Weight Loss Giveaway - VItality Show Bundle #1

Don't forget to enter  (<- click on the link and comment on that post, like it says :o)) - by 10pm tomorrow to be in with a chance of winning the goodies below:-

• The 'Calorie, Carb, Fat Bible 2011' - seriously handy book, choc-full of nutritional info!
• KitKat Caramel snack sample
• Alpen Light snack sample
• Raisin Oats sample
• Oaty Bakes 'caramelised onion' snack sample
• Tropical Wholefoods flyer with promo code
• Half Spoon sample

Late and tired

Small victories today.  A day of work though the experimental lack of Diazepam yesterday meant I was sore most of the day. It should be good again by tomorrow morning though as I'll have had over 24 hours back on it.
I spent some time in the phone to various Police departments today and finally found out that my paperwork is in the right place with the right people and they're on the case to get the CCTV footage to see if they can get the licence plate of the car.  In any case, if the accident is recorded I'll be putting in a DPA application for access to the footage.  I want to know what happened from the moment I saw the front of the car to the moment the back of my head hit the road.
Anyway, I went to pick up my bike from the workshop - I can't get replacement forks that will fit for less than £600 and they're not in stock anywhere anyway.  So, seeing as they'd cost more than I paid for the bike in the first place, it's new bike time and the insurance letter will hopefully explain that the forks can't be replaced etc,  I was quite upset when I saw my bike.  Quite teary.  I think it's because I really quite liked it, but I could still be a bit up and down emotional about the whole incident anyway.  Who knows.
Let's see if I can get to sleep now...

Red Chicken - HEAVENLY Weight Watchers Pro Points recipe

From the oh-so-pretty 'Oriental Express' recipe book... this is an incredibly tasty recipe, I'm really extremely impressed.

Serves 1; 7 ProPoints per serving (247kcals, protein 35g, carbs 20g, fat 1g, fibre 0.5g, fruit and veg 0.5)

• 1 chicken breast
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2tbsp chinese/japanese cooking wine (mirin) or sherry
• 1 star anise (I couldn't get any, but it was fine without)
• 1 clove
• juice of 1/2 orange (I used 1/2 lemon, I prefer a sharper flavour)
• zest of 1/2 orange (I used lemon again)
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• thumb sized piece of ginger
• (1/2 a chilli - not in the recipe, but I like it and it adds flavour not carbs/kcals)

 Cut the ginger into matchsticks, slice the chilli, zest the fruit...

Put the soy sauce, mirin, fruit juice, fruit zest, (chilli) clove and star anise in a pan with a lid and bring to the boil.

Cover and turn off the heat.  Leave to infuse for 5 minutes.

 
Add the chicken to the pan, spoon over the sauce and bring back to the boil., cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, spooning sauce over periodically.

 
Turn the chicken 1/2 way through the cooking.
Remove the chicken from the pan, slice diagonally and serve with the sauce spooned over the top.

Serve with 40g brown rice and add another 4 ProPoints.

I served with brown rice and steamed cabbage (cooked both at the same time in the StarChef - handy!) and this was absolutely -heavenly-!  Seriously delicious!  I am really impressed with this recipe; it's going on my "Standard, Easy And Tasty" list.

Bike and helmet damage

I'm back from the Evans workshop with an initial, rough diagnosis - letter to follow and the handlebars and frame still need full assessment.  The guy in the workshop wanted to have a chat about what happened before having a proper look.  Nice guy.

Basically the front fork and wheel are definitely no good now and the back wheel is iffy.  It's hard to show the wheel damage, so I haven't.  The frame -may- be OK.  It's a few mm out but without a more thorough assessment tomorrow the jury is still out.

Remember, these are carbon fibre reinforced forks, so rather than bend, they will crack or snap and even if you can't see any surface damage, once impacted hard they can be damaged internally and you'll never see that.

See the crack right through, opened up at the back and bulging at the front.

It might not look like much damage but, trust me, that's trashed and utterly unsafe.

Helmets should -always- be replaced after an accident, regardless of whether there is visible damage.  In my case, there -is- visible damage and I now have a new helmet.  The absolute kicker is that this one was brand new!  I only bought it at the weekend and wore it out for the first time on the day of the accident!

Nice crack right through the polystyrene.  It's probably compressed quite a bit internally too.

You can clearly see that I hit my head on the back at the right.

Prognosis at the moment is that the bike -might- be OK to replace parts on and still be safe to ride, but I have to wait to find out for sure tomorrow.  But at the cost of forks, wheels and potentially handlebars all plus labour... it's going to be a toss-up probably even if the frame is safe.  There are comparable road bikes out there for the price I paid for this Felt and comparable to the cost of fixing it up again.  I -do- love my Felt, but...

I'm probably not going to post images of my injuries, mostly because I couldn't get a decent angle on them by myself.  Suffice to say, I have 13 bruises of varying size (6 utter corkers and 7 smaller ones) and a few grazes as well as the injuries you can't see (neck, shoulder and lower sternum/ribs/diaphragm area).

I'm not scared though.  And I can't wait to get back on a bike again.  It wasn't my fault and there was nothing I could have done not to crash, but that doesn't mean I should be frightened, it just means I was really unlucky.

Chocolate and Beetroot Cake - Abel and Cole recipe

This is a really nice one...

Serves 8, but I cut it into 12 because I'm -mean-.  You will need:-

• 200g beetroot, cooked, peeled and pureed (I roasted it for an hour, the skin just peels off)
• 200g butter at room temperature
• 125g plain flour (I used wholemeal and sifted out the bran)
• 150g dark plain chocolate roughly chopped
• 3 eggs
• 150 caster sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• pinch of sea salt - crushed finely
• hulled and finely ground cardamom (optional)
• 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

Preheat the oven to 180C - while this is happening put the chocolate and beetroot in an oven-proof bowl in the oven to melt the chocolate.  It doesn't take long so be careful as it's easy to burn chocolate.


 Fold the chocolate and beetroot together, add the ginger (and cardamom if you're using it).

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg yolk, butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy.

Whisk the whites until stiff and meringue-like.

Gently fold the yolk mix into the flour.

Then fold in the egg white mix, 1/3 at a time.

Gently fold in the beet-choc mix.

Grease an 18.5cm / 7" cake tin and lightly dust with flour to coat.

Add the cake mix.

Dust with the bran left over from the sifted flour if you used wholemeal flour.

Then bake in the oven until a skewer comes out cleanly - should be between 50-70 minutes depending on your oven.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a rack to finish cooling.

 
The cake will be fudgey on the inside...

 

Abel and Cole give an optional frosting of:-

• 100g mascarpone
• 200g full fat cream cheese
• 75g icing sugar
• 1tsp finely grated ginger

Mix it all up and then spread over the cake.  I decided not to as it should be moist enough without and I'm not keen on -that- much sugar and there's plenty in the cake already.