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I decided I wanted a little variety in my diet after 56 days of Diet Chef food, good as that is. I have made lots of soups before but I was trying to find something low in calories, healthy and satisfying. I used my trusty Vitamix blender and a mixture of raw and lightly cooked ingredients to conjure up this vibrant green soup at only 150 calories a bowl.

I used raw spring onions, celery, courgette and spinach with lightly cooked potato and broccoli and blended it with water, an organic vegetable stock cube, some lemon juice, salt, pepper and basil. When it was steaming hot I added a drained can of chick peas and blended it again briefly. It was delicious and filling and I have some in the fridge for tomorrow too!

Just over a month into my diet and I have lost 15lbs. I’m really pleased. It hasn’t really been all that difficult as the food has been pretty good. The porridge or muesli keeps me full till lunch and soup with a mini wholemeal roll set me up for the afternoon. A mid-afternoon snack from the Diet Chef selection is a nice treat and then it’s time for dinner. That has become a little boring as I’m vegetarian and there aren’t so many choices for me. I’ve found that adding some cauliflower and grated low fat cheese to the macaroni cheese certainly adds something and a wide variety of vegetables and salads help. I’ve enjoyed the curries too, spicing them up a little as I like a bit of heat! I’ve been able to add basmati rice, a low fat yogurt, some ryvita and cottage cheese or some extra fruit and kept easily to my calorie limit. Seeing the weight loss at the end of week is enough to keep me motivated for the moment so I’m carrying on.

The problem this week is that it’s Easter and the house will be full of chocolate! Wish me luck!

As I said in my previous post, I have decided to use Diet Chef to lose some weight. I have now been following the diet for a week and have lost 5lbs.

The diet has been easy to follow. The portions are weighed out, the food is tasty and there is plenty of choice although I may get fed up after a few weeks! Most importantly, I have not been hungry. I’ve had a choice of porridge, muesli or granola for breakfast, soup or pasta for lunch and lots of different dinners such as macaroni cheese, vegetable curry or vegetable chilli. I can add rice or bread, 2 portions of fruit and 1 of vegetables, milk and a snack.

One of my favourite soups was the carrot and butterbean, really tasty and filling.

The chick pea tagine with some low fat cheese and a big salad made a great dinner.

I’ve so far enjoyed the food and have enjoyed even more seeing the weight loss at the end of the week. This is a good solution for me as I have been able to make a meal for the family and then pop mine in the microwave and just make a big salad or some veg to go with it. The soups at lunch have been great too, quicker than making a sandwich and much better for me.

The biggest problem was finding somewhere to store 35 days worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack!

I have made a big decision. I have decided to try Diet Chef to help me lose the weight that has piled on in the last few years. I am a bit worried about the meals as I am vegetarian, usually cook everything from scratch with fresh ingredients and I don’t like ready meals but I have heard good reports of Diet Chef and decided to give it a try. I hope it will take away the problem of making a non-veggie meal for my family as well as something for myself, I usually end up reaching for cheese or eating all of something which is enough for 2! I don’t tend to snack or eat sweets or chocolate anyway and I always like to have plenty of fresh fruit and veg so I’m hoping this will be a good way to get rid of some of that excess weight without lots of weighing and calorie counting. The meals are ordered and should be here in 2 or 3 days so wish me luck and watch this space!

I have just come home from a weekend in Madrid. I’ve never been before but my daughter moved there to work late last year and this was my first chance to pay her a visit. The daytime temperature is usually around 12° in February but was much colder this weekend, not getting above 5°, and very windy. The nights were well below freezing but the sky was mainly blue and the sun pleasant if you could get out of the wind. Most of the fountains and ponds were frozen but walking around the city centre kept me warm enough and there was plenty to see.

Arriving on Friday evening I had a long walk to the Metro at the airport but the journey into the city centre was quick and easy. The Metro is clean, quick, efficient and cheap, the only disadvantages being the number of stairs I had to climb and the fact that you don’t see anything of Madrid while travelling underground!

Having climbed the narrow stone stairs to my daughter’s very cold 3^rd floor apartment it was time to set off to explore at 9.30 in the evening.

La Latina was our destination that evening, taking in the river and views of the royal palace high above us as we went. La Latina is one of the oldest parts of Madrid and the streets are narrow but the squares are large. Like everywhere in Madrid there are hills and steps to climb and cobbled squares to wander through. We decided on Korgui as a place to eat and it was a good choice, the food and wine was excellent and the atmosphere busy without being rushed. A very enjoyable evening.

The next morning we set out to explore further. Again we walked so that we would see as much as possible. We walked miles, passing the royal palace, shops, gardens, cafés and statues. We explored the Egyptian temple of Debod and took lots of photos. Churros and hot chocolate in a café warmed us and we found a lovely café for paella and cava at lunchtime and a good bar for cocktails in the evening.

On the Sunday we visited the Prado art gallery and, after tapas and sangria, explored the Parque del Retiro. The weekend was over all too quickly and it was back to the airport for an evening flight home. I was tired but I had enjoyed a lovely weekend exploring Madrid and spending time with my daughter. All I need to do now is book in another weekend when it gets a bit warmer!

What better lunch can there be on a cold day than home made soup? Of course it can take a while but not with my new Vitamix blender.

