The FastDay Forum

Move over another cookbook fanatic trying to stem the obsession via googling. Not much luck. @rawkaren may I be so bold as to ask for the recipe for the afore mentioned banana bread.
@@izzy I could have some of that waiting for the amazon mail to arrive sounds like my type of action

Move over another cookbook fanatic trying to stem the obsession via googling. Not much luck. @rawkaren may I be so bold as to ask for the recipe for the afore mentioned banana bread.
@@izzy I could have some of that waiting for the amazon mail to arrive sounds like my type of action

Here it is. I find it comes out a bit wet, so I might put a little more flour in next time. The original Danielle Walker recipe has 3tbspns honey but it doesn't need it.

2tbspns coconut oil, melted
4 large eggs
Tspn vanilla extract
0.5 tspn cider vinegar
0.5 cup coconut flour
0.25 cup almond flour (ground blanched almonds)
0.5 tspn sea salt
1 tspn bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
0.5 cup coconut milk
3 large ripe bananas

Oil, eggs, vinegar, vanilla beat on high 30 secs
Combine coconut flour, almond flour, bicarbonate ,sea salt, then add to wet ingredients, beat on high until combined.
Mash bananas in coconut milk and then add to batter. Beat on medium until combined.

Pour into a loaf tin and bake for 40 to 45 mins in a 350f/180c oven.
12 slices. 125 cals per slice 12g carbs.

Saturday, day one-hundred and thirty-two, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 114.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~112.75lbs; 0.8lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.9, w. 26.0, t. 31.5, h. 35.0 inches

Crash!. Jolly nice of the V&P vary-fairy to take a plunge for my weekly report - thank ee kindly - but I ain't holding my breath (we've been here before, remember).

Anyway, my report for the end of week 27 on 4:3 : 1.2lbs weight loss, and a further quarter inch off the waist, stomach and hips measurements. The shrinkage is incontrovertible but the weight loss rather mystical (that 0.8lbs drop feels like a cheat). We shall see.

I'm half contemplating a break-fast of a (soya flour) pancake with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom spices and a dollop of yoghurt, and possibly an 'essence of something', or perhaps a finely chopped dried apricot or two? And I've not worked out what to do for dinner yet - bargain co-op 'bistro' salad has to be on the menu (or it will turn into liquid) but I'm a bit stumped as to what's to go with it.

No break-fast pancakes so pancakes go on the menu for dinner - but I'm sorely swithering as to what to have with them - rather fancied stilton and 'fruit' (dried apricot, fresh pear, dried date?); or, perhaps, cream cheese, quorn ham and mustard (again); or maybe avocado; and on the indecision goes...

Had, what seemed like, a 'period of metabolic inflexibility' earlier (e.g. low-carbitis fuzzy head) - which is rather strange as I'm pretty certain that I'm well and truly keto-adapted (at near five months on low-carb I bloomin' well should be - @PhilT I need your wisdom) and I haven't fallen off the carb-wagon since last Sunday's 78 grams. Checked my urinary ketones and they're a pretty convincing 8 mmol/L. Not sure what's going on. This happened earlier in the week and I chose to pretend that it didn't. Need to get that blood ketone gizmo, methinks, if I'm to further my understanding of this experiment *at all*.

Bargain hunting didn't help much with the dinner decisions: nice pot of tropical fruits for 50p (to go with cheese on my pancakes or maybe just with yoghurt for pudding?) and bananas (50p monster bunch for the OH).

Did find a nice pinny for saving my frocks in the kitchen - had a choice between a *very* girly cup-cake one (feminine is okay, but FatDogs don't really do very girly), cat silhouettes (I'd be chasing my tail around the kitchen, as if I don't do that enough already), 'orchards' (yes, just the word 'orchards' repeated, very prettily, in green), or a Valvona and Crolla one in dark green with red straps. Anyone knowing Edinburgh and me would understand why I had no hesitation in going for the last one. V&C are legendary, Scotland's first deli and purveyors of the finest, yummiest Italian food *ever* (not over-priced but sadly out of the FatDog's budgetary scope these days).

Hmmm. 'Tis 8pm and I *still* don't know what to do with my pancakes. I'll start prepping the salad (with my new pinny on, *grin*) and maybe inspiration will come unto me.

FatDog woofs about the kitchen in new pinny - love it! And, as the saying goes, it doesn't even make my tum look fat in it

Pancakes. With? Nah, it's just not coming to me. Think I'll simply need to repeat the quorn ham / cream cheese / mustard combination from the other day. Or maybe another 'Saturday night pizza'. Okay - it's the latter - with quorn ham dotted on the top, post cooking.

So, FatDog, in her wisdom, decides - as the pancakes are going to be slathered in cheese - to go for a soya flour only version, thus saving on carbs. Ehrumm. No. Do not try this at home. You will not get a pancake. You will get an alarming mess in your frying pan and, if you're lucky, eventually some bits that resemble small fragments of fried batter. However, these wee bits are very much edible and, with a bit of judicious layering and slithers of cheese and seasonings, will render an 'interesting' crumbly layer thingy. Not haute cuisine, but surprisingly still rather tasty, especially if you're hungry.

Oooh. I like my pinny so much that I don't want to take it off *silly wincy-mincy waggy-waggy-doggy round the kitchen*. I need a dedicated hook for it. That hook is not going onto the round-to-it list, that is *happening* (just it'll have to be tomorrow, whenever the OH is out, and I can put a cup-hook into the wood-work without Vesuvius errupting).

Checked out the internet - yes, one can make pancakes with soya flour but one needs to *add eggs*. Actually, all the recipes using *any flour* would appear to call for an egg, or two. Seems gram flour is a one-off-wonder in that one can do without the egg. And without the oil, milk or baking powder. Oops. I had no idea.

See, I'm still a complete tyro when it comes to cooking - but it's been ever so much fun learning the little that I have learnt. And having the company of you good people on the way

Wonder what the required ratio of gram to soya flour is to get the pancakes to work. I did 14g gram to 11g soya flour the other day (unintentionally, the ratio was meant to be the other way round but the gram flour whooumphed out of the packet) and the pancakes were fine - indeed, they were the best incredibly fast faux-pizza-bases ever (well, so far).

Right, challenge on: will try 15g soya to 10g gram flour next time I have pancakes (oooh, break-fast tomorrow, e.g. the yummy spices version above, anyone?). Woof!

........ Calories 1649.38 Carbs 53.38 Fat 94.34 Protein 50.22 Fibre 17.74

Oh, and it's Ottolenghi's 'Plenty' book that is veggie @rawkaren - 'tis now in my saved-for-later shopping basket (itching to proceed to the check-out) - though 'Jerusalem' looks mighty tempting too... Not sure whether to thank-you or curse you (nicely) for that recommendation

I've been wanting a Middle Eastern / Mediterranean veggie cook-book to 'round off' the collection for ages, and had finally compromised on and, early on Friday, ordered, mega-discount versions of Habeeb Salloum's "Classic Vegetarian Cooking: From the Middle East and North Africa" (tatty copy, but the plain 'good' ones are more than double in price, plus post) and Arto Der Haroutunian's "Classic Vegetarian Cookery: Over 250 Recipes from Around the World" (I *really* wanted his "Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East" but the highish price has refused to drop since I've been stalking it, for a goodly while now).

I've Dennis Cotter's "For the Love of Food" and the World Food Cafe's "Quick and Easy" trying their hardest to get to the check-out too - they'll have to be pressies though as they're well above my 'charity store price' cut-off.

Sigh. Temptations, temptations. Sweet dreams all, FatDog.

