Saturday, 14-11-26

Evening, everyone!
Back to Slimming World days again!  No calories today.

I added some bacon to the plan for breakfast.  My excuse is that it was a jolly cold morning!

I didn't work out calories and it is swip free.

Lunch was tomato, lentil and red pepper soup, made with the very last of the garden tomatoes (so sad).  I finely chopped and cooked a bit of chorizo  and sprinkled it into the soup.  It added four swips but it was worth it!  I also added a splash of milk that is part of my calcium hex.
It made a lovely, warming soup that gave just a tickle on my tongue

Also, one swip for oil from sundried tomatoes.  Not 'heart healthy' oil so has to be swipped.

I also had an options choccy drink for two swips.

For dinner, I cooked some pasta with some broccoli and melted in some Philly light and had it with some baked salmon.  I'd have added some hot honey but I couldn't find it  Even so, it was really tasty.
The philly came to four swips.

Finally, I had three small easy peelers.

Summary:

Part of a calcium hex

No fibre or oil hexes
Eleven swips.

Not a perfect SW day but the food was great and feel satisfied.

Friday, 13-11-26

Evening, everyone.  Hope you've had a good day.

Today was a calorie day rather than an Eat Your Swips day.   That's because the 337 calories Count on Us pizza was also 17.5 swips.  😕

This is partly why I have sometimes started to do both.  The main reason is knowledge but occasionally it is because one works better for me than the other.  Ideally, I wouldn't need either but at my age I doubt that's ever going to be a thing.  SW says I could call the extras 'flexible swips' but I prefer my way.

It's also a bit of variety, I guess.  Variety in strategy rather than food - I get plenty of food variety.

In other news, I lost two pounds this week and we the Slimmer of the week.  Not the biggest loser, but she didn't stay so it was me.  Yay, me. 

It was a nice haul; the only thing I won't use is the spaghetti because I have the wholemeal kind - it can go back into next week's hamper and the oils in the background weren't part of it.

A bag of popchips and a very squishy pear didn't make it as far as the kitchen for the photo.  

And finally - I picked up the new SW recipe book.  It's called 'Protein Power' and there's some tasty looking recipe in it.  Maybe I should do a Week on Protein Power recipes!

No photo of breakfast but I had the bag of popchips from the SoW hamper, a pear and an apple - and it really filled me up for 193 calories or three and a half swips.

A lovely lunch, very simple, a small can of Heinz beans from the SoW hamper on two crust ends of a loaf - because it's home made and tastes great, even if it is crusts.

I added some Crucials bbq sauce to the beans.

340 calories 

or

one fibre hex plus one and a half swips for the bread

one swip for the bbq sauce.

Oh, I really enjoyed this.  The M&S Count on Us pizza and I added some extra cheese, not because it needed more but because I had calories to use and it's my calcium hex (if it were a SW day).

I also made some coleslaw with cabbage, carrot, apple and onion plus salad cream

The whole meal was 560 calories or . . 

seventeen and a half swips for the pizza

one cacium hex for cheese

two swips for salad cream

Later on, I am going to have an Options choccy drink, already counted in the final summary.  

40 calories or two swips

Summary:
1,133 calories

or

one calcium hex

one fibre hex

twenty seven and a half swips (I think)

You can see why SW says don't try to calorie count alongside SW.  It just doesn't work.

Back to Slimming World again tomorrow.  :-)

Thursday, 12-11-26

Good evening, everyone.  Hope you've had a really good day.

Not much in the way of photos today.  I had an apple for breakfast and for lunch Val made a delicious carrot and butternut squash soup which was SW free.  I had some bread and I'm calling it six swips as it was very light and holey.  A set yogurt for dessert was four swips.

Yesterday's leftover rice with mince, beans, added corn and peas and some cheese on top.  Delicious!

One swip for the rice, one oil swip for the mince and one calcium hex for the cheese.

Later on, I had an options choccy drink for two swips.

Summary:

One calcium hex

A bit of an oil hex

No fibre hex

Thirteen swips (estimated but I'm not far off).

Wednesday, 11-11-26

Good evening, everyone.  It's a Slimming World and calorie day today!

I dithered over breakfast - beans on toast would have been nice but I was having a form of baked beans for lunch so in the end I had bacon, 'fried' bread, mushroom, egg and tomatoes.  Not terribly healthy but tasty!
I 'fry' the bread by spraying it and them either popping it in the air fryer or in a pan, depending on what else is cooking.

As I used spray oil, this was swip free with a bit more than half a fibre hex for the bread.

As today is easier to 'calorate' (no such word really), Nutracheck told me that breakfast was 272 calories.

I used this recipe for lunch as I had leftover butterbeans and chopped tomatoes.

https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegetarian/gigantes-plaki-greek-baked-beans/

I didn't have any feta so I just added some grated cheddar instead.

