The FastDay Forum

You have been *affy* missed @izzy and I'm *so* sorry that your joints are being horrid - I've half an idea of where you're at as, daft as it sounds, there have been times that I'd have chopped a limb off to stop the bleeping pain. I do so hope it eases off soon for you.

Ha! The woman worries about *my* book addiction? Methinks *her* cardamom addiction is far more concerning. But the rice pudding does sound delicious and rather irresistible, so no shame there. Mmmmm. <Discreetly checks cupboard for arborio rice>.

I confess: I acquired one more cookery book today (Delia's how to cook, volume two, for £2.99 - I now have the full set) but I *did* resist some lovely new veggie books in the Oxfam bookshop. It wasn't really down to self-restraint though, <quiet cough>, I just don't get on very well with USian cup measurements.

Hate to intrude on medical stuff, but have you tried chilli oil on your joints? Hard to get prescribed in proper pharma form as it 'only' works on about 65%(?) of folk so no approval from the allopathic authorities, e.g. N.I.C.E. - but it *does* relieve pain for some (the science is absolutely sound, PM and I'll try dig some up). Worth a try? You can make your own at very little expense - just handle the chillies with care! The NSAID topicals are worth a go too - if only because one can get the OH to massage them in, and that can make one feel better - full stop

xxx FatDog

Hello FatDog&Izzy those cookbooks sound good I have a look at times but nothing much inspiring comes up but probably I don't know what I am looking for ... if you get my drift as am newish to serious shift to vegetarianism err since finding I am much more energetic with fasting really.

Latest recipes sounding good. Need to go out and get different flours, as I am like dhana the linseed 3 sounds like a good way to go so too that deep dish thingy

Izzy can we have the cardamom rice pudding recipe, sounds devine and I have almond and rice milk and want to use my coconut oil so might be able to wangle the fluids and arborio rice clever girl.

Tee hee picturing our FD popping out from the heap of books. I await advice on what's good to look out for a person who loves her veggies and prefers to avoid gluten. Thanks for recipe Izzy

Hi Izzy,

Capsaicin is quite effective but your eyes will be the least of your worries, just don't get too friendly with OH unless you have had a good scrub down first otherwise he will NEVER! EVER forgive you!!!!

Hi Fatdog,

We are just back from 5 days in Fife, we flew to Edinburgh and I would have loved to have met up in town but we only went between the airport and then back again although we did make it to the Falkirk Wheel and it would also have been lovely to have met up with Dhana but just not enough time. I have promised my aunt that I will take her to 'The Balmoral' for afternoon tea and she is planning to take me to some place called 'The Dome"? So, it looks like another trip north for me. My sister lived in Barnton and my parents lived at Crammond, where are you?

I love Edinburgh and it is the only place that could ever tempt to move back to Scotland and even then it would be a wrench to leave England. I must be the only Scot on the face ofthe earth that loves England and the English.

Hi Gilymary,

I too had a very funny vision of FD under a HUGE pile of books, emerging with bits of broccoli etc in her hair, ha ha

Love to all, x

Ballerina x

Ummm yes, the books are beginning to get out of hand - they're attacking guests sitting on the sofa: I really need to clear another shelf for them *mortified emoticon*. OH is getting a little irked - I have to keep reminding him where the ideas for the lovely food he's eating are coming from.

@izzy that recipe looks absolutely delicious - I want to eat it *now* : pooh that it's a repair day.

You will love the Balmoral for afternoon tea @Ballerina. I've not been for years, but they used to have a harp player up in the gallery gently plucking away - all very civilized and, rather surprisingly, not terribly expensive (you'd possibly pay the same at some of the more pretentious chain eateries). The Dome used to be a bank which has been converted into a bar / fooderie place - very impressive surroundings, I've only been in a couple of times (also ages ago) and have never eaten there. I stay in Stockbridge which I utterly love: it was one of the 'villages' of Edinburgh which still has a village feel in parts. It's been rather yuppified now, but there are still pockets of the original residents and the sixties hippy community (OH and neighbours being the latter). Would be wonderful to meet next time you're up - PM your imminence - I could feed you low-carb veggie cake!

I'm rather new to proper cooking and veggie cookbooks myself @gillymary! Methinks the low-carb veggie ones would perhaps be your best bet for gluten free; low-carb is by its nature fairly gluten free. Celia Brooks Brown's low-carb vegetarian was my first inspiration and remains at the top of the list - it's currently showing at near £25, used, on Amazon but can drop to about a fiver occasionally. I've had sight of Rose Elliot's veggie low-carb cookbook and I found it pretty uninspiring (similar / same recipes as in her low-carb diet book: they 'feel' hair-shirt and lacking in something) but might be good for basic ideas. I'm tempted by Robin Robertson's carb conscious vegetarian - but it's never dropped below near nine quid, and it also uses those horrid USian cup measurements. I like some of the recipes in Anthony Worrall Thompson's GI and GL diet books - they're not specifically veggie / low-carb but many recipes are, or can be simply adapted. Recent finds are the Indian veggie cooking book and Leiths - both of which I'm itching to explore properly. Rodwell's Raw Food, like most raw food books I guess, appears to be intrinsically gluten free (it's a fairly mad tome - I'm not sure I'd pay seven quid for it...). I'll do an audit of what I have when I sort out the extra shelf, and try to rate them as I go. There have been some unexpected sources of inspiration, e.g. 200 make ahead dishes by Sara Lewis - not veggie / low-carb at all, but lots of veggie low-carb and / or convertible recipes in there. Paleo cookbooks might be good too - but I've not ventured into those yet (nor seen any in the charity stores - not sure what that says about them? maybe they're so good folk don't ever throw them out?). Oh, and I'm in love with Delia - not gluten free at all, but soya flour is now my very best friend.

Gluten-free baking wise, I now have pastry (Flanizza recipe), bread (beer-cheese bread without the beer), cake (halweyat), and crackers (microwaved linseed crackers). So any recipe calling for such things can easily be modified. It might have taken me three months, but I got there in the end!

Monday, day eighty-five, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.65lbs); 0.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

End of week 12 of low carb. Total of 15.4lbs lost. FatDog Slimmer - even if the last month has been blighted by a slow-down and the V&P vary-fairy. I have only another 7lbs odd to go and I'll be happy; I just need to be patient.