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

Sunday, day one-hundred and thirty-three, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 115.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~112.75lbs); 0.4lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.9, w. 26.0, t. 31.5, h. 35.0 inches

Boing. Boing. And the eeeevil scales fairy has it equal dibs between 115.0 and 115.6. I'm going for the former as it's a sunny day and it's nice to be optimistic occasionally... That and the fact that the analogue scales are the same as they were yesterday and I'd really expect a whole pound gain to show up! Jolly glad the black dog has taken itself off for a long ramble somewhere; who knows, it might even find it prefers living in the wild than with me...

Bargains to use up for dins are chantenay carrots and baby sweet corn, freegan onions, and the remains of my beautiful cabbage plus a sweet potato I acquired on Thursday which was put aside for the other bargains...

Coconut milk and Thai red curry paste are singing to me. Or maybe that's "ordinary" curry.

Ooof! That's a wowzer of a woozy head again. Fading off now but that lasted for well over half an hour at full whack. Very irksome. Actually, rather unpleasant. Close to falling over / off chair. B*gger. Second coffee with cream hasn't fixed it. Let's see what 20g of salted almonds does... Now 3pm and still not quite right. Whimper. I'm going for a wander anyway - maybe fresh air will straighten me out.

Ooooh, bargains for tomorrow (or more like Tuesday) night's dinner : co-op prep'd butternut squash & sweet potato, plus prep'd carrot & swede, sweet pointed red peppers, plus the dearest little cauliflower all for about 50p each - and all of which are singing a wonderful choral 'tajine'.

And, I finally gave in and bought the sad, battered and neglected copy of Nadine Abensur's "The New Cranks Recipe Book" that I've been studiously ignoring in the main Shelter shop for *many, many* weeks now. Bestest neighbour is *seriously* going to take the p*ss out of me, as we're both minded that Cranks was, at one point, equivalent to a 'very uncomfortable hair shirt'. But, this book finally consolidated my ideas for tonight's dinner (I had an in-store "ooooh, that's what to do" moment) and, apart from that, it does seem to have some rather delicious recipes in it.

Returned home to a full/mad house but then only the VBF remained for dinner, so doggy bags of the stew for VBF and the OH for tomorrow. Verdicts: Filling? Ooomph. Tick. Tasty? Very. Tick. Do again? Yes please. Tick. Mmmm. Tick.

That's my calories rather blown for the day - quite fairly attributable to the second coffee-with-cream and the woozies-nut-rescue (nothing to do with extra glass of wine or two, of course). To think that I very nearly had seconds of my lovely chocolate - thank goodness that I managed to resist [/sarcasm]. At least my macro balance is okay.

Darn-it though, that's another week starting with a deficit deficit (~175 calories over allowance) - but at least it's not as bad as the post-binge-fest last weekend. I haven't done an analytical evalutaion on that experiment - but gut (no pun intended) feeling from this week's evidence is that binges (and certainly carb-fests) aren't such a beezer idea...

........ Calories 1925.28 Carbs 66.93 Fat 115.66 Protein 37.18 Fibre 16.05

Caribbean pepperpot stew; very adapted from Abensur's New Cranks recipe book (p48)
sweet potato, small chunked, 95c/C21.3/F0.3/P1.2/Fi2.4/100g
......... 511g 485.45 108.84 1.53 6.13 12.26
green cabbage, organic, fine sliced, 32c/C4.1/F0.4/P1.7/Fi2.4/100g
......... 516g 165.12 21.16 2.06 8.77 12.38
carrot, baby (chantenay), ¼ longways 35c/C7.7/F0.3/P0.6/Fi3.0/100g
......... 363g 127.05 27.95 1.09 2.18 10.89
sweet red pepper, co-op, fine rings, 35c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.1/Fi2.0/100g
......... 76g 26.60 4.86 0.30 0.84 1.52
onion, tesco 'sweet', fine sliced, 25c/C4.4/F0.2/P0.8/Fi1.3/100g
......... 185g 46.25 8.14 0.37 1.48 2.41
baby corn, co-op, 2cm chopped, 25c/C2.0/F0.4/P2.9/Fi2.0/100g
......... 170g 42.50 3.40 0.68 4.93 3.40
coconut milk, 197cal/C2.81/F21.33g/P2.02g/Fi0g/100ml
......... 400ml 788.00 11.24 85.32 8.08 0.00
tomatoes, tinned, chopped 15c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.0/Fi0.7/100g
......... 400g 60.00 12.00 0.40 4.00 2.80
chilli, orange (was green when I put it in the fridge!), fine sliced, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 8g 3.20 0.76 0.02 0.16 0.12
garlic, fine chopped, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 10g 14.90 3.31 0.05 0.63 0.21
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 30ml 250.00 0.00 27.60 0.00 0.00
soy sauce, low salt, amoy, 52c/C9.2/F0/P3.9/Fi0/100ml
......... 20ml 10.40 1.84 0.00 0.78 0.00
tamarind paste, 57c/C14.23/F0.12/P0.09/Fi0.5/100g
......... 10g 5.70 1.42 0.01 0.01 0.05
paprika, dried ground
......... 15ml 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 15ml 0.00
coriander seed, fresh ground
......... 10ml 0.00
bouillon, marigold, 243c/C29.4/F8.1/P10.5/Fi0.7/100g
......... 5g 12.15 1.47 0.41 0.53 0.04
water, boiling, for stock
.........400ml 0.00
total for Caribbean pepperpot stew 2037.32 206.39 119.84 38.51 46.08
FatDog's 2/11ths portion of Caribbean pepperpot stew 370.42 37.53 21.79 7.00 8.38

Method: 1. heat the oil in a large non-stick pot; 2. sautee the onion until softening then add the garlic and chilli; 3. stir and sautee a little more then add the dried chilli, paprika and coriander; 4. stir some more and then add the other veggies except the cabbage; 5. stir and sautee some more for a few minutes, then add and mix in the cabbage; 6. next add the tomatoes and cook for a further couple of minutes; 7. now add the stock and then the coconut milk and give it all a good mix about; 8. simmer gently for up to forty minutes with the lid on, until the root veggies are soft.

That was rather sweet-potato overloaded, and one could easily halve the tatties' quantity methinks without great detriment to the overall yumptiousness and with great benefit to lower-carbiferousness. And maybe the cabbage quantity could be reduced too (it is, after all, five times the amount given in the Cranks recipe).

Bother. Can't post as it seems the forum has run out of user connections (naughty sql-server, naughty, naughty).

Monday, day one-hundred and thirty-four, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 115.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~112.75lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.9, w. 26.0, t. 31.5, h. 35.0 inches

Gosh - my optimism yesterday would appear to have been well founded. Thank-you V&P vary-fairy and eeeevil scales-fairy - that's a happier start to the week.

Report at the end-of-week 19 of low-carb : total low-carb weight loss 22.8lbs, and last week 0.6lbs loss but no recorded tape-measure decreases though I think there has been a little shrinkage.

So on that "up" for the morning, and having *finally* crunched my "task (c)" of fixing our friend's PC (tasks set way-back-when, day 105 at the beginning of October), I'm going to attack "task (b)" - sort my spreadsheet data out. Except I want to go further than that and get the stuff I'm recording into a proper, searchable, web-able database - will probably need the VBF's web skills but the rest I *should* be able to do standing on my head, arms tied behind my back, and blind-fold (it's how I made my living for near twenty years, after all).

So. I'm going for it! And now that's said I really will have to get on with it - with you lot monitoring and chivvying my progress The data will yet be yours @Carorees... Perhaps I should join the Christmas club after all and make that my target?

