The FastDay Forum

Hi FD not sure what your solution could, should, would be, as I am no good example plateauing here myself. From my experience with 5:2 and all of its variations,and believe me I have tested most except your version. I feel I have been on such a long plateau and I so get your signature about how we cycle around the plus or minus 2 lbs. My cycle is 1 kg+~, at least in kgs it looks less

My attempts at kick starting has lately been to liquid fast as it is a way to extend my 450 calories and I soup it with the roasted garlic and cauliflower soup along with the mushroom garlic and spinach recipe found on forum. Would you consider that. It has grubbed me a few more gms this month

Take heart too we are rooting for you, Vegetarian way to say hang in there (scuse my pun ) I was looking for a play on words to put a smile on sad FatDog's face

@gillymary Tee hee! That were good and cheering - heading for bed, or I'd be more profuse with my thanks! xxx FatDog

Saturday, day seventy-six, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.25lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 32.90, h. 36.25 inches

Yes, well... End of week 19 on the 4:3 WoE and I'm full of woe, as that's 1.2lbs up. Stomach has shrunk a tiny bit though, so not *all* woe.

Have posted an appeal to the collective wisdom as to what my strategy should be next. I'm swithering and dithering - hopefully you'll help me decide

I appear to have developed a cake problem - I want to make them for every meal! I caught myself fantasizing about a blue cheese and walnut one earlier...

As this is the end of my week-of-sorrow (renaissance next week) I thought I might go out with a bang and hit Waitrose for their spinach and riccotta cannelloni, along with their stuffed mushrooms, a token lettuce leaf, and a decent bottle of red vino. It will break the bank as well as my calorie allowance, but never mind.

And here's some woo... or more like their pure genius: both @Ballerina and @Betsysgr8 suggested that I try a carb blow-out a wee while after I'd written (but, obviously, not posted) the above. Clever creatures. Then @gillymary too! Thanks to you all!

OH's son called by and kindly chauffeured us to and fro. Ow ow owwwwwllll! Waitrose didn't have my cannelloni! Such broken dreams - I've been thinking about that dish *for months*. Sniff - mushroom open raviolli instead, other bits as planned. Mid-shop I realised that the lift meant that I could do a stockpile of all the heavy stuff (like tinned beans that are hugely cheaper than buying local and which normally near physically kill me to get home). Farewell food allowance for quite some time.

So, mushroom ravioli, stuffed mushrooms, (discount) lambs-leaf salad and then some. *Loads* of chocolate! I've *never* eaten six squares in a single sitting, never... (that's just 24g folks - no need to panic too much; oops, had another two squares later too).

And now I'm being tempted by nachos and dips for the second US Open semi-final.

Oh noooo - and I've hit the 2000 calories; think I might just stop counting...

xxx FatDog

I'm too mortified to post the numbers - but think *BIG DOUBLE BIG*.

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

Sunday, day seventy-seven, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. xxxlbs (analogue scales corrected ~xxxlbs); xxxlbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 32.90, h. 36.25 inches

That's right - I didn't weigh-in (or measure, left the old numbers there as I'm too lazy to xxx them out). I'm simply down, fat, and jolly lonely in here.

Sadly most of the collective wisdom would appear to be being wise somewhere else, so I'll need to make my own counsel (which is pretty sh*te right now).

I'm tempted to post "I'm still here - I never went away - and I'm *really* needing a bit of support". Now, where did that brain cell go...? Probably drowing in flab somewhere. You do know that most manics are comedians, right? Or should that be, most comedians are manics?

Decisions / dilemas re. strategy aside - there are far more important things to consider: like what sort of cake shall I make today?

The combination of stilton, date and walnut is singing to me. And it looks as though that flavour combination is "a possible" - I found a pear, walnut and date salad with stilton dressing on the Beeb website. And, it seems, that the date and walnut loaf is traditional in the UK, originally from Scotland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_walnut_loaf - news to me! Paul Hollywood (presumably the one from the Great British Bake Off) has a recipe for a Stilton and Walnut loaf on the ocado website http://www.ocado.com/webshop/recipe/sti ... loaf/36523 .

Ah ha! Google is such a good friend - I am not alone in my insane combinations as someone does a date, stilton and walnut muffin (with pears!) http://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.co.uk ... ffins.html

Though, it now transpires, Google is not 'Maria' of the english kitchen's friend as it turns out that the original recipe for this is, apparently, in a book (Mad About Muffins, Diana Bonaparte, 2006) http://sharkyovengloves.wordpress.com/2 ... n-muffins/. Could be coincidence I suppose.

Big oops - couldn't resist the Mad About Muffins book at sixty pence on Amazon as it has *lots* of savoury muffin recipes - hope Diana is still getting royalties as the recipe looks seriously good.

So, post-recipe-hunting, FatDog (intimately shadowed by the fat and grumbling black-dog of depression) boodles onto the high street for hopeful supermarket bargains and potential dinners.

Ooops-again. The Oxfam bookshop ("the competition" - I volunteer in the Shelter bookshop further up the street) is open... Ha! No dogs (FatDog is wearing a frock so she's fine), so the black-dog can find someone else to dog for a while as FatDog heads in for some book-retail-therapy. Grrrrrffff.

And there, waiting just for me (that's actually making me sniffle with emotion, pathetic), was a copy of Delia's Vegetarian Collection! I'd been drooling over her 'how to cook' series in work on Thursday and was so sorely tempted to start trying to acquire them. Now there's no need as I have all her veggie recipes in one volume - wwwwhheeeee - even better, it was just £3.99!

Looked at the Amazon reviews when I got back in and was exceedingly perplexed, to say the least: why do folk conflate 'vegetarian' with 'healthy'? A most common criticism was that Delia uses much too much cheese and dairy (gawd forbid, she has a *whole* chapter on cheese and another one on eggs). Yay! It's a low-carb vegetarian recipe book in disguise!!!

