Intermittent fasting!

Looks good for 80 calories!

So it is week three and my sixth day of intermittent fasting and so far so good. Intermittent fasting is basically restricting your calorie intake to 500 calories for women & 600 calories for men on two non consecutive days out of seven. My weight has dropped by 7 lbs which I am thrilled about and I am feeling great. I am by no means an expert but thought these few little tips I have picked up in the last few weeks might aid people who are considering trying out this eating plan.

• Drink plenty of fluids, I find it easier to drink warm liquids so I constantly have a pot of green tea on the hob. 

• Save the majority of your calories for late afternoon/early evening. This is when my hunger pangs strike and it is great to have a meal to look forward to.

• Tins of chopped tomatoes will become your best friend. Soups, stews, chillies and lots more low calorie dinners start with a tin of tomatoes.

• I prefer not to exercise on my fast days, normally when I am running the thought of a nice meal when I get home keeps me going!

• Don't waste your 500/600 calorie allowance with high calorie foods, much more filling to take the time to assemble a salad or a home made soup instead of convenience meals.

I would love to hear your tips and success stories with intermittent fasting. It has amazed me that the day after a fast day I am not overly hungry and I think this is the key to success. I watched Dr Michael Mosley's Horizon programme and it was so interesting, fascinating the research behind this lifestyle change. Here is a link if you wish to watch.

www.wave105.com/onair-andy-jackson

Today for lunch I made a very tasty salad comprising of;

50g baby spinach leaves

50g pickled onions

10 cherry tomatoes

5 radishes

1 fresh beetroot

It was very tasty and will keep me going until later on this evening when I will use up the remaining 420 calories on my dinner. If anything these two fast days a week have succeeded in doing is making me become more aware of what 500 calories look like, frightens me to think how many actual calories I am capable of consuming on any given day.

So there is my tuppence worth on this method of dieting, thanks for reading!

Warm fig & raspberry salad

It's a miserable, grey, rainy day here in Clara but my mood is light and full of cheer! I weighed myself for the first time in 11 days and am pleased to announce that after only four non consecutive fast days I am 6lbs lighter! I find this method of weight loss fascinating and have heard the BBC are going to replay the Horizon special on it in the next few weeks which will be a very interesting watch. Yesterday was fast day so today I was really looking forward to making a tasty lunch. Figs are one of my favourite things and this is such an easy throw together meal, think it would make a fabulous starter for a dinner party.

You will need for each serving

• 2 ripe figs
• 50g goats cheese
• 50g serrano ham
• selection of lettuce leaves
• Mr Pettersen's raspberry extra dressing / dressing of your choice

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Line two cups of a muffin tin with your serrano ham.

Cut the top of your figs into a cross shape and stuff with goats cheese.

Place figs into the serrano ham cups and bake in oven until cheese has melted and ham is crispy.

Remove from tin, place on a bed of lettuce and drizzle with raspberry dressing.

So delicious!

Seedy Cake!

So I have hopped happily onto the latest diet bandwagon which is the hopefully not too good to be true intermittent fasting/5:2 diet! Basically it consists of two days with a 500 calorie limit and five days of normal eating. Now this diet suits me down to the ground as I have a love of food and a love of eating. It allows me to make a cake, have a slice and not feel guilty. Not that I ever really have felt guilty but the jeans have been getting tighter and I needed to bite the bullet. This lovely cake is a taste of childhood, caraway seeds add a gorgeous aniseed like flavour, it's the sort of spice you either love or hate and I love it!



Ingredients

225g softened butter
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self raising flour
1tsp caraway seeds

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease/line a loaf tin.
Mix the butter and caster sugar until fluffy. Add one egg at a time and mix well.
Sieve in the self raising flour and mix fully.
Add in the caraway seeds and give one final mix.
Pour into the loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 45 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
Allow to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire rack.



