Category Archives: Food

Who the fudge wants to be normal.

Okay so I went to the gym today feeling a bit flat to be honest. I’ve had to go to see a physiotherapist because I’ve got a pain in my knees which has been ongoing for some time and was starting to make me want to give it all up . I have to admit that even though I don’t consider myself a gym bunny and still don’t consider the gym to be my comfortable domain it was a lovely vibe in there today that was until my coach Pom FinishStrong Tutt, who had colluded with my physiotherapist to conjure a plan who’s evilness could not be surpassed by even Satan himself informed me that today’s session would mainly be on the Power Mill! ….. For those of you who are not familiar with this piece of gym equipment it was designed by Beelzebub in order to punish the innocent. it is a perpetual set of stairs, a set of stairs that never ever ever stops it just keeps rolling round and round and round until you’re dissolved by your own sweat I actually thought I was going to puke a lung at one point. When asked by Pom the magnificent how I felt he seemed almost gleeful at my answer of “I feel sick” for my coach is a very good sadist. However my tale of woe does indeed have a happy ending after doing 30 flights of stairs (which to some may not sound a lot) I’m managing not to puke a lung Ivan actually sailed through yes I said it sailed through 100 kettle bell swings and I have to say they were easier this time. My word of the day is growth . Sometimes the improvements aren’t always ones that you see in the mirror sometimes is a little achievements sometimes a big achievements going from flat to 30 flights and 100 kettle bell swings for me is a big achievement still smiling at the end big aceivment, Managing to tweet a sneaky sweaty face to picture in the gym without being caught small achievement.

Additionally, and the reason for today’s blog title, on discussing what I’ll be doing in the gym tomorrow Pom started tagging on little bits and pieces ….extras to what I’ve been doing so far all in the name of growth ….. “it’s Friday tomorrow” I said “most normal people will be out drinking partying and enjoying themselves” to which Pom Tutt replied “who the fudge (cleaned up for the benefit of the delicate) wants to be normal, I don’t wanna be normal do you wanna be normal ?” I’ve had a good Ole think about that since he said it and I have to say no I don’t want to be normal I want to be exceptional!! .

Look at his face …Punisher! But I love to hate him

Vanilla Almond Milk

"Vanilla Almond Milk 1 cup almonds (soaked overnight) 3-4 cups purified water 6 dates (soaked 4 hours) 1/2 tsp. ground vanilla bean Blend almonds, water, dates and vanilla at high speed until creamy. Strain using a nut milk bag or fine sieve. For a delicious egg-nog alternative, simply add nutmeg, ground cloves, a banana & pinch of salt!"

Vanilla Almond Milk

1 cup almonds (soaked overnight)
3-4 cups purified water
6 dates (soaked 4 hours)
1/2 tsp. ground vanilla bean

Blend almonds, water, dates and vanilla at high speed until creamy. Strain using a nut milk bag or fine sieve. For a delicious egg-nog alternative, simply add nutmeg, ground cloves, a banana & pinch of salt!

Fun in the kitchen

Thought today I’d have a go at something a little bit different rather than ranting on about my thoughts and feelings I got myself in the kitchen to do a spot of cooking, something I kind of have to be in the mood for, but as long as I am going to that job. What people may or may not know about me is that very often I do talk to myself if I’m not talking to myself I’m talking to my dogs. Single-handedly through talking to myself and to the dogs I think I may have inadvertently taught two Rottweilers how to cook . Attached is actually an uncut video of me cooking in clips …. if you look carefully I think you can actually see Indy ( my dog) lying on the floor looking at me like She’s listening.

The inspiration for tonight’s menu was the fact that I knew I had some king prawns in the freezer so on the way home I dropped into Lidl picked up a nice fresh courgette, peppers some garlic, some ginger some chillies and some other bits and bobs.

