Sweet Pepper and Tomato Soup

Sweet Pepper and Tomato Soup

This tasty soup packs a flavoursome punch. It is low fat (which could be reduced further by cooking the vegetables with cooking spray rather than oil), making it perfect for mealtimes in the run-up to your summer holiday (I for one am kind of struggling to get my body Beach-ready!!). I puréed half of the mixture so that I could have a smooth and a chunky soup. As I plan to be eating this for lunch for a week, I didn’t want to get bored too quickly! Personally, I preferred the chunky soup. ;)

Oh, and I'm sorry for the lack of pretty picture!

Turkey, Mushroom and Spinach Pasta Bake

This pasta dish is tasty and filling and low in fat but as the flavours are all quite subtle, it does require a decent amount of seasoning if you want it to pack any kind of punch!

Butternut Squash and Vegetable Pasta

This vegetarian pasta dish is simple to make, filling and healthy. It can be spiced up with a bit of salami but is perfect the way it is.

Leek & Mushroom Gratin

This Leek and Mushroom Gratin is great because it’s just so versatile! I love it as a topping to bagels and baked potatoes but it works just as well as a light and tasty starter too.

Mediterranean Vegetable and Mozzarella Bake

This warming dish is packed full of goodness. And when it's cold and gloomy outside, the colourful mix of Mediterranean vegetables make it sunshine in a bowl.

Sunday Bake Club: Banana Pancakes

So, I guess pancakes don’t really count as baking but they are still a great weekend treat. These Banana Pancakes are even better as they’re full of goodness and, if you’re following Weight Watchers, they’re low in points too! This is a really simple recipe but preparing your fruit can be time-consuming so you might want to rope someone in to help. Or else be really lazy and just buy prepared fruit!

Mid-Week Meals: Salmon and Spinach Parcels

This healthy dinner is quick and easy to make. And the filo pastry makes it feel just a little bit naughty, which is all the incentive I need when planning what to eat!

Mid-Week Meals: Cajun Chicken with Spicy Wedges and Coleslaw

Not to ruin the surprise, but I will be making a version of this meal for The Girls when they come round for dinner on Saturday. I have been struggling to stick to the diet the last couple of weeks (what can I say? My body just wasn't meant to be skinny!) but figure if I cook a Slimming World menu, I can't go too wrong?! I will actually be using the Slimming World recipe for Barbeque Chicken (which I will add next week), rather than Cajun, and will add Sweet Potatoes to the mix too, all served alongside a big, green salad (and no bread!!) This recipe serves four and is only 2 Syns per serving on the Extra Easy plan.
Fingers crossed it tastes as good as it looks!

Back on the (Diet!) Wagon Again!

Ok, so my diet didn't exactly get off to the best of starts. I think that (maybe) I managed to stick to it for about four days before the chocolate call just got too loud and I caved. And my clothes feel suspiciously tighter than this time last month (when I supposedly started my diet). And definitely tighter than this time last year. But all is not lost! I have started again, with renewed focus and renewed vigour! This time next month, I will be lying on a beach in Spain. In a bikini. Next to my Size Ten sister. And if that isn't enough to keep the diet focused, then I don't know what is! I mean, surely, SURELY, I can manage to diet for four and a half weeks?! Fingers crossed (and lips tightly shut!)....

Two Day Diet

So, I've decided to try out the Two Day Diet in an effort to finally win the battle against the bulge. Like most women, I've tried many diets but none seem to work for long (I'll hold my hands up to the fact that that's due to lack of will power!) and some just gave way to a near-dangerous obsession with counting points (There was a period last year where literally every conversation I had with friends somehow managed to snake its way back to how many points were in a cracker and how much exercise I'd have to do in order to deserve it). And so I welcome with relish (the regular, good kind of relish. Not the Burger kind) a diet that promises I can eat normally for five days a week and only diet for two days.Granted, those two diet days are limited to 500 calories each but surely even I can stick to that?! For the rest of the week I'm planning on aiming for between 1200 and 1500 calories a day, still less than the recommended 2000 calories a day. I'm hoping that will still work but I guess only time will tell as I'm finding it difficult to find too much information as to what I should actually be eating on my 'non-diet' days, other than that it should be 'healthy, Mediterranean' fare.

And so, with that in mind, I began my diet today with a rather tasty Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Salad from M&S with low fat creme fraiche and two Ryvita. Even though it was a relatively small meal, there were enough flavours and textures to keep it interesting and to leave me feeling satisfied. Dinner was then roast chicken (sans skin), salad and home-made potato wedges. Using the 'My Fitness Pal' app on my new HTC Windows 8 phone, I reckon I had about 1300 calories in total which is a solid start! The real test will come on Tuesday and Wednesday, the consecutive days I've chosen as my 'diet' days.

Fingers crossed I don't fall at the first hurdle!!