Chocolate Log

A festive Christmas log for a post roast pudding.

Luxury Chocolate Log

Ingredients (Serves 8)

1½oz/42g white self raising flour, sifted

½oz/14g cocoa powder

4 eggs

2oz/57g caster sugar

For the filling:

5oz/142g fat free natural fromage frais

11g sachet Options Hot Chocolate drink

artificial sweetener (to taste)

4ox/113g raspberries

To decorate:

Fresh redcurrants and holly leaves

How to:

- Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Sift the flour and cocoa together and set aside. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until thick and creamy. Fold in the flour and cocoa with a metal spoon.

- Spoon the mixture into a lined 30x20cm/12x8inch Swiss Roll tin and smooth the surface. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until cooked and springy to the touch.

- Turn out onto a sheet of lightly sugared baking parchment placed on top of a slightly damp, clean tea towel. Leave to cool and then remove the lining paper. Trim the edges.

- Mix the fromage frais with the Chocolate Options, reserving a little of the Options for dusting. Sweeten to taste, if necessary. Fold in the raspberries and spread over the chocolate sponge.

- Use the baking parchment and tea towel to help you roll up the sponge (don't worry if the sponge cracks a little - the chocolate powder will disguise it!).

Place on a serving plate and dust with the reserved options powder and decorate with the redcurrants and holly leaves.

Syns per serving: 3

This was taken from the Slimming World Christmas made Extra Easy cookbook.

Verdict:

This Week's Weight Loss Update & A Mini Target

I am extremely chuffed as this week saw me lose another 2.5lbs and become Slimmer of the Week!

I am definitely back on track now, and I just need to make sure I stick to it! I have kept a food diary, which I honestly believe stops me eating more naughty things than I normally would.

I have 2 pounds left to get where I need to be in terms of being at my smallest (that I was a week before Christmas) and then my three stone is calling. I have also set a mini target.

I go on holiday in 16 weeks, and by that point want my 4 stone award.

So I have 1 stone 5 to lose in 16 weeks - which is very achievable. 19 pounds over 16 weeks, as long as I have a one pound weight loss every week (and a couple of bigger ones to make sure it all adds up) then I can go on holiday happy I have met a target.

Also, this should take me into the size 16 clothes range, which will open up the market for holiday purchases a bit more.

I will buy a bikini, but as it is only me and my boy (and it is a private villa) only he will be subjected to my milky white stomach!!

Good luck for the week ahead slimmers - here is to a two pound loss!

First Week Back at SW post Holiday Break

Happy New Year! May 2011 be a year for shrinking!

So my first week back after Christmas, and I had been on plan for 6 of the 7 days, trying to eat in to some of the gain that I had managed to accumulate over Christmas. New Years eve hadn't gone quite to plan, so ended up being a serious flexi-syn day.

Flexi syns, for those that don't know are where you can have an unlimited amount of syns in a 24 hour period, counting everything that you have eaten/drunk, but when it comes to the end of the day calling it quits and drawing a line beneath it and starting afresh the next day. You don't have to cut down on your syn allowance for the rest of the week. It is mainly to do with the psychology of being in control.I was quite dubious after hearing about it, but have tried it and I can confirm that it works.

So my NYE ended up falling around the 100 syn mark (it was 96 to be exact) which is more than you are meant to have in an entire week, yet I still managed to have a 3lb loss this week!

Granted, it only makes a dent in the Christmas gain, but a dent all the same! I was hoping for a 2lb loss, so was chuffed with the 3lb.

Next week I would like to lose 2.5lb, as I don't have a night like New Year's Eve to interfere. I am planning more - and writing everything down. I bought a new filler for my Filofax that is day per page as opposed to a week over two which allows me enough space to record the food for the day! I find that if I know I have to write it down (and I am being completely honest - there really is no point in lying to yourself) I won't go over my syn allowance for the day. I have also started double checking syn values on Slimming World online and I am shocked at some of the things that I had convinced myself were lower! (So that is where the extra 35 syns a week creeped in...)

Also measuring my Healthy Extras - I have been having my porridge made up with water! It's so unusual! I think it makes it much more viscose than normal!

Anyway, that is today's update - I am feeling very positive at the moment, so I hope these vibes stay around. Bring on Wednesday!

Christmas and New Year

So I had my weigh in last night to tell me how I had been over the Christmas period. I knew I had been bad, but not as bad as it ended up being!

