Steak & chips

Our meal was fantastic. We cooked our own oven chips too.  Simply boil the chipped potatoes for a few minutes, drain, then coat in olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  The maris piper potato was delicious and although they took a while to cook through, they were worth the wait.

For the mushroom sauce, we soaked a small bowlful of dried mushrooms for a few hours, then used the liquid to make the sauce.  We added some mustard, brandy, salt/pepper and a little beef stock and simmered the mixture and added some sliced fresh mushrooms.

The carrots were cooked in orange juice & zest.  They took on the flavour of the oranges and were sweet and delicious too.

The calories in this meal would probably add up to around 700-800.  We eat more at the weekends in general,  and tend not to be too strict about our calorie intake.  We've been following our "formula" for weight loss for just over a year now, and have found this casual approach is more natural and sustainable.  The weight took a long time to pile on, so if it takes us a couple of years to get rid of the excess - while eating this sort of food - then that's what we'll do.  I have a sneaky feeling that we might get a nice drop in weight at our next weigh in.