POM Wonderful - For Your Smoothies and Cocktails!

In January everybody likes to make new years resolutions about their health, fitness or life. I am not one for new years resolutions as they always seem to be empty promises. What I like to do is make changes throughout the year and makes changes which I know will be easy to make into permanent changes. 

One simple change that you can ,make for the benefit of your health is eat and drink healthier foods. Swapping your high sugar fruit juice for POM Wonderful is a step in the right direction.

Pomegranates are a good source of vitamin C, vitamin K, Fibre, Potassium and Folate as well as anti oxidants. POM Wonderful juice is simply 100% pomegranate. Each 710ml bottle contains 6 pomegranates with no added sugar, preservatives or colourants. This juice is so full of flavour, it is a little bit sweet and a little bit sour but both extremities balance this juice perfectly.

York - #ShopInYork

This winter has seen some awful flooding to our favourite city, York. As a city York holds so many memories for us as a couple. We were married there, enjoyed many a break there and definitely enjoyed many shopping trips to York. During hard times like York has had makes it even more important that we support our local cities.

As a shopping, eating and culture destination York is the perfect city. It has a fantastic mixture of modern and traditional shops, mainstream restaurants and little hideaways that are a must visit. We love to walk down the shambles, visiting both shops and eateries on Stonegate. As well as the shops there are also the sightseeing views of Clifton Tower, York Minster and The Railway Museum, which is free to visit!

Slimmerseeker Thursday - Starting Week!

As you may already know we have got an important summer holiday to go on this year! Last year we were selected as Carnival Cruise's Foodieseeker Family. That means we will be going on our first summer holiday abroad as a family of five!

Before the twins arrived I regularly went abroad and loved lazing by the pools and exploring unknown countries. Before the twins arrived I was slim and owned more bikinis than I can remember. Back then I was confident about my body. But after having children your body changes. As I was so big during my twin pregnancy by body and shape changed a lot!

Now I have zero body confidence.

I did gain back a lot of my confidence last year after doing the Juice Plus programme but as soon as I stopped and started to eat again the weight went back on and my body confidence went tumbling back down. Before I started having problems with my back I was regularly attending a keep fit class and started to see the weight coming off and was at the fittest that I have been in a long time. Then disaster struck and my back started to play up. This led me to feeling down, unable to walk far and yes I comfort ate! As my mobility was minimal the weight came on. Now I am at my heaviest and I am not happy about it. My body confidence has vanished and I love nothing more than hiding under a big baggy jumper to hide my body.

Now I want to change and I have a goal!

I want to loose weight, improve my fitness and feel confident to wear a swim suit while cruising through the Mediterranean. I want to wear pretty little summer dresses and skirts. I want to not only look good but I want to feel confident. I want to be happy to be in our holiday pictures and I want to like what I see.

Thank you Carnival for giving me the fighting spirit back!

So what am I going to do to achieve my goal? Well I have a few strategies in place and I want to tell you more and make Slimmerseeker Thursday a regular post to keep me going and to motivate me further.

Here are my Slimmerseeker, Project Swimsuit plans...

Merchant Gourmet Red and White Quinoa with Sweet and Sticky Cod

Did you know that 2016 is the year of the pulse? What a great excuse to try more pulses and grains!

Regular readers will know that I love trying new foods and have recently been adding a wider range of pulses and grains to my families meals. Grains and pulses are full of nutritional goodness and add such delicious flavours to a dish.

When Merchant Gourmet asked me if I would like to try some of their products and use them in one of my recipes I could not wait to get started.

To kick start the new year, Merchant Gourmet have teamed up with top chef Sophie Michell to promote their new, nationwide campaign "Eat Well, Live Well". They want people to start the new year as they mean to go on, starting and maintaining healthy eating habits and incorporating more pulses and grains into their diets. Over the year Sophie will be sharing some delicious recipes which she hopes will inspire the nation to eat healthier! Healthy meals which taste great are winning meals in my book!

To get you started I have created a quick and easy recipe which is full of flavour and ideal for a midweek meal when you are short of time. Thanks to the Chinese five spice and the Manuka honey it is full of flavour.

This is what I did...

Beef Kheema - Cook Blog Share Week 1 2016

Welcome to a new year of CookBlogShare. I am delighted to say that CookBlogShare will be continuing every week during 2016. I am also delighted to tell you that Mandy from Sneaky Veg and Hayley from Snap Happy Bakes will be joining me.

I am currently looking into further ways of sharing and promoting all of the lovely recipes that link up each week. We currently pin and tweet the recipes as they have been the most successful ways. There is a Google+ community which I am hoping to grow. Please come along and join the CookBlogShare community and share it, the more people in the group wider the reach for the recipes will get! I am also thinking about sharing the weekly round up collage on Instagram but would love to know what you think so please do let me know. 

Now, onto this weeks CookBlogShare. After an over indulgent Christmas I am craving some healthy meals and am kick starting my slimming plans, so expect a lot of healthier recipes coming soon!

This week I am sharing my Beef Kheema. Kheema is a perfect way to enjoy the flavours of curry without all of the calories from a creamy sauce. Kheema is also a great way to use up any bits of vegetables that you may have, whether they are leftover vegetables or an odd carrot left in the fridge.

This is what I did...

Weekly Meal Plan - Week Commencing 4th January 2016

Happy new year!

Here is to a new year and yes I am going to say it, here is to a new me! This year I have got a huge reason to get my weight sorted and get my fitness back. This year we are going on a summer holiday with Carnival Cruise and I really want to feel confident by the pool! To kick start a healthier year I am following the Thinking Slimmer plan. This is a great way to re program how your brain thinks of food. This paired with healthy eating should give me success. I will be writing about how this is going and will be giving you an honest weekly post on the results.

You may remember that on the run up to Christmas we started to eat more meat free meals and now that the indulgence of Christmas is over we will be restarting our healthy diet, as of today!

This week my shopping delivery arrived and it was full of lovely fresh fruit and vegetables. I now have two fridges full of healthy food and I can feel that my body is ready for it!

This is what we will be enjoying this week...

Weekly Meal Plan - Week Commencing 4th January 2016

Monday

Spaghetti nests with an Arrabiata sauce. The sauce will have added courgettes, peppers and leeks.

Tuesday

Cod loins on a bed of stir fry vegetables and quinoa.

Wednesday

Diet Cola chicken. This is a Slimming World recipe that I have wanted to try for a while now and I cannot wait to try it!

Thursday

Vegetable cottage pie was an instant hit in our house. Last time I topped it with a mixture of white and sweet potatoes. This time I am going to use just white sweet potatoes to see if my fussy 11 year old can tell the difference!

Friday

Skinny fish and chips. I will be grilling the fish pieces and cooking the chips in the Actifry with spray oil. For the mushy peas I will be making my own with frozen peas and fat free yogurt and lemon.

As always I am not planning for the weekend as we tend to plan our Saturday meal together and on Sunday we have a roast dinner at my mums.

I am pleased to say that At Home With Mrs M is back with Meal Planning Monday. Pop over and great some more meal planning inspiration!