My last weigh in was on the 18th of December, as there wasn't a class in my normal Slimming World home before Christmas and I couldn't make any of the others. Unfortunately this made me act a little worse than if I had been able to make it to weigh in. I think I took my foot off the gas a few days earlier than if I had been to the class.

The result of this was a 7.5lb gain. For the first time I really do feel quite ashamed. Especially as the ladies around me were losing or staying the same. The way I looked at it last night was that I could give up for a few more days and start the diet again with the rest of the world on Monday after the New Years celebrations and the last weekend of freedom was out of the way or I could start afresh from today.

So I started fresh today.

I am determined to lose at least half of what I gained over the Christmas crisis.

I have been very good today and I have a plan to get me through NYE tomorrow. There will be alcohol involved, but it will be done on flexi syns, and my Body Magic is going to be increased to doing at least 30 minutes every day.

We walked 5 miles today, and I will be back to the gym tomorrow (I was having a day off the gym today as my arms hurt so much from using the Xbox Kinect!!) for a big cardio session. They are starting spinning classes at the gym soon and I am looking forward to trying one! My other half says that they are knackering if you apply yourself but that you see results quickly!

I have also discovered that one of my favourite pastimes is beyond evil.

A Costa coffee each with a cake (shared) is a huge amount of syns. My favourite (the chocolate tiffin) is 21 and a half syns. I am shocked!!

Back on the wagon (and out of Costa) with dedication to the weight loss cause from 9.15am today.

How has your Christmas been?

Cinnamon and Raisin Mini Muffins

A little sweet treat to keep cravings at bay!

Cinnamon and Raisin Mini Muffins

Ingredients (makes 16)

Fry Light

6oz/170g self raising flour

1 level tsp baking powder

5 tbsp artificial sweetener

3 tsp ground cinnamon

2oz/57g Flora Light

3 medium eggs, beaten

5oz/142g fat free natural fromage frais

Zest of 1 orange

1 tsp vanilla essence

1oz/28g raisins

Icing sugar to dust

How to:

- Preheat oven to 180ºC. Place 16 mini muffin cases in a muffin tray and spray with Fry Light.

- Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and stir in the sweetener and cinnamon. Melt the low fat spread over a gentle heat, then whisk together with the eggs, fromage frais, orange zest and vanilla essence. Add this mixture to the flour along with with the raisins and stir until well combined.

- Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin cases and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cooked through (you can test this by inserting a skewer into the middle of the muffin - it will come out clean if it's cooked). Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Serve dusted with a little icing sugar.

Syns per serving: 2.5

Verdict:

Mini muffins with an almost bread like texture. A spicey Christmas flavour thanks to the cinnamon. They were good hot, straight from the oven - I never have the patience to wait for them to cool!
I was expecting the fromage frais to give a slightly bitter aftertaste, but this wasn't the case. They are very springy, so I hope this will mean that they will last a couple of days before going hard (something I find with SW cake recipes).

Again, I turned my oven to lower than what was recommended and took them out earlier than the recipe said. I did them in mini silicone cases and managed to get 18 out of the mixture. I was a little over keen with the icing sugar too - which is why they look like they have been snowed on!
 Appropriate for our weather at the moment though perhaps!

Tomorrow's (post roast) sweet is going to be the Christmas Chocolate Log with Raspberries - looking forward to it!

  

Wednesday Weigh In - Week 73 (& Chilli Bean Wraps)

I lost 1.5lbs this week! I was expecting a maintain or a small gain so I am very pleased with the loss! 5lbs to go to be at 3stone award for Christmas. 2 weigh ins. It's pretty achievable - it's just whether I can be good enough...

Yesterday I was at client Christmas drinks and errr... had quite a few of the drinks.

My will power went out of the window so it was definitely a flexi-syn day. I hardly ate a thing though so it may balance out? My hangover is hideous today though and all I want to do is eat. And eat. I'm obviously making up for hardly eating yesterday!

We did do a lovely lunch though - Chilli Bean Wraps.

My boyfriend just threw a load of ingredients together that worked wonderfully well. It was quite high syns though as we used tortilla wraps (I only had one) but they are six syns a piece:

One red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

2 garlic cloves finely sliced

1 red onion chopped

Cook off all of the above in a frying pan until soft, then add one tin of mixed bean salad and taco seasoning. Stir occasionally until beans are cooked. Pop the tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds and grate a small amount of mature cheddar.