I'm going to aim for 450 calories today, haha. Particularly needed because I've started the week with an 88.5 calorie deficit from the week-end (damn that cream).

I shall plan tonight's dinner with precision - an with any luck I can do something totally delicious, filling, satiating *and* low-carb and low-calorie.

Plan blown.

Wending my way to the co-op to see what delights they'd offer today and, as is my wont, sidle into Bethany charity store on my way. They've only got a dirty great Cuisinart blender looking for a home. Hmmmm. Thinks - I believe the Cuisinart ones are usually very good and very expensive (the wee whizz RRP was sixty quid or so) and I need something for my green smoothies. Bagsie it, then hit the co-op. Just bargain salad and cottage cheese with pineapple - that'll do fine in the Mad Muffin recipe. So FatDog trundles home with a big fat blender, which turns out to really be a soup-maker which blends things too. Salad off the menu - OH sent on expedition to source bargain root and green leafy veggies for soup. Result: cottage cheese muffin-cake with 'experimental' broccoli and stilton soup for tea.

........ Calories 545.35 Carbs 24.56 Fat 34.70 Protein 30.02 Fibre 8.30

I should have resisted that extra drop of soup but couldn't and didn't - I hadn't done the numbers then but had a fair idea it was on the calorific side - it was soooo yummy. Muffin-cake texture pretty good but flavours weren't there - was excellent dunked in the soup though.

cuisinart test drive - broccoli & stilton soup sort-of
broccoli and carrot mix, ready-prepped, co-op, 41c/C5.6/F0.5/P1.9/Fi2.5/100g
......... 250g 102.50 14.00 1.25 4.75 6.25
leek, rough chopped, 61c/C12.35/F0.3/P1.5/Fi1.8/100g
......... 200g 122.00 24.70 0.60 3.00 3.60
stilton, crumbled, 410c/C0.1/F35.0/P23.7/Fi0/100g
......... 80g 328.00 0.08 28.00 18.96 0.00
double cream, coop, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100ml
......... 30ml 139.50 0.48 15.15 0.45 0.00
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 15ml 123.60 0.00 13.74 0.00 0.00
bouillon, marigold, 243c/C29.4/F8.1/P10.5/Fi0.7/100g
......... 10g 24.30 2.94 0.81 1.05 0.07
s&p 0.00
water
......... 700ml 0.00
total for broccoli & stilton soup 839.90 42.20 59.55 28.21 9.92
FatDog's 500/1250th portion of broccoli & stilton soup 335.96 16.88 23.82 11.28 3.97

Method: you'll need to get a soup-maker! But, 'in principle' : heat the oil and soften the leeks; add the stock and other vegetables and bring to the boil then simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, stir occasionally; add the cream and stilton and mix, check seasoning and serve.

Don't know how well the big whizz does smoothies but it makes a mean soup.

cottage cheese muffin-cake, heavily adapted from Mad about Muffins, Diana Bonaparte
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 100g 424.00 16.00 20.00 39.00 12.00
baking powder
......... 5ml 0.00
pure via (stevia based sweetener) 2c/C0.47/F0/P0/Fi0/0.5g/5ml
......... 2ml 0.80 0.19 0.00 0.00 0.00
salt
......... good two pinches 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 2 large pinches 0.00
dill, dried
......... 2 large pinches 0.00
eggs, brown, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
cottage cheese with pineapple, 80c/C7.8/F1.2/P9.7/Fi0.5/100g
......... 146g 116.80 11.39 1.75 14.16 0.73
water
......... 60ml 0.00
total for cottage cheese muffin-cake 623.14 27.58 27.80 59.91 12.73
FatDog's 1/4 portion of cottage cheese muffin-cake 155.79 6.89 6.95 14.98 3.18

Method: 1. usual mix wet, mix dry, add wet to dry with minimal faff; 2. splat into pre-oiled / papered tin(s); 3. bake in preheated oven at 180C (150C in our oven) for 25 minutes; 4. rest 5 minutes, tip onto rack and rest at least further 5 minutes.

Will have to test big whizz's smoothie talents tomorrow - those rock hard pears might be a challenge

==================================

Tuesday, day eighty-six, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.65lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Sigh. That's all. Just sigh.

Happy FatDog did complete her set of Delia's How to cook though, with volume two from Oxfam for £2.99. Wag, wag, wag. No excuses any more; well, that's once I've read them from cover to cover that is.

And the best laid plans... Was going to do a big salad with avocado accompanied with linseed crackers and the cottage cheese remains.

But co-op broccoli and carrot bargains (500g for 40p, three lots of) and two unexpected dinner guests put a second run of the soup on the menu plus another round of the cheese-but-no-beer bread.

Shall not bore you with the soup recipe again, briefly: the broccoli & carrot was doubled, likewise olive oil, and the stilton upped to 125g; the cream was replaced with 150g of yeo valley yoghurt (20p bargain). Yummilicious.

Will, however, do this version of the cheese-bread because it *really* worked this time. Whooop! Methinks, entirely down to my working very fast and not over-working the final dough mix (no pun intended) rather than the recipe? Or maybe it was down to using a x4 tart tin (did I confess to acquiring one from our Shelter store today, for 50p?)? Or, perhaps, resting it for long enough? Whatever, I'm very, very happy; nay, thrilled! Nailed (bread, that is). Now I just need to *keep* getting it nailed.

