Meal Planning 2013 - week 1 (and a new year's resolution)

Happy New Year!

My new year's resolution is to stick to the Slimming World plan as best I can this year to lose some weight and do better on the plan than I did in 2012. I ended the year weighing not that much less than when I began it, which is a bit rubbish when you consider the time and money I've spent on Slimming World, but on the other hand if I hadn't been going to Slimming World I would probably be at least a stone heavier now.

I'm determined not to end another year weighing the same as I do now and I think that meal planning should help with that. It's sometimes hard to plan when I don't know what I will be doing - I usually eat out once or twice a week, sometimes do voluntary work which means eating on the go or very late, and often don't know if I will be at my house or my boyfriend's and while I guess I could still plan meals to eat at his house, it doesn't work very well in practical terms. Also, I don't want to completely stop eating indulgent desserts.... I only make dessert when my boyfriend eats at my house, which isn't that often, and I will try to make sure at least 50% of those desserts are Slimming World or low fat.



I also feel I should probably point out that the reason I am overweight is not because I bake so much.... I weigh the same now as before I started this blog, and I didn't bake much before I had this blog. I also don't eat most of the things that I bake, as I give them to other people or take them to bake sales at work then don't have any - I try not to get annoyed when people say I shouldn't bake so much if I want to lose weight as it's probably a fair assumption that if I bake a lot, I eat a lot of cake, but I can assure you that I don't!

Anyway that's enough of that.... I'm going to plough on with the meal planning and keep track separately of whether I stuck to it and how many syns I had, as you don't all need to know that :-) I will however mention at the start of each week's plan whether I lost or put on weight the previous week because if I make it public, that will motivate me to try a bit harder!
(Incidentally, I stayed exactly the same weight over the Christmas week, which I was very pleased and a bit surprised by!)

Monday: New Year's Eve - first day back at work post-Christmas
Breakfast Quorn sausages (left over from Christmas) as they are syn free
Lunch Sandwich as I've got lots of bread to use up... probably tuna
Dinner As it's new year's eve I want to make a bit of an effort: so I have chosen to make herbed cheese and bacon souffles from Slimming World Extra Easy Entertaining p84. For the main course: mixed peppercorn crusted beef with horseradish cream, same SW book p92, served with boulangere potato stacks (same book p55). For dessert I will do Nigella's Tiramisini (a sort of tiramisu served in martini glasses) from her new book Nigelissima, that I got for Christmas. And if that doesn't win over my boyfriend, I don't know what will!

Tuesday: New Year's Day; bank holiday so I'm not at work
Breakfast/ brunch with my boyfriend: Fancy French toast from Slimming World Extra Easy Entertaining p.16
Lunch will depend what time we have breakfast and may not happen at all; I have got some soup we can have as a standby or I could make the French toast into a full English breakfast.
Dinner Chunky fish pie from new SW recipe book

Wednesday - back at work
Breakfast Cereal - though I've just discovered that my Special K is not actually a free option b choice, which is surprising but may explain a little where I've been going wrong!
Lunch Home made mackarel fishcakes
Dinner Beef stew from this recipe to use up leftover steak from new year's eve

Thursday
Breakfast Leftover quorn sausages
Lunch Tuna sandwich
Dinner My boyfriend and I need to go and buy some specialist clothing for our holiday in March so we are doing this after work and will get dinner from the Nando's nearby (he's a big fan of Nando's!). I've looked at their menu and plan to order the peri peri chicken which are marinated breasts and not served in a bun unlike most Nando's dishes, though I am going to have a side of chips.

Friday
Breakfast Cereal
Lunch Vegetable Soup
Dinner Was going out but then my friend cancelled so I had a pasta Mug Shot before leaving work then didn't bother having dinner by the time I got home.


Saturday
Breakfast Cereal
Lunch Leftover fish pie
Dinner Will invite my boyfriend over; I'm going to do chicken in a creamy orange sauce. For dessert I am going to make honey panacotta.


Sunday
Breakfast/Lunch Homemade margherita pizza (maybe with a few additional toppings for me) from an old SW magazine, or if my boyfriend doesn't stay for lunch, beef rogan josh
Dinner Roast chicken
Note to self... make macaroni cheese today for next week, using the leftover Christmas cheese