Guzzi

Wow, congratulations! That’s fantastic!!!!!

Except that a “grill” is a completely different thing in Britain than it is in America Deffy will be referring to a “broiler”.

There you are! I'm still in panic mode right now (I have until 12 noon on Sunday to submit my assessment) but I shall be back! (eventually)

Yaaaaaay! Good to see you back!

Haha! Happy birthday!!!! Personally I keep trying NOT to level up in that dept but it doesn’t seem to be working.

All sounds good, but, errrm.... what is level 38?

Isn't it funny how temptation sneaks up on you like that? I bet if you’d had your lunch with you you would have been fine - “a cookie? No thanks”. But let your guard down for a second and BAM! There goes the calorie count. It happened to to me on Saturday night too

Eeeeeeek! I have just discovered that in my manic desperation to get my EMA (End of Module Assessment) completed for my Languages and Cultures module (I was really far behind and had to seriously cram to catch up) I’ve missed the deadline for an assessment on my other module! My tutor has given me a week’s extension to get it in so this week will probably be a bit of a write-off for all my other goals whilst I scramble like mad to catch up AND complete an assessment. Doh!

Yay, you’re back!!!

I used to use mine all the time in summer, working until 7pm doesn’t leave much time for cooking, and it was brilliant. Did you know you can roast a chicken using it? You simply scrunch up some tinfoil into balls (about golfball sized) and sit the chicken on top of them. The skin is pretty pale but you can sit it under the grill (broiler) to crisp up if you want crispy skin. I love this recipe for honey mustard chicken and adapt it for the slow cooker. Basically I place the chicken in the slow cooker (I use thighs because they’re cheap!) then heat up the sauce (minus the milk & cream) and just pour it over. If you want to speed things up you can brown the chicken before putting it in the pot. I don’t usually bother with the bacon, I didn’t find it really added anything, and sometimes don’t even bother adding the milk/cream. If I want it creamy then I transfer it into a pan then add the milk, cream and cornflour. I don’t think the temperature is high enough to thicken the cornflour in the slow cooker (although maybe it is, I’m not sure if this comes from experience or if it’s something I’ve just made up in my head). One thing I would say though is to reheat the creamy version slowly as I suspect it could curdle if you heat it up too quickly. I will I’ll look up some more recipes but I might take a while.... I’ve just discovered that I missed an assessment and my tutor has given me a week to get it in. My nose will be well and truly to the grindstone this week.

Following!

Start of challenge stats. Weight - 71.8kgs Body fat - 24.5% BMI 24

Bahahahahaha! That’s a classic!

Buy a shoulder of pork and just trim the thick layer of fat and skin off the top, then slap it in the slow cooker (crockpot) on med/high and leave it all day (6-8hrs). It is much easier to just leave the fat and skin on whilst it’s cooking and trim it off before you “pull” the pork, but some of the fat will render out and make the dish fattier. It’s totally your choice. I will look out some decent recipes and share them.