Not *so* happy with the numbers, but we did have visitors by, and wine (that eeeevil stuff) was consumed:

........ Calories 1532.95 Carbs 50.59 Fat 79.86 Protein 30.85 Fibre 11.96

cheese bread, variation no. 2
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 86g 364.64 13.76 17.20 33.54 10.32
linseed, brown, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 10g 53.40 0.15 4.22 1.83 2.73
baking powder
......... 7ml 0.00
pure via (stevia based sweetener) 2c/C0.47/F0/P0/Fi0/0.5g/5ml
......... 2ml 0.80 0.19 0.00 0.00 0.00
salt
......... good two pinches 0.00
pepper, fresh ground
......... several good grindings 0.00
garlic flakes
......... multiple grindings 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 2 or 3 large pinches 0.00
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 35g 145.25 0.49 12.08 8.54 0.00
double cream, coop, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100ml
......... 45ml 209.25 0.72 22.73 0.68 0.00
water, fizzy
......... up to 140ml 0.00
total for cheese bread, variation no. 2 773.34 15.31 56.22 44.58 13.05
FatDog's ¼ portion cheese bread, variation no. 2 193.34 3.83 14.05 11.15 3.26

Method: 1. bung (sift, if possible) all the ingredients down to the salt (inclusive) into a medium sized bowl; 2. mix ingredients thoroughly and make a well in the middle of the mix; 3. working very quickly, add the cheese, cream and 120ml water, mixing as you go; if it's horrid dry *very* quickly add water in dribs until it isn't - do not over-work; 4. swiftly splat the mixture into a pre-greased baking tin (x4 tart tin in this case) and cook for about 35 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 190C (150C in our oven); don't open the oven door for at least the first 20 minutes or you'll ruin the rise (or so it is writ); 5. when your 'loaf' / buns is / are nicely golden brown remove it / them from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes, then tip onto a wire rack and let sit for another 10 minutes.

These *really* did work. Enjoy! Happy FatDog

I want to drop in on you too FD for dinner as am drooling here on a 16:8 fast morning.

Thanks for the wonderful description of cook books. I have one Paleo and a few simple vegetarian books I have purchased over the years but it is nice to have a list tucked away in my bag to refer to as I check out op shops and 2nd hand books sales and fetes. Will be a nice project or begin to obsess me. All good, have to get baking and cake making though

Wednesday, day eighty-seven, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 121.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.25lbs); 0.8lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

I'm desperately trying not to get *too* excited, but WOOOOF! That is the lowest number that I've seen on the scales so far - first time I've dipped below the 122lbs. Wag, wag, wag. Praying that it's not the V&P vary-fairy at it again. Or the scales - they did once flicker briefly on 122.0 (which would, sadly, make much more sense - after all, yesterday was a fairly fulsome feed day) before settling on the lower figure, consistently, for the next half dozen reads.

I'm *determined* to do a green smoothie today to test out the big whizz - need to work out how to make palatable a combination of broccoli, carrot and leek with optional cucumber and pear additions. Will have linseed crackers, or cheese bread, to go with it methinks.

Well bowl me over with a feather - the big whizz did that fair nicely. Not, perhaps, as ultra-smooth as a VitaMix would get it, but more than good enough to keep a FatDog happy. I was really surprised as raw carrots are notorious for being awkward creatures when it comes to blending, and broccoli doesn't have a much better reputation either. And it didn't groan, or emit smoke or burning fumes - seemed rather to take it all fully in its stride. Dead chuffed.

Shame that the random collection that went into the smoothie wasn't quite so convincing (maybe that's why I couldn't find any recipes that included them all). It's not quite disgusting, maybe just weird, and it has moments on the palate where it's interesting and even rather nice, but I'm certainly not doing that one again. Too much broccoli (bitter) and I don't think that leeks (hot) belong in smoothies - soups yes, smoothies no. The linseed crackers were great, especially topped with cream cheese - I'll not be going short of my fibre again. Had no idea leeks were so carbiferous though (related to onions, so might have guessed), I've absolutely no excuse for the pear - it's fruit and FatDog should know by now avoid fruit on repair days, and that includes tomatoes, chillies and peas!. Good fibre though...

I was hungry (psychologically) from about nine pm onwards - wanted nuts / salty stuff / aaaargh food! I'm not *quite* sure how I resisted (there was a demon whispering "just one twiglet, go on, it's nothing"), but I did:

........ Calories 480.47 Carbs 34.94 Fat 24.01 Protein 22.64 Fibre 18.95

I'm only logging the smoothie recipe so you can see how truly insane the FatDog is, and what not to put into a smoothie if you want it to be palatable.

green smoothie, mark 1
broccoli, floretted 38c/C1.8/F0.9/P4.4/Fi2.6/100g
......... 179g 68.02 3.22 1.61 7.88 4.65
leek, very rough chopped, 61c/C12.35/F0.3/P1.5/Fi1.8/100g
......... 82g 50.02 10.13 0.25 1.23 1.48
cucumber, very rough chopped, 11c/C1.5/F0.1/P0.7/Fi0.6/100g
......... 123g 13.53 1.85 0.12 0.86 0.74
carrot, very rough chopped, 35c/C7.7/F0.3/P0.6/Fi3.0/100g
......... 64g 22.40 4.93 0.19 0.38 1.92
pear, cored, 45c/C10.1/F0.1/P0.3/Fi2.4/100g
......... 98g 44.10 9.90 0.10 0.29 2.35
youghurt (yeo valley), 82c/C6.5/F4.2/P4.6/Fi0/100g
......... 20g 16.40 1.30 0.84 0.92 0.00
coriander seed, fresh ground
......... 4ml 0.00
water
......... 500ml 0.00
total for green smoothie, mark 1 214.47 31.40 3.79 11.80 11.14

I owe my poor stomach a sincere apology (it will, no doubt, take its revenge) as that quantity of raw broccoli amounts to abuse, and 82g of raw leek is cruelty.

More carrots, less broccoli, way less leek and another pear and this smoothie might have had something going for it, but it would have gone way over on the carb grams and been much heavier on the calories.

Cooked as it was, it might have made a rather interesting soup. Mmmmm, the seasonings are coming to me now... and I can make the soup in the big whizz

==================================

Thursday, day eighty-eight, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 121.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~119.75lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Yay! The scales held - I'm still at my lowest weight. OH did a 'confirmatory' reading for me on the analogue scales - I had 8 stone sixish and he read 53.5kilos which is, near as damnit, the same thing = 118lbs.

Most disconcerting: 0.8lbs loss yesterday morning after a very generous feed day the day before, and then 0.0lbs this morning after a 'good' (calorie wise) repair day the day before. Could be the high proportion of carbs (31%) that stopped any loss? Though, at 35g, my carbs were pretty low by 'ordinary eating' standards.

No complaints though - the scales didn't go up and the mysterious non/losses will just have to be attributed to the V&P vary-fairy.

