

Afters was grapes.

B:  fruit

L:  wrap pizza and salad

D:  Spanish tortilla

fruit

Exercise:  Groove but not the walk as I have to get back quickly afterwards.

Sunday, 27-09-26

Good evening, everyone.

Apologies for last night.  After Strictly, I went to bed!

Here's a couple of yesterday's photos.

Breakfast

Fruit (blackberries, raspberries and black cherries) with yogurt, mixed seeds and chia seeds.

Three oil swips for the seeds.

A bit later I have a seeded wholegrain cracker that I am calling a fibre hex.

And lunch:

The unexpected figs from my little tree are no more and  jolly nice they were too.
Next time I will serve them differently - I will fold the ham on a plate, scatter over the quartered figs, crumble over the feta and drizzle over the honey (or maple syrup.

I can't remember the last time I had figs but it's already on the shopping list!

It was surprisingly filling so I decided I'd save the little salad for later, if needed.

One calcium hex and two and a half swips for the honey - half a tbsp will be more than enough next time.  :-)

No breakfast.

This was lunch - a hm bean and mushroom pate with toast and salad bits.
Afters was an orange.
One fibre hex and three swips.  I have half the pate left for another time.

A lovely dinner.  The base of the pie was a beany chicken stew with added chickpeas and the top was mashed potato with an egg beaten in.

One oil swip for the roasted parsnips and one swip for some hot chilli honey I drizzled over the vegetables - I measured out a tbs and poured a third of it back.  :-)  

And I have plenty of leftovers for dinner tomorrow evening - nice one

Summary:

Healthy extras:  one fibre and part of an oil
Four swips

B:  tomato and mushroom omelette

L:  bean and mushroom pate with garlic tomato melba toast and side salad

D:  the other half of the cottage pie with veg

Exercise:  circuits class

Eat Your Swips Friday: 15-09-26

Evening, all.  After several disrupted weeks, Eat Your Swips Friday resumes.  It does help me stay on track and also splash out a little bit.  I suspect I will be counting my oil swips and doing the maths at the end of the day.

So - after a very mixed week with more than a few 'stuff it' moments,  I stepped on the SW scales this morning thinking that a maintain would be a win, only to find that somehow I had lost two and a half pounds.  No idea how that happened but I'll take it with gratitude, draw the proverbial line and move on.

Breakfast - a hm bagel (very nice and chewy) with chutney and smashed avocado, my last rasher of back bacon and some fried tomatoes.

I wouldn't say the chutney worked with the avocado, caramelised red onion chutney would have been better, but not to worry - you live and learn.

Four and a half oil swips for the avocado, two and a half oil swips for the frying, one fibre hex for the bagel and one and a half swips for the chutney.  

It was very filling!

Lunch was the rest of the veggie lasagne with a bit of salad stuff.

One calcium hex and two swips.

Dinner was the Spanish white bean stew or Pochas a la Navarra (says the Spain on a Fork site)
Nine oil swips went into the making of this - everything else was speed or free.

It was absolutely gorgeous, much nicer that I expected.  It would also be lovely with added meat - chicken, ham, sausage, meatballs, chorizo . . . definitely one to go on the 'regular' list.

Afters was an orange.

Summary:
Healthy extras:  one calcium, one fibre and one oil
Ten swips for oil, three and a half swips for other things, total thirteen and a half swips.  Top limit is fifteen so I'm good with that!  I definitely ate my swips and ate well today.

B:  fruit, yogurt and mixed seeds

L:  prosciutto (actually, Serrano ham - I knew there was a reason why I bought some this week!!!)  wrapped figs with honey and yogurt
(this is a fingers crossed - I have a little fig tree and usually the season is neither long enough or warm enough to produce ripe figs.  This year, however, I seem to have two lovely, ripe figs ready for my tum!)

Here's proof!!

D:  chicken and bean casserole (from the freezer); might turn it into a cottage pie or something similar.

Tuesday, 22-09-26

Good evening, everyone.  It's Thursday and I found this sitting, unsent, so I'm sending it this evening.

A two egg omelette  filled with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms.  Really simple, delicious and filling.

Half an oil hex and half a swip for some nooch in the omelette.

Lunch was red pepper hummus (and a bit of balsamic vinegar)with carrot sticks and then a little Greek salad.

Two oil swips for the hummus, half an oil hex for olives, one calcium hex for the feta.

Pork with creamed cabbage and beans - a SWK second portion from the freezer and really tasty.

Two oil swips

Summary:
healthy extras:  two oils and one calcium
half a swip

B:  sweet waffles, fruit and yogurt

L:  leek and potato soup

D:  Spanish white bean stew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW8NlvbAojU

Thursday, 24-09-26

Evening, everyone.

Sorry about yesterday - it all went upsy down and I only had one photo so no post.  

Here's the one photo from Tuesday; it was delicious.   

Breakfast was an apple, a pear and an orange.

Lunch was a corned beef salad.  Four swips for lean corned beef and one swip for salad dressing.

A bean and lentil lasagne - I added tomato slices as another layer so it went a bit sloppy but tasted great and the best thing - I have another portion for tomorrow.

Two swips for the white bean sauce, one calcium hex and that's it.

Summary:

one calcium hex

five swips

Obviously, loads and loads of free or speed stuff today.

B:  avo bagel with tomatoes

L:  second portion of lasagne

D:  Spanish bean  (may not be white!)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW8NlvbAojU

Monday, 21-09-26

 Good evening!

A lovely, sunny-day breakfast of Greek yogurt, mixed seeds and some fruit from the freezer, warmed up in the microwave.  Really nice.

Three oil swips for the seeds.

I had thawed some frozen hm gazpacho and, oh, dear, it really hadn't frozen well at all.  I'm afraid it wend down the sink and I enjoyed some cooked chicken, an apple and an easy peeler (no photo) and some fat reduced hummus with carrot slices.  

Six swips for the hummus!

It's been ages since I had anything approaching a roast dinner and I really enjoyed this.

Roasted parsnip, sweet potato and potato, carrots, roast lamb and a swip free gravy.

One and a half oil hexes.

Summary
healthy extras:  two oils

six swips

B:  mushrooms and tomatoes in an omelette

L:  roasted red pepper hummus with carrot sticks, Greek salad (with feta and olives)

D:  pork with creamed cabbage and beans (SWK frozen leftovers)