Red peppers stuffed with sausage = yum

I love how a pepper, a low cal food, can be a great base for a meal instead of rice or pasta. Seeing as most stuffing ideas revolve around beef mince or rice, I set about googling for a stuffing that included neither. I came across a recipe with sausage meat as a stuffing. Whilst you can add rice to the sausage meat, I of course didn't want to do that and instead added finely chopped spring onions and mushrooms to bulk up the mixture. I probably added too much veg as it dulled the taste of the pork sausage a little.

Recipe

x2 peppers (whatever colour you prefer but red is the sweetest)
x2 Sainsbury's 30% reduced fat Butcher's Choice large pork sausages
50 g chopped spring onions
100 g finely chopped mushrooms
tbsp of your favourite herbs (I used basil and parsley)
tsp black pepper


Pre-heat oven to 190 c.

Take the sausage meat out of the casings, add the onion, mushrooms and herbs and mix together.

Cut the top of the peppers off, do not discard as you will place the top back on when serving. Remove the seeds and veins from the inside of the peppers.

Stuff the peppers, be sure to tightly pack the pepper with stuffing as the stuffing will shrink whilst it's cooking.

Place the peppers in the oven for 45 minutes. Do not place the top of the peppers back on - peppers contain a lot of water and you want this to evaporate whilst it is in the oven. If you find there is still excess water in the pepper once it has cooked just pour it out.

If you are not being too strict about calories you can add 25g of grated cheddar cheese or parmesan to your pepper.

Plate and enjoy!

Nutritional information for 2 stuffed peppers without cheese:

303 calories
32 g carbs
12 g fat
5 g protein

Nutritional information for 25 g West Country Farmhouse Mature Cheddar Cheese:

102 calories
0 g carbs
9 g of fat
6 g protein

Yes, I'm a rock star ...

Last night I hit my personal goal of cycling 37 miles/60 km in one week. I achieved this by cycling the 12 km round trip to work every day. I was so excited last night that I really sprinted the last mile home. It's a modest achievement but the most I have ever cycled in a week :) I don't really have the opportunity to increase the distance so for now I will work on the speed. I'm on such a heavy bike with not enough gears that I really do have to work for my speed, it will be good exercise at the very least!

I'm really beginning to enjoy my rides, I've come to know my route so well that I'm automatically slowing down on the potholed roads and gently swerving to avoid slippery drains. I'm even getting to know the timings of the traffic lights, I know when I can sprint to make it through the amber and when not to even bother. I now know that there's no point riding through the tunnels at breakneck speed because the small hill on the other side will absolutely kill my legs! City cycling isn't often described as peaceful but it's fast becoming the word I use to describe my rides, not to mention that London really is beautiful.

Finally, most city drivers have a reputation for being awful to cyclists but I'm learning that the odd wave, thank you and smile really goes a long way.

I'm hitting the gym hard next week to alternate my exercise so I won't get to cycle as much but the week after I will again aim for 60 km.

p.s. You just cannot trust BBC Weather, rain was predicted for almost everyday but the forecast changed at the last moment to either light showers or sunny. I have the boyfriend's waterproof jacket and trousers at the ready just in case it does rain. I almost want it to rain so I can just try them out! I said 'almost' ...

The proverbial kick up the ...

I keep banging on about how I have "only" lost 8 pounds. The truth is if I stepped onto the scales tomorrow and discovered that I had put on that 8 pounds I would become a weepy child. I am therefore going to stop with the whining.

Yesterday I thought I would mix my food up a little and decided to have a Greek salad instead of my normal salad. In practice this meant I added feta cheese (drool), tuna and pre-made morrocan cous cous courtesy of Sainsburys Taste the DIfference. Yes, I know cous cous isn't Greek but I fancied it! For dinner I had chicken goujons and sliced baby potatoes in my salad. After taking photos of both I realised how similar looking they were but believe me my little chums they were full of different flavours :)

Lunch: Tuna salad with Moroccan cous cous, feta, olives, cucumber, red onion and tomatoes



Dinner: 3 Southern fried chicken goujons, baby potatoes, olives, cucumber, red onion and tomatoes



As I hadn't been out on my bike much I decided to take my baby out for a spin! I cycled for a total of about 45 minutes including cycling to Brick Lane for a vodka and diet coke with the Boyfriend (only 55 calories - ladies, you can still drink and lose weight!). I also bought a new bike lock and picked up my cycling gloves that I accidentally left at a bike shop two weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised that the gloves hadn't been nicked as they are quite expensive and I had a nice little chat about my bike - he was really impressed with her :)

I'm planning on cycling to work this week so I checked the weather forecast and, sod's law, it's raining almost everyday this week!

