Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

Recipe – Turkey and Bacon Hotpot

by 1 Comment

This meal I cooked Saturday night, for myself, my partner, my brother and a guest I had staying over. It had been snowing, everyone in the house was ill and I hadn’t really even felt like cooking. As such I didn’t have any salad or veg to serve this with (I mentioned in my last post how these recipes are only the main part of the meal, not what accompanies it – as such I often forget that part!) and so we literally just ate hotpot.

Turkey and Bacon Hotpot
Serves 4
Per serving: 412 Calories, 6.4g Fat
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 red onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
450g lean diced turkey
225g thick-cut lean bacon, diced
1 tbsp plain flour
450ml semi-skimmed milk
1 chicken stock cube
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
450g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbsp reduced-salt soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper

When making this, I completely forgot to take pictures until the end. I’m clearly not capable of multi-tasking by cooking and photography at the same time, oops!

Begin by preheating the oven to 190 C (375 F, Gas Mark 5). Get a large non-stick frying pan, adding the onions and garlic and dry-frying till soft. Next add the turkey and bacon, continuing to cook, turning the meat to seal on all sides. Sprinkle the flour over and “cook out” for 1 minute, then gradually stir in the milk. Add the stock cube and allow to dissolve, stirring to distribute. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, to allow the sauce to thicken. Stir in the parsley (I used dried as I rarely have fresh in) and pour the mixture into an overproof dish. Top with sliced potatoes, drizzle with soy sauce and season with freshly ground black pepper. Finally bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.

This is the only picture I remembered to take (and the kitchen lighting makes it look quite yellow, where it isn’t)! Both pictures show the portion size, this being a quarter of the full size dish. The only thing I would add to the recipe is to say that I season with salt and pepper even at frying stage, not just at the end. Also I have no idea what weight of potatoes I used, just enough to top about 2-3 layers deep. Having done more than this previously, I know the potato doesn’t always cook through well. That said, if you doing it with plenty of time to spare before dinner, you could cook at a lower heat and for longer, to ensure it was all cooked through, if you did want a deeper potato topping!

This recipe is another of my favourites, but ideally I definitely would have served it alongside some salad or vegetables.

Next time… Spicy Chicken Pasta

Recipe – Boozy Beef with Mushrooms

by Leave a Comment

As I mentioned before, I’ve just started dieting again, using the Rosemary Conley diet books I had from a few years ago. I’m not following her low GI diet exactly, doing more of a calorie counting one, but I’m cooking fresh meals every night, using her recipes.

Boozy Beef with Mushrooms
Serves 4
Per Serving: 230 Calories, 7.1g Fat
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes

In my opinion, these recipes only serve 4 if all of you are on a diet. However as I’m often cooking for my partner and/or friends, I feel like they provide 1 correct size portion and then 2 good potions, or 1 good portion and 2 correct size portion (especially given that the normal non diet people are usually guys). Also my logic is – they can always have extra food after, its more important that I just don’t eat more than the correct size portion.

Ingredients:
2 red onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
450g lean braising steak, diced
1 beef stock cube, dissolved in 300ml (1/2 pint) boiling water
1 tbsp plain flour
225g mixed mushrooms, sliced
300ml (1/2 pint) beer or cider
2 tbsp chopped fresh mixed herbs
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To begin with you get a large, non-stick pan, add the red onions and dry-fry until brown. You then add the garlic and beef, continuing to cook and seal the beef, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add 2 tbsp of beef stock and sprinkle the flour over.

Mix well and “cook out” for 1 minute, before gradually stirring in the remaining stock. Stir in the sliced mushrooms and the herbs. I didn’t actually have fresh herbs in, or even mixed herbs for that matter, so I just added a tsp of every herb I had in the cupboard, from parsley to thyme, from rosemary to oregano.

Finally add the beer or cider, then stir. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 35-40 minutes, until the beer is tender. It looks a lot of liquid after you’ve added everything, but trust me it simmers down to nothing. In fact it can end up too thick so be sure to keep an eye on that, possibly add a little water.

