In the countdown to Christmas!

I find myself expecting excitedly as well as dreading the thought of the impending Christmas season. Last year I survived until Christmas Day, when I had some ice cream and the next day was harder than ever! I fooled myself into thinking and feeling that I would be fine and that I would be able to recover once the holiday season was over. Little did I know...
Well, so here I am. At my heaviest ever in the year 2011… Though still fifteen pounds down from my starting weight in July 2010. I guess I should be grateful for small mercies.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am taking miracle juice every morning for now. I have decided that I need it right now and though I wish to stick rigidly to the dukan diet this is the one concession I am allowing myself.
My latest invention is Abi's savoury oat bran thick soup or porridge:

Abi's savoury oat bran thick soup or porridge
(if you like crab or chicken sweet corn soup you love this as a dukan friendly alternative)

You will need one onion, 2 L of water, 500 g of fish such as smoked haddock or other white meat – ideally 500 g of chicken breast, three stock cubes (I used oxo vegetable stock cubes) and some pepper of your choice to taste. Six tablespoons of oatbran.

Instructions: put chopped onion, 2 L of water, 500 g of white meat in a pot and bring to the boil. Add your vegetable stock cubes and the pepper and leave to simmer for 20 min.
Add the oatbran, stir and leave simmering for 5 to 10 min..
This gives you three portions, each portion having a full days serving of oatbran, while in cruise phase.
You can divide it up into three different containers and decide how much of a serving you wish to have in any particular day then make up for your oatbran through other recipes, if you wish.

This is a good way for those who are lactose intolerant of those who wish to cut down on dairy products to have their oatbran intake.

A nutty variation on dukan chocolates specially for Christmas Day.
As I have stated on many occasions. I am a chocoholic!
While I have worked on weaning myself off the stuff, this is the season where chocolates pop-up everywhere. For me, it is like an alcoholic sitting in the middle of a self-service 'pub' and surviving the evening without a single drink then walking out later.
In the spirit of dukan not being about deprivation, I decided to make some emergency chocolates to help me resist any temptation to eat the fat filled ,sugary, commercial variations.
Mixed nuts such as hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, almonds are high in fat (but a healthy fat) and are low in carbohydrates. "Fererro Rocher" chocolates are easily "poppable" at this time. So I made a blend of mixed nuts by putting a handful in my blender to crush them. I mixed up my usual dukan chocolate mix of one spoon of cocoa powder, seven of skimmed milk powder and two of granulated Splenda. This time I used some hot water to give me a thick paste, then I roughly mixed in the handful of crushed nuts and made little balls by rolling in the nuts.
I placed them in greaseproof paper and left in the refrigerator overnight. They are delicious and I don't know if I'm cured of chocolates, but I been able to control the number that I have been eating.
I would not do this often but I definitely will make a batch for the Christmas season... No ice cream for me this year. I am dukanning into Christmas and the new year this time so...Wish me luck!

Oh yes, my current goal is back to two hundred and ten pounds so my next goal is"one-derland!"