Simple cooking with Alana | Eating my Degustabox

I think Simple Cooking could be a series I run on here although it would be pretty much every recipe I put up! As I said a few days ago in my first impressions for the April/May Degustabox, I've still got a couple posts from last month's box and here is one of them!

Muj and I have a ridiculous stash of pastas and sauces in our cupboard but when I received these we couldn't wait to try them out! Of course we had to wait until we were both around at the same time to have it but we got there in the end!

The two Organico products were what I received and we just added mini chicken fillets and some mangetout. Yes you are reading that reduced sticker properly, the mangetout cost 1p! There are still 3 or 4 packets in the freezer along with runner beans that were also 1p. Cheapest veg I've ever bought and it's great having in them in the freezer to chuck in with some meals.

There's not really much to say about this recipe to be honest, brown the chicken, cook the pasta, fling the mangetout in the microwave and add the sauce to the pasta! I told you it was simple cooking ;)

Apart from leaving the mangetout in the fridge too long and it being a bit watery this was a great meal! Definitely filling and it tasted great. Apart from me hating tomatos, the sauce was really nice, I just pushed the big chunks out the way and ate the rest!

And that's it for another simple meal from me. I will no doubt be back soon with another!

Alana x

April/March Degustabox | First Impressions

I know I know, I still have posts to get up from last month's Degustabox! I am slowly getting round to it but I couldn't just let this one sit there without shouting about it! Sit tight for last month's posts but for now here is April/March's. Again, I never know what month to go with, I get the box at the end of the month but use it the following. What do you all think?

The box looks fantastic this month! More snack based than last month but I'm not complaining about that. I love a good snack! If you read yesterday's post though, I will be rationing the 'naughty snacks' and as always sharing them with Muj.

Starting top left and working clockwise we have Crabbie's ginger beer in the flavour Scottish raspberry, nice touch Degustabox! Really looking forward to trying this out as I absolutely love Crabbies! There were some recipes included for trying this out but I will probably just be drinking it from the bottle. I'll keep the recipes though as Muj and I really need to have another cocktail party soon!  (£2.19)

Next up is Mornflake Superfast which I'd never heard of before. It's a breakfast pot that you add cold water to and it 'magically' turns into milk (it's sprinkled with powdered milk, but maaaagic). These sound absolutely fab and I'll definitely be trying them out on days when I've hit the snooze button too many times and need to run to make my bus!  I got the fruit & nut muesli and raisin, honey & almond granola. There's even a wee spoon inside the lid so you don't have to worry about taking one of your own. (£1.20 each)

Item number 3 is from a brand again that I'd never heard of. Keogh's hand cooked crisps in the flavour Atlantic sea salt and irish cider vinegar sound absolutely delicious. In fact, I might just open them up and eat them now while writing this up! They are made in Ireland with natural flavours from local farms and they are gluten free. We all know I don't have an intolerance to gluten but I always love finding foods that everyone can try and I know plenty people that do have an intolerance so being able to show them things like this is always good! (£1)

Over half this box is from brands I've never heard of and Cawston Press is the next. This is a sparkling apple and rhubarb soft drink which I'm a bit dubious about trying as I'm not that keen on rhubarb but of course I'll give it a go! As you can maybe tell from their name, they only use pressed juice not from concentrate, there are no artificial sweetners, no colourings and no preservatives so I'm hoping it's a can of tasty goodness! (£1)

McVitie's Jaffa Cake Mini Rolls have been in my life a long time but the two flavours I received in the box are two that I've never tried; berry burst and tropical. There are 6 in each packet so 12 all together but I'm rationing myself to one every couple of days. Apparently they are 'brrrilliant frozen' so I'll definitely be trying that out! (£1.30 each)

I've seen so many adverts about Dr. Oetker products and I'm always salivating by the end of them so receiving these was an utter delight! It's cooking chocolate as well so hello cereal cakes! One bar is milk and the other is dark (which is my favourite kind of chocolate) so there will be a little bit of variety with the cereal cakes, well as much variety as you can have with cereal cakes! (£1.69 each)

Sticking with the chocolate theme, Lindt is my absolute favourite chocolate brand ever! It's so indulgent, so delicious, just amazing! There were three in the box so I've given one to Muj, sharing is caring and all that. The other two will be put away in the 'treat' cupboard and I will not eat them both in one sitting. If I start to think about it, I'll send a tweet out and you all have to shout at me! (80p each)

