Slimming World Tomato Soup - my style

This is my take on Slimming World friendly tomato soup. I scanned a tweet last week with the recipe on it but couldn't find it again when I wanted to make it. I put this together from what I remembered and it worked out really well


Ingredients
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Carton of passatta
1 onion, finely chopped
3cm sized chunk of ginger, finely chopped
Clove of garlic, finely chopped
Glug of balsamic vinegar
Salt and black pepper


In a large pan soften the onion and carrot. I used water rather than oil. Once softened, add the tinned tomatoes, passatta, garlic and ginger. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool then blitz with a handheld liquidiser. Season to taste. I added the vinegar here too, to give a bit of zing. When ready to eat, warm through. I needed to add a cup of water here to thin the soup a bit, but its upto you.


This is syn free and because I added LOADS of ginger its very warm and spicy. You can adjust to suit your taste. 


I had it for lunch with a wholemeal roll as my B healthy extra and it was delicious


Enjoy!


If you are interested in the proper recipe, click here

Meal Planning Monday w/c 25th June

I've got two pieces of news for you this week. Firstly meal planning is working for me, as I lost 3lbs last week and reached my 4 stone milestone! 

Secondly Tomato Barley Risotto from Whitworth's is horrible, don't bother with it! I was looking forward to trying something different, but this was bland, tasteless with a terrible texture. It's not often I hate a food (I love food, hence the diet) and there's nothing which can't be improved with a bit of salt and pepper, but this was disgusting. There. Rant over.

Onto this week's meal plan. Last week I bought a lot of two for one offer's so it may feel a little de ja vue

• Left over lasagne with chips and salad
• Ribbon vegetables with tagliatelle
• Sausage casserole with vegetable rice
• Pasta Bolognaise
• Chicken and Slimming World Chips
• Minted Lamb kebabs, mint dip and couscous
• Garlic prawns, new potatoes, broad beans and peas

Pretty standard, normal, regular food. Doesn't seem diet like to me either, which is how I like it! Now all I need to do is put the internet grocery shop in for it and make sure my teenage son will be around to take it in and pack it away! 

Lunches will be slimming world pastry free quiche, which I managed to not make last week (Have no idea what I replaced it with!) and I will be making SW tomato soup again. I glanced over a recipe on twitter last week and gave it a go. Not sure if I got it right, but my interpretation worked for me, so will post the recipe later. Update **all posted** here

Don't forget this is a blog hop, with lots of people linking up with At Home with Mrs M. Take a look and see what everyone has planned.

Meal Planning Monday w/c 18th June

Was looking at the numbers of people linking up with At Home with Mrs M and they've swelled considerably since I first started over a year ago. We're all sharing a task, but coming at it from different perspectives in different ways and for all sorts of reason. I love it!

I'm doing it to help me lose weight and I've lost 2lbs this week, so it works! Well when I also combine it with willpower and Slimming World.

Onto this weeks proposed menu

• Leftover chilli-con-carne pasta bake and vegetables
• Slimming World macaroni cheese and salad
• Tomato Barley Risotto and salad (it's a packet from Whitworths, worth a try though!)
• Pastry free quiche and slimming world chips and mushy peas
• Lasagne and salad
• Baked potato, beans and ham
• Homemade burger, slimming world chips and salad

I also found when I had a wander around Tesco, like you do, black garlic. It's apparently matured garlic which brings a molasses and balsamic flavour. I was thinking of putting it into a mushroom risotto. What do you think? Any suggestions?



 

E-mail from my brother: Stab! Stab! Stab!

A new mail from my brother and the bathroom saga continues!
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Hi Fay,

So it’s good news on the scan front I read.  Hurrah!  Words can’t describe how good that news is.  You’ll also be pleased to hear that we’ve got our bathroom finished and we’re happily taking showers and having hot soapy baths like normal people again.  Not really.  The bathroom is not finished.  Obviously your good news has lifted our spirits immensely … but hey, we could really do with a proper shower now the night time temperature has dropped below zero degrees here.

It took two days this week to waterproof the new bathroom floor, one day to get the tiles partially laid and will be next Tuesday before they’re finished.  Then we can fit the bath, toilet, vanity unit etc if the project manager can find the back of the fag packet he wrote his plan out on and fish out the old envelope he jotted down the subcontractor numbers on and give them a call to come round.  Juliette says that if it takes another week before there’s even a hint that we can finally have a shower she’s moving out and taking the kids with her.  So I’ve paid off the builders to go slow and look forward to watching Lord of the Rings Extended Edition and sleeping in until I’m no longer tired!  Yay!

