Recipe for Week1 : Day 4

Butternut and chickpea curry WW5.5

Ingredients
Spices
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
5 cardomom pods, crushed
½ tsp chilli powder (optional)
Veg and pulses
2 onions,finely chopped
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 sm. butternut – about 500gm
400gm can chopped tomatoes
300gm can chickpeas
70gm red lentils
Liquids
2 cups veg stock
1 Tblsp tomato paste

240gm rice

Method
Peel and chop the onions.
Peel and crush the garlic.
Deseed and peel the butternut, and chop roughly.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Start the rice cooking. Drain when tender. Keep warm.
Meanwhile, spray a large pan with cooking spray. Place over heat.
Cook onions and garlic until the onions are soft, stirring all the time.
Add the spices to the onion/garlic mix, stirring to combine.
Add the butternut, chickpeas, tomatoes, paste, stock and lentils.
Cook over low heat until lentils and butternut are tender.
Serve with rice and sweet chilli sauce.

Groans about grains and meet Sally Avridge

At least half of all the grains you consume should be whole grain. Choose whole grain breads and breakfast cereals, whole wheat pasta, and wild or brown rice, rather than their refined counterparts.

Of course, young children may find whole grains difficult to cope with, so they need to be introduced gradually as teeth and tummies develop.

The grain group includes all foods made from wheat, rice, oats, maize, barley, rye, quinoa or millet. These grains originate as the fruit, or seeds, of grasses and grass-type plants. They are cultivated on a large scale as staple crops - crops which provide more food energy for world populations than any other food group. Potatoes are also included in this group.

When grains are refined, the outer husk, the bran and the germ are lost, leaving only the endosperm, which is pretty much all carbohydrate. Gone are the vitamins, minerals and fibre that used to be part of each little grain. Keep them whole, and they will keep you healthy!

It amazes / amuses (not sure which is the more appropriate) that manufacturers go to great lengths to refine grain - removing most of the nutrients in the process - and then go to even greater lengths to replace what they destroyed with (mostly synthetic) additives!  "Fortified breakfast cereal with added vitamins". What an ad!

Even though grains are an essential part of your daily food intake, too much of even a good thing can cause weight grain.

An average person, of average height, weight, age  and activity levels (???!!!) consuming an average of 2000 kcals/8400kjoules daily (meet Sally Avridge) requires 6 servings of grains per day. 1 serving of grains equates to 1slice of whole wheat bread, OR 1 cup of ready-to-eat-cereal, OR 1/2 cup of cooked pasta, rice or cooked cereal, OR a potato the size of a large egg.

Today, Sally Avridge will have 1/2 cup of cooked oats for breakfast, a sandwich made with 2 slices of whole wheat bread for lunch and a cup and a half of pasta for dinner (she really likes pasta). That is six portions of grains, and provided she has whole wheat pasta, it's ALL whole grain. Well done, Sally!

What will Sally eat tomorrow? Join me for the low down on vegetables.

Recipe for Week 1 : Day 3

Avocado and orange salad with chicken WW5

 Ingredients
±600gm skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
Marinade
1 Tblsp lemon juice
Grated rind of 1 orange
2 Tblsp orange juice
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
Good grind of black pepper



Dressing
4 Tblsp orange juice
1 Tblsp wholegrain mustard
3 Tblsp cider vinegar
1 Tblsp olive oil
another tsp grated fresh ginger
More black pepper
Salad
1 (100gm) pack of mixed lettuce
2 large oranges, skin and pith removed, and segments cut free
1 firm, ripe avocado
generous handful of black olives
salad sprouts

 Method
Combine marinade ingredients in a shallow dish.
Add chicken pieces, turn to coat each piece. Cover the dish and refrigerate for 30 mins.
Put a little olive oil in a pan (or use a cooking spray) and heat the pan.
Take the chicken out of the marinade and then fry it until nicely browned and cooked through.
Mix the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl.
Pour dressing into the frying pan and boil while stirring until reduced to about ½.
Tip the mixed lettuce into a bowl. Top with the orange segments, avocado slices, olives, sprouts
and chicken.
Pour the dressing over the salad while still warm.
Serve with hot crusty bread.

'What's that, Mummy?'

When your three-year-old asks this question about an item of food on his/her or your plate, you are likely to reply:
'That's chicken / cheese / watermelon / broccoli / brown bread, darling.' 
You wouldn't give a description such as:
'Oh, that's animal protein / a combination of animal protein and saturated fat / a high-GI simple carbohydrate with a relatively low-GI load / brassica oleracea / a partially refined grain product, sweetheart. It's yummy. Eat up.'
We tend to think of food items in terms of their 'common' names, rather than considering the botanical family, genus and species, or the chemical composition. From habit, experience and the 'collective unconscious', you will go to the butchery section of the supermarket for animal protein, the veg section for brassica and (a lot of) other carbohydrates, and the bakery section for bread.
What I'm getting at is the fact that foods fall into fairly distinct groups, but as with any form of categorisation, the borders of the groups are a bit fuzzy. Few food products belong exclusively to one food group - at least, not by the time they reach your plate. But as the old adage has it, it all goes down the same way, anyway.
Food used to be categorized into three broad groups:
Carbohydrates; protein; and fats.
The carbohydrate group was the biggest and most complex: it covered vegetables, fruits, sugars and grains.
Proteins appeared to be reasonably straightforward, covering meat, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs - but wait, there's more - beans, legumes, quinoa, nuts and seeds are protein as well, although you can quite correctly group them with the carbohydrates.
The fats category comprised vegetable oils, animal fats, and dairy - though dairy also comes under protein!
No wonder people were - and still are! - confused about what they are eating!
Maybe a better approach is the new style 'food pyramid' (http://www.mypyramid.gov/), which has six categories: grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, oils and meat and beans.
Lessons start tomorrow - I will take you through each of the food groups, as designated by the food pyramid, and - I hope - help you to make healthier food choices.

