menu plan monday - 9 June 2008

Hi everybody

Did you have a good week last week?

My goal for June is to get rid of the extra 2kg I gained while on holiday in the UK and Ireland. I seem to have a built-in radar for baked goodies no matter where in the world I go and this trip, it was either Tesco's yum-yums (delicious!), scones with jam or THE most delicious doughnuts ever.

The friend we stayed with in Dublin, Craig, is a psychotherapist so we'd meet him at the hospital every day after work and before leaving, we'd pop into the canteen for tea and a chocolate-filled doughnut. My word - light, non-greasy with just a sprinkling of castor sugar - I'm salivating now just thinking of it! Absolutely delicious ;)

Anyway, so you can see how easy it was to gain weight.

Last week, I went back to gym after a whole month and it was great - I only go to dance classes and both were FANTASTIC! The best thing is the scale agrees because I've lost 0.5 kg.

This week, my goal is THREE dance classes :)

summer/ winter organising project

I'm going to be announcing a special project this week so keep reading. This is a bright idea that I had while in the shower :)

:(
I've phoned Sandra four times and have still not spoken to her. Three times the phone just rang and rang and the fourth time I left a message. So will try again this week - I can't bear the thought that she's so close and we can't seem to get hold of one another!

This week's menu
Monday
Baked potatoes with bolognaise sauce

Tuesday
Dion's night - last week we had takeaways which I'm not keen on but oh well...

Wednesday
Pizzas/ garlic rolls/ tomato soup

Thursday
Mashed potatoes, grilled fish in a tomato sauce

Friday
Pasta with spicy kidney bean sauce

What does your week look like?

Organising your recipes & menu plan Monday - 12 Nov 2007

Don't forget about my contest on my other blog!

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I wrote a post for Clutter Control Freak recently on organising your recipes. You can read it here - there's also a wonderful resource in the comments!

At the moment, I'm scheduled for surgery on Friday (minor female stuff) which means I've been cooking because I'm not sure how quickly I'll be mobile ;) I'm booked off for two weeks afterwards and then he's said to "take it easy" for 6 weeks in total, so no exercise - YAY! (Have to look on the bright side, right?!)

Menu for the week

Monday

Marcia - out

Dion - fasting

Tuesday

Chilli con carne, rice and carrots

Wednesday

Baked potatoes with spicy lentil sauce (food from freezer - taking with me to work as I'm going straight to another talk)

Thursday

Fish, chips and salad (carried over from last week)

Friday

probably hospital food - yuck! (on the bright side, weight loss!)

Dion can pick from the freezer :)

*** I discovered a healthy snack this week - julienned carrots! I take a small container (about 50g) and keep it next to the computer so when I snack, I snack healthy and I find I like the crunchiness. Now here's the thing - without saying a thing, I saw Dion doing the same yesterday. Isn't that cool?!

Visit Laura for some great menu ideas.

If you're interested in joining my research and development team, email me!

Thanks for reading! Come back tomorrow to see how I organise my vitamins.

Oh, and PS, I'd love to read about some of your small, simple pleasures in life!

Menu Plan Monday - 17 Sept 07

Update on weight loss

I have gained 0.5kg! I have no doubt that Mimmo's chicken alfredo contributed in a big way :)

I am drinking my water, not eating after supper but the heat is messing with my exercise. I get headaches when it's too hot and since I'm mindful of this, I make sure I drink plenty of water. But on Thursday I had the start of a throbbing headache and I intended to go to a 5.30 Kata Box class (since we had someone coming over for supper at 7.15).

Headache + Kata Box class = Grumpy Marcia with Very Bad Headache .

So I took it easy and went to a 6:30 class for 30 mins but the teacher was late and unprepared with the music so ended up working out for 10 minutes before I had to leave. See???

But no excuses - I'm trying again this week and I've bought lots of salad ingredients so I can up my fruit and veg too.

Download the health chart here and keep track of your intake too.

Monday
Stirfried chicken, veggies (onions, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms) and brown rice

Tuesday
Dion's cooking night (this is something new we're going to try). Marcia gets to work on her weekly tips newsletter.

Wednesday
Baked potatoes with kidney bean sauce

Thursday
Pasta salad with chicken, lentils, onions and tomatoes - delicious!

Friday
Burritos with salad

For more Menu Plan Monday participants, go on over to Laura's blog.

Tomorrow I'm showing you how I organise my handbags. By the way, have you registered for the Declutter Group yet?

Menu Plan Monday - 27 Aug '07 & organising your weight loss

My gym is closed for renovations so I have a choice between all the other Virgin Active clubs. This is throwing out the schedule a bit this week because the one I prefer is not near my home so I'll go straight from work and then come home. Hmmm.

Also, last week I mentioned that I'm focussing on baby steps with this weight loss thing and in emails offline, Bridget (And miles to go) and I agreed that we would drink 2 L of water every day. That's our first baby step. When I checked on Bridget mid-week, she was doing well and so was I. I drank my 2L the whole week - woohoo ;) B, how did the rest of your week go? Guess what? I'm 1 kg lighter than I was last week - hopefully this lasts!

This week we're continuing with the water and adding no eating after supper!

Are you joining us?

Let me know in the comments - I'll make a distribution list and email you mid-week to encourage you.

Here's my menu plan for the week

Monday

Chilli con carne, brown rice and carrots

Tuesday

Shalee's macaroni & cheese

Wednesday

Sausage & potato bake

Thursday

Chicken burgers, salad and 95% fat-free chips ;)

Friday

Pasta & kidney bean sauce

Works for me Wednesday - healthy recipes

I've been really bored with my same old, same old recipes so I went looking to my favourite book haunt, Exclusive Books, and found this:


This has 30 delicious recipes and the whole thing is packaged so beautifully. All for R97 (divide by 7.37 for US $).

The best thing about this unique recipe book is the format of the recipe card - on one side you find a picture and the ingredients and on the other side there are step-by-step instructions to make the meal. Did I mention pictures?!!!

So when I'm cooking, I stick this card to the kitchen cupboard with Prestik and

1. my hands are free
2. the recipe stays clean
3. I have more counter space

This definitely works for me!

What do you do with your recipes while you cook? How do you keep them clean?

Menu plan Monday - 20 August 2007

Last week we stuck to the menu plan the whole week except for Friday when we deviated slightly (still toasted sandwiches but with eggs).

I've been bored with my healthy meals so I bought a recipe book last week in a cool format - the recipe ingredients on the one side and the "how to" on the other. I'm going to blog it on Wed.

I know you're tired of hearing this but I need to lose some weight! Last week I didn't eat anything after supper (baby steps) and I went to gym twice (some more baby steps). Next week my gym is closing for a month so I get to visit other gyms in the franchise. I've already printed off the timetables for two near my home and office, and I actually got excited (!) when I was planning my new classes. Which just goes to show how much I need a change of something!

Anyway, here we go with this week's menu plan:

Monday
Stirfried chicken, veggies and noodles

Tuesday
Chilli con carne, rice and carrots

Wednesday
Sausage and potato casserole (I'll blog the recipe on the other blog this week)

Thursday
Thai chicken curry, rice and pumpkin

Friday
Pasta with kidney bean and tomato sauce

For more Menu Plan Monday participants, go on over to Laura's blog.