Monday morning - bank holiday

Goodness, I did eat well yesterday!  After some considerable dithering, I had one of the courgette muffins for breakfast.   I'm used to muffin batter being pretty sloppy so I was surprised when it mixed up rather stiff, but the end results were absolutely gorgeous.  By the time I ate it, it was just slightly warm and very fragrant and a real treat.  It was also, to my surprise, quite filling and kept me going (with the inevitable second mug of coffee) until a late lunchtime.  Here's the link again, for anyone interested.

Lunch was that sort-of-deep-topped pizza.  I decided to try the Hairy Dieters way and just brush the bottom of the pan with a titchy bit of oil and virtually dry fry the veg and, by golly, it worked a treat.  I've always been a bit suspicious of the Conley technique of dry frying, but no more.  What didn't work was piling the base (which was a wrap, if you remember - a Weight Watchers wrap, to boot) with so much topping because when it came to serving up, the base couldn't sustain the weight of the topping so it was almost spooned onto the place rather than sliced.  Still, never mind, it was scrummy, as was the apple and blackberry crumble with custard.  There was enough to make two single portions as well, which I will freeze, plus a portion left over for dinner tonight (and custard)  I can live with that!  I tried to cut down the butter in the topping and it ended up rather more crumbly than it should have been but the taste was great anyway!
And when DD and DG left, the took with them half the muffins and several cookies

And then for tea I had boiled eggs, toasty soldiers (no butter on the toast but the loaf was home made) and one of the chewy oaty cookies I had made on Saturday.  Very satisfying all round.

So, on to today.  I have to get going with some school work.  A shame, but all good things come to an end at some point, don't they?  And on the culinary front I want to have a bash at the skinny meat and potato pies.  Well, 'pie' anyway, because this is what I'm doing.  I will pop round to Morrison's when it opens at ten to get the few extra things I need.  The list of ingredients looks long but most of it is store cupboard stuff which I already have.  I shall make up the filling.  Then, and this is me being 'clever', I will just mix up enough of the pizza base mix to make one pie, use one sixth of the filling and what I do with the rest depends on how it goes.  If it is a success, I will freeze the rest of the filling in single pie portions.  If I'm not impressed, I will freeze is slightly larger portions.  I'm really hoping it will work, fingers because I do like pie now and again and already have some ideas of a turkey and apricot, or a turkey and Stilton pie filling. And - big AND - if I follow the recipe exactly, the pie will be about 335 calories (it says on the recipe).  Can't be bad!

Fingers crossed . . .

Sunday morning

I often think there's little that sets the day up better than an early morning bake followed (or accompanied) by a hot mug of coffee.  Yesterday I made the chewy oat cookies and, I am pleased to say, they are delicious!  Today it was the courgette muffins that I intended to make yesterday but didn't get around to actually doing.  Now the house smells wonderfully sweet and delicious and I feel virtuous!   And hungry!  Mind you, the use of the word 'courgette' in the title is a bit misleading given how little courgette is used.  50g in the whole recipe - and that's hardly one of your five a day.  'Very tasty muffins with a little bit of grated courgette' would be a better title.  I think I am going to pop over the the Frugal Girl's blog because I'm sure she posted a recipe for courgette bread that used more courgette.

Next on the list is the fruit mixture for the blackberry and apple crumble and following that I will be preparing the veg for the lunchtime pizzas.  I'm going to use a wrap (or two) for the base of the pizzas - one will be vegetarian, one not.  I picked up the idea of using a wrap as a base a while ago and it works well for those of us who like a very thin base with a goodly pile of topping.  Those who like a deep pan base would be sadly disappointed, I fear!  I cheated yesterday and bought a pot of cool salsa.  Part of it went into the courgette bake I had last night and most of the rest will do for the pizzas today.  Then the vegetarian one will have a heap of vegetables (yes, DD, probably a few cubes of courgette too) while the other will have some veg and some strips of ham.  OK, so maybe I ought not to call them pizzas really but whatever they are, served with coleslaw and a mixed salad, they will be scrummy.

I spend yesterday morning watching the four Hairy Biker programmes back to back.  I don't know if you've been watching them, but I missed them, one way or another.  How to love food and lose weight is the title and I watched all four back to back through the morning and early afternoon (which is why I didn't get the muffins made).  It was inspirational in parts.  Not the losing weight, although for two big men who dearly love their food, they did amazingly well, but the way they took delicious and substantial food and made it less calorific/more healthy without, it seems, sacrificing any of the taste.  One canny idea was using a pizza base mix instead of pastry for a pie - I'm trying that one because, with accompanying veg, you have a very substantial meal for a very reasonable number of calories, not to mention a snack in hand for a lunch on the move.  And I can't wait to try the korma and the sweet and sour chicken.  And the idea of using opened up leek leaves instead of sheet lasagne is very well worth a try.  My kind of cooking, without a doubt.

I've ordered the book!