Breakfast muffins

Once again feeling guilty about the bananas left browning in the fruit bowl I decided to make breakfast muffins for the family. I consider these healthy as there is little added sugar and not much butter either, quick and easy to make and best eaten warm, they are a favourite in our house...

Banana & Oat Breakfast Muffins

Melt 25g butter and 3 tsp runny honey in the microwave.
Add: 3 ripe bananas, 100g flour (we use self-raising), 55g oats, 75ml milk, a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg, baking powder and bicarb.
Mix together and divide into a greased muffin tin. Bake at 190c for 20 mins or so until done.

I got the original recipe here and have tweaked to suit... ENJOY!

Uh-oh!

Appropriate it seems that on the day Grace masters the linguistics of 'uh-oh!', I find myself peering down a 13 week long tunnel to what will be my first road race... Without dwelling on the nitty gritty of this milestone, if you set me off with the start gun now, I'd be stopping in a little under two miles. Rounded down, I make that a good 4 miles short.

Uh-oh indeed.

Now for those who know me well, running is something one does only to catch the ice-cream van as it pulls away with my chocolate oyster still tucked nicely in his refrigerated tuck-box. I am not a runner. Nor am I particularly interested in exercise or fitness in general. I like my food and lots of it. Generally I dish up healthy family eats as we have a marathon runner and a toddler at the table. And as much as I love to eat healthy food, I like my portions big, and I like a free rein to nibble away at something 'naughty' like chocolate, ice-cream, chips and dips, or whatever the fancy might be.

Step forward the new Heather.

(Yeah right!)

Instead I send her substitute to the podium. Fitness mad, burning calories like crazy and training training training to get a personal best when taking part in Jane Tomlinson's Run for All in York, 13 weeks from now on August 4th.

(The personal best won't be hard, it's my first).

I also want to shift this baby-weight (*read combination of baby-weight and over-indulgence weight*) once and for all. I can't blame it on the baby forever, she's weighing in at 1 stone 8 pounds herself, roughly what this Mummy needs to lose. Holy crapola!

So what's the plan Stan? Well, Stan says I need to kick my butt into gear, set a weekly goal and jolly well stick to it come hell or high water. So here it is. I'm going to start running again TOMORROW. Watch this space for proof. I'm aiming to run 3 days a week minimum and although this will be short distances to begin with (starting at 1.5 miles again), I will be working this back up in the right direction slowly. I'm also sticking with Jillian Michael's 30 day shred DVD which is giving me 20 mins intense work out every night before bed. I'd also like to commit to one swim this week and one yoga session just to mix it up a bit.

I have my weigh in tonight. I've been pretty much on it this week, stuck to plan, eaten moderately, and only tucked into the biscuits once and even that didn't really tip me over the syn count too badly. I'll check in with an update soon, wish me luck!


Let the fitness training commence!

Meal Planning Monday (30/4/12)

I'm pretty impressed with myself this week - for acutally sticking with the meal plan. That must be a first in a long time. There's usually at least one day where I look at the menu and think to myself, nah, not having that. Well this week I am hoping to stick to plan as well... two weeks running is half way to a habit in my book.

Monday - leftover lentil 'n' veg chilli from last week and rice (Grace wasn't keen so I whizzed hers with the blender as she scoffed the lot once the lumps had gone!)

Tuesday - Spaghetti bolognese with lots of veg. Slimming world advise a third of the plate is fresh veg so this will be rammed to the rafters with just about anything I can find in the fridge.

Wednesday - Ham, mushroom and tomato omelette (I'm working in Newcastle so I'll be grateful for something super speedy when I walk in the door).

Thursday - Quick pasta - sauce will be a concoction of whatever is looking ready to roll over and die in the fridge...

Friday - Cottage Pie with green beans and probably a moat of gravy. I batch cooked this a while ago and it's in the freezer, so compliance on Friday will be down to remembering to get it out Thursday night!

Saturday - me and Matt the Husband are off to see a band in Leeds so we will be popping into one of two favourite cafe's for supper. A fantastic little noodle bar near the station where you sit at the counter and watch them cook, or the middle eastern cafe up near the Leeds Grand Theatre. Either will do me, both will blow the syn count!

Sunday - Mummy's special lasagne, taken from a recipe book bought thoughfully for Mother's Day this year. I LOVE lasagne, so looking forward to this meal the most I think.

Grace should tuck into all of these meals with gusto. And I think the only thing we're cooking with a syn count is the white sauce for the lasagne on Sunday. Not bad going.

Remember to head on over to Mrs M to see what she's got going on in the kitchen this week...

Chow for now...