Day 50

Breakfast:

Apple and Ricotta Toast

This was very refreshing. More so if the apple had come from the fridge! As you can see I was heavy handed with the cinnamon again... rushing to get it plated, photographed and eaten before the apple turned brown LOL








Lunch: 

Chicken Rice Paper Rolls

Another first for me, thank you MB! I've had rice paper rolls a gazillion times in my life, but I've never had the confidence to buy them and make them at home myself. Conquered that little issue. Will be making this again. And again. I served it with a teaspoon on hoisin sauce... divine!

Great tip from Yo Yo on the forums... don't overwet the rice paper, take them out the water just as they are starting to "give".
That definitely helped with the rolling process so thank you.



Dinner:

Eggplant Parmiagana

I had to double check that this recipe served 2 and not 4, very generous sizes. I only served up half a portion for myself and have kept the rest aside for lunch on Wednesday. I enjoyed this, not sure I'll make it again in a hurry but it wasn't bad.

Day 49

Breakfast:

Breakfast Burrito

Ok amigos, listen up!! You have to try this if you haven't already, very very good! Definitely could have gone for seconds, but I didn't! :)












Lunch:

Rice cakes with hommous and carrot tabouli

So today's lunch of Salmon and Grilled Vegetable Terrine was a complete non-event. Numty here didn't check the recipe yesterday to see that it needed to set in the fridge overnight!

Herewith... 3 rice cakes with hommous, grated carrot, grated cucumber and mint. Easy peasy and delicious.

And now I brace myself for a week of red capsicum and raw courgette batons as snacks since they didn't get used today! :)



Dinner: 

"Kangaroo" with bok choy and kumara chips

So Bear Grylls would not be impressed with my squirmishness.... yep, that's right, I chickened out of having kangaroo and opted for good old rump steak instead.  
This meal was very very tasty. We used a sweet soy sauce in the marinade and it was amazing. The kumara chips were great too but didn't crisp up. Delicious nevertheless. Oh and how pretty were the little yellow flowers on my baby bok choy??  

Day 48

Breakfast:

Ricotta and basil toast with oven roasted tomatoes

The "cutting back on carbs" experiment continues.... 1 slice of toast instead of 2 today.













Lunch:

I've had this for lunch 3 days in a row now, and I'm still not sick of it! It used the last of the grapes and rocket so it's all good (any excuse!).










Dinner: 

Spicy chickpea and egg salad

I made this for the 12wbt Weekly Suprise this week (submit a recipe) but I'm not going to submit it after all that, I think I missed the cut off and I've run out of energy too! ;-)
This has half a cup of chickpeas, a boiled egg, cucumber, red capsicum, mint, garlic, low fat greek style yoghurt, curry powder and red wine vinegar. It was great (and filling) but needs something salty so next time I'd crumble a bit of feta on top. It comes out at about 250 cals without the feta so a few spare cals to play with.

Day 47

Breakfast: 

Gluten free Muesli

Lunch:

Chicken and Grape salad with walnuts and feta

Every bit as good as it was yesterday!!












Dinner:
Tonight is a red flag event for me, I'm meeting a friend for dinner for her birthday, therefore, no Greek Veggie Skewers tonight. I *may* make this for dinner on Saturday night, depends how bad I am tonight. I may make tonight my treat meal night. Will see how we go :)

Day 46

I forgot to mention yesterday that it was Weigh in Wednesday. Maybe that was a convenient lapse in memory because I wasn't overly excited about my loss this week. Last week I lost a big fat zero so I was expecting something big this week but only 600g. But it's heading in the right direction so I'll take it. I'm thinking of tweaking my breakfasts this week so it's not so carb-heavy to see if that has any effect on my weight loss? Because seriously, I'm doing everything right. Nutrition is SPOT on, 98% following the menu as you can tell from my blog (2% accounting for red flag days, which have still been within 1200 calories, just not on the 12wbt plan - and those times that I've run out ingredients required for the menu plan). As for exercise, I've missed 3 workouts in 7 weeks - and even then I've done double the following day to make up for it! Anyway, stay tuned!

Breakfast: 

Avo toast with smoked salmon

Today's breakfast called for 2 slices of toast but I opted for one today. My weight loss has slowed down a bit so I'm cutting down on my carbs and making up the calories with snacks such as veggie sticks and yoghurt. Let's see how we go with that!







