Nuts, seeds and dried fruit..

Snackage needed. It's going to be a long afternoon..... 

Teatime

Carrots from yesterday and the apricot chicken I defrosted overnight. Hungry.

The Apricot chicken recipe was from a small paleo book I found by chance in sainsburys. It has several very user friendly recipes in without hundreds of ingredients. 

Snackage

Having a snack bar now and a later meal.

These nakd bars are pretty good. I'm sure I can get into them as my sweet treat. 

Coffee and more

Coffee count...3

A few chunks of coconut to snack on.

Also had an orange from the veg box which was juicy and tasty.

So, just made a quick lunch before heading off to work. A packet of prawns tipped over a few leaves from today's salad pack. I did add some salad cream dressing. Was nice but I should have let the prawns come up to room temperature before eating as they were glacial.

Chicken and veg packed in a Tupperware to take to work in my 'picnic' bag.

Going to have another coffee then off to work.

Coffee count..4

Laters x

Veggie box has arrived :-)

Although I only had a Riverford box delivered on Monday I still have my Abel & Cole box today. I'll be sticking with Abel & Cole I think. Both schemes are good but A&C takes the edge for me as their website is particularly user friendly and easy to navigate.

So I have lots of veg to plan meals with now. A bit trickier to use fresh this week as I'm working this afternoon/evening and tomorrow so I won't be cooking evening meals from scratch until Saturday. 

A great selection. This is the large fruit & veg box.

Asparagus...

Carrots

Cucumber

Courgettes

Bananas

Green pepper

Leaf salad

Nectarines

Oranges

Pak choi

Salad potatoes

Spring onions

I need to plan properly to ensure this gets used at its freshest. The delivery scheme suits me. It makes me plan and think more rather than resorting to freezer foods.  I also get my eggs and milk from A&C. It's organic and makes me feels organised and healthy. 

I'll start my menu planner.... In a min...

Breakfast

I challenged myself... 

A bag of haddock fillets has been lurking in the freezer for many months. It's time they were tried. 

So wrapped in a foil parcel I popped it I the oven while I ran the boys to school. 

When I got home it was almost ready. It needed something to go with it. Poached egg... I've never tried my new poach pod, so here goes.

I followed the instructions but may have boiled too rapidly rather than simmering because unfortunately it just ended up as a flat hard boiled egg! I added a couple of those washed spinach leaves to the boiling water. Result = a very very nutritious and healthy looking meal BUT eaten with a frowny face. Not that delicious to me, but hey I ate it and feel virtuous for doing so!

Coffee count..2. I needed one to take the taste of the egg & fish away!

Teatime!

So last night I got out a beef stew portion pot from the freezer to defrost. This was a batch cooked recipe from the book 'paleo for dummies' which was my first ever paleo book and is my go-to top up info book now. I microwaved this with some carrots and broccoli. I cooked extra veg so I have some for tomorrow to take to work.  

The boys wouldn't have appreciated this stew, plus I only had one decent sized portion. I did my best standby for them. Veggie burgers with cheese. I popped this in a flatbread with a side of baked beans and they ate it all up.

Broccoli & carrot garnish was eaten too!! They had plenty of raw carrots earlier so had a good veg portion today.

I've already got an apricot chicken dish out to defrost for tomorrow to go with those extra cooked veg. I'm working a late shift tomorrow. I've washed the bag of spinach I got in my veg box. I was planning on cooking it for tea tonight but there was enough other veg. 

I will try and use the spinach for breakfast (I'm thinking spinach/eggs/haddock) or possibly in an omelette for lunch? 

Coconut & coffee

Snacking on coconut chunks from the one we chopped up yesterday.
Coffee count..3

We are all snacking now on the spring carrots from Monday's veg box. They are crunchy and tasty.
Coffee count..4

Lunch

I had an apple earlier.

