FFS Friday

It's my favourite part of the week, for more reasons than one but also because it means that it's FFS Friday with Dear Baby G again! 

This week the state of QLD has been in flood. It seems to bring the dickheads out in full force FFS

We received close to 500mm in under 48 hours. It destroyed roads and bridges. Still people were stupid enough to drive through the water FFS

Stretched rescue teams then had to spend time rescuing these dickheads, taking precious resources away from people who didn't put themselves in the situation FFS

People were letting their children swim in swollen creeks and storm water drains FFS

The roads were cut on Saturday so of course people started panic buying. Maccas ran out of chips FFS

It's been a struggle all week to get most food, especially milk.  There has been limited fresh food. There was even no potatoes. What on earth are people expecting to do with it all? FFS

A woman was removed by security from one of the supermarkets after abusing a checkout chic because she was enforcing the restrictions put in place because of the limited food. She proceeded to jump all over her extra loaves of bread, exclaiming that if she couldn't have them, no one could. FFS

The shops had less people in them at Christmas. People were less rude too FFS

There have been reports of fights between customers over the dwindling stock FFS

The Fitzroy hasn't even reached it's peak yet.  FFS

We still have a few more days to go of this FFS

Despite entire communities still being cut off due to their bridges being swept away in the flood waters, they haven't been declared disaster zones. The people here aren't able to receive assistance to help them get back on their feet unless the area is declared a disaster zone. FFS

Already people are preying on the weak and vulnerable by door knocking, and telling people they are with the electrical, phone, etc and are here to help clean up. They then swindle people out of their money. It's disgraceful FFS

 What's been pissing you off this week? Let me know so I don't feel like the only whinging bitch.  If you have a blog, then head on over to Dear Baby G and link up your post. Also don't forget to read all of the other great posts.

 

 

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

I'm not big on posting recipes here because well, I'm not a big fan of cooking and I kinda, really suck at it.  I burnt a microwave dinner the other night, I wish I was kidding.  Sometimes though a recipe just works and it's easy.  It's always a plus when it's yummy too.

 Clearly I am not a foody photographer.  But the cheesyness (is so a word) is sooooo good.

Ingredients 

• Wraps. I used Herb and Garlic flavoured ones to give it a bit more flavour.  In my recipe I used 4 but you may need more if you are feeding more than 2.5 people.
• 500g chicken thighs, diced and cooked.
• 125g Cream cheese. Philly is always yum!
• 200g Sour Cream. This is kind of a guess. I have no idea how much I actually used.
• Can of corn, drained. I used a small one as that is what I already had in the cupboard but you can use a larger one. 
• Cajun seasoning. 
• Taco Sauce. It might be a good idea to get two jars if you are cooking a few as the sauce doesn't go far.  It would be nice with chunky salsa too.
• Grated cheese. I just kind of guestimated this amount too.  I used both tasty and Parmesan but you could also use mozzarella.  

 Method

• Preheat oven to 200C and grease your dish. A reasonably deep tray is really vital for this recipe.
• In a bowl mix together the cream cheese, sour cream and half of the taco sauce.  I also put in a handful of each cheese but Devil Papa thinks that it could do without. It really depends on your love of cheese. I thought it was perfect.
• Add chicken, cajun seasoning and corn. Mix it well. Make sure you have a decent sized bowl or don't get too vigorous with the mixing or, like me, you will end up wearing some of it.
• Spread some of the taco sauce across the bottom of your tray.  I didn't use a great deal, just a thin layer will do.
• Spoon mixture onto the wraps.  I used a decent amount per wrap. Don't worry if it looks like it's going to spill out the sides, it all adds to the cheesy goodness.
• Place wraps into your tray, pushing them as close together as possible.  
• Spread taco sauce over the top of the wraps and sprinkle more cheese across the top.  
• Put your tray in the oven for 30 minutes or until the top has started to brown.
• Undo the top of your pants or eat sans pants, this stuff is THAT good.