But I may have a wee procrastinate every now and again to ponder what to put in my pancakes for tea, mayn't I? Pretty please? I'll get the old "mytomatoes" timer up - it is *excellent* for keeping one on track / accountable (as long as there's a plan to start with!).

Salad, freegan cottage cheese, quorn ham and pancake peanut butter sarnies for dins. Pancakes worked fine at 50/50 soya and gram flour, but weren't affy flavoursome with the peanut butter - I should have added seasonings / chilli flakes and the likes. Perfectly respectable and filling dinner though.

Our good freegan friend comes by to collect his Ubuntu'd PC - and is exceedingly happy with it. Then good friends of the OH call by - FatDog was being so good, then conceded to a glass of vino so thought to do a half-repair day (still under 700 calories at this point), but those darned dry roasted peanuts snuck in and were my *complete downfall*... Might as well have another glass of wine. Repair day abandoned. Do not buy dry roasted peanuts FatDog - never, never, never; no exceptions.

Hmmm. Yes, that's what my head is doing, a buzzy sort-of hmmmm noise that's causing a pressure that's squashing my 'brains'... Not a wowzer-woozie like yesterday - but just on the edge of it. All very (unpleasantly) strange.

I did say that I'd abandoned my repair-day? Decided to do a real 'comfort treat' and make myself a cocoa with a wee drop of cream added at the end. What a disappointment. Can't quite work out what's wrong with it, but it doesn't have that thick and creamy yum factor that I've managed in the past. In for a penny, in for a pound - methinks I'll bung some more cream in. Might as well Ah, ha. That's getting better, now to add a wee sprinkle of dried cinnamon and a dribble of almond essence. That'll do. I suspect that the OH has been watering my cream - he denies it, but it has happened in the past... Naughty thing to do to a calorie-counting FatDog.

Wondering if I should "ditch the diets" for a couple of days to determine what's with the woozies. Which got me thinking - methinks it would be really hard to just instantly 'give up' the low-carb way of eating. For example, even though I still fantasize about them occasionally, I'd find it affy difficult to get stuck into a croissant - having worked so hard to 'train' myself out of even the idea of eating such stuff, it seems as though my aversion therapy might actually have worked! However I suspect that, sadly like an addict, a few days of 'forcing' myself back onto full carb and I'd be eating pastries with gusto and delight. It'd be a monster dose of cognitive dissonance though: knowing how 'beastly bad' carbs are but hooked on them at the same time. Bit like fags really (says she, who stopped smoking on the 25th March this year).

........ Calories 1462.57 Carbs 51.56 Fat 82.68 Protein 67.87 Fibre 18.20

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

Tuesday, low-carb day one-hundred and thirty-five, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 115.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~112.75lbs); 0.6lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.9, w. 26.0, t. 31.5, h. 35.0 inches

Boing. Oh, for goodness sake. Sigh. And the eeeevil scales-fairy is at it : scales couldn't make their mind up on 115.6 or 116.0 but, given that the reading on the analogue scales hasn't moved obviously, I'll go with the lower figure.

Picked up a copy of Michelle Harvie's "the 2 day diet" in the Oxfam bookshop a couple of days ago and, though I'm not far in with solid reading I've done a fair bit of dipping: I find it hard to believe that this woman has an O'level in biology or english let alone a PhD in anything! So much unsubstantiated assertion ("they can also stimulate cells within the brain for optimal brain health", no citation - an additional red alert here is a purportedly 'scientific' text using a term like 'optimal' without definition) and overt mis-representation of known biological facts ("Cut down on saturated fats, since these are the harmful fats that clog arteries", p75, no citation) it has me reeling, and that's without the woozies, and *very, very* cross.

Right, let's see if 20g of cheddar doesn't get rid of my very faint woozies - if it were calorie related one would have thought that the cream in my break-fast coffee would fix it, but it doesn't.

Well. Lots of random encounters later. Far too (over)indulged to post. Third incarnation of the tajine and, methinks, it worked near as well the first. Will post recipe again as the carbs are much better. Evening with long-unseen ex-neighbour turns into a cheese and wine fest, swimming in cream (didn't measure and think I've grossly over-estimated) so calories are stratospheric but are probably only atmospheric in reality. Ocht, it's only once in a blue moon. Except that ex-neighbour is low-carbing too, and into cooking, has a proper kitchen, and has rather taken to the idea of us doing an evening of Terre a Terre cuisine. Waggy FatDog heaven.

But closing the evening with more Rubinstein - Brahms this time - and all the petty stuff fades into insignificance. Whimper . Sublime.

........ Calories 2024.85 Carbs 59.66 Fat 115.45 Protein 39.45 Fibre 15.15

apricot, fig and cinnamon tajine, take 3, inspired by WFC
cauliflower, co-op, broken into small florets, 35c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi2.5/100g
......... 302g 105.70 9.06 2.72 10.87 7.55
carrot & swede, co-op, prep'd, 35c/C6.6/F0.3/P0.6/Fi2.8/100g
......... 450g 157.50 29.70 1.35 2.70 12.60
butternut squash & sweet potato, co-op, prep'd, 40c/C6.2/F0.3/P1.0/Fi4.0/100g
......... 300g 120.00 18.60 0.90 3.00 12.00
sweet red pepper, co-op, fine rings, 35c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.1/Fi2.0/100g
......... 62g 21.70 3.97 0.25 0.68 1.24
onion, red, co-op, fine sliced, 35c/C7.6/F0.2/P1.3/Fi1.4/100g
......... 73g 25.55 5.55 0.15 0.95 1.02
figs, dried, co-op, 1/8'd, 240c/C48.6/F1.5/P3.3/Fi9.2/100g
......... 66g 158.40 32.08 0.99 2.18 6.07
apricot, dried, co-op, ¼'d, 185c/C36.5/F0.6/P4.0/Fi8.4/100g
......... 60g 111.00 21.90 0.36 2.40 5.04
toasted sesame oil, 827c/C0/F91.9/P0/Fi0/100ml
......... 45ml 372.15 0.00 41.36 0.00 0.00
black pepper, fresh ground
......... 1ml 0.00
black pepper, whole corns
......... 5ml 0.00
ginger, ground
......... 5ml 0.00
cinnamon, ground
......... 7ml 0.00
turmeric, ground
......... 3.0ml 0.00
salt
......... good grind or two 0.00
water, hot
......... 250ml 0.00
cinnamon, sticks
......... 2 of, ¼'d 0.00
water, hot
......... 250ml 0.00
total apricot, fig and cinnamon tajine, take 3 1072.00 120.85 48.07 22.78 45.52
FatDog's ¼ portion of apricot, fig and cinnamon tajine, take 3 268.00 30.21 12.02 5.70 11.38

Method: 1. layer veggies and fruit into a large lidded pot, in order as listed and sprinkling a little of the oil between each layer; 2. mix the spices down to the salt with 250ml hot water and pour this over; 3. add the remaining water to the cinnamon sticks and then pour this over too; 4. bring to the boil then turn down to a low simmer with the lid on; 5. cook until the veggies are well soft, about an hour, it will depend on your pot - do not lift the lid or stir; 6. serve with toasted almonds sprinkled over the top and a dollop of yoghurt (or cream)

Wednesday, day one-hundred and thirty-six, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 115.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~112.75lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.9, w. 26.0, t. 31.5, h. 35.0 inches

Eeeevil scales fairy at it, again: 115.0 was the most frequent reading though and, as the analogue scales are looking further down than up, I'll go with that rather than the 115.4 or 115.6 (wonder what it had against 115.2?).