FatDog waltzed around the living-room with the cook-book clasped in her paws... Drool and slather, slather and drool. Happy bed-time reading

Before heading home, FatDog hit the co-op (no bargains, darn) and blew pretty-much the remains of her month's food allowance on staples (nuts, dried fruit, herbs, condiments) to use up her 10% discount token before it expired. I'll be really relying on our freegan friends this month and some serious serendipity when it comes to finding fresh veg. bargains.

Anyway, I should have read Delia's recipe book before purchasing dinner as I returned with the ultimate carb-blow-out: pizza. Now, I usually get the cheapo versions and load them with lots of nice (but comparatively cheap) things but, as this was meant to be a once in a very-blue-moon event (eighty grams plus carbs for a half slice!) I splurged and bought a posh (and thus presumed fully loaded / half-decent) pizza from Sainsers. Big mistake. It was dreadful: dry, hardly seasoned, uninspiring, sauce and toppings issued by Scrooge and Co. (to the point of near invisibility in places). Guest and I were very much *not* impressed, left lots and seconds were definitely unwanted. I doubt even our local ducks will want it (they're a discerning lot in Stockbridge). OH, bless him, is game for taking the last 'untouched' quarter back on the basis that the label says "we're sure you'll love this; if not return for a full refund".

And "Late Final News" the OH is back home and, *good on Sainsers*: no-quibble - money back. That's actually seriously good service. Five stars. Nah, six, ten, lots and lots and lots of stars for that.

Regarding surviving off freegan fare: anyone have any good recipes for duck eggs? We've just taken delivery of 18 organic free range duck eggs and it would be good to do them justice (and I'm really not sure about using them in my cakes, for some elusive reason).

Sadly, the much plotted cake didn't get made earlier - if I'm really lucky the cream will last until tomorrow (not too sore if it doesn't, as it was a pennies bargain, but waste isn't good).

........ Calories ... think BIG, again.

And, by the way, I'm sufficiently OCD that I do *actually* have the numbers, in all their terribleness - PM me and they're yours.

Sorry, no recipes this time: but that stilton - date - walnut - something cake really is in the offing... And I bet it will be absolutely delicious (speaketh the carb-hungry FatDog).

Oh, adding injury to insult, did I mention that I would appear to be utterly intolerant of pizza? Most likely pizza base, i.e. wheat, as the very little there was of anything else that was on there (e.g. tomato, oil, salt) I tend to eat on a regular basis. I went 'beetroot' in colour, for about thirty minutes, with increasing intensity not so very long after I consumed it (and, genuinely, only a single glass of vino into the bottle). Always thought I was a bit dodgy with wheat based stuff (bloat) but that was a pretty stark demo of why I should probably steer clear of it. The 'beetrooting' is not why the pizza was horrid, by the way - we'd come to the conculsion it were grim *well* before I burnt up and turned a delightful shade of crimson.

There's some lovely things that have happened for me today - I just wish I could stop feeling so xxxxing miserable and appreciate them properly. Hmmm. @izzy methinks that you and I should try to write a song called "just stop, and be kind to yourself" - there's an affy lot of us that needs it. xxx FatDog

[Betsysgr8]

I think that the low-carb approach is the best thing for a happy Fatdog, eh?

Have you actually had ANY wheat (beside the blow-out pizza) since you started your low-carb journey?

Hello there lovely ladies

Well I can hardly wait to hear about how the Stilton in the cake went, sounded interesting though the last Stilton I purchased was dry and tasted funny so had to eventually throw it. Does that happen to you.
New book sounds good do tel us what is good about it.

So sorry you feel so glum FD but am sure having izzy to visit helps. Cheer up now ASAP and another good read from you so thanks

The blow out may give you results a day or so later and I use them to instinctively eat to top up my nutrients. Maybe your slump will pass soon. Thing this woe has its ups and downs

Thank you all, @Ballerina, @Betsysgr8, @gillymary and @izzy for your kind wise words.

Carbocalypse of a weekend... calorie-ocalypse too - I'm coming out of my first repair day of the week with a negative deficit of 500! Here's hoping that shakes things up a bit.

I had wondered about liquid fasting @gillymary - I'm rather drawn to a green smoothie version of it - even if just for a week or two. Need to work on the OH for an industrial blender.

Low-carb is definitely the only way for a FatDog @izzy, there are just so many bonuses to LCing that I'd be insane not to try to stick with it. I think I've been pretty much gluten free since starting LC @Betsysgr8 - *except* I have had cannelloni a couple of times without ill effect, and garlic bread on my one-off ad libitum day. I suspect that it was the quantity of pizza that did it - half a pizza is a *lot* of wheat product.

Indeed, it's since the ad libitum (thus high carb) day on 15th August that the loss has gone into an evident stall. I think I'll throttle the carbs back - maybe to 50 or 55 and make sure that I don't have *any more* little accidents going over that. Perhaps I should drop back to 20 grams a day for a week as well. Ouch. Will ponder that one overnight. Might need to work on that stilton - walnut - date cake recipe a bit to keep the carbs lower (it's getting made on Tuesday, come hell or high water).

Thank yous all again xxx a slightly less gloomy FatDog

If you do liquid fasting why does it have to go over 2 weeks, can't you just pop in a couple of low carb liquid fast days with the green smoothies and some of the veggie soups here on the forum like the roasted garlic and cauliflower which is to die for. Also the roasted garlic mushroom and spinach soup is so addictive. There are a heap of others but I am keen to do the carrot coriander and cumin one as well. All plant based should be fine and you could put some cheese in soups if you needed to add protein but try them first as is ....ahhhh.......soup heaven FD.

Glad you are a bit more cheerie, nothing like some support

Have just had a fiendish thought - there's a Vitamix (ancient, c1997, when computer contractors were paid silly money) sitting in my flat and VBF is away - might see if I can borrow it for a bit until she's back... Hmmm.

Green smoothie recipes coming up. Leave the Vitamix running long enough and it makes soup too. This could just be the shake up that I need

[carorees]

Just wondering, in light of your comment on my thread about late night snacking, if you might try bringing your eating window forward, say 1pm to 9pm? Also I have to say that the rough stats I did on the questionnaire responses pointed towards reduced snacking as differentiating the big losers from the little losers.

