I woke up feeling very pleased with myself today.  Last night I discovered a packet of these in the cupboard.  They are my favourite crispbread and I bought them to have at Christmas as a treat with cheese or just butter.

They are very crunchy so no good if you have false teeth.  But if your teeth are sound they are fantastic.

We didn’t get round to eating them so they have been sitting in the cupboard since and last night I was desperate to have one or two.  I wasn’t going to binge eat the lot.  I was going to count points and deduct from weekly extras.  However, I need to keep the weekly extras as I have a very sociable weekend coming up.  So I wrestled with myself for a long while and the new in control Zoe won.  I was happy when I woke up and remembered that.

One evening this week I popped in to Jane R’s and she gave me some good advice.  I am in control of what I eat.  It doesn’t always feel that way to me and it certainly didn’t during my blip before Christmas but I am (unless you invite me over and I will gratefully eat everything you offer me 🙂 ).  So I have been thinking about that and decided to accept that I can take control.  Last night was my first test and I passed.  So I was very happy when I woke up today.  Thank you Jane 🙂

I did have a Dr.Karg’s crispbread for breakfast.  Just the one and with no butter.  I had it instead with 2 eggs which were scrambled in butter.  8 points (2 large eggs = 5, 1 crispbread = 2 and 1 tsp butter = 1).

The focus of lunch was to be a salad.  I had another Little Gem lettuce to use up and wanted to make a gutsy Blue Cheese dressing to go with it.  I didn’t have the right ingredients though so I adapted the recipe I blogged about here.

Today’s dressing needs some work so I am not posting the recipe until it is refined.  I put chopped garlic and salt in the mortar and ground it to a paste.  1 clove was way too strong though.

I blended in some mustard powder.

Good quality ingredients are essential for a decent salad dressing.

I added lemon juice, Balsamic vinegar (hence the brown colour), avocado oil and cottage cheese.  Getting rid of the cottage cheese lumps would have been easier in a food processor but I remembered the bingo wings and decided to press on.

I finally added some Blue Cheese which I cut in to chunks which are lovely to bite in to.  The dressing was the same consistency as humous.  I wanted something looser, more like yogurt.  The Blue Cheese dressing I posted before is better.

The quantity I made weighed 200 g so I calculated the points for a quarter of it which is what I served myself which came in at 5 points (1/2 tbsp oil = 2, 35 g 1.5% fat cottage cheese = 1 and 10 g + 7g Stilton = 2).  The 7 g was a cheeky nibble I had while I was chopping the salad veg.

I added a carefully weighed amount of dressing to a large salad I made with Little Gems, lamb’s lettuce, brussel sprouts, celery and cherry tomatoes.

I had some pomegranate on one side of the bowl

and rather weird and not quite wonderful dressing on the other.  This was a reasonable enough lunch and the only points were from the dressing which is a good result.I have been feeling quite tired recently and I read an interview with nutritionist Jane Clarke called ‘Eating for Energy’.  I am eating and doing nearly everything she recommends apart from her top energy-boosting food which is good quality red meat to get a good dose of iron.  I have not had red meat for ages.  In fact, I eat far less meat of any kind these days than I used to.  So when I popped out at lunch time I bought a large Rump steak to share with the little fella tonight.

I fried the steak in a ridged pan with oil and butter and served it with mashed butternut squash ( I steamed it first) and green beans.  I mashed the squash with butter and black pepper.  Mashed squash is great for weight loss as it has no points in Weight Watchers and saves eating a carb such as potato.  It was really delicious and we both enjoyed it.  12 points for this lovely dinner and I must say, it was worth every single one of them (180 g lean Rump steak = 6, 2 tsp butter = 2 and 1 tbsp oil = 4)

I have eaten so well today I have 7 points left and that is not including the 5 extra I earned for walking for 40 minutes.  I think I will leave the day’s eating there though and go to bed very much in credit.

I ate well again today.  I did my Mile A Day.  I am in control.