And last but not least, here's a photo of the rose bush in the front of my house:

A Bit Better than Blah

I did go to the gym but I didn't make up the 200-odd calories after yoga. I weighed in and was so so sad to find that I have plateaued again. Am I destined to only see a loss every two weeks?? This is tres unfair! To cheer myself out I went to Itsu. Now you all know just how much I adore Itsu but these days I tend to avoid it as it's so expensive. But today was a special day so I treated myself to a medium frozen yoghurt (110 calories) and a vegetable dumpling dynamite pot. I absolutely adore them but I guess I just didn't feel like it as I left half of the pot.

To further cheer myself up I thought I would upload some photos I have taken recently. The first photo is of one of my favourite meals - salmon steak with salad and extra light mayo, which comes in at 446 calories:



The next photo is of my beloved bike, which I couldn't ride this week because of rain, wind or both:



I have mentioned before that I use the free calorie counting website My Fitness Pal. Disheartened after my weigh in I posted a message asking other users to look at my food diary and suggest how I could improve it. The most common comments were that I needed to eat more as I sometimes fall under 1,200, to drink more water, eat fewer carbs and more protein, eat more fruit, eat more snacks during the day and mix up my exercise. I have taken all of this on board and will do the following next week:

1. Drink 8 glasses EVERYDAY
2. Hit 1,200 cals or more everyday
3. Eat a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack
4. Ditch the bread, so mainly salad for lunch
5. Add boiled egg whites to my salads
6. Ditch spin and body pump and instead cycle to work and back everyday

One thing I am certain of is that I don't want to ditch my weight loss journey. I'll report back next week Friday and let you know if it makes a difference!

Blah

Today I feel blah. If i'm honest, I've felt like this for the last few days. I don't know if it's to do with having the week off with nothing to do other than stay at home or if it's the "6 week slump" or a combination of both. It's weigh in day tomorrow and it keeps playing on my mind. I haven't done as much exercise as I hoped to do this week but my calorie dank has stayed in credit all week. Today I planned to cycle to and from yoga to up my exercise but I just went out for a trial run and not only is it blowing (practically) gale force winds out there but it's also occasionally drizzling. Now that I have decided that I am not going to cycle, I have to think about how else I am going to burn 256 calories today. I could swim but I really don't want to mess up my hair - I spend a lot of money getting it chemically straightened and chlorine will just undo all of that. I guess I can do: 10 minutes on elliptical (95 calories) + 15 mins on stationary bike (110 calories) + 10 minutes on the elliptical/ski machine thing (approx 95 calories) before yoga. Yoga starts in 1 hour at 12:10 so I had better get moving!!

Haagen Dazs, I defeat you ...

I spent the day with my sister today and despite us both being on a weightloss journey she insisted on going to the Haagen Dazs restuarant. I tried persuading her that a skinny latte from Starbucks was a better treat and that as we hadn't eaten lunch yet we were probably better off just getting a proper lunch. It didn't work and after promising she would only order one scoop we ended up sitting at a table for 2 with the full Haagan Dazs menu in front of us. Needless to say she didn't order just one scoop - she ordered 2 scoops of ice cream, with caramel, cream and pancakes. I know that she thought I would cave in and order something but I am so proud to say that I didn't order anything. Not. A. Thing. I just sipped my water, safe in the knowledge that I wasn't consuming 680 calories and 31 grams of fat on a dessert :)

Hello 130s!!!

Hola blog!

I am sorry I have abandoned you for a while, there is no need to worry though, I have just been blogging on www.myfitnesspal.com and it is a bit difficult to do both. As today is a momentous day for me, I thought I would write a post. Why is today momentous I hear you ask? Because I am finally back in the 130s!!! I haven't been under 10 stone since I was about 18 years old so this is a major achievement for me. I have also lost a pound more than I originally had earlier on in the year in round 1 so I am pleased to say round 2 is so far, and will continue to be, a success story!

Starting weight: 147 pounds
Current weight: 138.8 pounds
Chest: 35 inches (lost 1.5 inches)
Waist: 30 inches (lost 5 inches ~~~~> this is what the tape measure says but I find it difficult to believe!
Hips: 43 inches (lost 0.5 inche)

In other news, I bought a bike and I have started cycling to work. I cycled to work for the first time on Tuesday and boy was it scary at times! On Wednesday my legs were just killing me so I took a break, Thursday I went to Body Pump and this morning I cycled in again. I really don't think I am at a stage where I can cycle and then work out at the gym so I am going to aim to go to the gym twice a week (Monday spin and Thurs Pump) and cycle to work twice too (Tuesday and Friday). The distance to work and back is 12k so it is reasonable, I can just work on my speed if I want to burn more calories. I have worked out that I need to stick to around 1200 calories to lose weight. Can I just say that I heart my bike? I adore it! It's not particularly functional, doesn't have enough gears and doesn't pick up enough speed but I still love my baby :)

Another major change has been my landlord fitting a new grill in my kitchen. I cannot tell you how much this grill has revolutionalised my cooking!

Tonight I am going to make one ingredient ice-cream - I'll report back and let you know how I get on!