Tonights Feast

My boys prepared our feast for tea tonight. Alex is really getting the hang of this cooking lark and seems to enjoy being creative. It is nice to let someone else doing the cooking for a change and it something that I could get used to.
The main course tonight was a new recipe from the Hairy Dieters 3rd book. It was Baked Fish with Red Peppers and Tomatoes. I was delicious served with rice ( Alexs favourite) and carrots and tenderstem broccoli.

Yummy Recipe

The next recipe on tonights delightful menu were American Breakfast Pancakes made with a Nigella Lawson recipe. Alex first made these when he was cooking for Becky and has developed the skill for producing a fabulous batch now. They are golden brown, light and fluffy just as intended and delicious. Here he is producing this delight in full chef mode!

Our Very Own Masterchef

This is the finished product and boy did they taste great with a sprinkle of sugar and fresh lemon juice.

Wow!

Yummy homemade soup

Soup is a major part of our new fitness regime and I normally try to make a homemade soup to keep us going at work through the week. I like to use a variety of vegetables that add colour, texture and taste to the soup. One of my favourites is broccoli and stilton but due to the high fat content this is a special occasion soup and normally is one that I make for the troops at Christmas.
Here is this years offering bubbling away.

Homemade Broccoli & Stilton

I have also made the weeks soup with butternut squash, courgette, leeks, onions, carrots, celery, french beans, peppers and a secret ingredient..... fresh red chilli. Wow does that give it a bite.

Soup in the making

The thing is with homemade soups as with all meals that are homemade you know what you are getting. We have been doing a lot of the Dieters Hairy Bikers meals. The beauty of these are that they are low fat but packed with flavour. One of my all time favourites is the Spanish Chicken.
We say give them a go and you may be surprised.

First One of the Year...................

 

Today was the first day back to work after a very nice 12 days off. I so enjoyed the time I have spent with my family and friends. Oh too often life goes past in a blur of activity and we just need to stop for a while to appreciate the great parts of our lives that we take for granted.

2 years ago I suffered a knee injury which resulted in a massive impact on my family and work colleagues. The pain of the injury is still with me and has stopped me from being able to do a lot of the things that I so enjoyed. This year my intention is to take back parts of me that got lost along the way and challenge myself to 'give things a go'. Some things will still not be within my grasp but I do have to ask myself even if I had been fit would I want to do them. The answer would be resounding NO.

My first thing today was to take a walk around the block. It may not have been very far but it was a lot further than I managed this time last year. We measured this at 1/2 mile which is great.

I have also done my first Fast Day of 2015. It is not really so bad with lots of determination and support from my friends on My Fitness Pal. This is a great website where there are people to encourage, support and cheer you up when things get a little rough.

Last night Kim and I did some paining with light in the back garden. I had forgotten how much fun this is to do and we got some amazing shots. We learned how to do this by attending a workshop at Port and Lemon in Warsash with the talented photographer Julia Mills.

One Year On.... 5:2

Kim and I have been following the 5:2 for almost a year now and between us have lost 84lbs. That equates to 6 stone!!!!
Here are some photos from the last year that chart the changes. We didn't realise how large we had got until we look back at these. The weight just crept on a pound at a time.

Menorca 2013

Menorca 2013

Many have said that the 5:2 is a faddy diet but we think of it as a healthy eating programme. Linked with that are the Hairy Bikers Dieters Books which we use frequently and we never feel deprived.To all those doubters out there give it a go and see how you get on. What have you got to lose apart from a few pounds!

Christmas 2014

Here are the makings of the first soup of the year. So scrummy and nutritious and right on target for the continued weight loss.

Good Wholesome Vegetables

I'm back....... and rarin to go!

2015 is here and so am I.

I feel that the last 18 months have passed in a blur but I am back and will start this post in the same way as my very first post. With a picture of my wonderful family.

They are all well and the little ones are growing so fast. They are really their own little people now with individual personalities.
Thanks guys for making 2014 such a great year. This is in no small part to my darling husband Kim and son Alex. You have put up with my whinging and whining and the days when everything was just too much. Thank you for being you... My rocks.

What a long time I have been away

I cannot believe how long it is since I last blogged. Last year is a bit of a blur and this year didn't start off much better. I twisted my knee on Christmas Eve and last week had a repair done to the cartilage. I had a brilliant surgeon and am on the mend as as long as I take it slowly which is so frustrating. I have also go my interest back in all things crafty. This was supposed to be a fresh start and Kim and I were going to craft like crazy this year as we had the ideal craft room and the enthusiasm, this has unfortunately not gone to plan.
We have had a couple of highs already this this year when my Darling Husband turned 60. He looks so good although I think he would disagree so we had a family party with all the kids, my brothers family and Mum and Ron. A good time was had by all even after being let down by Marks and Spencer with the food I had ordered. I think my buffet was better in my humble opinion. I will let you be the judge.

Kim and I had a photo shoot with a great lady called Sarah Elvin and here are a couple that we are really pleased with. It is unusual for us to have photos together as it is normally me behind the camera.

WE have been trying to do something every month that is slightly out of the norm so at the beginning of this month we went to Chard to a lovely hotel called the Lordleaze Hotel for 2 nights. It has an excellent restaurant where we had two superb meals. This is such a central location for visiting all sorts of places but unfortunately as my knee was not fixed we had to limit ourselves to what we could do. We did visit Lyme Regis and had a browse around a great little shop that restored old furniture and will probably visit again once I am fully mobile. Here is a little picture of the hotel.

Aren't I a lucky Girl

Well I couldn't resist any longer so have got myself an iphone 4. I was so excited waiting for it to arrive that I made Kim take a picture of me with the box before I had even got it out to play. It is so sleek and swooshy ( not sure about that word but hey ho) and i  love the feel of it . Have already got some great piccies on it and downloaded a couple of apps but there are so many to choose from where does a girl start!

My new toy

I have also been looking at our library.....only joking but anyone that knows us knows how we love books. All kinds of books have found it into our library but I wanted to explore some more of the arty stuff so we had a little trip to the fabulous Stamp Attic at Wantage. What a fab range of stuff they have and they are the only shop locally well 1 and 1/2 hours away that do all kinds of books. I went armed with my camera of existing books and low and behold a couple that I had been looking for they had.
Their range of goods are phenomenal so it is well worth a trip.

Reminds me of High School Monsters

Ready for Kim to start Steampunk stuff

Cloth paper scissors is a magazine that I had seen before but not really looked at closely until I found a great technique in this edition called Fragile Fusion by a very talented lady called Rebekah Meier. What a great idea and something that I think is well worth a try. I had to go out and hunt for some supplies so have those ready and waiting for my first attempt.