Are you using Libra or similar to track your weight? Libra tells you how much under/over your TDEE you are eating on average, so you can use that to see what kind of a reduction you need to be thinking of if you decide to reduce feed day cals.

I don't know whether a further reduction in carbs would work for you. According to Peter Attia we all have different sensitivities to carbs and he thinks he needs to be very low indeed. I think that if you want to have a reasonable range of veggies in your life, the very, very low carb approach makes cooking too awkward so maybe look at other things first. Of course, fat is high in calories so although we know fat is not intrinsically bad, a small reduction in fat might give you the calorie cut you need.

As far as liquid fasting goes, or no cal fasting, just bear in mind that changes in thyroid hormones are seen as early as 12 hours into a fast and various changes occur progressively over the first 48 or so hours. Longer fasting might not always be the answer.

However, the good news is that a carbtastic blow out can stimulate thyroid function so raising metabolic rate slightly.

Last, remember that the changes you make to your diet today will not necessarily be reflected on the scales tomorrow, so I would give each variation you try a good month so you can see which change may have done the trick.

Lots of luck
x

PS Your BMI is now in the healthy range (remember that in The Men Who Made Us Thin, it was revealed that the healthy range was dropped from a BMI of 27 to 25 with no scientific justification)...so, are you sure you need to lose more weight? Just askin...

Monday, day seventy-eight, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.75lbs); 0.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 32.90, h. 36.25 inches

I was expecting far greater evidence of the weekend's carnage to be visible upon the scales - the V&P vary fairy must have been working in my favour this morning.

Sadly, another spoilt "week's loss" report for the end of week 19: 0.6lb gain on the previous week, saved from utter ruin only by a touch of stomach shrinkage.

I still haven't decided on a course of action. Am struggling to maintain a "slack" repair day, so there's no hope of tightening it up to 400c today. Duck egg omelette (modelled on dog's dinner variation no. 11) at 426c rather put the squeeze on everything, then an accidental extra squirt of Hellman's and two irresistible squares of 85% chocolate knocked any good intentions out the door. I'm finding it *terribly* hard fighting the "you've failed now, you might as well let it go altogether" demon - I did *not* have this problem earlier in the experiment. Growl.

........ Calories 623.62 Carbs 15.49 Fat 48.05 Protein 28.96 Fibre 5.71

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

Tuesday, day seventy-two, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~128.85lbs); 0.2lbs gain, again...
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 32.90, h. 36.25 inches

Tra la la - you're going the wrong waaaayyyy... And I feel really *podgy*. Maybe there's a delay in calorie-abuse punishment?

Bless our far (as opposed to near) co-op:Pears are going into "the cake" recipe after all - 70p for six - and watercress, spinach and red chard salad (for 40p) looks like dinner is on its way.

Oh bah humbug / big smirk at the same time. I got *a lot* of things wrong with this one but, overall, I'm rather pleased with it. Hope to get it right next time.

First off and most majorly, I should have listened to the alarum bells that went off as I was hefting 'it' into the cake tin. "Oooh this is heavy - it'll take a while to cook". But idiot features didn't turn the oven down and cook it for longer, oh no. So the outer was cooked beautifully but the innards weren't. Fixed an 1/8th for my dinner, and another 1/8th for OH to try, by pinging a quarter for a couple of minutes (OH's idea, physicist - ping machines cook from the inside to the outside) - and, despite the fact that the ex-uncooked bit didn't rise, it weren't half bad.

The rest went back into the oven at a very low temperature and it *looks* as though it's done (albeit not well risen). I'll just need to keep it in the fridge, and only serve it as hot-cake with cream or maybe simply toasted with butter. No longer repair day food. Not for visitors either, they might choke on the crumbs whilst giggling at it.

Then I tried to be too good with the carbs and whipped out more of the dates from the recipe than was wise; particularly as the (bargain) conference pears were anything but 'sweet' - methinks that they might not have been very ripe. Eh? I suffered significant cognitive dissonance here as the pears were discounted because they were on their use-by date!

So, it was an exceedingly savoury cake: sour pears, bitter walnuts, strong stilton and a hint of dates; as for sweetener, some folk have the quantity I used for the whole-cake in a single cup of tea. The cake went *so* beautifully with my watercress-spinach-chard and tomato salad, but its very savoury-ness was unexpected given what the ingredients promised in theory. I liked it very much, OH did too but was a little confused by the idea of a savoury *cake* (the earlier CBB muffin-cakes have been so corn-bread-like that he's not twigged that they were supposedly cakes).

Then, how could I have expected that volume of fruit, nuts and cheese to a) pour or b) rise? I sort-of suspected b) as, for once, I checked the dry / wet ratios etc. but thought that it would be moist enough to sort itself out. And, if I had cooked it at the right temperature it might well have done just that. But I'm not a baker - so do, please, put me right here. The http://sharkyovengloves.wordpress.com/2 ... n-muffins/ recipe uses *way* more dry stuff (flour & sugar) but as the halweyat had worked so nicely I sort of thought... Actually, brain can't have engaged - 120g of cheese? 170g of chopped pear, not liquid like the nice orange innards? Hmm. I thought LC and 5:2 were supposed to hold dementia up, not accelerate it.

