Tag: <span>Taster Night</span>

Eating in Slimming World Classno eating in class
Published Mon, 3rd Apr 2017

Eating in Slimming World Class

There’s a unwritten etiquette to eating in a Slimming World class.

If you’re having a Taster Night, then it’s expected for you to bring and eat something in class. But what about the rest of the time?

Depending on the time of day, and how much you have starved yourself prior to your weigh-in, may determine whether you feel compelled to eat in class. You may be fresh along from work, having skipped lunch, and starving hungry. You may have been out for a couple of hours of last-minute body magic, to try and burn off a couple of pounds. Or you might not have eaten at all for the last 3 days! And in those situations you may not have the energy to sit through a full hour of image therapy without some sustenance inside you. After all, all that clapping and encouraging other people is hard work!

But does that mean you can bring along your dinner, and munch your way through the entire class?

I go to a 5.30pm group, and pretty-much everyone is attending before having dinner. So it’s common to see people having a discrete snack – after weigh-in of course! Freshly purchased hi-fi bars seem to be a favourite, as well as fruit. Anything healthy, speedy or free seems to be fair game, although I’m not sure what reaction anyone would get if they started tucking into a big Tupperware dish of pasta.

I think it’s also fair to say that it may be frowned upon to try an order a Domino’s pizza or fish supper to be delivered to class! Whatever you indulge in a post-class blowout is between you and your maker, but it’s probably best not to be seen to be off-plan during the class itself – that is, unless you order enough pizza for everyone!

But that’s just my class. What’s your experience? Do people eat during your class?

Slimming World

Class Eating Off-Plan Taster Night

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Couple of the Yearcouple of the year
Published Thu, 2nd Feb 2017

Couple of the Year

We were awarded Couple of the Year at our Slimming World class this week.

In fairness, there wasn’t much competition. We’re the only couple that come to class together, so there wasn’t even a vote. We got the award by default. But I’m not complaining – it’s another sticker for my book!

I really do think that it helps that we’re both doing Slimming World together. It means that:

  • We encourage each other. We celebrate each other’s victories, and are there to commiserate and support each other when we fall off the wagon.
  • We don’t lead each other astray. It’s hard to keep your will power when your partner comes home with a high-syn takeaway or a load of crisps and chocolate!
  • We don’t have high-syn food in the house. We don’t need to cater for one person who’s on-plan and another that wants loads of treats in the cupboards.
  • We share the cooking. When you’re food optimising the time it takes to prepare meals can increase. By sharing the cooking it means that the time spent chopping up all those vegetables doesn’t seem so bad.

It’s a real shame that more men don’t join their wives and girlfriend to join Slimming World. After all, there are plenty of overweight guys out there that could do with shifting a few pounds.

I know that slimming clubs can be a bit intimidating for men, and it’s true that women do dominate in terms of attendance. But I would say to any guys out there, don’t let that put you off!

We also had a taster night this week, where people brought along lots of different syn-free and low-syn treats for everyone to try.

I made some Chickpea Patties that seemed to go down very well. I like my Indian food quite spicy, so I increased the spices from what’s in the recipe – tasting it along the way until I got them right!

My Story Slimming World

Awards Chickpea Patties Couple of the Year Taster Night

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Vegetable Currysyn free vegetable curry
Published Wed, 2nd Nov 2016

Vegetable Curry

Syns: None
Serves: 8
Prep/Cooking Time: 60 mins

Syn-Free Vegetable Curry

I decided with about 2 hours notice to cook something for the taster night at my Slimming World group. And for some reason I picked a vegetable curry – not something I had ever done before. And I’m not using any recipe, so it’s a bit of a voyage into the unknown. I just hope it turns out OK!

Ingredients

  • A few squirts of Frylight or spray oil
  • 2 large white onions, chopped finely
  • 2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
  • 1 aubergine, diced
  • 2 courgettes, diced
  • 3 bell peppers, diced
  • 200g mushrooms, chopped
  • 2 cans of chickpeas
  • 2 cans of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 packet of passata
  • 2 vegetable stock cubes, made up in 300ml of hot water
  • 3 heaped teaspoons of ground cumin
  • 3 heaped teaspoons of ground coriander
  • 3 heaped teaspoons of ground turmeric
  • 3 heaped teaspoons of curry powder
  • 150g pot of fat-free natural yoghurt

Method

  1. Add a few squirts of Frylight / spray oil into a pan, and then added the onions and garlic, and fry gently for a few minutes until softened.
  2. Add the aubergine, courgettes, peppers and stir in.
  3. Add all the spices. Reduce the quantities if you don’t like your curry too spicy, or ramp them up if you want to blow your mind!
  4. Add the cans of tomatoes, passata and vegetable stock.
  5. Add the chickpeas and mushrooms.
  6. Stir, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste, and if not spicy enough, add more spices.
  7. Stir in some fat-free natural yoghurt just before serving. Be sure not to boil the curry once you’ve added the yoghurt or it’ll curdle!

