Gosh all these lists of lovely warm weather food is really inspiring to be healthy. Mmmmmm! I've given up on all lettuce now and have replaced it with Spinach or, and these are a new find for me in Waitrose, Pea Tops - similar to watercress but they taste just like garden peas - really gorgeous! Just feel like lettuce is a bit goodness free!

where do you get those smileys from?? You have an enviable range!

Defo a wicked day for me.... OOPS

OMG - I saw them yesterday and bought them.... Just lovely, and british too! Am all for in season produce!

I know I can just sit and snack on them. How's the injury Julia?

Well. Not good. Hence the oops today. Think will have to be on the mercy of GAG next week, and morale boosting from Abfabers. Have cancelled my trip!!! Or, postponed. Physio 2x week for next 6 weeks, so makes a hiking/cycling/riding/generally outdoorsy trip to New Zealand impossible (when I can't lift a suitcase). There goes 4 weeks away....

I am an oasis of calm (well, pinot noir and pain killers)

[insert a devilish simon smiley]

Oh sorry to hear that. Well you are going to need that holiday when the time finally comes! Here's wishing you a good relax with with your pn and pk !

indeed... will toddle off for an attempt at sleep... I never have trouble sleeping, but the past 2 weeks have seen me very sympathetic to anyone who doesn't sleep well. I feel slightly 'mad'; I can't imagine that to be anyones lot in life...

x

Saw it in Sainsbury this morning - was I being mean not buying it for £5?

I bought rapeseed oil instead of olive oil (cos it was British = less food miles) and read somewhere this week that rapeseed is much better than olive oil for you. It's bright yellow and you can use it in the same way as olive oil. It is a huge bottle for about £4 or £5 I think.

What's special about avocado oil? Any benefits?

Think I'll make some gazpacho today if I've got all the ingredients from my 70's M&S slimmers' cookery book. My Nana gave me a weight watchers cookery book and the picture dictates that it's from the 50's. Will report back on that.

Apologies, happened to walk through Sainsburys again and it was £4.22 and bought it!! Going off to try it now.

Gazpacho - liquid salad!

Hah hah just read the above and it sounds like I decided to buy oil because it was 78p cheaper than first thought! No, I thought sod it, it's for me (a rare thing) I'm having it. And JWH it has a wonderful flavour - an excellent recommendation thank you.

Avocado oil has a much, much higher 'smoke' temperature, which means that you need to use less, because it doesn't burn off like other oils do, and is therefore much healthier.
It is also much lighter than olive oil, and has a much more delicate flavour.

Thanks Harriet, I'll put it on my shopping list too!

Do you know much about rapeseed oil as I'm currently trying that out for cooking?

Right, I've got the book right here! It's from 1977.

Liquidise the following - best served next day (I'll stick to imperial weights):

1lb ripe juicy tomatoes + quarter pint tomato juice (or 2 tins)
1 large onion, 1 small green pepper (chopped), 1 clove garlic, 1 tbsp wine vinegar (I only had balsamic and that made it very strong, maybe half tbsp), 1 tbsp olive oil, 1-2 tbsp lemon juice, ground pepper.

I'll scrutinise the Weight Watchers book too and see if I can post any nice recipes.

There's a nice sounding recipe for meatloaf in the M&S book too but not sure if I can use Quorn mince - any ideas? Does anyone have meatloaf anymore? It was a popular meal for me when I was growing up!!

Hey - Emm's just messaged me that I've been quoted in B&S today (again!) with my virtuous dips. I wonder if Total will send me a year's supply of 0% fat yogurt?

Fat Girl Slim didn't send me a year's consignment of their anti-cellulite cream when I gave it big licks and got quoted in B&S a couple of weeks ago

Curried Total recipe for Teresa ......

I've gone nuts with these 0% dips you inspired Fiona - added some sweet chili dip, horseradish sauce, chopped anchovies, finely chopped olives, mashed avocado............endless. It's got to better that I binge on that right?
You know that useless shelf in the fridge, the one that's too narrow to hold a decent sized bottle? Well I've got little tubs (real little, 25p Asda) lined up on that shelf with variety of 0% dips in - the variety of colours make them very attractive!!!
.........and this is the exciting thing in my life?

... these sound delicious Emm - now I'll have to give them a try!


... careful with this one - avocados are quite high calorie, although they are very good for you!


I'm really glad I've given you a use for that shelf at long last

I like a cheese sandwich so to cut down on the fat I mix half the quantity of mature hard cheese with the half grated carrott, add half low fat yogurt or creme-fraiche with half low fat mayo or salad cream and some raisins. It's delicious and filling, and you still get the cheesy flavour. It also makes the cheese go further and is nice eaten in salads. I make enought to last for a few days.

Excellent idea Andrew.

M&S do very nice half-fat cheese which really tastes like cheese (unlike Weightwatchers hard-fat cheese which is horrid!). They do a mild one and a strong one. I've virtually stopped eating cheese altogether because I know if I have it in the fridge I'll just nibble away at it, but when I do buy it, that's the one I get.

Am going to have to try some of this Total 0% yoghurt stuff - with all these different flavourings it sounds great.

Following Simone's suggestion on the Frozen Grapes thread, I froze a tangerine last night. Couldn't be bothered looking for a freezer bag or anything, so just piled the segments up in the skin and sat it in the freezer.

This gave me an exotic (with an"x"!!) dinner party idea. I wonder if you could soak the segments in Cointreau for a while until they've absorbed it and then pile them up in their skins and freeze? Dinner party guests would be surprised to get what looks like a pile of peeled satsuma, but the alcohol would stop them freezing so hard and also give them added flavour.

Anyone want to try this?