The life and times of Libby Withnall

Another slow morning. Drank tea while playing on the computer. Didn’t know what to have for breakfast. Eventually made myself a sandwich which  I ate in the car driving the girls to school.

After the school run I visited the pet shop to buy Bailey a coat for night-time. He’s been getting cold and sleeping on our bed too keep warm. Rosie used to do the same thing until we bought her a coat. The dogs and I then set out of a walk/photography session.

Boy was it cold out today. I had planned to have a smoothie when I got back but it was too cold. Instead I had a cup of tea, a banana and an oatmeal cookie.

I uploaded all my photos and sorted through the best ones. Lunch was an easy one today. Leftover red quinoa, frozen vegetables and tofu. All heated up and topped with some katsup manis (sweet soy sauce). Nice and warm and delicious.

Spent time working on our travels plans (again). I made a wrap with cheese, hummus, carrot, and spinach for my afternoon snack.

I must have been hungry because later I had a half a red onion and chili scroll from Bakers Delight and cup of tea while the girls were at singing lessons. I totally forgot I’d already had an afternoon snack!

Amy was a Nan’s for dinner and Kevin wasn’t expecting to be home till late so I decided on making soup for dinner. Definitely the right weather for soup. I made everyones favourite – cheesy potato chowder.

Supper was a cup of tea and a couple of chocolate . Can you tell I’ve already slipped into holiday mode?

I’m really missing my morning workouts but it’s just too darn cold. And this morning I was up from around 12.30 – 3.30am!!!! If I wasn’t trying to get so much done before our trip I’d go to the gym (or do my workout at home) after the girls leave for school.

I’ve been really struggling with what to have for breakfast lately. But today I knew just what to have. Banana on toast.

Once I finally got going this morning I decided to do a detailed clean of the dining and loungeroom. I moved stuff from either side of the buffet and sorted out our jigsaw puzzles (some of which were on the floor, some where in the cupboard)

Then I rearranged, very slightly, the loungeroom – bringing in a table that was being used in the family room

Before….

After…

I think it looks a lot better and it tidied up all the cords (from laptops) that you could see from the front entry.

I was pretty tired after this, so I did get in a workout of sorts. I even cleaned all the skirting boards and window tracks – ick!!!

Lunch was salad with falafel. I’m sure one day I’ll get sick of this basic salad.

Vegged out this afternoon. My snack was camembert on crackers.

Amy decided to skip drama lessons today as they are working on a presentation (which will be when we’re away). I had planned a VERY easy dinner of rissoto. Such a basic recipe I got from an old friend just after we were married – so it would be from 1983!! It just aborio rice cooked in (vegetarian) chicken stock. She topped it with camembert but since I had some this afternoon I just used cheddar cheese. And since I only had a small portion of aborio rice I used some brown rice as well and it seemed to turn out just fine.

Since dinner was such a small portion tonight we had some desert a little later on.

I don’t mind the cold weather of Winter but boy do I find it hard to get going in the mornings – which you know if VERY unusual for me.I was going so slow this morning I even had a great deal of trouble deciding what I wanted for breakfast.  We were out of all bread – except for homemade white, had no eggs (our chickens are barely laying) and I wanted something warm. I really felt like an ommelette but that was out of the question. Eventually I decided on cheese on toast. It was very nice but would have been much better on grain bread.

I had quite a few erands to run today and headed out just before 10am. Of course, by the time it got to 11am I was rather hungry, and not organised enough to have bought a snack with me. So I once again resorted to Gloria Jeans and their delicious Iced Chocs. One small skim iced chocolate with no cream coming up. No photo but I’ve had enough of these lately you know what they look like.

I finished off my errands, which included picking up a few grocery items, and headed home.

I enjoyed yesterdays salad so much I decided to go with a repeat, with a slice of fresh country grain bread.

Got a few more chores attended to this afternoon, which included a sandwich snack. Some days I don’t eat bread at all but today I sure made up for it.

Tonights dinner was really rather pathetic. I’m cramming a lot into the days, tired by night-time and wanting to use up food, plus we didn’t have much in the way of fresh veggies. So I present – veggie snitzel, veggie fingers and corn. Pathetic I tell you. Lucky I had that salad at lunch.

A couple of hours later Kevin was kind enough to make me a cup of tea, which I enjoyed with a few chocolates.

I decided to skip doing my food blog until after our trip as things seem to be getting busy around here as the countdown continues. Plus food might be a bit boring as we try and use up what’s already in the house. But I’ve changed my mind…for now…

It’s so cold in the mornings now that I keep putting off my workouts. Instead I’ve decided to move them till later in the day. So this morning I got up and started the day reading blogs while enjoying a cup of tea.

