Just undid all our bike riding exercise virtues by eating a truckload of rubbish the rest of the weekend. I blame the netball of course. Canteen stuff. Sausage roll. Steak sandwich. Cans of soft drink. A huge piece of cake. Packet of chips. And top it all off with 5 pieces of pizza for dinner because I couldn't be bothered cooking anything after expending all that energy sitting in a car and watching netball.

Suppose I just have to hit CTRL Z again, and try and get it right this week with more kilojoules burned than imbibed.

And I suppose I had better acknowledge the concept of having CTRL Z shortcut keys for everyday life. Take it away, Chaser guys:

Labels: daily, eating

Labels: doh, eating

I know I claim to be a chocoholic.. but the truth is that I'm more accurately a plebian Cadbury milk chocolate-a-holic. Pfft, I hear you say... Sorry. It's just how I am. Caramel is ok.. but basically, I can leave a box of centred chocolates sitting on my bench all year (after I picked out the caramel centred ones) .. but I'd demolish a block of Cadbury Dairy Milk or Caramello, solo, in a night, given half a chance.

I thought most people close to me knew this. And that, yes, yes, I know that real chocolate connoisseurs like Lindt, or whatever other Swiss brands, and ra, ra, ra, yeah.. shut up!

So, last week when my mum AND sister gave me (well, us.. Marc and me) the token pressie that we erratically exchange at Christmas.. and BOTH of them gave us a box of Lindt Lindor chocolate balls.. I was.. well.. nonplussed. I don't like the damn things... the softish centre makes me a bit squeamish, almost. And Marc isn't really into chocolate at all.

In the spirit of resolutions made to not end up like my mother, I didn't say anything (except to ask if they had shares in Lindt.) I did grumble to Marc and the girls when we were alone - a "grumble" along the lines of 'FFS, you'd think my own mother and sister would know by now that I don't like those sort of chocolates!'

A bit sad. It's really a case, with my mother at least, that she thinks I should like Lindt, so it doesn't matter what I really like. Thou shalt be given Lindt. Or maybe she just never takes much notice of me and doesn't have a clue despite all evidence to the contrary.

I decided to turn it on its head, and figured that, seeing I'm whingeing about wanting to lose weight, then if you MUST get given chocolates, then maybe chocolates that you don't actually want to eat are the best sort to get. Yep. Right.

The girls think it's pretty funny. They like them - they're not fussy - so, hey, all the more for them.

But wait. There's more.

Today, the visiting sister in law gave us "our" christmas presents. (They live about 4 hours away, and as I wasn't planning on seeing them (!) I had sent theirs to them before Christmas. - a book shop voucher each for the boys, and some home made (by the girls) chocolate truffles and shortbread.)

Guess what she gave Marc and me. Go on. Guess. .. Ah.. It was a bottle of wine. ('Huzzah!' I thought, ' at least I like wine!'). And then. A box. Of. Lindt. Lindor. Chocolate. Balls.

Caitlin managed to hold herself together while they were still here, but has since just about wet herself laughing each time she thinks about it.

Me.. I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

The only good thing is that at least I won't be getting fat on all... that... chocolate....

Labels: aarrrgghhh, eating

"But you've been resting since we got home." said he. *Clonk* [That's the sound of me hitting him]... Because I didn't mow the lawn yesterday perhaps?.... Or paint the house... or run a marathon.. ? The clothes got themselves to the washing machine, hung themselves out, and the dinners have just happened. (Oh that's right, he bbq'ed the meat, so there was nothing else to do!!)

Ok, so I've been endeavouring to take it easy. Easier. Helps, as I said, with a Dishwasher Unloading fairy. The visit went off ok, and the other Sister in Law (the one coming just for lunch) managed not to say anything that left me (or Marc) grinding our teeth like she usually does. And I feel sort of better, but sort of blah still. The most annoying thing is that my ears are sort of blocked, but popping... And different to each other. All in all I'd rather not have to speak because of the hollow echoey sound my voice makes in my head. Which leaves a toss up over which is preferable - giving instructions, or just bloody doing it myself.

