Summer Holidays

... and it's raining! Of course it is. It barely stopped raining yesterday, it was like autumn. It was so bleak looking that I even put the fire on in the living room. Just the 'flame' element though, not the actual heating! Looked cosy, anyway, even though 'cosy' isn't necessarily something that you should be aiming for in July?

News from the last week or so...

You may have noticed that the blog has been given a little update. Everything was getting on my nerves. The colours. The font. I decided to strip it back a bit. Make it a bit simpler. Like me, hehe. I have also, painstakingly, compiled all the Family WTF moments into one page, making them easier to find. We had a good laugh at those, Mr G and I. Some of them, he couldn't remember. Some of them, I told him that he was lucky that he was still a married man, and that I hadn't left him by now.

I lost five pounds at Slimming World this week, taking me to one and a half pounds off a three stone weight loss. Mr G is two pounds off a three stone weight loss. So I was determined that this week coming, we would get this. So we meal planned for the week, I got my Pinch of Nom cookbook out and pencilled in three new recipes that I hadn't tried from the book yet. Bought plenty of vegetables.

... and the scales are going nuts. Some people say you 'shouldn't' weigh at home, because no scales are the same, and yes, I get that. I know that weight fluctuates by the day, by the time of day. We are in the habit of weighing daily since we did BSD 800. And I find it does help to keep me on the straight and narrow. So as not to complicate matters, we weigh in stones and pounds at SW, and we weigh in kilos at home (because the increments are smaller, and go down quicker). But to put on over a kilo in a day (a kilo and a half in Mr G's case) when you're eating healthily? This is how it's been all week, up a kilo, down a kilo. So we are hoping that the scales are wrong. Maybe the battery is going. I don't know.

So, this week we had the Cumberland Pie again (recipe here), only this time I made a swede and potato mash topping. This was gorgeous. Then, I made the Mediterranean Chicken Orzo (recipe here), this was also really good, but I wouldn't have necessarily called the taste of the dish 'Mediterranean'? The inclusion of allspice in the recipe made it favour more of a 'jerk chicken' taste, if anything. Nevertheless, it was lush.

Next, I tried the Poulet au Vinaigre (this recipe not available on the website, sorry). Mr G decided that this was his absolute favourite so far from the book...

... until last night, when I made the Cock and Bull (also only in the book). Oh. My. God. I think he may be right.

Absolute stunner of a meal, it truly was. The only issue that people have with it, is that the book states to use stewing beef. It only cooks for a few minutes. So, cue loads of complaints that the meat was still chewy... er, yes, it will be? It was obvious to me, anyway, that it was a misprint. It's like people can't use a little common sense these days? I used Morrisons sizzle beef steaks, which I had velveted in bicarbonate of soda for 30 minutes beforehand.

Mr G went to his KISS concert and really enjoyed himself. He was good, ate sensibly and only had three pints of beer.

I'm really proud of him for finding ways to compromise. That's what it all boils down to at the end of the day, doesn't it? Compromise. There's still going to be birthdays, Christmas, weddings, funerals, holidays, weekends away, meals out. Life doesn't stop, and you're still going to want to have 'naughty' things occasionally.

I do have to say though, that I have made more of an effort this time, than I have on any other plan. We went to a funeral - I took a packed lunch, as I knew it would be pastry and sandwich heavy. I didn't have a birthday cake on my birthday. I had salmon, broccoli and rocket salad for my birthday meal. I haven't touched a drop of alcohol since the 1st April, when we started. I didn't have any birthday cake on my brother's birthday. When I went out for my Auntie's 70th, I had gammon and jacket potato, and refused a slice of her cake too. When we've been to Wrexham for the rugby, I make us a baked breakfast before, and we take a healthy packed lunch. No fish and chips. No Wrexham lager. Sob. I've found that the more I can refuse these things, the more social occasions I can navigate, without blowing my diet, the easier it gets.

That's not to say that there aren't treats though. When we hit our stone weight losses from two stone onwards (because to us, losing a stone is so easy for us that it doesn't warrant a 'treat'), we have a list of food items that we haven't had. When we both hit our two stone weight loss, we treated ourselves to cod and chips. This was something that we would have weekly, before.

The only 'naughty' foods that I haven't refused, and will not ever refuse, is when my son has made something at school in cookery. I've eaten the things all my other children have made for me, so I have to treat him the same. But we have adapted. He either makes a much smaller portion for me (a tiny cocktail sized sausage roll - bless him) or I cut myself a small piece to try, or Mr G and I will share one, as opposed to having one each.

And the summer house. The new flooring went down. We opted for carpet tiles this time, and it looks good!

It's so warm in there now! It's insulated, the floor is solid, and now carpet tiles where there was lino before. It's actually too hot in there at the moment - we're going to need to buy a fan! But it should be lovely in there in the winter. Hmm. A winter house.

So, we'll start the summer holidays off with a trip to Wrexham tomorrow to watch Crusaders v Doncaster. Do a little shopping in town first. On Monday, we are out for a meal (please, please let me hit my three stone weight loss so I can have the 'Cluck n Ale burger'...) and then next Sunday, which is my son's 13th birthday, we are taking him to Old Trafford. He and Mr G are booked on a tour, and I have booked us into the Premier Inn for the night. We can go out for food there, as there's plenty of choice locally. I'm hoping that he'll opt for Nandos, because I know that we can slot that into our diet with minimal damage.

We also did the porch, with the leftover carpet tiles. Our porch had become a bit of a dumping hotspot. Shoes, coats, hats, scarves, shopping bags, and any crap that needed to be hidden. I'd had enough of that being the first thing that greeted me when I walked through the front door, so it had a lick of paint, and a bit of a reshuffle. I put my great aunt's old table there with a couple of bits on it, and finally managed to hang my stag's head up.

Much, much better. Unfortunately, now I have to find a home for all the crap that I've shifted from this area...

It never ends, does it?