Second last product and again I've never heard of them! Clearspring are an authentic and organic fine foods company that have been going since 1993 and it's all Japanese foods. Apart from shop bought sushi, I haven't tried any Japanese foods so I'll definitely be looking more into this company! I was sent two sachets of miso soup which I've been told is delicious and I've actually been meaning to try it so this is perfect timing. (£1.29 each)

Last product and again, from a company I've never heard of Go Splash. Funnily enough though I have a post coming up in a few days on the exact same product just a different company! Now I have some variety. This is a blackcurrant sugar free water flavouring. You simply pour yourself a glass of water or buy a bottle if you're out and about, squirt some of this go splash into it and hey presto you have juice! (£2.45)

So this month's box is rather good I'd say, what do you think? 15 items this month totalling a cost of £20 which is fab considering it's only £12.99 a month for a Degustabox and that's including postage, however, I have a nifty wee code that will get you £3 off so free delivery and you only pay £9.99 for your box! Just enter the code "IV399" when prompted and you're welcome!

What is your favourite item out of this month's box? I don't think I can actually choose one!

As always you can find out more about Degustabox on their website, Twitter and Facebook. 

Alana x

Let's talk about weight baby

Let's talk about you (and more specifically) me.

Yeah so it's been a while since I properly weighed in. I've still been weighing myself each week but I've not been taking note of the number; basically I've been jumping on, looking at the number, saying 'ok' then jumping back off again. I need to stop that so from now on I'll be weighing myself on the Monday morning and then getting the weigh in post up later that day or Tuesday morning. I'll probably go with Tuesday as it gives me time on the Monday to write it up and get it scheduled but not have to worry about getting the post up straight away if I'm working or whatnot. 

So yesterday I weighed in at 232lbs. My last posted weigh in, I was 229.8 and that was the 19th February! Considering how shitly I've been eating and the lack of exercise, I'm quite surprised that I've only put on 2.2lbs! I can't rely on that though, I need to knuckle down and get back to eating healthily prepared meals (including breakfast Alana!) and exercise needs to find it's way back into my life! Although I'm always on my feet at work it's not really exercise, it's keeping me from sitting on my ass all day sure and sometimes it can be rather sweaty (mmm nice) it's not quite the same as a good workout. My poor wee Nikes have been abandoned the past few months so it's time to dust them off and get to it! 

Hopefully Muj and I will be starting C25K again soon, although this time I'm going to try and not almost break my ankle! I'm also going to get back into the habit of bringing out the exercise gear that sits in our cupboard. The amount of Netflix I watch in bed is ridiculous and so from now on, I'm going to get the elliptical or exercise bike out, as often as I can depending on work shifts; I don't want to be doing it at 11.30 at night and making my neighbours hate me! I'm also going to start getting off the bus early on the way home. Rather than waiting for it to go all around my town before getting to my stop, I'm just going to get off and walk for 5-10 minutes. 

I've been thinking about downloading a couple apps for squats, crunches etc to build up how many I can do in a day. If you know what I mean and have any recommendations then feel free to let me know! Speaking of apps, I need to start logging my food again on mfp. It sounds bad but it's easier to make me feel guilty about what I've eaten if it's all recorded and I can see it. Or if I'm thinking about eating something, I can put it into the app then see how that affects my calories, fat then hopefully make the right choice.

I've been making some pretty poor choices concerning my diet recently and I've now decided that that is quite enough. I feel like I've hit a bit of a milestone I suppose you could call it. I'm no longer disgusted with myself when I look in the mirror, I'm actually quite happy and proud of myself but I know what I'm putting into my body isn't good for it and isn't nourishing or fuelling it the way it needs to be and so that's what I want to focus on mostly. Sure weightloss would be great, it might make me feel a bit more comfortable but my main focus should be is this food good for my body? That's not to say I'm going to cut out absolutely every 'bad' food, I will still indulge but on the whole I really want to pay attention to what I'm eating and drinking.

As always, any tips, suggestions, etc are most welcome either here in the comments or you can email me (alanagetshealthy@gmail.com) if you don't want to post it publicly.

Alana x