I’ve now lost about 11-12kgs, my clothes are swimming on me. We are still sticking to low carb. Last Sunday I cooked a silverside beef roast in the crock pot in a tin of tomato and a box of organic broth. 

  
I would normally cook my pot roast in cream of mushroom soup with carrots and potatoes added in before we started Banting, so instead I parboiled sweet potatoes, scraped off the skins, sliced into medallions and lined a glass dish with them, alternating the laters of sweet potato with layers of mozzarella. I mixed cream with half of a container of marscapone and poured this over the layers of sweet potato and cheese and baked til brown and bubbly.

  
To go with it I just steamed baby broccoli.

  
It was sooooo yummy! Sweet potato is on the orange list so I had to limit my serving. The sweetness of the potato and the bitterness of the broccoli were a nice balance. The beef was so tender. 

Monday I asked Norm to get cauliflower for caulimash cottage pie as I had made my meat mixture on Sunday so it was a breeze to just steam and purée the cauliflower and spread on top the meat. The girls love cottage pie made this way more than they do with potato. Sweet potato is better when it’s reheated. I left that morning before 7 and only got home at 7 so it was good to have been prepared.

Tuesday afternoon was the Women Against Crime Event and several of the girls from book club attended as well as Caitlin and many others.

  Photo credit Facebook.

Afterwards the girls came to join the rest of us book club girls for dinner at Massimo’s in Hout Bay. It’s my favorite pizza place. We had a lot of wine and chatted lots as always.

I had the pizza that was on special. It had pulled pork, mushrooms, basil and walnuts. 

  
It was R125. We had a lovely evening. I don’t see those ladies at all some months except for when we go to book club. 

I wrote last week about the knives I had purchased from Yuppiechef. They asked me to review them so I did!

  
I was surprised that they published it! It made me laugh. 

Wednesday I was knackered and home so late that we ordered take aways. Thursday I made dinner from the bits and pieces left in the fridge. 

  
I roasted a bag of pumpkin, sliced aubergines and baked them then once soft I topped them with mozzarella and cooked a bit longer. To go with I made a big spinach salad with tomato, avocado, and topped it off with grated fresh Parmesan. Simple to prepare and healthy after a day at work. 

We had a bit of odd misty weather this week.

  
The temperature cooled off and it was quite pleasant. 

On Friday Lily had to sort her tax at SARS at the foreshore so she came to meet me for lunch afterwards. We went to Cocoa Express right by my office. 

I had a chicken and bacon salad.

  

It was supposed to be a Caesar but there was nothing resembling a Caesar. It was nice, just not what I expected. I avoided the bread.

It started raining as the sun was setting on Friday. We are in a water scarce country and currently experiencing a drought which is resulting in water restrictions. We need the rain badly so I won’t complain but it did result in my hair looking like this:

 

Lila and Nigel flew down today.  
 

We met up with my friends whom I’ve known for about 25 years. Nicola and Lila have children the same ages as mine and we all were pals when they were very small. Nicola and I have both remarried but Lila and Nigel have endured! They live in Johannesburg and it was interesting hearing the comparison between the two South African cities. One DA led, one ANC led. Cape Town which is DA managed is clean, reasonably efficient, with good roads and no potholes, and traffic lights that function. In Joburg half the traffic lights don’t work, and people don’t often stop even when they do as the highjackings and smash and grabs are so prevalent you only stop if forced. The roads are littered with potholes.

  
The only reason the pariestatal electricity supplier Eskom (which the ANC is responsible for) has not been implementing load shedding is due to the economic downturn. This means industry production is generally down and therefore the demand on the grid has lessened.

Anyway. Will this change? We can only hope.

We went to Peddlars & Co. It’s pretty central and as we are scattered in Simonstown, Hout Bay and Newlands it seemed a good choice.

For our Starter we all had the Salad Caprese. It had a creamy mozzarella which was unusual. It was more like ricotta. But it was good. 

  

For my Main I had the fillet steak with truffle mash and asparagus. It was divine.

  

Nigel was the only one who had Dessert it looked yummy.

  

Norman ordered the Cheese platter instead of a sweet.

  
It was more of a bread platter than a cheese platter. No hard cheeses at all. It was ok.

It was lovely seeing them all again and we were the last to leave the restaurant. It was a great, relaxed evening with good friends. 

Saturday Pixie had a Chiro appointment and Lily kindly agreed to take her as I had a hair appointment in town. 

   
 

She had a blast. Cute little vixen.

While they were out I made bacon, eggs, avocado and tomatoes. After brunch I went into the CBD to Mop Hair to see Leandra. 

  
It’s such a lovely venue and Thembi gives the most amazing head and neck massage when washing. Heaven. Thembi lives in Hout Bay and I was the last client for the day and so I gave Thembi a lift home then cruised on to Pic n Pay to try and find new jeans that fit. 

On Friday I wore my smallest jeans but they were so huge! My belt was down to the tightest notch, 4 notches from its normal notch. But as I intend to lose more I don’t want to spend much on clothing. Pic n Pay was perfect. I arrived a few minutes before closing but in plenty of time to grab what I estimated my size to be and quickly try them on. Except there was a mom and daughter in the only 2 changing rooms. I waited and waited. The shop assistant told me they were closing but I told her I would hurry. The mom finally emerged, blinking and frizzy haired, clutching 1 item of clothing.

WTF had she been doing in there for so long? I’ve given birth in less time and looked less frazzled on the other side of it.

I tried on 4 pairs of jeans and 2 pair fit me perfectly! They were 2 sizes smaller than the size I wore when I started my new way of eating. This is a quick pic Lily took on our way out.

  
That evening we were invited to a friend’s birthday party but we didn’t know there was going to be food so we decided to grab a quick bite at Papino’s. 

  
Norm had a lot of sun on Saturday watching a footy match in case you are wondering about his rosy cheeks. 

For dinner I had a gorgeous piece of Kingklip in a lemony butter sauce from their specials board. That sauce was delicious.

 

Norm was ravenous and had the Hollandse Biefstuk at R145. It’s cooked in brandy and he said the sauce could have reduced a bit more, the brandy tasted very strong.

 But it was a nice steak and we enjoyed our food then dashed off to Spiro’s for the party. The speeches were underway when we arrived and it was very sweet to hear how much Cyril’s family adore their Dad. 

After the speeches they packed away the tables and we danced and danced. 

We also acted silly modeling the party favours.

   
 
  
I woke feeling a bit worse for wear today! I’m out to a friend’s leaving party tonight at the waterfront. Luckily Monday is a public holiday and I have a day to rest!