So here it is….please click the link below… Enjoy X

Red Thai King prawn curry a la Lou

Might as well face it you’re addicted to …

Everybody keeps telling me that eventually I’ll get addicted to going to the gym nearly 18 months down the line and I’m still waiting.. I’m three or four weeks into my healthy eating now .. And quite frankly every day is a battle between eating healthily and eating things that I like eating. I mentioned in work today how I was really craving junk food and in order to help me one of my work colleague started listing all the fast food joints available in the local area . No don’t get me wrong I haven’t had a total humour bypass I know they were just saying things in jest but at the end of the day you wouldn’t start sticking a bottle of vodka under alcoholics nose would you ? .. This leads me to my point basically a drug addict can never take drugs again and live. An alcoholic can never have a drink again and live. The foodaholic has to still eat food every day, everything you put in your mouth could lead you to temptation which is going to take you off the path because it’s so easy once you’ve had an unhealthy thing to eat to just spiral out to of control. The program I’m on tries to combat this by giving you a cheat day we like to call it Faturday as very often in my case it’s a Saturday. My mental block comes when I try and convince myself that I prefer the flavour of broccoli to that of a very nice sausage roll I freely admit I am a sausage roll addict. I don’t know about you but have you ever noticed how many food adverts are on television it’s not fair they have taken cigarettes off television because they want to stop people smoking and yet the government combating obesity don’t think about taking fast food adverts off the television..,,I mean at the end of the day we all know where the nearest KFC is or McDonald’s and within reason we all pretty much know what’s on the menu so why do we need to be constantly reminded about it . As you can probably tell I’ve got a bit of a grump on this evening mainly because i’m getting a bit fed up of having to cook all the time I’m getting a bit fed up of not getting any support from the other half who keeps buying cakes and crisps and biscuits and bringing them into the house so I’m in a bit of a blue mood I think in view of that I need to end my blog for now not forever good night .

Harvest festival of food

An after work visit to the supermarket resulted in a harvest festival of food my £12.34 purchase of butternut squash, onions, leaks, Swede, parsnips, carrots, garlic , beef and herbs will make me a vegetable soup a beef stew a butternut squash soup … Once again batch cooking with the stereo on belting out some 80s tunes meant that I now don’t really have to think about cooking for the rest of the week if I don’t want to Yum

The Kitchen workout big pan special

When I got in from work this evening the last thing on earth I want to do is cook. I don’t know about you, but when I get in from work what I wanna do is chill. However I’ve got to feed the body in order to be able to do the workouts so decided I better get to it.

This evening I decided to cook some chicken curry the beauty of batch cooking is that for probably the next few nights If I don’t wanna think about cooking I really don’t have to.

If I’m absolutely fed up of chicken curry I can freeze it and then I’ve got microwave meals ready to go. I personally think that your workouts should start in the kitchen. It’s a total waste of time throwing yourself around the gym working on technique and lifting weights if you are going to go home and stuff your face full of rubbish food. The difficulty is that to eat good stuff you often have to cook things that are freshly prepared this eating clean lark can sometimes be a bit of hard work. What I’ve had to do is discipline myself I still cook exactly the same things that are used to cook (because in cooking when I cook fresh I don’t actually use a lot of fat and additives), my problem was mainly portion control iI am used to have mountainous dinners from my mum she used to Put all the nice things right at the bottom so you had to kind of excavate your way down in order to get to your roast taters . What I now do is cook exactly the same size meals as I used to but I don’t eat the same amount I now portion them up and I’ve actually found looking at portion control and I was consuming probably four times what I should have in one meal, so now I cook once and I have meals for four days ….brilliant !!

So I don’t feel hard done to what I’ve also started to do is give myself my dinners in smaller plates so that it actually looks more, my brain is thinking I’ve got lots of food but my thunder thighs are only getting what they need hence losing some of my errm thunder.

I haven’t really bothered to weigh myself this month I’ve kind of hopped on and off the “Sad step” but I’m not really bothered about weight. I am bothered about is the fact that after three weeks of eating good quality food I seem to have become a little bit brighter my skin is clearer and less dry, my hair is shinier and has grown more and I’m more energetic. I wake up in the morning and I’m actually awake as opposed to that yawning and stretching zombie craving coffee instead of brains … And then still feeling like rubbish. The proof is defiantly in the pudding (ooooh pudding wish I got some pudding if I’m honest I’m kind of missing sugar) …. Sunday is cheat day though this week I will have something sweet then (yum)

Blue ribbon blues.

So today’s menu was overnight oats with honey for breakfast, a hand full of walnuts for a snack , a tin of tuna two boiled eggs and a green leaf salad for lunch another egg as an afternoon snack and I made a four portion batch of Thai green curry and had one portion and whole grain rice for tea…. No photos today as I was more interested in eating that viewing.

I have realised that writing up my recipes is going to be difficult as I don’t really use one… I chuck n taste then stir chuck and taste again, it’s all about understanding flavour ( Jeeze I’m boring myself with this crap)

I am really missing sweet stuff today you know when you finish your dinner and just fancy a chocolate bar or a biccie with your tea(or is that just me?). I am not helped by my other half who is scoffing fake blue ribbon bars in front of me …. I have slammed his head off the wall several times in my imagination lol X

Can’t always get it right

Due to lack of prep I had left overs for lunch today which I am afraid was so unpleasant it ended up in the bin…. Lesson learned … Prep prep prep … Know what you’re eating and it stops you eating what you shouldn’t 😜