Pancakes!!!

I am pleased to say that I'm still progressing well with my conscious eating efforts.  I had to work all day yesterday, which kind of sucked, although I did get a lot done, and I was proud that I managed to keep a lid on my grumpiness at being in the office and not direct it into my eating.

Since I had a bit more time yesterday morning (weekend working is a come-in-when-you-want, leave-when-you-want kind of affair), I mixed up my breakfast and had the poached eggs on toast that I was craving Friday morning.  I'm not the speediest cook in the world, so I decided Friday that it would be better to wait a day than be excessively late into the office - good decision because the eggs tasted great yesterday morning.  2 poached eggs and some sauteed, seasoned mushooms on a slice of granary toast.  Yum.

Technically, I did make lunch and take it to work (well, a ham roll and a yoghurt anyway), but work actually pays for our meals if we're in on a weekend, and the others decided on paninis from the local coffee shop, so I left my lunch in the fridge for tomorrow and joined them.  One very nice tomato and mozzarella panini later, and I was back in the office about to eat and half way to the tuck-shop drawer to go and get a packet of crisps to go with it, when I realised I wouldn't need the crisps: conscious eating decision number one.  One of my colleagues, Liz, and I then did a sneaky dessert buffet (one reason I decided I wouldn't be needing crisps too, the other being that the panini was generously enough sized as it was), as we'd got a piece of chocolate tiffin and a slice of millionaire shortbread from the coffee shop and cut them in half, so we both got a piece of each.  A sinfully delicious couple of mouthfuls (and to be honest, I was probably done after the shortbread and pre-tiffin), but well worth it.

Since I'd got my car at work, I decided it was about time I also did a proper food shop, as it's literally been weeks since I went to the big supermarket, rather than just picking up a couple of days worth of food from the express branches on the way home from work.  I want to keep my food on track this week, and as work is hotting up, I know that whatever I cook needs to be minimum fuss, minimum time as I'm likely to be working long hours and getting home late and tired.

Funny enough, what I was really craving for dinner last night was soup and toast.  No kidding.  I thought about getting a takeaway (yes, I know, a weekend "treat") but it wasn't cutting the mustard.  I wanted soup.  And a bit of icecream.  I've been thinking about the icecream for days actually, but I don't trust myself with full size cartons of the stuff, so being at the big supermarket I was able to get one of the individual pots of Ben & Jerry's.  Oh.  My.  God.  Did it taste good!!!

So - the fridge is stocked for the week.  A mix of summer foods and comfort foods, old favourites and new things to try (the chorizo pasta from this month's Weightwatchers magazine , for one).  And I had the nicest breakfast this morning - pancakes!  If I go to the office today, it will only be for a couple of hours, so I wallowed in a blissful lie-in this morning (which will be my only one for a looooooong time to come), and then started investigating the recipe books for a batter mix.  How is it that every book comes up with a different and more convoluted suggestion????  I wanted a simple eggs-flour-milk recipe, but nooooooooooo, cinnamon here, melted butter there - arrrrghhhhh!!!!  I eventually found what I was looking for in a March copy of the WW's magazine - nice and simple.  Although they wanted me to to add oil directly to the batter and not put anything in the pan - sod that - no oil and I put butter in the pan - much better.  And tastier. 

Since a portion of batter for 4 uses one egg, I couldn't really split the portions down to do a smaller mix, so I did the whole lot, thinking I'd probably eat about half of it anyway (I tend to have arguments with how big WW's portions from recipes are sometimes - 2 pancakes - errrrrrrr, hell no!), and I could just refridgerate the rest for tomorrow.  I also expected it to put a large dent in my points allowance for the day.

I tell you what - those pancakes were amazing.  Even the first one browned and flipped perfectly, and I had a plate of ready chopped banana and blueberries ready and waiting along with some sweetener and lemon juice - delicious!  Why the hell save pancakes for once a year -they're so good??  I had 4 pancakes in the end, but had only used roughly a third of the batter (small ladle).  What surprised me though, was that even using 3 knobs of butter in the pan, the whole breakfast only came to 7 points when I tracked it.  Awesome - delicious, hugely filling and not ridiculously high in points!  Win! 

In the end, I binned the rest of the batter though - practically speaking pancakes are not a fast breakfast to cook / eat, so they wouldn't have happened tomorrow, and if I kept the batter I'd have only ended up eating it later today which would be unneccessary, so I figured a little waste was better than a lot on my waist.

Tonight I'm going to have a proper roast (of sorts), as I think Sunday's need them.  Chicken breast done in the oven, roast potatoes, butternut squash and carrots, some petit pois and gravy.  Heaven.  I feel like I should go and have a walk somewhere first and earn it though :o)  And frankly, my muscles are so sore now from Friday's circuits that moving is the only thing that helps!

Just a final thing to share - I'm a sucker for biscuits, but like the ice-cream - I can't be trusted with whole packets, or they just get eaten.  Amongst my favourites - anything Fox's (Crunch Creams are to die for), gingernuts and Party Rings.  So imagine my delight, when I was in the biscuit aisle at the supermarket yesterday, looking for some WW's cookies and stumbled on Mini Party Rings!!!!!!  6 pre-packaged portions of mini Party Rings biscuits, which work out at a very reasonable 3 points a pack.  Genius.  I am officially happy.  I can be trusted with those.  I realise they're aimed at kids, but I am essentially a kid that never grew up, so I have no problem buying them :o)

Hope you're enjoying your weekends, folks!