Part of me thinks I should have done more of the work myself but then there’s that pesky learning curve.  I polyfilled the nail holes last week and it’s amazing how such a simple task can become a problem.  The first set of holes looked like I’d mixed the polyfiller in my mouth, sneezed it onto the wall and then wiped the residue off with my cuff.  Come the end with a bit of practice I got the nail holes looking like they’d been polyfilled by a team of nano-robots and lasered true by the Swiss.  But I just don’t have the time to be mucking about at the moment, the daily grind continues.  We had a washing pile so large this week that it was voiced by Brian Blessed.  The Ice Box where we’ve been taking flannel baths has lived up to it’s name this week too what with the temperatures dropping below zero and all.  It means that if you flush the loo after 2am you have to wait until sometime after the sun has come up before the pipes unfreeze and you can flush it again.

We had our project manager come round this week and all he could talk about was a TV show he saw about Inuits living in an area so cold that if you took a wet shirt and twirled it around your head six times outside it would snap in half because of the cold.  Brilliant story.  Now see this echoing bathroom, devoid of all porcelain accoutrements?   When will it be finished you motherf*cker?  I said this of course in my head while I nodded to his Inuit story.

One of our cars has started stalling for no reason too so I took it into the garage.  They told me that they plugged the computer into it and the car couldn’t tell them why it was stalling.  I suggested waterboarding the car until it talked but instead they suggested resetting this computer so it starts “learning” how I drive again.  It’s a Honda Odyssey, not bloody Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2.  I don’t need it to “learn” how I drive.  What’s it going to do, give me a score when I finish a journey?  The computer needs to “learn” not to switch the engine off when I’m doing a right hand turn at low speed.  Simple.

Other than that we’ve only heard one rat in the loft since I killed the other one last week and even that one has stopped nosing around up there.  I reckon it was looking for it’s pal and came across the tiny rat head on a spike I set up there as a warning.  Underneath I’d written the words “I’m behind you! Stab! Stab! Stab!”  I like to give rats nightmares.  Of course I didn’t do anything of the sort because cutting a rat’s head off and putting it on a spike is entirely too icky and as a rule I don’t like to anthropomorphize anything.  Anyway, the rat that’s left is probably the wife of the rat I killed and now she’s gone off with a broken heart.

Continue to take care of yourself, give some serious thoughts about visiting us here down under when your winter sets in and our summer kicks off because by then we’ll definitely have a bathroom.  Probably.

Love,

Mark xxx

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As always Mark......

Reasons to be Cheerful week 24 #R2BC

It's linking up time with Michelle from Mummy from the Heart for Reasons to be Cheerful.

I'm sure everyone knows already but I had the results from my first body scan and it came back as all clear. I celebrated with a post full of smiling animals which I know is silly, but it made me laugh when I compiled it.

This also meant I was eligible to take part in the drugs trial. I'm going to be having regular scans and bloods test, which means any instances of a recurrence will be found early. Got to be good!

I've started a new blog called My Clinical Trial (http://fay-ze1.blogspot.co.uk/) to see me through things. Glass Half Full has helped me through a lot over the last 18 months. Am sure getting things out onto virtual paper will help with any side effects!

And today .....big drum roll..... MrC and I actually managed to get to the cinema. It's a rare event and it was good to get out together. It's not that we have ties like kids to keep us from going out, but just recently one or other of us have felt too poorly, we just couldn't sync up. But today was the day. Yay! Doesn't take much to cheer me up

I've still got a way to go to get my confidence back, but I can see that it won't be long now.

Guess what?

Yes, you guessed it. My scan was clear. No hiding Ted's! 

I don't like the dark, but I do like light at the end of the tunnel

I get some important scan results at the hospital tomorrow. They'll tell me if I've any other little Ted's hiding away. All weekend I've been thinking about it. I've come to some conclusions, stuff I know about myself. I like lists, so I wrote one

• I like planning things, to have something to look forward to, which don't include a hospital visit or operation.
• I like organising events and people.
• I don't like planning things and having back ups in case 'I'm not upto it or appointments will get scheduled'
• I like absolutes, I like to know the process, what's going to happen next. I like being informed, the energy of being in the know. Not the bleak and windy wasteland of ignorance.
• I like to know where I am and what is expected of me, not lets see what happens
• I like to control myself, not events control me. I especially don't like emotions for the same reason!
• I enjoy being self sufficient and strong.
• I dislike relying on other people.
• I enjoy feeling successful in who I am and what I do.
• I don't like feeling guilty for putting family and friends through this too. If I could manage alone I would.
• I enjoy order, but feel the last few months have been chaos. A chaotic mass of emotions, events, appointments, pain.
• I like goals and achievements, things to aim for.
• I don't like the dark but I do like light at the end of the tunnel

I can see that light, I'm imagining getting back to work soon. And I need a goal, something to aim for, something to focus on and get me fighting fit.

