Friday 10 October 2014

Cheesy Leeks on Toast


I've been back on Weightwatchers for 2 weeks now and really feel like I am on a roll.  I lost just over a pound the first week, and am getting used to the restricted portion sizes.  I am staying sugar-free, but didn't manage to lose weight using that method alone.  I think that may be because I have spent so many years on one diet or another that I just cannot judge portions properly if left to my own devices.

Given that I really do need to lose a few pounds then something had to change.  In fact, let's be honest here, I need to lose about 3 stones (for any Americans reading this, that is 42 pounds, and for any Australians reading this, that is about 19 kg).

For now, I'm still staying off the refined sugar, but am also following Weightwatchers.  I just hope that this time I can stick to it for longer than 8 months - which I think is about my previous limit before the weight started creeping up again.

Anyway, today I'm at home so I got the chance to make my own lunch and spend a bit of time doing so.  I've been really enjoying Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Veg Book and I leafed through that for some inspiration.  There is a rather wonderful looking recipe for a Leek and cheese toastie, but there was a bit too much double cream and cheddar in it for a Weightwatcher's-friendly lunch, so I adapted it to lower the propoints value.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 leeks, finely chopped
40g cheddar, grated
2 tablespoons philadelphia light (or other low-fat cream cheese)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tsp olive oil
4 slices of bread

Method

Fry the leeks in the olive oil over a low heat until soft (it will take at least 15 minutes)
Stir in the thyme, philadelphia and grated cheese (reserving 2 teaspoons of cheese for sprinkling)
Lightly toast the bread, then spread with the leek mixture
Sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top
Grill until golden and bubbling (it took 5 minutes under my grill)

Weightwatchers

 8 propoints per serving (using recipe builder on Weightwatchers website)

--> Of course, you could reduce this to 4 propoints per serving by only having 1 piece of toast per person and having a salad on the side

If you're not trying to cut calories, then I'm sure Hugh's original recipe would be even better - his Veg book is available to buy on Amazon.





Thursday 12 June 2014

Sun, running and avocado on toast

The 6 and 4 year old woke up at stupid o'clock this morning. They were over-excited because today was the day a reward chart was completed so they were due a toy. Nothing would induce them to go back to sleep and wait until the sun came up, so they eventually got their toys and then played happily in the lounge.

However I couldn't get back to sleep and was vaguely wondering what productive things I could do when I realised it was my running day and that instead of going for a run after they were asleep this evening I could go this morning.

I've been training for a 5K now for several weeks, using the 5K Runner app, and so far it's going well, but I am still getting used to working out when to fit the training into my day/week.

I'm not sure this morning has convinced me to set an alarm to run in the early morning, but it really was a glorious day to run today.

The sky looked like this:



There was hardly any traffic on the road, and everyone who I passed smiled or said Good Morning.

And to top it all off, when I got home I remembered that there was half an avocado in the fridge, so I could make my favourite sugar-free breakfast for myself:

It couldn't be simpler. Toast some wholemeal bread (preferably with seeds and/or grains in it). Spread liberally with salted butter. Mash an avocado on top (if the avocado won't mash easily with a fork it's not ready to eat).

I truly think it is perfection on a plate.




And here's another picture of the beautiful sky, just because.




Happy Thursday!

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Mini Crochet Bunting

I've always been a sucker for a magazine, and since taking up knitting last year and crochet this year I have bought more than my fair share of crafty/yarny publications. I usually buy editions that come with free yarn and/or needles and then spend ages looking at the patterns to see if I think I can manage any of them.

I had an early success last year with this knitted cardigan for Rabbit. This was made using a magazine pattern and some wool I already had. The then 5yo was delighted with it.


Then in January this year I used some of the leftover yarn from a magazine to practice granny squares and turned them into a blanket for Rapunzel. The 4yo loved it and tucks Rapunzel into bed with it most nights.

In April I made some more granny triangles, in two different patterns:


My eventual aim is to make some rainbow-flag inspired bunting for summer but I haven't yet got exactly the right shade of purple. One is too dark and the other is too light. So frustrating.

While the rainbow bunting is on hold I found myself browsing the magazines in my local shop again, and ended up buying issue 62 of Let's Get Crafting magazine, which had some rather lovely bright yarn in it. None of the suggested projects grabbed me though, so I decided to experiment with some different styles of granny bunting triangles.


