Sausage Casserole

There is already one sausage casserole recipe on here, but this one is slightly different...not very, but a little bit.

Today I had my last exam! I'm at work all day tomorrow then I need to start clearing my flat out as we're moving out this year (so sad), so it hasn't quite hit me yet that I really don't have anything to do anymore. But I wanted something yummy and warm for tea to celebrate :)

I didn't take a photo, but it did look amazing, but very similar to all the other sausage cassroles I've made :)

Ingredients (serves 2)

4 reduced fat sausages

2 carrots

1 onion

Handful of mushrooms

Can of chopped tomatoes

Can of haricot beans - drained

1 garlic clove

Drizzle of olive oil

100mL chicken or veg stock

2 baked potatoes

1. Grill your sausages until sealed, then set aside - do this as you're doing the rest really.

2. With the oil, fry your onion, garlic, mushrooms and carrot until soft, then add them to your casserole dish

3. Add in the tomatoes, beans and stock, and chop up your sausages and add them, too. Season well.

4. Bake for 20 minutes with a lid, then take off the lid and continue baking for 15 minutes.

We served ours with bake potatoes :D

Nutritional Info

662 Calories

8.2g Total fat

104.5g Total carbs

19.2g Fibre

39.3g Protein

147.5% Vitamin A

Vegetable Pasta Bake

This is a very yummy pasta bake, it's full of vitamins (200% your GDA of vitamin C) it also has your entire recommended daily allowance for fibre (though I tend to aim for 20g, per serving this has 14g). It's very easy to do, and requires very little effort, which is ideal for me, what with being a student and all :).

Ingredients (to serve 2)
3 handfuls of dried pasta
1 courgette
1 red pepper
2 tomatoes
1 onion
1 crushed garlic clove
handful of frozen green beans and peas
200mL vegetable stock
some grated cheese

Boil your pasta, and while that's going, chop up your onion, courgette, pepper and tomatoes and grate some cheese. Then fry your onion and garlic until soft, before added in everything but the cheese. Simmer for about ten minutes, then drain you pasta and mix with your vegetables before adding to an oven proof dish. Cover with cheese and bake for 30-35 minutes.

I used full fat cheese, because I think it melts nicer, but you could use low fat cheese to reduce the calories. Also, if you dry fry your ingredients you'll reduce the calories too. But you need a little fat in your diet, so I generally cook using just a little bit of oil.

Nutritional Info (per serving)
475 Calories
25.7g total fat
14g fibre
24.3g protein
116% vitamin A
274.4% vitamin C

2 Day Diet Update

I haven't been very good with this diet. My diet days have slipped into days where I simply don't snack,  which is good, I suppose, but they were meant to be more extreme than they have been.

The fact is that since my exams started, I don't have the drive to be good. I've barely been going to the gym. All I do all day is wake up at 7am, revise until noon, eat my lunch, take a 30 minute break, then revise until 5pm, have my tea, and sometimes revise until 9pm. I'm driving myself into the ground. But today, I'm going to the gym, and I'm determined to go tomorrow also. This weekend, I'm going to try and get myself back on track, because I only have two exams left, and I want to look good by the time they've finished haha.

I've been taking vitamins every day too. Zinc and vitamin C and a multi vitamin that's meant to be good for your hair and such. Every morning I wake up with a sore throat. This is not good, as for me this means there's a cold/flu coming on. And every year after I finish my exams, I generally end up in bed for about a week with a rather severe cold. Because while my exams are going, I'm so stressed out that the increased levels of cortisol and such keep my immune system running at superhuman speeds.

But this year I have to work straight after my exams, so I really don't want to be ill. Thus the zinc and the looking after myself. For once, I want to finish my exams and just go straight into enjoying my summer, not stuck in bed wondering if I'll ever feel good again.

I'm about to post a recipe for something we had for tea the other night. It's actually low calorie, which is more than I can say for the curry we had last night or the nachos we're having tonight xD

Cherry Apple Smoothie

Today may not be a diet day, but that doesn't mean that I'm still not going to eat healthy. I have a little bowl of Llamas (these amazing wheat chili snacks that are just so awesome) and my cherry smoothie :)

Ingredients (makes 2)
1.5 cups frozen cherries
1/2 banana
2 tablespoon natural yogurt
~200mL apple juice
~100mL water

Nutritional Info (per serving)
132 Calories
27.1g total carbs
1.3g fibre
3.6g protein

Well...

This new diet has kicked off to a pretty good start.

As I'm doing this with my fiance, he's been pretty good at keeping me right. He has much better self control than I do. Today is the fourth day, and the first two days were diet days.

I was so hungry!

When I was having my smoothies for two meals a day I was eating around 1,000 calories a day to begin with. But I never felt hungry. I got used to the calorie deficit very quickly. However, having dropped that by around 300-400 calories, I was starving. But I don't think it helps that my days at the moment are very long.

But, even though I was very hungry, and I did end up snacking on raisins (it could have been worse), it has got me thinking about the food I eat. And while today isn't a diet day, that doesn't mean I'm going to eat like crap, even though we're having a 'fry up' for tea, we're using turkey bacon, which will be grilled, there'll be tomatoes, baked beans and eggs. None of which will actually be fried.

Monday's another diet day, the day before my first exam (which isn't a diet day - I'm going to end up drinking a lot). I'm hoping that I do a bit better than the first two diet days, that maybe with time to think about it and prepare for it, that I won't feel like I'm dying about an hour before meal times.

Low, low calorie smoothie

Today is diet day!

Which means I'm taking in no more than 700 calories, and you know what, it's not that hard. Like, 700 calories isn't much, but honestly, it's not that difficult to stay within that boundary and still feel full. But I haven't been to the gym yet, so we'll see how I go.

Ingredients (serves 2)
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 banana
2 tablespoons wheat bran
Squidge of honey
~200 mL apple juice

Nutritional Info
111 Calories
7.1g Dietary fibre
3.1g Protein
36.5% Vitamin C