I haven’t cooked any of the Rosemary Conley recipes in about 4 years and while I remember they are tasty, I had forgotten just how good they were. At the point of typing this up I have actually cooked three of her recipes, and so far this is my favourite. I shared it between 3 in this instance, but making sure my own portion was the smaller. Of course the other thing about Rosemary Conley’s recipes is that she just provides you with the main part of the meal, but not whatever you serve it with. I chose to serve this with basmati (microwave) rice. However I only had one plain and one egg fried version, so I ended up mixing them together before serving them up.

Anyway, it was delicious and both my partner and guest agreed! Its really easy to make, low calories and not really all that expensive (my cider was 99p and my beef was marked down as reduced).

Next time… Turkey and Bacon Hotpot

My Weekend

by 2 Comments

Since the last time I posted, I don’t feel like I’ve had two minutes to breath. Of course that’s not really true and I’ve even had down time, but certainly no time to blog.

As of 7pm on Friday evening, I’ve had at least one guest here, right through till now. On Friday my brother arrived for dinner, in order to then stay for Games Night number 1. At 7.30pm two more friends arrived and we spent the evening playing board games until around midnight. Due to the snow, my brother stayed overnight but the other two friends went home. Though my brother was supposed to be having his children on Saturday, the snow caused him to cancel and instead he spent the day at my house – meaning my house had me, my two children, my very sick boyfriend (who I spent all day running around after) and my brother, in it. At 4pm Saturday another friend arrived on the train, one who would be staying a few nights. That night we had another Games Night, making it two in a row (when we had originally only planned one for Friday and one for Sunday). So now with a house full of four adults and two children, Sunday felt busy even though it wasn’t really (didn’t help I felt ill most of the day and ended up having an afternoon nap – though plus side, 3 people to babysit). Sunday night saw Games Night number 3, where two more friends arrived and stayed until about midnight again.

Today is hopefully going to be a fairly relaxed day. My partner is back to work, my two children are at school and although I still have the one friend who is staying a few days here, we plan to not do an awful lot. I apologise now if anyone ends up feeling grossly spammed by my blog today though. I have 3 recipes I’d like to post, perhaps a post about the games weekend as a whole, and I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Blog Award, which I need to post about!

Hope you’re all having good Mondays, especially now the weather is improving a little.

Diets and Weight Loss

by 6 Comments

When I was in my teens, I never had to think about my weight. In fact I was always very curvy but very thin. I suppose it was only a matter of time though, because both my parents were always a little overweight and so I knew the genes were probably there.

At around the age of 20, I got into a long term relationship (and then very short-lived marriage) whereby we lived together and got comfy I suppose. I put on quite a lot of weight, ending up at around a size 16, from always having been a 10. I managed to lose the weight over about 6 months and then kept it off for several years, mostly by attending Weight Watchers meetings and sticking to their points system.

The next time I put on weight was both a combination of another long term relationship, but which also coincided with falling pregnant. At the point I gave birth, I was back up to a 16 again, though some of that was bump rather than fat obvious. A few weeks after giving birth (or caesarian as it was), I was around 14-16, 14 being tightish but 16 being a little on the large side. Over a few months I got down to a regular 14 and even a little under, but never anything less. I didn’t diet mind you, it was just the fact we owned a restaurant and I was working on my feet every day. I maintained this weight for a few years until I fell pregnant for the second time. This time I put on loads and loads of weight. Part of it I put down to already being big to begin with, but some I know was the difference in my lifestyle from the first pregnancy to the second. By the time I gave birth to my second daughter I was about a size 18.

During my second pregnancy however, I had made up my mind to lose the weight and get back down to my original size – 12 being more realistic than 10 mind you. I knew that breast-feeding would help me lose the weight, and running around after two children was far more likely to drop the pounds than just the one. I also looked into various diet plans and decided on the Rosemary Conely one. My youngest daughter was born in March and although I ended up having a caesarian again, I maintained my plan to diet, exercise and lose weight. By the following December I was down to a size 12 again, a whole new wardrobe of clothes and the dress I wore on Christmas Day was actually a size 10. It felt great.

