Lose weight in '26 with Slimming World & SWIP's.

joedenise

Morning all, another bright although a bit cloudy day today but still warm. Like you @Jellybaby no washing today! Good luck with looking for holiday dresses; it's not easy finding stuff you like that fits! It's one of the reasons I like to sew my own clothes. I bought some fabric last week to make another pair of trousers and think there is also enough to make another pair of shorts. The trousers are almost finished with just needing to be turned up and stitched, although I may cheat and just use the iron on hemming tape because I hate hand sewing and the thread isn't as good a match as I would like so would probably show if I machined them.

Not much planned for today although I need to nip to the local pharmacy to pick up my meds which are now ready - has taken nearly a week since I ordered them. The GP authorised/issued the prescription on Sunday(!) so would have been sent to the pharmacy Monday so should have been ready Tuesday. Suspect one of the meds didn't arrive with their order!

Today's plan:

B - toasted cheese sandwich, pickles - Fibre; Calcium; S
L - minced beef hash - P; S; F
D - turkey kofte, couscous with herbs, chickpeas, sweet chilli sauce, salad - P; S; F; 1.5

Fibre - bread
Calcium - milk; cheese
Swips - sweet chilli sauce 1.5

Have a good day everyone.

Coxy11

Hi all,

Thanks for the heads up @Jellybaby I will check her out. DH keeps telling me to just retire but I’m worried I will be bored, plus I’m only 56.

Wish I was confident enough to sew clothes @joedenise x

Food today:

B - AF bacon medallions, poached egg, tomatoes, flat peach - P, S

L - AF plant kitchen meatballs, AF green peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, radish - 2, S

D - will eat at the theatre. They have a guest chef atm so it’s Asian dumplings and/or cold noodles. No idea of SWIPs.

Calcium - milk

Fibre - hifi bar

Coxy11

SW beef and broccoli in oyster sauce - serves 4 - 1 SWIP per portion

Ingredients

400g lean beef rump steak

2 carrots cut into batons

2 peppers cut into chunks

Tin of bean sprouts

5cm piece of ginger (I used squirt ginger)

Tenderstem broccoli

Frylight

For the sauce:

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp cornflour

Method:

Put the broccoli in a large bowl and cover with boiling water for 3 mins. Drain and set aside.

Remove any visible fat and fry steak until medium (about 3 mins per side) Remove to a plate and when cooled, cut into strips.

Spray a pan with Frylight and add carrots, peppers and broccoli. Fry for around 5 minutes until slightly charred. Add the ginger and cook for 1 minute then add the bean sprouts plus the water from the can. Continue to cook until the veg starts to soften.

Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp of warm water. Add to the oyster sauce and soy sauce and mix well. Add to the pan along with 100ml of water. Cook through for 2 minutes then add the steak and mix well.

I served this with dried thin noodles but rice would also work. Really tasty 😋

joedenise

Thanks for the recipe @Coxy11. Have copied it and will try it sometime but probably not until after we've been to France in September. Will need to use up some of the HM ready meals next month. There will be another couple of meals worth going into the freezer after dinner tomorrow night. Am making a PON recipe for hunters chicken pasta traybake which makes 6 portions and only uses one large chicken breast or 2 small ones (only get about 50g of chicken per portion). It's a new to me recipe so will let you know what it's like.

With making your own clothes it's just a case of having a go! Start off with something simple like an A line skirt with elastic waist and build up over time to more complicated things. I tend to use fairly cheap fabric but the latest lot is definitely the most expensive I've every bought! I've actually only started making shorts and trousers in the last couple of years. Quite often the patterns are more expensive than the fabric. Having said that I'm currently using patterns which came free with magazines years ago!

I've just signed up for 6 months of Prima magazine for £5 which comes with a pattern each month so hoping they'll be something I can actually make use of. Patterns now are generally over £10 each so got to be worth trying. After the 6 months I'll just look each month to see if the pattern looks worth getting as you have to send for it.

maman

Thanks for the recipe @Coxy11 . I'd say you did the right thing to have noodles as rice tends to soak up the sauce compared with it just coating the noodles. I know that with the Ben's sweet and sour sauce I use half a jar for 2 of us when @bubbs uses at least double that with rice.

