I LOVED this recipe!

As someone who absolutely loved meat pies before I gave up meat years ago, this really was quite a carnivorous experience without the guilt!

I used the remaining of my ‘fake meat’ ration (which was Quorn mince and a Linda McCartney Sausage – all I have left now is a few rashers of fake bacon) to make this DELICIOUS savoury meat pie.

The pie crust was made from half flour and half mashed potato with just 1 oz of fat added. People often used mashed potato mixed with flour to save on their flour and their fat ration!

I ate 1/3 rd of this great big pie for my Sunday dinner and served it with sprouts, mushrooms and gravy.

Here’s the recipe!

Savoury Meat Pie
(from a book called ‘Favourite Ration Book Recipes’)

Using leftover cooked meat, this pie is made with a potato pastry, which reduces the amount of flour you use by half..

• Potato pastry (using 4 oz self-raising flour, 4 oz mashed potato and 1 oz fat)
• 1/2 lb of cooked meat (chopped)
• 1 onion or 1 leek (chopped)
• 1 small tin of peas or fresh peas
• 2 carrots (cooked and cubed)
• 1 large ripe tomato (chopped)
• Parsley or whatever herbs you like (chopped)
• Bisto to make thick gravy to bind
• 4 or 5 tablespoons of boiling water
• Salt and pepper to season.

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/ 375 F/Gas 6.
2. Make potato pastry by rubbing in 1 or 2 oz of fat into flour then mixing in the smooth mashed potato and binding together with some water. Chill somewhere cool.
3. Fry onion or leek in a large pan, add the cooked meat, tomatoes and herbs and the rest of the veggies, add 4 or 5 tablespoons of water and heat through until cooked.
4. Mix Bisto powder with a little hot water to make a thin paste and add to mixture.
5. Add salt and pepper to season.
6. Place thickened filling into a large pie dish.
7. Roll out chilled pastry and cover making a hole in the top.
8. Moisten the edges and crimp and bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.

It’s been a really good day..

I’ve not worried or stressed about too much and went for a lovely brisk walk in the sunshine this morning for an hour at our local recreation ground. A walk makes you feel wonderful when it’s a glorious day!

Did some grocery shopping, a little housework, read a little and re-created a wartime recipe for ‘Savoury Meat Pie’ (I of course used the remaining half of my FAKE meat ration!). I made it from a little book I picked up from Nottingham Tourist Centre called ‘Favourite Ration Book Recipes’ and cost just £1.99! I’ll post the recipe later!

This afternoon I did a short session in the gym on the cross-trainer followed by another brisk walk at 6.2 kmh on a 1% incline and a two minute jog at 7.5 kmh. I’m too heavy for jogging, I’m not ready for that yet but give me another 30 lbs or so off and I’d like to train to jog a 5K. I think that will be my next goal for next spring!

Food wise, it’s been another GREAT day! Two days until weigh in!

DAILY FOOD DIARY

SUNDAY:
Breakfast: Leftovers from yesterday’s Lentil & Marrow stew (300 cals – 20 g protein)
Lunch: 2 slices of Irish Soda Bread with margarine, young spinach leaves with raw mushroom, spring onions and tomato served with chutney (400 cals – 12 g protein)
Snacks: A oat cookie my daughter made (same as yesterday), fruit and a handful of raw nuts (400 cals – protein 5 g)
Dinner: 1/3rd of a large savoury meat pie (quorn) served with sprouts, mushrooms and gravy (600 cals – 20 g of protein)

TOTAL CALORIES 1700 ish – Protein 57 g ish

Food wise things have been great today! I’ve eaten healthily and plenty too so I hope the scales will show this when I weigh again on Tuesday for my 7 day weigh in. Am still aiming for a 5 lb off but will have to seriously increase my exercise to achieve this. Each and every lb off will help a lot when we walk the Marathon!

DAILY FOOD DIARY

SATURDAY:
Breakfast: Organic rolled oats with several prunes and soy milk (400 cals – 13 g protein)
Lunch: 2 slices of Irish Soda Bread with margarine, young spinach leaves with raw cucumber, spring onions and tomato served with chutney (400 cals – 12 g protein)
Snacks: A oat cookie my daughter made, a handful of raw nuts (350 cals – protein 3 g)
Dinner: Large lentil & marrow stew with leeks, peas, leafy green cabbage, mushrooms, herbs and spices served with potato and carrot mash (600 cals – 25 g of protein)

TOTAL CALORIES 1750 ish – Protein 53 g ish

I may have an apple tonight too!

I’ve had a bit of a tough break this past month with urticaria flaring up and of course the plantar fasciitis since walking 15 miles training for the marathon.