I did have plans for this year, things I was going to do. 2012 was the year I was going to reach my goal weight amongst other things. Over the weekend though, while I wrote my list I resolved to put back into my calendar an event I'd talked about back then. I'd decided to take part in the 30 miles St Luke's Hospice Midnight Walk. I completed 13 miles last year as part of my recovery, enjoyed the challenge and wanted to up the stakes.

However as much as I like a challenge, 30 miles is a bridge too far (plus MrC put his foot down) I even think 13 miles will be too much, as I'm still struggling with two! But I've registered for the 7 mile route, on the 21st of July.

I'm sure I'm going to be told good news at my appointment but even if it's not what I want to hear, I now have a goal, something to look forward to, a way to improve fitness and lift my soul, to raise money for a worthwhile cause.

My blog header has the following, it's tag line

Tackle each challenge with a strength of purpose and an expectation to succeed.

Please click My Just Giving Page and help me take those steps (literally) to bring me out of the tunnel and back into the light and put some order to things! There's nothing like money to motivate!



 

Meal Planning Monday w/c 11th June

Onto this weeks Meal Planning with Mrs M. I did the grocery internet shopping Sunday afternoon while at my Mums house, showing her how easy it was. My Dad actually does their food shopping. They live a stones throw from a large Tesco supermarket and he visits it at least twice a day! I'm not so lucky, or have the time to go every day (or if I'm honest the inclination!) So meal planning is a must!

Plus it helps me lose weight, 4 pound this week to be exact. A step in the right direction!

On the planner this week we have

• Homemade pizza
• Cottage Pie wih carrot and potato topping
• Pasta bolognaise
• Chicken stir fry vegetables and rice
• Vegetable stir fry with noodles and sweet chilli sauce
• Fish fingers, slimming world chips and mushy peas
• Chicken steaks, waffles, 3 beans and salad

I'm quite looking forward to the meals this week. I've included some processed food in there, like the chicken steaks and fish fingers to help with the effort of cooking, because it's still a struggle. However it is making me move and stretch, so can't be bad.

Don't forget to check out the other plans over at Mrs M's and why not join in yourself. You can always leave a comment with your meals if that helps.

 

This week is all about rats!

You want the next instalment? You got it!
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Hi Fay,

How’s it going?  Hope your arse has un-numbed itself after your two hour wait for your drug trial.  That makes you sound like Mr Big in an international bust but you know what I mean.

Not much to report this week except of course we’re still waiting for a new bathroom.  We’ve got hot water now but it’s been disconnected from our old bathroom so it can go through to the new one.  The new bathroom is still waiting for the floor to be tiled before we put in things like a toilet and sink.  We’ve got a shower in now though.  It’s not plumbed in yet.  The new bath is still in bubble wrap in the garage too.  Getting a bit sick of flannel baths now, almost as sick as you are reading about flannel baths I reckon.

Our fencing guy is still replacing the old fencing and the place really looks good now.  Where once some rickety old wire and wood edifice used to be is a proper sturdy three rail wooden fence.  It’s added millions to the value of the property.  I reckon we could sell up now and move to a mansion and be fed peeled grapes by live in grape peelers.  But we won’t because there’s still no hot showers at the house and buyers tend not to want places where they can’t get themselves clean without a resorting to the same wash routine as a car.  Warm water, bucket, soap.  If it’s good enough for a Rolls Royce surely it’s good enough for you?  Chamois leather is optional of course.

I go out and have a chat with our fencing bloke every now and again and I reckon we’re both glad of a bit of conversation.  Subjects we’ve talked about; hunting using infra-red night vision goggles, alpacas, how to hang a gate correctly, the weather, using a throwing knife to kill a rat, his wife’s grandmother who was born in our house, chickens and gas bottles used for barbecues.  I go out in the morning and never know where the conversation will go.  I had a chat to him about rats again this morning.

