Attacking The Dukan: Day 3

Well now! I’m very happy with myself! 6lb’s down! I did a little dance in the bathroom-haha!
I have to admit, it’s feeling a little difficult today, I just didn’t feel like scrambled eggs this morning, I wanted hot buttered granary bread with home made butter and some raspberry jam….. but that’s the reason I’m dieting! All the self indulgence over the past few months has added up to a debt that now needs to be paid….in hard labour!
I ended up having the last burger patty left from lastnight and a lemon fat free yogurt, I would have loved a fruit one but only lemon or vanilla is allowed, so unfair!  It filled me for a couple of hours

I can see a difference in  my face a little and can lift my knees up to my chest now again which is good, I just keep thinking “slinky dress, trim waist and tummy, happier with my body” If I lose another stone by Christmas, I’ll treat myself to a pair of shoes, another half stone on top of that, a handbag and further half stone, a piece of jewellery…. I feel if I dangle some bait infront of myself it’ll be so much easier.

So, the idea of dinner started to churn in my head, I had some minute steaks in the fridge and I was a little worried about making a steak on a dry pan…..I’ve a serious craving for vinegar today too so I thought about braising the steaks in the balsamic vinegar reduction rather than drizzling it over the cooked steak, oh gosh, it was irresistible! I’m sort of tempted to make it tomorrow but I don’t like to eat too much red meat, once a week if I can leave it at that.

I swear, the photo doesn’t do enough justice, the smell..in my kitchen from the vinegar, the herbs, the garlic, ahhhhh! The left over buns from lastnights burger worked as my oat bran allowance, I used it to wipe down the sauce from the casserole dish and straight into my mouth…

To make this, I used:

1 pack of minute steaks, fat cut clean off (as many as you want)
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
1/2 up of low sodium beef stock
1/2 a small onion, chopped finely
3 fat cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
black pepper
a pinch of chilli powder

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Flash fry your steaks on a dry frying pan, but don’t cremate them and transfer to a casserole dish ( a lid is a must for this).
• In the trying pan, add your onions and vinegar and reduce it down until it’s a syrup and the onions are cooked, add the stock and deglaze the pan , pour everything into the casserole dish on top of the steaks and chop your garlic in half, throwing on top of everything. 
• Whack it in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes, then remove it and crack an egg and drop it between a couple of steaks, cover and cook for another 6 minutes.
• Serve with a dollop of Quark (fat free fromage frais, Tesco never seem to stock it but Supervalu do, a blue and white carton).