However sadly I was always prone to putting it back on. Getting comfy and probably lazy, bit by bit the weight came on again. I found myself buying a pair of size 14 jeans the following year – “just to be comfy on Christmas Day”, and then eventually a size 16 pair about a year later. The following year my husband and I broke up, after 7 years of marriage and 8 years of being together, and although often break-ups result in more weight loss, mine didn’t. Instead I sort of went through a phase of “no-one to answer to” and just ate what I wanted, when I wanted, while doing what I wanted. Sadly this put me at a very standard 16, even these sometimes feeling tight. I managed to at least keep on top of it, sometimes go down a little in fact but always back up.

Finally during this year, I was asked to be one of my friends bridesmaid. I had about 12 weeks from the point she asked me, to the date of the wedding – and I decided I was going to lose some weight. When I had dieted the last time, I was cooking for two and so cooking fresh food was both handy and enjoyable. This time however there was just me and half the time I didn’t eat at all and then when I did it was at stupid times or really crappy food. To combat this I decided to find a Special K type cereal I liked for in the mornings, something easy to have with brown bread in sandwiches every lunch time and then Weight Watchers microwave meals in the evenings. The WW meals were lazy but they were fast and convenient. On many occasions they saved me from grabbing something awful to eat, just because I couldn’t be bothered to cook. At the point I first weighed in, I was about 13 stone (182 lb). The weight came off fairly easily and steadily each week, meaning in about 4-5 weeks I had lost the first stone (14 lb) and got down to 12. Over the next few weeks I lost a few more lbs, and though I’m not making excuses, I had a bit of breast cancer scare and losing weight became very low priority for me. After that I kept to eating well but only a few more lb came off. It was also around this time that I met my current partner and new relationship can be both helpful and a hindrance to dieting and weight loss. I wasn’t always eating great and sometimes I wasn’t eating at all. However the new found sex (I was single 2 and a half years!) meant that at least exercise was high. I think the lowest I got to was about 11 stone and 4-5lb (158-159 lb).

Anyway, my handbag and car got stolen, Christmas struck, and money issues hit in. My partner unofficially moved in with me and WW meals were out the window. However I knew the weight was creeping on as my new size 14 jeans were beginning to feel tight again and I definitely didn’t want that. So getting to the point I suppose, I’m now back on a diet again – though this is only my first week. I got on the scales last Sunday to find myself at 11 stone and 12 lb (166). I was a little disheartened but not exactly surprised either. Since then though I have been eating breakfast again (a meal I often skip) and sticking to a rough calorie count. With recommendation from a friend I downloaded My Fitness Pal app for my iPhone and have been sticking to the recommended calories on that. I had 3 WW microwave meals left in the freezer too and so decided they would do me until I could next do a nice big shop.

Yesterday my partner and I went on a food shop. I actually had a heap of fun, like I mentioned in my post yesterday, and we bought loads of fresh vegetables and meat, so that I could cook us some low fat and healthy meals. I still have all my Rosemary Conley books and so I made my shopping list using her recipes. Tonight is the first night of me cooking and I even have my brother around for dinner too. Right now I have beef and mushrooms simmering away on the stove and about 15 minutes until I put my eldest daughter to bed. I then intend to serve up dinner and make sure we’ve all eaten before our Games Night can begin! So with that said, I’ll end this here and hopefully post again soon.

Customisation

by 2 Comments

I’ve started to spend a little time customising my blog today. Though I’ve only had my blog a few days anyway, this is also the first opportunity I’ve had for a few hours in the house by myself, for exactly two weeks! Owing to either my partner’s days off, or my eldest child and then my youngest child being off school ill, I’ve not had any completely free time since 11th January.

