Food Diary – 12 to 17 Jan

It’s hard when you lose momentum with blogging. I have memory of a goldfish so I can’t remember half of what I had in the last few days. Below is what I can savage from my brain.

12 Jan lunch – Ipoh Hor Fun at Malaysian House, Hunter Connection. Ipoh Hor Fun is a soup noodle with chicken and prawn.

I found a recipe whilst searching for the above picture. I may give it a go … I wonder if I can just use chicken pieces rather than a whole chicken?

13 Jan dinner – lamb kebabs marinated with mint, rosemary and honey.

14 Jan dinner – Pork chops with baked apples. I used Granny Smith instead of red apple as suggested in the recipe but it is equally tasty.

I really like the comments section of the Taste website, I followed their advice to bake the apples for longer and it is much better. A hint to anyone interested in trying this dish – eat the pork and the apple in the same mouthful, their flavours really complement each other.

15 Jan lunch – Seafood paella from Ministry of Food on Bligh Street. Paella is one of those dishes that I will never make myself, it’s just too much work!

16 Jan lunch – lunch at Ripples Chowder Bay to celebrate The Little Guy’s first birthday, I will blog about it separately.

16 Jan dinner – Lamb chops, coated with wasabi flavoured olive oil and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked medium rare. Simple but so good.

17 Jan dinner – Fast chicken tagine. 

Are you detecting a trend on where my recipes come from?

This is my second attempt. I forgot to buy green olives the first time and the dish wasn’t as good without them. Also, I used slivered almonds rather than flaked almonds and it was an improvement, gave the dish a nice crunch. I mucked up the cooking of the couscous though by putting in a bit too much liquid.

There were a fair bit of leftovers so this is likely to be dinner tonight as well.

The definite lowlight in the last few days was that I finished the box of Guylian shells. It was a failed attempt in portion control. In retrospect I should have known better!  Also I didn’t eat as much vegetables as I’d like.

Overall, my food intake was not as good as it should be. I am going to do some research on GI because I am running out of energy on days when I’m at work (like today).

I am late for my weigh in and measure as well. I may have to postpone that to Wednesday when I am not working.  I don’t think there will be much change.

Food Diary – 11 Jan

Breakfast: 2 pieces of multigrain toast with butter and plum jam, skim cap
Morning Tea: A handful of dried fruit and nuts
Lunch: Lunch with friends at Verandah Bar. I had “Lamb Kebabs with a Garden Salad on Grilled Pita Bread topped with Tzatziki”, which was very nice except that the kebabs were cold. A skim cap at 2pm.
Early evening snack: A piece of Guylian seashell
Dinner: Bacon and Cheese Chicken. Mr Curious cooked so there were potatoes only for vegies! It was yummy but yes, not the healthiest dish.
Evening snack: I couldn’t resist the siren call of ice cream with Ice Magic.

Not a stellar day. It will be interesting to see what my weight is at the next weigh-in (how The Biggest Loser!). Maybe this is the control weigh-in where I can see what happens when I do not make major diet changes.

As an aside, I went on the treadmill briefly Friday afternoon and my fitness level is zero at this point. Must try to work in exercise in my schedule somehow.

Food Diary – Jan 6

Breakfast: A bowl of Uncle Toby Plus Antioxidant Lift with skim milk
Lunch: A club sandwich and a mango smoothie with skim milk at Bitton
Afternoon snack: Late afternoon – soup with carrot, corn and pork
Dinner: 1 sausage sizzle with onion and tomato sauce, salad with spinach, sun dried tomatoes, bocconcini cheese with a dash of olive oil as dressing.
Evening snack: I did avoid ice cream! Had a piece of Guylian seashell chocolate as planned

Back on plan in terms of avoiding bad food, but I still need to work on portion size.

Well we’ll be away for the next few days. It’s so easy to over-eat on holidays. Must be strong!

Food Diary – Jan 5

Breakfast: A bowl of Uncle Toby Plus Antioxidant Lift with skim milk at home, then 2 pieces of raisin toast with butter, and a skim cap at work
Lunch: Little Vienna Mojo Beef sandwich with brown bread (beef rissoles, tomato, lettuce, jalapeño, mayo), Coke Zero
Afternoon snack: Handfuls of fruit and nuts, skim cap
Dinner: Maple Mustard Pork Cutlets

This is one of my favourite dishes because it is so easy to make and so tasty. The baby spinach and bean mash works surprisingly well.

Evening snack: That’s when things fell apart …

Mr Curious gave me an enormous box of Guylian Sea Shells on Christmas.

I was planning to give myself a small sweet treat each evening by having one piece of seashell per night.

Well that didn’t work. The box was sitting there, calling for me, tempting me. And I succumbed. I ended up eating about 8! And that just made me want to eat more things, and I had gingle ale and some Jatz! There were no fruit left at home, only bad food 😦

So yesterday was a bad day. I bought some strawberries and mango today so I have something to snack on. I bought a big tub of ice cream and I’m not going to have any! *resolve*

Food Diary – Jan 4

Breakfast: 2 pieces of multigrain toast with butter and strawberry jam, and a skim cap (I was at work yesterday, definitely needed a coffee to be awake!)
Lunch: Was trying to be good and brought in tuna salad from home – tuna in olive oil, mixed lettuce, grape tomatoes, red onion and capsicum. Also had a piece of toast and a Coke Zero. The salad was yummy but I was hungry by 2:30pm and bought a small smoked salmon wrap.
Afternoon snack: A skinny hot chocolate and another skim cap, was dozing off at the desk
Dinner: My MIL came over to look after The Little Guy and she made some macaroni cheese. Naughty food but I didn’t have to cook which is a plus. Had a side salad of mixed lettuce and sun dried tomatoes
Evening snack: A ginger ale

An OK day. The hunger pangs were very distracting in the afternoon. I don’t think I over ate though.