Howfore were I pleased? Well. The properly cooked bits had a very good texture and 'tongue feel' - for once the chalkiness of the soya flour really wasn't evident. And rough chopping stuff meant that each bite had a different "flavour sensation" (pah, wherefrom that ghastly phrase?) and texture - seriously though, one minute it was nutty, the next cheesy, then fruity and the next some weird combination of two or three of them. It holds much promise - just don't do it the way that I did it

FatDog's best cake ever variation no. 2 - stilton, date and walnut
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 85g 360.40 13.60 17.00 33.15 10.20
almonds, ground, 645c/C6.5/F55.8/P25.5/Fi7.4/100g
......... 45g 290.25 2.93 25.11 11.48 3.33
baking powder
......... 15ml 0.00
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
salt
......... good pinch 0.00
walnuts, raw, rough chopped, 654c/C7.0/F65.2/P15.2/Fi7.0/100g
......... 80g 523.20 5.60 52.16 12.16 5.60
dates, rough chopped, 277c/C68.27/F0.15/P1.81/Fi6.7/100g
......... 52g 144.04 35.50 0.08 0.94 3.48
pear, peeled&cored, rough chopped, 45c/C10.1/F0.1/P0.3/Fi2.4/100g
......... 170g 76.50 17.17 0.17 0.51 4.08
stilton, crumbled, 410c/C0.1/F35.0/P23.7/F0/100g
......... 120g 492.00 0.12 42.00 28.44 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 25ml 208.33 0.00 23.00 0.00 0.00
double cream, coop, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100ml
......... 75ml 348.75 1.20 37.88 1.13 0.00
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
total for FatDog's best cake ever variation no. 2 2612.55 77.53 209.49 101.30 26.69
¼ slice FatDog's best cake ever variation no. 2 653.14 19.38 52.37 25.33 6.67
1/8th slice FatDog's best cake ever variation no. 2 326.57 9.69 26.19 12.66 3.34

Method: 1. mix the soya flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt and stevia; 2. in another bowl, beat the eggs, oil, and cream; 3. add the nuts, dates, pear and stilton to the wet stuff and mix, then add the dry stuff and mix as lightly and as fast as possible; 4. pour (flumph) it into a greased flan tray; 5. bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 20 to 30 minutes (revise - do at 150C ish for 30 or more?); 6. remove from oven when nicely golden and let stand for 10 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack and further standing for another few minutes.

Oh my. I really do have to get the prize for "prize gumby" today. One of the things that I've missed whilst low carbing are those lovely marmite explosions called 'twiglets'. Christmas supplies are in and they're on special - FatDog checks the pack and, as long as I eat a small amount, the carbs are fine. FatDog forgets about them until late just now when, 'lightbulb moment', thinks they'll help up the fibre (which is woefully inadequate - I must sort this). Gets stuck in. Ten minutes later beetroots would be jealous of my lovely colour. Duh. They're *wheat* for xxxx sake!

Low-carb / wheat-free twiglets, now there's a challenge.

The day's damage wasn't too terrible - but I'm still in deficit to the tune of 93 calories from the weekend's calorie-ocalypse:

........ Calories 1283.12 Carbs 42.88 Fat 88.56 Protein 21.49 Fibre 11.04

And many thanks for your ideas @carorees : I'm being hounded to bed just now but will give them full thought in the morn. Cheers, FatDog

Thanks so much for your considered thoughts @carorees!

Aye - I'm trying to shift the end of my eating window "in" - eating between, say, 16:00 hrs and 22:00hrs. I tend not to graze and I'm not sure that I really snack much - last week was a complete break-down of discipline / blow-out. I've usually been pretty good, I think - perhaps I need to do a cold-blooded audit!

On repair days I'll usually just have my main meal at about seven to eight pm and then, if I've spare calories, some nuts a couple of hours later. And feed days I'll have coffee with cream at about midday, then properly break-fast at about four pm with nuts or something else at about three hundred plus calories; main meal at eight or nineish; and a final munch at couple of hours later. Which could be looked at as two feeds on a repair day and three feeds on a feed day - not really snacking? Blown apart, of course, by the liquid calories in wine on feed days which drip-feed in through the evening. Hmmm.

My phone doesn't even have an mp3 player or a camera, let alone programmable functions so I'm tracking the calories and macro nutrients of every mouthful I take on a spreadsheet (soon to be database). I've had just three logging rebellions since I started - and even then I had a pretty good guestimate of what what went down my thrapple - and there was the one occasion when I didn't count a few sugar snap peas!

As posted earlier in the log, my TDEE is a bit of a difficulty (I'm a weird shape so the calculators are way off) but 1700 calories was working fine at the start. Saturday to Friday averages of TDEE rolling averages for the last six weeks are 1576, 1791, 1536, 1102, 1834, 1479 - all over the shop! I probably now need to revise my TDEE down to about 1500, but am going to drop my carbs back down first (with the Rose Elliot plan this week should be at 70g - I'm going back to 50g) to see if I can at least get things to stabilize / trend downwards (calories tend to drop with the carbs anyway).

As for liquid fasts, I'm not brave enough to do a zero calorie fast - and I'm pretty sure I could get my green smoothies to add up to the 400 cals that I'd aim for on a repair day, so no worries there. But haven't managed to borrow the Vitamix so that possibility is on hold just now.

remember that in The Men Who Made Us Thin, it was revealed that the healthy range was dropped from a BMI of 27 to 25 with no scientific justification

And some other clever clogs from Oxford has just shifted the BMI thing further down - apparently to take into account the fact that we're three-dimensional, not two - and according to this 'New BMI calculator' my new BMI is 26.4 and the normal weight range for my height is 86lbs to 116lbs!!! Oh well, the 116lbs was my, very optimistic, overall goal after all :0

Off-topic: I will be able to have my cake for tea - it *just* fits with a salad as long as I avoid the Hellman's

Wednesday, day eighty, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.75lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 32.90, h. 36.25 inches

Well, my fuzzy old brain has just put two plus two together and maybe got four, I think. What do the following have in common (for a female, sorry gentlemen):

* disturbed sleep patterns - especially, with hot / cold switches
* being dogged by the black-dog for no good reason
* emotional instability
* intermittent water retention

Girly hormones (addled brain function is also symptomatic)!

Especially when one considers that body-fat is a significant extra-gonadal source of oestrogen production. Losing weight therefore a) releases a flood of oestrogen from the fat and then b) presumably means there's then less oestrogen being produced - ultimately leading to boingy, boingy, boingy fluctuations of hormones which challenge even the V&P vary fairy's variations of my weight. As my weight loss has slowed, methinks I'll give things a wee bit time to settle and at a later date, if the above continue, go see my quack for revised HRT.