Very mild woozies this afternoon that faded before it was dark. Pancakes for dinner done with 8g gram flour and 17g soya flour: think that was really pushing it. One needs to let the pancake 'cook' much longer before lifting it to unstick from the bottom of the pan - try moving it earlier and one ends up with fragments and goo - one just has to cross one's fingers / have faith that it's not burning. Still, I won out with two fairly decent round pancakes which I then topped with cheddar cheese, grilled to bubbly brown, slathered with wholegrain mustard and topped with quorn ham; served with a bag of rocket salad and black olives. Mmmm.

Have managed, just, to stay on the straight-and-narrow today. Definitely suffering from diet fatigue methinks, so not really a good moment for deliberating whether a 'diet holiday' is a wise idea but the issue does need a good ponder.

........ Calories 514.06 Carbs 16.29 Fat 35.29 Protein 29.67 Fibre 11.10

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

Thursday, low-carb day one-hundred and thirty-seven, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 114.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~112.65lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.9, w. 26.0, t. 31.5, h. 35.0 inches

And that naughty scales-fairy is at it again... 114.4 or 114.8? ip dip sky blue who's it not you... Going with 114.8lbs as we don't want to be *too* optimistic now, do we?

Saved a cook-book from the 'pulp' pile (by paying dearly for it mind you - even breaking my 'veggie only' rule - scrupulously straight we are) as someone had taken a huge black marker and writ very large "THIS IS YUK!!" next to one of the recipes. One wonders at the cook as, even though the recipe was rather fishy, it looked quite tasty even to me. However, the shop I work in has high standards: as I understand it, badly mutilated / damaged books (unless antiquarian / rare) will generally get pulped (the shop gets paid for these by the kilo, nothing goes to waste). This one had slipped the net, somewhat understandably - it was only because I was hunting through it for veggie recipes that I spotted the vandalism. I only later noticed the heavy dint through the cover too - that guy / gal must have been seriously p*ssed off with their dinner!

Dinner on the way to work was parsnips plus 'something'. After snooping at cook-books at work it was 'maybe' parsnip and roasted apple soup. By the time I'd arrived home with chestnut mushrooms it was a bake, of some sort. Finally 'swithering parsnip bake' courtesy of a website convincing me that a parsnip and mushroom gratin wasn't a completely mental idea.

swithering parsnip bake; nods to Tamsin Day-Lewis and http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-parsnip-13771
parsnips, co-op, ¼ inch rounds, 65c/C12.5/F1.1/P1.8/Fi4.6/100g
......... 478g 310.70 59.75 5.26 8.60 21.99
chestnut mushrooms, 8thd, 15cal/C0.4g/F0.5g/P1.8g/Fi1.0g/100g
......... 293g 43.95 1.17 1.47 5.27 2.93
onion, tesco 'sweet', fine sliced, 25c/C4.4/F0.2/P0.8/Fi1.3/100g
......... 167g 41.75 7.35 0.33 1.34 2.17
apple, 1cm cubed, 52c/C11.6/F0.2/P0.3/Fi2.4/100g
......... 82g 42.64 9.51 0.16 0.25 1.97
maasdam cheese slices, 343c/C0.0/F27.0/P25.0/Fi0.0/100g
......... 66g 226.38 0.00 17.82 16.50 0.00
parmesan cheese, 392cal/C0g/F28.4g/P33.0g/Fi0g/100g
......... 11g 43.12 0.00 3.12 3.63 0.00
black eyed beans, 99c/C16.7/F0.5/P6.9/Fi3.8/100g
......... 235g 232.65 39.25 1.18 16.22 8.93
extra thick cream, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100g
......... 180g 837.00 2.88 90.90 2.70 0.00
rosemary, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
garlic, flakes
......... 5ml 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 5ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for swithering parsnip bake 1778.19 119.91 120.24 54.51 37.99
FatDog's 1/3 portion of swithering parsnip bake 592.73 39.97 40.08 18.17 12.66

Method: 1. dry-fry the onions, then the apple, in a non-stick pan until softened, move these to the side and add the mushrooms and cook these until most of their juices are reduced, then season a little and mix thoroughly; 2. now layer up in a nice deep oven-proof dish: I did half the parsnips first, then half the beans, the Dutch cheese, rosemary and seasoning, all the mushroom mix, more beans, parsnips, rosemary and seasoning, cream and parmesan; 3. cover with foil and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 20 minutes then remove the foil and do for another 15 minutes or so until the top is golden brown and bubbling (and prong the parsnips to make sure that they're done).

Edit: this is another instance where doubling the herbs / spices wouldn't go wrong.

Not sure how but the calories and carbs went higher than hoped (maybe *lots* of parsnips and *extra thick* cream in my recipe, double chocolate and shiraz for pudding?). Oh well. I nearly took the whole week off on a 'diet holiday' so this has to be better than the carnage that that might have lead to!

........ Calories 1660.48 Carbs 60.14 Fat 108.12 Protein 37.29 Fibre 20.05

Friday, day one-hundred and thirty-eight, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 114.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~111.75lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.9, w. 26.0, t. 31.5, h. 35.0 inches

Gulp! Nearly fell off the scales at my first reading : 113.8lbs, and then at the second too (also 113.8). But then the scales-fairy changed its mind and went for 114.2lbs for the next two readings (both times after hesitating on 113.8) - but that's fine at that, thanking you very much. Analogue scales confirm substantial loss. And the tape measure seemed to be indicating a flatter stomach too - will hold off recording that until the change is 'established'. FatDog *tries* not to get too excited, but clearly fails - dancing and wagging around the living room, much to OH's perplexity. It's probably just the V&P vary-fairy at work, or could it really be that I've *finally* moved off this round-and-round-the-same-pound at last? Fingers well and truly crossed.

I've rewarded myself by ordering Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "River Cottage Veg Every Day". Actually, I'd have bought the book regardless - I've been 'price stalking' it on Amazon for ages (and had only just knocked it out of my 'save for later' list in despair a couple of days ago) and the price has just crashed to £5.00 (*including* postage) for a *new* copy. Ooops, couldn't resist. Wheee!

Rewards really shouldn't come into it this week as I skipped my repair day on Monday and have pushed at and above the limits of my TDEE / repair allowance since last Friday! Maybe that's the (in)famous "mixing it up" at work on the scales today? Though, if that's the case, one would have thought that my mad ferret Ferriss binge day near two weeks ago would have done the trick? Maybe it needs to be a concerted spell off the wagon - that was five days of *eating lots* with carbs between 50 to 60 grams, from Saturday to Tuesday, and Thursday too - but then 8 day cruises wouldn't cause carnage on the scales, and we've evidence from @imcountingufoz that they do!? Who knows?

Anyway, I seem, unintentionally, to have taken a bit of a 'diet holiday' - so that renders the discussion from yesterday (about 'holidays') completely moot! Whatever, it's a happy, waggy, FatDog wagging aboot today

Now. What's for dinner? I've no bargains in the fridge (except extra thick cream, which isn't *quite* repair day fare) so will need to go foraging. But, I'm affy tempted to do one of the recipes I copied out yesterday (transpires it's in the TDL book I rescued anyway, but with less cream!) which works on an that idea I've been mulling over for a while (i.e. pancakes as pasta) - 'Layered pancakes with Mozzerella and Tomato Sauce'. It really isn't a repair day recipe. Oh, so tempted. I could work it up and see what the damage would be...

Right, bargains were thin on the ground; more precisely *none*. So, whilst wandering up the high-street with the black-dog (who's unfathomably appeared, from nowhere) now biting hard at my ankles, I finally decide on pancakes (to be made with an nice organic egg) layered with spinach and boursin, and a tomato, lentil, fennel seed and onion sauce, with maybe a little grated cheese to brown on the top?

