Weekly Menu and exersise - Week 2 2010

 Ginger, chocolate and ginger/chocolate creme deserts by Tom for last weekend.

As I mentioned before I have joined the ten in 10 challenge and from there joined Sparkpeople which I am finding a really useful resource for logging both what I eat and what exercise I do. I am finding the wii fit is wonderful for keeping me doing at least some exercise each day (about 20 - 30 mins in fact) though it slipped slightly the last couple of days of last week which rather taken up with feeling lousy from a cold and cooking for an event at the weekend. I did then do some fairly energetic dancing at the event though. I also walked a few places. According to the wii fit I have even lost a few pounds though I'm not convinced I will not find them back again after the weekend.. I'll tell you later.

I did get to the allotment but only to drop off vegs for composting but I figure considering it was under several inces of snow and the ground is frozen solid I couldn't really do much anyway.. Well I do have some inside the greenhouse stuff to do but nothing serious.

I plan to continue to trying to do the wii fit most days and walking as much as possible, though I am wary of the state of our pavements with the current snow and ice, we arn't used to it here but we have made a decision in our house that next time it snows we are clearing the pavement outside our house so it doesn't compact and turn to ice.. then at least one small streach will be clear. The number of people, particularly older people, breaking bones slipping on the way to the shops etc is just not funny at the moment.. I don't think we can expect the council to have the resources to do that, the money involved in keeping the equitment etc available for the occational day a year can be spent much better elsewhere but if we all did the pavement outside our house then it would all be clear.

This week I have joined the Primal Stride 7 day challenges. They actually start on Thursday but I missed that due to the cooking and event so I'm starting week 2 today and either overlapping next week or I'll start each week behind everyone else. This week's challenge is the Double Crunch Challenge

Exercise: 250 crunches per day. Split them up however you like. 250 crunches every 24hrs will do it. (I'm starting at 100 today and working up as I think if I do 250 I will not be able to move tomorrow and therefore fail)

Health: Eat a different green vegetable each day. Suggested modifications include eating a different fruit each day or preparing a green vegetable in a different way each day. It’s up to you! Be creative!
 
Cooking wise for the event lastweekend we made some creme deserts, three layered veg puree terrines, one pepper and cheese terrine, lots of cheese biscuits and some gluten puff pasty squares with either apple and cramalised onion or brie and cranberry. We have decided we are getting some small shot glasses to do deserts in for next time we help cater the event.. We were just doing the veg bit for one meal the main people the food did a fantastic job and there was very few things I couldn't eat which was very appriciated even the main pudding was gluten free and very nice pears in red wine with rasiens they were too!!! Unfortunatly apart from the creme deserts I was too busy to think about photos.

 The gluten free menu swap this week is hosted by Gluten free is Life and they have chosen GF Pizza which is fantastic as I was just thinking I should make up some more pizza bases. I recently saw a sweet apple based one which looked fantastic so might even try that. I will also post my menu on Organized Junkie's menu plan monday.

Menu 11th to 17th Jan 2010

Monday - pasta with a corgette and bacon sauce (green veg 1).

Tuesday -  Sausages, mash, baked beans and sprout tops (green veg 2)

Wensday - Veg terrine made with Sweet potato, parsnip and broccoli (green veg 3) with potato/sweet potato rosti for those smalls who will refuse anything that looks green and is not cucumber.

Thursday - Daring Cook reveal day and I think we will have that dish again. (you will have to wait till then to find out what it is) probably served with spinich (green veg 4)

Friday -  stir fried sprouts with honey, ginger and lemon with noodles and stir fried chicken. (green veg 5 - I think sprouts and sprout tops taste different enough to count as different veg.)

Sataday  - we are having a brithday dinner party for Tom, menu still to be sorted based on who is definetly coming and what they can and can't eat.. So far with 8 people we have vegitarian, gluten free, no eggs/tomatoes and possibly no cheese as well as some who are fussy on veg and so forth :)  I love my friends they like to challange me ! I will manage a proper dinner party type menu they can all eat!
(Green veg 6 - not sure as yet but there is bound to be at least one green thing.)

Sunday - Pizza as it's easy after the dinner party (green peppers of my 7th and last veg )

Ten in 10 healthy Challenge

I have joined a 10 week challenge over at Recipe Girl. It is called the Ten in 10 challenge is ten weeks in 2010. There are no specific things we are committed to doing it is up to us to set our own goals but it gives us all some support.

