Cooking up a storm!

Well hello!!! I am sorry I've been a bit absent, thanks to all the people who have sent me messages to check on me. :) I have had an extremely busy couple of weeks but hoping things settle down a bit now. My weight has fluctuated a bit over the past few weeks. I put on some weight as I started to include bread and sugar back into my diet, have had a few ups and downs due to big nights out and other assorted celebrations, but have stabilised and seem to be maintaining quite easily, albeit about 1.5 kg up from where I was. My plan is to have a few weeks of diet and then a few weeks of maintaining, so we'll see how that goes. I find that as soon as I start eating carbs or other non-cohen foods I have a great deal of trouble stopping. It's like it kicks in a mother load of cravings which makes not eating everything in sight very difficult. So I'm focusing at the moment on not creating that carb vacuum (that makes me want to make up for it later) by focusing on balance rather than denial.

I have been cooking up a storm over the past 2 weeks and even took a cooking class last weekend! There were 4 x 45 minute classes on Vietnamese, African, Lebanese and Indian food and my my, it was fabulous. I didn't learn as much as I was hoping but I did pick up a few little tricks here and there. I don't have any photos (other than the spice photo above) as it was total chaos! Fun and messy.

I've had a few requests for more recipes, so here are two yummy things I've made recently....


Thai Turkey Salad

This is an old staple recipe of mine that I normally make with chicken, but had turkey on hand and it was just as fabulous. It came from a fabulous friend of mine who I can give most of the credit to for teaching me to cook. She got the recipe from her boyfriend. I think he got it from his work...

- 250 g bean shoots
- 1 bunch coriander
- 1/2 bunch mint
- 1 long red chili
- 2 spring onions or 1/4 red onion
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 500g chicken/turkey mince

Wash and cut up all the salad ingredients. I usually find that one long red chili, de-seeded, is plenty hot enough for me. My friend would probably use about 4 of the little hot buggers, but I am a wimp when it comes to chili (as my student husband would attest). Cook the mince on high heat and continually break it up. I give a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper as I cook it. Once cooked, stir all together, pour over fish sauce and lemon juice and serve! Serves 4. Also fabulous on a bed of steamed basmati rice... which helps it to go further also if you have more people to serve.


Organic Basil Beef Burger

You really can make burgers with whatever meat and whatever ingredients but my basil plant was getting huge so I went and got some organic beef mince...

- 1 kg mince
- 1 bunch basil
- sprinkle of chili flakes
- sprinkle of garlic powder
- sprinkle of salt and pepper

Combine ingredients and then separate into 125 g balls and freeze in snack size snap-lock bags. Defrost when ready to cook, form into a patty and grill! I made 8 patties and then used the leftover mix to make a bit of a spaghetti bolognese, to which I added fresh tomato and zucchini and cooked off immediately. YUM!

The burger looks huge but I actually made it with a dinner roll so it is the perfect size. As for the pasta, it's actually Slim Pasta, made entirely from vegetables, as mentioned in my last post.

Enjoy! x

My all time best lucky find I ever found in the whole of today!

OK, so probably only my family will get the Red Dwarf reference, but I think you get my drift. I have hit jackpot! Twice. YAY!

On my quest for balance over the past month or so I have found 2 fabulous things that have made things much easier. The first is...... *queue drumroll*....

SLIM PASTA!!!! Made from a vegetable, it looks like pasta, it tastes like pasta, it even smells like... well, it doesn't actually... but it's got no calories, carbs or basically anything else except for fibre. Get it inta ya. Now. :) Some health food stores sell it but I got mine at Woolworths! Click here for more info on Slim Pasta.


My next all time best lucky find is the Lindemans Early Harvest wine range. I've tried a low joule champagne before, Yellowglen Jewel, and I thought it was awful. The Lindemans Early Harvest Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is particularly lovely, as is the Sparkling. Especially the Sem Sav Blanc, I literally had no idea it was low calorie or low alcohol. I have tried the Shiraz too - it tasted yummy, exactly how I wanted it to taste and yet almost slightly watered down. It was a 2010 so I wasn't expecting too much depth but I would say overall that it was lovely, just not rich. The sparkling was a little weaker too I guess, but I didn't notice with the Sem Sav Blanc. Calorie wise, you can pretty much have 3 glasses for the calories of 2 normal glasses. Which I think is just fabulous! There is also another range of low calorie/alcohol wines that have teamed up with Weight Watchers (the points are written on the bottle!), the McWilliams Balance range. I'm yet to try them, but I'll let you know.

