Aishwarya Rai

Or 'Ash' as she's also known... is breathtaking! She's the most famous 'Bollywood' actress in all of India and the world. I've not done a post like this before but for what it's worth.. I think her beauty is worthy of Foodie Wanderings bottling (err... I mean archiving)!

At the risk of sounding like a sour puss, I don't like Bollywood films (it's the whole musical thing), I'm someone who never plans to go to India and I never enter competitions that offer trips to India. My favourite saying also happens to be 'never say never' {{yikes}} ! India seems to be the 'destination de jour' for all-folk-spiritual (and you can include most Hollywood and music industry big names in that lot). According to my fascination with entertainment news, India also seems to be the cathartic (and sweatier) alternative to Aspen, Colorado, much favoured by certain stars. Expect to see Goldie, Julia, Angelina, Avril and of course Richard in their kaftans getting their photograph taken with someone wise. Please.. no offense (truly) to anyone who loves India or would love to go there.. it just isn't my cup of (Indian) tea. Speaking of which India is the largest producer of tea in the world. I'm also not into camping and roughing-it or hot weather.. so you can join the dots there!

Anyway.. having said all of that.. I think 33 year old Aishwarya Rai (or 'Ash') is stunning... and congratulations to her on her marriage last week!

"Haloumi Away" rated NFFH

I have presented this bit of greek cheese with a movie-esque title (a title that rhymes with 'blew me away'.. and it DID.. with flavour!).. but the rating alongside of it stands for "not for faint hearted" ie. for those trying to lose weight! I began this post with a 'confessional'-type approach... can you tell? Hopefully, it'll make you feel more at home!?

Last night hubby did a night shift.. and for him I bought two lovely loin pork chops and served them with rice and salad. I haven't bought pork chops for many months.. so I thought I'd give him a change. As I've mentioned in previous posts, my man is lactose intolerant.. so my girl and I bought two frozen lasagne's for ourselves and ate those!

The lasagne was too nutmeggy for me. I don't like nutmeg in a bechamel sauce. Anyway! (Leading into the confessional bit...) --after pan-searing hubby's pork chops.. I plopped a rectangular, wet chunk of 'haloumi cheese'.. Lemnos brand, into the fry pan! Yes, into the pork juices! For the uninitiated, haloumi is the kind of cheese you can FRY and it won't melt. Mmmm. Mmmmm. Salt and fat. Goodness me.. I DO know better, but you wouldn't thunk it would you? I DID record a 600gram loss at WW this week and received a silver star for making a 'small change' ...being the change from white flour pasta to wholegrain pasta.

And now to (purposefully) distract you from all of the above...here are some more meal photographs!

Below is a newly-discovered product "Barley Couscous" and this is a barley couscous salad. It had sliced sauteed vegies in it like zucchini (courgette's), carrot baton's (fresh, not frozen), red onion, two kinds of capsicum (peppers), kalamata olives, mountain pepper olive oil, red & white wine vinegar.. I don't remember it all, but it was lovely.

Here are some fresh mussels I did in a Moroccan-spiced broth. There is some sweet potato on the side (which was leftovers), some WW sourcream to go with that..and the couscous salad.

Here's STEP 1 of a tuna and vegie toastie on wholeweat pita (there is one Kraft FREE single slice torn and scattered over this - 34 calories and only half a WW point.. for the cheese that is)!

STEPS 2 and 3.. served with a salad.. VERY filling but I don't feel deprived after such a lunch and I don't go looking for junk in the afternoon.

I picked up yet another special on fresh salmon cutlets! I rubbed the cutlet with a lemon pepper and moroccan spice mix. Once seared and (barely) cooked in the pan, I flaked it over a good salad.. with lemon wedges and yes, even a slice of FREE cheese!

