Tinned Tomatoes: losing weight

Orange, Carrot and Goats Cheese Salad with Pumpkin Seeds

I've enjoyed salads all Winter. Even though I was in soup mode, the salads weren't shelved like they usually are during the cold months.

This salad was zingy and fresh with a good variety of textures and flavours. Salad leaves, thinly sliced carrots, radishes and orange, topped with little balls of creamy goats cheese rolled in crushed pumpkin seeds, dressed with a fresh orange and honey dressing and finished with a scattering of pumpkin seeds.

It was salad for one, but very easy to scale up. I used juicy Navel oranges, but this would also be good with clementines.

This salad would be great to have as part of #jumpstart15.

Not heard of Jumpstart 2015 yet?

It's a food blogger health plan to kickstart the year. It's about increasing the fruit and vegetables in your diet, drinking lots of water and giving up alcohol, to give your body a fresh start. We are hoping for more energy and to lose a bit of weight, without doing anything faddy or counting calories.

Jumpstart 2015

A freshly made smoothie or juice for breakfast and lunch
Drink more water
No alcohol (this is optional, but I know most of my extra calories come from wine, so I’m adding this into my personal plan)
Eat more soups
Normal meal in the evening
Chocolate craving? Have a square of dark chocolate

So how is it going for me?

I am on day four now. I've found it ok to do. I really thought I would struggle with the no alcohol. I'm in the habit of having a glass of wine with dinner in the evening and they are generous glasses, then you could add another couple of glasses at the weekend and sometimes a pint or two of cider if I went to the pub after work on a Saturday, which I do twice a month. And I wondered why the weight was piling on.

The smoothies have been great. I've whizzed enough smoothie in my Optimum 9400 every morning for us all. The green smoothies have been my favourite, but I forgot to put Cooper's in a metal bottle, so he couldn't see the colour. So those have come back in the evening untouched. Note to self, be more sneaky!

I've found the diet easier to follow on working days. I was off yesterday and ended up having a couple of brioche finger rolls at lunchtime then in the evening I had an After Eight Mint, which lead to four.

Even though yesterday didn't quite go to plan, I'm feeling really positive about the plan and the scales tell me I've lost 2lbs already, which is great.

Are you joining me to Jumpstart 2015?

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Orange, Carrot and Goats Cheese Salad with Pumpkin Seeds

Written by Jacqueline Meldrum

January 8, 2014

A wintry salad with a zingy orange and honey dressing.

Ingredients

50g salad leaves
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 orange, thinly sliced
4 radishes, thinly sliced
4 tbsp creamy goats cheese
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, crushed, plus extra for scattering
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp fresh orange juice
a drizzle of honey
a good grinding of black pepper

Instructions

1. Layer up the salad on a plate, salad leaves, carrot, then radish. 2. Take a tsp of goats cheese and roll it in the ball, then roll in the crushed pumpkin seeds. Make five and add to the salad. 3. Whisk up the oil, orange juice and honey to make the dressing. 4. Scatter some pumpkin seeds over the salad and drizzle on some dressing. 5. Enjoy!

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