As I’ve mentioned before, Geth and I went to a new (to us) Italian restaurant, San Lorenzo, on Sunday night. New Italian restaurant equals new pizza to try! There were various veggie options on the menu, but I went for a Margherita con Bufala.
San Lorenzo Margherita con Bufala.
They also had a regular Margherita on the menu, but this one was advertised as having buffalo mozzarella in addition, so obviously I went for it. I love buffalo mozzarella. Unfortunately, the chef was a bit stingy with said buffalo mozzarella (this was a bit of a theme, as the caprese salad I had for a starter had barely any mozzarella on it as well) and so you couldn’t really taste any difference in the cheese, which was a bit disappointing.
The tomato pizza sauce was absolutely delicious, though!
Overall an okay restaurant pizza, but I think I’ll be trying a pasta dish next time I go there.
I’m logging pizzas instead. I love pizza! I spend far too many of my syns on it.
My first pizza of the year, as I expected, was a Domino’s Veg-A-Roma on the evening of my birthday. I always have this one when Geth and I order Domino’s.
I had exactly the same pizza last night as well. Unfortunately, on both occasions I was SO HUNGRY OMG that I forgot to take a picture of the pizza, so you’ll have to make do with the empty boxes instead! (You can see what an unaltered Veg-A-Roma looks like on the Domino’s website IF your local Domino’s happens to offer it – some branches don’t, including the one local to Mum and Dad, where I have to have a different pizza instead. I’ll update this post if I ever remember to take a picture.)
These are a familiar sight in our kitchen, even with me on Slimming World, as I am totally okay with regularly saving the 60 syns I need for a Domino’s!
Update: it took me until my eleventh Domino’s order of the year to remember to take a picture!
I typically make a few changes to the standard Veg-A-Roma – I have reduced fat cheese on it instead of regular (I’ve no idea whether this reduces the syn value, so I count the normal amount of syns just to be on the safe side), which still tastes nearly as good. I also swap the mushrooms for olives, because in recent years I’ve really grown to like olives! I wasn’t keen on them for most of my life.
It’s lovely and I’ll never get bored of it. This is a good thing given that we have Domino’s so often!
Geth’s mum Anne got me a pack of Cadbury’s Roses this year. They were ostensibly for my birthday (which is tomorrow), but Geth and I ate them over Christmas, ’cause you don’t want to be still eating that stuff into January.
Here’s what I thought of each one:
Hazel in Caramel
I’m not really a big hazelnut fan, and I prefer chewy caramel to runny caramel, so I could probably do without this one. Three out of five.
Hazel Whirl
See above re. the hazelnuts, though I marginally prefer the solid chocolate casing to the caramel. Three out of five.
Caramel Bite
Two different types of chewy caramel in this one – lovely texture. Bonus Geth review: he says it’s not his thing, which means all the more for me next time we have a box of Roses. Four out of five.
Golden Barrel
It’s runny caramel, so not my favourite, but still very tasty. Bonus Geth review: again, this one’s not his thing, so I’ll be eating these ones in future. Four out of five.
Strawberry Dream
My least favourite, ’cause I’m really not keen on fruit cream chocolates. Bonus Geth review: he thinks it’s lovely and sweet and tangy. They can all go to him in future. One out of five.
Signature Truffle
Absolutely divine-tasting – but if you eat it after scoffing about ten others, it tastes a bit too rich! Best to be enjoyed on its own. Bonus Geth review: he says it’s nice but not as nice as the Strawberry Dream. Five out of five.
Coffee Escape
This one’s all right but a bit too sharp for me. Two out of five.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chunk
A bit uninspiring for me, ’cause I’m not the hugest fan of plain Dairy Milk. Bonus Geth review: he absolutely loves this one, as it’s thick chunky milk chocolate. Another one that he can have in future. Three out of five.
Tangy Orange Creme
Again, I’m not keen on fruit cream chocolates, though it’s a little tastier than the Strawberry Dream. One out of five.
Country Fudge
Delicious chewy fudge – just the right texture. Five out of five.
Caramel
Smooth chewy caramel – again, this is just the right texture, and probably my favourite flavour in the box! Five out of five.
And to round up, this year’s best slightly grumpy celebrity tweet on the subject from T’Pau’s Carol Decker:
As promised, here’s a roundup of all the cheesecake I ate in Canada last week!
1. New York style cheesecake – Holiday Inn
Divine, and beautifully baked.
2. Pecan and white chocolate cheesecake – Holiday Inn
I didn’t actually have this one until later in the week, but Geth had it on the first night, which is when I snapped the photo. The cheesecake part was delicious, but I’m not the hugest fan of pecans.
3. Vanilla cheesecake – Pickle Barrel
I was so keen to dive into this one that I forgot to take a picture. It was similar to the New York style one at the Holiday Inn, but the slice was a lot bigger.