Load up the tortillas with the bean mixture and sprinkle cheese over, wrap up and enjoy! Delicious and filling lunch! I am donning my pinnie once more in a bid to make some tasty confection as I have had a couple of nights off - So tonight is Raisin and Cinnamon Muffins... Recipe and pictures to come soon!

Chocolate and Almond Brownies

Well I decided on the brownies to see me through tonight!

Another easy recipe to follow, although as before - I am not very sure about the cooking times! I took these out after 20 minutes and I wouldn't have wanted them in there much longer. Granted, I did it in the wrong sized tin for the recipe (oops) but if I had left them in for another 25 minutes they would have just been cinder! So I recommend that you watch them carefully during the cooking time.

Choc 'n' Almond Brownies

Ingredients (makes 15)

2 large eggs

6 tbspn sweetner

2oz/57g Flora Light

2 tsp vanilla extract

2.5oz/71g plain flour

3 level tbspn cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

Fry Light

8 level tspn chopped almonds

How to:

- Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Whisk together the eggs and sweetner until the mixture is thick and pale. Beat in the low fat spread and vanilla extract

- Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and fold into the egg mixture. Spray an 8inch/20cm square cake tin with Fry Light and pour* in the brownie mixture. Scatter the chopped almonds on top and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until springy to the touch.

- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before cutting into 15 squares. Serve warm or allow to cool completely.

Syns per serving: 3½ per square or 52½ for the whole tin

I believe that if you don't decorate them with the almonds then the whole cake will be around 34½ and around 2½ per square.

Once more, thanks to the Slimming World Just Desserts recipe book.

Verdict:

 

 I am very pleased with how these turned out! Although I wouldn't describe them as brownies (they certainly aren't squidgey enough for me to classify them in the brownie category) they have made a lovely light chocolate cake! It may be that I beat the mixture too much when mixing in the dry ingredients - beating in too much air may have caused them to be as light as they are. I am willing to try them again soon though. I think I will be taking them as a taster to weigh in and see what the other Slimmers think!   

 Tomorrow is a night off from the baking as I won't be back in time to do a proper dessert - lets hope I have some of these left!

The Chocolate Log will be next on the list though as I bought the fruit today... Looking forward to it!

*note: this for me was more of a 'smudge the brownie mixture around the tin with as many utensils as possible - it still didn't reach the corners!

Hot Lemon Soufflé

In my bid to find delicious low syn desserts I have decided I am going to try as many as possible from the cookery books I have. I don't count 'mango crush' or 'jewelled fruit salad' as a pudding by the way. It has to have ingredients other than fruit and yogurt.

After my lovely Banoffee Crêpes of Sunday evening, dessert number two was Hot Lemon Soufflé.

I will hold my hands up and say that I am not a very good chef nor am I confident in my ability to make something as complicated as a soufflé, but I have to say - it was pretty simple.

Recipe as follows:

Hot Lemon Soufflé

Ingredients (to serve 4)

Fry Light

2oz/57g golden caster sugar

4 tbsp artificial sweetner

200g pot fat-free natural fromage frais

3 eggs, separated

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Icing Sugar to dust

How to:

- Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Spray four ramekins with Fry Light and sprinkle the sides with a little of the sugar. Place the sweetner and fromage frais in a bowl and mix. Beat the egg yolks with the lemon juice and zest and stir into the fromage frais mixture.

- Beat the egg whites until stiff, then whisk in the remaining sugar until thick. Fold the egg white mixture into the fromage frais using a metal spoon. Divide between the ramekins and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until risen and golden.

- Remove from the oven and serve dusted with icing sugar.

Syns per serving: 3 

Again, thanks to the Slimming World Just Desserts book.

Verdict:
 (Again, excuse the phone photos - I will crack out my camera for any more!)

If they had been done in a slightly cooler oven (ours is fan assisted and I think it was too hot at 200ºC) at around 180º and divided between more ramekins I think they would have turned out much better. Overall they came out okay.
I only have two (large) ramekins so did the other in an oversized mug thinking that the recipe for four would be okay.
My boyfriend gave them a 4/10 - and said that they were a nice idea, and the flavour was good but that practice was needed in the cooking department!
 I will give them another go as they were much more simple to make than I expected!

