Day 521: Parish walk
Posted by Paola
1:40pm Bread with cottage cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and olive-oil
Grabbed before leaving for the afternoon Parish walk.
3:30pm Tea + 2 x Custard Cream biscuits
Half-way point of the 3.5 mile brisk walk with 30 locals.
5:50pm Cous cous with tomatoes, hotdog and capers
Very hungry and wanting something filling. I put about an inch of dried cous cous at the bottom of the bowl and meanwhile cooked a tin of tomatoes with a frozen veg frankfurter, basil, capers and extra virgin olive oil.
+ remaining tomatoes
7:45pm Curried veg, tomato and bean soup + tea
Only a couple of spoons left and so I had that too.
8:15pm Bran flakes with pumpkin seeds and milk
Still hungry and I made a deal with myself that I’d have this now if I didn’t eat later.
10pm Hot chocolate
Day 520: I’m a Moogle
Posted by Paola
2pm Veg burger sandwich with sun-dried tomatoes, capers and condiments
Very hungry – determined to eat slowly.
2:25pm Frozen yoghurt fruit lolly
Quite hungry still.
5:20pm Curried veg, tomato and bean soup with chickpeas and Crackerbreads w/spread + water
+ frozen yoghurt fruit lolly
6:40pm Savoy cabbage and chickpeas with horseradish sauce, mayo and olive oil
9:10pm Tinned spaghetti with ketchup and Crackerbreads w/spread
9:50pm Bran flakes and pumpkin seeds with milk
Hungry again. I weighed it out this time. *tappity tap* 230 calories. A piece of fruit would have been better but we’re all out.
| 1 small serving | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50ml semi-skimmed milk | 19 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.0 |
| 16g pumpkin seeds | 94 | 4.6 | 2.4 | 7.3 | 0.8 |
| 35g bran flakes | 117 | 3.6 | 23.5 | 0.8 | 4.9 |
| Total | 230 | 9 | 28 | 9 | 6 |
00:20am Hot chocolate
Hungry and cold but knowing I’d eaten enough already.
Another Halfway Day
Posted by Sylvia
As I was not trying to be completely strict about calories, I thought this would be a good chance to use up the unlabelled tuna tins that I have in the cupboard. I have been avoiding them as calorie count on tinned tuna seems to vary a lot and I have no idea how much these have.
As I started making the salad, though, I found myself thinking – well, if I’m not counting exactly anyway, then I could add some more stuff, a bit of mayo, that kind of thing. I realised I was feeling very tempted to say to hell with keeping it low fat at all. In the end, I decided to take a photograph to motivate me into behaving. It worked.
(although I did drizzle a tiny bit of oil onto the courgette)
During the afternoon I kept thinking how much I’d like a snack and whether there was anything “quick and easy” in the kitchen that I could nibble on. I think this is again related to not having a daily total – the snacks “wouldn’t count”. I had a handful of walnuts.
There was a recipe in the BBC Good Food magazine for Easiest-ever paella with chorizo which they said was 518 calories/portion. I was deeply suspicious of this and thought it might be due to tiny portions or just bad counting.
I made the full recipe – four servings – so that I could make the portions bigger if need be or else just save it for a quick lunch later.
I dropped the additional oil (the chorizo has plenty!), increased the vegetables and replaced the seafood with some poached chicken breast.
| 100g chorizo | 455 |
| 180g onion | 72 |
| 125g leek | 76 |
| 300g rice | 777 |
| 1 litre stock | 19 |
| 50g asparagus | 10 |
| 77g red pepper | 24 |
| 140g corn | 126 |
| 190g chicken | 385 |
| Total (Four Servings) | 1,944 |
|---|
Total weight: 2246g
Served: 520g per person
It was a HUGE portion, a big plate full. The flavour was so-so, somewhat boring. I’d be tempted to add some salt and maybe even chiles (ok, I admit it, I am tempted to add chiles to EVERYTHING) to spice it up a bit. The chicken didn’t really add much so I would probably leave that out.
I guess the main problem is that living in Spain, we have really nice paella locally and so this doesn’t really compare. However, as a filling meal it was definitely a winner. Not quite sure how to reheat the remaining two portions, though. I’ll try steaming them.