Enjoy! x

Sexy Muesli & Sumptuous Soup

Yum.... I love food. Perhaps a little too much, but then that's probably obvious given the general topic of my blog. ;)

First recipe is for sugar-free (and just general 'junk-free') muesli. I used organic stuff where I could and used unstabilised oats, meaning they haven't been heat treated and are much better for you. I prefer toasted muesli but apparently when you heat nuts and seeds past 160 degrees celcius they lose most of their great properties, so I heated it to 150 degrees celcius. ;) Yum.

Mel's Sexy Toasted Muesli
- 1 and 1/2 cups unstabilised organic rolled oats (Woolworths Macro brand)
- 1/2 cup oatbran
- 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1/3 cup raw macadamias
- 1/3 cup raw almonds
- 1/3 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup dried goji berries
- 1 tablespoon Black Label Queen's Vanilla Concentrate
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- olive oil spray

Mix all of the dry ingredients together except for the berries, oat bran and coconut. Drizzle Vanilla concentrate over mixture and stir it all together with a spoon. Add the oatbran and then lay out in an oven tray. Give a good spray of olive oil and pop in a 150 degree oven for 30 mins. I stirred it every 10 minutes and gave another spray of oil (see photo). Once cool, mix in the berries and the coconut. Voila! I served mine with natural yoghurt (as shown above). 1/3 cup serve is about 45 g - the usual serving size for muesli. You can substitue whichever seeds/nuts/fruit you prefer. :)


Salwa's Sumptous Soup
- whatever vegies you have in the fridge. In my case it was (roughly):
   - 1.5 carrots
   - 1.5 zucchinis
   - 6 stalks celery
   - 'a dirty big onion' (as my Nana used to say)
   - 2 spring onions
   - 1/8 of a cabbage
   - 1 head brocolli (and stalk - the best bit IMO)
   - 1/3 tomato
   - 4 mushrooms
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- garlic powder
- vegetable stock cube (took me ages to find sugar free stock cubes but I finally found one!)
- 1.5 L water
- 1 cup red lentils
- 2 tablespoons cumin
- salt to taste

Sautee onion off a bit with coconut oil and a good sprinkle of garlic and salt and then start adding the veggies in as you chop them! I kept a cup of water handy and added a bit when my chopping was too slow for the cooking. I didn't peel anything and was throwing in whatever I had, celery leaves and all. You really can throw in whatever you have in the fridge, it's a great recipe for using up the veggies you have on hand before they get manky. I really only guessed the water amount but once I had added all the ingredients, I topped up with water and added a bit extra to take into account the lentils. I didn't add the salt or cumin until I'd blended the soup. I like to do that bit by taste. This is a very filling, healthy and delicious soup! It freezes well too. :) This recipe was inspired by a beautiful lady named Salwa, who i met through my brother.

Enjoy! xxx

A semblance of normalcy...

Happy New Week! I weighed in yesterday morning as usual and was down 0.4 kg from last week, which is exactly where I was when I started adding in 'normal' food again. When I did my 18 day 'refeed' on Cohen's I maintained the same weight throughout so this was expected. I begin this week both excitedly and nervously as I endeavour to find a balance. I am using the Weight Watchers ProPoints system to make sure I don't overeat, but am sticking to maintenance guidelines mostly.

I am nervous because I am not weighing myself this week so I don't know how it will go and just have to put my trust in the points tracker! I feel like I am eating a lot more (like I did on refeed!) and not sure if the points system will work for me but I am going to stay off the scales and try to use it as a lesson in maintenance nonetheless. What I would love is to stick to this method and throw in the odd week strictly on Cohen's plan with the hope that I get the benefits each time of the huge weightloss week. If I can keep coasting down in the meantime that would be lovely, but I don't expect a big loss this week. I will be happy to maintain for a week but thrilled with a loss if it happens.

I made some super sexy muesli on the weekend, I will post the recipe and the pictures soon. Hope you all have a fabulous week!

M. x

P.S - I am loving the freedom of maintenance - having toast and bacon with my egg was so exciting! I even had a bacon and egg salad for dinner this evening. How outrageous.

An early post for an early refeed.

Woop woop - first big goal of the year down, YAY!!!!! I still don't weigh in until Monday but I thought I'd check in as I've started easing into maintenance early. Original plan was to do 2 weeks on Cohen's but I've started introducing a couple of things (like an unofficial refeed for all you Cohenites that know what I'm talking about). I'm going to add in bread tomorrow and I'll still weigh in Monday. This is because I've decided the focus for me next week is going to be to go a whole week without the scales.