Pretty stupid for someone supposed to be "resting".. but for lunch, for something a bit more interesting than the BBQ sausages we did for the kids, I decided to try out a recipe out of a bunch of food magazine recipe pages that I'd torn out and kept. (From a picnic lunch section I think.)

It worked, and I highly recommend it:

Asian-style chicken salad rolls

Serves 6

1 bbq or roast chicken (I bought a bbq chook with no stuffing.)
3 green onions/shallots (thinly sliced) (The long green ones, not the ones with the bulb.)
1 carrot, cut into small thin strips (I grated long thin strips with this grater I have)
1/2 cup salted cashews, roughly chopped
bread rolls, to serve

Dressing:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
1 garlic clove, crushed

1. Bone and skin chicken, shred meat. Place into bowl.
2. Make dressing: Combine all ingredients in a jub. Whisk with fork till well combined.
3. Pour dressing over chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Toss well to combine. Place into airtight container. Place onions, carrot and nuts into separate airtight containers.
4. When ready to serve, add onions, carrot and nuts to chicken. Toss. Spoon into bread rolls or serve as a salad.

It was pretty easy, really. Served it up with those par baked dinner rolls (baked of course), the sausages, and a tossed garden salad, and it was pretty good.

And then I let them all go off to the beach, while I lazed off the 2 or 3 white wines I'd drunk over lunch (probably shouldn't have been drinking with antibiotics, but they didn't warn me not to!)

And I've all very restfully made up skinned and crumbed chicken drumsticks for dinner... and chucked on some brown rice to cook.

Someone else can make the salad. I'm done.

Labels: eating, holidays, sick

If you get an invitation to someone's place.. for a surprise birthday bbq for another friend... for 1.00, what meal do you assume it's for?

If you thought lunch (a late lunch) like me.. then you are wrong! We are all a bit out of whack here tonight... and that's saying something for a family that is capable of sleeping in and not having breakfast till 11am... and lunch at 3.00!

Not that we starved; there were biscuits and cheese, and chips, ... and at around 3.00 they brought out some garlic prawns - split and done in the oven somehow. So I wasn't starving, but poor Zoe didn't get to eat them because I had to take her to a ballet dress rehearsal at 3.15, and a friend at the gathering did her hair and makeup for me - before the prawns were served.

So there I was thinking I was going to miss out on the food while I did the ballet run... and I actually chose to come back (a 10 min drive each way) rather than sit at the hall for an hour... and then go back and pick her up. When we got back after 4.30, we hadn't missed a thing!

So I guess it was an 'early' dinner.. somewhere around 5.30/6.00 by the time the meat was cooked... We've just got home at nearly 8.00.. and the kids are telling me they are hungry! "But you just had dinner!" ... "Yeah, but we've only had 2 meals today!"

I'm confess I'm a bit confused as well. Must remember to clarify that sort of thing next time. Otherwise it was a pleasant afternoon; the birthday girl was mid-60s, and had never had a birthday party in her honour. (She is our netball club/association 'matriarch'). So she was pretty chuffed about it.

And after a few wines (after I didn't have to drive on the highway)... I'm almost ready for bed myself. (And at least my asian crunchy noodle salad was polished off..)

Labels: birthdays, eating

Just goes to show you can never sit back and pat yourself on the back for a job well done with this parenting lark. Even if we do say so ourselves, Marc and I always thought we'd done a pretty good job with bringing up our kids to eat well. In many aspects they still do us credit, but it's the eldest, now a teenager, who is causing us great angst - over eating!

As babies, and toddlers, all three were brilliant.. and would put visiting children to shame, with their ability to eat most normal things. I didn't carry on too long with the separate meals thing - they were pretty quickly indoctrinated into the mushed up, then chopped up version of the family meal. No way was I going to cook two meals in one night, thank you. God, compared to what some parents were going through, we were cruising - and put it down to a combination of good luck, and just a little bit of good management. Our 'no dessert unless you've eaten your main', and 'mealtime drink=water' rules were even frowned upon by my parents as being overtly strict, and deliberately flaunted by them while our backs were turned. How bizarre to feel criticised by the grandparents for being on the strict side, but that's how it was, and still is.