MadDog cake for early dinner (stilton-date-walnut-pear from yesterday)! With sugar-snap peas, baby corn and oyster mushrooms, slathered in yoghurt (which curdled in a most unsightly manner but still tasted good). Had a friend by unexpectedly for dinner who shared with us; he was most enamoured of the cake - wow!

Craved almonds after a light supper of peanuts, and caved to the crave; I'm making really hard work of getting down to the 400 calories. Can anyone remember where Mosley plucked the 25% number from? (I've lent my book to a neighbour). Even in the literature it appears to have been plucked from the aether. Ta.

........ Calories 570.17 Carbs 17.37 Fat 41.74 Protein 29.42 Fibre 9.81

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

Thursday, day eighty-one, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.75lbs); 1.0lbs loss...
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 32.90, h. 36.25 inches

Boingy, boingy, boingy... I wonder, if I'm extra good today will the V&P vary fairy be kind again tomorrow?

The burning question is, what to have with (yet more) cake for tea? The bargains on my way home from work will determine that I guess. Except that I had a wee accident in the Bethany charity store yesterday - couldn't resist Delia's How to Cook volume one for £3.50 as it explains everything about eggs - so now want to experiment with poached and scrambled eggs. It'll have to be something that goes with eggs.

Well, bargains ruled, eggs didn't. Simple rocket salad with vine tomato and Hellman's to go with toasted cake. Portion of nuts to bump up intake. Late pudding was a wonderful discovery. I've kept saying in my recipes "substitute dried apricots for xyz to reduce the carbs" but have somehow *not* registered just how useful they could be as a pudding (albeit in very moderate quantities). And three wee dried apricots amount to one of your one-a-day for just 41 calories and 8 carb grams (just do-able if you're on 50g/day).

I'm going to re-damn the Co-op for discontinuing its salted almonds - they really were such a saviour when it came to upping the fibre a bit in a palatable form, and I really need to up my fibre intake. So, if there are any executives from the Co-op reading this, consider yourself thoroughly doubly damned.

Ha! Just remembered the 'auld flax crackers' trick. And was grumbling to myself as they take a wee while in the oven (15-20 mins) and that's after you've pre-heated it. Must be able to ping them reckons the impatient FatDog (thinking about CBB's sesame crackers). And yes, one can, wheeeee! I did one third of my original recipe and pinged it for 2.5 minutes and a carb-crunch-craving FatDog could not have asked for more; and what nicer way to get the linseeds (aka fibre source) down one's thrapple - just remember your tooth-pick

Ooh. Snack idea (in my case, third meal, mini-sized; or pudding even, just eaten an hour or two after my main meal): linseed cracker with cinnamon and ginger (rather than garlic etc.), topped with a variable slathering of cream cheese (depending on calories left in the day) and a very fine chopped dried apricot. Wow! And marmite ones instead of twiglets! Cheese (parmesan) and chive. Mmmm. Think I'll try to make caloric room for some experiments tomorrow.

Indeed, I might even abandon my last slice of cake and have 'savoury and sweet variations upon a cracker' for dinner, served with watercress salad and a tomato. Wouldn't have any problems with the fibre quotient for the day that way...

........ Calories 1396.57 Carbs 44.39 Fat 87.45 Protein 30.76 Fibre 14.08

I did just one third of this tonight - I'm pretty sure that scaling up won't cause a problem! See 5th August for the oven method I tried first, adapted from cleangreensimple.com/2011/05/flax-crackers/.

linseed crackers
linseed, brown, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 30g 160.20 0.45 12.65 5.49 8.19
water
......... 25ml 0.00
salt
......... good couple of pinches 0.00
pepper, fresh ground
......... jolly good grinding 0.00
garlic flakes
......... another good grinding 0.00
chilli flakes
......... two or three large pinches 0.00
total for linseed crackers 160.20 0.45 12.65 5.49 8.19
1/3rd portion of linseed crackers 53.40 0.15 4.22 1.83 2.73

Method: 1. mix ingredients and then let stand for three minutes or so; 2. splat one third of the mix (that's if you're doing the full 30g above) onto a minimum 4 by 4 inch sheet of parchment paper and squish it into a nice cracker shaped round (or square, or whatever) - try to make it even in thickness or it will cook unevenly (read, burn in patches); 3. ping for about 2 minutes then check and do 10 second blasts thereafter, checking each time, to avoid burning.

This is serious 'instant carb / crunch gratification' with a slight built in 'do I really want to do this stall', whilst the linseeds soak. Once you start pinging it you're unlikely to not eat it.

Right now (and, don't forget, I'm full of new-love) I cannot imagine ever needing any other cracker, savoury biscuit, nacho, crisp or crisp-bread *ever again*. I'll just need to make sure that I take a supply of them with me whenever I go out - dib, dib, dib. Crackers happy FatDog heads to bed fantasizing about linseed crackers... xxx

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

Friday, day eighty-two, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~121.0lbs); 0.4lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 32.90, h. 36.25 inches

Gawd, I wish the V&P vary fairy would give it a rest. Still, I need to allow the being good regime several weeks before I call the riot police onto the fairy. Patience, even if the trend is stuck.

Have just fed the sore-toofed OH the last of my cake so it's definitely linseed crackers for tea. I'm salivating just thinking about what to put in / have on them. Methinks four all told: two or three savoury with two or one sweet. Mmmmm.

Well gosh, swoon, I do declare my linseed cracker canapés a rip-roaring delicious success! I confess to feeling full, almost, after the three savoury ones (cheese & chives, twiglets' return, garam masala) and a medium-sized leaf and half-tomato salad. And then luxuriating in the pudding one (cream cheese & apricot). Simply yum - took me an hour and ten minutes to munch through.