One of the resources she suggested was Spark People which is a free website where you can log your food diary and exercise logs and so forth. Having tried it for a few days I'm really impressed. I have paid for on-line food diaries before and it ticks most of the boxes those did. Critical for me it allows you to add in our own foods easily, as nearly all of these as based in the states not the UK and don't have gluten free foods in them much that is very important. They also have forums (though so far I find the format of those a little confusing) and a fun points system to encourage you to read articles and so forth.. All in all pretty good and free too! I do find having to log what I eat and do makes me focus better without to much stress about it.

so my goals for Ten in 10 specifically.

1) To keep logging food and excercise most days

2) To assess my diet and see if I can find ways of eating enough calories.. yes that's right enough calories, unless I eat too much fat I tend not to get to the recommended amount and that is meant to make your body think it's a famine and there for go into conservation mode. How mad it that!!

3) To up the amount of exercise I do generally be that walking, using our new wii fit (which is great fun) or digging the allotment.

4) I'm not going to have a specific weight loss goal but I do want to loose inches off my waist.. don't get me wrong I have plenty of weight to loose but if i focus on that I get depressed as I plato a lot and know if anything it will go up to start with when I exercise more as I put on mustle to start with rather than loosing fat.

5) Go to the allotment once a week at least, partly to get it ready for the growing season and partly just because it is a lovely place and I relax as soon as I get there, it's almost like being out in the countryside again. Me time is important and being outside is great.. though at this time of year I need to remind myself I will enjoy it once I'm out.

Plans for 2010 and a fabulous parcel

The parcel first, on the gluten free recipe group it was suggested we have a chirstmas gluten free goodies swap and I was paired with Anna in Germany. The idea was we sent each other a shoebox fully of goodies and mine arrived a couple of days ago but I had to wait to get to the postoffice to collect it as we were out when they tried to deliver it. I have to admit I haven't sent mine yet as I failed to send it in time before Christmas partly due to a stomch bug and didn't want to have food sat in a box in some sorting office over Christmas.. I promise to get it in the post this week though!  As you can see Anna has done me proud. Lots of lovely biscuits (already sampled by me and the boys on some cases), two types of pretzles some tea with ginger and some great sounding recipes.

Now on to the plans.
I don't exactly do resolutions but I do try and look at the last year and see what i want to do differently in the next.

This last year in concept at least has been pretty good so I think really it's more of the same but better.

1) Menus have worked well so I plan to keep doing them but hopefully a little more in advance.

2) The allotment has be great but I hope to do a lot more this coming year and to get at least twice as much ground into production properly this year.. which unless the slugs decimate it again should mean we are self surficent in veg at least over the summer.

3) More mainly veg based dishes which is of course tied up with the growing of said veg. Also possibly having more of a go at preserving things be that in jars or drying or whatever.

4)  More exercise. This is partly tied in with the allotment.. more digging is more exercise but also other things. We just got a wii fit and so far that has been great fun. Though the Yoga has so far loosened my shoulders enough to remind me how stiff they are and give me a headache I know from experience I need to get through that and it will be better once they get looser again! The balance board is great for things like that as it gives you lots of feedback on your stance.

5) I'd like to loose weight. This is one I always feel wary about putting down as I rarely loose weight if I think about it to much and I'm aware that more exercise may make me weight more not less as I put muscle on fast for a woman so perhaps a better target is less inches and that's really what I care about anyway, I'm fed up of having a pregnant tummy when I'm not!!.. that and I want more energy!

6) To be better at sorting and clearing the house, the kitchen is much harder to use when messy and that goes for the rest of the house too. I don't do things because I can't find the right tools or space to work and our house isn't small we just need to get rid of a lot of stuff!!

7) Review how our local Freegle group (was Freecycle till recently) runs as see if we can improve that any now we have over 13,000 members as some things work better for small groups and now we are so big many members have problems with the amount of traffic and I think we are more of a juicy target for spammers and those less honest people after items to sell.. To be clear I don't mind people selling items IF they are honest about it when they ask for them..  Currently however most of my energy on that score is going on helping sort the national level stuff but I didn't stand for the committee so hope to have time to consider options for the local group too..

8) To have another real go at getting permission and help to get the local orchard up and running again. It is owned by the council and so far we have failed to find who we need to speak to never mind get anywhere farther.

9) Help the local school grow more veg and make sure they get in contact with a local initiative that is willing to help but has not managed to make contact with them only with me!

10) Get back into making things properly and regularly and maybe even make a bit of money here and there doing so.

Ten sounds a good number so I'll stop there as that's a pretty good range of aims I think !