Had a wonderful afternoon in at the book-shop starting to put all the 'celebrity' cook-books together. Dog in heaven. Then added bliss, boss had thoughtfully put aside a copy of "The World in Your Kitchen" (TWiYK) in case I wanted to buy it - hardback copy too. Wheee, mine's back at the flat and I've rather missed it! It's a wonderful book of veggie recipes from around the world (produced by New Internationalist (1993); paperback on Amazon for £1.96 inc. postage) and I've been doing various recipes from it regularly for the last 18 years - favourite has to be salade à la Caraibe. The recipes are really clear and simple, your local ScotMid probably carries most of the ingredients, and your Asian corner shop will probably have the rest (e.g. gram flour).

Monster bag of peas in pods from the co-op for 40p - have them in soup with my bargain carrots maybe?

Huge salad with avocado, cottage cheese remains, cherry tomatoes and quorn ham. Yum. I think I've said this before, but I appear to have completely blooped the nutrition data for avocados; this time I've spotted that I must have used a USian site and have not subtracted the fibre from the carbohydrate figure. Shan't be fixing this retrospectively on the log but it means that there's probably four days with considerably fewer carbs than logged (took tonight's figure down by about 12g carbs).

My stomach is aching something horrid - a delayed complaint from it about the broccoli & leek methinks. Yup... my latest visit to the water closet would confirm smoothie revenge.

........ Calories 1514.45 Carbs 34.28 Fat 97.90 Protein 32.92 Fibre 19.11

Ah, ha. Have a recipe for the peas: shabnam kari - curry with peas and mushrooms - from TWiYK, will have to wait for the weekend as 3 tablespoons of cream are not compatible with repair days.

==================================

Friday, day eighty-nine, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 121.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~119.65lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Another post-feed-day loss, hmmm. Still, very happy waggy FatDog - just need this to hold / continue and I might get to my target before Christmas.

Out doing the messages for dinner and ended up with a dinner guest, so salad and linseed crackers went off the menu and shabnam kari went on, along with cheese-bread no. 2 and a down-grade to half-repair (as per usual).

Don't know what I did to the bread but it wasn't the goodness that it was the other day - not convincingly cooked in the middle again, despite the fact that I did it at 150C (that's probably equivalent to 170C or more in a 'real' oven) for over 35 minutes; too short a rest after taking it out of the oven couldn't be the problem, could it?

But the soup was good (let's face it, anything with cardamom in it tastes good). Soup? Yes, was hoping to make the shabnam kari as per the recipe as a curry but it seems the big whizz isn't too fond of stews, just soups - so ended up having to blitz the mushrooms before adding the peas. You might ask why I was using the big whizz for a curry in the first place: well, the OH was trying to rescue the duck eggs which involved various bowls, saucepans and cooker rings - least said soonest mended. The cream in the original recipe would have been good, but sadly this is a (half) repair day...

........ Calories 699.36 Carbs 35.70 Fat 33.33 Protein 23.52 Fibre 8.73

shabnam kari soup, adapted from The World In Your Kitchen
mushrooms, cc, rough chopped, 15c/C0.4/F0.5/P1.8/Fi1.0/100g
......... 275g 41.25 1.10 1.38 4.95 2.75
peas, fresh, 95c/C11.3/F1.5/P6.9/Fi5.1/100g
......... 242g 147.62 29.89 0.73 3.63 4.36
onion, medium chopped, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 100g 43.00 9.30 0.00 0.71 2.10
youghurt (yeo valley), 82c/C6.5/F4.2/P4.6/Fi0/100g
......... 150g 123.00 9.75 6.30 6.90 0.00
sultana, 300c/C69.5/F0.4/P2.7/Fi2.0/100g
......... 15g 45.00 10.43 0.06 0.41 0.30
clove, whole
......... 2x 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 15ml 125.00 0.00 13.80 0.00 0.00
salt
......... good grind or two 0.00
water
......... 500ml or 200ml if not souping 0.00
ginger, rough chopped across grain, 90c/C17.8g/F0.8g/P1.8g/Fi2.0g/100g
......... 15g 13.50 2.67 0.12 0.27 0.30
chilli, green, rough chopped, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 10g 4.00 0.95 0.02 0.20 0.15
cashew nuts, raw, 553c/C26.89/F43.85/P18.22/Fi3.3/100g
......... 40g 221.20 10.76 17.54 7.29 1.32
clove, just the heads
......... 6x 0.00
cardamom seed
......... 6 pods (seed only) 0.00
salt
......... good grind or two 0.00
water
......... enough to get the wee whizz to whizz 0.00
total for shabnam kari soup 763.57 74.84 39.94 24.35 11.28
FatDog's 1/3rd portion of shabnam kari soup 254.52 24.95 13.31 8.12 3.76

Method: 1. blitz the ingredients from the ginger onwards into a wet paste; 2. ping the peas for 3 or 4 minutes until they're edible; 3. heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add the onions and soften, add the cloves and heat for a minute; 4. add the paste and sultanas and heat for 3 minutes or so, stirring intermittently; 5. add the mushrooms, yoghurt and water (blitz if doing soup); 6. add the peas, season and cook for another 5 or so minutes then serve.

Was rather delicious, though I say it myself FatDog

Saturday, day ninety, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 120.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~118.00lbs); 0.8lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Bloomin' heck, I'm speechless really. I'd not believe it except that the loss on the analogue scales looks even bigger (52.5kg / 8 stone 4lbs ish). Happy, flabbergasted FatDog.

That does lovely things for the end-of-week 21 on 4:3 report: 1.8lbs weight lost, no change in other measurements.

I had a look at my figures last night and reckoned that I could see why I was stuck through August - this latest move would seem to confirm my hypothesis: I'll do a separate post with the figures for the geeks but, in brief, it's all down to too many calories per week!

Spent a grey afternoon at a brilliant rally through the city and up on Calton Hill, and thus gathered the VBF and another friend for dinner. Easy.

Had been plotting to do CBB's Thai tofu salad (p59) for an eternity but never got to it, so acquiring a bargain swede the other day put it on the menu for this weekend. Absolutely delicious - and so said all of us. Made a few amendments, like cooking the swede (raw swede?!) rosti style - that was the brilliant VBF's doing - and stir-frying the veggies, along with adding a bit of ginger.