4. Caramel cheesecake – Kalendar
I didn’t have this one at all – they have various cheesecakes at Kalendar, and when we ordered, Steff got the last slice of one type, and I got the first slice of a different type!
5. Blueberry cheesecake – Kalendar
The blueberry taste on this one was gorgeous, but the rest of the cake was a little bland.
6. White chocolate and raspberry cheesecake – Pickle Barrel
Again, I didn’t have this one – we didn’t go to the Pickle Barrel enough times for me to sample all the cheesecakes! – but Geth assures me it was delicious.
7. Brown cow cheesecake – Pickle Barrel
A huge slice of milk and white chocolate cheesecake. Absolutely amazing, and so rich. Good thing I skipped the starter!
8. Vanilla cheesecake – Scaddabush
Even more ridiculously big than the ones at the Pickle Barrel – it’s basically a whole mini cheesecake! Even though I’d forsaken the starter again, it was still a real challenge to finish. Delicious though!
So that’s my Canada cheesecake roundup. I’m starting to understand why I put on so much weight while I was away!
I believe it was in New York City in 2004 that cheesecake became my favourite dessert. This would make sense, as New York is of course famous for its cheesecake. My brother Malcolm and I would go out at night to the street vendors that were selling it and bring it back to our hotel room. Later that year, Dad found a recipe online, and for the last fourteen years he’s been able to make a pretty good New York style cheesecake himself. I have it every year for my birthday.
My birthday cake from January 2017. The baking process usually results in a crack across the middle, but it always tastes amazing.
Probably the best non-New York style cheesecake I’ve tried is at Artisan Cheesecakes in Edinburgh:
So rich, so incredible. We had these in June 2016.
I keep meaning to go back when I’m in Edinburgh but have not got round to it yet. Being on Slimming World kind of gets in the way of being free to stuff your face with cheesecake, so I have to plan for it. Maybe later this year.
I’ve got a lot of meals out to go to this week, so am sticking to my current strategy of ‘skip the starter so I can have cheesecake at the end’. As such, I’ll probably have a cheesecake roundup for you next week.
Like the rest of the UK, we’ve been enjoying glorious weather here in Newcastle for the past fortnight. Last weekend, we were able to make the most of it; as I mentioned previously, we were celebrating Geth’s birthday a couple of weeks late, and so on Saturday we went into town for some shopping and food, interspersed with a visit to our favourite beer garden seeing as how it was so nice.
View of the bridges of the Tyne from the Free Trade Inn beer garden.
We were fairly lucky to get a space in the Free Trade Inn beer garden – it was a hot Saturday afternoon, which is a rarity, and so the people of Newcastle were out in force in the centre of town – but we did manage it, and Geth immediately made a start on the bar snacks.
Geth with beer and some kind of pasty/samosa/thing? I wasn’t really paying attention.
I’m not quite sure what’s going on with the light in these pictures – I blame the sun. Clearly my smartphone camera has become accustomed to British weather and can’t cope with bright light!
Enjoying the heat! Also very pleased with the way my new Punk Masters T-shirt matches my tattoo.
We’d got all our shopping done fairly efficiently, so we were able to enjoy a good few hours in the sun before our restaurant booking.
I actually like plastic glasses, even if they’re not very solid to hold – they feel like summer to me!
We then headed to Uno’s Trattoria, one of our favourite Italian restaurants in Newcastle, which Geth had selected for his birthday meal.
Geth had been looking forward to that pork belly for weeks.
The reason Geth chose Uno’s Trattoria is that, for the last year or so, they’ve had pork belly on the menu, which is one of his favourite foods. Apparently most Italian restaurants don’t cook meat dishes properly (being a vegetarian I’m generally unaware of these things), but this restaurant must be an exception, as the pork belly went down very well.
Just looks like meat to me, but I’m informed it was very special meat!
I, meanwhile, went for my favourite Italian restaurant treat of pizza:
That rocket and parmesan topping was immense.
We also had dessert – we both went for the white chocolate cheesecake – but we were so keen to get stuck into it that I forgot to take a picture.
A lovely day out overall. Happily the weather has continued, and it looks like it’ll be similar this weekend – so we’ll need to take it carefully when running the Great North 10k on Sunday!
As I’ve mentioned previously, in the last few weeks of trying to get to my Slimming World target, I tried doing a few SP days. Since getting to target, I’ve stuck with this habit the day before weigh-in, because I’m still getting to grips with maintaining and the summer has always been my most difficult time SW-wise – there are lots of special events like holidays and festivals going on, afternoons in beer gardens, and cravings for ice cream.
As such, I’ve settled into a pattern of having all-day breakfast for tea on a Wednesday night, because it doesn’t require cheese, which means I can use my Healthy Extra A for milk to go with my bran flakes, which are my additional Healthy Extra B choice on an SP day.
All-day breakfast. Nice and light for pre-weigh-in night – well, it is compared to the huge bowls of pasta I usually eat!
