A quick word about cereal and fruit

So as you guys know, I am trying the Lite N Easy 1500 calorie plan for 7 days, then I will be switching to the Lite N Easy 1200 calorie plan for 7 days, and I’m blogging it all..

I wanted to add in a word about cereal. If you take the scales and weigh out a recommended serving of cereal as per the side of the packet it will be somewhere around 40-45grams of cereal. I did that a long time ago and as it turns out that is a perfect amount of cereal for my breakfast frightened stomach.

Some days on Lite N Easy (like today) you get a little bag of cereal and when I put it in the bowl it is exactly the right amount. So far I have had two different cereals – the berry bites and todays option – Fruit n’ Bran Cereal. Both of these cereals I have liked which surprises me.

So because there are days where you do not get a small cereal bag I wanted to find one of the same cereals to have a small bowl of. I already had Uncle Tobys Antioxidants which I have been using when necessary to make sure I get me a small bowl of something before I leave home for the day. And yesterday at the supermarket I found this – which is a perfect match for the Fruit N Bran cereal.

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Lite N Easy Wrap Up Post –

Make sure to drop in and read it – this post contains my overall thoughts on Lite N Easy and also links to all the daily posts. You can find the wrap up post by clicking here.

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Sunday Menu – Day 2 – Lite N Easy

Lunch – Roast Chicken Tender with Tomato and Fruit Chutney on a Round Roll.

I love these chicken tenders on a roll. The frozen bread roll goes in the microwave for 30 seconds. The chicken tender is frozen and in a plastic packet. You cut off one corner and that goes in for 50 seconds.

I am still trying to find appropriate substitutes for tomato when at work (you cant be cutting up an avocado there or any complicated type of things, this is probably as complex as it can get, I only have 10 minutes!) – when at home I am thinking beetroot might work or maybe a pineapple thin. For something this small probably avocado is a bit of overkill and I don’t like to cut one up and not use it all.

Afternoon Snacks – Apricots & Pears – Popcorn – Sultana Tea Cake

The popcorn is a little unusual. It seems to have something sweet and yet salty on it. I like it though I find it is way too much and takes ages to eat. That is a very large bowl, by the way.

The pears still have the skin on, I am surprised to find I like that, too.

I had the Sultana Tea Cake on arriving home from the gym. It goes in the microwave for 30 seconds. It was *amazing*.

Dinner – Homestyle Savory Mince

6.5 mins in the microwave. It does not look very tasty – it was quite tasty but I feel like it was missing something. Maybe red wine? Black pepper? I would like it a little more spicy – will try the Chili Con Carne next time.

Breakfast – Baked Beans, Ham and melted Cheese on a toasted Multigrain Muffin –

Minus ham. I’m not a big fan. :)

Multigrain Muffins are an awesome thing. I don’t know how long I’ll be doing the Lite N Easy for but one thing I do know is that muffins will be something I continue to eat afterwards. They are the ultimate convenience food yet still healthy – easily frozen – quick to defrost – you can put anything you like on top of them.

One of the first ones I would try would be toasted multigrain muffin, avocado, smoked salmon, cream cheese.

With that said, it is not easy to put baked beans on top of them – and keep them there.

Missed out on – Orange – not enough hours in the day to eat all this food! I should have added it to my drink.. like this Mineral Water with Orange.

Gym Visit –

I’m thinking about going as many days as possible this week – I am pretty sure I won’t make it on Tuesday as I’m on a late shift, but am hoping to make it every other day.

The trouble with the gym is – if I finish work at 6, go home and get changed, get to the gym by 6:30, that is kind of peak time there. A lot of people go between 5-7. It annoys me when it is busy because people, in general, suck. There is a core of weightlifting muscleheads who bang the weights around and generally be all noisy, there is a bizarre woman who is a total fruit cake whose very presence irrits me, there are these two chicks who walk on the treadmills and talk at the top of their lungs.. I could go on.

To combat this I use my iphone and headphones. All the machines have teevees in them but you can’t control what is going to come to you as a surprise and the music channel these days.. egads. I like my own music.

Saturday and Sunday are the best most peaceful days, so I always like to make sure I go on those days.

