Weight Watchers Friendly Toffee Crisp and Raspberry Cheesecake

Since returning from South Africa (where I gorged myself on meat and cake) I have been trying to lose weight with Weight Watchers. I lost some weight with them a few years ago, but since having J the pounds have been piling on. The leader in my class is lovely, when I went for my first weigh in I was shocked by what the scales said, she was very reassuring and told me it was baby weight and not to be hard on myself, that it was perfectly normal.

The truth (that I didn't tell her!) is its biscuit weight, not baby weight. Because I suffered from Hyperemesis Gravidarum while pregnant with J I actually weighed less the day after giving birth then I did before I got pregnant. The weight I put on was completely biscuit (and crisps, chocolate, cake and brioche rolls) related.

I was so careful about making sure J ate three proper meals a day but I was completely neglecting myself and instead of meals I was snacking on junk all day. I think we can all agree that in the long term that was going to do neither of us any good.  Plus when I was breastfeeding I got an even worse sweet tooth than I normally have and was eating like a mothertrucker - when I stopped breastfeeding at 5 months I just kept on eating as if I was still burning those calories.

So, I've lost about 9 pounds in 5 weeks with another few pounds to go until my goal weight which I'm very happy with. I feel so much better in myself, my clothes fit better and when I look in the mirror I don't feel the need to suck in my tummy (as much). I had just tipped into the overweight category for my height (using the bmi) so it's good to have nipped it in the bud before I put more weight on. Also, I feel ten times better for eating proper, healthy meals again.

Anyway, the one thing I find hard on a diet is satisfying my sweet tooth. I love me some chocolate and cake and desserts of any kind. Today we had our Easter Sunday lunch with my family (as my parents are away for Easter). I was in charge of cooking dinner and wanted to make a dessert I could eat. I did a little bit of research online and then winged my own version of a baked cheesecake, a low fat version. It was actually very nice.

If you are using the Simple Start plan, I've worked out that the entire cheesecake is around 23 Propoints (the eggs, quark, cottage cheese, vanilla essence, milk and raspberries are on the list of foods you can eat without counting points). If you divide the cheesecake by 8 it is about 3 points per slice.

Low Fat Toffee Crisp and Raspberry Cheesecake

Ingredients

250g Cottage Cheese

300g Quark

110g Caster Sugar (if you want to make it more WW friendly you can use artifical sweetener but in my experience it doesn't taste very nice baked and I don't like to eat too much of it anyway)

4 eggs

4 Toffee Crisp Biscuits. I  used these as I had them in the cupboard. One biscuit is 3 WW points so it is 12 points in total for the recipe. You could also use 2 normal toffee crisp bars which are 6 points each (from my quick look online earlier anyway)

Splash of milk

Vanilla Essence

Small punnet of raspberries

Ingredients - but without the raspberries as I realised I had them to use during the creative process!

Method

Grease the sides and bottom of a Springform Cake Tin. I also put baking paper on the bottom of the tin to stop the cheesecake from sticking.

Crush three of the Toffee Crisp bars and sprinkle this on the bottom of the cake tin. This makes a kind of crunchy bottom, but without using the usual cheesecake base of crushed digestives and lots of butter.

Separate the eggs.

In a bowl mix the quark, cottage cheese, egg yolks, sugar, splash of milk and vanilla essence. Use a hand blender to smooth out any lumps from the cottage cheese.

In a separate bowl mix the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and then fold this into the mixture in the other bowl. This is important. I made this at my parents house and sadly, did not have my mixer with me. I found it difficult to whip the egg whites right and ended up throwing them in while they were still very funny. This meant the cheesecake mixture was not as fluffy or risen as I would have liked. Make sure you have access to a good mixer! 

Pour the combined mixture over the crushed toffee crisp in the tin. The tap the cake tin on a hard surface a few times (until you don't see any more bubbles rise to the surface). This will prevent any pockets of air forming in your cheesecake.

Push the raspberries into the mixture - you can do a pretty pattern if you like!

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 30 - 35 minutes. Check the cheesecake is solid all the way through by placing a skewer in the centre. If it comes out clean, it's done.

