It was a bit of a shock to the system to be heading out to work before nine o'clock this morning - usually I am heading for the shower then! When I got to the college, I was delighted to find that Tracey had the kettle on, ready for me to make cuppa. I quickly got everything unpacked ready for my students arriving, and Tracey gave me all the paperwork that goes with the job. Once the ladies arrived I went through all the important information - the fire exit, the assembly point, the location of the first aid box, where the toilet is etc etc. We were so busy getting started on their sampler quilts that I forgot all about photos! When I remembered, the ladies were quite happy to pose for this photo - you will recognise them as being four of the students from the first class
did you notice the bags on the table from the first class - this one is Susan's
the room we use is so small, there is nowhere to properly display the quilt, so I pinned it to a cork notice board!
back home, I set about making dinner. After all that cake eating on holiday, I am very firmly back on my Fast/5:2 diet. I had looked through some of the Fast recipes the other day, but hadn't seen anythinng that I really wanted, but then I remembered that I had this book
the recipes in it are fat-free, making them low in calories - perfect! I settled on this one
so this afternoon I assembled the ingredients
at least, that's the quantities given in the recipe, but I was making twice that amount, so that I could freeze some, so I added another onion and two more cartons of tomatoes. I quite often use the frozen cubes of garlic - living in the middle of nowhere, I can't just pop to the shop if I discover that I don't have any fresh garlic, so I always have garlic, chillies and ginger in the freezer. While the onions were softening, I browned the meat in batches
I measured out the curry powder using one of the cute little measuring cups that Stuart and Alison gave me for Christmas
way back in the 80s, I was a great fan of Madhur Jaffrey .......
....... and her Indian cookery
one of her pieces of advice was to add some water to the curry powder and make it into a paste
and another was to stir the paste in and continue cooking for a few minutes to cook out the raw curry flavour ......
......... before adding the liquid ingredients
the curry is so low in calories, I was able to have a small portion of rice, a spoonful of fat-free yogurt and a spoonful of lime pickle ....... but alas, no mango chutney for me, that was for Malcolm!
when I came home at lunchtime, I was only a short distance from the house when I spotted this naughty lamb out on the verge, munching on the weeds