In sweet conclusion, I received a nice surprise in the mail the other day ~ a belated birthday gift, a "Just because" gift, Easter card and some Easter treats for my girl. Not only that.. the birthday gift was hidden among the 78 page letter. You read right, 78 pages.. all handwritten and it took about 7 weeks to write! All for me! My gift was a $20 note with the instructions to see a movie and get a sushi lunch! YAAAY! Further through the letter we had a housewarming gift, being another $20 with instrutions to buy some plastic (planter) pots for the house (something we've been wanting). It took me about 4 hours to read (started it during commercials while watching The Biggest Loser finale). It's not every day you get such a letter.. or such a bunch of gifts all at once. It was a huge blessing and really made me feel special. The gift-giver is a friend in Perth and this year marks "10 years of friendship". Nearly 11 years ago, I put an ad in 'Parents magazine' when my girl was a baby and many months later.. without me knowing it, the ad appeared in their penpal section. One day I recieved a large envelope with a number of letters for me and 'Mikki Moo' was among the pile. I didn't know any other mum's around my age at the time so I was desperate to connect with someone. Since then, we have visited Mikki-Moo in Perth and she has visited us here in Victoria and many, many emails, text messages, letters and gifts have gone back and forth between the states. As with all friendships we've had some rough spots (yes.. even across the miles!!).. but overall.. it was a very good move to send my ad to the magazine and hope for a friend. Back then we had two babies between us. Now there are 4, my 1 girl and her 3 boys! I will aim to see a flick soon.. probably 'The Reaping' with Hilary Swank.. and I can't wait for my sushi! :-)

WHAT'S GOING ON?!

Something is going crazy with my blog... Large postcard pictures of 'highways at night time' are appearing all over the page - but don't show up in the blog layout when I go to the editing page. What is going on? I was wondering if anyone else can see these big pictures 'blotted' all over my blog? And is anyone else experiencing problems? I was in the process of adding 'links' to other blogs when I noticed this crazy thing!!!

10 min's later....

OK.... Problem solved. I figured it out. I have left the above message up there because I 'flagged' this blog myself which immediately advises 'Blogger' of objectionable content. I objected to those LARGE pictures crashing my blog! I wanted blogger to look at my blog so I pushed the 'panic' button. The problem is solved thank goodness -however they will still come and check my blog for this 'objectionable content'. I will leave the 'what is going on'? post so they can see what the problem was.

Ok...the problem was: I had some pretty, glittering pictures that were courtesy of another site (They were free and I obtained them legally as there was a link to their site on my blog taking you back to where they came from.. that automatically happens when you use their stuff). The other site obviously decided to do something with the link because my pretty pictures disappeared and Postcard Pictures of Highways appeared in their place!

While I'm here I may aswell say HI..and give you an update! I've now, at last, entered links to the blogs I visit! If anyone objects to appearing on this list -or if there is anything about the link you don't like (me using your first name or blog name or both or whatever).. please just post a comment about it. I won't publish the comment, to retain your privacy.. I'll just read it and respect your wishes! No questions asked!

Tomorrow there is a free BBQ lunch hosted by my gym (not at the gym though). All you had to do was register, so we are going. Good stuff, though I wish they'd fix the audio visuals on some of the high-tech machines. Some machines don't get Channel 10, some only have sound coming through on one ear and some don't get any of the tv channels! It may sound like Oh! Boo-Hoo!... but sometimes when you don't want to be on a piece of equipment... an episode of 'Oprah' or 'Dr Phil' will usually get you through and take your mind off how long you have left!

Vent warning: Today was my first ever gym gone-haywire-day. I've had some medical issues and so was stopped in my tracks minutes before getting on my bike to ride to the gym yesterday. I had to take it easy instead which was very disappointing as I was all fired-up. Today.. I got to the gym.. but once there.. things weren't right. I usually do 2 x 15min cardio sessions on the treadclimber --plus resistance training. I really stretched myself to do 15min's cardio only. I did work up a sweat though. Following that, I went to the ladies change room and bawled my eyes out (silently) in one of the loo cubicles! I'm quite frustrated to say the least by my one step forward, one step back yo-yo-ing.. but that wasn't the only thing. So I left the gym puffy-eyed and said to myself "well at least I got here.. at least I worked up a sweat for 15 min's". But hubby (who was there too ) left the gym (after I sent him a text message to call me when he was done..he had a good 45min's to 1 hour left on his usual workout). So he see's me leave and leaves too... when I didn't want him too.. and we had an argument. Inside he had told me how I wasn't going to get results by quitting too easily.. words to that effect. Like.. that is what i really needed to hear. All I needed was a soft-place to fall.. and some encouragement. I wasn't seeking anything from him..but he put his foot (from his now 10kg lighter body) in it as usual. Boy he made me mad.. he's sometimes hopeless at comforting and giving advice. He acted like he was disgusted (and/or) disappointed that I left the gym early. This hurt me. He denies it (of course). I'm not stupid. I'd rather he just stayed away from me! I know that tomorrow is another day. A 'sausage & bread lunch' day actually....

