Friday, 13 August 2010

Still alive, still a tad mad & still vegetarian woo hoo ☺

Still alive, still a tad mad & still vegetarian woo hoo ☺

Will be overhauling this blog over the next few weeks to coincide with my impending nervous breakdown & escapades in setting my business up.

On orders to do some 'woman duties' grrrrrrrrrr by OH as we are changing mortgage provider and our Architect mate Chris is coming over @ the weekend to draw us up some free plans, thanks Chris ;-) For the dormer loft conversion we are doing ourselves :-O I kid you not! I will be in power tool heaven ☺

N orf 4 a few days to London on a 'girls only' trip. Talking of which. Just had to double check I'd checked into a four ☆ hotel in Kensington & not a knocking shop in Soho. Was checking health suite classes for Pilates & found Pole Dancing & Aerobic Striptease! Good for the thighs apparently ☺

Finally got my head around (ish) Facebook and got down with the kids 'n' all that & set up a page (link to my profile below ;-)) just uploaded three albums of photos inc Oasis gig, Take That gig and my beloved MCFC ☺

Rachel-Louise Mulhall | Create your badge


Orf 4 a coffee and a chill whilst watching 3@three on ITV, errrrr I mean partake in some meaningful 'woman duties' for my beloved.....

Catch you later
Cheers ears ☺

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Long time no blog

Wow, where has the time gone been such a long, long time since my last confession, blushes profusely :)

Time to get my 'arse' back in gear and hopefully a lot smaller 'arse' in a couple of months time thanks to the wonders of Slimming World’s Food Optimising :)

I am a woman on a mission and now back in the 'zone' so to speak. So I shall be whining and whinging, celebrating and no doubt at times crying on here for all to see in the coming months. Hopefully it won't be such a bumpy ride, crosses fingers, toes, arms, legs and everything else crossable…

I have made some delicious things over the past week if I don’t say so myself and photographed them too hurrah :)so when I finally track down the camcorder upload wire that has somehow magically morphed into 'the teenagers' iPod wire I'll upload them :)

I intend on being a good 'her indoors' and cook everything from scratch. Even get some Body Magic in with some…. with some…. with some …1950s stylee (almost faints) housework, scrambles to scoop ‘gob, upeth floor’ LOL. The fact that I have just gone Vegetarian three weeks ago living in a house full of carnivores is going to be a challenge in itself! So my recipes will be a mix of Veggie/Vegan meals and adapted carnivorous meals. Basically the same meal split half way through adding meat for the carnivores and meat replacements pour moi :)and lots n lots of 'sweet stuff' :)

The ’young un’ is still off with the Chicken Pox (been over three extremely ‘trying’ weeks now) as he decided to catch them just before returning to preschool after the two week half term break! Not very considerate is it…only joking…ish ….LOL. So I haven’t been getting my usual 40 minutes of walking Body Magic in. This normally saves me from a gain on a Tuesday evening despite the sweet tooth. So I really, really must address this. Jackie @ my local SW group swears that a bit of ‘how’s your Father’ is this best type of Body Magic going. I suppose she may have a valid point and you wouldn’t even have to leave the bed let alone the house then tuck into a nice Cadburys creme egg (9 Syns)

Now according to my calculations a creme egg has 173.6 calories and according to the self professed ‘most accurate calorie counter’ here you’d have to be a blinking nymphomaniac to burn that many cals.

In fact my ‘most useful information snippet of the day’ today is in direct relation to ‘said counter’ and it is;

5 mins of backpacking uses 5 times more cals than foreplay and almost twice as much as 5 mins of sex! So there you go, now you know :)


So my advice for the day would be. If you fancy treating yourself to a couple of creme eggs (as one is NEVER,EVER,EVER ENOUGH) and are running a little shy on the old Syns front and are looking to work in some body magic to work it off then try this for size, wink, wink :) (5 mins each unless otherwise stated)

Fein a headache, have a 5 minute nap (6 cals) , take a shower (31 cals), brush your teeth (18 cals), get a guitar out and play a catchy ditty (23 cals), slow ballroom dance (22 cals) yourself to the kitchen to cook a 5 minute omelette (19 cals) (with a third Superfree don’t forget, wink), wash the dishes (16 cals), do a spot of ironing (16 cals) then get a bit of 5 minute tailoring in (19 cals) and cut yourself out a nice 50s style pinny and hot pad to go with your new 50s stylee lifestyle (patterns and instructions to follow in a future confession), weave a quick cloth (27 cals) to make into a shiny new duster, use duster for a quick 5 min dash around (21 cals) on the way to the front door, making yourself presentable by the hallway mirror coffering your hair into a 50s style peak of utter perfection (19 cals), talk on the phone (7 cals) to your pal to arrange a meet up on then heading on your merry way, rake the lawn (29 cals), after washing the car (33 CALS), walk (20 cals) to the tennis club for a game of tennis doubles (31 cals) ending with a quick 3 minute game of billiards…..RESULT!