The 'far' co-op has just had a refit and is to be a "premium store" (which is why they're stocking all their spices in bulk at low prices to knock the two wee Asian grocers out of business, I suppose) but it does mean that they now do organic eggs. And other posh eggs, like duck eggs - doubt the butchers over the road, who source their duck eggs locally, will be very happy about that. However, FatDog is happy about the organic eggs - as that'll give Sainsers some competition!

Glumly home. If you need a little happy light in your life, I'd highly recommend Denis Cotter's "For the Love of Food". Ooops, forgot to mention that, had a wee accident and ordered it off ebay earlier in the week (it was a much lower price on ebay - honest; I'll need counselling for my bookaholism soon). Anyway, it was waiting for me when I got in (the post must have been *very, very* late) and I'm dribbling even whilst sniveling. Swithering now too, as Cotter seems to have quite a few pancake / crepe type recipes in there. @izzy it's a wee bit more foodie than our beloved Gayler, and the recipes tend to be for a whole meal-course - but it is serious triple XXXX food porn and the recipes look pretty doable, and oh, do I want to do them *all* (well, nearly).

Decision made easy however - OH has just invited his first-ex (mother-of-son) over so I'll keep things simple, and try to avoid going into a flap, methinks. Better start cooking as OH, who's off to the library, "wants to eat not long after eight" - that's me told. Fortunately, dear OH is late, as always, and didn't return home 'til nine, thus he only had to wait 30 minutes for his dinner *embarrassed thingy*. See, I do just a couple of pancakes and they seem to take no time at all - but it's not quite so quick when one is doing *eight* of them, and when it matters that they look like pancakes not shreds...

As ever, on a Friday, my repair day degenerated into a half-repair, although there was strong potential for my carrying it off earlier. Downfall was initiated by a glass of red wine - which was *absolutely* necessary under the circumstances (and the cheese that had to go before that, so that I didn't break my fast on vino!). But now I need to save myself from myself; so, I'll inflict my un- reflected / edited musings and woes upon you good people (forgive me please) before I do any further calorific damage.

........ Calories 741.05 Carbs 31.25 Fat 38.18 Protein 29.11 Fibre 10.37

This was delicious - OH hardly needed asking if he'd like seconds, unfortunately OH's ex wasn't feeling well and couldn't humanely be pressed for comment. Though if my OCD gets much worse I fear that I'll be holding my guests up with a wooden spoon until they give a full critique and star-rating!

layered pancakes with tomato & lentil and spinach & cream cheese sauces
gram flour, 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 30g 105.60 16.77 1.59 6.03 1.41
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 45g 190.80 7.20 9.00 17.55 5.40
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 42g 63.42 0.00 4.70 5.25 0.00
basil, dried leaf
......... 10ml 0.00
garlic flakes
......... 2ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
water
......... 135ml 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 7.5ml 62.50 0.00 6.90 0.00 0.00
tomatoes, tinned, chopped 19c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.1/Fi0.7/100g
......... 400g 76.00 12.00 0.40 4.40 2.80
lentils, brown, tinned, d'aucy, 76.8c/C12.2/F0.4/P6.1/Fi4.2/100g
......... 265g 203.52 32.33 1.06 16.17 11.13
onion, red, co-op, fine sliced, 35c/C7.6/F0.2/P1.3/Fi1.4/100g
......... 119g 41.65 9.04 0.24 1.55 1.67
olive oil, 824c/C0.0/F91.6/P0.0/Fi0.0/100ml
......... 5ml 41.20 0.00 4.58 0.00 0.00
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 5ml 1.30 0.10 0.00 0.02 0.02
garlic, fine chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 8g 11.92 2.64 0.04 0.50 0.17
chilli flakes
......... two good pinches 0.00
fennel seed
......... 10ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
spinach, baby leaf, co-op, 30c/C1.6/F0.8/P2.8/Fi2.1/100g
......... 225g 67.50 3.60 1.80 6.30 4.73
soft cheese, full fat, tesco, 240c/C2.4/F23.0/P5.5/F0.0/100g
......... 250g 600.00 6.00 57.50 13.75 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 5ml 41.67 0.00 4.60 0.00 0.00
garlic, fine chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 8g 11.92 2.64 0.04 0.50 0.17
italian herbs
......... 10g 0.00
total layered pancakes 1519.00 92.33 92.45 72.02 27.48
FatDog's ¼ portion of layered pancakes 379.75 23.08 23.11 18.01 6.87

Yummy sounding pancakes, well done with the vary fairy scales and new low low sited

"OH has just invited his first-ex ".............................

How many ex-wives does OH have? Oh, and congratulations on your weight loss, it's going well, keep it up

Ballerina x

Saturday, day one-hundred and thirty-nine, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 113.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~111.25lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.9, t. 31.25, h. 34.9 inches

Yay! BMI now below 23.0!

Hmmm... maybe the scales *were* telling the truth yesterday? Their indecision appears to work in increments of four pounds - today I had 113.6 solidly for the first three readings but once I'd powered off and on again the scales hesitated on 114.0 before going to and sticking with 113.6. Yesterday's hesitancy was between 113.8 and 114.2. The scales are meant to have a precision (sensitivity?) of 2lbs, but maybe these are 'V&P vary-fairy specials' that'll give you a random number within a 4lb range of roughly where you ought to be And the scales are pretty old too - our lab ones were professionally recalibrated every six months or so; I very much doubt that domestic scales maintain their precision any better so presumably they go 'orf' over time... ?

Anyway, all good for my report for the end of week 28 on 4:3 5.5 : 1.5 (just this week) : 1.0lbs weight loss, and a further quarter inch off the hips and a smidgen off the other measurements.

I'd like to try for an 'extra good' weekend - but I'm off to a wobbly start as there's the remains of last night's pancakes needing eaten and the quantity would merely make a big but highly carbiferous snack... Will have to tempt the OH - although he's rather into the 'low carb' concept now, but he hasn't quite *got* it, with the odd sticky cake thrown in.

What's for dinner? I'm now *so* spoilt for cook-books that I'm not sure where to start looking, or if I can get to the bottom of the piles to extricate the books that I want! I think that 'organising the book shelves' might sneek in ahead of 'organising my data' today - but only if I can get the OH to vanish out for a couple of hours whilst I derange his living room. I'll need one of those hazmat suits too - as it's going to be a dust-apocalypse - pushing it a bit to hope to find one of those in the charity stores, I suppose (though I have *actually* seen one before in Bethany).

Well, I seem to be doing my very best to sabotage the lovely figure on the scales. OH weren't shifting anywhere soon (so no book-shelving), so I went messaging instead and picked up ingredients for the flan tomorrow plus some bargain salads and avocados. So, one of the salads with avocado for dins, and nice home-made low-carb rolls to go with them.

It's the nice low-carb rolls bit where things begin to go wrong: they were low-carb alright (a miraculous 2.24g each roll) but I didn't keep my eye on the calories very well, so pretty much sank my allowance when I scranned two of them for a light-weight 482.68 calories (ha ha); then gaily guzzled a share of the remnants of last night's pancakes (even more delicious the next day) at 126.58 calories. Oops. That was on top of a whole avocado. So, with my usual coffee with cream for morning break-fast and cheese and nuts for 'proper' break-fast early in the evening, that's all hopes of my 'being good' . well . and . truly . sunk .