However, I fear my chocolate addiction will still require a square or two of 85% chocolate - and, as it's Friday - maybe a second glass of sauvignon blanc: which makes today a half-repair (surprise, not). No, no, no - you can have the vino tomorrow. I'm going to play my "if I post this now I won't be able to have anything else before bed" card again - seems to work a treat

........ Calories 571.04 Carbs 15.51 Fat 36.66 Protein 18.39 Fibre 13.42

linseed cracker canapé - variation no. 1, cheese & chive
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
parmesan cheese, 392cal/C0g/F28.4g/P33.0g/Fi0g/100g
......... 3g 11.76 0.00 0.85 0.99 0.00 make this 5g for a really rich cracker
chives, dried
......... 1ml 0.00
salt
......... small pinch 0.00
pepper, fresh ground
......... wee grinding 0.00
water *
......... 10ml 0.00
cream cheese, full-fat, 260c/C2.8/F25.0/P5.4/Fi0/100g
......... 10g 26.00 0.28 2.50 0.54 0.00
total for linseed cracker canapé - variation no. 1, cheese & chive 91.16 0.43 7.57 3.36 2.73

linseed cracker canapé - variation no. 2, twiglets' return
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
marmite
......... 0.5ml 0.00
water *
......... 7ml 0.00
cream cheese, full-fat, 260c/C2.8/F25.0/P5.4/Fi0/100g
......... 10g 26.00 0.28 2.50 0.54 0.00
salt
......... small pinch 0.00
pepper, fresh ground
......... wee grinding 0.00
total for linseed cracker canapé - variation no. 2, twiglets' return 79.40 0.43 6.72 2.37 2.73

n.b. I'd add parmesan cheese to this next time - I think that, once upon a time, twiglets might have had cheese in them

linseed cracker canapé - variation no. 3, garam masala
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
cumin seed
......... half a dozen 0.00
coriander seed
......... half a dozen 0.00
cardamom seed
......... single pod 0.00
fennel seed
......... half a dozen 0.00
pepper corn
......... half a dozen 0.00
clove
......... wee one 0.00
nutmeg, ground
......... tiny pinch 0.00
cinnamon, ground
......... tiny pinch 0.00
salt
......... tiny pinch 0.00
water *
......... 9ml 0.00
yoghurt (yeo valley), 82c/C6.5/F4.2/P4.6/Fi0/100g
......... 20g 16.40 1.30 0.84 0.92 0.00
cucumber, very finely chopped, 11c/C1.5/F0.1/P0.7/Fi0.6/100g
......... 10g; 10g 1.10 0.15 0.01 0.07 0.06
chilli flakes
......... tiny pinch 0.00
garlic flakes
......... good grinding 0.00
salt
......... tiny pinch 0.00
pepper, fresh ground
......... wee grinding
total for linseed cracker canapé - variation no. 3, garam masala 70.90 1.60 5.07 2.82 2.79

n.b. You will need to grind the spice seeds - I did mine along with the linseed in the wee whizz.

linseed cracker canapé - variation no. 4, cream cheese & apricot
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
cinnamon, dried ground
......... 1ml 0.00
ginger, dried ground
......... 1ml 0.00
salt
......... tiniest of pinches 0.00
water *
......... 8ml 0.00
cream cheese, full-fat, 260c/C2.8/F25.0/P5.4/Fi0/100g
......... 10g 26.00 0.28 2.50 0.54 0.00
apricot, dried, co-op, chopped, 185c/C36.5/F0.6/P4.0/Fi8.4/100g
......... 20g 37.00 7.30 0.12 0.80 1.68
total for linseed cracker canapé - variation no. 4, cream cheese & apricot 63.00 7.58 2.62 1.34 1.68

Method: 1. mix ingredients up to and including the water, and then let stand for three minutes or so - be patient, they're less crispy if you hurry this; 2. splat the mix onto a minimum 4 by 4 inch sheet of parchment paper and squish it into a nice cracker shaped round (or square, or whatever), it helps if you wet your fingers to do this - try to make the cracker nice and thin but even in thickness or it will cook unevenly (read, burn in patches); 3. ping for about 2 minutes then check and do 10 second blasts thereafter, checking each time, to avoid burning; 4. serve crackers with cream cheese, and fruit if indicated, or yoghurt with cucumber and spices as per the recipe.

* the 'dough' needs to be squishy, but not slushy nor solid and dry - so start by adding 6ml of water then add the rest gradually with care - you might need to add more after it has stood for three minutes.

Don't spread the cream cheese on the crackers and then leave sit for a while - they'll go a bit soggy.

Enjoy! I did FatDog

Going to try my hand at linseed cracker no. 3 with the spices. I love curries and make them quite often, but go without the rice now. Giving up the naan bread and/or poppadoms seems to me a step too far but it is a bit too indulgent if I have it more than a couple of times a week. Will let you know results next week. feeling a mix of trepidation and excitement (I seldom bake!).

You are a genius @dhana!

I hadn't thought of using the garam masala cracker as a poppadom substitute, but you're dead right, it'd do a treat! Like many low-carb substitutes the cracker is a wee bit more calorific than a 'real' poppadom (53 vs 37), but it's very low in carbs (0.15g vs 3.7g). A simpler version with just whole cumin, and maybe fennel, seed would probably work too.

Thank you - that's such a stonkingly good idea!

Saturday, day eighty-three, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.65lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

End of week 20 on the 4:3 WoE and I'm back down 1.0lbs from last week. Stomach reduced by about half an inch, likewise hips about a quarter of an inch. There's maybe a little off under-bust but my waist is resolutely stuck. Measurement reductions are probably over two or three weeks really, it's just they're so small that I tend to ignore them until I'm convinced. But the 'flab' is definitely shifting about and changing in nature - some days very firm, others squishy and quite liquid (sorry if TMI). The flab distribution is most peculiar: my ribs are looking positively skinny (not nice actually) but I still have a significant life-preserver around my midriff; it's as if the flab has slithered down. Things are happening despite the weight V&P vary-fairy.

