Saturday 23 October 2010

Demons, soup bagging and curious music venues.

Oh dear it really has been a while hasn't it?!  I've been gone a little while and let things get a bit out of control.  Not back to my old ways entirely however binge eating has featured heavily.  Not good.  I'm talking full on, let's get a McDonald's on the way to getting tea, having tea, then polishing off loads of chocolate and crisps etc.  Secret eating at its finest.  Yesterday gave me the reality check I needed...


15st 1lbs - eek!


I'm back in the 15's.  What the hell?!  I shouldn't be surprised but it still wasn't particularly nice to see.  Conquering some food demons this evening as I'm going out for a meal with my team at work.  I'm not particularly great at eating in front of people I don't know really really well.  It generally ends up in me eating far less than I actually want, and then eating a shedload of food when I get home.  Not anymore!  I shall eat whatever the hell I like!  We're going for a curry so should be good fun.


Now let's talk soup bagging.  After purchasing some delightful veg boxes last week, I realised that they were still untouched.  What can we make with veg?  SOUP!  I made a gorgeous cauliflower soup.  Now I'm not sure of the exact nutritional value but it can't be that bad.  The recipe is entirely made up (aren't they the best) and I can testify that it is FIT so if you fancy a bash yourself, go for it...



Ingredients

  • 1 Onion, diced.  Tears from cutting the damn thing are optional.
  • 2 Potatoes, diced.  Good old fashioned muddy ones are best.
  • 1 Cauliflower, divided into florets.  I never noticed how much a cauliflower looked like a bouquet of flowers after you've removed the leaves before now.  I freely admit I walked around the kitchen clutching it as if I was at a wedding.  Is that a bit weird?
  • 1 litre stock.  I haven't specified the exact stock but strictly speaking I think you should use vegetable stock. However I only had two veggie Oxo cubes so added 3 chicken ones!  If you can be bothered making real stock go for it.
  • Any herbs/spices you may have knocking about.  I couldn't really tell you exactly what went in as I'm not 100% sure now!

Method

  1. If you've done your bit for the planet and bought fresh, proper veg, wash it.  Mud is great for authenticity to prove it came from a field - not so good for taste.  If you're a corporate slave, take your veg out of the packet ;)
  2. Chop veg as necessary
  3. Fry off your onion in some garlic olive oil (normal will do but garlic is tastier) until it's soft.
  4. Add the potatoes and cauliflower, and fry for a further minute.
  5. Add the stock and leave to cook for, well until the veg is soft.  It's soup for goodness sake, you can't burn it right?
  6. Allow your mushy veg to cool a bit and liquidise.  If you're into chunky soup, only do 3/4 of it.  If you like it smooth, do it all.  Not rocket science!
  7. You're done.  If you love meat like me, why not get some bacon bits to chuck on it?  If you don't love meat, what's wrong with you?!

Obviously you make more than enough for one person so the dilemma is what to do with the rest?  I decided to embark on a soup bagging journey as I couldn't face a freezer full of tupperware soup, it can be quite overfacing.  Now soup bagging is something that requires a lot of skill, co-ordination, patience and, as I discovered to my cost, a funnel.  Ladling soup into dinky freezer bags sounds a lot easier than it actually is, especially when the cold version of your delightful creation resembles wallpaper paste.  Behold the first soup bagging result...

Soup bagging at its best
I can't go without mentioning the top night I had last Friday watching The Reet Hot Chili Peppers (do I really need to tell you what they are?) at our local...hmm I've no idea what it is. A music venue?  A pub?  A dive?  I'm really not sure!  Anyways they were great as always and had a great night with my lovely mate Lizzie.  OK so we're not thin but we're a damn good laugh and know how to have fun.  Surely that's more important than panicking over eating a chocolate bar?

Me and the gorgeous Lady Lizzie!


Butties in pubs rock
See how much fun you can have with a butty?
No idea what I was doing here, I just like the colour my hair looks!

Saturday 9 October 2010

Zumba and youtube stars!

Well I beat the odds, and managed to drag myself out of bed for Zumba this morning and I feel loads better for doing it.  However, I have a few "comments" about the class.  The woman doing it wasn't the usual woman doing it and I've a strong feeling she was a frustrated dance teacher because this sure as hell wasn't Zumba!  Last time I checked, there were no "Yee Ha-s" in Zumba.  Nor were there Grapevines.  A few people commented that the teacher wasn't really doing Zumba and was basically like a frustrated dance teacher on crack.