Lite N Easy Wrap Up Post –

Make sure to drop in and read it – this post contains my overall thoughts on Lite N Easy and also links to all the daily posts. You can find the wrap up post by clicking here.

lite n easy

Saturday Menu – Day 1 – Lite N Easy

Why: I work shift work now, sometimes mid-day to 6pm, sometimes 6pm to midnight, sometimes 11am to 5pm, it can be all over the place or it can be midday to 6 for 5 shifts of the week. So I found myself getting out of the habit of eating meals regularly and just having one big dinner meal and then snacking until bedtime – if I could stay awake after the one big meal..

How: A friend at work was doing Lite N Easy and it looked tasty so I thought I’d give it a try.

Where: The food comes to you magically as a surprise after you order it online at Lite N Easy. More on that when I get the delivery next Friday, I’ll take some pics of how it turns up. You can choose between two options for breakfast and lunch and this works on a 4 week rotation so it does not get boring, and you can pick from over 50 different dinners.

An oddity: I’m not great with breakfast. My stomach is slow to wake up. The most it wants for breakfast is a small bowl of cereal. Plus, I dont have the time in the morning to make eggs or toast or anything fancy. About 3 hours after I rise, it is ok with lunch. I try to have dinner sometime between 6-7pm. Then I have breakfast around 9pm. I go to bed somewhere between midnight-2am, depending on what time my shift ended and what time I have to work the next day.

Also, I am having a bad allergic reaction to tomatoes, so I’m substituting them out where I can. They get fed to the chooks which makes them extremely happy..

$$$: 153AUD for all meals for 7 days and delivery.

Lunch – BBQ Chicken Salad with Crispy Noodles and Sesame Soy Dressing

This salad is huge, I had trouble fitting it all in, had to put it aside for a while.

Afternoon snacks – Wafer crisps and cheese, Mandarin, Double Chocolate Cake

I forgot to take the double chocolate cake with me to work, so I just grazed on the cheese, crisps and mandarin.

Dinner – Seafood Marinara

It was ok but I wouldn’t order this again. With the dinners it is a matter of personal taste what you like and it is a bit of trial and error – the majority of things I have eaten so far I have liked and one of them was outstanding (so much so I ordered 3 of them for next week lol).

Breakfast – Two Eggs, melted Cheese and Tomato on a toasted Multigrain Muffin

I replaced the tomato with avocado, just enough to spread on the muffin. I poached the eggs – you can pretty much cook it however you want. The muffin is frozen, so I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, then into the toaster to crispy it up, then I put avocado and cheese on top, then put that under the griller for 4 mins, and on top of that the poached egg. It arrives like this –

Dessert – Double Chocolate Cake

This was meant to be an afternoon thing, but I forgot to take it, so I had it as a happy dessert. I’ve kinda been missing dessert this past week not because I was hungry but because I was in the habit of eating something sweet after dinner – now I am having a second savory with the breakfast instead.

Missed out on – Pear Fruit Cup – never found the time to eat this today.

Overall Thoughts So Far

I’ve found that the 1500 calorie menu that I have been ordering has way too much food for me, so for next week I have ordered the 1200 calorie menu.

While some people might not enjoy knowing today what they’ll be eating next Friday, I do like that aspect of it. Here is my weekly calender of meals –

I like the meals a lot and some of the snacks are incredible. They have fishermans pie yay you can’t find that in the supermarket anymore.

The one downside is that they do not seem to use much breast chicken – it is more thigh/tenders etc, and I’m not the biggest fan of that.

I certainly have not been hungry at all since starting Lite N Easy 8 days ago. But that is not the best part – the best part is because of my lack of eating previously and eating convenient foods or junk or whatever I felt like.. I had not realised how much this was affecting me overall. Over the past week, I have found that my sleep has improved, that I go to sleep easier and wake up easier. I also have a lot more energy, which means an exercise bonus!

Bonus Gym Visit –

40 minutes on the elliptical. I love that thing. I’m eventually going to get one for home. Time for bed – got an early start tomorrow.

Lite N Easy Wrap Up Post –

Make sure to drop in and read it – this post contains my overall thoughts on Lite N Easy and also links to all the daily posts. You can find the wrap up post by clicking here.

lite n easy

Prepare yourselves..

I’m going to be blogging a bit about food over the next couple of weeks – I’ve been trying Lite N Easy and today is the first day of the second week. When looking to check out what kind of food is offered I didn’t find too much on the web, so I thought I’d do a daily wrap up of what is provided.

