Dukan bread

I have read many posts about this bread. Some negative some positive. Carbs are a no-no on the Dukan diet, and one of the issues people can't get their heads around is, missing bread. What NO sandwiches???!!
I first excitedly made this bread when I came across a recipe for it. Although it was lovely to have stuff on toast or in-between something again, the bread tasted pretty horrid. Just quite salty and dense. Eventually through trial and error I have developed this recipe. I like it. It satisfies my 'every now and again' carb cravings. So that works for me. This recipe is enough for 5 days worth of oat bran allowance. I eat the first 5th that day, warm from the oven. I top it with roast ham, cottage cheese, or mackerel pate. It's also really good with fresh crab. I slice it into batches of 3 and freeze. Toast from frozen.


Ingredients
10 tablespoons of oat bran
6 tablespoons of wheat bran
4 tablespoons of wheat germ
10 tablespoons of skimmed milk powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
Large pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon low fat yoghurt
3 tablespoons low fat from age frais
3 eggs
2 packets of yeast
5 tablespoons of warm water

Line a loaf tin with baking paper and preheat the oven to 200 °C.

The correct way to blend theses ingredients is to mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another bowl and then mix the 2 together. More often than not though I start with the wet ones then add in the dry. So do what works for you.

Once the ingredients are fully mixed (I whisk them together), I pour the bread mixture into the prepared loaf tin, put a clean tea towl over the top, and leave somewhere warm for the mixture to rise a little. This makes for a much lighter loaf.

Place the loaf tin in the preheated oven for 10 minutes at 200 °C. Then turn the oven down to 180 °C and cook for another 20 minutes.

Turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack. Slice into 15 slices (just under 1cm thick).

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Chicken soup

This is my recipe for a basic chicken soup. Currently I am doing the Dukan diet so I have added the optional ingredients later. So for those of you following Dukan, the basic soup is fine for 'P' days and I add greens on'PV' days. Needless to say, peas noodles and sugar are all no-no's still. However, the basic soup recipe is delicious and so wholesome. You can simply add to it it depending on your mood or needs.

Ingredients
1 quantity of chicken stock. Home made or shop bought. I usually have about 1.5 litres, but you can have more or less.
1 stalk of lemon grass (I keep mine in the freezer)
1 red chilli chopped
Dash of soy
Dash of fish sauce
Leftover chicken

Optional ingredients
Noodles
Spring onion chopped
Greens (spinach, cabbage, pak choi, mangetout, sugar snaps...)
Sugar
Lime juice

This soup is so easy and comforting. Heat stock. Add the lemon grass and allow the stock to be infused by it. Add chopped chilli. I leave this to simmer gently for at least 10 minutes but it can be left for however long you need it to be.
Just before you are ready to eat, add the chopped chicken and fish sauce and soy sauce to taste.
If you are using the optional ingredients, just precook the noodles and poor over the soup. The vegetables can be added to the soup earlier to cook through.
Once the chicken is heated through, serve.

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