Thursday, 30-045-26

Breakfast:  Yogurt with honey, orange, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries

One and a half swips for the honey.

Lunch:  I weighed out the bread for today's fibre and this is part of it, toasted and then sprayed with a bit of evoo.  The pate is the rest of what I made yesterday.

So part of a fibre, I swipped the bit of oil (see next photo) and a bit of a calcium (see next photo).

More lunch:  beetroot, feta and walnut salad.  

I used mixed leaves, tomato, cucumber, red onion, yellow pepper, pineapple, beetroot, 10g olives, 8g chopped walnuts (you don't get much for 8g!) and 22g feta, crumbled.  I finished it off with a spray of evoo - this and the starter made one and a half swips.

So:  one and a half swips for oil, three quarters of a calcium choice, the walnuts were three swips and the olives were one swip (25g is two swips)

I had an apple later on.

Dinner starter was the traditional bread with evoo and balsamic vinegar.  While I won't be having this all the time, it makes a tasty starter.

Half a healthy oils choice and the rest of my fibre choice.  

In the end, after a lot of dithering, I made pilafi which is very similar to risotto.

You need a good stock for this and I had some nice lamb stock in the freezer so I boiled some cubes of lamb leg in the stock until they were nice and melt in the mouth.
In another pan, I softened onion and mushroom in a bit of evoo, added the rice and the stock and let it simmer until the rice was soft and the stock almost all absorbed (the ratio is about one of rice to three of stock).
You are then supposed to add butter but I didn't.  I added the cooked lamb and checked for seasonings.

OK, it was a very poor version of the real thing but it was very tasty and I enjoyed it very much indeed.

Half a healthy oils choice and I think that's all.

Summary (I think)

One of each healthy extra

At least seven swips, maybe more.  I'll get this sorted out but I think I need to keep a little notebook in the kitchen for a while, to record what I use.

B:  probably nothing as I don't eat before Slimming World and my friend, Diane, is coming back for lunch

L:  Diane came to Crete too so I'm doing a Cretan meal.

bread with evoo and balsamic vinegar
dakos (Cretan barley rusk topped with chopped tomatoes and crumbled feta

stuffed tomatoes

salad

beans and chicken with orzo

fruit

It looks loads but portions are very, very small

D:  I am assuming there will be leftovers but, if not, griddled chicken with salad.

Goodness knows how I will score it all out.  Fingers crossed.  :-)

Thursday morning, 30-04-26 - an extra post

Good morning, everyone.

I'd like to explain a bit about my experience of the Cretan way of serving meals, seeing as I want to adopt it for a while, for most meals anyway.

There are courses but they all run into each other, using the same plate for more than one course.

Typically, our meals started with bread (usually sourdough or wholegrain or softened barley rusk) with their local extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

As we were enjoying that, out came some sort of dip or pate and/or something like dakos (rusk with tomatoes and cheese) or stuffed pepper or similar.

Then there might be something like dolmades (stuffed vibe leaves) or a spanakopita triangle, lovely with the dip or maybe more balsamic vinegar or perhaps rice, bean or meat balls.

These are stuffed tomatoes and peppers.

There might be something lentil or grain based next.

Then the plates were replaced and out came a salad.  Not any old salad, they were very varied and tasty.

I particularly loved the beetroot, feta and walnut one but they were all delicious.

While we were enjoying the salad, out came what would be the 'main' course in the UK although by then we were not very much hungry.  This might be meat or fish based but often it was beans/pulses and, with that a sauce and some pasta, rice or potato.

Finally, clean plates and a small dessert - bougatsa (a pastry filled with custard and/or cheese/fruit) or loukomades (mini doughnuts with honey and nuts or simple fruit.

And wine - copious amounts of very light local wine - and water.
(I know it should be red really but they served both)

It sounds an awful lot but portions were small and it was almost all very light and very easily digested.  Not once did I have any kind of indigestion.

And then there was the social side of each meal, sitting along long tables, laughing and joking with fellow One Travellers and the hotel staff who stayed in the room all the time, as the sun went down and darkness took over.  The social part is something I cannot reproduce, living singly as I do, and the wine part I don't want to reproduce, linked as it is to the social nature of the meal, but there's a lot I can take on board.

