Menu Plan (7th May 2016)

Didn't we have a glorious weekend! I hope everyone managed to get out at some point and enjoy it. I went out for a walk with the ladies from my WI around Blackleach Country Park which I have never walked around before despite it only being a few miles down the road.

I am not feeling inspired to cook this week. Craig is out practically every night and we have loads of food in the freezer, so I am trying to use what is in there.

Monday - Beefburgers (extras Craig had bought yesterday for the impromptu Barbecue we had)
Tuesday - Craig to sort out as I have to go to help set up the room for the WI Charity Fashion show straight after work.
Wednesday - Jacket potato, beans and salad
Thursday - Chicken wraps and salad (no wrap for me)
Friday  - Pizza for the kids, not sure what I will have.
Saturday - Pulled pork, fries, sweet potato fries and salad
Sunday - Shepherds pie with sweet potato mash, baby corn and mangetout.

Linking up with Mrs M and Organising Junkie.

Hope you all have a good week.

Deborah

Menu Plan 30th April 2016

I didn't do a menu plan last week as I was away for most of the week and even when I do plan Craig doesn't stick to it and I have ended up wasting a lot of food.

This week however, there is only one evening when I am back late after flying back from Aberdeen so Craig can sort the meal out himself.

As usual I am starting from Saturday as that is my weigh in day at Slimming World. 

Saturday - shopping most of the day so eat out in Manchester
Sunday - Slimming World Fakeaway KFC Chicken with Slimming World Chips
Monday - Beef stew with vegetables
Tuesday - Slimming world Paella
Wednesday - Craig to sort out
Thursday - Chilli con Carne with Cauliflower rice
Friday - Stir Fry

Linking up with Mrs M and Organising Junkie
Hope you are having a good Bank Holiday and the weather is better for you than it is for me.

The Ultimate Little Black Dress

At one of our  WI meeting we had a talk about a ‘Little Black Dress’ from the ladies at Aspull and Haigh WI.

The Little Black Dress was designed and created for a competition run by the NFWI about 5 years ago.  Aspull and Haigh decided to enter and the talk was how the dress came about. The criteria for the design was that it had be made from sustainable / recycled  materials. The WI wanted to design a classy dress and they agreed that the ultimate LBD was Audrey Hepburn’s in ‘Breakfast at Tiffanys‘,  but unfortunately that dress would not suit the figures of most of the members so they decided to design their own- but where to start. They held many discussions and said they would take everyone’s ideas into consideration, not just the best ones, everyone. That meant that the dress should be short, mid length, long with long sleeves, short sleeves, no sleeves. So what did they do- they did them all with the clever use of zips. It took many months of design and making and they had to overcome so many problems incorporating all the ideas but the end result was inspiring.

This idea was so clever and meant that you would only ever need 1 dress in your wardrobe and it would suit every occasion.

Would you believe they only came second in the competition to a dress made of old tights.. I think it was because during the fashion show they might not have been able to demonstrate the flexibility of the dress for different occasions.

The talk was very entertaining and fascinating how they overcame the problems. I did ask at the end how much they would charge to make another dress like this but they said they would never do it again because of the blood, sweat and tears that went into making this one.

Menu Plan (18th April 2016)

Well, a 1lb off weight wise so quite happy this week. Aiming to do the same again this week. Not much else going on this week. I am looking forward to the forecasted better weather here as it really helps my mood.

My menu plan for this week is 
Saturday: Gehaktballen and mashed potato
Sunday  Roast Chicken Dinner
Monday - Roasted Vegetables and Pasta
Tuesday  - Homemade burgers and sweet potato fries
Wednesday - Bolognese with Spiralised Vegetable Spaghetti (for me, normal spaghetti for everyone else)
Thursday - Chicken Fajitas (no wrap for me, just salad and refried beans)
Friday - Maggi So Juicy Chicken with Slimming World chips, green beans and sweetcorn.

Linking up to Mrs M and Organising Junkie

Hope you all have a good week.

Deborah

Learning to Quilt

The W.I I belong to has a quilting club which runs every fortnight. After my first attempt at making a cushion from a kit I decided that I wanted to make a quilt but using as many different styles of blocks as I could to get some variety. So far things aren't going to badly, though the blocks are not perfect I am quite happy with the way things are going. I will be making a few of each style of block to hopefully improve my technique the more practice I get.

This was the first block and I have made a couple more of these since then

 The one that is only half is now completed

The next one I made is known as a log cabin

So far, I have only made one of these.

I decided next to make a windmill, which has caused me no end of problems, attaching the pieces together in the right place, but after two sessions and lots of unpicking I finally got there.

As I go away with work and often have nothing better to do in the evenings I wanted to be able to do some hand sewing. Although I have a cross stitch that I am working on at the craft club I wanted to have a go at English paper piece quilting as I can do that when my eyes are too tired to focus on the same cross stitch stitches. I bought a magazine which included some of the hexagon shapes and some fabric samples and did this

This flower I will probably just put on a backing fabric and include in the sample quilt but I am intending on making a throw for a chair with lots more of these.

I know that I still have a long way to go and I don't have the natural sewing ability that some of the other members of the group seem to have but it's like the old saying 'Practice makes perfect' and I hope to get in plenty of practice.

Menu Plan (11th April 2016)

Well, last weeks menu plan didn't go to plan. I had a feeling they wouldn't as Craig was off work with us and he tends to wake up and decide we are going to such a place and we don't get back until late so we end up eating whilst we are out. This meant that I only lost 1/2lb but hopefully with being back in work this week I will be back on track .

I am also going to start my menu plan on a Saturday as that is my weigh in day and when I start my new week for the food diary.

Saturday - Mother in laws homemade Chicken Broth
Sunday - Hoisin beef stir fry (carried over from last week)
Monday - Slimming world paella
Tuesday -Cheese and beans on toast
Wednesday - Slimming world mixed grill
Thursday - Gehaktballen ( a big version of a meatball from the Slimming World magazine)
Friday - Tacos ( though I will have the meat mixture with a jacket potato rather than shells)

Linking up to Mrs M and Organising Junkie.

Hope you all have a good week.

Deborah

My Slimming World Menu Plan/Food Diary

To help me keep on top of what I am eating I did use the standard food diary you get when you join Slimming World. Although I did write down everything I ate I prefer a breakfast, lunch, dinner format so I designed my own. 

I decided not to include the Healthy A and Healthy B as a separate box as I would know just from looking. I have put Snack separate from Syns as the 'free' food would not be in that category. If a meal has a Syn value then I will include it with the meal. I also included mood as I know when I am feeling depressed or stressed then I would eat more of the wrong type of foods. My mood categories would be 'good' 'stressed', 'tired', 'depressed', 'sick' and 'Pre-menstrual' and I would use a different emoticon for each.

I did consider buying a food diary as some of the group members have done but by doing it myself then I am free to adapt it to fit my own needs. I use it initially to plan the meals but then it also acts as a food diary as well.

As things in life are subject to change, when I am planning for the week I write in  pencil and then when I have eaten what was planned or changed then I rub out the pencil and write in pen so I have a permanent record of what I have eaten that I can keep in my planner and refer back to whenever I am lacking inspiration.