Chop the fourth toffee crisp biscuits and sprinkle over the top

Voila!

The last photo was taken in a bit of a rush. I was getting strange looks from my family for photographing my food, plus I really wanted to try it!

It was actually very nice. It has a different taste to regular cheesecake, the quark gives it much more of a tang. but I really liked this. In Austria quark is called topfen and they make a lovely dessert there called Topfenstrudel and this reminded me a bit of that. It got the thumbs up from the non dieting members of my family anyway.

I think if I were to make it again. I would leave out the raspberries  and instead of sprinkling the fourth Toffee Crisp biscuit on top, as a bit of sweetness next to the sharpness of the quark would be nice I would mix it into the cheesecake mixture, kind of like chocolate chips.

Other options for a cheesecake like this is to use crushed oreos, or jaffa cakes as your base. It's definitely worth a try!

N
xx

Eucerin

I've been a bit quiet on the blog-front the last week or so. I'm the leader of a Ladybird Unit (it's part of the Irish Girl Guides, for girls aged 5-7 and it's what comes before Brownies. It's called various different things in other countries!). We had our enrolment tonight so I spent the last week making props like rainbows and crocks of gold, as well as making tons of rice krispie buns and things. It went really well and was a lovely evening so I'm very pleased. It's funny how quickly the weeks go though. I couldn't tell you what I do with my time but my days at home with J just seem to go so fast.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I have really dry skin, like uncomfortably dry. Some days wearing make-up is a no-no because it just flakes off (not that I wear make-up very often anyway). I've tried so many products over the years, some of them very expensive (like Clinique, Clarins or La Prairie). Nothing seems to help, none of the moisturisers I've used ever seem to do the job for any longer than an hour or so. There's pots of moisturiser dotted all over my house for when the dry skin really overcomes me, none of which I ever seem to finish.

Recently, I spotted something in Boots in the section devoted to products for sensitive skin/eczema. The Eucerin Replenishing Face Cream. I thought I'd give it a go as it's advertised for dry to very dry skin. It is easily the best moisturiser I've used. Honestly, it's the only one I've ever tried that stopped my skin feeling tight and dry for more than an hour or two.

Since trying this moisturiser I've started using their Mild Cleansing Milk. Clarifying Toner and Dermo Purifyer Night Care Cream.  The Night Cream can feel a little bit sticky on the skin after applying but they have really made a huge difference to my skin.

Eucerin have a very extensive range (and Boots have a good selection on their website). If you suffer at all with dry skin I really, really recommend it. It's not particularly expensive as skincare goes and I definitely wouldn't use anything else now.  A friend of mine also recently recommended the childrens sun spray as being very good for baby's senstive skin. So, I'll be giving that a try this summer!

N
xx

Taz of Taz-Mania

If you are of a certain age the title of this blog post will have you singing the theme tune to the cartoon Taz of Taz-Mania.

Here it is to remind you!

I seem to have given birth to a Tasmanian Devil. J is the happiest, smiliest baby. He is also a terror. I do not know how one small baby, who cannot even crawl yet can have so much energy or cause so much destruction. He. Never. Stops.

Moving, he's just always moving. Everything is fair game to be grabbed, chewed and ripped apart. He's almost systematic in the way he ransacks a room, despite not being very mobile. We call him Taz because he is like a whirlwind whipping through a room, destroying everything in his path and draining the energy of everyone around him. Even when I was pregnant he had me destroyed from the kicking and punching.

He is currently trying to skip crawling and walk instead. At the moment he can stand and pull himself up and sometimes takes some tentative steps but he is nowhere near walking unaided. This makes him more frustrated because he can't move where he wants. He is well capable of learning to crawl, he just hates being on the floor on his front in case he misses anything (J has a severe case of FOMO - fear of missing out) His joy in everything around him is wonderful and infectious but that excitement and enthusiasm for the world also has his parents exhausted. Even while sitting in his high chair and eating his body is constantly moving, his legs are kicking or he's doing a little dance.