The cuisine is very 'peasant' in nature, locally specific and even from family to family.  They use what they have and what is seasonal, fresh and unprocessed, and very largely plant based.  Flavours come from vegetables, herbs and, of course, their extra virgin olive oil which they use in copious amounts although the Mistral Hotel meals do cut down a bit, catering as they are mostly to people from the UK.

It is high in healthy oil, grains and plants and low in meat, animal fats and sugar.  Yes, the desserts are very sweet but they are small and often honey us used, less processed than other sugars.

Even the famous recipes like pilafi or moussaka are only standard in a very limited way; people use what they have available and swap ingredients in and out quite happily, especially herbs, vegetables and grains.

The above is what I learnt through last week.  Forgive me if I have got anything wrong and if you have anything to add, please do.

Making it work with Slimming World is very do-able.  Swips will be higher but only because of the oil, nuts, etc.

I'll finish with a story we heard more than once.

During WW2, Crete was occupied by the Nazis with the very real potential for starvation rations.
After the way, representatives arrived to offer humanitarian relief and coordinated an epidemiological survey to determine local health.
They were both appalled and shocked by what they found.  The islanders had eaten mostly wild greens, fruits, legumes bread and barley rusk (more about this item in another post) with little animal protein and copious amounts of olive oil.  Oil, wild greens and fruits were (and still are), of course plentiful and easily available for the population.
Despite this seemingly restricted diet, shocking to those assessing it, the islanders were extremely healthy and there was no malnutrition.

At the same time, a young cardiologist, Ancel Keys, puzzled that there were no heart patients in the islands hospital, conducted a comparative study of feeding habits in different countries.  This revealed that while Cretans ate a large quantity of fat in the form of olive oil, their cardio vascular health was amazingly good.  After considerable work, Keys concluded that the Cretan diet was the healthiest in the world and subsequent studies have confirmed this.  It's comparative isolation from any mainland over centuries has compelled the islanders to maintain their traditional and very localised ways of eating.

I found it all very interesting.  Cretan food is both very healthy and super-delicious and I want develop my diet in that direction.  So bare with me as I try new things, make mistakes and rave about deliciousness!!
Thanks.

I found this link inbteresting.  Everything You Will Want to Know About the Healthy (& Delicious) Cretan Diet | Crete Insider

Wednesday, 29-04-26

Good evening, everyone.

I will be going back to two meals a day plus fruit but not today and, probably not tomorrow or Friday either.  

Breakfast.
Yogurt with honey and chia seeds

Fruit

Half a swip for honey and half for chia seeds

Lunch.

Spanakopita triangle (four and a half swips, thank you M&S) with balsamic vinegar and then a mixed bean, olive and feta salad.

The beans were from a Merchant Gourmet pouch and that, with what I am having for dinner is one swip.

The feta is part of a healthy calcium choice and the olives are part of a healthy fats.
I added one swips worth of lemon infused evoo and some balsamic vinegar to the leaves.

The first two stages of my Cretan dinner.
It started with some toasted bread with carrot batons and a really tasty mixed bean dip, and went on to a vert simple and delicious salad.

Chicken and bean orzo for dinner.  Really simple and really delish.

Afters was some grapes.

Summary
Healthy extras: one of each
Six swips, as far as I can tell

Next Day Edit:  goodness, I was so tired when I typed this yesterday evening.  Please forgive the typos and I think it was closer to ten swips than six!

B:  fruit and yogurt

D:   salad

D:  chicken in a lemon sauce, new potatoes.  xx

And fruit

Back again - some Cretan food, photo heavy

Hi, all.  The Cretan holiday is over, I am home and some foody photos from the last week.  No notes, just photos. 

We ate (and drank) well!

Monday evening, 20-04-26: three days of meals

 Saturday's meals:

Breakfast - carrot cake waffles and I slightly upped the grated carrot and the spices except for the ground cloves - one has to be so careful with cloves and they do have a strangely numbing effect.