Just to show you how pooey having the allergies flaring up is, I woke up to this horrid facial rash and terrible itchiness last Saturday and on Monday my GP prescribed steroids as my flare-ups were getting worse. Well here I am, 6 days later and well enough to go back to the gym. I’m still taking the steroids and the anti-histamine but feel so much better…

Consequently, tonight at Pure Gym in Nottingham, I eased my self back into aerobic exercise with 30 minutes on the cross-trainer and the treadmill walking at 6.2 km and hour at a 1% incline to get my heart rate up to 140 ish, nice and steady.

Feeling exhilarated!!!

Food wise has been pretty good too! I was making cupcakes at 5 am this morning for a work colleague as they had won a PMS Diecasting Facebook Contest – and homemade cupcakes were the prize! I did dip my finger in a couple of times, and later I did have a plain cupcake with no topping, my family got a chocolate topped cupcake each and I brought 8 to work as the prize! (and I didn’t eat any in the car during my commute!)

DAILY FOOD DIARY

FRIDAY:
Breakfast: 2 slices of wholemeal toast with margarine and Marmite on (250 cals – 3 g protein)
Lunch: Loads of mixed fruit including plums and apples (300 cals – 4 g protein)
Snacks: Plain cupcake and some dried fruit (500 cals – protein 3 g)
Dinner: Large vegetable curry with rice and with lots broccoli, leeks, carrots and tomatoes, kidney beans, herbs and spices (600 cals – 30 g of protein)

TOTAL CALORIES 1650 ish – Protein 40 g ish

My packed lunch for work

At 2 am this morning, as I walked bleary eyed through the kitchen to get to the bathroom, I picked up a spoon and furtively shoved two large heaped spoons of Nutella into my mouth. I have no idea why I did it (except that it tasted good and it was naughty) and mentally chastised myself afterwards. And then I thought stop being stupid, it’s just Nutella, I’ve not hurt someone or been mean, all I’ve done is succumbed to temptation and with that decided not to do it again.

They wouldn’t have had to battle against the lure of Nutella in the 1940s because no one would have had this wonderfully evil substance in their cupboard!

So setting aside my noctural adventures, I’ve eaten quite well again today. My eating habits over the past few months have overall been pretty good, and with the fact that I don’t smoke and apart from one evening with a few large drams of whisky, there’s been no alcohol for months either, when at work today I had the opportunity to have my blood pressure taken, I jumped at the chance hoping to be pleasantly surprised…

It was 178/90..

Now being an ex-nurse I know that’s not very good. What I had completely forgotten about was the fact that just a few minutes prior to having my blood pressure done I had been walking about briskly on the factory floor and running upstairs (because I can do that now!!! Woo Hoo!) and that the systolic reading (top number) normally rises during and after exercise, stress, meals, coffee etc (temporarily) I also forgot about the fact that I am taking steroids to get over my allergy flare ups, which are notorious for raising blood pressure.

Just seeing those numbers I panicked. I thought hell I know I am OBESE (I hate that word!!) but I eat well, exercise regularly, don’t smoke, drink little, normally take no meds, eat TONS of vegetables, don’t eat meat, try and keep the sodium down and processed foods, and have given up cheese and chocolate (oh apart from Nutella at 2 am). How can that be right?

I seriously thought for just a fleeting moment to chuck it all in and bury my face in the saltiest snacks known to man-kind (and finish it up with a 2 litre bucket of Ben & Jerry’s).

I was so upset internally that at the end of my 1 point something hour commute home I went straight to the pharmacy and bought myself a blood-pressure unit and took two separate readings in the ASDA car-park, right there and then.

NORMAL

135/69 followed by 124/71

And then I got home and did it again, similar, nothing to worry about.

And then I remembered that I hadn’t rested before my B/P reading at work…

So I’ll still keep checking, still keep being healthy and will get checked out on September 23rd where I am going in for a health-check.

I’m now a little less frightened and a bit more optimistic…but I’m NOT going to be complacent.

DAILY FOOD DIARY

Weigh-In: 272.4 lbs (- 6oz in total in 3 days)

THURSDAY:
Breakfast: 50 dry grams of porridge oats made with 200 ml of soy milk and handful of blueberries (300 cals – 12 g protein)
Lunch: Two bread rolls spread with margarine and filled with cucumber and tomatoes on the side. (400 cals – 12 g protein)
Snacks: 2 small apples, and some mints (225 cals – protein 1 g)
Dinner: Large vegetable stew with lots of leafy green veg, broccoli, leeks, carrots and tomatoes, kidney beans, herbs and spices and bisto (450 cals – 20 g of protein)

SECRET EATING: 2 large spoonfuls of Nutella in the early hours of the morning because I have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom. (400 cals – 3 g of protein)

TOTAL CALORIES 1775 ish – Protein 48 g ish

My breakfast and lunch today

It’s not been a bad day food wise, I think I have eaten more than I needed really but I am still not liking to feel hungry. As a big person it’s something you have to learn to adapt to again that it’s OK to feel hungry!! But for now I’m coping the best way that works for me. Slowly I’ll wean quantities down in my own good time.