I've always been conflicted about the scales. Lots of evidence suggests that people who lose weight and maintain it often weigh daily, however there is also lots of evidence to suggest that doing so can get you down, especially when you've had an indulgent day the day before. At the start of Cohen's weighing daily is great - you lose a lot! But when things start to slow down the scales can stay the same for a few days which can be frustrating. We are told that these are the periods where our bodies are readjusting their shape and that there is a period of weight loss followed by periods of reconfiguration and that this is normal. They suggest that you only weigh yourself once a month and use a tape measure weekly, but few are able to keep off the scales. In my case, lately I've been on the scales about 5 times a day. In the morning and then before dinner, after dinner and before bed. Just out of curiosity at first but now it's driving me nuts. When you refeed you have to weigh daily to see if there is anything your body overreacts to, which is why I've started adding things in now so I have no excuses to jump on for a peek next week. As of Monday morning weigh in - the scales are going in the cupboard until the following Monday morning.

Eeep! I am telling you to help keep me accountable but I do admit that I am worried. Often when I can't see the scales I start to sabotage by overeating or snacking because I can't see the damage I'm doing, so this is going to be a big challenge. Wish me luck!!!

M. x

Je suis en forme! Or..... Skinny Mel is back!

"First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do."
~Epictetus~


I am back 'en forme', woo hoo! I lost 3.5 kg this week, oh how I love Cohen's. I am now only 200 g away from my first goal, which I plan to smash this week. :) My plan was to do 2 weeks on plan (so I have another week left) and then 2 weeks using the maintenance guidelines. After that I'll see what happens depending on how much I am losing just doing maintenance. I've partly called this blog post "Skinny Mel is back", not because of my weightloss but because I've got my skinny mojo back - good focus and attitude and I feel strong mentally.

I've been feeling good and in the zone this week. I've had cake shoved in my face on multiple occasions (with it staying on the table at work ALL DAY), but I've been able to resist because I keep telling myself it's just for 2 weeks. I keep trying to think of it as sustainable long term and I think having a few flexible weeks with the odd week on plan will work well for me when I am at my goal weight, so I will keep trying this method while it works for me. I am trying to fix the mental part of me that forbids me from eating certain things, which is the exact same little demon that comes out to haunt me when my resilience is low. I eat a bit of something I'm 'not allowed' when I'm depressed, then I eat a whole stack of whatever because I figure I've stuffed it up anyway. So I'm trying to make everything ok but only at certain times, which is the key to maintenance.


I remember one day in the last few months when I got home from work and could have murdered a glass of wine. I was so stressed but told myself I couldn't have it. I resisted and resisted and then ended up eating chocolate, yoghurt, fruit, crackers, dinner and muesli. Apart from the chocolate that doesn't sound too bad, but it was about 3 times what I was supposed to eat. I think if I'd just had the wine I would have been ok. So... I need to adjust my thinking. I got home on Friday night last week and wanted wine but resisted, because it was just a 'I'm stressed and it's been a big week and I'd love to relax with a glass of wine' thing, rather than a huge stress that was getting the better of me. So, I have to pick my battles, especially if this is going to last this time!

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

M.x

P.S - In the mornings at my French school when I came in looking a little hung over, my teacher would ask me, 'Melanie, est-ce que vous êtes en forme?' And depending on how I was feeling I'd either say, 'Oui, je suis en forme' or 'non, je ne suis pas en forme, j'ai mal à la tête!' Which roughly translates to, 'Yes, I'm good to go' or 'No, I have a headache.' :)

P.P.S - Photos are of Crazy Cheesy Goodness - basically cauliflower and spring onion with mozzarella, cumin and salt; and Asian Tofu & Veg, which I put a bit of Tamari, garlic, ginger, chilli and lemon juice with. Yum yum yum.

2 Weeks on Plan

"The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy."
~John Galsworthy~

I just found this quote and found it amusing given the past few weeks. I am beginning 2 weeks on plan today and my progress update is untidy. I am 0.5 kg up from last Monday morning, which is brilliant given my weekend indulgences, but 2.7 kg up from a fortnight ago. That reduces my total progress for the year to a 3.9 kg loss since the beginning of 2012.

I also missed yoga twice last week as I was in Adelaide. I find my whole body starts to tense up when I don't go, which is a great motivation to keep it up. :)

Feeling good about 2 weeks on plan, I don't have any social events planned that could potentially intefere with my progress. Hope you are all well and happy!

M. x