I used to do loads of dressmaking when my girls were young and I needed work clothes @joedenise . I was a big fan of the Prima patterns too. These days I just do some soft furnishings, repairs or hems. Actually yesterday when I was hanging a favourite dress on the line I realised I could use it as a pattern to replicate it. The trouble is that fabric's too expensive to make mistakes. I remember when most high streets sold fabric cheaply or on market stalls. No longer. ☹️

Hope you're lucky finding what you want @Jellybaby .🤞

Today's plan -

B porridge, blueberries, banana (fibre, F, S), milk (calcium 1)

L- LO hash, fried egg, pickles (P, F, S)

D Spaghetti with meatballs in tomato sauce (P, S, F), Parmesan (calcium 2)

Swips - 0 planned

joedenise

I generally buy my fabrics online from Pound Fabrics and usually pay no more than £2 a metre. I order 4 or 5 lots though as there is postage of £4.99 per parcel to pay on top so not really worth ordering less. I tend to stick to cottons or polycottons although I bought a couple of stretch fabrics last time but won't be ordering them again - they're horrible to sew with!

beanielou

I actually got some lovely fabric from Vinted!

joedenise

Didn't even think about Vinted for fabric. Thanks @beanielou.

Coxy11

Thanks for the sewing vibes - maybe this is how I should use my 'time off' lol.

I went to the theatre last night. They have a guest chef so the choice was Asian dumplings (veg or chicken/mushroom) with noodles. I had 3 veg dumplings and noodles - it was amazing. Just drank water. Got home at 00:30 so was really tired this morning.

Went to group for my first week weigh in - 2lb off. Not too shabby given the off-plan sandwich and the meal last night. I got the latest book which is 250 easy quick recipes. Have already planned one to have tomorrow as we are having a picnic in Hendon at nephew's new place. Also told the group about @bubbs pork pie, which I'll also make for tomorrow.

Food today:

B - banana, French toast, yog, blueberries, strawberries - free, fibre, 0.5, S

L - spinach omelette, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, radish, pickles - P, S

D - ginger and soy salmon, green beans, rice - P, S, free

Calcium - milk

Calcium - 3 light babybel

As I have no work next week I'm going to Yorkshire with DSis from Sunday to Thursday. We will hike the Herriott Way which is a circular 52 mile walk. We plan to camp so will be carrying our kit. Food will be whatever it can be but I'm hoping the exercise will offset it.

joedenise

Afternoon all, a bit later than usual today as chatted to my DSis for nearly an hour this morning before heading off to the dentist and then to do a bit of shopping by the time we got home it was time to sort out lunch - so the whole morning with nothing productive done! Have to go back next week for a small filling in the tooth next to my front one - it was the one where the filling came out while we were on holiday! I was only eating a croissant so nothing hard or chewy!

Well done on the 2lb loss @Coxy11. Even with keeping a food diary I still only managed just over half and definitely didn't go over Swips apart from one day when I had 22 - every other day was less than 10. Will try again this week and hopefully have a better loss as there isn't any eating out planned and won't be eating much Tuesday as that's the day of my op so definitely no breakfast. Thinking I might take a ham sandwich to have afterwards so at least it will be on plan rather than one of the soggy white sandwiches which are usually on offer in hospital!

Have a good time in Yorkshire next week @Coxy11 - you do enjoy your hiking don't you?

Today's plan:

B - Weetabix, milk, strawberries - Fibre; part calcium; S
L - sweet chilli noodles with chickpeas and salad bits - P; S; F; 4.5
D - hunters chicken pasta bake - part calcium; P; S; F (PON recipe from the Budget book)

Fibre - Weetabix
Calcium - milk; cheese
Swips - sweet chilli sauce 4.5; may have a lolly later 2

Have a good day everyone.