Same as last night, today’s exercise will be a 30 minute session in my bedroom with my 20 lb kettle-bell and tomorrow I will be back at the gym for walking and some cross-training.

Thanks for the comments and messages. I will try and catch up when I retire to bed tonight in about 30 minutes. Feeling tired. Been on the go since 5 am!

Love and hugs C xxxx

DAILY FOOD DIARY

Weigh-In: 272.6 lbs (- 2oz)

WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast: 50 dry grams of porridge oats made with 200 ml of soy milk and handful of blueberries (300 cals – 12 g protein)
Lunch: Very large mixed leaf salad with spring onions, basil, raw mushrooms, raw broccoli, tomatoes and kidney beans (400 cals – 20 g protein)
Snacks: 2 small apples, 2 small plums and a peach and some mints (325 cals – protein 3 g)
Dinner: Medium potato with knob of margarine, couple spoonfuls of garden peas and a meaty gravy made with 1/4 lb of Quorn meat substitute mince, (I’ve taken my weekly meat ration as 1/2 lb of meat substitute mince and also Quorn bacon rashers) some mushrooms, an onion and some small mixed tomatoes and a little bisto (550 cals – 30 g of protein)

TOTAL CALORIES 1575 ish – Protein 65 g ish

My dinner- gobbled down at 8pm after a busy day as always

DAILY FOOD DIARY

Weigh-In: 272.8 lbs

TUESDAY:
Breakfast: 1/2 can baked beans on 1 slice of toast. (300 cals)
Lunch: Leftover bean stew from yesterday. (300 cals)
Snacks: Fruit and pretzels( grabbed and ate pretzels graze box at work without thinking!) (350 cals)
Dinner: Plate of organic mixed leaf salad, herbs and flowers and two slices of bread with margarine. Plus chutney. (350 cals)
Handful of raw nuts. (100 cals)

TOTAL CALORIES 1400 ish

My lovely plate of fresh mixed salad, herbs and flowers!

My organic box of local vegetables, salad and fruit came today while I was at work!

I have to give a shout-out to the farm that provided me with my very first organic box here in Nottingham. I bought a veg/fruit/salad organic family box from TRINITY FARM (click here) and I am VERY pleased with what arrived for £20 (inc delivery)

• Large bag of mixed salad leaves, a few sprigs of basil and parsley and edible flowers
  3 onions
  Marrow (or it maybe an over grown courgette)
  2 small cucumbers
  6 small apples
  12 mixed small tomatoes
  Bag of beans
  Bag of what looks like chard.
  Bag of celery
  Bunch of beetroot (good size)
  Several potatoes
  Carrots
  Bag of ripe plums
  Bunch of spring onions

All fresh and organic and was all growing in the ground yesterday including delivery for £20. Am happy and impressed!

C xxx

Hi there!

As mentioned below with only 4 weeks to go until we walk the marathon, and with training being on hold for a while, I need to try my hardest to lose extra pounds sensibly (and stay strong!) for the event.

I started walking again yesterday and although my foot still hurts this morning, it’s only annoying and not oww, oww so I will carry on training but stop if anything appears to be getting worse.

So I had lost a small amount of weight this week (very small) and I weighed in this morning at 272.8 lbs (just under 19st 5 lbs or 123.74kg).

Total weight loss since I ballooned again (310 lbs) is now 37.2 lbs ( nearly 2.5 stone or 16.9 kg ).

This week I will update this page on a daily basis showing what I am eating on ration with a rough calorific value for food and exercise next to it.

C xxx

I’ve pretty much been doing no walking or gym for a week due to my painful foot (plantar fasciitis) and flare up of allergies (which have been coming and going for the past 5 weeks or so) BUT everything finally seemed a lot calmer today so of course I jumped right back in with a 1.5 mile brisk walk (16 minute mile) to the chemists to pick up my steroids for the allergy and then tonight did an intense 3 km walk at 2% incline for 30 minutes on the treadmill at the gym. Will see how my foot feels tomorrow! No weight loss this past week so its good to be exercising again!

This week I’m setting myself a goal of losing 5 lbs so will weigh in tomorrow morning and again in 7 days! I need to get a good chunk of weight off before walking 26.2 miles!

4 weeks to the marathon!

C xxx

PS. Thank you Chris and Anonymous for the donations to Cancer Research UK to our Just Giving Marathon Page. That is very kind of you and a good cause.

PPS. Holly posted some information to my Facebook page about a series of filmed messages taken during the war called ‘Calling Blighty’ so I thought I’d share a couple of them on YouTube. How accents have changed!

I am currently listing WW2 HOME FRONT Memorabilia Packs (UK Only) on eBay – CLICK HERE