Nutty as a Fruitcake

Today is the start of ‘Reduce Portion Sizes‘ week. I started with halving the amount of porridge in todays serving, but keeping the same amount of toppings. It worked fine. Still looked good, and lasted the right length of time.

I took the car out today for the first time since the start of our Arctic Week. Our road is now clear but there are still some ice clumps on all the roads, especially around junctions, round abouts and car parks. Still, the countryside looks beautiful, and lots of people were enjoying tobogganing down the hills south of Shepton.

We drove a long sunny drive to Waitrose in Gillingham. We love Waitrose. The quality of the meat, vegetables and range of foods is excellent. We learned today that we can order from this supermarket for home delivery, which would save us a 70 minute round trip if we wish. We had lunch at the supermarket. Cumberland sausage whorl in a white roll with mustard and a Cappuccino. Lovely but un-photographed! I’m going to see what quality of photo I can take with my camera phone, or work out how I am going to deal with ‘outside home’ meals.

Dinner was a hearty Chilli Con Carne; extra lean steak mince, chopped carrots, celery, onions, peppers, kidney beans in chilli sauce, passata, and then a mixture of spice, fennel seeds, marjoram, cinnamon and salt. Started on the stove and finished in the oven. I served this with some Cornbread, using a recipe from the Waitrose website. I’ve not made this before, and although nice, it was very dense. The chilli was topped with grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Check out the space on the plate… thats the way to do it.

Tonight was an NCIS catch up. Two episodes we hadn’t seen… which, lets face it is quite unusual to find any unseen episodes of anything on UK TV at the moment. We have more channels than ever and yet we watch less TV than ever before. How come?

I finished the day with a dessert, although I think it was too much as I have felt stuffed since. Although this Truffle Mouse looked wonderful, it was too much. I am also trying a new Kopparberg Premium Cider with Elderflower and Lime. It tastes just like elderflower squash, but fizzy. It is very sweet, too sweet. I think it would be good on a nice hot day, but then again, I think I would prefer just the squash.

The exciting news of today is the the Council Workers arrived at the top of our hill with a lorry full of grit… It was like Christmas, we were so excited. The lovely men spread grit down the entire hill, making sure we were safe. Thank you Somerset Council!

This means I can get to work on Monday and we can go food shopping this weekend. Huge sighs of relief all round (although a little worry about the amount of new snow we get this weekend). The newspapers and TV were all showing this image from a Photo taken by NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response. It is absolutely amazing to see the entire country at once and covered in white.

The temperature fell to nearly -20C in Scotland last night and the lowest local temperature was -14.6C in Yeovilton. Please remember to feed the birds, preferably something fatty, and make sure they have water.

My breakfast was a sort of cheats cheese on toast made with the last of the Parmesan and tomato bread, Red Leicester cheese and sliced tomatoes. Served with a frothy cup of coffee. Lovely. Having a bit of protein with breakfast certainly helps keep me fuller for longer.

The rat man came first thing, and confirmed that the droppings were that of Ratties. He has left some poison to see if they are still around. RIP ratty.

I spent the morning working on my Team Strategy Document, trying to pull together all my various presentations into a single cohesive document. My aim is to reduce the 100+ pages to a more manageable 30+…. but there is so much information. I am going to have to be ruthless.

The second brilliant thing that happened today is that we got post for the first time this week. The lovely postman risked the ice to deliver some outstanding orders from Amazon, including the EatingWell Meals for Two book that I ordered. The recipe collection is very good and I’ve selected a number to try over the next week so keep posted.

Lunch was a courtesy of the freezer (did I mention we need to go food shopping… ) We had Southern Style Quorn Burgers, some fresh cooked French Bread, a salad made of onions, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, feta and some mayo. It has kept us going all afternoon.

After another few hours of laptop work on my Strategy Document, the home phone started ringing while I was on my work phone with my Boss. When I eventually found the phone (!) it was my neighbour to tell me that my Beloved was trying to get in the front door, but I had left it locked with my keys in it. He’d been ringing the doorbell for ages, but the combination of two shut doors (to keep the heat in), my phone call and my little fan heat means I was oblivious. D’oh.

However I rewarded him with the best steak we’ve had for ages, served with broccoli, mushrooms, onions and real chips. That TFI Friday night feeling 🙂 The meat was 21-day matured rump steak from Good Taste Foods. Every item of meat or fish that we have bought from this company has been first class. Although most of their produce comes in boxes of 10 (which I must admit put me off the initial commitment), it has proved to be a very good way of buying meat. I initially bought chicken breasts and haddock fillets. The chicken breasts were very large and I was using one between two of us. The haddock fillets came ‘dusted’ meaning they had a thinner, crispier (and lower calorie) batter on them. They were excellent.

Tonights meat was from one of their mixed box selections of meat for grilling, which include pork and lamb steaks, rib eye and rump beef steaks.

We also decanted my vintage port into the cut glass decanter my brother bought me for Christmas.. good present! But after a small port, followed by a larger Bailey’s (is it supposed to have bits in it?) the inner nutta demanded Ginger Cake.

I’ve had a week of eating what I fancy to see what themes I can work out. It is unfortunate that the shopping has been limited by the weather, but it has given me a pretty good idea. So my observations are:

1. My portion size has crept up again.. the white plates are a breakfast plate size, but I’m starting to pile them up too much. Depth still counts.
2. My sweet tooth has been very dominant and I need to be more selective with what I have – Quality not Quantity
3. There has been quite a lot of fried food and cheese, which I need to tone down.
4. The meals were mostly unplanned (again due to the shopping restrictions)

I am going to address the first three of these one at a time over the next three weeks. The last point I have addressed straight away!