Category: Food

Well, I had my weekly weigh in on Tuesday. Disappointingly, I only lost .5 kgs last week – making a total of 3kgs lost in 2 weeks. It was a bit of a kick in the guts considering how much food I’ve missed out on! But hopefully this coming week will be better. I’m certainly feeling a little trimmer anyway.

Bradman was desexed yesterday, the poor little guy. I was a bit upset after we dropped him off, felt like a bit of a wuss but I just hated seeing him stuck in a tiny cage at the vets barely big enough for him to move around in. Anyway we got him home last night and all is well – he just wanted to sleep and was very, very quiet… he didn’t manage to keep his dinner down (and silly us for choosing to get the carpets cleaned yesterday) but I think that’s just normal side effects from the anaesthetic. He’s acting more his usual self this morning! Poor little guy, can’t wait until he’s had his stitches out (10 days) and he can run around and play like normal again.

Too long since I blogged, but nothing interesting to say. Very, very busy – work is flat out and computer business is going sort-of okay as well! Not that I’m doing any advertising, just word of mouth… but there is something happening usually every week, whether it’s a web design job or a new PC for someone.

I started the Kate Morgan diet this week. It’s not too bad so far (I’ve only been on it four days). Basically you have a shake as a meal replacement for breakfast and lunch, and a normal dinner (within reason). I’d like to get down to somewhere between 80 and 85 kgs (I’m about 178cms tall).

As of Tuesday the 22/4 – 106kg. Will post updates here!

Went to the Anzac Day service this morning at Deloraine (with the puppies) – and now we’re about to head off to Great Lake to do some fishing (assuming the weather holds up!)…

I knocked this up last night and think it was rather yummy (even if I do say so myself!). Dead easy too.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes (walk away and forget)

Ingredients

1 packet (frozen) Ingham Chicken Breast Steaks
1 tube tomato paste (I used an onion and garlic flavoured one, there are lots of different types so choose one that sounds nice to you)
100gms (or so) of shaved champagne ham
150gms (or so) of tasty cheese (or some other type of cheese that you like)

So you do this….

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius or so.

Place chicken steaks on an oven tray layered with baking paper (helps save washing up effort later). Spread each one liberally with tomato paste, then layer ham on top of that. Slice (or grate) cheese (I sliced) and layer it liberally on top of the ham.

Bung it in the preheated oven for 30 mins or so – the cheese will melt and go nice and brown and crispy. Serve steaming hot.. mmmmm, delicious!!

We eat food from Pasta Resistance pretty regularly, and they make a dish called Gnocchi Matriciana, which is a lovely gnocchi in a creamy tomato and bacon sauce with a hint of chilli. We’ve had a few goes at replicating it at home (from packets) and tonight we came about as close as we’ll get I reckon! We also gave it our own special sundried tomato twist… yummy yummy….

The best bit is, it’s fairly cheap (cost us about $12 for 2 huge meals. With a larger packet of gnocchi it could serve 4 quite easily). It’s also dead easy to cook even for allergic-to-kitchen types, it only takes about 10 or 15 minutes to knock up, and all you need is 2 saucepans. So here goes…

Ingredients

1 x (500gm) packet of fresh gnocchi. This makes 2 BIG meals – Coles also sells 375gm and 650gm packets, so adjust this to suit
1 x tub of “Italian Tomato and Garlic” Latina pasta sauce
150gm diced bacon
A few tablespoons of sundried tomatoes
A few tablespoons of fresh cream
Chilli powder to taste

Method

Pretty simple really….

Putt a saucepan to the onto high heat – size not particularly important, so long as it’s more than big enough to fit all the gnocchi in.

Get another saucepan on the heat – brown the bacon for a couple of minutes, then put in the pasta sauce and stir well. Let it simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Cut up your sundried tomatoes a bit and add them to the mix too – keep simmering and stirring.

When the saucepan of water is boiling, chuck in your gnocchi and watch carefully – after a few minutes the gnocchi will start rising to the surface – once it’s all come to the top (by this stage the water should be boiling again), your gnocchi is cooked – take it off the heat.

Now add your cream (a few tablespoons is about right, just enough to make it a bit creamy) and chilli powder to taste, let it simmer for a minute or two to mix in. Then serve up your gnocchi, and pour sauce over the top. All done!

Serve with garlic bread – yummo! I’m still full… .wish I’d taken photos…. Cold vanilla ice cream and chocolate pudding also makes a great follow up!