Recipe for Week 1 : Day 2

Ginger pork with cabbage  WW8
Ingredients
500gm pork fillet, trimmed & sliced
Marinade
2 Tblsp soy sauce
1 Tblsp honey
1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp olive oil

Accompaniments
250gm egg noodles
150gm cabbage, cored and shredded
150gm spinach, washed and shredded
1 sm red bell pepper, deseeded and diced
1 red or green chilli, finely sliced
A generous handful of beansprouts
Method
Mix the marinade ingredients together in a shallow bowl.
Add the pork, turn to coat, and allow to stand while you prepare the vegetables.
Tip the pork and marinade into a heated pan. Keep the pork moving so that the honey doesn’t catch.
Cook the noodles in plenty of water, according to the packet instructions.
Just before the noodles are cooked, add the shredded cabbage and spinach, the diced
bell pepper and the chopped chili.
Return to the boil and allow to cook for a further 2 mins.
Stir well to combine. Drain.
Divide the vegetable-noodles and the pork between 4 serving plates.
Garnish with bean sprouts.
Serve with extra soy and sweet chili sauce if desired.

Goal setting

So here we are, at the beginning of the year. Did you make any resolutions? What are you goals for this year? These notes on goal setting don't only apply to weight loss. Baby steps will help you win minor victories in the march to a major goal.

When we set goals, most of us tend to get carried away - we are far too ambitious - and the more ambitious we are at the outset, the less likely we are to succeed.
When you think 'I need to lose weight', you will probably stipulate the total amount of weight you want to lose, and a specific (short) time period in which to lose it. This approach will more than likely fail because the goal you have set yourself is unrealistic and unattainable! Better by far to break it down into baby steps, and not to put a time limit on success. Success breeds success, so after completing the first baby step you are going to happily commit to the next (baby) step. And so on.
So what changes in lifestyle are you going to implement to acheive your mini-goal? Most people will say that to lose weight you have to eat less and exercise more - right AND wrong answer!
To lose weight, we need to implement adequate healthy eating habits and sensible exercise.
Let's get the sensible exercise  out of the way first. I am NOT a personal trainer in the field of exercise. I have said before that I am lazy, not just a lazy cook, but lazy generally. I like the old saying 'why walk if you can stand, why stand if you can sit, why sit if you can lie down?'. My sentiments exactly! I have never exercised. Not in the formal go-to-gym/aerobics way. Yes, I played netball, tennis and hockey (most reluctantly!) at school. But I have always maintained that I got enough exercise looking after my husband, children and house. If you are into gym, then good for you; the endorphins produced by exercise are positive and very uplifting. The only exercise I introduced at the midpoint of my weight loss program was walking. Actually, not even walking. More of a brisk stroll; pushing my grandson in his pushchair, up to the local supermarket and back (not even a kilometer round trip), weather and nap times permitting, three times a week. But only if I felt like it. If you are not into gym, don't feel you have to start now, especially if you have a preclusive medical condition.
That brings me to the adequate healthy eating habits. This is going to be the on-going topic of my posts. Tomorrow I will start to introduce you to the different food groups.

So until tomorrow...

Recipe for Week 1 : Day 1

Linguine with fish poppets    WW9

Ingredients
Poppets
800gm skinless haddock fillets
2-3 slices bread, crumbed
1 large egg
2 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup chopped parsley
60gm strong cheese, grated

Sauce ingredients
400gm can chopped tomatoes
1 Tblsp tomato paste
½ cup wine
240gm (dry) linguine
Method

Chop the haddock, and squeeze out any excess moisture.
Place the haddock, egg, garlic, parsley and cheese in a mixing bowl.
Mix well. Add half the breadcrumbs and mix again.
Keep mixing in breadcrumbs until the mixture is firm.
Take large teaspoonfuls of the fish mixture and compress into balls.
Roll the balls in a little flour.
Start the linguine cooking, according to the instructions on the pack.
Heat a large frying pan with a tablespoon of oil.
Fry the poppets in the oil until they are nicely browned all over.
Remove the poppets from the pan.
Drain off any excess oil from the pan.
Tip the chopped tomatoes and paste into the frying pan, and boil until
the sauce is reduced.
Stir the wine into the sauce.
Add the poppets back into the pan.
Heat through.
Serve with linguine and a fresh salad.