Tomorrow is another day, as they say

........ Calories 1934.12 Carbs 39.68 Fat 132.16 Protein 53.88 Fibre 23.91

Probably the best shot at bread that I've had so far - the rolls even rose a bit and actually looked like rolls! OH was considerably impressed. Actually, I was pretty impressed too, so much so that I simply *couldn't resist* that second one with butter, quorn ham and wholegrain mustard.

cheese rolls, variation no. 1, a FatDog concoction, vaguely adapted from RE's recipe in tVLCD, p298; made 4 rolls
almonds, ground, 640c/C6.9/F55.8/P21.1/Fi11.8/100g
......... 30g 192.00 2.07 16.74 6.33 3.54
linseed, golden, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 30g 160.20 0.45 12.65 5.49 8.19
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 40g 169.60 6.40 8.00 15.60 4.80
cheddar, mature, sainsers org'ic, 410c/C0.1/F34.4/P25.0/F0.0/100g
......... 52g 213.20 0.05 17.89 13.00 0.00
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 57g 86.07 0.00 6.38 7.13 0.00
coconut oil, warmed to liquid, 39cal/C0/F4.5/P0/Fi0/4g/5ml
......... 18.5ml 144.30 0.00 16.65 0.00 0.00
baking powder
......... 2ml 0.00
garlic flakes
......... 3ml 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 3ml 0.00
mixed herbs
......... 10ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total cheese rolls, variation no. 1 965.37 8.97 78.31 47.54 16.53
FatDog's ¼ portion of cheese rolls, variation no. 1 241.34 2.24 19.58 11.89 4.13

Method: 1. mix all the dry stuff in one bowl; 2. mix and beat all the wet stuff in another; 3. add the wet stuff to the dry and make a dough; 4. divvy the dough up into four equal portions and make into roll shapes *; 5. bake in a pre-heated oven at 190C for about 30 to 35 minutes until dark golden **; 6. tip the rolls onto a rack and allow cool for about 10 minutes; 7. enjoy hot with butter...

* I put the rolls into paper muffin cases, not sure why - at least it stopped them sticking to anything else and it might have helped with their cooking - but don't try getting them out of their cases until they've rested for 10 minutes; ** due to the nature of our oven, I covered the rolls lightly with foil for the first 25 minutes of baking so that the outers didn't do before the innards

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

Sunday, day one-hundred and forty, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 114.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~111.5lbs); 0.4lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.9, t. 31.25, h. 34.9 inches

Nooooooo. Whereas yesterday the scales flickered on 114.0 but settled on 113.6 today 'tis the other way round (flicker on 113.6 and settle on 114.0). And the analogues were maybe up a fraction, looking nearer to 7 stone 12lbs than 11lbs, so I guess I can't blame the eeeevil scales-fairy. Might be the V&P vary-fairy, but just as likely excess consumption! Good thing that it's sunny and the black dog seems to have taken itself off for a walk. Grrrrr (at self).

'Tis flan for dinner tonight: I'll use my Flanizza (TM) base and then a bastardised cross between the recipe I wrote down on Thursday from the BBC Food & Drink book (Janette Mashall?) and Denis Cotter's broccoli flan recipe (FtLoF, p270). The only further ingredient required is a sweet pointed red pepper - wonder if I can make it out of the house and return with just that, and only that?

Answer? Nope.

Unexpectedly hit gold at the Stockbridge market with a sweet red pepper (last of the English organic crop - it'll be Spanish next week) thus saving me from Sainsers; and that should have been that. But, oh no, FatDog has to visit her favourite Scottish soap makers (Caurnie's of Glasgow), also on the market, and spends a small fortune on bog myrtle soap (which they've not had for an *age* and which I adore) and an end-lump of geranium soap too (which somehow wickedly enticed me)... They both smell utterly divine, but the scent doesn't last for ever, so will do half the bog myrtle to the VBF and try to conserve the other half of my bog myrtle and whole geranium in paper bags sealed in plastic bags... The downfall went further - couldn't resist seeing if the "if it's for you it won't go by you" rather slinky black dress (which I have been yearning for as a night-dress for more than the last two weeks) was still in the charity store, and it was... Along with four oven-proof white ramekins which will be ideal for my muffin / roll making (I think). I'll be in the work-house before the end of next year at this rate.

Sadly, OH can't smell the soap (no sense of smell since cracking his skull a few years back) but did appreciate the frock - which looks rather too good to be a night-dress, so might actually get worn as a frock - and he might enjoy the fruits of the ramekins. So my excesses haven't been met with complete disapprobation, just partial.

Ooh, I wish it were a tart that I'd made for dinner tonight and then I could bounce around the living room saying that "I'm the queen of tarts" and sound really silly but funny (*not*) - somehow "queen of flans" does not have the same resonance... (neither sound any good when sensible). I am, however, dead chuffed with the flan. The OH gave it 10/10 an thought it "exceptionally good" and "very eatable", which will do, and the VBF gave it 9.6/10 (I don't remember her doing anything over 9/10 before). Me? Pretty pleased with it (and, if truth be told, pleased with myself as I've never made a 'proper' flan before) - I'm trying not to be too smuggins, but it's hard

Smugness just a little tarnished by *complete* under-estimation of the flan's calories (by about 150kcal per portion, in my guestimate). I'm now doubly cursing our immediate neighbour - firstly, for turning up (unexpectedly) five minutes after we'd served up so I couldn't feed her yummy dinner (I do really rather love my food-victims) and, secondly, for turning up five minutes after we'd served up so I had a third-of-flan portion rather than just a quarter. Darn.

....... Calories 1823.15 Carbs 46.22 Fat 117.47 Protein 48.96 Fibre 18.19

Served with (bargain) co-op Bistro salad, the flan looked gorgeous - must get my act together with the camera and "food set" as that was real eye-candy (think it had our poor food-deprived neighbour drooling). Thinking about it though, I suppose a nice flan with slightly golden-browned feta cheese with pretty bits of red pepper and nice green broccoli will look good, whatever the food actually tastes like! But, this time, it tasted good too, I promise (sorry hungry neighbour).

broccoli, red pepper and feta flan
flanizza base
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 70g 296.80 11.20 14.00 27.30 8.40
almonds, ground, 645c/C6.5/F55.8/P25.5/Fi7.4/100g
......... 30g 193.50 1.95 16.74 7.65 2.22
gram flour, 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 20g 70.40 11.18 1.06 4.02 0.94
linseed, golden, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 15g 80.10 0.23 6.32 2.74 4.10
baking powder
......... 4ml 0.00
chilli flakes
......... two or three good pinches 0.00
garlic flakes
......... several good grinds 0.00
dried basil
......... 10ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
coconut oil, warmed to liquid, 39cal/C0/F4.5/P0/Fi0/4g/5ml
......... 40ml 312.00 0.00 36.00 0.00 0.00
soya milk, light, alpro, 22c/C0.1/F1.2/P2.0/Fi1.2/100ml
......... 30ml 6.60 0.03 0.36 0.60 0.36
flan top, nods to Cotter and Marshall
onion, red, co-op, fine sliced, 35c/C7.6/F0.2/P1.3/Fi1.4/100g
......... 146g 51.10 11.10 0.29 1.90 2.04
balsamic vinegar, 88c/C17/F0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 20ml 17.60 3.40 0.00 0.10 0.00
broccoli, very small floretted 38c/C1.8/F0.9/P4.4/Fi2.6/100g
......... 186g 70.68 3.35 1.67 8.18 4.84
sweet point red pepper, diced, 40c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi3.4/100g
......... 112g 44.80 7.17 0.45 1.12 3.81
basil, fresh, torn, 23c/C2.35/F0.64/P3.15/Fi1.6/100g
......... 8g 2.30 0.24 0.06 0.32 0.16
eggs, brown, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... ~54g x 2 of 163.08 0.00 12.10 13.50 0.00
double cream, coop, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100ml
......... 100ml 465.00 1.60 50.50 1.50 0.00
feta, organic, tesco, crumbled, 275c/C1.0/F23.0/P16.0/Fi0/100g
......... 200g 550.00 2.00 46.00 32.00 0.00
total for broccoli, red pepper and feta flan 2323.96 53.43 185.56 100.93 26.86
total for FatDog 1/3 portion of broccoli, red pepper and feta flan 774.65 17.81 61.85 33.64 8.95