Tomorrow night will be a Sausage, Bean and Potato Bake, and I am in debate over what pudding will be... Raisin and Cinnamon Mini Muffins, Choc 'n' Almond Brownies or Chocolate Chip Cookies?!

Something Sweet

My weakness is sweet things. When people say they have a sweet tooth I think them pretty lucky - I have a whole mouth full of sweet teeth! A concerted effort has begun to find a low syn recipe for something truly delicious.

Tonight was Banoffee crêpes with chocolate drizzle as found in the Slimming World Just Desserts booklet (I believe it was with one of this year's magazines).

I halved the amount as there were only 2 of us eating, but I can safely say they were gorgeous.

Banoffee Crêpes with Chocolate Drizzle

Ingredients (to serve 4)

2oz/57g plain flour

2 tsp artificial sweetner

1 beaten egg

1/4 pint/142ml skimmed milk, plus 3 tbsp for the sauce

Fry Light

200g pot fat-free natural fromage frais

1 pot of Smooth Toffee MüllerLight yogurt

4 bananas

Juice of one lemon

6 Rolos

How To:

- Sift flour and sweetner into a bowl, add egg and milk and whisk until smooth.

- Spray a small frying pan with Fry Light and pour in quarter of the batter, tilting the pan to spread the mixture. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until lightly browned. Flip and cook for another minute. Remove from the pan and keep warm whilst cooking the other pancakes.

- Mix together fromage frais and toffee MüllerLight, set to one side. Thickly slice the banana and pour over the lemon juice.

- For the sauce: put the Rolos and 3 tbsp of milk in a bain-marie and stir until melted. Cut each crêpe in half and ripple one half on to a plate. Spoon over the bananas and toffee mixture then ripple over the other half. Drizzle with chocolate sauce and serve immediately.

Syns per serving: 4 1/2

I did it slightly differently in that I didn't put lemon juice on my banana, nor did I mix the MüllerLight with the fromage frais - there would have been far too much yogurt. We had most of a pot of the toffee MüllerLight between us. I also used a large frying pan and made very thin pancakes.

Some pictures (please excuse the quality - they were taken on my phone): 

 

YUM!

Do you have any delicious sweet recipes that you can share?

Tomorrow night's pud is Hot Lemon Soufflés at 3 syns a piece... Can't wait!

No Shame in a Gain or Maintain

Weigh in didn't go so well last night - I came away with a 2 pound gain, rendering my goal of 3 stone by the 1st of December pretty much unreachable.

I have had many maintains and a few gains on my journey. I have come to the conclusion that I would rather have a few of these on the way and keep it off for the long term rather than lose all the weight I want to lose really quickly and then just eat one loaf of bread and watch the whole load fly back to my belly and hips.

When I have had a gain it often puts me in a negative mindset for the next week. I tell myself silly things like 'well if I try really hard and I only lose the weight that I put on is it really even worth it?' or 'well now I've blown it I may as well just carry on and blow it completely for the whole bloody week!'. 

Obviously this is not how gains should be dealt with, so I asked for extra help last night and my consultant gave me an S.A.S Log.

S.A.S stands for Slimmers Against Sabotage and I think it links your eating and your emotions, and how you go about choosing things to eat throughout the day.

You fill it in similarly to a Food Diary (which I recommend keeping when you start on your weight loss plan, but they key is that you must be honest - there is no point in cheating yourself) but you have to fill in some check boxes for each food you eat - varying between whether you have measured the item (if it's a syn/Healthy Extra) or whether you wrote it down when you ate it or you waited until later.

Day one is almost down and I'm not sure of the effect the S.A.S log has had - I will make an update after one week of logging (which I will be doing daily).

There are a few challenges this week - I have 3 meals out in the not so distant future. For two there will be options to chose from a menu. But I do face the challenge of one of the family Christmas get togethers on Sunday. A three course set meal. With a Slimming World un-friendly main of Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. I can't fool myself and pretend like I won't eat the ball of stuffing or drown the food with gravy. I will eat veg - probably quite a lot of veg, but the likelihood of them being cooked in Fry Light? Minimal.

These are issues that have to be tackled, because that is life, and life goes on whether you are on a 'healthy life plan' or not.

Hopefully I will be good enough for the rest of the week and do enough exercise to balance it all out... keep your fingers crossed that I lose my little gain - but please the message here folks... Have no shame!