Hi everyone!
LARRY - Wahoo ... glad to have a man on board
Welcome onto the ship and hope you enjoy the journey
I love your quote and I see by your ticker you are doing a great job .. hope to see you on the boards lots too
ISLES - ummm... yup .. you definitely colder ... heck we dont even get that low in our winter!! I gather snow is your companion at the moment? Weather is miserable in NZ at the moment .. we have gale force warnings the last 2 days .. very stormy and yuck .. but Im enjoying it .. I must be a duck lol.
MOUNTAIN WALKER - Welcome on board
Glad you are joining us in this one
As for accountability .. that is pretty much what the board is definitely for lol .. that is why I came in pretty much every day ... definitely made it easier for me to behave more often than not lol .. didnt want to have to come in here and admit where I boo booed lol. But Im happy to pm you whenever you want too
UBEE - Yay ... nice when a lurker steps forward
Hopefully that means that you have enjoyed what you have seen and want to jump in feet first lol. Look forward to seeing you on the board with your babble (which will help make mine not look so much lol).
SILENT ARCTIC - Welcome on in .. glad to have you on board and will add you to the sheet
See you for weigh in
Soooo here we go .. counting down lol .. well I am ... and I am trying my best to finish clearing out all the crap in the kitchen lol ... had a final splurge today as it was a family party to welcome back my nephew from Italy after a year .. as well as his belated 18th birthday & Xmas lol ... I did try to behave .. but there were a few treats I just couldnt pass up ... so tomorrow will be detox before my weigh in on Monday
I have been getting busy in the kitchen starting to work on my new cook book ... making everything dairy free ... but also trying to limit the gluten too if not cut it out ... so for the party I did a few extra experiments (figured while I will have a good range of tasters be a good time to get opinions lol) .... and I made:
Chicken in Filo Pastry (Chicken Mince, Mixed Herbs, Spring Onion, Red/Yellow & Orange Capsicum, Teriyaki, Sweet Chili Sauce .. and Goats Milk Feta) - went so well the plate was empty before anything else on the table lol ... I think I need to add more spice though and perhaps fresh herbs.
Almond & Lemon Flan (no flour or dairy). I need to work out how my oven is really working .. cos I think the thermometer is out lol .. but it worked out ok in the end .. although I do think I need to add a little more lemon, or rind .. and maybe even try some grapefruit or tangerine juice instead
Chocolate & Cranberry Brownies - another one that everyone loved.. but I still need to work on it a little more .. dairy and flour free .. low GI Sugar ... but Im going to try a little something else with this one as I wanted it more chewy .. and I might try Coconut Sugar
Carrot & Walnut Cupcakes - Really wasnt sure about the texture of these ones .. but they went down a treat with the teens (yay for vegetables!) again dairy and flour free ... need more in the way of nutmeg though I think.
Banana Cupcakes - These ones I meant to put coconut into but forgot .. and they were a spur of the moment one anyway cos I had some bananas that needed to be tossed if I didnt use them ... but the consistency was good I think and everyone enjoyed them too
Layered Filo Sweet - I need a shorter name than chocolate coconut cranberry layered slice lol .. Maybe
3 C Slice? Basically it was layers of filo with Dairy free chocolate chips, shredded coconut and dried cranberries scattered in between each layer .. these were a hit .. but I think I will work on this a bit more as I think the chocolate needed to be melted and spread rather than scattered to help hold the layers together better ... still it was a last minute idea to use up the rest of the filo lol.
And then when I got to my sisters I made a
Coconut Cream Frosting ... no dairy again! But this one has given me the most inspiration lol .. it worked so well chilled (almost like a melted marshmallow consistency really) that I put a spoon of it on each of the cupcakes as an "icing" ... but Im going to have a good play with my basic idea and turn it into a dairy free low cal ice cream
Sooo you drooling yet?? lol .. sorry about that ... but on the plus side .. when I worked out the calories per serving it wasnt as bad as it could have been if I hadnt already started playing with the ingredients ... the chicken filo (per portion) was only 50 cal ... the cupcakes were a little higher with 200 cal each one (they werent the petite ones) ... the brownies were 120 cal .. and the almond/lemon cake was about 75 cal per portion
So they are all the sort of treat that isnt going to break your calorie intake .. other than the cupcakes lol ..
Right .. cleaning day tomorrow before Im back to work .. so may not be on until tomorrow night again .. but will check in with my measurements and photos .. although it may not be the swimsuit one as its too darn cold (ish lol)