We’ve been woken up with the sound of a rat in our loft for a couple of nights.  Not just running around, but the sound of clawing and gnawing.  Try waking up with the sound of a country rat trying to get through the ceiling above your bed.  Now imagine trying to ignore it and get back to sleep.  Juliette is a vegetarian and an all round peace loving hippy but when it comes to rats coming at your face while you sleep, rat paws spread out like the four of clubs and eyeball-chewing teeth going like a chainsaw …then its time to terminate the rats with extreme prejudice.  Flamethrowers aren’t available over the counter so I bought a trap.  Just the one trap, but it was the most expensive and up to date.  Rather than get something that wouldn’t look out of place in a Tom and Jerry cartoon I got this one that basically imitates the jaws of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.  It has serrated edges and, more to the point, offered the benefit that when a rat is caught you can take the whole thing out to where it needs to be disposed of (miniature Viking burial ship ready for burning after being pushed out from the coast, funeral pyre complete with little rat sized Darth Vader hat, the ditch that runs along side our property etc) and you can press the clean end, the jaws open and the rat drops out sans blood, brains and guts that you get with a traditional trap.  The instructions say you just have to wash it afterwards in warm soapy water and it’s good for the next one.  Warm soapy water?  In this house?  It’s a run under the outside tap for you me-laddo, what do you think we’re made of luxury?

Anyway I primed it with peanut butter (all rodents love peanut butter apparently), tied a string around the loop at then end so I could pull it in afterwards, set it up in the loft and left it to do it’s thing.  This morning I went up into the loft to check it and pushed open the hatch with all the enthusiasm of an unnamed extra in an Alien film.  It’s dark up there and when every one is out, no one can hear you scream.  I pulled the piece of string and gathered it up, gathered it up, gathered it up and then I got to the end.  There was no trap, the string was broken!  Or had it been cut?  Cut with tiny rodent teeth.  Why would they cut the string unless they knew!?  Suddenly it was very dark up there and my face felt like it was a shining beacon of rat deliciousness.  They could come out of the dark and take a bite of my cheeks before I knew it.  What was that noise behind me?  I turn.  There it is over in the other corner!  I turn.  The rats would roll that face flesh around their tiny rat mouths like it was butter.

Luckily I’d only put the trap within an arms reach of the hatch so I could just lean over and see I’d got one.  I took the trap outside and not wanting to get my shoes muddy I dropped the carcass onto a fence post for later disposal.  Our fencing guy found it a bit later while I was out at the shops buying lavender hand cream and a tuning fork for my lute, so he slung it in the ditch for me.  I wasn’t really buying that stuff, I just wanted to highlight the puzzled look on his face as to why someone would trap and kill a rat and then not just get his shoes muddy disposing of it.  In my defence I’d like to say that when you haven’t got a f*cking shower or a bath you kind of become averse to the Somme levels of mud and I was wearing my frigging Crocs again okay?!

Sam's okay again now after the virus thing.  Hope you are all right on those experimental drugs.

Love,

Mark xxx

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Do you know what? As always....

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Reasons to be Cheerful Week 23 #R2BC

I like to look back at the week on Friday's and record some of the good bits and link up with Michelle from Mummy from the Heart. 

I finally came home on Saturday from Mum and Dad's. Its great to sleep in your own bed. I was being waited on hand and foot and it was brilliant, but being home means I am moving around more, which has got to be a good thing! 

I finished a lot of my last crochet project, a shrug. However I have no idea how to finish it off! The pattern has me flummoxed, so am going to take it round to my Mum and see if between us we can work it out! So in the meantime I've started a new project, a linked motif poncho type top. It's made up of squares, which are joined up as you go along. I need over 90! Going to look great though when I've finished.

I also meal planned, did the internet grocery shop for the ingredients and cooked a couple of meals from it too! I'm over the moon about that. Everything I can do to get things back to normal the better

I've lost 4 pounds in weight! Yay! Before my last operation I had gone totally off plan, was eating what I wanted when I wanted and was practically wallowing in chocolate because I was feeling very sorry for myself. I'm very pleased that post op, even through the soreness and pain, I've managed to eat sensibly. Long may it continue!

Had my first drugs trial appointment which although I had a few issues (see here for the post) it went well. They're very pleased with my progress considering I was only 10 days post op. I love it when the medical profession say that because I always think I should be feeling better than I actually do. Makes me realise I'm being a bit hard on myself.

Today (Friday) I've a scan to check I don't have any other tumours hiding away. Its a big deal, but can't put into words how I feel about it, maybe post something over the weekend. I get the results on Tuesday and then start the drugs proper on Wednesday. Exciting, worrying and the emotions in between. Light at the end of the tunnel comes to mind.