Lunch:

Chicken and Grape Salad with Walnut and Feta

This sexy little salad has got everything going for it... looks AND substance. It's got sweet and salty, creamy and crunchy, smooth and sharp... this will definitely be a regular in summer!! In fact, substitute the chicken with turkey and you've got a great salad for Christmas day. The walnuts give it that festive feel too. This was meant to have red grapes but I couldn't find any.






Dinner:

Not so naughty Nachos

So this was on the menu for tomorrow night. Tonight was meant to be Greek Veggie Skewers. But I had a red flag day sneak up on me for tomorrow night and I already had the mince in the fridge! So to avoid wastage, opted for this tonight. Veggie skewers can wait, fresh mince in the fridge can't! :)
This was really great by the way. I've never toasted mountain bread before and it was quite lovely.

Day 45

Breakfast: 

Gluten Free Muesli and Strawberries

I thought I would try this with half a tub of Forme vanilla yoghurt instead of half a cup of milk, just for a change. Calorie-wise it comes out about 10 cals less. It was quite good, I think I prefer it to the milk.










Lunch:

Carrot Tabouli and Hummus wrap

Dinner:

Steamed fish with Asian Vegetables

Wasn't game to use tinned baby corn and couldn't find the fresh so I opted for corn kernels sliced off the cob. Not very Asian but it goes with the broccoli at least. Seems we used up the broccolini with the salmon stir fry!

This meal was nice and light, lots of ginger!!! And that's soy sauce down the middle of the fish in case you were wondering :)

Day 44

Breakfast:

Avocado toast with smoked salmon

Love!!










Lunch:

Carrot Tabouli and Hummus Wrap

The race is on! I've always said that Thai and Vietnamese flavours were my favourite. But... Middle Eastern is catching up, fast! The fresh mint and cucumber flavours in this were great. And the hummus... 'nuff said!!










Dinner:

Chicken with Herbed Yoghurt sauce

Nice to see a favourite back on the menu. It's a favourite of mine for 2 reasons: it's very tasty and very easy/ quick to make. All round winner!











Dessert:

Watermelon and Strawberry Salad with Yoghurt

Summer in a bowl!!

Day 43

Breakfast:

Gluten Free Muesli

Lunch: 

Roast beef, avo and cottage cheese wrap

 Not sure about this one. It was a bit too "wet" for my liking, I prefer a slightly more dry wrap. Other than that it was ok.














Dinner:

Salmon stir fry with broccolini and ginger

Oh my giddy aunty, this was seriously good!! I cooked the salmon to perfection too if I may say so myself, ever so slightly sticky inside! Definitely a meal that will make an encore at some stage!

Day 42

Today is officially the half way mark.... 6 weeks down, 6 to go. I'm on track for a 5kg loss in 6 weeks...let's see what Wednesday brings. Here's hoping the next 6 weeks results in another 5kgs nuked!


Breakfast:

Mixed Berry Smoothie

I really underestimated the grocery shop this week. Trying to tweak the shopping list which is built for 2 people on 1200 to accommodate 1 person on 1200, 1 on 1800 and a child gets tricky. So I've found myself running out of things towards the end of this week. Hence, no Yoghurt Berry Compote today (ran out of yoghurt!). So I made do with what I had that was still 12wbt friendly.












Lunch:

Satay Chicken

That satay sauce is dangerously more-ish!! I didn't use mixed salad leaves per the recipe because I still have a whole wombok/ chinese cabbage left.













Dinner:

Chilli Lemon Prawns with Rocket

This was very quick and easy to make and of course, quite tasty!

Day 41

Breakfast:

Poached egg on toast

So today's breakfast was meant to be baked beans on avocado toast.... I really need to ration my grocery shop properly. I used the last of the avo on my son's lunch yesterday and the last of the baked beans on Thursday. Therefore breakfast today is just a soft poached egg on spinach toast. Quite delicious.







Lunch:

Salmon, dill and mustard wrap

I was hoping to have the Vietnamese Chicken wrap for lunch today but alas, no chicken. So I opted for this salmon, dill, wholegrain mustard, rocket and carrot wrap. Feels so good using up leftover salad and wraps in such a delicious lunch.











