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.

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.