Part of my oil hex, half a calcium hex for cheese 

350 calories

Dinner started from a need to use up coconut milk.  I also have far too much white fish in the freezer.  I just softened some onion and some baby corn, stirred in some Thai green curry paste, added the coconut milk and then poached the fish (hake) .

It looks very colourless, doesn't it, but it was bang on for flavour.

One swip for the rice, one swip for the curry paste, Seven swips for the coconut paste (ouch but worth it) and a bit of an oil hex.

Nearer bedtime I will have an options choccy drink for two more swips.

Summary:

Half a calcium hex

A bit more than half a fibre hex

Most of an oil hex

Eleven swips

or

1163 calories.

A bit low but I have had three very filling meals plus a snack drink so it is what it is!

Tuesday, 10-11-26

Evening, everyone.

We're well into porridge season now.  This had grated apple, festive spice and yogurt and it was lovely.

One fibre hex.

Lunch was the other portion of chicken curry and rice and I had an orange afterwards.

One and a half swips for the coconut milk and one swip for the rice plus a little bit of an oil hex.

When I came home after a meeting, I felt cold and a bit empty so I made some marmite on toast.

Another fibre hex and one and a half swips for some Philly light that I use rather than butter.

Mince on two mini jacket potatoes with broccoli and cabbage.  Very traditional and it was so nice to have something different to chicken.

The mince had one oil swip.

Summary:

Two fibre hexes and some of an oil hex

Four swips

Monday, 09-11-26: a week on chicken, day seven

 Evening, everyone.  Welcome to Monday evening.

The last day of a week on chicken has been and gone.  Despite the not-feeling-great crash that interrupted proceedings, I've really rather enjoyed it and I've not been bored.  I am looking forward to different proteins over the next few days, mind you!  

Today was not a full calorie counting day - far too many bits and pieces and this that and the other to count. Anyway I had serving dishes on the table for lunch and no way am I weighing each serving of vegetables, etc, onto my plate.

As I calorie count some days, I realise how close Slimming World principles, applied with common sense, get me to a reasonable calorie deficit without all the weighing.
Perhaps calorie counting works better when one has a lot of packet/ready meals with the calories on the packet.  It was much easier when I did the week on Iceland One Pound meals.  But when you cook like I do, it can be a right pain.
I'll calorie count where it is possible, more to keep me informed than anything else.

Breakfast was just some fruit (a couple of tiny apples and an orange) to keep me going as I knew lunch would be earlier than usual and bigger than usual too.  Loads of vegetables!

And here's what I had.  A good old roast chicken dinner and it was delicious.
Four swips for stuffing

One and a half swips for cranberry sauce

And I am saying almost three oil hexes for oil.  It was almost certainly less than that but I've not used any other hexes today so that covers it.

It kept me full all afternoon.

My last chicken meal of this week on chicken was a curry.  I used a basic recipe and added to it butterbeans, a pinch of chilli flakes and  some mango and I used half a pouch of golden vegetable rice (I'm getting quite fond of the golden vegetable rice).

And it was absolutely delicious, probably the nicest meal I have had in the whole week on.
And even better, there's another portion of both the curry and the rice for lunch tomorrow.  Yay!!

The rest of my third oil hex.

One and a half swips for coconut milk for the portion I had.

One swip for the rice.

Summary:
Three oil hexes (!)
Eight swips

No idea of calories.

Sunday, 08-11-26: a week on chicken, day six

 Good evening, everyone.  Welcome to the penultimate day of a Week on Chicken.

Time is flying and I was thinking longingly about my Christmas chine.  I think it's maybe just a wee bit too early yet, sadly.

A very delicious breakfast.

half a fibre hex for the waffles and the rest was SW free

or

271 calories

Ravioli, in case you can't tell!  Home made.

The pasta filling, the meat and butterbean paste I made last week, is a bit of a guess as far as calories are concerned but it was half a swip, I think, and a bit of an oil hex.  

The sauce is garden tomato passata with some garlic and onion granules, the last bits of the chicken and butterbean paste and some hard Italian cheese (some in the filling and some in the sauce.)

Dessert was an apple.

So . . .

one calcium hex, a bit of an oil hex and half a swip

or

approximately 533 calories (which does include the pasta) 

Later afternoon, although I wasn't hungry, I wanted something to eat so I spent the rest of my fibre hex on a slice of toast and one swip on some philly light while marmite was free.  No photos.

This was the recipe I used for the chicken - not all of it, just the marinade and the chicken.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/asian-style_sticky_23400
And I religiously added everything to Nutracheck!
I just cooked the vegetables in a pan with the bit of oil I had left for my oil hex.

The rest of my oil hex, two and a half swips (honey) or 319 calories the lot

Summary:
One calcium hex
One fibre hex
One oil hex
Four swips

or

1,262 calories for everything.