 

Obsession

I've talked before about my struggles with food. Food and I have never had a good relationship.  I could list reason after reason, point to some obscure moment in my childhood where it all started but that's not what this is about. No, this is about obsession and the hold it takes over you.
 

I can't really pinpoint the moment when it turned from flirting to obsession. It was so subtle I hardly noticed the change.  Eating 'normally' was never something that I did. I am an all or nothing kind of girl. I swing between eating nothing and eating all of the food in sight.  Which is probably why my weight yo-yos so much.  Disordered eating is that one step up, it's when it turns to obsession.
 

I hadn't regularly eaten lunch at school since I was 14, the year I turned 17 however it got 'serious'.  It started off as a 'health kick'.  Adding exercise to my routine. Then it wasn't enough. The food got less, the exercise got more. The weight started to drop off. School work suffered. I honestly have no idea how I managed to graduate.
An obsession consumes you. There is no room for anything else. 

You are exhausted all of the time, you pull away from friends.  I became my obsession. Every waking minute was filled with thoughts about much had I eaten, how much exercise I was going to do, when the next time I was going to eat.  Even though I had ridiculously reduced my calorie intake, my thoughts were still obsessed with food. I would allow myself one thing to eat a day. I would spend hours thinking about what that one piece of food could be.
 

I rarely slept. If I ate too much I needed to punish myself.  Too much could be an apple. I knew the calorie value of a food by just looking at it. My math skills greatly improved, pity I didn't use them for my schooling. I might have done much better.  Anything above 6 hours sleep during the week and I was doing well. No wonder I was a bundle of nerves.  Going off at the slightest thing.  My body was starving of all the essentials it needed and all I saw was things to make me push harder. 
 

It seemed to end as soon as it started. Sneaking away like a thief in the night. 

Linking up with #IBOT

How do you dine?

When you sit down to eat a meal, how do you eat?  Do you eat because it's simply a fuel, a sustenance that must be eaten as quickly as possible in order to get back to your life? Or do you like to sit and enjoy the flavours, let them roll across your tongue and enjoy each burst?  Are you distracted, doing 100 things as once while shoveling food in because it's 'time' to eat? Or do you try to make time to sit down and take a bite at a time, eating until you are full and no more?
 

Did you know that the French can spend hours eating one meal.  To the French a meal is about sharing conversation, enjoying each morsel of food and savouring the time they are spending together.  Dining is an experience, something that is to be enjoyed and shared with the ones you love.  Food is not simply a fuel, it is a way of life.  Food is intertwined into their life. However not in the way that other cultures (Australians included) center around the over consumption of processed and sugar rich foods.  The French rarely have processed food, the food is all about fresh produce and making things from scratch.   

When it is Devil Spawn and I at home, my dinner is usually consumed in front of the tv and computer. I hardly notice what I am eating and no doubt this has contributed to my weight gain.  On daycare days I usually only eat dinner as I just couldn't be bothered to eat lunch when it is just me at home. I have gotten to the point now that I can't sit and do one thing at a time.  The only time that I sit down to watch a movie without being on some form of social media is when my phone is flat or I am at the movies.  It doesn't make for a very enjoyable dining experience. It is nothing more than a 'it's dinner time' experience.
 

However when we go out to dinner as a family it is a whole different experience.  We usually get an entree or bread of some description and we actually talk, you know the real kind of talk that isn't just about crap.  We discuss the food, the atmosphere and how the textures make us feel.  When we order our mains we discuss and contemplate what we want. There is no rash decisions.  It must be painful for other people when they dine with us but we don't care.  We usually can't decide between two meals, so we order both and share. We make our dinner a sharing experience, we talk about the foods.  We take the time to enjoy the food and the flavours that go into making the food what it is.  It truly is a wonderful experience. Something that I really feel like we need to incorporate into our every meal.
 

How do you dine? Are you an eat and dash or do you savour the food?