So having laid in bed till 10am, had tea with my mum till 11am, I then decided to catch up on all the blog posts that I was too tired to read last night (and of course not forgetting my morning dose of Farmville 2 – please don’t judge me lol). After I was done with all that, I set about customising my layout a little, partly because of some things I seen or read, but also because its something I’ve been meaning to do.

As you will see, I now have a pretty new title banner at the top of my blog. I also have a button (thanks to The Closet Intellectual) and have added buttons to the four people I currently follow. I’m interested in
doing some more customisation too, but I think that will have to wait until I have more time to browse and fiddle (I’ve only just had breakfast and I’m still not dressed yet, my partner will be home from work in an hour, I have to take a car for a test drive, then finally pick the kids up in just over two hours time). Of course if anyone can help point me in the direction to either a blog that helps you fiddle, or even just tell me yourselves, that would be great. I’m interested in a nice layout though nothing on blogger grabs me – but more specifically how to set my own background wallpaper I guess. I’d also be interested to know how you can get this button at the end of each post (I’m wanting the multiple share options that the orange button provides!).

I think those are the main things for now, though I imagine the more I fiddle, the more I’ll want to fiddle. Anyway I better shift my ass and go do something useful or else today is going to fly by so fast. I have dinner to cook and a Games Night to host this evening, so its unlikely I’ll have any more spare time today.

Post Date Night

by Leave a Comment

Surprise! It’s Date Night and I’m still managing to make a post (though I wonder if that secretly makes me a bad girlfriend?) Having still not mentioned to my partner about my blog, I have tactically switched sofas in order to write this discreetly, pre-heading to bed soon. It’s 11pm and we’ve had a lovely day (oops, think I might be caught out – he mentioned I type a lot more when I’m not sitting next to him, lol!) but to be honest I’m more than ready for sleep!

The day started off with a lazy morning in bed, followed by lunch and a shower, then an afternoon food shopping and finally our date night. I’ll be honest, I could actually make a whole post about how nice our food shopping trip was, but that seems sort of ridiculous. But it really was a nice day as a whole. Anyway – knowing mum was having both kids overnight tonight, my partner and I discussed doing something this evening as a sort of date night.

Of course cinema was the first go to and so we looked on the Odeon website to see what might be showing. “The Hobbit” was the obvious choice, as its something that suits us both. However honestly I’m really not that bothered about seeing it at the cinema (and paying £7 a ticket) though I would like to see it at some point, maybe when its out on dvd. We then sat and watched trailers for: The Impossible, Gangster Squad, Django Unchained and Quartet – these being the only movies showing today that looked even half decent. “The Impossible” trailer moved me [almost] to tears, “Quartet” I know my mum would like to see and so I should go with her, “Django Unchained” has Leo in it (enough said, hate that man) and the only thing selling “Gangster Squad” to me is Emma Stone, but that just wasn’t enough. Obviously there is also “Les Mis” showing too, but I’d rather not spend the evening feeling miserable and end it even more miserable (largely due to having to watch Russell Crowe, yes hate that man too, but of course also its storyline).

In the end, after a very busy afternoon, we didn’t really get time to do anything till about 8pm. We settled for just dinner out together – and because we didn’t want to be spending crazy money – I suggested the Handmade Burger Co. because we had a voucher for it.

I’ll start off by saying, if you haven’t been to one, then you really must go – especially if you like burgers. The one nearest to us is Lincoln – on Brayford Wharf. Its easy to park, a short walk and though the restaurant itself was fairly busy, there was plenty of room for just the two of us. The service system is very like Nandos, for those of you who have eaten at one of their restaurants. You get seated by a waiter or waitress, then after looking through the menu, you go to the bar and order your food and drinks, waiting only a short time before the food is brought to your table. The menu looks incredibly enticing, especially if you love burgers, and so we both had no trouble at all deciding on what we wanted to eat.

