It's exciting! Santa's nearly here!

24th December 2014

Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!

Happy Christmas Eve!  Well it's my last 'official' working day of 2014 and I'm looking forward to weighing all my lovely members, I was so impressed yesterday with the weight losses and it was just fabulous to hear members tell me they had hit their Christmas target and were looking forward to the break knowing they can enjoy it and return in January ready to continue their journey.  I'm hoping we're going to smash the 22,000 pound total today, my members are just awesome!

I've received lots of gifts which I'm guessing are lovely because I've not opened them, I'm in shock at the fact I'm resisting, I really am, I also got my second bouquet of flowers in as many days, it's a good job we didn't get a Christmas tree as there would be no room in the house!   

Starting to get a little bit excited now, can't wait to spend a wonderful day tomorrow with my mom appreciating how blessed we both are and how fortunate, it still feels a little strange that we're in Wolverhampton and not in a cottage somewhere but it's a nice kind of strange.

It also feels good knowing I'm not going to be going over the top with the eating situation, my house is full of delicious healthy food with a few treats thrown in.  I've got my twiglets at the ready ;-)

I made banana cake/bread yesterday, I was half asleep when I started it and I tried to cream the butter and flour instead of the butter and sugar so I just threw all the ingredients into my food processor and then put it in 12 cake cases instead of the loaf tin and it worked out just fine, how each is that to just throw it all in!  They're freezable too.  I made it with butter but you experiment with low fat spread to save ProPoints I guess.  No such thing as a low calorie cake is there ;)

Brilliant banana loaf

Cooking time Prep: 15 mins Cook: 30 mins

Skill level Easy

Servings Cuts into 8-10 slices

A cross between banana bread and a drizzle-topped sponge, this cake is great for using up overripe fruit

62pp, 4pp each for the cake only  or 75pp and 6pp each with the topping.

140g butter, softened, plus extra for the tin (30pp)

140g caster sugar (15pp)

2 large eggs, beaten (5pp)

140g self-raising flour (12pp)

1 tsp baking powder

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter a 2lb loaf tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then slowly add the eggs with a little flour. Fold in the remaining flour, baking powder and bananas. Pour into the tin and bake for about 30 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then remove to a wire rack.

If you want the topping

50g icing sugar (6pp)

handful dried banana chips, for decoration (50g = 7pp)

3. Mix the icing sugar with 2-3 tsp water to make a runny icing. Drizzle the icing across the top of the cake and decorate with banana chips.

Have an amazing Christmas Eve BeYOUtiful, and I hope to see a few of you today at the scales.