So next week will involve at least 3 hospital appointments, good job I'm good at waiting! 

It's been a busy week, I'm improving well, today I'm feeling good. That's why I do this meme, to think, record and keep hold of this feeling for when things aren't as great.

Treatment Option - as a person please

I've had my first drugs trial appointment and things didn't go smoothly.


Mum and I arrived at the unit detailed on the card five minutes before appointment time. I'd researched where it was beforehand as I wanted to keep my walking to a minimum. I'd only had surgery 9 days ago! Reception didn't have my name on the list but didn't seem worried. After ten minutes I started to think something had gone wrong, but my fears were allayed when my cancer nurse who I'd seen just once before, walked in. But she wasn't there to see me, but for a meeting!

I showed her the card, hand written, her hand writing and she couldn't apologise enough. She knew straight away she'd made a mistake. We arranged to meet actually down at the oncology unit, she'd be there straight after her meeting.

So off we toddled to figure out how to get there. My hospital is a bit of a maze (to say the least!) has lots of floors, some wards and units can only be reached from certain banks of lifts. The main entrance is in level 6 for goodness sake! It's a maze I tell you! But we got there and took a seat.

An hour later we're still seated. I've been people watching and listening under the guise of 'reading my kindle' My main observations? Why wear socks with sandals? No-one picks up litter or throws away their coffee cups and some people look so much sicker than others :(

After I'd run out of people to see and my bum was getting sore from the chair, I decided to see what was occuring and went off to reception to explain my predicament. A very friendly chap called Martin made a few calls before visiting me at my now chair of pain to say my nurse is AWOL but they're still looking. I did however get a visit from her opposite number who apologised and sounded like she meant it. She was going to do a bit more ringing around and come back to me. Five minutes later, my nurse was there, her meeting had turned into 90 minutes not the 10 she'd expected! She was extremely apologetic and rushed me through to the research unit.

So two hours after my appointment time, I was sat finally having blood removed and blood pressure taken and chatting with my consultant. At last! I've got a CT scan booked on Friday, the results will be rushed through and as long as they are ok (I don't have any other cancers hiding away in my bowel, liver, pancreas etc etc **) I will start the drugs on Wednesday.

Although things had gone wrong and took longer than expected the way I was treated made all the difference, as a person. I was kept informed, the people I spoke to we're friendly, empathetic, apologetic but more importantly sounded like they meant it. Things go wrong, it's how it puts right which makes the difference.

I can see light at the end of the tunnel, the next step will be getting back to work!

** Notice how I brushed past that point? It's quite a big thing, to get the confirmation I don't have any secondary cancer's lurking. I'm confident it's going to be ok though, just a formality, however will feel better after Tuesday!

E-mail from My Brother: Breakouts, Hot Water and Bio Hazards

The next instalment of mails from my brother. As I was being looked after by my parents following the operation, I got to see my brother, niece and nephew via Skype on Friday. Yes, they are real, he hasn't made them up for comic effect! 

But onto the all important update. I sent him a mail from my hospital bed titled 'I'm Alive', I got this back

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Hi Fay,

How are you feeling?  Still sore?  That’s to be expected I suppose but you know, still really crappy.  How can I cheer you up?

So we’ve got hot water now.  Hurrah!  However it’s piped to the new bathroom and all the water has been disconnected from the old bathroom.  The fact that the new bathroom hasn’t got anything fitted into it means that we still can’t have a hot bath or shower.  This is like having a new bank account with loads of money in it but no cash card to access it.  Sometimes I go into our new bathroom and mimic having a shower where the new shower is going to go.  Then I go and have a flannel bath in the Icehouse and shiver myself clean.  I had to break the ice on the alpaca’s water this morning it’s getting that cold at night and it’s really getting hard to justify washing.  Surely if God had wanted us all to be clean we’d be sweating Timotei? (I read this bit out to Mum, I thought she was going to soak through her Tena pad)

But the workmen have been working hard.  I joked this morning that with the sound of power tools coming from our house coupled with Eva’s loud and persistent whining break downs because Sam has touched her unicorn convention she’d setup in the living room passersby must think we’re filming the next Saw film or something.

We’re also at the same time as doing the bathroom getting our old fences replaced with brand new ones.  So far we’ve only had two alpaca breakouts. Contrary to what we were told about alpacas herding tendencies and wanting to stay together and being timid and all, what I’ve found out is that they really don’t give a f*ck about home. First chance they had to get out and they go all Shawshank Redemption on us.  They were out of our place into the farmer’s field next to us quicker than you can say “liability damages”.

