Day 36 - the end!

Well, my medium rare steak at http://www.bonappetit-dundee.com/ was perfect! The moules Marseillaise were also tasty (pastis, cream and prawns) and the dessert - look at it. no words required. I may regret the half bottle of Corbieres tomorrow morning but you know what? A life without regrets is a life half lived - isn't that a saying?

Day 35 - V Day minus 1!

And so the challenge ends! Pasta with peppers and a Loyd Grossman sauce.  We're off out for steak tomorrow and I can't wait!  I've loved the challenge and would recommend it to anyone but don't think I'll ever be a full time vegetarian - I like meat too much and I think it's important to keep buying welfare friendly meats, and supporting local farmers.  I have to admit I'm looking forward to my next trip to the farmers market, and may well take myself off to the new farm shop at St Andrews once we get into spring. 

Day 34 - last weigh in of the challenge...

...and my weight's unchanged since this time last week!  I'm actually quite pleased about this as I only managed one zumba class, we had a buffet at work on Friday, and yesterday we had dinner at a friend's house - spag bol with garlic bread, a beer, and a magnum.
Tonight's dinner was another one for the 'do this again' list - vegeree. That's a kedgeree type of thing with roast aubergine and courgette instead of smoked fish.  

Day 33 - the next challenge?

So today's Friday, and Tuesday is the day we go out for steak so only 3 more days of the current challenge to go, and we'll probably eat out tomorrow as we're going to Edinburgh to see Avenue Q at the Playhouse. I do think it's helped me stay on track with the weight loss so I've been considering another challenge. Handily, we've been invited to a wedding just after Easter, and I bought a dress last year to lose weight into, so there it is - the next challenge!
Here's the dress:

I can get into it, but another 1/2 stone to stone will make it hang a lot better, which is definitely achievable. Don't think I'll blog the next one but it will be interesting to see what the reintroduction of meat does to the weight.

Day 32 - cake!

Obviously that's not dinner!  It's a chocolate cake for tomorrow's Mexican(ish) buffet at work.  Dinner was mushrooms and orzo pasta.  This not eating meat business has made me realise how much I enjoy a well cooked mushroom.  They definitely have to be cooked long enough for the liquid to evaporate off and for them start to caramelise around the edges.  I really can't get my head around the idea of eating raw mushrooms - weird texture and hardly any flavour!

Day 31 - feast of orange

This is Mr C's second go at making carrot and chickpea pockets - the orange in it goes really well the carrots and it's quite spicy so it definitely needs creme fraiche.
Slight hitch on the Valentine's day meat eating plan  - the restaurant we'd planned on visiting for a steak has closed!  So decision time - do we go home made or find a different restaurant?

Day 30 - soup

This is a South American soup with squash, sweetcorn, black eyed peas and French beans, flavoured with oregano and smoked paprika.  It was a bit runny but very healthy. Apart from the arepas I made to go with it, which are like a South American griddle cake made with cornmeal and pan fried.

Day 29 - jacket spud day

Another day without a pic because everyone knows what a baked potato with tuna and sweetcorn looks like. Mr C came up trumps and managed to achieve a decent crispy skin - always a bonus!

Day 28 - weigh in again

Another week, another weigh in, and I'm now down to 70.9kg so give it a couple of weeks and I'll be half way to target - can't be bad!
Tonight we had chilli bean nachos and cheese, an old faithful from pre challenge days.  The two chillies I put in it must have been pretty hot as I needed a bit of sour cream to cool it down a bit.  It tastes much nicer than it looks!

 

Day 27 - featuring lunch

Just for a change this is a picture of lunch!  It's a square (ish) wrap folded and filled with cheese, tomato and basil then cooked on a griddle pan. The spuds and onion are leftovers from last nights pizza and worked really well as a side dish - they've got fresh rosemary in from the allotment. 
Dinner was a tomato and veg stew thing with eggs, which was nice, though by the time we got back from the pictures I did need toast and jam to avoid going to bed hungry!  Weigh in day tomorrow - I'm not optimistic but we'll just have to see...

Day 26 - carb fest pizza

This tasty speicman is a potato pizza with yummy taleggio cheese, though Mr C who made it thought the cheese was borderline rank.  The recipe specified blue cheese which he's already been made to eat too much of this week considering he doesn't like it so thought this would be a better option.  Oh well, I guess I get the rest of the packet to myself - don't think next week will be a good weight loss week!

Day 25 - more cheese

Tonight I was at work till 8pm so I was so hungry by the time I had my cauliflower and brocolli gratin that guess what- forgot about taking a pic again!  It's a Delia recipe I've used before actually and is a base of brown rice cooked in stock with an onion through it topped with brocolli and cauliflower, blue cheese sauce, bit of grated cheese then browned under the grill.  I don't know why I don't use brown basmati rice more often to be honest - it's far tastier than white rice, even if it does take 45 minutes to cook.

Day 24 - blog fail again!

Sometimes I really am a muppet - I was positive I'd taken a picture of the square wraps filled with beans we had for tea but I stuck the card in the laptop and it would appear that no, I didn't. Anyway, they were tasty - slightly thicker than normal tortilla wraps but that did work with the filling we had. Think I may have cake later though!