Sorry if you feel a bit bombarded, I will try to keep it to just the one post each day, but they will be long and full of photos..

First post coming up shortly!

lite n easy

Mineral Water With Orange

I’ve been nowhere near any kind of regular soft drink in over a year now. It may even be longer than that, I can’t be sure.

I made the switch to mineral water. This was not an overnight love or even like. It took effort and determination on my part to learn to like it. Now, when I rarely end up with a soft drink as a surprise, it is far too sweet for me and I can’t drink it.

One of the things that helped me to learn to like it was adding fresh fruit to it. I often added slices of lemon or lime but then one day I added strawberries and that soon became my favourite. Then I tried slicing up an orange the way I like to slice them up – this is also one of my favourites. I put all the orange slices into a cup and then add mineral water.

So how do I like to cut up an orange?

Cut the top and bottom off the orange. This will make it so you can easily sit the orange on the chopping board, ready for the choppery!

Start trimming the peel off the orange. This is a delicate process because you want to keep as much of the orange as possible.

Continue trimming off the peel and pith. Keep going until you have done the whole orange. Then flip the orange over, you will likely have left some extra pith/peel on the bottom. Trim off any extra pith/peel

Halve the orange, being careful to cut in between the sections.

Quarter, and trim out the central column. You can then put the orange pieces into your mineral water – I like to make them a little smaller so I can fish them out in bite size pieces with a fork.

This way you get a serve of fruit with your drink.

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It is awesome, it tastes fantastic. I highly recommend it. Great summer drink!

food, recipes, yay

UCK!

While out picking up chicken treats this afternoon I stopped to get some human food as well. There was yogurt on special, 2 for $3 at Coles and one of the flavours was caramel tart or something like that, so I thought I would give it a try..

YUCK YUCK YUCK.

I tasted two spoonfuls and threw it out. It was absolutely awful.

Turns out this yogurt was fat free and sugar free – they used artificial sweetener in there.

MY GOD WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS TO THEMSELVES?

I am not even going to bother trying the second one. I am still trying to get the taste of the first one out of my mouth.

I’ll stick to ones that use real sugar thanks. And nothing fat free. I like fat. The worst thing that happened to this world was all this fat free nonsense. IMHO, of course. :)

food

Easter Is CANCEL!

Since January, my every day breakfast has been Hot X Buns. I am not a good breakfaster, I will skip it unless I have something I enjoy eating handy and easy to make. I love a Hot X Bun, and I don’t mind making them myself but I love it when the other half makes them for me which he is happy to do while the coffee is being made..

After Easter was over, I went to Coles, Aldi, Woolworths and IGA looking for Hot X Buns. In every store, I saw people just like me, wandering aimlessly around looking for the buns and not finding them. I saw people sadly exploring the raisin toast option with disgruntled looks on their faces. I saw one woman considering English Muffins. I saw a man looking sadly at the crumpets, dreaming of what could have been.

I ended up at Bakers Delight, paying $13 for 12 hot x buns, knowing that I have had the buns from there before and not liked them very much and they don’t last very long either. I ate those, thinking Easter was over and these were the last Hot X Buns on the planet.

Then I went to the *second* Woolworths, because we have two, lucky us! And it was HAPPY DANCE because they had Hot X Buns there on the shelf. I thought this may have been an accident, or perhaps they had cooked too many and still had some left from Easter. I bought every packet I saw which at the time was sadly only 3. Would these be the last Hot X Buns for 2011?

Apparently not! I kept going back and they kept having them. I couldn’t believe my good luck. Could Easter last all year? Or was this a Woolworths going rogue, cooking buns when they were not supposed to because people wanted them and kept buying them? Or did the baker just like making them?

Whatever it was.. it seems that it is over for good now. *SOB* I have been back several times over the last week and they now have some kind of raisin bread where the buns used to be. And every time I go there, I see that I am not the only one mourning the loss of the buns.

Last night while sadly searching the shelves for buns, I found an enormous box of Croissants. I guess that will be the new Breakfast, at least until January next year. I am not kidding, this box was almost a metre long! It has 12 jumbo croissants in it.

I had one this morning. A hot x bun it is not. But it is a hot breakfast, and it meant I could go to work and do my 6 hour shift without keeling over from a lack of food and being tempted by the large range of chocolates and cookies on my Team Leaders desk. For fundraising, they are. Supposedly. When I have the Hot X Bun breakfast, I am able to withstand the temptation of Mint Aero bars and Caramello.

