Saturday 25 February 2012

Old McDonald had a farm...

Ee i ee i Ooo.. :)

Just some pictures of all our other family pets

Sammy

Austin ~ RIP :-(

lol

Apollo

Saf

Bruce.. my brothers dog ~ RIP :-(

Silkie and her chicks

Sammy!.. that's not very lady-like! lol

Sammy and Major

Saf and Apollo

Bruce ~ RIP :-(

Apollo

RIP Mrs Brown ~ she was 12 years old when she died!

Archie ~ RIP :-(

Dexter eating my beans on toast! lol

Sammy and Dexter - a VERY rare occasion of them being civil to one another!!

..oh hang on..

 yeah, i spoke too soon!! lol

Alfie

Dexter

Dexter

The Geese - we had quite a few at one point so didn't name them


Rachel

ƒσℓℓσω me on Twitter:  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4900026329618707348


 

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My Baby..

This is my gorgeous little Dexter..

This was Dexters first day with us 06/06/09

A little startled by the camera flash i think! lol

So cute, I love this one..

Zzzzzzzz...

Loves to be tucked in!

Dex with his feather boa.. lol

Watching the birds

Yum yum..

Lazy kitty..

snow kitty

This made me laugh so much, shame it's too small for him now :-( lol

awww..

Snoozing kitty.. again! lol

One of my fav pics of him

Dex & Me! :) xXx

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Thursday 23 February 2012

Spicy Vegetable Curry


This recipe for the Spicy Vegetable Curry was originally from a Slimming World magazine from last year sometime, however.. every time i make it, i tweek it somehow to make it different so that i don't get bored of it!

All you need is..
2 Parsnips
3 Carrots
1 Courgette
2 Peppers
1 Large Onion
2 Tins of Chopped Tomatoes
Spinach - I use Co-op frozen spinach, they're usually sqiushed into date/prune-like shapes, i use 8 of those
1 Teaspoon of Lazy Garlic
1 Teaspoon of Lazy Ginger
1 Teaspoon of Tandoori Curry Powder
2 Vegetable Stock Cubes or a Tablespoon of Marmite

Its pretty easy really..
First of all make sure you have a big enough pan, i cut the vegetables into to pretty large chunks so you need a big pan to be able to fit it all in and stir easily!

~ fry your onions untill they are soft and add the garlic & ginger (i use frylite the spray oil as it is free on the S.W plan, you can just use regular oil)
~ cook all your veg so they are almost ready to eat (still with a slight crunch)
~ heat your tinned tomatoes in a pan and add the stock cubes or marmite
~ add all the cooked veg, stir well and add the tandoori powder and spinach
~ simmer for around 20-30 minutes, during this time.. you can be cooking your rice (if you wish)
and hey presto - it's done! :)

If you don't like any of the vegetables listed, just replace them with the ones that do like and just do the same thing.. you can also add meat if you wish, i love lamb with this.

If you know anything about the Slimming World eating plan then you may be aware of the Green (carbs), Original (meat) and Extra Easy plan (meat & carbs)
I never actually add meat or potatos to this, that way it is 'free' on either plan (more S.W talk! lol) and i just add either the meat or carbs to my plate seperately. A pan-full of this usually lasts me around 3 days.. sometimes i'll have it with rice, potato wedges, on a jacket spud, with meat.. just have it with whatever you fancy! - most importantly... Enjoy! :)

Rachel


Wednesday 22 February 2012

Weigh-in day!!

Whoop.. I lost 1 and a half pounds this week! :-)

If you read last Wednesday's 'weigh-in' post you'll know i was actually aiming for a 3 lb loss - that would have been achievable had i eaten lots of fruit and vegetables like the week before, but i didn't! :-/ but hey 1 & a half lbs is nothing to grumble at! It got me my half stone award/sticker in just my second week, losing 7 & half lbs altogether! :)

I'm hoping to lose at least 2lbs by next Wednesday so to enable me to do that i am going to eat a crap load of fruit and veg, drink loads & loads of water and eat even more fruit & veg!
I have been walking quite a bit lately so i am going to try and walk that little bit more.. walking into town instead of getting the bus will be a good start as it only takes around 30 minutes, then i can put the money that i would have spent on bus fare into my holiday fund jar :D

now i'm off to scoff my late lunch..

Thanks for reading and see you next week :)



Rachel


Sunday 19 February 2012

Super Giddy!!..