For the lime icing:

250g mascarpone cheese
175g icing sugar
Juice of 2 limes

Mix all the ingredients together before spreading on top of cake.
Sprinkle some lime zest on top.



No fancy ingredients, minutes spent mixing and in less than an hour you have a delicious cake cooling in your kitchen. What's not to love?

Thanks for reading! xx

Selection Box Cake!

What January detox?

So today my house is being dechristmasfied! It is a word isn't it? Decorations are being stored carefully back in the attic, the last of the fizzy drinks are being consumed and the fudge bars lingering in the bottom of the selection boxes are being baked with. This is the last of the Christmas indulgences to be enjoyed with a cuppa to help ease the boredom of stripping the Christmas tree!

Just a small slice will do!

 What you will need;

175g sugar
175g soft butter
150g self raising flour
125g drinking chocolate
4 eggs
5 fudge bars, chopped
Tin of condensed milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a springform tin.
Mix the sugar, butter, self raising flour, drinking chocolate and eggs together to form a thick batter.
Pour into the lined tin.
Top the batter mixture with the chopped fudge bars and pour over the tin of condensed milk.
Bake in the oven for 40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack before slicing up and devouring. You may need a dentist handy.....

Delicious!

Christmas pudding muffins!



Hope no one is offended by my wooden boards.....

Christmas pudding is one of those things that you either love or hate. I spent my childhood hating it and now I love it. Not any Christmas pudding mind, it has to be my mothers. No recipe just a handful of this, a handful of that and the obligatory bottle of stout. wrapped lovingly in a special pudding cloth and steamed for hours before being hung from a broom handle to cool. I still remember the smell in the old back kitchen in Dublin to this day and the condensation on the inside of the windows as it was steamed. 

I couldn't resist these candy stripe muffin cases!

This was the first year that my mother didn't make a pudding but luckily I had a small one that I had wrapped carefully and stored away last year that I could indulge in. Still perfect after twelve months wrapped up and tasted completely delicious.

I hate any sort of food waste and when I came across this recipe to use up leftover pudding I decided to give it a bash. I always love Rachel Allen recipes and this is another one to keep on file and use again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1101825/Rachel-Allens-luxury-Christmas-leftovers-recipe-Christmas-pudding-muffins-sherry-butter-icing.html

I didn't use the whiskey/sherry/brandy in my mix but delicious hazelnut Baileys and I topped them with a mascarpone icing made up of;

250g mascarpone cheese
100g icing sugar
a generous splash of Baileys

Mix the mascarpone, sieve in the icing sugar and stir in the baileys before piping or spreading onto your muffins.


Honestly not staged, he was just bringing the muffins for a walk!

So that's my Christmas dishes over with until next December. I have enjoyed sharing them with you over the last couple of weeks. I am looking forward to seeing what 2013 has to bring and I wish you and yours a very happy and healthy new year, xxx.

A Christmas present from me to me!

I did it my way!

I have recently read a few articles online giving food bloggers advice as to what's hot and what's not for 2013. I am sure these posts are all just in jest and they provide an amusing read but the one point I would like to make is that your food blog is exactly that, yours. I will be continuing to use my whitewashed boards, my patterned linens, my strings of twine and my children if I wish. Your blog is meant to be a snapshot into your life, sharing memories and recipes that you adore and conveying feelings into words and pictures. So my advice to my fellow bloggers is do it your way, use props, don't use props, do whatever pleases you because that little corner of the World Wide Web is yours and it's up to you to put your stamp on it!
Rant over! Here is my favourite picture of some string, oh and a mince swirl.....

Silent Sunday.....Lough Boora Parklands.





An Offaly long walk.......

Sky Train

Muddy swinging legs....

Boora pyramid.

Midday shadows.

Proud head.

Happy feet!

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful girl!

In the lead.....



Did I win?

Boora convergence & cycles.

All onboard!

Where is my nest gone?

Ruaille Buaille!

Sibling rivalry....