Linking up with Grace from With Some Grace for Flog Your Blog Friday

Christmas Menu - Reader's Choice

Wow! Thursday again. It's not long until Christmas now and this week it's all about my Christmas Menu.  I have had a giant spanner thrown in my works with Christmas and I have no idea what we are doing for Christmas Day.  Papa Devil has told me to just let him deal with and to trust him. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am finding this fucking hard.

My Christmas Menu is all cold stuff. It is way too hot to be slaving over a hot stove on Christmas Day. Not to mention salads can be made in the days leading up to the big day, which means that I don't even need to slave in the kitchen at all!

Nibblies:

We all know that Christmas Day involves eating way too much food that isn't the most healthiest options and you usually have enough left overs to last you 2 or 3 days after Christmas Day.

I'm not a big fan of Rum Balls and last year I discovered 'Tim Tam Balls'. They are delicious and so super easy to make.  Here is the recipe:

Tim Tam Balls 

Add to this lots of lollies, chips, biscuits and dips and the nibblies are complete.  My favourite dips are avocado and corn relish.  

Main Meal:

The meat for the main meal is usually a mix of seafood (mainly prawns), ham and chicken.  I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Prawns. I love to eat them...hate peeling the little bastards.  It feels like you can't get the smell of them off your hands, no matter how many times you wash your hands.

Now for the salads!

I discovered a recipe for American Potato Salad a few months ago and it is to die for! I could and have sat and just had a big bowl of this salad on it's own.  I leave the skin on the potatoes and I don't cook the ham, I just put it in cold.  

Recipe here: American Potato Salad 

Another favourite salad is the Crispy Noodle Salad.  It's found on the back of the Changs Fried Noodles packet and is yum! It's a nice light salad that is so refreshing amongst the heavy foods that fill the rest of the Christmas Menu.  The recipe also includes how to make the dressing but if you are lazy busy like me, you can buy it premade.  

A staple at every event is the good old Garden Salad.  I usually use Iceberg Lettuce, continental cucumber, capsicum, salad onion and cheese.  I put the dressing to the side so that the salad doesn't go soggy.  

Dessert:

If you have any room left after scoffing the main meal then here comes dessert. Of course we all know that there is a separate stomach for desserts so there will always be room.

My mum makes Sticky Date Pudding every year. It is delicious with icecream and you will have to have tons of will power to only have one piece.

Sticky Date Pudding 

Last year I made a three layer icecream cake. It was really fiddly and took a fair amount of time but it was so worth it.

Christmas Cassata  

What's on your Christmas Menu this year? Are there any favourites that you make each year or do you like to change it up each year?

 

Monday Menu Plan

I am a rebel at heart and it seems whenever I decide something that I am going to cook that week/day, my good old brain goes nah I don't want to do that now. Yeh it's heaps of fun.  So to combat that, I just put together 7 meals and have them on whatever day I want.  

Here, in no particular order is my Meal Plan for the week.

Mac and Cheese. I add sausages or sometimes Chicken to this to give it the protein serving. Pasta is always a winner with Devil Spawn.

Bangers and Mash. 

Honey Chicken. Devil Spawn loves these kind of "noonals"and they are super quick and easy to make.  Definitely a winner when cooking.

Spag Bog. I pack this full of veggies and Devil Spawn is none the wiser.  He scoffs it like there is no tomorrow.

Lamb Chops and Veggies

Home Made Chicken Nuggets and Chips. I puree veggies and chicken together to make these.  I also add spices into the bread crumbs and they are divine. I usually make a big batch and freeze the rest, putting them into serving sizes in resealable bags.

Homemade Pizza and Garlic Bread. I make these pizzas using wraps.  I put whatever left over veggies and meat I have left on them.  Devil Spawn loves helping to make the pizzas.

What's on your menu this week?

Celebrate YOUR SELF this festive season

Today's prompt is: How will you celebrate your self this festive season?
 

