Foodie Friday - What I Ate This Month - January 2014 Edition

January has been a month of contrasts when it comes to food. I started the month still in the throws of festive excess and ended it eating sensibly and making healthier choices. Whilst I'm a firm believer in everything in moderation I started the year with a cheesy calorie ridden dish of nachos.

I made homemade salsa, and several other dips including a garlic sauce made with crushed garlic, mayonnaise and natural yogurt, a pesto mayonnaise and a sweet chilli mayonnaise - nom! I also made a batch of my lovely spicy Mexican cornbread which was yummy with the dips.

Perhaps though my biggest new years indulgence was Nigella's Nutella Cheesecake - OMG I could sing songs about this stuff it is heaven in a mouthful.

Obviously I made it with a gluten free base and this I didn't sprinkle the hazelnuts on the top as I felt that it dominated the flavour last time, so instead I used a bit of edible glitter. If you love Nutella you need to make this. You can find the recipe on Nigella's website here xx

Whilst I haven't denied myself anything for the rest of the month I have been watching 100% what I've ate. If I've ate something naughty I've cut down for the rest of the day or I've built a bridge and got over it, so the rest of the things bar 1 that I'm going to show you are things that I've eaten to help on my new weight loss journey. I'm not a morning person by any means my medication makes me feel groggy in the morning and more often than not if I've had a bad night I don't get up till late. All this has a knock on effect with regards to breakfast but over the last month I've been really trying to rouse myself up and eat some breakfast. First up one of my favourite things ever yogurt.

I've been having either Easi Yo Greek or Natural, with warmed frozen berries, yummy and it tastes way more indulgent than it actually is. I've also been eating berries with porridge

For years porridge was a bit of a no, no for me - people with gluten and wheat intolerance's can't always tolerate oats in their diet but thankfully more and more supermarkets are selling safe oats. These are generally oats that can't have came into contact with any other cereals during manufacturing or growth. I've been loving a bowl of porridge or a sneaky bowl of Oat So Simple in the mornings. It's warming and it seems to keep me fuller for longer. As well as the berries I've also been serving it with chopped banana to make sure I get my 5 a day.

For my main meals I've just been eating pretty much what I ate before, only a little bit healthier. For example I've been controlling my portions better, and say having lots and lots of vegetables in or with my meals. I've made my veggie chilli a few times adding a bit of soya mince and limiting the amount of pasta or rice that I have with it. Soups have also been one of my major standbys this month and as well as having a few bowls of my filling but not so calorie friendly broccoli and Stilton soup I also made a lovely healthy chilli, butternut squash and sweet potato soup - you can find the recipe here x

Despite the cold weather I've also had a lot of things with salad, including this...

Yes it's a loaf shaped crust less quiche. I based mine on this Slimming World recipe. The cottage cheese really does make it feel more filling and more substantial. I filled mine with red onion, mushrooms and red pepper fried in a couple of sprays of Fry Light spray and topped with a tiny bit of grated mature cheddar.

That crust less quiche included one of my biggest staples over the last month - cottage cheese. I know it's a love / hate product, and it has a pretty bad reputation as being just a diet food but it's so good and so useful. As well as using it in quiches, you can also use it in pasta dishes, I mix it into scrambled eggs and you can obviously have it on the side of a salad or on a cracker. Yes there are probably lower calorie and fat versions on the market but this budget range one from Tesco fits the bill.

Snacks have been harder, and whilst I have had a few chocolate treats I've being trying to find lower calorie and fat options - the most obvious option is fruit - I love juicing but to be honest I've been trying to up my water intake so I haven't really wanted to drink anything else so I've been raiding the fruit bowl.

My biggest love through January has been that festive favourite the Clementine. I've eaten at least one a day since Christmas. I love them the majority of them aren't quite as acidic as oranges and they're much easier to eat.

Something that I've always loved has also found a place in my heart this month - Pom Bears - this yummy gluten free potato snack is geared towards children I guess but they are really good when your watching your weight and come in at less than 100 calories a packet. The Pom Bear Zoos Really Cheesy are a relatively new edition and remind me a bit of Quavers only in animal shapes :)

So that was pretty much it bar a late, late edition - in last months food round up I mentioned a lovely gluten free cake called a Jap Cake that I'd had whilst visiting Boundary Mills with my family - it was yummy and I've dreamt about it ever since. I looked everywhere near me though and I couldn't find one. One of my besties though Dawn came up trumps yesterday and brought me this one that she picked up in an independent bakery in Durham.

It wasn't the same as the last one I had in that this one seemed to contain coconut rather than nuts but it was still amazing! A sweet, dry but sticky coconut macaroon, macaron, meringue hybrid with icing and butter cream  - so good - I can definitely see a trip to Durham City on the horizon! I was good though and only ate half of it sharing it with Mummy Lou. Go me how good am I getting :) I hope you've ate some yummy things in January and if you have leave me a comment and let me know. Trying to lose weight has really made me think differently about food and what am I actually eating which can only be a good thing, and I'm already excited to play, experiment and try new things in February. I'll be doing a post on Monday talking about my
weight loss progress so far and next weeks Foodie Friday post will be a recipe so stick around xx