Recipe | Prawn Saganaki

Also known as garlic prawns, this tasty, quick, simple and healthy recipe can be made mostly from items that you can store in your cupboard or freezer. It is a recipe that I recently discovered whilst doing a low-carb kick and have made it several times since. Be warned I am not a chef nor do I claim to be a good cook, so when I find something this delicious and easy I tend to rave on a bit and add it to my midweek “go-to” recipes.

Ingredients:

  • 300g of thawed Frozen or fresh green prawn meat (you can generally buy this in the deli or freezer section of your local supermarket)
  • 400g tin of diced tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato paste (optional)
  • 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  • 100g Danish Feta
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 1 small brown onion diced (most types of onion would work)
  • 1/2 or 1 teaspoon of chili powder (make it to your taste)
  • 1-2 tablespoons of herbs fresh or dried, I use a variety of thyme, corriander, parsley, marjoram, or oregano depending on what is in the garden/cupboard
  • Salt and pepper to taste.
  • Optional – small piece of crusty toast.

Destructions (my version of instructions):
Set aside some herbs (before chopping) and a few chunks of feta for garnish if you want to get fancy.
Heat oil in a medium saucepan, add garlic and onion and heat until onion becomes clear.
Add tin of diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chili and herbs, heat all ingredients until it is bubbling about 5 mins.
Add prawns and feta bring back to boil then lower to a medium heat and stir occasionally until prawns are cooked, about another 5 mins.
Place into individual bowls, garnish with remaining feta and top with herbs.
Serves: 2

Nutritional Info per serve: (you will find this on most of my recipes as I can be slightly calorie/carb obsessed)
Note this does not include the bread
Calories 378
Carbs 16
Fat 12
Protein 40
Sugar 10
Sodium 739

Enjoy!

The Week That Was # 1

So my first week of this part of my journey has gone pretty well exercise wise.

Monday Morning I went for an early(ish) morning swim, I don’t do 5am like these Olympians but I was able to drop Miss 2.75 off at Daycare at 7.15am and be at the pool by 7.30. I have managed to find myself a swim coach, he hasn’t asked for payment (yet) so I have been lucky. He just gives me some drills to do and leaves me to my own devices and I see him about once month and then practice my drills once (or twice if I can make it) a week. Otherwise I would just plod out 1k get out and go to work. So my warm up was 300m which I did in 8.10, this is the distance I have to do for the Triathlon in Oct so my goal is to get this a bit quicker.

Monday Night at 7pm I saw my personal trainer Ian at Pioneer Fitness and I asked if I could do some Benchmarks that I saw on Shannan Ponton’s 8 week Challenge.*

Pic with Shannan Ponton from The Biggest Loser Australia, so devestated the only shot I got was blurry.

*Sidenote I am a huge fan of The Biggest Loser Australia trainers, Shannan Ponton, Michelle Bridges and The Commando and follow all of them on Facebook.

I started with a 10 minute warm up on the rower and then did a slight variation of the benchmark drills which consisted of:

1klm run                                                                             7min 13 sec
Sit ups in 60 sec (full wrist to knee, not crunches)             25
Push ups in 60 seconds (knees)                                        28
Burpees in 60 seconds                                                      11 (these things are hell)
Concept 2 Rowing Machine 2 minutes                              526m (previous best for this time was 505m)

My aim is to do these again in 8 weeks’ time and see my improvement.

Tuesday Evening I attended my first Contours Woonona class, I joined Contours a week ago because they are going through a revamp and will be re-opening in 1.5 weeks as EnVie Fitness. With the revamp comes childcare and a lot more classes, something that appealed to me more than the current Contours format. With the studio being closed for the revamp classes are currently being run outdoors and in School Halls and Surf Clubs. I went to a Tabata class, as a newbie I wanted to know what I was getting myself into, so I asked the question on Contours Facebook Page, what is Tabata, the reply Tabata is high-intensity interval training session using alternating periods of short intense exercise with less-intense recovery periods. It’s a short intense workout – lots of fun! Alex :)”

Thanks Alex, but “Tabata” and “Fun” are two words that should not be used in the same sentence. You do 8 consecutive sets of the same exercise 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 second rest, so by the time you get to the last couple of sets your muscles are exhausted. It was about 15 mins of fun (ie the first 3 sets of each exercise) and then 30 minutes of hell. Exercises consisted of squats, lunges, push-ups both normal and biceps, crunches etc etc, most of these whilst holding weights above your heads or doing arm weights in conjunction with the other exercises. Will I go back, of course, from all the Googling I did to research this post Tabata it is a great calorie burner in a short space of time.