And after that wonderful weight-loss I then go and do this:

........ Calories 2071.25 Carbs 69.32 Fat 100.37 Protein 35.99 Fibre 14.40

Ouch! Most of the damage was an excess of wine *shame faced emoticon*.

Thai hot and sour (hot) salad with crispy tofu, adapted from CBB's low-carb vegetarian, p59
tofu, firm *, sliced into 'soldiers', 76c/C2.3/F3.5/P8.5/Fi0.6/100g
......... 396g 300.96 9.11 13.86 33.66 2.38
toasted sesame oil, 827c/C0/F91.9/P0/Fi0/100ml
......... 30ml 248.10 0.00 27.57 0.00 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 4ml 0.00
swede, peeled, grated, 26c/C5.0/F0.3/P0.7/Fi1.9/100g
......... 390g 101.40 19.50 1.17 2.73 7.41
butter, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 65g 468.00 0.39 52.00 0.33 0.00
mangetout, co-op, 40c/C4.2/F0.2/P3.6/Fi2.6/100g
......... 142g 56.80 5.96 0.28 5.11 3.69
sugarsnap peas, 40c/C4.2/F0.2/P3.6/Fi2.7/100g
......... 123g 49.20 5.17 0.25 4.43 3.32
sweet point red pepper, fine diagonal slice, 40c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi3.4/100g
......... 136g 54.40 8.70 0.54 1.36 4.62
spring onions, ¼ 'd long-ways, 28c/C3.0/F0.5/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 111g 31.08 3.33 0.56 2.22 1.67
peanuts, large salt coop, rough ground, 625c/C10.5/F51.3/P26.4/Fi6.9/100g
......... 100g 625.00 10.50 51.30 26.40 6.90
mint, dried
......... 4ml 0.00
toasted sesame oil, 827c/C0/F91.9/P0/Fi0/100ml
......... 15ml 124.05 0.00 13.79 0.00 0.00
ginger, rough chopped across grain, 90c/C17.8g/F0.8g/P1.8g/Fi2.0g/100g
......... 30g 27.00 5.34 0.24 0.54 0.60
chilli, red, rough chopped 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 29g 11.60 2.76 0.06 0.58 0.44
garlic, rough chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 10g 14.90 3.31 0.05 0.63 0.21
soy sauce, low salt, amoy, 52c/C9.2/F0/P3.9/Fi0/100ml
......... 45ml 23.40 4.14 0.00 1.76 0.00
lime juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml figures are for lemon juice; USDA lime doesn't add up
......... 45ml 11.70 0.90 0.00 0.18 0.14
pure via (stevia based sweetener) 2c/C0.47/F0/P0/Fi0/0.5g/5ml
......... 15ml 6.00 1.41 0.00 0.00 0.00
total for Thai hot and sour salad with crispy tofu 2153.59 80.51 161.66 79.92 31.37
FatDog's ¼ portion of Thai hot and sour salad with crispy tofu 538.40 20.13 40.42 19.98 7.84

* squish the tofu, using whatever method thou wilt, to remove as much of the liquid as possible: usual way is to wrap it in tea towels and then press for 30 or so minutes with your copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...

Method: 1. mix the grated swede with the butter and season well; 2. press gently into in a pre-greased four portion mini-flan baking tray (or you could just make patties) and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 30 minutes, until nicely browned; 3. meantimes, heat 15ml of the sesame oil in a non-stick frying pan / wok and add half the chilli flakes; 4. fry a quarter of the tofu soldiers on all sides, then set them aside onto a grill-proof plate and keep warm under the grill; 5. do the next quarter of tofu as for 4; 6. add another 15ml of sesame oil and the rest of the chilli flakes and do the remaining tofu as for 4 and 5; 7. blitz all the ingredients from the ginger down in a food processor, set aside; 8. wash the peas and the beans in a microwaveable dish, crudely drain them then ping, with a lid, for about 3 1/2 minutes then remove and drain; 9. add the remaining oil to the wok and lightly stir-fry the onions and the pepper for a couple of minutes; 10. add the peas, beans and the chilli sauce and stir-fry for a further couple of minutes; 11. add the ground peanuts and the mint, mix in well; 12. serve with the swede pattie at the bottom, then the sauced vegetable 'salad' and then the tofu on the top.

It *really* helps if you have a kitchen slave for this - the VBF was a star, not only with the swede patties but also with the veggie chopping - it meant we ate at nine, not midnight

==================================

Sunday, day ninety-one, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 120.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~117.65lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Can one be even more speechless than speechless? Especially given yesterday's calorific and, to a lesser extent, carborific disaster. But FatDog ain't complaining, oooh no, just expressing further gasting of flabber

I'll try to be good(er) today as I'd really rather not start the week with a negative calorie deficit *again*, and I don't want to tempt the vary-fairy.

I've some (bargain) salad that needs eating, before it crawls out of the fridge, and I fancy a cook-free evening, so might cheat and get a ready-made cannelloni (eek, pasta)... Will go check the co-op for bargains.

Hmmm. Bargain free zone this evening (unless one fancied black sausage). However, they've re-stocked their salted almonds - yipppeeee (maybe there's a secret co-op executive on the forum, if so, thank-you). And, I turned into FatDog goody-two-shoes: looked at the cannelloni pack and decided that 44 grams of carb was not good low-carb food so put it back on the shelf and picked up a tarka dhal instead (31g carb, 75% of the cannelloni's carbs, so not that much better, oops!) and poppadums.

Poppadums you cry - yup, these ones are made with lentil and rice flour - nary a speck of wheat or gluten in sight (have just checked, and it appears that most are made this way: I had no idea that they were so *healthy*). I'm slightly surprised that the co-op haven't capitalized on this and bunged them in the 'special foods' section at double the price (no, please don't do it, secret executive, please don't).