Meals Catch Up!

I'm SURE I've taken more meals photo's than this! Hmm.. I can recall salmon cutlets (I have fillets listed in this post).. also drumsticks ring a bell? Anyway... this lot will do!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post ~ it always thrills me and uplifts me to hear from you :-) Last night (before dinner), my girl and I picked up a boxed cake mix from the supermarket. Lemon Meringue Pie. Co-incidentally hubby was telling me earlier in the day how much he liked lemon meringue pie. And to add to the irony... this boxed mix had no milk products in it at all which made it 'friendly' for the lactose intolerant (like hubby). It was also on special! So I landed it for about $3.20-ish. I don't really like boxed-mixes that have more than two stages... too fiddly! Anyway.. fiddle I did (boy they barely give you enough sachet mixture to make half a pie, let alone a full one). I took photo's of the process and decided to make the experience into a mini-movie which I'll do shortly on YouTube and post it here. Why? Some of you may ask?

Well.... I have felt a tad creatively stifled with the whole family home these last 2 to 3 weeks. I mentioned the pie to a fellow You Tuber in an email message yesterday ...and it just sprung to mind that I could document the fiddly work and show you all. It's not rocket science I know (but baking is technically a science)! I haven't put my director's hat on to show-off (it is a boxed mix after all)! I just figured it would be fun.. ~it feels like I'm being 'let out to play' when I work on my blog or video's. Anyway, without further ado... I present to you some meals I have made recently... last night's included. Enjoy them, they come to you calorie free!

This was a lunch dish. A Weight Watchers recipe. Individual vegie fritatta's.. served on a bed of rocket (rocket is my new lemon).. with some low fat mayo and sweet chilli sauce. Taste Rating: 7.5/10.

Butternut Pumpkin Soup. Taste Rating: 8/10.

Quick Marinated Chicken Skewers (from the supermarket deli) on a homemade couscous salad with sundried tomatoes and kalamata olives. Mixed Salad of Baby Cos Leaves, Mushroom, Capsicum & Red Onion. Taste Rating: 8/10.

Homemade Chicken & Fresh Basil Meatballs with Italian Shell Pasta and Sacla Wild Rocket Pesto. Fresh Rocket & Tomato Salad with Mountain Pepper Olive Oil. Taste Rating: 8.5/10.

Last Night's Dinner. Moroccan Crust Salmon Fillet, Jacket Desiree Potatoes (Steamed, Seasoned & Grilled), Salad of Baby Spinach, Rocket (!), Mini Roma Tomato's with a Red & White Wine viniagrette (and a dash of macadamia oil). Taste Rating: 9.5/10.

I haven't done taste ratings before.. but they give you a glimpse of what I thought about the end plated-product.

OK.. finally You Tube has made my video 'LIVE' and I can post it here for you now. It has sound and the button may need to be clicked twice to play! Enjoy :-)

Food, Flies & Family!

What kind of an Easter did you have? At our house we have chocolate in various locations around the place which will be topped-up when my girl comes back from visiting her Dad tomorrow (sigh..moan....)! On the bright side, there's much less chocolate in the house than in previous years, but any chocolate is fair-game for me, so it's best if it just isn't here!

I'm back to the gym 3 times a week after 3 weeks with no gym (during 'the move' + stress + health issues). Last week at WW I recorded a 1kg loss after 4 weeks of gradual gaining! It's two steps forward, one step back, one step forward, two back. Main thing is, I haven't given up! I must admit I have never struggled so hard to lose weight in my entire life (like I am struggling now). My body is hanging onto every gram for as long as it can - but.. I must push on!

