Maintenance Week One

I picked a good week to reach my goal weight.  I went to see my lovely friend Nikki in her new house on Friday night and she fed me all manner of Mediterranean deliciousness...warm pitta breads, houmous, tzatziki, olives, feta cheese and sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, roast peppers in olive oil, falafel, parma ham...I was in heaven.  I also cooked for my very special Mum and Dad on the Saturday and, as well as Cumin-spiced Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup (a BBC Good Food recipe which I bizarrely can't find on their website) and Game Stew (my own recipe) there was Delia's Apple and Almond Bake (I take back everything I have said about Delia - it was divine) and cream.  And wine, and home-made chocolate truffles.  Tee hee. 

As a result of my treats, I not only ate every last one of my 32 daily points, but also most of my 49 weekly points.  I felt like I'd eaten an enormous amount of delicious food - not just the treats but on a daily basis too - and was convinced that I'd put on weight, but according to the official weigh-in...no change, either to weight or body fat percentage.  To say I was thrilled was an understatement!

I leave you with some scenes from a special sunny weekend - isn't it amazing to see the sun again?!

Early morning sunrise/rainbow on Saturday morning.

Sunshine!  And the table laid with flowers for Mum and Dad.

Sunday morning...

...Sunday lunch...

..Sunday baking (recipe to follow!).

Sunshiny cat.

The Baked Bean Experiment

Alastair maintains that he has been looking at the Boston Baked Beans recipe in our Supercookery book for the past twenty years and meaning to make them, and he's certainly been saying to me for the past ten years he's going to make them one day.  Repeated exposure to the idea means that I've acquired a low-level obsession with home-made baked beans too.  When a recipe for Boston Baked Beans not only appeared in an American cookbook Jules gave me for Christmas, but also in the February issue of Good Food we decided that the universe was obviously trying to send us a message, and purchased a bag of haricot beans from Tesco. 

The first thing you're meant to do is soak your beans overnight.  We forgot to do this, which may have some bearing on what happened later.  They look so innocent here....

When we realised our mistake, I did a bit of internet searching and found that there is actually a "quick-soak" method which we used.  I do not recommend it! 

Soaking issues aside, making the baked beans is very simple.  After you've soaked them and then boiled them up a bit (to remove the toxins) you put the beans, an onion chopped into quarters and some belly pork (we used 260g) into a stew-pot.

The BBC Good Food recipe also has celery, carrots and tomato puree in it - having done the Supercookery version I think that the BBC Good Food version would make a better end result.  In the Supercookery version you just mix some black treacle, some soft brown sugar, some mustard powder and some salt and pepper together, and then add the mixture to the pork and beans.

Then you cover your beans and additions with water and - according to the recipe - cook them on a low heat in the oven for 5 hours (adding water every so often), followed by 45 minutes simmering on the stove-top.

Ahem.  It took about 9 hours, including a good 3 of fierce boiling on the stove-top, and what seemed like gallons of water before our beans went soft!

I wasn't at all sure, given the amount of sugar and black treacle, and from tastings during the boiling process, that I was going to like proper baked beans, but by the time the cooking process had finished the belly pork had gone meltingly tender and the sugariness of the sauce had abated somewhat, producing eight portions (!) of rich and hearty bean stew.  A very economical dish (although not pretty I have to say...)!

To be honest, the baked beans we produced are too sweet for me, but - not one to let good food go to waste - I have been eating them as the basis of a healthy and filling meal with steamed kale, carrots and a squeeze of lemon juice.  The strong flavour of the kale and the lemon juice cuts through the sweetness of the sauce and makes an enjoyable, balanced meal.  I don't think I would make this recipe again, but I am now a lot more inclined to make casseroles with (pre-soaked) beans in them and use them as meal-bases.

And finally...because I'm sure you're wondering...I have not suffered from the digestive problem traditionally associated with baked beans!

Weight Watchers: GOAL!!!

I officially weighed in at 9st 0lbs on Wednesday evening (had meetings all day Thursday and wasn't going to be able to get to Boots to weigh myself).  The picture of my computer screen is from the first time I weighed in at 9st 0lbs, which I decided was an anomalous reading, but the print-out is from the day I officially reached goal.  Hee hee!

So, what's next?  Well, unfortunately I can't now eat whatever I want whenever I want - well, I could, but I would put all the weight back on!  It's onto Maintenance now, which is where you count and record your points in exactly the same way, you just get more to eat each week.  Weight Watchers gives you six extra points a day, and the first couple of weeks of Maintenance are basically you working out if you can eat that much and not put on any weight (or, alternatively, if you need to eat more not to lose weight).  Otherwise known as "how much can I eat and not put on weight?!".  I am looking forward to this phase! 