Wednesday morning, with aching muscles from previous night’s class, I rested. I did head back to my personal trainer in the evening for session of Indoor rowing, spin bike, weights, running and then a Rowing relay with my 3 training buddies. A rowing relay is a 2000m race with each person rowing 500m and then changing over as fast as possible.

Thursday Afternoon I headed to a Contours Boxing class, another 45 minutes of hell. The girls in this class who have been coming for a long time were boxing at a blistering pace, putting my speed to shame, arms were so tired after this so I guess it was “Mission Accomplished”.

Friday had a full day of rest. Well as much rest as you can have with a toddler and a full working day. For those who don’t know me or I haven’t caught up with lately, I am currently working Mon, Wed and Friday.

Saturday had a lazy morning in PJ’s playing with Miss 2.75 and then felt a tiny urge to go for a jalk (jog/walk); I could have sooooo easily stayed on the lounge. But I dragged myself out and it was a glorious winter day and had a distance in my head of 6k. So after a little walk to warm up I hit the button on my Runkeeper and hit the pavement.  I made the 3k fairly easily at 4k I wanted to stop, 5k really really wanted to stop, but I made the 6k at a very slow pace, but jogged the whole way. (Definitely would not have called it a run).

Sunday (today) – a very well deserved day of rest from exercise, although we did have a hectic day of family Birthdays. My nephew’s 9th Birthday for lunch and then in the opposite direction with The Outlaws (aka an affectionate name for hubby’s family) birthday celebrations with a really nice family dinner and a very rare occasion that everyone managed to attend. I ate waaaay too much food today.

So to wrap up the week I think my exercise was pretty good and I will try to do a similar amount next week, but my food has let me down. Next weeks’ challenge is to log all my food in My Fitness Pal, I know when I do this it makes me accountable and stop mindless eating and for all my friends on My Fitness Pal, yes I am going to open up my privacy settings on my food diary so you can see how good (I hope) I am going to be, haha. If you want to follow along my user name is mrzcracker.

Starting Stats

I weigh and/or measure on a Wednesday morning.

Today’s weight 22 August 2012, and lets call this my starting weight for this personal journey is:

107.5kgs (237lb)

Bust                116cm Waist              117cm Hips                126cm Thigh (1)           71cm Upper Arm (1)   35cm

Growing Up

During childhood, School Sports Carnivals etc, RUNNING has been my nemesis, I don’t recall ever being able to run any more than the 100m sprint at the Sports Carnivals, I was used to being added as the 4thperson for the Relay, and “Cross Country” day was my worst nightmare. I never trained, nor desired to for running. As I could handle short distances I enjoyed playing Softball.As a family we used to walk around the block when Ma n Pa were on a health kick, do aerobics at the school hall when they were in the mood, but our main form of exercise as a family was Horse riding.

Aged about 15 weighing around 70 kilos (154lb)

Because Horse riding was fun it never ever felt like exercise, but looking back the amount of time I spent in the saddle it up was some serious exercise. 15 years of leisure and competitive horse riding in a variety of disciplines were the best years of my childhood. But all that riding didn’t make me fit in any other sports.

I was also a competent swimmer but never trained for that either, just playing around in our backyard pool, so I had no stamina for swimming or any other exercise.

I was always 1 of the fatter kids at school but looking back I was not that fat at all. (I wish I was that fat now)

Goal Setting

I have been to enough business seminars over the year to know that Goals must be SMART. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

Oh who really does that, not me and this could be why I have failed in the past. I am going to blurt mine out exactly how I want and maybe througout this process I will alter them to follow the rules. (use Ctrl + click for the links to work)

No.1– Keep the work, life, family life, exercise balance in order to keep everyone happy. Not as easy as it seems, Mummy/wife guilt get the better of me so much I don’t know how to escape this sometimes. I was aiming to do 1 event per month at most, to keep the balance right, but it seems February 2013 is a bit hectic.