Breakfast was spaghetti on toast. Perfect on this cold morning.

Once the girls headed off to school I got started on todays chores – which included cleaning upstairs with a thorough clean of both bathroom and our bedroom. It took me till nearly 1pm with a break around 10.3oam for a green smoothie.

Boy was I glad to sit and enjoy my lunch – salad with a lentil pattie and roast garlic dressing.

Tired as I was I still managed to find some energy to take the dogs on a walk. This afternoon I got a few more jobs done, made some fresh bread for the girls and more of those healthy cookies.

My afternoon snack was some slightly stale protein crisps.

Dinner tonight was chili con carne (made with TVP) served with some tortilla chips. Topped with a bit of cheese and some low-fat sour cream. Yum!

Lastly I enjoyed a cup of tea and two of the cookies.

Okay, so I’m a REALLY bad food blogger at the moment. Doing another catch up so you’ll have to excuse me if I forget what I’ve eaten or don’t have photos. I’m also a bad “health” food blogger  as you will see….

Friday….breakfast – marmalade on toast

Morning snack – green smoothie while watching one of Val’s live Red Carpet Ready chats.

Lunch – salad with rice balls and hummus

Afternoon snack – Cheese (with spring onions) on crackers

Dinner at Gold Class movies – shared dip platter and brushetta, hot tea, and ice cream sundae.

SATURDAY I was a good girl and did my workout first thing. I then enjoyed a green smoothie.

Breakfast = cheese and pineapple on toast

Lunch was at book group. Today we had the most delicious cheese empanadas made by Lucy’s Dad. I had 3!! So bad for you but SOOOO delicious.

Later I ate one of my choc nut bars. When I got home around 4.30pm we had a party to celebrate my pups birthdays – which were a few days ago.

There was this..

this…

and of course, cake – lemon syrup.

I ate enough that I deemed this dinner. Later we had something – might have been ice cream….

SUNDAY – Breakfast – pancakes with lemon and sugar.

Lunch – Minestrone soup

Dinner – Leftover rissoto

And too much else nibbled on throughout the afternoon and conveniently not photographed.

MONDAY

Breakfast – a leftover pancake…

Lunch – Red quinoa with rice balls and falafel

Afternoon snack – protein crisps

Dinner involved some fresh peas – need to buy more next time… Everyone liked them – even the pea hater Kevin!

The meals inlcuded half a vegetable snitzels, baked potatoes, capscium and onion, corn cob, fresh peas and snow peas. Delicious!!!

For supper we tried some of these cookies Mum bought back for us.

Kevin loved them but they were a little too spicy/gingery for me.

Sorry I’ve been remiss in my posts the last few days. Lets just say they haven’t been the most stellar as far as healthy foods go. So I’m going to do a quick catch up for Wed and Thursday.

Wednesday started out we me skipping my workout!. I had planned to go but instead it went into the too hard basket. Instead I had some tea and cruskits with spreadable cheese.

Breakfast was a wholegrain crumpet with some of honey I got from Mum. I’d really been feeling like this but didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

I ended up going shopping for clothes (since they were on sale in Target) and was very happy to get a pair of jeans that fit . Certainly takes away the pressure to fit into my current jeans before our trip – it was starting to stress me out somewhat. Before leaving I picked up a skim iced chocolate from Gloria Jeans – which I drank in the car on the way home. As you can see it was cold, wet and windy day.

With the weather so yuck I needed something warm for lunch – leftover pasta – how easy was that!

I’ve conveniently forgotten what I snacked on in the afternoon.Though I did have a bowl of homemade Minestrone soup.

Dinner was Amy’s favourite – Pumpkin cannelloni (made as a lasagne) and some corn.

Thursday breakfast was cheese on toast. I only ate one piece.

When the rain stopped the dogs and I headed out on an hour long walk, arriving home just after the rain started again. Time for a green smoothie – haven’t had one for a few days as I was out of spinach.

Lunch was a sweet bean burrito wrap. Always delicious.

Once again, we won’t talk about afternoon snacks but there was another Gloria Jeans skim iced chocolate consumed while Christy was at singing lessons. Dinner was Sweet Potato Rissoto.

And supper was a half key lime cookie (bought from Gloria Jeans) and the rest of the rocky road. The cookie was as delicious as it sounded in the shop .

As you can see it’s not been all bad but not the best either. I’ll keep plodding onwards….

Up early today and headed out on a walk. It was cold and drizzly so a cup of tea was in order upon our return.

Later I made pancakes for Christy since we had no bread. I decided to have one too – topped with banana and maple syrup.

After I dropped the girls at school I headed to gym for a cardio workout. 20mins on the eliptical and 10min on the bike and I was a sweaty mess. Home for a shower and a chocolate protein shake.