Serve with rice, or just on it’s own. For the taster night, I’m taking along some Pataks Pappadums that are only 1½ syns each.

Recipes Slimming World

Batch Cooking Curry Taster Night Vegetables

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Taster Nightshock 2757395 1920
Published Wed, 2nd Nov 2016

Taster Night

It’s a taster night tonight at our Slimming Group, and no doubt this afternoon all the members of the group are frantically scraping something together to bring along.

You could see the looks of horror on people’s faces (and the colour drain from their cheeks) last week as Kate, our consultant, announced we were going to have another taster night. It’s not that a taster night is a horrible experience in itself. It’s just the hassle of having to prepare some food to bring along.

It’s not as if you can bring just any old food. It needs to be healthy food, of course. And syn-free if possible, And something appetising. And something impressive. And something that people can easily sample in a buffet setting. So the list of options becomes ever narrower, and most of the group ends up spending the entire week googling taster night ideas.

And then of course, there’s the etiquette of approaching the table on the night. We present our tupperware offering on the table, and stand back. But as a group of fatties, we’ve all felt the fear of being judged by others for approaching a buffet table too quickly. And so invariably nobody touches the food for a good 20 minutes. We all gaze longingly at the table laden with goodies, occasionally wiping away the drool off our chins, but don’t dare to be seen as the first one to look like a greedy guts!

Eventually someone breaks the blockage, and dares to take a celery stick, and then the crowds rush forth. And within minutes all the good stuff has gone! It’s like a plague of locusts has descended and picked the table clean!

It’s only after you’ve polished off your third piece of cake that the person who made it finally admits that it’s full of sugar and fat, and is actually 12 syns a portion. Bugger!

Anyway, so the reason why we’re having a taster night tonight is that we’re also voting for Miss Slinky and Mr Sleek in class. It doesn’t seem any time since we were voting for Woman and Man of the Year, and I’m not entirely such what the difference is between the two competitions. Maybe it’s just so that someone else gets the chance to win something! Which seems fair. In my group there’s only two regular blokes that attend, and I won Man of the Year a couple of months ago, so maybe it’s the other guy’s turn?

My Story Slimming World

Miss Slinky Mr Sleek Taster Night

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Two Stone Loss, Taster Night, and Man of the Yeartwo stones and man of the year
Published Thu, 18th Aug 2016

Two Stone Loss, Taster Night, and Man of the Year

Yesterday was a pretty epic night for me in my Slimming World class.

Two Stone Loss

I was delighted to achieve my two stone loss. This comes just 7 weeks after starting at Slimming World, which is pretty rapid progress! In fact, it’s an average loss of 4 pounds per week!

I am really pleased to be doing so well, and to know that it’s ‘working’. However, I realise that I’m not going to be able to keep up such a blistering pace as I go forward from here. If I can lose an average of 2 pounds per week for the next stone I think I’ll be doing well.

Taster Night

Taster Nights are those when everyone in class is invited to bring in food – sweet or savoury items – that they have cooked, and (like the name suggests) we all get to taste them. People can also share their recipes with the rest of class, and get some inspiration for things to try at home.

I decided to join in and cooked some Bombay Bhajis and Raita following a recipe from the SW website. I couldn’t find any Bombay Spice Mix in the supermarket, and so I used the Garam Masala spice mix instead, which gives a milder flavour. You could add extra curry powder and spices if you prefer more of a kick!

Anyway, they seemed to go down well with the class, and loads of people were asking about the recipe.

Man of the Year

The reason we were having a Taster Night at class was because we were also voting for the Man of the Year and Woman of the Year awards. These aren’t the national competitions that get reported in the press, which tend to feature people that have lost 10 stones – these are to pick the people within the class that have inspired you.

The nominations took place last week, and from within the three men that attend the class (stiff competition, eh?), two of us were nominated. The nominees were then invited to tell the class a little about why they come, and what they get from Slimming World, and then the class vote for the winner.

And I won!

I got a certificate, a rather fetching red tie with “Man of the Year” written on it, a sticker for my book, and a lovely gift that was hand-made by my consultant.

I was also very humbled and grateful for all the people who voted for me. I’ve not been coming to the class for very long, and so I was pretty surprised to even be eligible to be nominated.

My Story Slimming World

Man of the Year Progress Taster Night

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