Method: 1. mix the dry stuff for the flanizza base, then gradually mix in the coconut oil (you might need to soften it first) until you've bread crumbs, then add in the milk until you've something *just* hanging together as a dough (mine was too dry - one needs about another 10ml liquid methinks); 2. bung the dough into a placky bag / cling-flim and into the fridge for 30 minutes; 3. meantimes, dry-fry the onions in a non-stick pan until they're starting to soften; 4. add the balsamic vinegar and fry for a further 5 minutes then cover with parchment paper, lower the heat right down and let alone for about 20 minutes whilst doing other stuff; 5. beat the eggs and cream for the custard - season well with s&p; 6. retrieve the dough from the fridge, roll it out and line a pre-greased flan / pie tin (one is meant to re-chill for another 30 minutes - I didn't); 7. 'blind' bake in a pre-heated oven at 190C for about 10 minutes (cover the 'sides' with foil to prevent these from over doing); 8. now fill your flan - spread your jammy onions on the bottom, then layer the broccoli and red pepper on, pour the custard over next and, finally distribute the feta cheese over the top - squishing it down firmly into the flan; 9. give the whole thing another good grinding of black pepper, re-cover those vulnerable sides, and bung the flan back into the oven for about 20 minutes (until the custard is cooked) then finish under a hot grill for a golden-brown top; 10. serve with a good leafy salad.

Cotter's original recipe uses three eggs and 150ml of cream in a 10.5 inch flan dish; I have no idea how he managed to get that quantity of custard to fully cover the base, let alone fill, his dish because my custard (albeit in reduced but proportional quantities for a much smaller dish - 6 inch sloping out to 8.5 inch) was a *very* shallow affair - hardly a third of the way up the broccoli! You might want to use the full three eggs and 150ml cream.

Edit: linseed was 'golden' not 'brown', and fresh ground.

Well, bowl me over with a feather WE HAVE BREAD ROLLS!!

Beginner's luck or serendipity, or both? Not *quite* as low-cal or low-carb as one might desire (136.18 calories and 6.15g carb each wee roll) but oh, so, so real-wholemeal-roll like that one might think that they were real. There's certainly room for improvement (they could rise a little more, for a start), and they are very *ordinary* brown rolls as bread rolls go, but I am *so* very happy with them. Best neighbour was by to use the internet and had one - he reckoned that they more than pass muster: they even *smell* as well as look like bread rolls. There's one more bread roll left but there is a distinct risk that it'll be inside the dog by the time the OH returns from the Gifford lectures (I'm not venturing out when I can watch them online, snuggly at home).

How? Not sure but, from my experiments so far and the internet, I applied the following words of bread-wisdom:
* salt can reduce rising - so used the tiniest pinch, thus the rolls taste under-salted and need at least butter on them;
* fat can 'impede gluten', thus maybe rising in general? - so removed all added fat, including milk, but because of this the rolls will dry out and not keep, best eaten whilst still warm from the oven I think (I'm a FatDog - I would say that, wouldn't I);
* eggs help rising - so kept the egg, even though it has fat;
* xanthan gum helps hold a rise - so added that (and thereby hangs a tale - see recipe); some folk use xanthan and guar gums - it might be worth trying the latter too?
* baking powder - well, it worked last time?
* there's other stuff, but I've forgotten it in my excitement...
Then I looked at my ingredients and pondered what was most calorific (ground almonds) and what I had in the cupboard that could substitute in. My poor rejected oat bran perhaps? Why not? Not much more cal/carb-orific than gram flour, certainly tastes more 'normal' bread like, has a course texture that might reduce the density of the roll. Admittedly oats mightn't do for coeliacs but for simple gluten avoiders rather than excisionists, oats are probably okay.

Went for it. Happy FatDog. So excited that I'm pre-empting my log and posting this now!

Edit: for those new to my log, the numbers after the ...s are grams / mls used (or whatever the measure is), followed by the calories / carbs / fat / protein / fibre in the quantity used.

oat bran rolls, experiment no. 1, a FatDog concoction; for 4 rolls
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100
......... 40g 169.60 6.40 8.00 15.60 4.80
linseed, golden, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 30g 160.20 0.45 12.65 5.49 8.19
oat bran, Holland & Barrett, 389.2c/C59.1/F6.5/P12.6/Fi9.3/100g
......... 30g 116.76 17.73 1.95 3.78 2.79
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 65g (biggest in box) 98.15 0.00 7.28 8.13 0.00
xanthan gum *
......... 2ml 0.00
baking powder **
......... 2ml 0.00
salt
......... very small pinch 0.00
pure via
......... very small pinch 0.00
water
......... up to 25ml (whatever it takes to get a dough) 0.00
oat bran rolls, experiment no. 1 544.71 24.58 29.88 32.99 15.78
FatDog's ¼ portion of oat bran rolls, experiment no. 1 136.18 6.15 7.47 8.25 3.95

* sod it - I was trying to measure it on the scales to 2g - thought the scales weren't behaving and stopped adding after what appeared to be a lot had been added and the scales were only begrudgingly registering 1g...

** and then realised part way through doing the same with the baking powder that this is meant to be measured by volume, not weight... ooops.

Method, as usual: 1. thoroughly mix all the dry stuff together in a middling-sized bowl; 2. make a well in the dry stuff and gradually beat in the egg; 3. gradually work in water to form a dough; 4. make 4 equal size balls of the dough and bake in a pre-heated oven at 190C for 30 minutes - do the first 20 covered with foil; 5. tip onto a rack and let rest for 10 minutes; 6. then eat with lashings of butter or cream cheese, whilst still warm from the oven.

I did mine in muffin cake papers (again) and put these into my new ramekins for the baking - I've no idea whether this has *any* effect but, rather like Nadal and his umpteen ball bounces, it works so I'll keep doing it...

That was so easy (well, excepting that the xanthan quantity is utterly unknown), there must be something wrong somewhere? I'm just praying it wasn't a fluke. I have one beautiful organic egg left, so will be making these tomorrow when I get up - break-fast is going to be early, and yum.

I wish the OH would get back - that last roll is reaching out its tentacles as I type...

Certainly going to give these a try FatDog. Thank you. You sound ecstatic

Monday, day one-hundred and forty-one, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 114.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~111.25lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.9, t. 31.25, h. 34.9 inches

Methinks, as the analogue scales are showing a slight loss, that the flicker on the digitals at 113.8lbs might be more like the score, but they settled on 114.0lbs so I'll have to do with that. Not too grudgingly mind: I ate *very* well over the weekend (too well even - I've a calorie deficit deficit of 357 to spoil the start of the week) although I did manage to keep the carbs good and low.

Report at the end-of-week 20 of low-carb : total low-carb weight loss 23.8lbs, and last week 1.0lbs weight loss, plus a quarter inch off stomach tape measurement and a smidgen off each of the others.

Pretty bloomin' happy with that. My original target was an 'optimistic' 120lbs and I don't know that I really believed that I could ever get there - I was pretty chuffed to hit 130lbs, which I hadn't seen on the scales for many years. I've now not far to go to my new target (110lbs) and, from what I've read here and elsewhere, the last few pounds can be seriously hard to budge. Patience will have to be my middle name...