A very tasty simple salad with some peanut butter to dip the apple slices in.  I use powder and hydrate it so it doesn't count as a healthy fats but the olives do.
Not that I'm SW counting all that much this weekend, just being careful/sensible.

The evening curry looks a right mess and I slopped it up the side but it was delicious.  I just used what I had in terms of spices, etc, and added some lighter crème fraiche at the end.  Very tasty indeed, used up leftover bits and bobs and I will make it again.
I used half a healthy oil choice and the crème fraiche was three swips.  I think the rest was all speed/free.

Sunday's meals:

A lovely Sunday breakfast of pancakes with strawberries and yogurt - inside and around.  I treated myself to a drizzle of Sweet Freedom syrup as a treat.

And I didn't swip anything - bad me!

Mediterranean salad for lunch.  Leaves, cucumber, pepper, radishes, baby corn avocado, olives and feta.

Delicious!

Should've used a bigger plate really.

This is using up the vegetables.  A bit of healthy oil for roasting parsnips and that's it.  Lovely jubbly.

Monday's meals.

Breakfast was fruit - no photo.

A bacon and egg roll for lunch - the roll isn't burnt, that's brown sauce!

A healthy fibre choice and one and a half swips.

For dinner, I got some couscous and roasted veg out of the freezer and added corned beef and tomatoes.  Really quite nice and very filling.

One and a half swips for the couscous part and four swips for corned beef plus half a healthy fats.

I'll try to post for the next week but may not be able to.

I'll be back.  :-)  

The weekend - 18 and 19-4-26

Hi, everyone.
It's going to be a bit different for ten days or so.  I shall be away and I will post when I can, daily, I hope, but there might not be such a good connection.

Over the weekend I have stuff to use up as the friend who is minding my house provides their own food and, while little bits won't matter, I don't want to leave loads that might not get used if not needed.  

I've made a list of stuff that needs using up and all my meals will be based around them.
I'll follow SW the best I can but . . . well, we will see.

. . . and today's and Monday's!

Today:
B:  carrot cake waffles with fruit and yogurt
L:  apple slices with peanut better and a salad
D:  a big old chicken and mixed veg curry

Sunday:

B:  pancakes, fruit and yogurt
L:  Mediterranean salad
D:  roast lamb (frozen from Easter Sunday) with roasties and veg

Monday:
B:  fruit and yogurt
L:  bacon roll with salad
D:  whatever is left - maybe mushroom and veg risotto

And fruit, of course

All subject to change.  :-)

I took a break and didn't photo anything yesterday, hence no blog post.

Thursday, 16-04-26

Evening, all.  Had a good day?

I was out for lunch so no photo but I chose the lowest calorie option (that I liked) which was smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches.  I know SW is not directly about calories but sometimes you have to consider them.
Anyway, it was very nice.

I made a carrot and lentil soup which I over-blended so it came out very gloopy.  It tasted good though so I decided to do something I read somewhere which was to add cottage cheese and blend it down.  So I did and - well, I shouldn't have because it wasn't very nice.  I ate some but not much.
Not one of my finer efforts.
I had an apple and some watermelon for afters and some cheese for my calcium.

tomorrow.

No idea of SW values; proper back on it tomorrow.

L:  Possibly a toastie

D:  chicken escalope, chips and salad

Fruit

Wednesday, 15-04-26

Good evening, all.

Before Groover I had a banana and afterwards I had a bit of apple and a bit of carrot (left from meal prep).

Half a swip for salad cream, half for dressing, half for bbq sauce and one and a half for flour in the burger.

Through the afternoon, I had an apple.

Dinner was lovely.

The chicken mixture was three swips for oils, the avocado was most of a healthy oils/fats, the cheese was a calcium healthy extra and the 'chips' were one fibre for a wrap.

Ands the half fat crème fraiche was four and a half swips. 

Afters was three easy peelers.

Summary:

Healthy extras:  one of each

Ten and a half swips

L:  I'm going round to a friends so I don't really know.

D:  I think I will make a lentil and carrot soup as I have loads of carrots that need using up.

And fruit!