Week 5 End

Surprised myself near the end of the week that I had passed the 5kg mark! Truly thrilling but am not counting that last kg till I'm thru the weekend home free. It's been a tough week cause my PT has been away and I've had to put my excecise together myself. But made it thru - I did a big session Wed evening in the yard and really killed my arms & legs. Got back into my pushups and was easily doing 15! Did another lot on Fri arvo while piano lessons were on and I had to keep the little ones occupied. Surprised at how fascinating they found it, because of their distraction I prob didn't get as much acheived but the hubby gave me a good boxing workout on Sat arvo before hitting it with the older girls for a mini game of netball. Overall, I shouldn't embarass myself heading back to the gym next Tues. It was a good test for me, but I know I couldn't keep it up for long on my own.

Gosh, it would be nice if I could have the next 5 kgs off by Easter (5 wks away) but would also be happy with 3?!?!? Not too worried about Easter as I'm not too big an Easter Egg fan (other than those delish red tulip mini solid eggs.........uh oh.....) however I've warned the kids there will not be so many choccies round this year but they will still get some money to spend on something non-chocolate. That excited them!

I redid the Symptoms Chart (from "The Candida Directory" by Gustafson & O'Shea) this week as well, the last time I did it was 3 weeks ago. The symptoms I found that had got better were - the dizziness, the thrush, burping, diarrhoea & stomach aches, and weight loss of course. The ones that seem worse are - fatigue, feelings of rage, irritability, I've had 2 headaches, and food cravings (thanks to dabbling in sweets lately). And the things that hadn't seemed to change were the depression & anxiety (not so much), forgetfulness, acne & dandruff (still an issue), swollen glands (still on & off) and joint & muscle pain (doesn't seem much better or worse).

The anger has been a really big issue lately and I don't know whether its the diet thing or if its something I have to look deeper into. I just seem to have such trouble being patient and not letting the little things really needle me. The kids just seem to get on top of me so much lately and I am not handling it at all. I would like to think it still may smooth out but I am sick of being the grump of the family and constantly lending a sour taste to the air round here. I just gotta keep praying to be more loving, to be more patient and hope that something will change.....

Well, I tried quite a few new recipes this week:

Chicken Patties -

500g chicken mince
1 onion finely diced
1 garlic clove crushed
1 med carrot grated
1 med zuchini grated
1/2 red caps finely diced
1 egg
1/2 sachet of leggo's pizza sauce (or some bbq/sweet chilli sauce)
small handful of fresh herbs or 1 tsp of dried herbs
S & P

Chuck it all together and mush it all together, form patties and fry in some s'flower oil or bake in the oven. (I did double the recipe and it was really sloppy so may be best to just use one egg overall, however, they still turned out nice.) The rest of the family had theirs on turkish buns but I enjoyed mine on baby cos lettuce leaves!

The soup of the week was Carrot, Cardomon & Orange (thanks to Gordon Ramsay):

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/article6105033.ece

It was beautiful and smooth and almooooooooooooost identical to the one I had at Cafe Vie. I had some for dinner one night when I sent Luke out with the kids to give me a breather - soooo frustrating sometimes. And it made 2 lovely lunches at different times too. Loving the soups at the moment.

I had a delightful feast one night at the in-laws place - she is the queen of roasts and I enjoyed every mouthful (altho I passed on the gravy and a few potatoes). Her dessert was a revelation and I truly thought I would not be able to partake in it - normally it would be lemon meringue pie but this time it was a mango mousse, and I thought "it must have a buckets of sugar in it"...... but not so - only 1 tbsp! So I imbibed and will steal the recipe to share because it truly was a delight and a marvel - included a couple of egg whites & some cream but mainly the mango and she made heaps. I am salivating just thinking of it. Oh, and gelatin - is that acceptable???

I'm trying to designate different days for different kind of meals to try and make the organising of meals a bit easier. It follows a good post-baby book I was reading. Monday - slow cooking meal (make in morn) and make a lot so there is stuff to freeze for another meal next week. Tues, Wed, Thurs - (not sure which day for what) stir fry meat & vege meal, soup & pasta (for kids) meal, and maybe a vegetarian/fish meal (?). Friday I try to have a special treat made for everyone and this week it was another frittata with eggplant, grated zuchini, leftover peas & corn, onion, and some basil pesto mixed in with the 6 eggs & milk & bit of grated cheese. If for kids, I don't so much recommend the eggplant but I was soooooo at the end of my fresh veges and just using leftovers. On the weekend I find I tend to use any freezer meals or try for shortcuts or a meal out.

So I did do a stirfry this week too which I had seen thrown together on Chinese Food made Easy on Lifestyle Food. I just sliced some beef eye fillet very thinly, and then marinaded it in a splash of tamari, oyster & dry sherry, & a bit of garlic & salt. Later I stirfried it in some s'flower oil in my wok (took all of 3 mins) and then heated the wok again with a little more oil, sauteed some garlic, ginger and chilli, added a packet of baby spinach and pulled it off the heat as soon as it had started to wilt. The beef on the spinach was just heavenly for me (peas & corn on the side) while the others enjoyed it on brown rice.

And there were 2 sweets I baked for the kids - sugar free! Peanut Butter & Maple Syrup Cookies - the recipe can be found on my Fb profile under Notes. And the other recipe was Banana bread:

1/4 cup agave nectar

1/4 cup vege oil

1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened (I use the goulburn valley twin packs)

2 lge eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbs water

1 1/3 cup banana mashed

1 1/2 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup quinoa flour (I just ground up some quinoa grain in my blender)

1/4 cup arrowroot

1 tb baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup walnuts chopped (optional)

Cream the agave and oil until well mixed, add in applesauce and mix till blended. Add in eggs, vanilla and water and mix well after each addition. Add in bananas and set aside. In a sep bowl stir together the flours, arrowroot, baking powder, and salt. Add this to the banana mixture and stir to combine. Add in nuts, and pour into greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour in a mod oven but check it after 50 mins. Cool on wire rack.

I made mine in a mini loaf tray so that it cooked in 15 mins and I had 8 individual portions. The kids happily ate a whole one for breaky but only 1/2 as a snack. It is definately best when served straight out of the oven with butter and drizzle of honey on top. Yes, I tried one (or two) and they were filling (all that good grain) but prob a bit grainy tasting to be a kids' favourite. The day after they need to be reheated (pref with the butter spread on it to help keep it moist) to eat.

And the last thing I 'll finish with was how I discovered to check the ingredients when eating out (yeah, I know - der!). Thought I was safe with pumpkin soup, but turns out that most restaurants add sugar, who knows why????? So was a bit jacked off with having to revert to a garden salad with some shredded chicken on top (no dressing) - Boring!