... I won the raffle at group this week!  A bag each of chopped onion, swede & carrot and cabbage & leeks.  I see soup in my future :)  I've always made a lot of soup from scratch in the past, I'm a little mystified why I've gotten out of the habit lately, particularly as it's an easy, filling, low-syn meal!

You know that phrase "salad dodger", usually used to describe an overweight person?  That could have been invented to describe me!  (Not only in that I'm overweight, but that I literally dodge salad too, I've never been much of a fan.)  That has had to change over the last few weeks as I can't see myself having boiled carrots and broccoli with every meal I ever eat.  Much to my surprise, it's turned out that I've really been enjoying having salad with my meals - result!

One of the key things that's been a part of that has been variety.  Nothing is worse than feeling like you're eating the same thing over and over while you're on some kind of eating plan and I've been doing my best to try to avoid that.  Even swapping out one ingredient and replacing it with something else goes a long way to keep things interesting and new.  Tonight for example, I had cucumber, tomato and spring onions, my usual, but rather than having lettuce as I normally would, I diced an apple instead and added that, with some frozen chopped parsley, to the salad.  Kraft Fat Free Italian is my favourite dressing and it's always the one I reach for first and the last thing I want to do is get bored with it so I added a couple of splashes of lemon juice too, not a huge addition but a noticeable difference in flavour to help keep things fresh.

There's a whole tool-kit of things I keep in my cupboards and freezer to help to mix things up if they start getting a bit samey.  Bottled lemon and lime juices keep for weeks in the fridge and are great for jazzing up a salad or even for sprinkling on fish or chicken.  I usually have 2 or 3 different fat free dressings in the fridge and rotate between them from meal to meal so that I don't get bored.  Frozen herbs like coriander, parsley and chilli are another good thing to have - they keep for ages in the freezer and a spoonful stirred into a salad or hot dish really lifts it to a different level.  Spices like garlic or onion granules, celery salt, curry or chilli powder can all be added to add an extra zest to something too.  Whoever first said "variety is the spice of life" really knew their onions! :)

Weigh-in night tonight, and I'd gained 1 pound.  I've had a few glitches this week in terms of following the plan (all the Thornton's toffee didn't help!), so I expected it.  Best thing to do now is look forward and make sure this week is better!  I also found out that I've been working out my HEb incorrectly, having 3 slices of bread when it should only be 2.  Thanks to my group leader, Sam, for pointing that out - hopefully getting that right in future will lead to some great results.

Got home from group to find my house guests had treated us all to an indian take-away as it was their last night staying with me.  Of course it was lovely, but not the way to start my week of getting back on track!  I've still got 6 days to turn this week's gain into next week's loss and I aim to follow the plan to the letter!

Breakfast
WW yogurt, diced apple, 35g muesli (HEb)

Dinner
Indian take-away (45 squillion syns)

This was always going to be a tough day - an early Christmas Dinner with house guests I've got staying.  Still, I tried to make the best of it, I made syn-free gravy (from a Slimming Eats recipe here - excellent BTW) and used sweetener in the custard instead of sugar.  As they say in Tesco... "Every little helps!"

Brunch
Tuna Mayo sandwich (1/2 syn and HEb)
12g Aldi cheese curls (3 syns)