The voucher we had entitled us to a burger or salad for £1, when purchasing another full price burger or salad. Obviously it couldn’t be used in conjunction with any other offer, but to be honest this suited us fine anyway. We ordered a “Stuffed with Cheddar & Chilli” burger as our full price option, then a “Cheese & Bacon” burger as our £1 option. I’m massively fussy and had to ask for mine without relish or mayo, but their menu is covered in “everything is fresh… if you need anything changing…” etc. The only thing I would say is that the burgers (in fact all dishes I think) don’t come with anything else. You order all sides separately, including chips. However with the offer we had this still worked out relatively cheap and the portions you get are definitely more than enough to share between two. We had Piri Piri fries and onion rings too.

The burgers look exactly as they do in this picture – no lie. They are mouthwatering and delicious – and also massively filling. To be absolutely honest if you weren’t that hungry, you could easily just order the burger and not worry about any sides. However we also had fries and onion rings and even between us we struggled. The Piri Piri fries though are REALLY spicy, just a heads up.
All in all, the meal only took just over 30 minutes or so, from ordering to finishing eating. The service was good even though its much more limited in that type of restaurant, the food was good and even though we got stuck on a smallish table in the middle of the restaurant, the atmosphere was pretty good too. I would definitely go there again and I would recommend it to anyone else – for either a casual lunch with friends, or a nice couples evening with a partner.
After we finished, we took a walk along the Brayford. I have to admit this is one of my favourite places in Lincoln. Usually I just pass it in a rush, between my car and the cinema, but it always looks so nice at night time, all lit up and pretty. We walked from the restaurant up to the Hilton and then all the way back down again. It was freezing cold but we held hands and chatted away, making it a lovely end to a lovely day.
My partner (having actually asked what I was up to and me telling him the truth) has now headed to bed though and so I should head up myself (said I’d be 5 minutes about 15 ago!). I probably could have written a lot more about tonight but I’ll leave it at that and get some sleep. Thank you to the 3 followers I now have, for all their nice and helpful comments on my last post. I really am enjoying this so far.

Three out of three!

by 7 Comments

Well this is day three of my new blogging life and actually my third post too. So far, so good I guess!

I don’t really have something specific that I want to blog about today, so instead I’m hoping inspiration will hit me as I type. I do have a few things I want to cover in blog posts, but unfortunately I always seem to leave my blogging till so late (its 10.30pm again!) and then I know it will take too long to fully cover the topic I want to write about.

I got my first follower today – so yay! Her name is Kate and she can be found at: justpirouetteandcarryon

I have to be honest, I’m not really sure how to go about getting followers. Is there somewhere to advertise yourself? Or do you just add people and hope they add you back? I’ve been considering placing the link for my blog on Facebook but I’m not completely sure I want all my friends following this. I also wondered about tumblr but that seems a little like throwing a pebble out into the ocean. I have already posted to twitter a few times, but I also know there aren’t that many people on twitter who follow me. Anyway, just a random musing I suppose.

With a similar thought in mind, where is the best place to find good blogs to read? I’ve stumbled across plenty of “fashion blogs” but to be honest they’re not really my thing. I don’t mind the odd post or two about fashion, but I’m so fashion-backwards, that most of the time that stuff just bores me. I suppose it would help if I could decide what kind of thing I’d like to read about and then maybe I could at least narrow down my blog genre searches.

Anyway, tomorrow I fear might be the first day that I don’t manage to make a post. I’m going to try super hard but its my partner’s day off and I also don’t have the kids tomorrow night, so I have a feeling we might be “date night”ing. I know we have a list of sensible things to get done in the daytime, but evening has been discussed as dinner and a movie perhaps (though the former won’t help my diet I imagine). That said, I’m sure a dinner and movie review could pad out a blog post, so all clouds have a silver lining as they say? This weekend we’re also have two “games nights”, so those too could make for blog posts of the future.

However for tonight I’m going to end it there. I feel a little like I’m forcing my brain to come up with words that make sense, and that really I just want to go to bed. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Goodnight!