We had our anniversary in Ballarat and spent the night at the inlaws and left the following afternoon (Easter Sunday). On the Saturday at a BBQ lunch somewhere else in Ballarat we inhaled quite a bit of secondhand smoke. I am quite sensitive to this kind of thing these days so I try to avoid being around anyone having a cigarette. Anyway.. so here we were on Saturday breathing in smoke from our two hosts sitting directly in front of us while dozens of flies were buzzing around for good measure. Their giant labrador was baiting them (I suspect) with each hearty tongue-lashing-slurp of coca-cola from his water dish on the patio. (We had the coke-treatment too as he intermittently licked us and my drinking glass in his sugared-up excitement). Our hostess had a jumbo can of Baygon (fly spray) in her hand (bless her, she was trying to keep the flies away from all of us). Her intentions were only good, but she kept spraying and spraying all around us, like a join-the-dots-kill-the-flies-in-the-air.. and I felt like I wanted my chair to swallow me up. I wasn't bold enough to say "um, is it ok if you don't use the spray?" I won't be so reserved like that again. I guess it was the first time we had ever eaten there... so that would make me more reserved than usual. So it was hours of smoke and spray and regretably, I felt poisoned. We were outdoors but in a small, semi-enclosed verandah area with no air/wind movement at all. It felt muggy & toxic.

Later that night (after a frosty greeting from the inlaws), hubby and I head-off to dinner for our anniversary (my girl stayed with Gran and Pop). The bistro we went to had a door that led into a gaming room which was full of smoke. We were seated near the gaming room door (the place was chock-a-block full so we couldn't move.. despite the booking being for a table near the front window.. we didn't get it). I did my best to ignore the smoke permanenty wafting into the dining area..but by the end of the night it was too much. I came home not feeling the best and by yesterday I had some evidence of damage. I had a tight chest, dry cough and I was actually smelling smoke everywhere. In church on Easter Sunday I could smell smoke. In my inlaw's lounge room, I could smell smoke. (The sense would overcome me suddenly). At lunch yesterday, it was as if I was sitting in a dining area full of smoke. Last night my lounge room suddenly smelled like it was filled with smokers. I looked it up on the internet and smelling disorders can mean various things. I can't emphasise enough how very real the smell was. It would be like me placing a 3 day old, unrefrigerated fish in front of you and asking you if you can smell something? I'm talking very real smells...enough to make you go searching for the smells' origins...enough to make you complain about the smell to people you are with. Smelling things that aren't there can happen with upper respiratory infections... also exposure to insectides, cigarette smoke... it can be hormonal.. all sorts of things. I've never had this happen to me before ..and it happened after my nose and lungs got a more-than-usual dose of secondhand smoke +Baygon. Today I was pleased that I didn't have to ask anyone "Can you smell smoke"? I thought for a few seconds tonight I could smell smoke..but the sensation went rather quickly and I hope it stays that way! It's quite scary because smelling things that aren't there can mean all sorts of sinister things. I'm sorry to any of my readers who are smokers.. I used to be a smoker myself, I hope I haven't offended you in any way.

You know when you can tell someone is 'miffed' at you... and it's evident that something is wrong? You may experience little bits of punishing behaviour.. or neglect instead of caring? Perhaps no emails when there used to be emails. You can just tell. But if you were to confront the person or people, they'd deny it vehemently? Have you ever experienced that? That was my inlaws over the weekend. Go figure? I had suspected something was wrong before we went up, but once we were up there.. it was confirmed.. not only to me, but hubby also. His parents were fine with him, but I was frozen out. There were quite a few obvious signs and gestures (or lack of them).. but it wasn't rocket science to figure out I was in the 'dog house'. They have obviously taken offense at something and have chosen to give me their 'Fisher & Paykel- icemaker treatment'. And I allowed it to hurt me.. which wasn't a good thing. I just feel peeved... judged.. disliked... misunderstood. Whatever it is that is bothering them.. I actually don't care now and couldn't be bothered.

I have some photo's of our anniversary dinner which I'll post now. I have some long-overdue general-meal photographs to post soon too as well as a couple of movie reviews for you. Mr Bean's Holiday (at the cinema) and Fast Food Nation (on dvd). However, regarding the dinner, whenever I go out, I more often than not order seafood as it's what we eat least of at home (mainly because of the cost). But I have to stop ordering seafood platters or calamari dishes..anything deep-fried really as they're not the most forgiving meals. I'm still a bit scared to order things that are too healthy if I'm to be honest as I don't want to feel like I've duped myself out of a nice meal and therefore a good time out. I have to stop viewing healthy food as punishment!

The following meals are:

*Shared Entree, One dozen oysters mornay (we always get 'natural' but this time decided to be daring and different). These were delicious and cheesy.