I wonder if there's a secret Sainsbury executive lurking about too? Dear Sainsers in Stockbridge, please bring the quorn fillets back (even better, stock the lemon and black pepper ones) and restore your 'bargain' shelf xxx FatDog. Oh, and it'd be great if you increased your vegetarian range in general. Ta everso

Going into the week with a negative deficit from the weekend's indulgences of -3.90 calories - that'll do:

........ Calories 1332.65 Carbs 64.25 Fat 73.31 Protein 33.85 Fibre 13.43

I'm a wee bitty nervous about the scales tomorrow - if I go below 120lbs (and really, I shouldn't be losing anything after a feed day) I fear I might have a major fit of joyous hysteria. At least I'd be grinning for my appointment at the dentist, just hope they let me on the bus showing my teeth that much...

Thank-you @izzy, the dentist went fine, though discovered that I'm being deprived of my lovely lady dentist who is being moved to pastures new

That was just the addition of injury to insult - the V&P vary-fairy came back from its holidays...

. . . I, supposedly, gained two whole pounds (yes, 2lbs) through the night.

Not sure if it's 'sigh' or 'grrrr'. Bit of both, methinks. And I can quite definitely not blame the 'evil-mess-with-the-scales-fairy' as the analogues were back up to about 8 stone 7lbs too. grrrffsighgrfff. The full ghastly details will be in my log when I post tomorrow. :0 xxx FatDog

Ever so glad you like TWiyK @izzy - each time I look into it I seem to find something new to drool over. Just noticing that rather a lot of the recipes are naturally low-carb, or at least easily convertible: definitely a 'must have' cookbook for a low-carb vegetarian methinks!

Cheers, FatDog

p.s. FatDog is happily showing its teeth in a big grin to all and sundry - V&P vary-fairy went the other way by 1.4lbs

Monday, day ninety-two, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.75lbs); 2.0lbs gain (ouch!)
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

End of week 13 of low carb. Total of 15.8lbs lost, 0.4lbs loss in the week; no other changes. Or 17.8lbs lost if you go with yesterday's reading... bother that V&P vary-fairy.

A sort of consolation is that it's "not real" - i.e. a 2lb gain overnight is not going to be fat, although it could partially be payback for Saturday - but it does *rather* spoil my end of week 13 on low carb report. Tant pis. But damnit! I shouldn't have mentioned the fairy yesterday, nor tempted fate by thinking about dropping below 120lbs.

At least I don't have to worry about grinning too much on the bus. FatDog shuffles round growling and making Muttley type excoriations about life, the universe and fairies. Grrrrrr. Grrrrrr. Grrrffff.

Retail therapy run on the way back from the dentist: hit nearly a dozen charity stores for a) muffin tins, b) muffin & low-carb veggie cookbooks and c) frocks (though I gave up on the latter as it was reducing my efficiency).

Side-tracked a little and went into one of those Aladdin's cave type shops - oh, they had *lots* of muffin tins but they were from £8.99 through to £17.99 - I had no idea bake-ware could be so expensive - my wallet resisted. I now understand that the heavier the tray the better the results - I wonder what the cheapo Ikea ones are like?

Had a surprise success with b) : "Muffins Galore" by Catherine Atkinson, although I nearly missed it as the cover designer has rather stupidly put the word muffin in white on a pale green background, so it just looked like 'Galore'; plus "the everyday wheat-free & gluten-free cookbook" by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson with all sorts of recipes for the carb deprived recovering ex-carbivore (and rather a lot for omnivores too - broke my (new) rule of only getting veggie cookbooks for this one as it looked mighty useful (well, it has a pizza dough in it - excuse enough in my book)).

The muffins book has a (very) wee section in the back for special diets, but the real gem was this "rice and soya flour have a heavier texture than wheat flour, but the acid from the lemon juice reacts with the baking powder to give these muffins a better rise". Wonder if that's why the halweyat worked so well - with all that orange juice doing the job of the lemon juice? I feel a muffin-cake coming on tomorrow...

Did a cheat's cheesy cauliflower and butter beans for dins. Usual plot, in brief that's: a floretted cauliflower head pinged then mixed with butter beans; slathered over the top with softened cream cheese, grated cheese, wholegrain mustard, chilli & garlic flakes, and seasoning; then bunged under the grill until lovely crispy brown. Methinks cauliflower might be the god of veggies, or maybe that's broccoli. May we have two veggie gods?

........ Calories 496.00 Carbs 25.33 Fat 27.70 Protein 30.93 Fibre 12.47

Darn, forgot dried apricots were so carby. Otherwise not *so* bad. I'm still struggling to get down to the 450 calorie mark (let alone my target 400). Given that there's little research rationale for picking the 25%, with full zero fasts much more prevalent, I'm wondering if it's worth the fight?

==================================

Tuesday, day ninety-three, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 120.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~119.5lbs); 1.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

BOING!!! That has to be the biggest one yet - plus 2lbs one day then minus 1.4lbs the very next day, and analogue scales confirmed it. The teasing of the V&P vary-fairy knows no bounds...

I was tempted to do a back-to-back repair today as I was vaguely plotting going out tomorrow to celebrate six months nicotine free:- wussed out, with dog-sitting services tomorrow night being my excuse. Then thought to celebrate on Thursday instead (a feed day) but I'm now thinking that I don't want to muck up this rather nice downward trend - so might reserve the eating out bit to the weekend (when I'm prone to slight dietary accidents anyway). Good, that's the plan. You see, the FatDog can be sensible as well as mad.

But 'sensible' just got lost in the co-op bargain section: so it's ready made cauliflower cheese with cheese and onion pasty for tea. Eh? I know. Sadly the anti-dementia effects of low-carb / IF don't appear to have kicked in for me yet. I mean, I *made* cheesy cauliflower last night - fortunately the OH won't notice. And a ready-made pasty with *pastry*? I think that it was the pastry that mesmerised me and blew all my carb-sense (all-sense-at-all?) away. But we'll have our friend's home grown runner beans too, maybe they'll compensate a little? Hmmmm - nope. And what is (most) pastry made from FatDog? Duh.

Saved myself a fraction by feeding the OH more pasty than me - but, really, I shouldn't do that again as it's such a waste of my carb allowance: I could have had something properly delicious (and cooked for / with pleasure) rather than just crave-satisfying eye-carb. And the pasty has given me the most horrid stomach ache. Eejit FatDog.

Having scranned my late supper of linseed crackers with boursin (I was low on fibre), I just checked my log and, actually, I should be *a little* kinder to myself. The only real clanger in my diet today was the cheese & onion pasty and, even with that, I had about a third rather than a half of it. My stomach ache is beginning to forgive me too.

