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You are here: Home / Archives for diet

Chicken In Garlic & Mushroom Sauce

July 9, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 3 Comments

Ok so most of you will already know that I am on a major diet at the moment and it’s working really really well.. I have so far lost 1stone and 3lb and I’ve been dieting since May 28th so I’m pretty proud of myself. There are two reasons I think it’s working well:

1. I am walking most days pushing a fairly hefty weight (baby, buggy and occasionally shopping) or carrying said baby around or playing about with her at home.

2. I am not depriving myself of everything. Most days I use myfitnesspal – I can’t really recommend it enough as it really helps me to keep an eye on what I eat. I limit myself to 1200 calories and keep it as low fat/sugar as possible however I still have treats and the occasional indulgent meals as I’m a foodie I love to cook and eat and I see no reason why I shouldn’t do that in fact I firmly believe it is helping me diet for longer!

After spending 2 days at The Plum baby cookery school followed by 5 days at Blissfields festival I was really missing home cooking so this past week I have cooked a lot. Mostly dishes I have cooked before such as vegetable curry and spaghetti bolognese ( topped with sautéed spinach and leeks- so good) but I am aiming to try a new recipe (from a book, online or friends) or invent a new recipe of my own each week from here on so last night I made chicken in a garlic and mushroom sauce now this is hardly a wondrous new invention of mine as chicken, mushrooms and garlic go together like strawberries and cream but I didn’t follow any kind of recipe and it turned out so well I would quite happily eat it every day this week.

Chicken In Garlic & Mushroom Sauce

Two large chicken breasts

Double cream-150ml

Butter ( small knob)
Red onion diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
8 mushrooms ( I used closed cup as that’s what I had but use whatever you like) chopped finely
Ground pepper ( I use a mix of black and pink peppercorns) and salt
Sprig of thyme
Olive oil

In a pan or small cazuela sauté your diced onion and garlic in olive oil and butter being careful not to burn the garlic, after a few minutes add your mushrooms and cook for 5 more minutes before adding your cream, thyme and seasoning. Remove from best
Heat a little olive oil in a large cazuela or pan which is ovenproof and pan fry your chicken breasts for a few minutes each side, pour over your mushroom sauce and cook at approx 190 deg or gas mark 4. After 20 minutes remove from oven and shred the chicken ( you can leave the breasts whole but I prefer it this way for this kind of dish) into the sauce before retuning to oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven adding a little more pepper and serve immediately.

* I served with sauté potatoes, peppers and leek and a giant salad but I imagine it would be lovely with rice or mixed into pasta.

Chicken In Garlic & Mushroom Sauce

This is a fairly naughty dish for me as it has double cream but it was worth it and I didn’t gain any lbs. 🙂

Instead of a dessert I was inspired by a tweet I saw from Beverley Glock who was the food expert at Plum cookery school for a recipe for Pimms frozen cocktails.. Now the recipe she tweeted had lime sorbet as a base but I didn’t have any limes so I improvised and it was refreshing and tongue
tingling.

 

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Filed Under: Cakes, bread and all things baking, random, Recipes · Tagged: chicken, cocktails, cream, diet, fitness, garlic, low fat, mushrooms, Pimms, recipes

Losing the Mummy Tummy

June 6, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 6 Comments

Twitter is a funny old world. I seem to chat to other mums, mums to be and dads more than anyone else on twitter these days and obviously there are many contrasting opinions on everything from pregnancy to parenthood but a few days ago I read a tweet from someone who seems pretty sensible stating how they were on a strict calorie controlled diet whilst heavily pregnant as they didn’t want to gain as much weight as their friends had while pregnant. I was shocked. Pregnancy isn’t an excuse to eat all the rubbish you want ( well maybe a little) but eating enough is SO important for your growing baby. When I was pregnant I did have a few worries about how my body would look afterwards as I’m sure everyone does but I didn’t once consider dieting.

losing the mummy tummy

losing the mummy tummy

Pic: At 6 months pregnant.

When my daughter was born I kind of expected my stomach to just vanish and all the other chubby bits which appeared in the last trimester to come off with ease but I’m not one of those lucky ladies. For the first 6 months I was breastfeeding so I didn’t think about dieting as I know how important it is to eat well at this time but I started to cut back on the naughty stuff. A month after I finished breastfeeding I thought it was time to get back in shape so I started eating healthily and exercising ( a lot ) and the weight very slowly started to go down but then it was my birthday and a holiday to France ( there’s always an excuse) which resulted in a 2lb gain and I thought enough is enough so I am now on a strict but healthy diet and I have so far lost 7 &.1/2lbs. I am disappointed that I didn’t complete the 30 day shred but I got to day 25 so I know it’s achievable and I’m starting it again from the beginning as of next week. So far I have attended a jubilee party and a birthday BBQ and not wavered from my diet so my willpower is strong.

Losing baby weight is hard. I’ve dieted a few times over the years and this is the hardest weight I have ever had to lose but to have Isabelle in my life I would have happily put on 5 stone! Thankfully it wasn’t that much.

I really want to have lost a stone by June 17th so I can take my OH out for a meal for his first Fathers day and eat without guilt.

Help motivate me to keep going please with success stories and exercise tips. If anyone would like a copy of the diet I am on send me your email addy.

*If anyone needs inspiration to diet just go to the South of France. Nobody is overweight.

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Filed Under: Parenting/baby · Tagged: 30 day shred, baby weight, breastfeeding, diet, exercise, healthy, insanity, mum, weightloss

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