The other day my Mum was minding him and told me afterwards I need to wait a while until the next one because J had her worn out. When I meet my other mum friends for coffee, most of their babies (especially the girls) are very placid, they'll sit there and chew on one toy or look peacefully around the room. J is of course, ransacking the room, grabbing everything within his reach, screeching or singing songs at the top of his voice and pulling at me to be lifted up, and then wanting to be put back down and then he wants to be lifted up again or to grab something out of his reach. Apparently it is a boy thing and I have talked to a few women who say their babies are similar.

Obviously, I wouldn't change him for the world. The excitement he has in his surroundings makes you look at the world in a different way and it really is infectious. It makes him a lot of fun and I spend my days cracking up laughing at his shenanigans. I am exhausted though.

Does anyone out there have a similar baby? Maybe one who grew out of it and calmed down a little bit? I think I'm in for a world of pain once he can run around the place. Watch this space!

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Mothers Day and a New Spring Jacket

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mamas, Grandmamas and Godmothers out there. I had a lovely day with my family and J, Murdoch and Mr HNW spoiled me rotten. It was a perfect first Mothers Day. Part of my present was that I was off duty with J on Friday and Saturday night. So, what do you think happened? Yes, he slept through the night both nights and Mr HNW didn't have to get up at all! Him sleeping through the night for the first time is the best Mothers Day Present I could have had though. 

Today, I went to church, then for a walk with J and Mr HNW and then had my parents and brother over for a lovely Sunday roast. It was a beautiful spring day, made brighter by the clocks going forward last night so it was the perfect day to debut my new Spring/Summer jacket. 

I had a post before on my dilemma surrounding the Fat Face Lymington Jacket. I couldn't decide whether to get it in yellow or navy or if is was too similar to a Superdry jacket I already own. Very important decisions, I know.

My humming and hawing resulted in me buying a different jacket, albeit still from Fat Face.

This is the Roseanne jacket and is much lighter than the Lymington jacket. It's shower proof and has a big hood which Í know will come in handy. It's much more of a summer jacket and it comes in more colours too. Again I was vacillating between two colours. I tried the mint on in the shop and it was lovely but yellow was still calling to me. Unfortunately no shops near me had the yellow in stock so I had to chance it and order it online. Thankfully, when you order online you can get it delivered to the shop for free so I had the opportunity to try it on there along with the other colours.

As you can see, the yellow won out. The colour just makes me feel happy and I'm loving yellow and navy at the moment. I decided when thinking about it that a lighter jacket would be more useful, as I don't really have anything for the cool summer I'm sure we're about to have! The other Lymington jacket was just too similar to jackets I already own.

When I was picking up the jacket I spotted the yellow and navy top in Marks and Spencer for €24. As soon as I saw it I know it would go with the jacket perfectly and at a great price too. I love the navy and yellow together and it will be such a useful piece (I'm never sure about the use of the word piece, I'm thinking it's a bit knobby but I can't think of a substitute!)

What I am on the hunt for now is a navy and yellow scarf to go with the jacket. I can't find one for love nor money. I've been trawling the internet and the shops but no luck so far. I've found a few with black and a bit of yellow in them but I'm really stuck on finding one with a navy/yellow combo. I know if I can find one it will become a great staple for the summer and I'll be able to throw on the jacket, scarf and jeans and be out the door. If anyone comes across one please let me know!

N
xxx

My Mother's Day Munchkin! 

Gap - Spring Edit

Instead of my usual shopping online, I was actually out in the shops this week. I ordered a jacket from Fat Face (more on that later) and had it delivered to the store instead of paying delivery charges so it was a good excuse for a mosey around the shops.

Surprisingly (at least to me) most shops were having a mid-season sale. I don't remember things being on sale in March before but maybe I just didn't pay much attention to it before.

Gap currently have 30% - 50% off a lot of styles. Now that's what I call a discount (Boden, I'm looking at you. Anything I fancied there was only 10% off, which is just not enough to put an order in).