....like a kid at christmas! :D  

On Friday i booked my holiday.. yipeeeeeee - In July i am going to Kefalos, Kos in Greece for two weeks -  I absolutely cannot wait!!
My suitcase is out already! lol, i have written a list of essential things i need to buy.. sun lotion, insect repellent etc & i'm going into town sometime next week to go buy it all! - yes i know i'm getting a little ahead of myself but hey.. it's good to be organised!! lol
I always manage to get away somewhere every year but haven't been abroad now for a couple of years, so this relaxing break in the red hot sun is MUCH needed and will be well appreciated! - The 2 photo's below are of the place where i'm staying & the view from the apt's - looks gorgeous.. can't wait to be there!!!!! :D

I wasn't able to change the size of the photo's so excuse the fact that they over-lap a little! :/
Photos of Jack's I & II Apartments, Kefalos
This photo of Jack's I & II Apartments is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Photos of Jack's I & II Apartments, Kefalos
This photo of Jack's I & II Apartments is courtesy of TripAdvisor

I was in the travel agents almost 2 hours altogether!! I knew i wanted to holiday in either Greece or Cyprus, so i just asked the agent to find me a great deal in either place! These apartments in Kefalos were one of the places we looked at to begin with and after dismissing so many other places for reasons such as no pool, too far from the beach etc, we finally settled on a lovely little place.. untill it came to the flight details - it was a Saturday flight - I needed a mid-week flight as it had to coincide with my shifts at work and the time i was allowed off, so when we looked further into the details of this place i was happy to find out that they do Thursday flights - 'book it' i said, otherwise i would have spent the whole day in there! lol
We'd spotted the same place on their website £70 cheaper so not only did she honour it at that price, she also offered me an extra 5% off if i said i was a town footie fan, i'm not but i was for that extra 5% off! lol
So i left Thomas Cook with rather a big grin on my face and have done nothing but go over in my mind what i'm gonna do when i get there lol


Today i was searching for pictures and information about the place, places to go, things to do, nice restaurants etc and of course i couldn't resist a peek on trip advisor. Even though i know most people on there slate everywhere unnecessarily, i have been to Greece five times now and have never had a bad word to say about any place i have stayed. Although i pulled a few faces at some of the comments i read about the place, i am 99.9% sure i will enjoy it as much, if not more than i have before!

So now all i need to do is find a Countdown clock to put on here so i get even more giddy about my holiday getting closer & closer!! :)

Thanks for reading..

Rachel


Wednesday 15 February 2012

Whoop!

So.. after re-joining Slimming World last week, it was my first weigh-in at 9:30 this morning & i'm super happy to say it was a good one - I lost 6lbs! :D

I was expecting a good weight loss because i had put the effort in ...done loads of walking, ate truck loads of fruit & vegetables and drank gallons (not alcohol! lol) just generally followed the plan by the book.. and it's paid off!
Our consultant always asks if we have a particular amount in mind for a loss for the following week and i said i would like to lose 3lbs.. and that i will! :) - Update you all next week!

Thanks for reading..

Rachel


Tuesday 14 February 2012

Tweet Tweet..





Saturday 11 February 2012

Slim Jim..

...well, i'm hoping to be! lol

I have re-joined Slimming World!! :D ...Well i suppose i never really left, i just took two weeks holiday then decided i was fed up of my 'old' group and needed a change of scenery and to see some new faces!
I first joined back in October 2010 for a whole load of reasons. I'm not going to go into how miserbale i was and all that depressing malarky lol and i'm not going to reveal how much i weighed either (just yet!) :s ...however i WAS as size 18! 
Thankfully after lots of will & determination, i managed to reach a size 12/10 - which i am MEGA happy with! (well almost!! lol) I thought i'd just go for a few months, lose a few pounds, get bored, leave then pile it all back on + more, so to achieve what i did, boosted my confidence through the roof! :)

It's hasn't all been plain sailing though.. altogether i lost 3 stone and 4 lb, and managed that in just 5 months! sounds good in some ways but not in others - I had to be super strict with everything i ate, which in 'real life' just isn't possible to maintain (& be happy!)...  which it wasn't.. and that's why i re-gained over half of what i lost :-(

What's done is done though and i'm not going to mope about over it anymore, i've done all that feeling sorry for myself crap & well basically, it just made me feel worse.. so on Wednesday 8th February, i decided enough was enough (2nd time lucky eh?) and re-joined a new group - I feel really motivated and enthusiastic about it, partly because i am still in a size 12.. albeit a little tight, i'm still a 12 - so to make sure that doesn't turn into a 14, my heels are now well and truley dug in!
4 other people joined the class with me the same day and i am determined to have the biggest loss in our first week! 
I'm quite a competitive person so having people to compete with (so to speak) helps me persevere, and because i don't actually have as far to go as most of the other people in the group, i'm almost at the finish line (one way of putting it! lol) so i just have to keep going!!

so... i'll be doing an update each week of my progess (with a capital P!! lol ) there will be NO gains!!- need to be told that about 1000 times under hynosis!! lol

I'll try and keep future posts a little shorter lol but if you managed to make it this far.. thank you :) ~ hope everyone has a great weekend..