Advisory: do not make coffee with cream when half-asleep. I grabbed "the 25ml" measure and dunked in one lot of cream "Oh, is it curdling? No, that's okay. Mmmm. It's very creamy."; in goes the second measure of cream. Errrrmmm. That's actually the 100ml measure you're using there FatDog. Oops. That's a double coffee and a rather easy 465 calories to start the day - no major indulgences for me this evening then. Still, the bright side is that I've put half aside in a sterile bottle for tomorrow so I won't need to measure cream in the morning

The polite description of our abode is "compact and bijou", a less polite one is "very wee, muddled and stowed to the gunwales" so finding things is often bloomin' difficult (if not impossible). OH was seeking a history book and press-ganged the FatDog into the search: there are rewards for good deeds - I found a Krishna cook-book 'The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking', by Yamuna Devi, (which I didn't even know we had) buried in the piles. Yum. Cardamom-orange butter anyone? Baked bananas stuffed with tamarind-flavoured coconut? Green beans with crunchy fried mung badis (dried lentil balls)? I think that I've died and gone to cook-book heaven. Sadly didn't manage to find the history book for the OH; fortunately OH managed to find most of it on-line.

Right, off to scout the supermarkets for bargain delights. Resisted the salad bargains as I was hoping for something to go with / enhance duck eggs, beans-of-some-sort, veggie sausage and bread-of-some-sort. No luck, so made do with co-op organic mushrooms at 75p. But I did find a lovely copy of Delia's how to cook book three for *a quid*!!!

Darn, left the bread rather late to start (6pm) - forgot that it needed to 'rise' and stuff - *embarassed thingy*. So, internet to the rescue and found a 'quick' beer and cheese bread which I'll try with cream and water instead of beer! Fingers crossed.

Decided to keep the beans [sarcasm]simple[/sarcasm] with just onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, flageolets, mustard, spices and seasoning etc. Abandoned the sausage idea - I forgot them until near egg cooking time and it's getting late - and anyway the beans are now nearly a dish in their own right and will more than do.

Then to the duck eggs. Was a good FatDog and had taken them out of the fridge well ahead of using them, just as Delia says to. Tap, tap to crack one - and the front of my new-to-me-frock was nicely redecorated. Rotten. OH was brave enough to try a couple more - one rotten (albeit not explosive) and the other fine, which he ate - but I was frankly still in shock and not up to the challenge of eating one. We've another dozen left - wonder who'll get to test the rest?

Well, the bread *almost* worked - and the failure was entirely down to me. I ended up in a panic when I added the liquid as things were a long way from dough-like, and I eventually added 60ml more water than I'd anticipated needing. Consequently the 'dough' was overworked. I'll be generous and put it down to my inexperience rather than stupidity. I'd decided against doing the 'fancy stuff' with onions and garlic but hadn't made any allowance for the 'wetness' that they'd add (15ml oil, a partly-water onion at 30ml maybe), nor had I allowed for the 'soya flour effect'. Next mistake was a touch too much herbs (I added one lot then went a little deranged and added another, double, lot) but the bread was fine when balanced with the beans... Final mistake - a repeat one this time - was setting the oven too fast, leading to a well done outer and a slightly under done inner.

FatDog is to repeat this mantra when baking from now on: bake slow, bake sure, i.e. drop the temperature and do it longer... And I ought to bloomin' well know by now that our oven cooks at about 15C higher than it says it is (testimony from many a burnt pizza). The bread was tasty enough (with the beans) and more than edible. Certainly very filling.

........ Calories 1690.34 Carbs 52.95 Fat 103.49 Protein 40.94 Fibre 17.33

dog's dinner no. 14 - baked beans
flageolet beans, 77c/C11.8/F0.2/P5.3/Fi3.7/100g
......... 265g (tin) 204.05 31.27 0.53 14.05 9.81
tomatoes, tinned, chopped 15c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.0/Fi0.7/100g
......... 400g 60.00 12.00 0.40 4.00 2.80
onion, red, fine sliced, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 78g 33.54 7.25 0.00 0.55 1.64
mushrooms, cc, organic, 1/8th'd, 15c/C0.4/F0.5/P1.8/Fi1.0/100g
......... 200g 30.00 0.80 1.00 3.60 2.00
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 15ml 123.60 0.00 13.74 0.00 0.00
mustard, english, 170c/C17.7/F8.5/P5.4/Fi2.8/100g
......... 5g 8.50 0.89 0.43 0.27 0.14
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
chilli flakes
......... large pinch 0.00
pepper, fresh ground
......... good grinding 0.00
garlic flakes
......... good grinding 0.00
salt
......... good pinch 0.00
total for dog's dinner no. 14 - baked beans 451.19 51.32 15.67 22.20 16.24
FatDog's half portion dog's dinner no. 14 - baked beans 225.60 25.66 7.84 11.10 8.12

Method: 1. heat the oil in a non-stick pan and soften the onions; 2. add the mushrooms and cook until their liquid has reduced; 3. add the remaining ingredients, stir well, and allow to gently bubble away to further reduce until nice and thick.

cheese bread, variation no. 1 adapted from http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/basic-b ... 001853977/
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
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 30g 124.50 0.42 10.35 7.32 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
......... 105ml 0.00
total for cheese bread, variation no. 1 752.59 15.24 54.49 43.36 13.05
FatDog's half portion cheese bread, variation no. 1 376.30 7.62 27.25 21.68 6.53

Method: 1. bung all the ingredients down to the salt (inclusive) into a medium sized bowl; Delia would have one sift in the flour and baking powder, but I've yet to acquire a sift; 2. mix ingredients thoroughly and make a well in the middle of the mix; 3. then, working very quickly, add the cheese, cream and water mixing as you go - do not over-work; 4. swiftly splat the mixture into a pre-greased baking tin and cook for about 35 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 170C (original recipe says 375F/190C but this meant well cooked outer and undercooked innards - it could be our oven, but I'd go with the lower temperature); 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 / bun is nicely golden brown remove it from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes, then tip onto a wire rack and let sit for another 10 minutes.

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

Sunday, day eighty-four, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.65lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Scales were a little wobbly this morning: they couldn't decide between 122.0 or 122.4, so I'm averaging it and going for 122.2lbs - no change.