*My main meal was a seafood platter (no less) $29, one cooked king prawn, two prawn cutlets (gave them to hubby.. too processed and greasy), two fillets of fish (gave one to hubby), some calamari that looked like it was rings that had fallen apart, a couple of prawn skewers.. tiny prawns and two tiny scallops..one on each skewer... gave hubby tastes of everything and I tasted his too. There was a 'mongrel' salad.. my inlaws said it must have been a 'mixed salad'.. but I believe they just put a bit of everything in.. there was cabbage.. baby spinach.. carrot.. cherry tomato... alfalfa.. celery... capsicum... no trace of the Italian dressing they said it came with.. and a small dish of tartare sauce that tasted synthetic and reminded me of fabric with mothballs if I were to chew that. It wasn't nice at all and I eat salads all the time. The steak-cut chips were nice though.

*Hubby's main was a chicken breast that was stuffed with scallops and served with vegies and a champagne cream sauce. Forget how much this was.. not as much as mine. His meal looked dwarfed compared to mine and when the plates arrived.. the neighbouring table watched the plates with all six sets of eyes. As the giant plate was put in front of me and the 'diet-looking' plate was put in front of (much slimmer) hubby.. the other table looked at the food..looked at me... then whispered.. then laughed out loud. Don't you hate that sort of thing? I felt like throwing them a 'Kath and Kim'-ism... a-la Kath Day-Knight... "Hellooo!! Yes... take a picture.. it lasts longer"!

Our desserts were from their cake-deli (you know.. cakes behind glass?). I chose a lemon tart and hubby chose some kind of chocolate/caramel cake..but we shared the desserts so we had half of each. The chocolate cake was obviously stale... but by then we were full..and the staff were already set-up for lunch the next day (and had put the cakes away). We didn't complain (this time). The lemon tart was delicious though.. light..and not overly citrusy or buttery. My little strawberry garnish was under-ripe and tasted like it wanted to be a lemon.

We ordered off a menu.. but some of the menu items were on their chalkboards (see pic's below). All desserts were $7 (Cakes in the 'deli' were $5 though..and the special of the night was golden syrup dumplings which I considered getting as I've never had them before).

How did we weigh in?

For those of you who are following the current Australian series of The Biggest Loser, wasn't Munnalita's face priceless when Marty recorded a weight gain? She may aswell have punched the air and done a little dance with that 'churning-the-butter' move "Oh yeah, oh yeah, you suck, you suck"! I could imagine it anyway :-P

Not much to report on down this neck of the woods as far as 'happy-happy news' goes (which includes weigh-in's ~~groan).. but hopefully (???) things will get better soon (???). One positive thing is that I finally feel like a valued member of my WW group. It took two months to feel at home, but I feel like 'one of them' now and I have felt some genuine caring. A special mention to a lady named Carol and also my leader Sally (with whom I initially felt like I wouldn't connect with). They've been lovely. Each week I keep thinking to myself "this is what was missing from my last weight loss support group".

I also received a birthday present all the way from my sister in Sydney --> not one, but two Biggest Loser books! (Thanks K-Sto)! My sister in Briz (Liz) will be visiting K-Sto in Sydney on Friday the 6th of April for a week ~HAVE A FABULOUS TIME GIRLS~ !!!!

Another thing I can report on, is that I'm a (humble, toes in the water) part of the YouTube community now and though I don't have a video camera to post video's, I can still make them with Windows Movie Maker. I only have three video's uploaded (like picture and text clips set to music). If you ever have the time, you can check them out at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=kissnyuszi

I really love being creative in a multimedia kind of way. I tried to get into a two year full time multimedia course a few years back but was rejected (gasp!) - so I did cooking instead. But I don't want to cook for a living ~that's just a personal interest and hobby that I wouldn't want to do professionally. When I studied travel in 2000, I realised then how much I enjoyed being creative with multimedia presentations. Though I wouldn't want to be in marketing either! I don't want to sell anything as such, I just want to do the art and be creative! FOOD for thought.

Announcements: HAPPY 40th birthday tompu for this week, I hope you and your family enjoy Singapore. My 2nd wedding anniversary is this Saturday, 7th of April. We're going to my brother-in-law's for a BBQ in Ballarat and then dinner in Ballarat -mystery location. Happy Easter to all of my readers, I do hope you enjoy your week :-)

As a postscript I will add a music clip. A song my girl and I are 'digging' at the moment. I first heard it (and saw the clip) at the gym: Say It Right - Nelly Furtado, turn your speakers up and enjoy :-)