Since Devil Spawn came on the scene we have very much done what others have wanted. Gone here, there and everywhere. There hasn't been a year yet where we have just settled in for the day and well to put it simply, bludged. 
 

After last Christmas I told Papa devil that this year we are having our Christmas.  We are sitting at home, doing things at our pace and anyone who wants to join in is more than welcome (except Papa Devils son but that is a whole different story).  I'm really looking forward to it. 
 

I've sat down and written a list of food I want to have on Christmas Day.  All cold stuff, most likely to the horror of Oculus Mundi ;).  You know the old saying, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Well that is precisely what I plan on doing.  Scrumptious Prawns, ham on the bone and more salads that you can pole a stick at.  I may even have a go at a scrumptious dessert. I have been scouring Pinterest for.... research ahem.
 

At this stage I have no idea who will be here other than Papa Devil, Devil Spawn and myself and at the moment I am ok with that.  I will most likely freak out when it gets closer but at the moment my list making is keeping me calm.  I love a good list.
 

Once food is served and done, I intend on doing nothing but veging in the back yard or on the couch and drinking vodka.  Most likely it will be stinking hot so I inted to get Devil Spawn a pool between now and Christmas that we can lounge around in for the duration of the day.
 

Devil Spawn is more into the whole Christmas thing this year, so it will be great to leave biscuits and a beer out for Santa and see the excitement on his face on Christmas morning when he opens all of his presents. 
 

I want to celebrate my self by surrounding myself with the people who I love and love me right back.  Christmas can be such a stressful time and it's nice to have good people around you.
 

What are you doing this festive season?

Mindless

So last week I started 'another' weight loss challenge.  The eating effort in the first week was dismal.  I ate take aways most of the time.  A week long gastro bug was my only saviour so I lost 2kg. Gastro bug has gone now, so I really have no excuse.  

It's really become apparent that there seems to be no communication between my hand and my brain.  It seems I am binging. Eating until almost bursting point.  Eating until I can feel my stomach hurt.  Then having a few more mouthfuls, just to be sure.  

I have put on 40kg in the last 12 months.  30 of them being in the last 6 months.  Nothing fits and I am getting closer to having to only shop in specialist shops.  I haven't been this heavy since I was pregnant.  

I have started a food diary to try and keep myself accountable.  I think that I need to stop buying processes stuff.  Both for Dyllan and I.  The trouble with it, is that it requires no preparation so its 'no drama' to eat an entire packet. There is no effort involved.  If I have to make all my food, then I will be less inclined to eat more than I have to.  

This has to stop. I am sick of looking in the mirror and hating what I see. I am sick of none of my clothes fitting.  I am sick of having no energy.  I need to change this.

Deprivation

Over the course of my obsession with food and weightloss, I think that I have read just about all literature and heard every line about how to achieve wellness.  A comment today sat me on my arse and made me think hmmmm.

What was that comment you ask? It was a reply to a post on an online forum about healthy eating that told the poster if she wanted to ensure her diet was healthy, then she needed to go through her cupboard and fridge and throw out the junk.  That wasn't the mind blowing statement.  This was: If you think it's bad for you, then you shouldn't be giving it to your kids either.

MIND BLOWN

We have it ingrained into our head that the kids need to eat healthy blah blah blah but whenever mummy or daddy goes on a diet, they don't eat the same food because we don't want to have to 'punish' them or deprive them of anything.  

I ask you this however.  What are you really depriving them of?

By removing junk food as a staple food item you are depriving them of the likely hood of being an overweight adult, of having high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes 2, heart attack...the list goes on. 

Doesn't seem so bad now does it?

Hello Moron

I've decided that it must be a prerequisite of working in the fast food industry to be a complete moron.  I'm constantly amazed at just how stupid one person can be.

They are also usually rude and impatient.  I deal with a toddler all day....sometimes you are the only 'conversation' I have during a day...a little politeness wouldn't go astray. 