In terms of how I feel about my body now I've lost the weight I wanted, the funny thing is, I've lost weight so gradually that I can't actually see any difference when I look in the mirror - it seems strange when I put my clothes on and they're really loose!  What I see when I look in the mirror is the same body shape I've always had, which I don't particularly like.  I'm pear-shaped, with a pot belly which is the bane of my life (although a friend, who has a perfect hour-glass figure, once said that she wished she had an "athletic" figure like mine which amazed me!).  A healthy living blog I follow, whose author lost 50lbs, said that one of the side-effects of weight loss that no-one talks about is that when you're overweight you just see yourself as overweight, but when you lose the weight you see yourself in terms of the problem areas, and, for some reason I felt much better after reading that.  She - Erica is her name - worked really hard after losing her 50lbs to achieve a fantastic figure, and I found reading about it absolutely inspirational (particularly this post, which is fantastic).  I reckon that if someone who looks that amazing can have insecurities about her body, then mine might actually look pretty good (not sure if that's logical, but it works for me!).  I'll have to post some "after" pics so you can see for yourself what I look like - at the moment it's so cold I'm seldom seen without at least three layers of clothing, at least one of which is usually furry, so it's not a good time at the moment, but I'm going to Tunisia soon so should have some snaps to post where I'm not hidden under several layers of clothing!

All of this leads me on to my health and fitness goals.  Like I said, I found it really inspiring that when Erica lost her weight it was the start of achieving a fantastic figure, not the end, so I'm going to keep up all my exercise activities (apart from anything else, I really enjoy them).  I want to keep eating really really well, with tons of fruit and vegetables, lean meat, low-fat dairy and nuts and seeds and dried fruit treats with the odd bit of chocolate here and there (have become obsessed with chocolate-covered raisins).  As well as being slim I want to be as healthy and fit and strong as possible - so I'm going to keep cycling, keep running and keep Body Toning and Circuit Training (knees permitting, as Body Tone and Circuit Training kill them).  I want to be able to run 10k by the end of the summer, and I want to cycle 100 miles in one day (I've done 80 in a day before), and I want to have a body fat index of less than 25%, a small waist and a flat tummy.  Wish me luck, and I'll let you know how it goes!

Alastair's Valentine's Day Pie

We like to celebrate Valentine's Day at a different time from everyone else.  This year it was yesterday - we went for a special walk and a VERY special lunch at the Rose and Crown, Romaldkirk (which I highly recommend, by the way).

My Valentine's Day present to Alastair was a sweet treat of his choosing.  He chose a Seventies-tastic recipe from our Seventies-tastic cook-book Supercookery (the illustrations are hilarious). 

As well as looking, in my opinion, frankly dubious, it was a complicated beast to make.  Stage one was the pastry case - a basic shortcrust baked blind.

No need for baking beans or anything else - just prick the pastry all over with a fork and it won't puff up.

Stage two was the custard.  I made crème patissière - it's probably not economical in terms of either ingredients (five egg yolks!) or time, and you could substitue posh custard from the supermarket, the kind that comes in tubs, but for sheer Domestic Goddessery you can't beat making it yourself (and licking out the saucepan is akin to attaining Nirvana).

I used a Delia recipe - I always go to Delia for my basics, although I do have to say, in my humble opinion some of her recipes aren't all they're cracked up to be.  Anyway, first I put a vanilla pod into a pint of milk and brought it to boil.  One of the nicest sights in the kitchen -a pan of warm milk sprinkled with vanilla seeds. 

Then I alchemised egg yolks, sugar and flour into this little slice of heaven:

Grapes on the top...

...and lemon-flavoured gelatin to glaze.

Weight Watchers: the Twenty-seventh Week

Official post-lunch weight on Thursday: 9st 1lbs (no matter how much I tried to levitate off the scales to bring it down to 9st 0lbs).  So near yet so far!  I am keen to get onto the "Maintenance" phase of Weight Watchers, as it involves eating more! 

On the plus side, the snow has gone and the exercise situation has vastly improved.  Cycled to work twice this week (yesterday was too windy), did a Body Tone class and also did Circuit Training for the first time yesterday (albeit a special needs version as I couldn't do any of the leg exercises as my knees were sore from Body Tone).  The instructor very kindly said that it was a class "for all ability levels" so she was happy to provide me with alternative exercises...okay...thanks, I think!  I enjoyed Circuit Training, although it was frustrating not to be able to keep my heart-rate up as much as if I'd been doing the non special-needs version.  It was a fantastic arm and core workout though.  I also did an unplanned hour-long walk in the dark afterwards, thanks to a footpath between the leisure centre and the car park which seemed an awful lot longer in the dark, especially when it was blocked by two giant trees and I had to go all the way back to where I'd started and then walk back to the car the long way! 

Anyway, I'm hoping that the scales read the right weight next Thursday so I can move into Maintenance...not to mention have a little celebration!  Not necessarily with coffee, but here's a picture of coffee...just because it's one of my very favourite things!