2 soft drinks a day is not a good thing, I will bring Berocca to work next week so I can have a healthy fizzy drink when needed.

Astute readers would have noticed that I didn’t start a exercise diary, that’s because I didn’t do any (besides walking a fair bit). Still haven’t worked out how to fit it today my schedule yet. I’ll get there soon!

Food Diary – Jan 3

Need to write this earlier because I forgot about what I ate fairly quickly.

Breakfast: 2 pieces of white hi-fibre toast with butter and strawberry jam
Lunch: Noodles with fish & tofu balls in fish broth. The Little Guy loved slurping the noodles!
Afternoon snack: Cherries, then later a choc chip muesli bar, was really hungry because we didn’t have dinner until after 8pm
Dinner: Plan was to make chicken wrapped in bacon but the chicken has gone off, so Mr Curious made an omelette with grape tomatoes, capsicum, onion, bacon and cheese. Not quite as good as the one from Ripples but still very nice. Dessert was another slice of the Bacio.
Evening snack: None, wanted to have some rockmelon again but Mr Curious talked me out of it. Didn’t suffer any ill effects.
Beverages: Mostly water but had one ginger ale.

Another good day – I’m happy to keep my diet at this level for a while and see if it makes any difference. I don’t believe in fad/non-sustainable diets, and I don’t believe in starving myself. Although when cutting down food intake I think there is a short period of hunger before the body adjusts to having less food for fuel, and I’m OK with that.

And a short note on my weight. I couldn’t resist the temptation of stepping on the scales again and in the last 2 days my weight was around the 73.5kg mark. Not quite sure why that was the case, probably just less water in my sister, but that may need to be my new baseline rather than 75kg.

Food Diary – Jan 2

Breakfast: See previous post
Lunch: Leftover from lunch yesterday – 1 sausage sizzle
Afternoon snack: Cherries, sharing with The Little Guy
Dinner: Too lazy to cook (spent the afternoon cooking for The Little Guy plus made Mr Curious a burger for lunch) so Mr Curious made jaffles with ham, cheese and tomato, followed by a small slice of Bacio Dolce Panettone – leftover from Christmas.

Evening snack: A bit hungry so had 3 slices of rockmelon

Pretty happy with that, I could have easily eaten a big chunk of the panettone or some other “bad food” when I was hungry around 9pm, however I resist the temptation even if it meant going to bed hungry.

Breakfast – Ripples at Chowder Bay

We took advantage of the nice morning weather and headed for an outdoor breakfast. Our destination was Ripples at Chowder Bay, Mosman.

We arrive around 9:30am and the outdoor section was almost full; we grabbed one of the last tables available.

The waitress promptly bought us glasses of water (a tick for service, although it should be a given at any restaurant) and we placed our drinks order. A skinny cappuccino for me and an orange juice for Mr Curious.

The cappuccino (Karmee coffee, $3.80) was strong but smooth. The orange juice was disappointing though, it came in a 330ml glass with lots of ice, it wasn’t freshly squeezed and the price was $5.80.

A few reviews at eatability said that the service is a bit slow, and it proved to be the case this morning. I don’t think it is the fault of the wait staff, it just took the kitchen a long time to prepare the dishes. We waited about ½ hour for our food order.

I resisted the temptation of a hot breakfast and ordered a Ripples toasted muesli with poached pear and yoghurt ($10).

The muesli was a good mixture of grain, fruit (apricot, figs etc) and nuts. The pear was nicely poached and not too sweet. I would have preferred an extra dollop of yoghurt but that’s a personal preference as I like the muesli moist. The waitress gave me a small jug of milk to pour into the muesli but I needed another one to finish the muesli.

Mr Curious ordered a ham, smoked mozzarella & roasted cherry tomato omelette ($15).

Mr Curious gave me a bite and it was one of the better omelettes I’ve had. The outside was almost crispy and the inside was moist and runny. I don’t usually like cheese in my omelette but the mozzarella was not overpowering and complemented the rest of the omelette.

The view over Chowder Bay is lovely – perfect for a day like today.

Overall it was an enjoyable breakfast. We are trying to find a location to celebrate The Little Guy’s first birthday and this is a good candidate, as there is a large playground at Clifton Gardens nearby where we can go after lunch. The long wait for food is a concern – I wonder if we can pre-order and request for the food to come as soon as we arrive?

Ripples at Chowder Bay
Deck C, Building 7, Chowder Bay Road, Mosman
9960 3000
website

Ms Curious

Food diary – Jan 1

Let’s get the first one out of the way.

Breakfast – 2 pieces of toast with butter and strawberry jam, cherries
Lunch – sausage sizzle: 2 lamb and rosemary sausages, onion and tomato sauce
Dinner – scotch fillet steak, potato mash, dutch carrots and broccoli
Beverages – a gingle ale, lots of water

Pretty heavy food, but the sausages and the steaks were bought beforehand. And I didn’t have any naughty snacks.