Then I was off to get the groceries. Had to visit both Coles and Aldi today. Lunch was a black bean burger on country grain bread with tomato, cucumber and some cheese.

Afterwards I finished the chocolate bar I nibbled on while shopping .

I was in a real funny mood this afternoon so found myself wanting to nibble and snack. I tried not to. I had some crackers and cheese for my planned snack.

There was also a few handfuls of tiny teddies .

Dinner was roast vegetable pasta.

I wanted to improve on the tomato sauce so I cooked up some grated carrot, zucchini and sweet potato, with some baby spinach added at the last minute.

Then topped with the jar of sauce.

Served over the pasta with a sprinkling of cheese. Delicious.

I wanted some ice cream but opted for a low fat Billabong instead. Hoping to be in a better mood tomorrow.

Boy was it chilly out this morning – so I was glad today was an indoor workout day. After my workout I made a green smoothie for myself, scrambled eggs & toast for Amy, and toast & fruit for Christy.

Amy wasn’t well today so stayed home from school. I did a bit of tidying, got Christy off to school, had a shower and sat and relaxed for a bit.

Part two of breakfast was some cruskits with spreadable cheese.

Then on with the house cleaning. After doing downstairs I stopped for a cup of tea and handful of tiny teddies!!!

I then cleaned upstairs. Lunch today with stirfried veggies and tofu with red quinoa. I’m not sure if I ate too much or it just didn’t agree with me today but I felt so sick afterwards (and I didn’t eat the whole bowl). It was very strange.

A few hours later I was feeling better and enjoyed a small orange choc bar with yet another tea.

Once I was feeling better I made some more oatmeal cookies and got started on tonights dinner – Black Bean Burgers. Both were made in Mum’s food processor – so much easier than the Vita Mix. I did have a blender but gave it away a few months ago as I NEVER used it!!!! Now I need to buy one – oops – but I least I can buy a better model .

Mum & Dad got home from a 3 week trip today and bought us these goodies.

I especially look forward to trying the tea.

Afternoon tea with a bowl of leek and potato soup.

And one of the cookies – which was just as delicious as I remembered. You’d never know these have chick peas in them .

Tonights dinner was black bean burgers – which unfortunately got left in the oven too long and therefore were a bit dry, mashed potatoes and corn.

The burgers were tasty though so I will definitely try them again.

After dinner we of course had to sample some of the goodies Mum bought back from us. I had two of each. So yummy!

Does it count if I thought about going on a walk this morning? I really did have good intentions but the thought of going out in the cold was enough to put me in my dressing gown and slippers. But surprisingly it wasn’t that cold when I let the dogs out !!! Oh, well, I’ve got a cup of tea now….and a muffin…

I played on the computer until it was time for breakfast. Today I opted for cheese on toast – one slice had tomato and one slice had pineapple. It was a bit overcooked but still enjoyable.

After showering and getting ready I played on the DSLR – taking photos of the dogs running around outside. We’re going to our best friends for lunch so I got to get dressed up and put on some make-up.

I made Kevin and I a green smoothie to have in the car (our friends live an hour away) and packed some water for the trip home.

Leanne and I….not a great photo since we were squinting into the sun.

oh, and do you like the colour of my new shoes?

We had a lovely visit and plenty of yummy food. For nibblies….plus I had another spring roll.

Lunch was a vegetable lasange (made with mountain bread so it was very healthy and yummy too). I also had some salad and a small piece of herb bread.

Dessert was a warm chocolate pudding with cream. Ah, perfect for the chilly weather we had today.

Finally we had some cookies with tea. I had two.

After a delightful afternoon we headed home just after 5pm, arriving home an hour later to two very excited pups. They aren’t used to to being on their own all day (as usually they would go to my Mum’s next door – but they are away at the moment).

Dinner was a very easy one of leek & potato soup and a slice of bread.

Since it had been a light dinner I had another muffin with a cup of tea.

So glad I’m almost 100% again – just have a runny nose and a bit of a cough. Got up just before 7am and headed to the gym for a cardio workout. Did 20mins on the elliptical and 10min on the bike. Came home and had some cruskits with spreadable cheese.

A few hours later I made some breakfast. Today we (well Kevin and I) had scrambled eggs, baked beans and mushrooms.

We had been going to go on an adventure walk today but the girls were bickering so we decided not to bother. Instead we had a day at home – and I pretty much finished off plans for our trip.

The others had a jaffle for lunch but I opted for a salad with falafel and hummus.

I definitely had a case of the muchies with afternoon/evening .

Dinner was Sweet Bean Burritos. Yum!

More snacking…

and at least two or three of these…