Yankee Candle Salted Caramel Wax Tart

I'd calmed down a little on the Yankee Candle front but when I saw that they were doing a Salted Caramel fragrance I had to have at least a wax tart of it! I know there are lots of different scents which smell good enough to eat but seriously this one is a whole other ball game. 

Yankee Candle Salted Caramel Wax Tart £1.95 Amazon

It came through the door in a little white jiffy bag and I found the bag half chewed by Jasper. He never bothers with the mail normally but the smell of this was so strong and sweet, even when in the jiffy bag, that he obviously couldn't resist investigating!

It smells exactly like salted caramel and really evokes a sweet craving in me (which admittedly isn't ideal given I'm doing Slimming World). I will say that if you're not into sweet scents (like my husband) that you probably won't like this because it is sickly sweet but for me gorgeous at the same time. 

This is the first scent to make me want to buy a bigger jar, good job Father Christmas is coming soon!!

Slimming World Diet Coke Chicken Recipe

So, I've just got home after my 4th weigh in at Slimming World and I'm pretty pleased with myself this week because I'm still 100% on plan, I only went over syns by 0.5 on one day and I've still been getting superfree foods into every meal. This weeks result was...

-4lb

I am really impressed by that because not only is it a really good weightloss it also pushed me well into my 1 stone award and got me slimmer of the week (I've had slimmer of the week twice already since I joined!)

I don't like to gloat because I know how hard it is to lose weight and I really feel for those who find it especially difficult, I don't want to seem like I'm smug or anything, especially not in group. But the truth is I'm actually really not smug or THAT pleased with myself, well I am pleased with myself obviously but I am determined not to get complacent because that's when it all goes wrong. I know I've got a long way to go to get to my target weight (which isn't actually set yet!) and I'm determined to do it this time without losing my head and letting it all go down the pan. I've done it too many times and I'm not prepared to do it again! 

Anyway... onto what I've been enjoying this week:

Diet Coke Chicken - Mention this to anyone and they'll say ergh why would you pour diet coke onto chicken? But it is actually really REALLY nice. I'd say it's like a cross between BBQ chicken and some kind of chinese style chicken dish. Credit to Leanne from Do Not Refreeze who gave me this recipe.

Ingredients:

Chicken (cut into strips or diced)

Onions

100g Passata

330ml Can of Diet Coke

Worcester Sauce

Soy Sauce

2 cloves of garlic (or garlic powder)

1 chicken stock cube/pot

Whatever herbs and spices you like

- So first of all spray a deep frying pan or wok with Fry Light

- Add the chicken & onion and fry until the chicken is sealed on all sides

- Pour in the full can of Diet Coke along with the passata, stock cube/pot, garlic and herbs

- Mix it all together

- Simmer on a low-medium heat for around 30 minutes. This reduces it to make the sauce thicker and more of a 'sticky' texture. It looks REALLY thin when you first pour everything in but don't worry it will reduce.

- Once the sauce has thickened take it off the heat and serve with whatever sides you fancy; it's good with rice, chips, salad, veg... anything really! You can also add peppers, mushrooms etc. into the mix when you fry the chicken and onions if you fancy!

Apparently this also works well with Diet Fanta/Tango although I've never tried it, has anyone done it with that?

Butternut Squash Chips - Butternut Squash is a pain to cut, the skin is so thick but I think the results are worth it. I love chips made in the Actifry and by using Butternut squash you are getting more superfree which = better weightlosses!

Spaghetti Bolognese - This looks a little bit bland I know but it tasted so good! It's all free and I added lots of tomatoes and onions to get some superfree. I could have maybe done with a little more superfree but I didn't know what to put with it, having anything else would have felt a bit wrong I think! 

This week I'm determined to make some soup, I've been saying I will from day one so this week has to be the week because I need to mix it up a little bit in order to stay focused. I've bought the latest Slimming World mag so I'm going to look in there for more meal ideas. Next week I'd like another 2lb off, I'm well on my way to reaching my mini-goal of 2 stone by Christmas but like I said I can't afford to take my foot off the gas. 

One thing I will say about this week is that saying 'no' is making me feel so good. I know that sounds daft but I'm offered biscuits and other high syn things on a daily basis and I have got well into the habit of saying no because although you may think 'that little bit won't hurt' it WILL and it leads onto another 'little bit' of something else which then reflects when you get weighed!!

If you're on Slimming World or you have been before, what is your favourite meal? I'd like some more inspiration!

Bath & Body Works Hand Sanitizer Review

I know most of us are suckers for the stuff that Americans can get hold of across the pond, that we cannot here in the UK. Bath and Body Works anti-bacterial hand gel has done its rounds on UK blogs for some strange reason. For some even stranger reason, I went and bought it from eBay. 

Bath & Body Works Anti-Bacterial Hand Sanitizer - £2.84 eBay

It comes in lots of different 'scents' and for whatever reason chose Japanese Cherry Blossom. It doesn't smell remotely like cherry in my opinion, it just smells like alcohol (which is essentially what hand gel is!). The bottle is absolutely tiny, I feel well and truely ripped off paying almost £3 for something that is around £1 in Boots/Superdrug/Tesco and I bought it purely because it's from Bath & Body Works. 

Funny how my mind works at times, this is a big reminder that not everything that comes out of America is all singing and dancing; this is very bog standard and really not work spending £3 on. In the US this is probably the cheapest of the cheap in hand sanitisers, and I bought it all because someone made it look pretty and desirable on their blog; the power of persuasion!

I think I'll be waiting for my trip to Florida to get hold of any other 'American must haves'.

Easy Slimming World Meal Ideas

Well this is the first week that I've thought I might have either maintained or put weight on, I was dreading the scales because it was our first wedding anniversary this week and we went out for a meal at a restaurant near us called The Peppered Pig; amongst some really nice, less than Slimming World friendly food I had about 4 glasses of prosecco and a glass of Bailey's to finish my meal off. I was good for the rest of the week so thankfully that seems to have saved my bacon in terms of weightloss. This week I lost...

- 2.5lb

I am really really pleased with that loss and it means that I have a total weightloss of 12lb and I'm only 2lb off getting my stone award so I'm working towards that next week. I have nothing stopping me in terms of events at the weekend so there's no reason why I can't do it. 

What I've been loving this week...

Shepherds Pie - The perfect comfort food, if made with less than 5% fat mince this is free on Extra Easy which is perfect for me because I like a good plateful and some broccoli on the side for my 1/3 superfree. You can use carrot & turnip mash if you wish; this would give you plenty of superfree but I've never tried this.

Pizza Topped Chicken - This is one of my all time favourite meals and there are so many variations of toppings, recently I've been using HP Honeysmoked BBQ sauce with cheese to make a low syn hunters chicken (1 syn per tablespoon of BBQ sauce & 45g mozzarella for Healthy A).  

Honeydew Melon - This is a super speed food which is great for a sweet kick and is something a little different if you're used to ordinary fruits like Apples, Bananas etc. I can easily devour a full melon. It's a messy food but bloody lovely.

Steak with butternut squash chips, cucumber and cottage cheese with chives - instead of using potato for my chips I tried butternut squash, it's more of a pain to prepare because butternut squash has a really really hard skin so it's harder to peel and chop up but they taste beautiful... and they're superfree! 

I'm still sticking to the fact that Slimming World is the best eating plan I've ever been on, I eat more now than I did before and I can still have some treats if I want! As I said I want to lose 2lb this week if I can as I'd like my stone award :)