A healthy treat and my baby weight.

 

So I finally managed to take a step until loosing my pregnancy weight. I have lost about a stone so far and in general I feel a lot more energetic, even with the never ending sleepless nights. I was doing really well with my healthy eating until I caught a cold about month and a half ago and things well down hill from then. Mind you the healthy eating went a bit down hill but the weight loss actually kept on going, mainly because I still breastfeeding and that alone burns 500 calories a day so it is as if I've been eating naughty food but kept on exercising daily.

 

On the past week I finally managed to once again make the effort and get back into my healthy eating, that means cooking and bringing packed lunch as well as all the snacks for my day at the office.

 

I do work with a bunch of really nice people and working in the food and drinks industry means that a lot of us are big time foodies, that includes me. The majority of those really nice people are very skinny as well and tend to snack through the day.

 

I failed miserably on staying away from the treats draw in the office kitchen and just felt horrible and sluggish on the end of my working day, so off to the web I went to find a nice healthy treat that I couldn't bring with me to work as that way if I do loose control at least I'm not eating rubbish stuff that I don't know what is in it. Of course the idea is not to lose control but a backup plan is always good :-)

 

These no bake nut butter fudges are packed full of protein to keep you going through the day, a great pick me up for that afternoon energy low. It took me about 2 minutes to put it all together and I left it in the freezer overnight. Done!

 

Almond Butter Fudge
recipe from http://www.beyonddiet.com where I get lots of my healthy eating ideas from

 

Ingredients

1/3 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup sifted cocoa powder

I didn't have enough almond
butter and cocoa powder so added an extra spoon of peanut butter and it came
out perfect.

 

Directions

In a bowl add almond butter, coconut oil and maple syrup. Stir together until creamy. Add sifted cocoa powder and stir in until mixed well. Spread fudge mixture into pan.
Place pan/mold into freezer and freeze for 3 hours. Cut into squares - I divided the squares in half, rolled each half into a ball and rolled the ball in dry unsweetened coconut...scrumptious!!!

 

I made a batch last night and took to work today, they are so indulgent I no longer envy the people who can feast on stuff from the treats draw.  

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Happy Belated Halloween

Yesterday we had a lovely day. It was my other half's sister's birthday and to celebrate I cooked them lunch while they enjoyed a few cuddles with Harry...or at least tried as he's been a bit our of sorts with something that feels like a bit of a cold. I wonder if he took after me with heavy sinus once the air turns cold. Let's hope not!
It's amazing the difference a few weeks make, I felt a lot calmer having people over now that he is 4 and a half months than just over a month and a bit ago. Not only he is a lot more sociable now and in fact he loves seeing people but feeding is a much more pleasurable and a lot less demanding routine now.

Of course it also helped that I've chosen a really easy and quick dish for lunch instead of the more elaborated  meals that I've been known to put together.

Also to celebrate Halloween and auntie R's birthday I made my very first pumpkin pie and i have to say, I like it! Again of course I looked up the simplest recipe possible - I'm addicted to recipe websites and if you do research a bit you'll realize that there are just about millions of different versions to this humble dessert.

So if you wish to have a go yourself just mix a can of condensed milk (carnation milk but NOT EVAPORATED, make sure if condensed), the same measure of pumpkin pie - thats about 1 cup - 2 eggs and about 3 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spices (click here for the recipe). bit it all to combine, it will be a very liquid mix. Pour over pastry crust and bake for 15 minutes on pre heated oven at 220C then turn it down to 180C and bake it for another 30 to 45 minutes (mine took 40) until the edge of the pie seems cooked, the middle will finish cooking as it cools. When you cut into it you should see something like a NY cheese cake type of consistency.
Just FYI; I cheated here and used stored bought shortcrust pastry to save me time, you can use whatever you fancy, I think anything will go with it but it has to be a pastry that will take 1 hours in the over
Let it cool and serve it. You can easily freeze it but I doubt there will be any left overs lol.
The Americans serve it with whipped cream but I went for vanilla ice cream and it was just perfect!