Hey girls,

I'm just back today, seems you guys are still on holiday so here's the thread with a late start. Hope to see you all soon.

Oh god my menu for Xmas was abysmal! But happily and knowingly abysmal. I'm going to try to not even stand on the scales for a couple of weeks so as not to shock myself! Had a great week with family, great food, and a lot of wine. Wouldn't even try to list everything I ate but my Christmas overindulgence included white and red wine, christmas cake, mince pie, fresh cream, home made potato croquettes, prawns and crab claws in garlic butter, sea bass in dill sauce, vegetable curry with fried rice, vegetable kebab and fries, chocolates, chips, veggie burger, drop scones, smoked cod.. I could go on and on.. Anyway it doesn't matter at all because I'm back here and ready to jump right back on the wagon.

Tonight and the next three nights I'm working nights. Didn't start out too hot tonight because there was no food in the house as I haven't shopped since returning so I had a salad wrap and fries from the local turkish. Wasn't even worth the calories as it wasn't that nice but I'm starting back on track from midnight onwards.

Hope you are all having a great Christmas

Here's my menu for tonight:

Bowl oatmeal with raisins and honey
Glass fresh orange juice
Salad of lettuce, avacado, tomato, feta cheese, pine nuts with honey viniagrette
Banana

Here's my menu for tonight -
Lunchbox of cooked spiced veggies
Bowl all bran w/ skimmed milk and honey
Lunchbox of cooked spiced veggies
Bowl oatmeal with raisins and honey
Glass fresh orange juice

NYE tomorrow.. so a nice dinner and several drinks will be had. Then it's back to a healthy healthy plan.

Hope you had a good holiday Sarah. I just got home myself. I haven't been posting menus because I haven't had any control over my food but back to my meal plan tomorrow. I was making out my shopping list tonight. I'm eating wild boar this weekend. I also bought a great book on middle eastern food over my vacation. It's part anthropology, part cookbook.

Ordered pasta last night without the pasta ... sauce/seafood on a bed of spinach. Delish! It's also good on a bed of wild/brown rice. If I keep the quantity small, I'm very satisfied without feeling deprived. Tonight is New Year's eve, and we're going out to a movie. I'm going to be avoiding everything there!

Hey Mary, Happy New year and hope you had a lovely Christmas with family. Lovely avatar pic, its nice to put a face to the name

Ireland was lovely thanks, I was so depressed to come back to Malta so soon but now we are looking at relocating to another country in the next couple of months.. we will see

WELL.. I caved in and weighed myself this afternoon.. a 2/3lb gain. So I'm not too devastated. Tonight admittedly will be a big blowout but then it's back on the wagon tomorrow. I'm not too sure yet about my menu for tonight but I can estimate that it will be pretty much as follows -
Bearing in mind that I slept all day after my night shift ..
Glass pinot grigio while getting ready
Dinner in Del Capo, a gorgeous Italian place. PROBABLY antipasto then pasta or fish but I'll see... 1/2 bottle wine
Then onto a reggae party where I imagine it will be cocktails all round so I'll stick to gin and tonic.

So again, Happy New year all! See you on the other side X

I've picked my dogs up from the kennel, done some grocery shopping and made a pot of soup. I've decided I'm going to try to make soup once a week this year to try to get more veggies in and because it tends to fill you up as well. Soup of the week-soup au pistou. Lots of veggies, pretty easy to make but I'll give it a B+. Not sure it will be one of my favorites.

I'm making wild boar for dinner which should be interesting.

Do we want a Jan challenge thread?

I didn't make the wild boar last night, but I made it tonight. Here's todays menu

B: 2 eggs cooked in a mix of green and red peppers, tomatoes,
garlic, 1 slice whole grain toast, 1/2 grapefruit, sugar free latte
L: falafel with yogurt cucumber sauce, 1 serving dark chocolate
D: soup au pistou, wild boar in pomegranate cherry sauce, bulgur pine nut pilaf, glass of pinot noir.

A few more calories than I might have liked but it was a very healthy, mediterranean kind of day so I won't be too hard on myself for that. Best on plan day I've had in awhile. Not crazy about the wild boar.

I though I was being careful with my eating while visiting relatives this
week but I have gained 2 pounds. The only difference was that I was not adding some Benefiber into my drink everyday to help fill me up.

I am going to do more soups also this year. I am working on making
a soup on Sunday and freezing portions for lunches.

I read a neat book at my Aunts about Food Cures by Readers Digest.
The same foods were mentioned over and over and most of them
are the Sonoma Power foods.

Sure hope I can lose to 130 this year.

Nancy-13 lbs is very doable. You just need to stick with the plan.

I learned some interesting cultural things about food yesterday. Don't know if I mentioned that I bought a book on middle eastern food while i was on vacation that goes into all the culture behind the food. I made falafel yesterday which I happen to love. We all think of falafel as being made with chickpeas but I found out that the only place in the middle east where it is made strictly with chickpeas is in Israel. Everywhere else it is made with fava beans or a combination of favabeans and chickpeas. I have a can of fava beans I haven't quite known what to do with so I think I'm going to make falafel with it next month and try that version out.

I'm going to make harissa today-which is tunisian hot chili paste and I'm also in the process of making moroccan preserved lemons. Should make for some very interesting authentic food over the next few weeks and months.

I made pizza dough with my new Kitchen Aid mixer today and made pizza tonight for dinner-mushroom and onion. It was pretty good.

B: omelet with goat cheese and herbs, slice of whole grain bread, 1/2 grapefruit, sugar free latte
L: falafel on a whole grain roll, soup au pistou, baked apple with dried fruit filling
D: homemade mushroom and onion pizza, glass of pinot noir, strawberries with mascarpone

Not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow but I think I need the routine again.