I bought the blender just before Christmas after watching a demonstration at the Good Food Show. It is big and powerful. It makes light work of making smoothies with as much ice as you like. It’s fab for houmous and makes frozen desserts in minutes but the most amazing thing is watching it make hot soup from raw ingredients in a matter of minutes. There is no heating element, the soup is heated by friction from the blades. Take a look at the soup I made today.

I started by washing the raw ingredients and throwing them into the blender, whole or halved. There was a slice of onion, a garlic clove, a couple of small carrots, a couple of baby plum tomatoes, a stick of celery, a slice of butternut squash, a slice of cabbage and a mushroom. With some water in the bottom of the blender, some powdered bouillon, chilli powder and cumin it was switched on and turned to the highest speed.

After five minutes there was steam coming out of the top of the blender and it was switched to a low speed while I threw in a couple of spoonfuls of red kidney beans and sweetcorn. Ten seconds later I switched off and lunch was ready.

The soup was delicious and healthy too! There was hardly any preparation, no stirring and the Vitamix is cleaned in two minutes by running it with some hot water and washing up liquid.

Time, methinks, for a little review of the year.

2011 has been great in many ways. I have spent time with old friends and made new friends. I have been to Wembley for the first (and second) time. I have seen my beloved Manchester City go from strength to strength, bring home the FA cup and fire goals, seemingly as many as they want, past almost every team they have encountered and be sitting at the top of the Premiership as we go into the new year. There’s a long way to go to the end of the season but I’m certainly enjoying it so far. Memorable highlights were beating Manchester United 1-0 in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, beating Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford and my first away match for years when we beat Blackburn Rovers 4-0.

I have met up with lots of people I have talked to on Twitter and they have all been lovely, not encountered a single axe-murderer yet so I’ll carry on meeting them I think!

My family continue to grow up and away and it’s lovely to see. My eldest daughter spent time this year as a nanny in Wales, Portugal and Sardinia before moving to Madrid to teach in a primary school there. My youngest daughter spent the summer living and working in Ibiza and my middle daughter got ill on her 6^th, and possibly last, pilgrimage to Lourdes. My son also seems to have got the travel bug and went off to France on an exchange trip. I managed Anglesey and a few days in Ibiza and Dublin but I’m planning a couple of trips to Madrid very soon.

My daughters seem settled into jobs or courses and my son is enjoying school, he also played Julius Caesar in a production in the summer and was excellent, his love of Shakespeare means he is getting very good at being killed!

My course has been hard work but enjoyable and the end is now in sight and anyway how hard can a degree in Facebook and Twitter be?

A good year but I can always hope for better so here’s to a great 2012 for me, my family, friends and all of you!

I recently discovered a great new product. It’s a Graze box. It’s delivered to the house each week full of lovely healthy snacks. So far I’ve had pistachios, olives, seeds,spicy rice cakes and crackers, dark chocolate, nuts and dried fruit such as mango, cherries, blueberries . My daughter and I look forward to it dropping through the letterbox each week. We get to try a few healthy treats and enjoy the surprise element. You can rate the foods on the website so you don’t get anything you hate and get more of what you like.

The first box is free if you use a friend’s code and the friend gets £1 off their next box or can donate it to charity.

If you want to try it you can use my friends code for your free box. The code is K47MM4M
http://www.graze.com/p/K47MM4M

Let me know what you think.

“If I could have ONE whole day to myself, I would…”

This blogging prompt from BritMums caught my imagination today as I actually have a day to myself. Well, not, strictly speaking, an entire day, but from 8.30 till 4 so not bad.

The trouble with a day to myself is that I actually like spending time with my family! So an entire day with one or more of my daughters, my son or my husband would be a real treat but a day on my own, not so much. Today also happens to be my Birthday so really I would prefer to share it with the family! I have some college work to do but I’m going to leave that till tomorrow and have a day off.

My husband gave me a Kindle for my birthday so you can probably guess how the day is going! Firstly, I got it charged up. Then I downloaded a book, just because I could. It was actually some short stories by Michael Connolly just to try out the download process. The first story has been read and I am now thinking about which full length book to buy. I could happily spend the rest of the day choosing and reading a book, accompanied by fresh coffee at intervals. In fact, that is exactly how I will spend the day and, as it is my birthday, I will even put the heating on, plump up the cushions and settle myself down on the sofa. Bliss!

Later, I may do a little baking. Mmm… I can already smell the cake in the oven and the coffee brewing and my Kindle saving my place for me in a good book. The perfect day.

A chilly, damp day in September seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out my new Mermaid pudding sleeve.

The Mermaid website did not contain the promised recipe but a quick google and a look at my recipe books turned up the right combination of ingredients.

I don’t often make puddings, certainly not steamed suet puddings, but this is so simple to make. You need to plan a little in advance as it takes an hour and a half to steam but once it’s made and cooking you can leave it be, maybe topping up the water if needed.

The pastry is a simple mix of 200g SR flour, 100g suet (I used vegetable suet), baking powder and cold water is rolled out, spread with jam, rolled up and placed in the pudding sleeve. Steamed in a few cm of boiling water it cooks beautifully and you have a lovely pudding just crying out for some custard.