Dinner:

Mediterranean Pizza

I'm pretty sure this pizza would make any Italian cringe... but it's Mish Approved, that's all that matters. The base has ricotta and black olive tapenade and the topping consists of: chopped olives, cherry tomatoes, shredded ham, 2 small squares of goats feta crumbled over the top, and baby spinach and basil on top once it comes out the oven!! Mama mia!!! Bellissimo!






Dessert:

Papaya with coconut cream and lime juice

Bloody hell, this was good! Papaya with coconut cream, lime juice, zest and brown sugar. Mmmmm....

Day 40

40 days of commitment and dedication to this program! What a great accomplishment!


Breakfast:

Boiled egg on avocado toast

Ran out of smoked salmon so I just used extra avo!













Lunch: 

Leftover Lentil Bolognese

Dinner:

Satay Chicken Tenderloins

This satay sauce was quite divine. As you can see I didn't use skewers. Came home late from work and this is the best I could do!!

Day 39

Breakfast:

Baked Beans and Avo Toast

Lunch: 

Vietnamese Chicken Wrap

New favourite wrap!! Thinking of having this for lunch on Saturday as I have plenty of the chinese cabbage left. Also because it was great!











Dinner:

Lentil Bolognese

This is definitely a recipe I'll be keeping after the program ends... perfect for Meatless Mondays.

Day 38

Wednesday weigh in ..... and I got the result I expected. Neither a loss nor a gain which I'm totally ok with.

Breakfast:

Mango muesli

A little bit of sunshiny goodness for an overcast day ...











Lunch:

Stuffed Zucchini

Zucchini boats for lunch... hubby's portion didn't make it to work with him :)











Dinner:

Hoisin beef stir fry with Spring vegetables

This was soooo good!! I love ginger, I think I'll be adding more the next time I make this. Very yum.

Day 37

Breakfast: 

Avo toast with smoked salmon and boiled egg

Love smoked salmon!

(Update: I really should read the recipes properly. This was meant to be served with half a cup of strawberries so I'm just having them tonight as dessert).







Lunch: 

Ricotta, carrot and spinach wrap

Added half a teaspoon of black olive tapenade with the ricotta today and ... much better! 











Dinner:

Grilled Stuffed Zucchini with Balsamic Chutney

I've never cooked anything like this before and the verdict is in... I loved it!! My other half thought it was very ordinary but then again he's not a tuna fan. I thoroughly enjoyed this - the balsamic tomato chutney is the vital ingredient though. Great light meal the night before weigh in! 








Dessert:

 
Herewith the strawberries I should have had with the salmon and egg toast for breakfast. I dollied it up with a bit of mint so it was more desserty. 

(The Papaya, Lime and Coconut will have to be Thursday night. May take me over my cals for the day but I guess, all up over the week it comes out even stevens!).

Day 36

Breakfast

Mango Muesli

Summer's coming! Loved this breakfast after all that egg last week.












Lunch: 

Carrot, Ricotta and Basil Wrap with Tomato

Slightly boring flavour in my opinion, probably because I left the garlic out, but tasty enough. I think I'm just not that big a fan of ricotta? I might look at working some of my snack calories in to accommodate a scraping of olive tapenade with the ricotta in future instead of the garlic perhaps, just for some extra ooomph?








Dinner:

Chicken with Mustard Sauce and Asparagus

Beautiful flavours!!

Day 35

Breakfast:

Pocket rocket Big Breakfast

Even though this was tasty and filling, I am SO over egg! Bring back the muesli and smoothies etc please. (Damn, just realised I forgot the ham!!).











Lunch:

Mushroom and basil risotto

This is the closest I've come to a religious experience in a LONG time. Absolutely divine!!! We had a vegetarian friend come around for lunch today so we skipped the Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup which was on the menu today and made this risotto instead which was on the menu for dinner Friday night, and which I didn't make due to Qantas strike debacle! Can't wait to have this again.








Dinner: 

Chicken Involtini

This is such an elegant, dainty, mastercheffy dish, especially when you use the string...unlike my first attempt! I didn't bother with the cooked tomatoes and green beans tonight. This was just as lovely with spinach and uncooked tomatoes.