Apart from that sort of thing, though, we never got too carried away with being healthy eating nazis. Everything in moderation. Plus, being a bit slacko myself, I've always been more partial to nice fresh white bread than the grainy bread. I used to swear by whole milk as well- for the taste - until I weaned myself off it and now just about gag if I have to have whole milk in my coffee or cereal. and I force myself to eat vegetables because I know they are good for me. (I could never be a vegetarian!)

My kids have grown up slim and healthy, but a combination of general publicity about healthy eating (the fight against obesity), and my own struggle to lose a mere 10kg to bring me back to an appropriate weight for my height, has led me to be trying to guide the family's eating habits in the right direction. There is a lot you can get away with when you are young and active, but it's not a bad idea to enter adulthood with good nutrition habits.

Hah...

I did read in a magazine recently (where they were talking about children over 2 not needing whole milk anymore) that you should introduce changes when they are young, because it's very hard to change established eating habits when they are older.

My wordy me, yes. Especially when you have a feisty, bloody minded, 13 year old.

It's already bad enough that she has changed from the super-eater she was as a toddler, to a pain in the neck who has an increasing menu of vegetables that she won't eat, and will do anything she can to avoid eating them.

Her younger sisters suggest eating the ones she doesn't like first to get them out of the way. And we suggest mixing them on a fork with the stuff she does like. Nup. No way. Not on your life. Leaves them till the end, pushing them to the side of the plate, and getting her to eat them can be an excruciating battle. If you let her get away with it, she just increases her list of 'I don't like's, and basically, I'm not going to cook her special meals... but nor is she going to get away with not eating any vegetables. Not in my house.

She won't eat fish now either. Loathes it. Won't touch anything remotely fishy. Which kind of impacts on the family menu, because I have to choose between fish for the rest of us, and her either not eating a balanced meal, or scouring the fridge for leftovers (of which her siblings who don't mind fish are inclined to be jealous of.)

The vegies and fish issues are an ongoing battle... The most recent flare-ups, though, are over milk, and grainy bread.

Flatly refuses to eat anything but white bread. I have been buying the hyfibe white bread as a compromise, but am gradually trying to introduce more wholegrain bread for all of us.

HRH Princess 13 would starve rather than eat wholemeal or multigrain.

And the milk!

I've been buying no fat milk for me. Lo-fat for Marc, and whole milk for the kids. The younger two have admitted to hardly being able to taste the difference between the lo fat and the whole milk, so have been happy to oblige. They have been having glasses of milk at afternoon tea (used to be with milo, now I've been trying to find a lower carb alternative, but that's another story), so I said they were drinking far too much milk to be having all whole milk. As a compromise the other day I bought the local dairy co. equivalent of that 'smart white'.. the one in the ad where the guy goes into the shop for milk, and the shopkeeper reels off a list of all the types. "I just want milk that tastes like milk" he says, so she gives him a bottle of the Smart White. "Tastes like real milk... (then her eyes flicker down to his stomach)... and only 2% fat."

Worth a try, I think. Sick of Madam ruling the kitchen.

Younger two are fine with it. But not HRH. Flatly refuses to taste it, and the performance at breakfast time yesterday was priceless. She made herself toasted turkish bread and stomped off to school. Terrific. No calcium AND no fibre.

This morning she went off again having only eaten toast because - having missed the tiny bit of whole milk left in the fridge yesterday - she was enraged to find that Zoe had absentmindedly used that on her own cereal. (Zoe knows I get cranky when they don't finish off bottles before opening new ones!!)

I don't know if this battle is worth it.. but I'm determined to prove to her that she is just being bloody minded about it. Say goodbye to white bread, except for special, freshly baked treats. And the milk... well, lets just see if she can pass the taste test.

It's my duty as a Good Mother. :)

Labels: eating, parenting, teenagers