Now my soup. This was cooked and frozen in batches. It's chicken and veg. Light on the chicken though. To be honest it's rather bland! But it's all I've got with me and it is nutritious and hopefully filling. I have a handy Sistema microwave soup mug to transport it and warm it in.

I'm slowly eating a nakd bar 'cashew cookie'. Eating it slowly with a big drink. It's pretty good considering its scant ingredients. 

Prunes

No tuck shop for me! 

Prunes that have desiccated coconut and seeds stuck to them. Pretty tasty. 

Temptations..

Tuck shop! The most comfy chairs are in this room, but so are the snacks!

I'm finding other places to sit in my breaks!

Breaky

My organised omelette is out. Convenient, fairly tasty and more importantly it's filling. 

I'll probably have a filter coffee in the next hour.

0555 alarm

Up, showered, picnic work bag packed.

Coffee count.. 1

Yippee, it's teatime!

Feeling hungry.

I'd defrosted a couple of portions of lamb meatballs overnight. I made a huge batch of these last week and froze portions to make mid week meals easier. The recipe is from 'Well Fed' by Melissa Joulwan.

Anyway, I had mine with some broccoli and carrots. I also cooked all of the (non paleo!) broad beans from yesterday's veg box. They were disappointing as they were tough and woody. Still, it saved me eating too many! 

To make it more '10 year old boy' friendly I did it with pasta for them.

Result.. We are all well fed in speedy time. I just need to put the dishwasher on now!

I've had a coconut lurking in the fruit bowl for over a week. It's time it was cracked! J was more than happy to take it outside and bash it onto the patio. Now I have a tub of tasty coconut flesh for when I get the munchies for the next day or two.

Snackage

So the boys are home from school. I've chopped them apple, pear and cheese. I resisted the cheese! I can smell their second snack.... Prawn cocktail crisps. My fav. I'm resisting but it's hard. Roll on teatime! 

Lunch

Remember the Tupperware of salad I prepped yesterday, well out of my picnic bag it comes. Teamed with a tin of mackerel fillets in olive oil. To be honest it was a bit of a struggle eating this. Not my favourite fish. In fact I'm only really keen on tuna. But I know it's healthy and filling so eat it up. I could have put salad cream all over it to mask the flavour a little but didn't today. 

Coffee count..3

Snack bar of a nakd 'berry delight'. Pretty tasty considering it's just fruits and nuts squished together. A definite sweet fix. 

Peckish

Munched on an apple. Still hungry. Had some nuts and dried prunes. I have a small tub that I top up with a mix of nuts, seeds and dried fruits. This is always in my bag and is a handy snack pot to help me avoid less wholesome temptations. 

Early starter

Alarm was set for 05:36. Up no problem as I had a pretty early night and decent sleep. I always have an espresso coffee when I get up.

I have been at work for an hour. I've just had the omelette breakfast I made yesterday. It might not look too appetising but warmed up it is pretty tasty. The salty bacon and chunky mushrooms mean I rarely miss cheese on top. This is when my organisation pays dividends as I'm not ending up in the canteen now. Let's see how long I stay full up!

Teatime

Still rather headachey.

Made salad with mixed leaves, pepper, cucumber and some radish. I've chopped two portions so I have a salad to take to work tomorrow. 

I added another tin of tuna to try and stave off any munchies later on this evening. And a generous squirt of non-paleo salad cream!

A generous glass of organic apple & pear juice too.

Small Tupperware tub for work tomorrow.

So hopefully that's today's food done and dusted! 

No boys with me so it's been easier to implement today as no demands for cheese or biscuit snacks. I'm going to take a couple of paracetomol now and have a hot shower.

Snackage

4pm slump. Not that I've been particularly active! Feeling hungry and headachey though. This may be due to carb & coke abstinence today after a weekend of over indulgence in both.

Having a tin of tuna and a coffee. I have mixed a little non-paleo friendly salad cream with the tuna. Again, I miss the sauces and dressings and it's just too dry with nothing on. I could try olive oil and vinegar next time.

Coffee count...5