Thew I am knackered with a capital K after just reading that maybe Jackie’s suggestion is worth considering after all?

Will be back later to upload some recipes and my ‘Tuesday night weigh in confession’, thanks for visiting :)

Cheers ears
Rachel-Louise :)

Wednesday, 15 October 2008

Homemade soup, herby wedges and Quorn sausages

Had my very first ever Quorn sausages.

Uncooked Quorn sausages.



Cooked Quorn sausages.





Homemade herby wedges.Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.




Homemade spicy carrot,parsnip and corriander soup.Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.









Homemade broccoli soup.Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.





Tuesday, 14 October 2008

Pasta quiche - EDITED 12/01/09

EDITED 12th January 2009. See below

Now you see it



Now you don't



Ingredients.

Two packets of mild cheese and broccoli pasta and sauce..
3 medium eggs or 2 large eggs.
200g pot of very low fat cottage cheese.
100 - 150 g of quark, depending on how creamy you want it to be.
Cracked black pepper, the kind out of a pepper mill.

Equipment.

You will also need a large quiche dish. Will measure mine shortly for you. The quiche fits perfectly in it.
You will also need some foil or a large plate to cover the quiche whilst cooking or you will get a crispy top, not nice!

Method.

Turn your oven onto 200 (sorry don’t know what it is in gas)

Pop the two pasta and sauce into a pan and boil the kettle.

Add 1 pint and 8oz of boiling water (do not add milk or butter as it says. It will still be creamy without it because of the quark and cottage cheese)
Bring to the boil and cook until it has expanded (the pasta) but not fully cooked but almost. Still slightly hard, as it will finish off cooking in the oven and won’t go hard.

Turn the heat off and add the cottage cheese and stir well. (mix it all in the pan saves on washing up, hurrah)

Add the quark and then stir well.

Beat the two eggs in a cup and add plenty of pepper to your liking and taste, then add this to your mixture ad stir well.

Pour the mixture into your quiche dish. No need to grease it as it doesn't usually stick to the quiche dish but you can lightly spritz with fry light if you like but this shouldn’t be necessary.

Lightly wrap the top in foil not touching the quiche or pop a large plate on top.

Then pop into the oven for 35 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and lightly shake it, if it wobbles pop it back in the oven for a few minutes.

Leave it to stand for five minutes and then devour, deeeeeeeeeeeeeelish.

This is my version of the quiche through trial and error I find that it is much creamier with the quark added and it is free. I have also made a salmon and rice one using Batchelors golden rice and a large tin of salmon. You can eat the quiche hot or cold on its own or with a salad. It keeps well too. So if you want to have a good green day. Make it up b4 lunch time, eat some for lunch and then snack on the rest for the rest of the day as it’s free. This is also ideal lunchbox food. To reheat, simply cut a slice and pop it into your microwave for about 1.5 - 2 minutes. Depending on your microwave.

A lady from my local SW group emailed me as she couldn't locate quark or the Batchelors Pasta 'n' Sauce. I thought others may have come across this problem too and so I pasted some of my reply in below :)

I use Batchelors Pasta 'n' Sauce because I know it's free. I don't know about the Morrisons one but it does sound very salty. I do know that the CO-OP always has them in when I go. ASDA and LIDL always sell them too and they are cheaper there and usually on offer. ASDA have them offer at the moment for £1.00 for two packetsOoops forgot to say. If anybody else asks the C0-OP always has them in and at the moment ASDA have them at the bargain price of 2 for £1. I have tried other Pasta 'n' Sauce flavours in the quiche. But the mild cheese and broccoli one is the nicest in it by far.

I have never seen Quark locally. But I do know that Sainsburys, ASDA and Somerfields sell it. They keep moving it and putting it where you wouldn't expect it. So nearly always I have to ask an assistant to locate it for me :)

In answer to your quark question. You don't have to use it, it is lovely without. But I like to use it as it tastes even better and very creamy and doesn't taste syn free (on green) at all.

If you are making one with just cottage cheese then use 2 large or three medium eggs and a 200g pot of very low fat cottage cheese. Then check it after 35 minutes cooking, with oven gloves on (I forgot and burnt myself once LOL) take the quiche dish out and gently shake it from side to side. If it wobbles pop it back in the oven for 5 minutes and then check again.

If you are making it with quark also then add 3 eggs. Medium sized eggs if you are adding 100g or 3 large eggs if you are adding 150g of quark. With Quark added it will take longer to cook. So just do as before and keep on checking. As my ovens vary.

Always let your quiche stand for five minutes before serving. It will still be hot, but will settle and hold better so that you can slice it up. Once it has cooled you will have no problem slicing it up. Keep it covered up though with foil or a dinner plate placed on top once it has cooled to stop it from drying out.

Also always cover the quiche up whilst cooking with foil or a large dinner plate placed on top to stop the top getting crispy.

I hope this helps you. I think I'll update my blog with this information too as others may have had the same problem.

Let me know if you need any more help :)

Rachel-Louise :)