Clean Eating 2024 Version 2

mrs_motivated

Hi MrsStepford,

im also type 2 diabetic, I was diagnosed in August last year and have changed my diet.  I have been eating low carb  (90g a day max) and I’ve lost 2 stone and put the diabetes into remission.  HBa1c went from 82mmol/l  38mmol/l 

When I have bread, I have the Hi-Lo seeded wholemeal which you can get in Sainsbury’s , the slices are very small but tasty and filling and it’s free of any artificial preservatives.

MrsStepford

Congratulations @mrs_motivated ! Thanks for the tip. 

MrsStepford

Haggis arrived from Macbeths www.macbeths.com last Friday, for Burns Night. Husband's ancestors were part of a clan so he has clan shirt, cufflinks etc but thankfully no kilt 😂 

Macbeths butchers in Forres is owned by the Pasture For Life-certified Edinvale Farm. We tried several Scottish butchers including the one in Ballater which supplied Her Maj Queen Elizabeth and Macbeths came out top. They make traditional and gluten free versions in various sizes and slicing haggis, which works well for breakfast.

Haggis is spicy and we love it. Not low carb but we make the exception. 

Husband worked from home yesterday so I bagged an order from Iceland. Iceland frozen garlic mushrooms 400g for 2.50 are horrible. As mushrooms are on the Environmental Working Group's Clean Fifteen list, they don't need to be organic. Despite the fact that the mushrooms were clean, they didn't taste good at all. Not buying again. 

Slimming World sweet potato frozen chips 750g 3.25 were hit and miss. Some were lovely, some mushy and some hard. Nice flavour though. Sweet potatoes are high fibre and about 6g fewer carbs per 100g than regular spuds.

Tried Nando's peri peri salt on them 70g 1.75 and my lips went numb. Nice flavour though. Fairly clean ingredients e.g. No MSG, no artificial colours or preservatives. 

Bought some Del Monte frozen avocado to try. We have had their frozen and fresh pineapple chunks and the fresh melon medley and watermelon before and nothing added at all. Seem good quality and tasted great. A substance in pineapple called bromelain is supposed to be good for lungs. Watermelon is a lower carb fruit. 

Walkers Salt & Shake crisps have vanished from Iceland. They are the lowest carb crisps at 12.5g carbs per 24g bag and taste of..potato !  Radical or what ? ASDA has them on offer at the moment. 2 x 6 pack bags for 3.25 saving 75p Husband really likes them and will sneak off and buy them.

I noticed that Heinz No Added Sugar 200g baked beans have had a recipe tweak. The artificial sweetener has gone, replaced by stevia. I'm sceptical but influencers Bobby Parrish and Thomas DeLauer recommend it. Baked beans are on husband's illicit treat list so I snapped up the 3 x 200g triple pack ie 9 cans for £5 at Iceland. Husband is a salad  and veggie dodger and needs the fibre ! 

MrsStepford

Looked at the Lidl offers this week and nothing much there. May get husband to do a click & collect for Aldi on Sunday. Noticed nuts, seeds and apple cider vinegar at good prices, as well as wild caught fish. If anyone has any tips for good food at keen prices at Aldi please comment. The store is in a nearby town so we haven't been there much and aren't as familiar with it as we are with Lidl. 

Read a piece in Red, on Deal, which has become very trendy. There's a butcher called The Black Pig www.theblackpigbutchers.com so may suggest husband treks there on Saturday

I get up to 50 free magazine subscriptions on my Kindle with Kindle Unlimited (9.49 pcm) so technically I save more than it costs me and I get access to so many recipes, articles on travel, fashion, the country etc etc.

MrsStepford

We didn't get to drink the Schweppes tomato juice which I bought from Amazon for Christmas & New Year. (24 x 200ml 24.84 free delivery for all orders) Just had a bottle with TWO DROPS of Tabasco. My lips didn't go numb but my mouth did and my throat is on fire in a minor way !

Will try with Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce 290ml 2.75 B&M 

The tomato juice tastes okay, but not as thick as Campbell's V8 (discontinued in UK) or Alvalle Original Gazpacho 

MrsStepford

Husband mutinied and has gone for Chinese takeaway.

I don't entirely blame him. The drain from the washing machine to the actual drain froze and created a huge puddle in the kitchen. The washing is backed up now and when it came to making the bed this evening, we had to sort through the bedding which we don't use. Antique French stuff and a blue cotton candlewick bedspread from Chums, still in the plastic bag. No sizes on the sheets and no fitted ones so it was trial and error and hospital corners.  

Providing that husband remembers to get a couple of baby haggises out of freezer later, it's haggis with swede and turnips tomorrow. 

MrsStepford

Haggis was excellent.

Tomorrow I will be making a shopping list featuring healthy foods which we haven't tried before and will look for offers.

MrsStepford

Done an ASDA order and a Waitrose order for Saturday afternoon. ASDA order only saved £1, but got some GranoVita vegetarian pâtés and four George Home white pasta bowls for 3.20

Waitrose order saved 15.29 on offers including wild keta and sockeye salmon fillets, 1 litre Spanish Extra Virgin olive oil, poppy seeds, Kerrygold butter and roasted and salted pistachios reduced to clear. Also picked up pine nuts, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, wild garlic olives, sardines with lemon and okra.

MrsStepford

Husband is cooking Iceland old recipe Aberdeen Angus quarterpounders, in an effort to free up more freezer space. Also making swede and turnip mash to have along with fresh mushrooms and frozen petits pois. 

Made a list of all the foods recommended on the YouTube videos that I have watched. Over 140 foods so far ! That excludes the high carb stuff and things husband won't eat including pistachios, almonds, lettuce of any kind, apple cider vinegar, green tea, chamomile tea and cod liver. Not the oil, cod liver itself. Both mothers shoved cod liver oil down us as children. Husband got cornflakes though as consolation, but I was fed lumpy porridge.

My mother hadn't inherited her mother's porridge-making ability, nor her way with jam and apple pie. My mother came back from honeymoon unable to even make gravy from Bisto. At the same age, I was a college-trained chef 😂

MrsStepford

Iceland Luxury New Zealand Half Leg of Lamb reduced from £10 to £6