The reason I went to Gap was to buy a new pair of jeans. I bought a pair of 1969 legging cords in the January sales and I am getting a lot of wear out of them. They're a great fit. So I thought a pair of leggings jeans would be a good purchase. Luckily the jeans I had my eye on were 30% off. It would have been madness not to get a pair!

These are the 1969 legging jeans in Santa Cruz blue. They're currently reduced to €34.97. What makes me even happier about these is that I've been trying to lose a bit of weight recently and it seems to have had some effect. I had to buy these in a size 8 (a 26 waist). Is there any better feeling?

The reason I've no picture of myself in these jeans is that they didn't have my size in the shop I was in but the very friendly staff reserved them in another shop and my friend Emma went to pick them up for me on her lunchbreak (she is a saint!).

I'm tempted to buy a pair of their boyfriend jeans now too but I'm spent out for this month. I bought a pair of boyfriend jeans in South Africa and I love them but they've got very loose on me recently so they're starting to look a bit silly. Maybe next month!

I also bought this Luxlight sweater. It was reduced in store to €17.47 although it is not reduced online. I bought a light grey colour which also doesn't seem to be online, which is very strange. It comes in a variety of colours and I'm kind of wishing I got it in the lemon yellow or winter peach. It is a lovely soft and silky knit.

So, there are some good bargains to be had, especially if you have had your eye on something. The staff told me the promotion online is slightly different in store than online, which is presumably why I got the above jumper on sale. There certainly seemed to be more stock reduced in store than online to me so it might be worthwhile taking a look if there is a shop near you.

N
xxxx

Baby Pearls

We've had a very nice weekend celebrating my lovely friend Jane's birthday. A weekend of good friends, board games, pizza, manicures and lots of laughs. Also, my parents took J last night and we actually got some sleep and a lie-in. Heaven!

I am deluding myself that the weather is getting warmer but in reality, it just seems to have gone a bit haywire and can't decide what season it is. We've gone from sunny and warm to very cold with hail, all in the space of a few hours and I'm finding it hard to dress accordingly. I've just accepted that sometimes I'm going to be a bit cold at the moment.

It does mean that for the first time this I was able to snap a few quick pics outside. We live in an apartment so no direct access to a garden and as Mr HNW works during daylight hours it makes getting pics in good light quite hard. I did manage to snatch a little bit of time outside today.

Wearing here my new Boden stripy Henley top, Topsop Baxter jeans and my gold pumps from Warehouse.

I love statement necklaces, there are some lovely ones out there at the moment and they're a great way to wear the current season's colours without buying lots of clothes that you might not get a lot of wear out of. Unfortunately, I have a 9 month old baby who also loves statement necklaces, as in he loves to pull and pull and pull at them until they snap, then he likes to eat them. A few of my favourite necklaces have gone to the big jewellery box in the sky so I have to be very careful about wearing them during the day now.

I did find a good solution while we were in South Africa though - Baby Pearls and I'm wearing mine in the photo above.

I came across these when we visited a cute little baby shop in Johannesburg looking for cloth nappy supplies (which they sadly didn't have). I was immediately taken with what a good idea they are, a necklace in funky colours that look good on Mummy but are made of silicone so baby can also safely chew them. It has a breakaway clasp as well so that if J pulls the necklace (which of course, he does) it just comes off.

J never stays still so is blurry in a lot of photos and this was the best we could capture. He does love to gnaw on them though. They come in eighteen bright colours and they have matching bracelets too. The company also advise that swapping the bracelets from wrist to wrist are a good way to remember which side you breastfed on last, which I think is a great idea.

Baby Pearls are made and sold in South Africa but they do ship worldwide. I did find another company called Koo-Di selling a similar product, but the colours are quite muted, just whites, blacks and greys which frankly, don't do it for me. They are having a flash sale on the necklaces at the moment though which is always nice!

There is also a company called Jellystone that do silicone teething pendants and necklaces and bracelets

I'm not sure I like the fact that the necklace doesn't have silicone beads all the way around but the silicone owl pendant is pretty funky.

So, for any ladies out there whose baba is destroying their jewellery here is a good back-up option!

N
xxx