Of the 4 different styles shown, my favourite is the bottom left (with blue on the outside) and I'm proud to say it is all my own design. I can't really believe that I only learnt to crochet in January this year and already I can design patterns. Only in simple treble crochet stitch, but still, to me it seems amazing.  I was enjoying myself so much that within a week I had used up all 4 bright colours and had 16 mini triangles:


I steam blocked them, then used one of the remaining colours from my pack to join them together with a simple double crochet chain. This is the finished product hanging up in my brother's conservatory:


It didn't stay there long though - I brought it home and now it is safely packed away in the Easter box in the loft, ready to be decorative again next year for our annual Easter Egg hunt.








Tuesday 18 March 2014

Crochet for Rapunzel

My crochet skills are improving on an almost daily basis. In fact, I am even mid-way through crocheting myself a scarf. However, I keep being delayed in finishing this project by small people asking for various yarn items for themselves or their toys. This one being a case in point. I had bought some yarn in a variety of rainbow hues to make some rainbow bunting for the summer, and was looking at them when the 4yo said "could you use the red, pink and purple to make a scarf for Rapunzel?". It seemed a pretty reasonable request to me, so I made a few teeny squares in those colours:


When I showed them to her for her approval she said: "where's the lellow?". On pointing out that she had not initially asked for yellow she said: "yes I did". There was no arguing with her, so that evening I made some slightly different yellow squares to add into the mix:


These did meet with approval, but apparently the red edging was not good enough, so the finished item had to have an extra yellow edging too. I think it's turned out pretty well myself:


Of course, said scarf is now adorning a radiator and not the intended doll, but the colour scheme was much admired by the 4yo, and I was quite pleased by how neat it looks. Not bad given that I only started learning to crochet this January.

Thursday 20 February 2014

Chocolate and Pecan Brownies


These brownies are the best I've ever made, and I stumbled upon the recipe by chance, as I wanted to use up the pecans I had left after making Nigella's Christmas Cake.  (and yes I know it's February now, but it seems as good a time as any to blog about brownies).



I made these on Christmas Day, using my shiny new KitchenAid, which is without doubt one of the best Christmas presents I have ever received.





I made enough for us all on the day, and to take with us to the rest of the family on Boxing Day.  Every single person in the family liked them (ages 4 to 64) which was very gratifying, but did mean that I didn't get to eat quite as many of them as I would have liked.

The recipe I used was a Sophie Grigson one, and can be found here.  Since one of my new year's resolutions was to give up refined sugar, I'm not planning on eating any more of these myself in the near future, but I may make some for everyone else to eat, seeing as they were so popular.


Thursday 2 January 2014

Crochet and other things

I have made New Year's Resolutions in the past, and they have all had two things in common - almost have all related to eating less, exercising more or both and I have failed with almost all of them within a few days or weeks.  So this year it's going to be different.  I have resolved re-start my blog, and to learn to crochet.  And I'm pleased to say that on only day two I am doing pretty well.  I started with a (slightly wonky) small granny square, following a pattern from one of my many knitting magazines:


I was pretty pleased with it, especially because before yesterday I had only ever once used a crochet hook, and that was to put a simple border on a knitted blanket. It was hard to get my head around all the stitches using just 1 colour though, so I abandoned that to work on my first ever granny triangle:



To make it I followed the absolutely excellent instructions on the Attic 24 blog.  I am hoping to move on to producing a whole line of bunting.  I've got lots of remnants of wool leftover from the many knitting magazines I have bought this year, and it would be great to use them up in a practical (and pretty) way.

I've now finished my first triangle, but have yet to block it.  It's a bit wonky, and I haven't darned the ends in yet, but I like it:


I couldn't be more delighted with how quickly I was able to make something with my new skill.  Knitting took a lot longer to get started with.  I haven't given up on knitting though, and in amongst my crochet posts and baking writing I'm sure some knitting will follow.

I only discovered Lucy's blog at Christmas this year, and have been reading it avidly for the last few days - it is very inspiring and I really love her use of colour.  I can thoroughly recommend it - the home page is here.

I just showed this post to my partner who said "but you're called baking doctor and this seems to be about crochet".  This is a fair point, but I felt it would be odd to start a separate blog, so am keeping the same name.  I'll see how I get one with it, but plan to intersperse crochet with baking, knitting and book reviews over the next few months.