If Geth’s eating with me, he often helps out with cooking this one, because he really likes cooking sausages or thinks he’s better at it or something. You start by frying sausages (I use Linda McCartney regular vegetarian sausages* but obviously if you’re a meat-eater you can use low-syn pork ones) in Fry Light, turning every few minutes. After about ten minutes, you add sliced mushrooms to the pan, and then when everything’s got about five minutes left to cook, you add the halved tomatoes. Finally, while the fried food is finishing up, scramble some plain beaten eggs in a non-stick pan. Dish up and serve with a sprinkling of ground black pepper.
Ratio-wise for SP, I try and match the combined volume of tomatoes and mushrooms to the total volume of eggs in order to stick to the rules. The sausages are synned rather than ‘S’ or ‘P’ so they don’t count towards either half of the plate.
*I have to use regular Linda McCartney sausages (half a syn each) rather than the rosemary and red onion ones I normally have (which are free), because on SP days you can’t have any free food that’s not ‘S’ or ‘P’. This seems a bit counterproductive to me, but them’s the rules. There aren’t any veggie sausages in either the Quorn or Linda McCartney lines that have enough protein to be classed as ‘P’ foods, more’s the pity – Quorn mince and chicken style pieces are both ‘P’, but not the sausages. Hopefully this will change at some point.
For the last few weeks of trying to get to target at Slimming World, I’ve been advised to do a few SP days when I can, so I’ve been making chili again, which I haven’t done in a while. It’s perfect for SP, which basically requires meals to be half ‘S’ foods (fruit ‘n’ veg) and half ‘P’ foods (protein).
My chili from last week. I promptly devoured it in the space of a couple of minutes – SP days make me pretty hungry.
I like this one ’cause it’s a kind of ‘dump everything in a pot and stir occasionally’ recipe. Boil sliced carrots for about fifteen minutes; once they’re done, drain them and mix them in a large saucepan with chopped onions, two tins of chopped tomatoes, one tin of red kidney beans, one tin of lentils, one tin of chickpeas, a bag of Quorn mince, and a heaped teaspoon of hot chili powder. Simmer on a low heat for about thirty minutes, adding water if the mixture gets too dry, and then serve with a Healthy Extra A portion of cheese of your choice (I like parmesan, but then I like parmesan with everything – cheddar would be more traditional).
I’m going to be making more of this next week when I do some SP days again!
Veggie pasta bolognaise is one of my longstanding favourites, but I don’t make it as often as I used to, largely because I’ve developed so many other favourites that have become go-tos as well.
Fusilli bolognaise – the latest version (I’ve tweaked the way I make it a lot over the years, most recently to make it more Slimming World friendly).
It’s nice and simple, just like all the pasta dishes I do. Put some chopped carrots on to boil for twenty-five minutes; ten minutes in, start boiling some pasta in another pot. Meanwhile, start frying some chopped onions and tomatoes in Fry Light. Once the onions and tomatoes have reduced down sufficiently, add a bag of Quorn mince to the frying pan, and stir-fry until it’s browned.
For the sauce, I make my standard pasta sauce: passata, tomato puree, lemon juice, ground black pepper, dried basil, dried oregano, hot chili powder and Very Lazy chopped garlic, all to taste.
Once everything’s cooked, drain the pasta and carrots and mix them with the onions, tomatoes, Quorn mince and passata sauce in a large pot. Shower with grated parmesan (30g per person for a Slimming World Healthy Extra A) to serve.
On the Slimming World plan, if I want to order pizza and potato wedges from Dominos, it costs 60 syns. That’s a lot of syns to have to save for one meal (not that I don’t still do it occasionally!), given that I only have 105 syns to spend in a given week. As such, one of the first things I did when I started Slimming World was to work out how I could have a lower-syn alternative. This is the result.
Cheat’s pizza and chips. To make it properly Slimming World friendly, you should also have a side salad to make sure you’re getting your one-third of speed food, but I must confess I don’t always remember to have the salad.
For the wedges: these are standard Slimming World chips/wedges. Chop potatoes into the desired shape, spray a baking tray with Fry Light, arrange the wedges on the tray and spray some more Fry Light on top. Bake at 200°C on the top shelf of the oven for 25 minutes. Free on the Slimming World plan!
For the pizza: for each person, slice two Schar white ciabatta rolls (use one as a Healthy Extra B, 6 syns for the other) in two lengthways, and place on another baking tray. Mix together some passata, tomato puree, dried basil and dried oregano for the sauce and spread over each ciabatta half. Split 50g of grated mozzarella per person (a Healthy Extra A) between the ciabatta halves, then top with chopped tomatoes and chopped olives (1 syn for 8 olives).
Once the wedges have had their 25 minutes in the oven, move them to the bottom shelf, and put the pizzas on the top shelf to bake for another 15 minutes.
Oh yeah, and you should make a side salad to make sure you get your one-third of speed food, of course.
When using all Healthy Extras, this meal is only 7 syns, which is a lot less than 60!
