Cookfest

7 days into the new year and I have lost 2 pounds!  Woohoo! Not sure how I achieved that because I fell off the wagon rather a lot in the second half of the week when I found a huge bag of Christmas spiced biscuits in the cupboard that were too delicious not to eat and of course once the bag was open it had to be finished off before the biscuits went soggy, right? And I kind of accidentally ate a few other things that were a bit naughty too BUT overall there was a lot less junk than I have been inhaling the last few months, so YAY.  I actually did pretty well with meals and MOST of what I ate was healthy food from the Happy Herbivore plan.

Today I spent a lot of time cooking. 5 hours cooking! I think I racked up a week's worth of Fitbit steps just walking between the cooker and the fridge. It wouldn't normally take so long (the HH recipes are generally quick and easy) but I was being good and inputting every ingredient and weight into MyFitnessPal which made it take quite a lot longer, but it's OK. It kept me off social media at least ;-p

I cooked up 12 meals, 6 lunches and 6 dinners. I also ate one of them - 'Oh My Greens! noodles' and had it with a cup of Lady Grey tea.

Maybe I'm just being a bit British but the only thing I don't like about the HH meals is the overly amusing names.  I'm sure it's probably necessary as a selling point to make things more fun but ugh. The food is usually decent and tasty but I like a name to describe what I'm eating, not make me laugh. Mr O asks me what I'm eating and when I say 'Bodacious Butteritos' or 'Broccoli Poppers' I just get laughed at and asked 'yeah but what the hell is that?') Anyway, I digress. Amusing name aside,The noodle soup was massively filling and tasted really nice. So filling, I didn't want my dinner until really late in the evening: Taco Poppers.

They're meant to be eaten with Queso Sauce, which I don't like - not any fault of the recipe, but it's basically a type of vegan cheese sauce, and I never liked cheese sauce even when I did eat cheese. So I made vegan ranch dressing instead. There's not much food that doesn't taste better with a drizzle of some sort of cool yoghurty thing on top.

In other news: the No Buy continues. I have been very good with money the last 7 days and not spent anything I didn't absolutely have to spend. I kept in budget for the weekly grocery shop for the first time in a bazillion years. And I somehow resisted buying anything in the January sales even when people all around me are squealing about how they bought some shoes for £4 or some such amazing price. 7 days down, 93 to go...

Studded Buckle Boots - Peacocks

Remember how I told you I have great new equipment for taking pictures now? I'm sure you're all waiting with baited breath to see the awesomeness but unfortunately, since we are rearranging half the house right now, awesomeness is a bit tricky to arrange. So for today I have had to settle for a crumpled sheet on the stairs to show you these boots I picked up in Peacocks this week! (You'll have to ignore the creases. I can't find the iron anywhere. Le sigh). Peacocks used to have absolutely massive cheap January sales but since they were bought out by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill they have changed, and in my local branch at least there was only a tiny amount of sale stuff (which wasn't even that cheap either, gone are the days you could go in there and get 20 tops for £3 each). I almost walked out of there empty handed but then I spotted these boots.

Aren't they cute! I love the trend for studded clothing, but they can sometimes be hard to wear on an everyday occasion (like to the office, with jeans) without looking like you'd be more at home on a motorbike, dancing to industrial music or maybe hanging out in a fetish club! These boots have small studs on the toes, just enough to look good, without being too in-your-face spiky. I also love the buckled ankles!

They were originally supposed to be £30 but I got them in the sale for £14, bargain! They're really comfy to wear too and thanks to the zips on the inside, they're easy to put on and take off.

What bargains have you found in the sales this year?