Not a clue what dinner will be - again the fates will determine it, I guess, by what I manage to find on my supermarket bargain-hunt round.

Ooops. FatDog should NOT go into the Oxfam bookshop. Except, I'm *so* glad that I did: there, waiting for me (a bit like Delia's veggie collection) was an immaculate copy of Leiths Vegetarian Bible (no, there is no apostrophe). £3.99. And then this bizarre raw food voluminous tome was irresistible at £2.99 - I mean, how could one walk away from a book with a recipe for "Thai Cannelloni Bites with Pine Nut-Herb Pate". Really. Who knows what gems one might find therein. There was the biggest collection of veggie / vegan / raw books that I've ever seen in there, all varying in degrees of crankiness; some were quite tempting too, but all American so measures in cups (which drive me insane). And then a little restraint kicked in too - as we're only half-way through the month and I'm about to break into next month's budget. Bad FatDog. However, I'm utterly thrilled with Leiths bible - even the OH has noticed. I managed to convince him that it was a wonderful bargain as the minimum price on Amazon is over twenty quid - OH likes a good bargain.

Supermarket food bargains were sadly disappointing, so I fell back to something that I'd fancied doing since I saw a photograph in Christine Ingram's vegetarian and vegetable cooking book, which screamed out to me "that's a deeper version of your flanizza(TM)!" : pissaladière. Many shenanigans later and... yum. Between the deep silences of chewing came the odd "very good" or "excellent" from the OH and our bargain-hunting next-door neighbour; oh, and me. Jolly dee.

I blame the cream-accident (yesterday's use of a 100ml measure) for this:

........ Calories 1798.16 Carbs 44.00 Fat 129.11 Protein 30.19 Fibre 11.74

pissaladière variation no. 1
pissaladière flanizza(TM) no. 1 base (2/5ths of original flanizza(TM) recipe)
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 46g 195.04 7.36 9.20 17.94 5.52
almonds, ground, 645c/C6.5/F55.8/P25.5/Fi7.4/100g
......... 22g 141.90 1.43 12.28 5.61 1.63
besan (chickpea flour), 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 12g 42.24 6.71 0.64 2.41 0.56
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
parmesan cheese, 392cal/C0g/F28.4g/P33.0g/Fi0g/100g
......... 5g 19.60 0.00 1.42 1.65 0.00
baking powder
......... 3ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
soya milk, coop org unsw, 30c/C0.1/F1.9/P3.4/Fi0.6/100ml
......... 46ml 13.80 0.05 0.87 1.56 0.28
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 28ml 230.72 0.00 25.65 0.00 0.00
total for pissaladière flanizza(TM) no. 1 base 696.70 15.69 54.27 31.01 10.72

Method: 1. mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl; 2. gradually work in the oil - you should end up with crumbs; 3. now gradually add the milk until you have a dough; 4. flatten the dough out: I used my knuckles to make a round on baking parchment paper which saved using extra flour for rolling; make the round large enough so that the dough can go up the sides of the baking tin, then fit it in to the tin; 5. put foil loosely over the pastry that goes up the sides of the tin to prevent it burning (mine were 'well cooked' before I did this part-way through); 6. bung into a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 25 minutes until the base is nicely golden brown

pissaladière flanizza(TM) topping
bell pepper, green, finely sliced, 20c/C2.6/F0.3/P0.8/Fi1.6/100g
......... 122g 24.40 3.17 0.37 0.98 1.95
bell pepper, yellow, finely sliced, 31c/C5.3/F0.2/P1.2/Fi1.7/100g
......... 125g 38.75 6.63 0.25 1.50 2.13
onion, red, medium sliced, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 93g 39.99 8.65 0.00 0.66 1.95
mushrooms, cc, sliced, 15c/C0.4/F0.5/P1.8/Fi1.0/100g
......... 125g 18.75 0.50 0.63 2.25 1.25
chilli, red, fine sliced, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 16g 6.40 1.52 0.03 0.32 0.24
olives, black, sliced, 134c/C0/F15/P0.5/Fi2.5/100g
......... 29g 38.86 0.00 4.35 0.15 0.73
sundried tomatoes, rough chopped, 145c/C9.0/F9.6/P2.6/Fi5.6/100g
......... 100g ; 145.00 9.00 9.60 2.60 5.60
crowdie, c178/C3.1/F13.4/P12.0/Fi0.0/100g
......... 160g 284.80 4.96 21.44 19.20 0.00
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 5ml 41.20 0.00 4.58 0.00 0.00
thyme, dried
......... 2ml 0.00
rosemary, dried
......... 2ml 0.00
oregano, dried
......... 2ml 0.00
garlic flakes
......... 4ml (several very good grinds) 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for pissaladière flanizza(TM) topping 638.15 34.43 41.24 27.65 13.85

Method: 1. heat the oil in a non-stick pan and soften the onions then add the herbs; 2. add the peppers and chillies, cook for two or three minutes; 3. add the mushrooms and cook until their liquid has reduced (this was a mistake, see below)

total for pissaladière variation no. 1 1334.85 50.12 95.51 58.66 24.56
FatDog's 5/18th portion of pissaladière variation no. 1 370.79 13.92 26.53 16.29 6.82

Putting it together: 1. fill the flanizza(TM) with the cooked veggies first (leave the foil 'protection' on), then the sun dried tomatoes, then the olives, then dob the cheese over the top and give it a good grinding of black pepper; 2. place under a hot grill to brown off the cheese; 3. de-foil and extract the flan from the baking tin, slice and serve with a good green salad.

Mushroom mistake: adding and cooking the mushrooms at this point meant that the lovely peppers and onions went very soft - not what I'd wanted; do not use mushrooms next time, or, if you must, cook them separately under the grill to dry them out and add them to the flan along with the tomatoes.

The pissaladière flanizza is certainly going on the do-again list. Indeed, a mini version could be on the menu for tomorrow's dinner... (must remember it's a repair day before getting too carried away).