I counted the dances, we had line dancing, cha cha cha, merengue, samba, salsa, dutty wine (more on that one shortly), slaggy hip rolls (I really have no other word for them), the list goes on.  All a very good workout it has to be said, but I went for Zumba, not an audition for Strictly Come Dancing.  The instructor clearly presumed we all possessed psychic powers as she moved on from step to step without actually warning anyone, firstly that she was changing direction, and secondly what steps she was actually doing.  This made for a very confused set of people it has to be said.  However, I'm pretty impressed with my moves.  I kept up better than most in the class, didn't bump into anyone and was a few sequins short of a Strictly contestant!  Honest!

Now onto the extremely inappropriate dutty wine.  There were older ladies in the class and whilst I am pretty good at "drip dropping way down low", I NEVER want to see pensioners dutty winding ever again.  It is wrong.  I have no  other words to describe it.  For those unfamiliar with the term, you basically shake your arse whilst twisting your neck and moving your legs like a butterfly.  Imagine your grandma doing it.  That's what I was subjected to!

So this class was an education and certainly not the normal Zumba class.  Back to normal next week apparently. For those not sure about Zumba...click here to see what it SHOULD be like...

On a side note, I came across a video of the start of the Race For Life yesterday which me and my mate Lizzie did.  Click here and fast forward to 3:16 - there we are strolling past, yabbering away.  We had a great natter which makes me wonder why we don't go for long walks together more often - it's not like we'll run out of things to talk about!  My mate Julie is going to join us next year as I force them both to do not only the Race For Life but the Great Manchester Run (10K) too.  If I can do it, anyone can.  

Oh and I WILL be wearing shorts next year.  You can hold me to that.







Friday 8 October 2010

Demand Your Right to Twinkle and some wise words from moi!

I've shared this on my Facebook page before now but I've never shared it on here.  Those kind fairy creatures over at Sole Kitschen decided to work their magic on a quote I came up with a while back and here  are the results...

StarStruck cards...demand your right to twinkle
Love yourself, love the heart charm!
wise words eh?
OK so I'm no Marilyn Monroe but a quote from me nonetheless!
In its full glory...love it!
This card is available for just £2.50 at  Sole Kitschen.  Make sure you visit the site, it's well worth it.  Sole Kitschen is the brainchild of the fabulously talented Sara Smallman who I used to work with a while ago and is an independent business (not one of these awful corporate money making machines) celebrating all things handmade.  Here's a little bit more about them...
"We believe in love, magic, cake, wishes and being excellent to each other. We also believe that every one deserves to sparkle. If you would like to become a Kitschenette, please email us. We are always looking for beautiful things to sell and fabulous people to meet."

You can email Sole Kitschen at  allaboutme@solekitschen.com

Shocks (really not) and Swishes

Prepare to be amazed folks...I'm STILL in the 14's!  I think I may officially give up trying to get out because you know something, I'm quite happy at the moment.  I've joined a gym (yet to visit it but don't hold that against me), I've managed to stop myself getting into the dangerous spiral of bulimia again.  That was hard.  Really hard.  I've had lots of binges over the last few weeks but I've managed to stop those too.  Sometimes you need to start hitting rock bottom to get back on top and that's where I'm headed.  I'm so proud I didn't let it win.  Mr Scales told me this morning...


14st 12.6lbs 
(0.2lbs weight loss from last week, feeble but a loss!)


Well that's the confession bit over, now for some fun stuff.  Have you ever Swished?  It's so cool!  Basically, you bring in a load of clothes you don't wear anymore and exchange them for something fabulous.  I managed to find the most gorgeous pencil skirt amongst other things.  I don't quite fit in it yet but it's something to aim for right?  For those who have never heard of Swishing but quite like the sound of it, head over to www.swishing.org to find out more and maybe even organise your own Swish!


Me with said pencil skirt


Me and my gorgeous mate Julie after bagging ourselves some great new clothes
So, time to revisit my mini goals I always forget about (quite possibly why they never get achieved eh?)...


Weight
Get down to 14st 7lbs

Fitness
Be able to do 5 full pressups

Clothes
Be able to fit into my polka dot pencil skirt/black pencil skirt from Swish and not look pregnant

Quite looking forward to achieving them now and I have a great new take on things after my blip.

Lauren xxx