Tonight we went to our local "unnamed fast food eatery".  There was lots of people...I knew that it was a recipe for meal fuck ups.

Firstly they skipped the guy in front of me and got my meal first...but it was wrong.  They had it on a tray when I had specifically asked for take away.  

Secondly, I hadn't been given my drinks.  They bought them over asking if there were both cokes....no they weren't and they weren't both small either.  Cue eye rolling.  

Thirdly they put so much ice in my drink that I got about 5 mouthfuls before it was empty.

Oh yeh it was soooo worth breaking my attempts at healthy eating over.

AHHHHHHH

I'm stressed...when I stress I revert back to old habits.  Habits I thought I had kicked.  Habits I am not proud of.  Habits I don't speak of....until now

When I started this blog I wanted to be open and honest in creating a snap shot into my life...even if that is always sunshine, lollipops and all that other fucking shit.

My first port of call in the stress express is retreatment...retreating into myself and having no motivation or energy to do the everyday tasks.  

Second stop is 'negative coping mechanisms' a lovely term for 'shit you really shouldn't do'.  Since having Mini Man cutting hasn't made an appearance on the stress express but other mechanisms have.  Hello getting plastered aka social norm coping mechanism.  Then there is not so social norm coping mechanism.  Binging and Purging.

Since starting this challenge I have really struggled to keep myself in check.  After downing multiple laxatives for weeks on end, going cold turkey was fucking hard.  The urge to binge has been ever present and today I gave in....gave in bad.  It's a good thing I have no laxatives in the house.  

I'm trying desperately to keep myself in check and not let my emotions get the better of me.  I'm sucking it princess....

Here's a scary thought....

On the weekend I learnt a few things about the food I 'love' and just what it takes to burn those 'loves' off.  I also learnt that a good rest is vital for walking up a mountain....a hangover is not.

So this.....

+

=

I also discovered that if I want to enjoy my Grand Angus with Large Fries then I need to do a hell of a lot of exercise to stay in front and still lose weight.  A Grand Angus and Large Fries is worth 1085 calories....today I did a pump class and walked 6km while pushing Mini Man and burnt 1248 cals....Scary isn't it.

+

Equals the same calorie intake as:

+

+

Scary isn't it....

Can you smell the fear....

The final countdown to the 12 week challenge is on....

I've been slowly increasing my exercise regime and going to the gym more often.  I just need to stop having a milo with 4 tablespoons of milo in it.

I did my grocery shopping this week and thankfully no Tim Tams or Grainwaves jumped into the basket.  I did however splurge on some ridiculously overpriced bananas (Oh how I have missed bananas).

I received a little present in the mail today.  Introducing my Polar FT4. I'm yet to try it out but I am so excited to see how many calories the exercises I do burns.  Especially my day care run.  Surely walking 12km, 6km of which is pushing a pram with a 14kg Mini Man in it.  

I can't believe I'm getting excited about exercise but BRING IT ON!

Food for Thought

Food and I have always had a very much love/hate relationship.  It's not easy to say which aspect of the love/hate is more frequented.

My high school days were spent either eating too much or not nearly enough.  From the age of 14 I refused to eat at school.  I didn't eat breakfast either so was usually ravenous by the time I got home from school.  I had an 'agreement' with my doctor that I would eat one meal a day...this one meal was dinner.  This one meal caused a lot of friction.

Grade 12 I dropped 20 kilos in 2.5 months by exercising for hours at a time and barely eating.  My one meal of choice, that I would eat at 430 every day was ham and cheese toasted sandwiches.  Eaten before exercising of course.  Most of my exercise was done in the privacy of my bedroom.  I would jog on the spot for up to 2 hours every night.

A lot of these behaviours still penetrate my everyday life now.  I still have disordered eating.  I go from eating barely anything to eating a 20 pack of freddos in one sitting.  When things get stressful I regress back to old habits.  Food and I very much still have a love/hate relationship.  I hate it and it seems to love me so much that it sticks to me like glue.