This time next week I will be welcoming my new Chicken friends to their new home. More on that as it comes to hand! The coop is nearly finished now, so they will have a lovely new home. I am a little sad for them, that they won’t be getting hot X bun treats like Frogdancer’s chickens got on Easter Sunday. I don’t think they will like a croissant..

Chickens, food

Bacon and Avocado Grills

1. Toast Bread.
1a. You can butter your bread, or use cream cheese. I do not like to do either, myself. Any of these options will work.
2. Place enough bacon to cover your bread under your grill – however you do it. Or, you can cook it in a frypan but that will take longer I suspect. I have an LG Solardom so I put it on the top shelf of the microwave for 5 minutes, turn it over, and do the other side for 4 mins. When you have done that, it will look like this.
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3. While the bacon grills, once you have toasted the bread, cover it in avocado. I like to slice mine and arrange it creatively on the bread. Some like to mush theirs up. Either way is fine. Mine look like this.
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4. When the bacon is grilled, arrange it prettily on top of your avocado covered toast. Like this.
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5. Cover the bacon with a slice of cheese. I like the Aldi vintage sliced cheese for me, but for you feel free to use any cheese you like.
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6. Place grills back in the oven until the cheese is melted how you like it.
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7. Eat!

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It’s moments like these..

When you have a desperate craving for microwave popcorn and none in the house since you accidentally cooked the last packet a *tiny* bit too long yesterday causing smoke and possibly even fire that you begin to realise the benefits of being the opposite of Mother Hubbard.

Until this time last week I had two packets of microwave popcorn squirrelled away in my cupboard. In fact there is so much shiznit in my cupboards currently yet I can’t find an eatable snack because all I want is what I don’t have!  I have plenty of potato chips but I do not want them. They’re not hot, buttery, freshly popped popcorn..

food

Cereal Confessions..

This is NOT a sponsored post, but I feel the need to share the following information with you. It is possible that you may hate cereal as much as I always had until I tried this new cereal from Weight Watchers. Please note, I know nothing about Weight Watchers or their points system. I hated cereal all my life, I was never a breakfast person. I have only recently started eating it because it is supposed to be more healthy and I could do with a bit more fibre in my diet.

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I have been so surprised by this cereal. There is something so wrong about it. This cereal should be everything I hate. When I saw it on the shelf I thought yuck, I’m going to hate eating that. There were other cereals there, ones with lots of sugar and general badness. Even one with chocolate chips! But I chose the Weight Watchers fruit and fibre cereal even though I knew I probably wouldn’t like it based on the fibre content. I thought – it’s only one bowl a day, I can survive it. However, it’s brilliant, so I’m sharing cos that’s the kind of blogger I am.

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Normally on cereal I need at least one spoonful of sugar to make it palatable. This WW cereal, I don’t need to add anything except milk. The fruit that is in it makes it sweeter than normal cereals I’ve eaten. The first day I ate it, I did add sugar as I usually do and it made it way too sweet.

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All I can say is, they must have some absolute geniuses over at Weight Watchers if they can take a cereal which contains everything I should hate and turn it into something I absolutely love, that I look forward to eating in the morning – and have even eaten a couple of times INSTEAD of a bowl of potato chips while watching tv in the evenings. I’m not lying, truly! If you’re in Australia you should give this cereal a go. ;)

The fruit is soooo nice. I love it. I’m not a fan of dried fruit usually but when you add the milk to it I find it softens nicely. They say it contains 34% fruit. You can’t get a spoonful of this cereal without at least one piece of fruit on it so I believe they are right.

I needed my cereal this morning, because we spent all day moving stuff. I’m completely exhausted and only here to post this before I shower and collapse into bed. We did manage to get the pool table upstairs, so that was fantastic. I met a neighbour and their dog before we’d finished unpacking the first ute load. People are very friendly there. I’m looking forward to that. ;)

I also found out they have Tai Chi within a very short walk, so I might be signing up for that. ;) Half the art/dining box room is now empty, we got a lot done today and now we can take it easy for the rest of the week. I have packed the entire kitchen, only leaving out a few bowls for cereal eating. ;)

food, Snoskred hearts