It’s been a strange old week this week – Andrew was struck down by a stomach bug on Sunday which by Thursday required a trip to hospital for tests – not nice. I couldn’t help the secret fear that I had poisoned him with fried mushrooms, as that was the only thing he ate and I didn’t. The doctor thinks not, and now he’s on the mend, but it has made me think twice about checking the use by dates on vegetables (usually I only chuck stuff away if it looks / smells dodgy – although I am careful with meat, fish and milk),
Because of his delicate tummy, I have been careful to make simple, relatively bland food. He couldn’t eat at all on Monday so the pig cheek stew became Tuesday’s dinner and Wednesday’s lunch. On Wednesday night I had a friend over for dinner, so Andrew ate very little of my Asian spiced prawn cake starter, followed by chicken and cashew nuts in oyster sauce. He didn’t try the pomegranate ice cream at all, but that’s still in the freezer for when he’s feeling better. For my friend and me, the ice cream was topped with boiled down pomegranate juice for a sticky, mouth watering syrup.
Thursday ended up with a trip to hospital for tests, and was a bad food day for me. Warburtons fruit loaf toast got me started (ahem, 4 slices), followed by a quarter pounder with cheese and fries for lunch, and a family sized galaxy bubble for pudding. Of course by that point I felt suitably ill, but it didn’t stop me eating a simple chicken, potato and veg dinner more suited to Andrew’s requirements. I blamed the stress of it all, but really there are no excuses – sometimes that’s just life.
On Friday my only ‘sin’ was the weekly elevenses contribution of chocolate bundt cake – bought, not handmade, but tasty none-the-less. Just a tiny portion for me as I had leftover chicken and cashew nuts from Wednesday for lunch. Really the portion was too large for lunch but that did not stop me putting it away. Then for dinner, another simple meal of lightly dusted plaice from M&S. I served that on a bed of parsley mash (unpeeled potatoes mashed with a little butter, skimmed milk, black pepper and lots of chopped parsley). It was a slightly dry meal and so needed some tartare sauce, but it struck the right balance of non-aggresive flavours but still nice to eat.
Yesterday it all went wrong again – actually, I had the fruit bread for breakfast again so it’s something in there that does it! I am binning the rest – evil, willpower draining stuff. I had made an early dinner of spinach pasta (big spirals) with a very light tomato and basil sauce (just mixed with some onions and garlic), topped with the leftover chicken from Thursday and some mozzarella dotted on top. It was delicious, and Andrew even felt ready for a couple of pieces of garlic bread, although there wasn’t a sauce as such to mop up. Obviously I finished off the garlic bread – waste not want not and all that.
The problem came later when I had the nibbles at around 8pm. I ended up eating 2 chocolate praline things from Paris (one should be enough but not this time), then Andrew wanted a couple of cadburys fingers so he ate a few mini ones while I munched on 3 chocolate digestives. Those 3 turned into 5, which then turned into the rest of the pack of mini-fingers. Stolen from under the nose of the sick – I have no morals. Feeling suitably sick, I went to bed and could not sleep for hours as the binge was still digesting – when I did finally doze up I woke up screaming due to the man at my window (amazing that I could see him even though the curtains were closed). Clearly cheese and chocolate digestives can give you nightmares.
I came away lucky with this morning’s weigh in and stayed the same (especially as I didn’t go to the gym at all this week) – that has given me some motivation to behave today …