No. 2 – Complete the Pink Triathlon (longest distance) – 6 Oct 2012 – Homebush, Sydney NSW – I have signed up, paid my money, no backing out now, just train hard. My goal is to not come last, I know someone has to but I just don’t want it to be me. Pink Triathlon

No.3 – Compete at NSW Indoor Rowing Championships – 17 November 2012 – Blacktown NSW – My goal is to do a PB in 500m and 4 minute events and hopefully win a medal and have some fun in the relay event. NSW Indoor Rowing Championships

No. 4 – Mud Run – 1st December 2012 – Sydney International Equestrian Centre – this looks like fun and fitness all rolled into 1. My goal is to round up a stack of friends to do this with me and have a great time. Mud Run

No. 5possibly compete in lllawarra Aquathon, Short Course – 26 January 2013 – Belmore Basin Wollongong NSW – My goal is to start and finish, nothing more. Illawarra Aquathon

No. 6 – Warrior Dash – 9 February 2013 – Picton NSW – 5.44km Obstacle Course, run and have fun. Warrior Dash

No. 7 – Husky Triathlon – 16 February 2013 – Husskison NSW – Enticer – Goal to start and finish and improve individual elements from the Pink Triathlon. NOTE: this is just days before my 40th Birthday. Husky Triathlon

No. 8 – Weight Goal – this is a tough one and a biggy that will definitely help with all my other goals, I don’t know what I can achieve in 6 months. A realistic goal would be about a 12kg loss, but I would like to lose 15-20kgs. I feel like since my last 12 months plateau I don’t know how to get out of this. I need to set myself some mini goals and probably need some help in this area.

Who am I?

I am Rachael a 39.5 year old wife and mother of Miss 2.75.

So here I start 6 months before my 40th Birthday, debating whether I am going through a mid-life crisis and freaking out by focusing on exercise and trying, trying, trying to eat better.

I have a wonderful husband, family and friends who support me in everything I do, we have a daughter “Miss 2.75” who is adorable, cheeky, a little bit naughty, super cute and super super smart.

This is a recent photo weighing in at 108kgs. Taken at Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Tasmania, Australia

Fat to Fit and Fabulous by Forty is a blog about my current journey of weight-loss and fitness, my personal challenges, food addiction, insecurities and everything that goes along with being “Double Extra Gorgeous” and just wanting to be “Mildly Extra Gorgeous”, not to mention how the hell I got here in the first place. I am a fun, “CAN DO” kind of person, I will have a go an anything once, and if I love it will do it again and again, I think that is where my addictive personality comes out. I see myself as the “Funny Fat” girl. I have been overweight all of my life, always being the biggest at school (or so I though) and blossoming in my 20’s, excessively blossoming in my 30’s and hitting my biggest after our Honeymoon and then exploding during pregnancy. To give you some idea I am 168cm tall and on my Wedding Day I weighed 124kgs, after the Honeymoon (6-8 weeks later) weighed 132kgs and on the day I gave birth was 146kgs and was 146cm around the middle (coincidence) who knows.

About 8 months after I having our daughter, hubby and I both decided to have “Lap Band Surgery”, we had debated it prior to our wedding but thought we could do it (lose weight) on our own. We were of the opinion 1 in all in (ie both of us should do it or not at all) and he decided against it, so I chickened out as well. But it is amazing what bringing a small person into your life will do, the desire to live longer, be healthier and not inflict your poor food choices onto your “Offspring” becomes a major priority. My parents helped us out financially with the “Gap” costs of the surgery and we were very much supported by both our families.

So here I am about 25kgs down from prior to the Surgery and weighing in at 107.7kgs, I have plateaued for about 12 months going up and down by a couple of kgs over that time.

I invite you to follow my journey for the next 6 months to see if I can achieve my weight loss and fitness goals.

Rachael