This field was about fifteen acres and me and the fencing guy ran after those alpacas like a pre-history cavemen chasing down deer.  Then we chased them back up the field. Then we chased them back down.  The alpacas were like flicking the alpaca Vees over their shoulders at us and making alpaca laughing noises and basically having a really good time.  They run like coiled springs in a mattress popping competition.

We tricked the leader (Peter) into coming close with some alpaca pellets and then got him in a headlock.  On went the alpaca harness before dragging his sorry arse back to chokey like the criminal he was. Where Peter went the others did too so they all came back eventually. Then they got out again.  Vee flicks, laughing, trickery, back in you go. Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool my twice I’m getting my longbow.

I like to think me and boys bonded over their breakouts. When I go outside now I do the one handed finger point to my eyes and back to them to show that I’ve got my eyes on them. I feel they respect that.

Tom the cat has broken out at least once everyday of his life. He goes and has a sh*t on the field opposite which I feel is both necessary and is life affirming. We used to have cats that would p*ss in the spot where the cat litter was because I was currently cleaning the cat litter out and they just did not care. They couldn’t wait for me to finish, they just squatted on the floor and had that cat expression like they were trying to work out which day of the week Christmas was this year based on what day of the week last year’s was and whether it was a leap year or not. Tom does not sh*t where he hunts.

Sam hasn’t been to well and he’s still not right. Juliette took him off to the doctors last Sunday and he came back with a little sample tube to take some poo into a pathologist lab. I waited until he next filled his nappy, scooped up some of the stuff that looked like peanut butter, screwed the lid on the tube and popped it into the back with the big biohazard warning on it like I was transporting Bird Flu or something.  I dropped it off at a path lab on the Monday and because no one was around at reception I couldn’t help but feel I was a gnat’s chuff away from a Jackass prank. When was the last time you bottled some sh*t and dropped it off into someone’s in-tray?  Okay, so maybe you do that a lot in your capacity as a cancer patient. For me going all Gillian McKeith is a new experience.

Since being ill Sam’s taken to holding food in his mouth like a gerbil waiting for winter. He eventually spits it out down himself but I’ve taken to putting hand under his chin and telling him to spit stuff out. This saves time and wet wipes. However with the builders here I did get up to dispose of some chewed chocolate digestive that he’d spat out, scooped up a nappy at the same time and met the “triangle of puzzlement” gaze from the builder who’d come to ask a question. The gaze went from my face, to the nappy, to the handful of chewed chocolate digestive biscuit and back to my face. His expression said “urgh”.  I had an urge to lick the biscuit.

So chin up and all.  Hope you feel better real quick.  Take the drugs and rock on.

Love Mark,

xxx

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The drugs are working well, hope Sam gets better soon and as always

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Meal Planning Monday w/c 4th June

Helloooo meal planners! How are you all? Have you missed me? Took a couple of weeks off to have Geoff the Gallbladder removed, but now feel, one week post op I should at least go through the motions and try and get back into the saddle.


I am not well enough to cook much yet and MrC never has an appetite so I've kept things simple. I haven't planned for the whole week though, brain wouldn't let me. But here you go!


Cooked chicken, tinned potato's with salad
Beans on toast
Chicken, potato salad and sweetcorn
Pasta n Sauce Slimming World pastry free Quiche with oven chips and salad


I've bought cooked chicken, low fat coleslaw and several bags of lettuce to help eat healthily but with minimum of fuss. Any other suggestions for later in the week?


Don't forget to check out other meal planners over with At Home With Mrs M who I'm sure have planned lots of delicious meals to take advantage of the extended Bank Holiday weekend with half term thrown in too!


On an aside, did any of you watch The Apprentice? Poor Nick Holzherr had his idea poo pooed big style by the industry experts. He wanted investment for an online tool, which allowed users to automatically upload ingredients from recipes into their shopping basket, compare prices, and add it to their favourite online grocery shopping service automatically. I thought it was genius.


But Alan Sugar didn't believe it would be useful as people don't plan their weekly meals. I found the attitude a bit snobbyish and elitist. For households on a budget it's a must. I'm sure loads of us would love to be able to afford to cook whatever we fancy that night to eat. But to make things stretch, that foodie pound flying out of your purse last a bit longer and keep waste to a minimum meal planning in the only sensible solution.


But what do you think? Why do you meal plan and am I being over sensitive?