And I'm faffing - really want to get on with my data but also want to solve the low-carb *and* low-cal 'bread' issue (as if - folk have only been working on this one for an eternity, after all). Saturday's rolls are a good start: now how to make them (a) less calorific and (b) slightly less dense - the holy grail.

And I've pre-empted the results of this by posting my bread roll story above! So had my dinner very early as I couldn't wait to try the rolls - that's trouble brewing for later in the evening.

Thankfully OH returned just before I succumbed to the temptation of eating his roll (he thinks it very good) - but he's just 'cooked' the rest of his dinner (the kitchen is now a disaster area) and although I wouldn't be tempted to eat a single nibble of any of it, it has made me a bit munchy. So, methinks, I'm going to be kind to myself and allow a 600 calorie repair day which will let in few almonds and two squares (8g) of my lovely 85% chocolate (see, told you there'd be trouble).

Oh bosh! That indulgence has just made me want *more* chocolate. Help! FatDog sinking under a desire for fooooood. But, and this is important, I'm not actually hungry - it's a want / desire not a need for food. So, FatDog, gather your self restraint and "get a grip" And just say "no".

I'm thinking that using yeast in the above rolls might produce a real winner - though my efforts with yeast so far have been notable by their failure.

And I might cross-post the bread roll recipe in the recipes section - as my log seems to sink into oblivion and ignoration most of the time - and I know that, when I started low-carbing, the lack of a decent bread really caused me much grief. I've had a shufti out on the internet and can't see anything similar to this (really, please let me know if you've seen it before), so think I genuinely "got lucky" as our USian friends would say. I'll wait until I've done the second run tomorrow though, just in case it was a one-off fluke!

........ Calories 609.26 Carbs 21.34 Fat 39.86 Protein 32.11 Fibre 16.38

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

Tuesday, low-carb day one-hundred and forty-two, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 112.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~110.25lbs); 1.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.9, t. 31.25, h. 34.9 inches

Ermm... well, WOW! just WOW! With the usual caveats, of course...

Analogue reading was low too, so it's the V&P vary-fairy at it, rather than eeeevil scales-fairy. Still, the vary-fairy can keep at this as long as it likes, as long as the direction is down! Oh, and there has been further shrinkage (won't record until 'established' though) - I think that I saw the number 30 when measuring my stomach (30.9 mind you, but still) and I was able to 'fix' the tape at 34.75 inches and get it down from my waist to above my knees...

Waggy, waggy, waggy, FatDog wags around the living room; actually, rather incredulous and shaken - my ghast is well and truly flabbered

And thinks about brown bread rolls... swithering as to whether to make them now, and have half for a very early (at 12:30hrs) break-fast and the other half for dinner (by which time they might have turned into small rocks), or make them for dinner and feed half of them to the OH (he has lots of bread things around, so I'm not being cruel).

Regardless of bread roll and dinner decisions, I *must* get on with my data today!

Well, I didn't get on with the data, though I really couldn't explain why, other than that I was leering over cookbooks, cruising recipes online, and generally sniffing out food-porn.

And then cooking dinner (having worked out what to make) - another mystery being that I started at about half six and didn't manage to 'get food on the table' until just before 10pm; okay, I did have to deal with the OH's kitchen carnage and dishes from last night, but still.

The rolls were heaven, *but*... they didn't rise so well. I think that this was down to: (a) the egg being much smaller (53g rather than 65g, nearly 20% less); and (b) my measuring the xanthan gum (3ml) and baking powder (2ml) by volume - I suspect that 4ml xanthan and 3ml baking powder might be nearer to what I used yesterday. Further experimentation required. I might use double the egg, or one whole egg plus one egg white (don't worry, I'll find a use for the yolk). Oh, and I added caraway seeds this time. Mmmm. Much potential here methinks. But will do them again before cross-posting.

The stew was good. Not yumptious, and not quite very good, just goodplus - I'd certainly eat / make it again if those were the ingredients at hand, but it was lacking something, a richness, something that I can't quite put my finger on. I was going to add lemon, that might have helped; I cheated (time!) and didn't roast and / or grind the spices, I'm sure that would have made a huge difference; I used very little oil, more oil might have given a greater richness / depth ; and finally, I think some tomato puree might have done likewise. And it could definitely have done with a nice big dollop of Yeo valley full fat yoghurt (no, they don't pay me - I've just yet to find a creamier yummier yoghurt).

A smaller portion (and just one roll, rather than two) would have saved me from a slight carb-overload. Oh well, I'll have an excuse for the rebound on the scales tomorrow (would the owner of this stupid black dog please call it off and take it away?).

........ Calories 1403.14 Carbs 69.40 Fat 79.14 Protein 43.38 Fibre 25.99

carrot stew, with Middle Eastern pretensions, a FatDog concoction; with a nod to Gayler's Moroccan carrot soup (LBoS, p89)
carrot, baby (chantenay), ¼ longways 35c/C7.7/F0.3/P0.6/Fi3.0/100g
......... 400g 140.00 30.80 1.20 2.40 12.00
chickpeas, canned, waitrose, 109c/C16.5/F1.4/P7.7/Fi6.1/100g
......... 240g 261.60 39.60 3.36 18.48 14.64
tomatoes, tinned, chopped, co-op, 15c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.0/Fi0.7/100g
......... 400g 60.00 12.00 0.40 4.00 2.80
onion, tesco 'sweet', fine sliced, 25c/C4.4/F0.2/P0.8/Fi1.3/100g
......... 167g 41.75 7.35 0.33 1.34 2.17
ginger, fine diced, 90c/C17.8/F0.8/P1.8/Fi2.0/100g
......... 21g 18.90 3.74 0.17 0.38 0.42
chilli, red, fine sliced, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 15g 6.00 1.43 0.03 0.30 0.23
garlic, fine sliced, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 5g 7.45 1.65 0.03 0.32 0.11
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 15ml 125.00 0.00 13.80 0.00 0.00
coriander seed, fresh ground
......... 5ml 0.00
cumin seed
......... 5ml 0.00
fennel seed
......... 5ml 0.00
cinnamon, dried ground
......... 5ml 0.00
turmeric, dried ground
......... 5ml 0.00
paprika, dried ground
......... 3ml 0.00
s&p
total carrot stew, with Middle Eastern pretensions 660.70 96.56 19.32 27.21 32.36
total for FatDog's 3/8ths portion of carrot stew, with Middle Eastern pretensions 247.76 36.21 7.24 10.20 12.14

Must confess that I'm somewhat disconcerted by the resounding silence in response the the bread-rolls recipe - I know this thread is the back-of-beyond, but still...
Bread low-carbers! Bread! Go on, give it a try (just make sure you use an extra-large egg)!

FatDog mooches off disconsolately to her basket.

does alcohol count as a carbohydrate? I have been trying the low carb approach recently and last night had a glass of dry white wine in the evening. I have really cut back on my drinking, and don`t touch any on a fast day, but with the festive season approaching I`d like some advice.Horrible feelig is that it is metabolised more like carb than fat and suger, but not sure.

It's a carb and is counted as sugar on my fitness pal. Some spirits are zero carb but still have calories.

Hi FatDog, aka Patience Strong (remember her? lol). Your bread rolls sound VERY tempting, just waiting to buy some soya flour to give them a go as I only have gram flour at the moment. Do you think that might work? You're right about there being nothing comparable as I've been searching for low carb bread recipes online on loads of sites and not found anything as straightforward and genuinely sounding like a good substitute .Am also going to try your carrot stew recipe so thanks for that too. You're a star! x