This had me wondering about linseed - I had a shadow of a recollection that seeds (or maybe it was legumes) are considered by some to count as one of one's five-a-day (and only one, however much / many types is / are eaten). Haven't found the answer to that yet, but did stumble upon this that I thought folk might find interesting re. linseed and cancer (given as many of us use it to help keep our fibre intake up) : http://preventcancer.aicr.org/new/docs/ ... Cancer.pdf . If you're a mouse it might even help stave off advances in prostate cancer.

Ha, got the 5-a-day: "Beans and pulses count as a maximum of one portion a day,
however much you eat. This is because, while pulses contain fibre, they don't give the same mixture of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients as fruit and vegetables." http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/5aday/docume ... _guide.pdf

Bother, no mention of seeds, I guess they don't count then. I could have felt nearly virtuous at 4.5-a-day today. Does a glass of wine count (it *is* grape juice after all)? Then I'd be fine

........ Calories 1499.81 Carbs 48.96 Fat 97.51 Protein 33.91 Fibre 17.97

Posting this now before I have an accident with something edible. xxx FatDog.

Made the linseed "poppadoms" and they were rather tasty - rolled the dough nice and thin and cut rounds with the help of a saucer. Don't know if it was beginner's luck, but none burned and they were satisfyingly crisp, although not as crisp as actual ppdms, but the spices actually made them tastier.
Accompanied them with Tracieknits South indian veg curry, and a bowl of raita made with full fat Greek yogurt. Deelish, Fatdog!! Don't know the carb count, but fairly low as there is no need for rice - the crackers are very satisfying and have nice mouth feel! Will deffo be making these again.

Wednesday, day ninety-four, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 120.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~119.5lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Stops holding breath, and breathes a large sigh of relief... shhhhh...

I should have mentioned that I'm dabbling with the ketostix. For what it's worth, I've used them randomly for the last ten days and every time they have registered some level of ketone production: I've ranged from 1.5 mmol/L (two up from nil) to 16 mmol/L (max). I've not been methodical with the testing (one really needs blood ketones to draw remotely 'scientific' conclusions) but, for example, just before bed the night before my registering the 2lbs gain on the scales in the morning, the ketostix said 4 mmol/L - make of that what you will.

Only just noticed, but a 'theoretic' total calorie deficit of 70562.73 at the end of Monday means my 'theoretic' loss tipped over the 20lbs mark. Gosh. Actual loss was 25.4lbs - the difference between theoretic and actual is getting closer. Must be my guestimated TDEE (1700 calories) is coming into line? I'll really have to reduce it soon :0

Struggling today a bit - brain wasn't functioning and I need it to tailor my CV and write a covering letter. It was just not happening in there so tried a nut boost, to no avail. I think that I'm wanting something but can't figure out what 'it' is! Dinner didn't fix it either (linseed crackers, cream cheese, salad etc). So tried some dried apricots (20g) and they seem to be helping. Think that I'll take my frangible self off to bed early tonight.

........ Calories 601.00 Carbs 17.20 Fat 40.90 Protein 22.50 Fibre 18.07

Bother the calories though. It could have been worse I suppose - I could have had a complete gastronomic breakdown and eaten twiglets again.

==================================

Thursday, day ninety-five, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 120.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~118.75lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Ssssshhhhh... tiptoes away from the scales before the V&P vary-fairy changes its mind.

Slightly less miserable today. Think I need to do some 'proper' cooking - maybe I've been missing the suspense and excitement of baking and creating... And I haven't tried the lemon juice trick in muffins yet.

Hmmm... vague recollections of having read that coconut flour needs more eggs - I wonder if the same applies to soya flour and / or gram flour. That might help explain the lack of rising. Along with the proper bake-ware being so significant. And the heavier weight of the flour (thus the lemon juice trick with baking powder). And a slower oven to get the inside cooked plus, maybe, foil on top for the first 20 minutes? Gawd - don't think I'm into trying each of these so might just go for the lot! I'll not know which one 'fixed things' but doing them all costs nowt (or very little).

Best laid plans etc. etc.. I should not be allowed out of the house to go to 'work' with a) money and / or b) a bank card in my bag. Left early to scout the charity shops for muffinalia and ended up with: a brand-new fleece for the OH (thank you Capability shop donor); a copy of Rosemary Conley's 'Amazing Inch Loss Plan' (I thought the exercises looked do-able, the lady must be well into her sixties and if she can manage them I should be able to); a huge 'definitive' tome on Italian cooking for a quid; Timothy Ferris's "4 hour body" - this is *entirely* for research purposes only, I promise (there have been *so* many references to 'slow-carb' stuff that I really wanted to have a deek at it) - I did *not* know that it had a section on girly orgasms (that's the one page where the book's spine is broken)! - the lady (at least late fifties) at the checkout asked me to report back on progress and for a loan once I was done with it

Oh, and that's not all...

At work I discovered the most *divine* vegetable cookbook (but not entirely vegetarian - breaking my own rules, again) and *had to have it*, at an astronomical £4.00: Paul Gayler's "A Passion for Vegetables" (1999, it looks way ahead of its time). I've never heard of this guy before, but I do believe that he is a culinary genius - I was drooling over the recipes for much of the afternoon. The recipes are probably not for every-day cooking (heavenly if one could) and some of the ingredients are a little obscure (cardoons anyone?) but they would make splendid dinner-party fare, or just lovely food for a special / indulgent night in. Refined, that's the word I'm looking for. Many recipes are naturally low-carb, and of those that aren't I reckon a good few are adaptable. I was in danger of walking into lamp-posts trying to read it on the way home.

Might I recommend the "Spinach, chilli and black bean fitters" from Gayler's book? I managed not to throw myself on the hot-plate in despair after spilling the best part of a glass of red wine over my beautiful new cookbook (those who know my bookophilia will be amazed - I only sniffled for ten minutes whilst trying to dry the pages) - I was far too determined to get these yummy fritters made. Even with my slight adulterations (I don't *do* deep-fat frying for a start), the fritters were definitely one of the better things I've cooked so far. Bestest neighbour and OH both thought they were delicious. Unusually, I think I agree with them. Gayler suggests that the fritters be served with yoghurt and a pickle - I'd say the yoghurt is an must (we did it), pickle maybe (didn't have any) - I'd add a tomato based salad (did it this time but next time I'd do layered vinaigrette dressed sliced tomatoes and red onions, and rocket or watercress, maybe). Mmmmm.