Day Two – bloglagging…

by 2 Comments

Day Two and I’m already struggling to find time to blog! Not a good start. I suppose it doesn’t help that I haven’t told my other half I’m writing a blog and therefore when he says “let’s sit and watch a movie”, I can’t exactly say “but I have my blog to update!” I mean, its not a secret, but I just haven’t mentioned it. Maybe its because I don’t want him reading it? Or perhaps cos I don’t know how long I’ll stick at it? Or even just that he might not get why I’m bothering? Anyway he’s settled down for an hour or so on his Xbox and so I figured the first thing I would do is update my blog.

So I’ve had several things go through my head about what I want to write about. I should probably write them down before I forget to be honest, but I’m going to start with making this blog, its name and a fun little generator I found while trying to come up with a name.

The address of my blog is “journeys are my diary” (journeysaremydiary.blogspot.com). This is actually the first name I came up with, via a little help from a tumblr name generator. Though I’d wanted to start a blog for a few days, names always seem to be the hard part as far as I’m concerned. I go through phases of usernames and when life moves on a little, you sometimes look back and think “that just isn’t really suitable any more”. That’s how I felt about my last wave of usernames (which was dontletmefade for anyone interested) and so a new blog called for a change. I googled “how to come up with a good name for a blog” and similar searches, and on only the second or third link I clicked, came across a name generator for tumblr usernames (I think via yahoo answers actually).

The url for the generator is this – http://www.mookychick.co.uk/games/tumblr-name-generator.php
You don’t need to enter any information, it just provides you with random names. Its actually pretty fun, clearly tumblr orientated (you’ll see what I mean if you use it) but actually sort of perfect for blog names too. “journeysaremydiary” was actually the first thing it threw up and for some reason I just liked it. I opened up a notepad file and copied the name down, beginning searching again – this time at 50 names a pop. I came across a few amusing ones and even a few other options. Two more I liked were “notsosecretcircus” (sort of feels like my life and house are a circus sometimes) and “dreamthinklive” (which seems like good words to live by). All of them were available on blogger, but I think the original one stuck with me the most and so I went for that.

‘Journeys are my diary’ seems to me like a good name for something that spans your whole life. By that I don’t necessarily mean all the years of my life, but more the whole spectrum that is my life. They say that Life is a Journey and not a Destination – the title I gave to my blog. However when I did a little googling I also found things like “Life is a journey and only you hold the map” or “Life is a journey, not a guided tour”. Not matter what the exact quote is though, the concept is the same. And therefore every journey (that makes up the life journey) are in essence, my diary entries. Ultimately this is the reason that I came up with and went with, my blog name.

I’m going to end it there as I have a few other things I should be doing. However as with today, tomorrow I will make an effort again, to at least make one blog entry. If you’re actually reading this, then thanks. I’m not sure how or why you’ve stumbled across it, but I’m flattered that you at least got this far.

New blog… new blogger?

by 3 Comments

I’ve always fancied being a blogger, but never really known what to blog about. I’m also incredibly faddy and so when I start something new, I rarely stick with it. However fingers crossed I’m going to give this blogging thing a real go this time and see how I get on.

So at the point of writing this, I have zero followers. I’m not totally sure I’m blogging for that reason, though I guess ultimately it should be one of several goals – to get some people to follow or at least read occasionally. Its 10pm at night and I’m actually going to crash into bed shortly, but I at least wanted to make a start here, having just created the blog.

My name is Bel, its short for Belinda but I very rarely use my full name. I’m 33 years old, a single mum and I have two children (Megan and Lily) who are 8 and 4 years old. I’m currently self employed, or possibly unemployed, and trying to figure out what to do with my life. I’m 3 months into a new relationship (exactly 3 today in fact), its the beginning of 2013 and I thought perhaps now was a good time to blog about my life.

For now that’s all I’m going to say, but I’ll make time to blog again tomorrow.

Goodnight!