Now we're cooking - Thai curry from scratch

Breakfast was a repeat of yesterday, berries, bananas and yogurt for me, fruit purée for little man and Soooper hoooops for madam. 

We attempted to get to a baby group this morning and for the second Tuesday running failed miserably. So we went shopping. By the time we got there it was lunchtime, and having learnt from my last visit we went straight for Spudulike and got a jacket potato with beans and cheese (healthy extra) to share, and a portion of garlic bread for little miss. She did really well eating all of the spud I gave her and both bits of bread. 
Little man was thoroughly enjoying people watching, to the point that he refused to look in my direction making feeding him a little tricky. Nonetheless he managed to eat the whole 'zingy lamb couscous' Ella pouch, eventually. 

We had a toilet stop in the middle of lunch. What a logistical nightmare that is, when you have a small person announcing the need for a wee when you're halfway through eating in a food hall. Hoorah for nice people at the next table watching our stuff while the 3 of us made a dash for the baby change toilets. 

I was in the mood for a bit of 'proper cooking' tonight, so decided to make a Thai green curry from scratch. I've been working out for a few days how to make it syn free without it being a weird and wonderful muller yogurt hack or other random ingredients. I eventually came up with this (and had a little helper to make it): 

To make the curry paste take the following ingredients and blitz into a paste:

3 medium chillies
1/2 onion
1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
3 cloves garlic
Small bunch coriander including stalks
Small bunch basil including stalks
Grated zest of a lime (or lemon if no limes)
Juice of 1/2 lime (or lemon)
8 kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp coriander seeds crushed
1 tsp cumin ground
1 tsp black peppercorns crushed
2 tsp fish sauce (nam pla)
2 tsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp water
1 lemongrass stalk 
Chop 1 1/2 onions and 1 green pepper and soften in the pan in fry light. Add the curry paste and then add chopped chicken breast. Ensure the chicken is thoroughly coated with the paste and fry it all off. Mix up 2 tbsp Maggi coconut milk powder with 175ml warm water, and add to the pan. Add chicken stock and top up with water. Bring to the boil. Add a tin of potatoes, chopped baby sweetcorn and 1 whole (crushed) lemongrass stalk. Simmer for 1/2 hour (the longer it simmers the better the flavour, I put mine in the oven on 100.) When ready to serve add the mange tout, and stir in 350ml fat free fromage frais. Garnish with chopped coriander. 
Serve with boiled rice. 
The whole pot is 3 Syns. And it's scrummy with a bit of a punch but not too hot. If you like it spicy add more chillies to taste when it's cooking or to garnish. 

Little miss had fish fingers and peas, followed by a yogurt. For little man I defrosted one of the pots of last week's bacon, tomato and bean soup. Followed by yogurt. - I didn't manage to feed us all the same meal but I think the fallout of chilli infused Thai curry may be a step too far for both of them! 

Total Syns = 6 Syns (small bag of quavers 5.5 Syns) 

From the mouthes of babes...

Nothing exciting or new to report today really. Breakfast was more of the usual. Berries, bananas and yogurt for me. Yogurt for the little man, with little miss munching her way through Soooper hoooops.
We had the usual faff getting out of the house and to nursery. After  a quick trip to an antique shop for a bit of a mooch around, me and the little man went back home. He's full of cold at the minute so is being a bit whiney and high maintenance.

I had chilli from last night's tea, and rice for lunch, with my healthy extra cheese allowance. Little man wolfed down some homemade Bolognese. I'd planned to spend a rock n roll afternoon doing housework, but poorly clingy boy put a stop to that by grumbling as soon as I got more than 30cm away from him.

I'd managed to make myself a slice of bread and low fat spread. I also had a 2 finger kit Kat, 5 Syns. As there comes a point after being screamed, shouted or whined at all afternoon that only chocolate or vast quantities of alcohol will do.

Whilst playing catch with little miss she complained that I 'got her' with my boob. I pointed out that it wasn't my boob that she 'headbuttered' (as she calls it) but my tummy. She looked at me for a second then said "your big belly? Not your small belly!" whilst putting her hand on my 'two tummies!!' Both me and the Mr laughed at the innocence with which it was said, but it reinforced for me that I really need to work at this slimming world plan, and get myself back on plan properly if I want to lose my 'big belly' (and reduce the small one!)

A selection of Ella's Kitchen pouches bought as 'back-up' for little man!

I had the remaining chilli and rice from lunch for my tea, with the tiny bit of rice that was left over and a slice of 800g wholemeal bread (healthy extra.) and then snacked on a punnet of grapes. Little man had a fromage frais and then a pouch of Ella's veggie feast with beans (can't help thinking I may regret when it comes to changing his nappy in the morning.)

Total Syns today = 12 Syns

How much?

We were up and out early this morning, as I was using one of my 'keep in touch' days at work. Subsequently both kids had all of their meals at nursery today. The baby did really well today putting away several lots of fruit, a good chunk of ham and cheese potato cake for lunch. and pasta and cheese for his tea! They commented on his 'healthy appetite', little piglet. I think we can safely assume that after an unimpressed start he is embracing this food lark! 

I had a banana for breakfast, and then got so stuck into what I was doing didn't realise it'd gotten to lunch time. 

I'd put together a salad the night before, with romaine lettuce, 'bistro salad', cucumber, tomatoes, pickled onions, red pepper, broken up ryvita multigrain (2 syns each or 3 for a healthy extra), and 30g cheddar (also a healthy extra). Followed by a shape yogurt (free.) 
To be honest it wasn't that nice. The ryvita had gone a bit soggy from being in with the salad and in the fridge overnight. You live and learn eh! 

By mid afternoon I was ravenous, but hadn't taken anything else in with me, and couldn't justify the syns for crisps or chocolates. So I just ignored it. 

I had the mad dash, when I eventually got home, of feeding the baby (partly to relieve the pressure, partly because he was hungry and trying to attach to daddy, and partly to help reduce any excess weight ahead of my weekly weigh in,) and then getting ready to go!

I was shattered, and hungry by this point, so I made the decisïon to go to weigh in, but not stay to my group. We also decided to get a takeaway for tea! I'm slightly disappointed that I decided to go home, as this week I lost a whopping 4.5 lbs, which brings me to a total of 1stone loss in 4 weeks! :) 

Image copyright of Slimming world

I should probably add that after my giddiness at losing my first stone, I tried to limit the damage of the takeaway, whilst still thoroughly enjoying the excess Syns! I only had half of the naan bread rather than all of it. A nibble of poppadom (the preschooler nabbed the rest of the 'crispy' anyway.) half of the chicken tikka, a couple of chicken pakora, all the salad and just a couple of mouthfuls of chicken rogan josh with about an 1/8th of a chapatti. Very yummy and roughly 24 Syns for the lot. I washed it down with half a bottle of Becks blue, a very tasty non alcoholic beer at just 2.5 Syns a bottle. And then pinched one of my daughter's Freddy bars! (Oops, 5 Syns.) 

Total of 32.5 Syns!!! Better be good for a few days to counter balance it!