........ Calories 1635.38 Carbs 46.31 Fat 104.34 Protein 34.15 Fibre 8.85

spinach, chilli & bean fritters; from Paul Gayler, A Passion for Vegetables (p52)
gram flour, 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 100g 352.00 55.90 5.30 20.10 4.70
soya milk, coop org unsw, 30c/C0.1/F1.9/P3.4/Fi0.6/100ml
......... 300ml 90.00 0.30 5.70 10.20 1.80
butter, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 65g 468.00 0.39 52.00 0.33 0.00
eggs, brown, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... ~54g x 3 of 244.62 0.00 18.14 20.25 0.00
borlotti beans, rough chopped, 85c/C12.9/F0.6/P6.9/Fi7.7/100g PG used black beans
......... 100g 85.00 12.90 0.60 6.90 7.70
spinach, baby leaf, co-op, rough chopped, 30c/C1.6/F0.8/P2.8/Fi2.1/100g
......... 75g 22.50 1.20 0.60 2.10 1.58
chilli, green, rough chopped, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 9g 3.60 0.86 0.02 0.18 0.14
ginger, rough chopped across grain, 90c/C17.8g/F0.8g/P1.8g/Fi2.0g/100g
......... 21g 18.90 3.74 0.17 0.38 0.42
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 15ml 3.90 0.30 0.00 0.06 0.05
coriander, dried leaf PG used 2 tbsp fresh - much better I suspect
......... 5ml 0.00
cumin seed
......... 5ml 0.00
fenugreek, dried ground PG used seeds - I didnae huv ony
......... 3ml 0.00
mustard seed
......... 3ml 0.00
salt
......... good grind or two to taste 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 65ml 541.67 0.00 59.80 0.00 0.00
total spinach, chilli & bean fritters 1830.19 75.58 142.33 60.49 16.38
FatDog's 1/3rd portion of spinach, chilli & bean fritters 610.06 25.19 47.44 20.16 5.46

I do wonder whether a touch of nutmeg mightn't add to this rather nicely?

Method: 1. ping the chopped spinach for a minute or two, enough to wilt but not cook it; 2. blitz the chilli and the ginger to fine chop; 3. heat the milk and the butter in a small pan until the butter has melted and the milk is about to boil; 4. take the butter and milk off the heat and gradually beat in the soya flour, avoiding lumps as best you can (though they seem to disappear anyway); 5. return to the heat and cook for a couple of minutes (well, I rather gave up on this step as it started to go brown pretty instantly, however much I stirred) then allow to cool for 5 minutes; 6. beat in the eggs, one at a time; 7. add all the other ingredients (except for the frying oil) and give it all a thoroughly good mixing in, then check to see if salt is needed; 8. heat 25ml of the oil in a non-stick wok - mine has quite a wee base and worked really well for this, I thought; 9. dollop in four separate tablespoons of the batter; 10. fry vigorously with the oil bubbling up for a couple of minutes (80% heat did for me) until you can see the bottom of the fritters browning, then flip them over - take care: a) for breaking and b) for spattering hot fat; 11. when the second side is done wheech them out with a slotted something so that the oil drains off and either feed them to your hungry guest(s) immediately or keep them warm under the grill whilst you do the next lot; 12. add in another 20ml of oil and repeat from no. 9; 13. serve with full fat creamy yoghurt, tomato based salad, and maybe a pickle of sorts...

Thought the recipe would be more carborific than calorific so rather pleased that it wasn't as, in half portions, it would make for good, filling repair day food; but I'm appalled at the fibre. Need to be better about breaking fast with linseed yoghurt - cherry tomatoes and dry roasted peanuts might hit the salt crave but they don't add much to the fibre total. Or could just add ground linseed into the fritters.

==================================

Friday, day ninety-six, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 119.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~117.25lbs); 1.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Well, what can one say but WOW! My gast has been flabbered again. Now, I'm well prepared for this to go the other way tomorrow just as easily - but it might have a hard time going a *long* way as today is a repair day, and I *will* be good. Fingers crossed.

I need saving from myself. I'd *really* like the hardback version of Gayler's Passion book to make up for my wine-abused copy (sniff) , and then I painfully want his 'Pure Vegetarian'... Just looked at the reviews and I suspect that Pure is even more 'special occasion' (fine-dining?) than Passion, but that's where inspiration comes from.

Ooops. Resisted the Passion but couldn't resist the Pure. It's coming from the USofA so when the OH says 'what can I get for your birthday?' next month, the book might just arrive in time. Though sod's law is that it will turn up in the shop next week at half the price - then what do I do?

Double ooops. And I'm damned by temptation. My favourite wee mostly-veggie actress friend has just called by and has taken a shine to Passion - 'tis now hers and I have an excuse to get the hardback - wheeeee!

Co-op bargain tenderstem stir-fry for dins, with the usual extra bits like ginger and chilli etc. Went and added cashew nuts (high-carb) as I used to do, rather than peanuts (lower-carb) as I should know to do by now... Bother.

Have just made a 15g linseed cracker, to up the fibre you understand - nowt to do with the munchies, of course. I made a monster size one rather than three or four wee ones (ring the changes eh?) and have just discovered that it's the *thicker* bits that over-cook, and not the the thinner ones, if one makes it unevenly. Learn something every day...

........ Calories 776.58 Carbs 31.72 Fat 33.73 Protein 20.02 Fibre 12.95

Posting now so that I can't be tempted... Sleep tight all, FatDog.

Twas a great linseed article, am off to make my very own linseed crackers, have been a linseed fan for many years usually grind and add to my now rarer ambrosia breakfast with added flaxseed oil. So linseed crackers might be the shot for when I get the munchies for cheese and crackers post 5:2 fast days, meaning more opportunities for linseed intake.

Good to catch up on yours journey. Glad those scales are being cooperative for you, wish mine would Am off to deactivate a famine reaction buoyed on by your enthusiasm