The FastDay Forum

Thank-you @Pammy

Next time I feed an omnivore, like my neighbour, I'll quiz them as to how 'omnivore / carnivore friendly' they think the recipe is and will report back! I've a fair few straight-vegetarian recipes that can satisfy the most hardened carnivore but, I must admit, most of the low-carb veggie ones that I've done so far have probably been a bit 'light' for meat-and-two-veg folk.

I think one needs reasonable quantities of legumes in a recipe for an omnivore to be satisfied - the Thai bean cakes or the spiced lemony lentils might do it, and quorn mince, of course (but that feels like cheating).

The VBF is veggie but rather a carb addict and she has actually been surprised at being satiated by all the low-carb dishes that I've fed her, and that's without a third helping!

I'll try to keep the carb addicted carnivore in mind when I'm working on recipes in future FatDog

@izzy Cardamom is possibly my favouritest spice of all - I have a pepper-mill dedicated to grinding it (okay, I do sometimes grind nutmeg in the mill too, but not often). It does heavenly things in many Indian dishes, and I even add cardamom to fizzy water - mmmm...

My cardamom cake, along with the almond / savoury muffin-cakes, probably rose between 50% to 100% in height - i.e. none of them ever made sponge cake status. Methinks the savoury mexican themed one made with cream would have risen but for my abusing it part way through cooking - the mixture was much lighter, even without the oil!

I think I've been exceedingly lucky with the stevia that I'm using (Pure Via) as I'm really not getting the dreaded metallic taste at all; just dipped my finger in the stevia pot to check and all I get is sweetness (and no, I don't have shares in the company)... I could send you a wee sample if you like - you don't want to spend £4 plus on a box just to find it's equally horrid to your taste! Though I'm giggling at the thought of sending white powders through the post FatDog

Monday, day forty-three, repair day

Baseline at the start of low-carb week 7
Weigh-in at start of day wt. 125.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.95lbs); 0.8lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.75, h. 36.5 inches; all a bit 'tight', fluid?

The alternative on the digital scales was 125.2lbs which would be a whole pound gained in 24 hours. I don't think so, even with 'a bit of fluid' - particularly as the analogue scales appear to be stable at the same weight as yesterday. I'll log the 125.0lbs (it has totally spoilt my lovely tracker graph, *so* tempted skip recording it) but I'm not really believing it- call it denial if you like, but my friend Mystic Meg says that the reading will be back down before you can say 'crystal ball'.

That makes the weight loss for low-carb week six 1.4lbs, and there was between a smidgen and a quarter inch off everything by the tape measure. Total low-carb weight loss over six weeks is 11.2lbs, and that's 3 inches off my waist, 2 inches under-bust and 1.75 inches off my stomach. Nae bad, though I say it myself.

Anyway, much more important, food: pressie from bargain-hunting neighbour last night (he stayed for dinner yesteday along with VBF) of 250g pack of broccoli and cauliflower so needing ideas other than slathering it in stilton and bunging it under the grill (although that is *very* appealing to a FatDog). Latter wins - domestic sh*te - shame as it deserved better, like a masala or a stir-fry.

Later, a mutual friend is by with his wee laddie, amongst the boys' talk I find space to try out making flax crackers. Wow! Have just eaten the trial run - I had to swiftly feed the other 2/3rds to the OH, what with it being a repair day - I am *oh so, so, tempted* to blow it and make a proper-sized batch *right now*! Maybe not to everyone's taste, but they take minutes to make and scant 20 minutes to bake: so get your oven on this instant...

I'd better not (especially given the scales this morning) - remind me, what's the mantra again? 'You can have it tomorrow'. Oh yes, breakfast crackers with salty butter ... mmmm... So, with that fantasy, todays' damage was limited to:

....... Calories 537.70 Carbs 11.87 Fat 38.07 Protein 32.03 Fibre 12.78

For the recipes the figures below are:
......... amount used : cals : carbs : fat : protein : fibre

linseed crackers, adapted from http://cleangreensimple.com/2011/05/flax-crackers/
linseed, brown, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 50ml ~equiv. 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

The original recipe worked in cups, 2 linseed to 1 water, so I actually did 50ml linseed to 25ml water for the trial run - these are the quantities given here. Obviously, these can be scaled up, and spicing and seasoning is down to personal taste...

Method: 1. mix the dry ingredients in a bowl then gradually add the water and work until you have something approximating a dough *; 2. flatten this out to thin-cracker thickness on a parchment lined baking sheet; 3. score lines so that the crackers may be broken-up neatly once cooked; 4. cook in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 15 to 20 minutes - beware they go from nearly-cooked to over-cooked rather quickly **

* I didn't need to quite use all of the water - don't feel compelled to do so yourself

** if using brown rather than golden linseed it's all the harder to tell when they're nicely browned: I had mine out a couple of times and still managed to singe them at the edges.

I'm rather hoping that the linseeds are still as effective at 'assisting transit' as the raw ones when they've been baked. If so, these crackers make for a wonderful way to get the medicine down

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

Tuesday, day forty-four, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 124.4 (analogue scales corrected ~123.95lbs); 0.6lbs loss;
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.75, h. 36.5 inches

Two words to the scales - *crystal balls* ...

I suppose, as it is the turn of the week, my carb allowance should go up again - it now stands at 45g for feed days. Except for the days when I've blown it completely, I don't seem to have been really pressing the 40g carb limit. I'll need to reconfigure my head to include more carbiferous things in my allowed ingredients list, e.g. legumes and fruit maybe. That'll really confuse me.

I've lots of cheese (that's needing used), soya flour, nuts and seeds but otherwise an empty fridge (except some sorry carrots). Inspiration required. Hmmm, maybe I could just have various cheeses on my newly-discovered linseed crackers, with olives and a little salad with mayo on the side, in several sittings Comfort eating.

But I've also rather set myself up with a challenge of finding low-carb veggie recipes 'that will keep carnivores happy'. Hmmm.

To meet the challenge, I went through my wonderful Hiltl cookbook with a view to doing a recipe modified to satiate carnivores. Never heard of Hiltl? Neither had I until I spotted their book in a local charity store a couple of months ago. Apparently Hiltl is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe (founded 1898) and their recipes looked wonderful, trouble was that I don't read German and six quid seemed a lot for something that I'd need to translate using Google. Simply couldn't resist it a couple of days ago when I found it still on the shelf but now for just £2.50 - guess I'll be spending some time with Google translate.

Maybe the reason folk lose weight on low-carb veggie diets is that they run out of money for food because they spend it all on cookbooks?

So, dinner was to be Pilz-Stroganoff (mushroom stroganoff) - different mushrooms, pickled gerkins, bell pepper, cream, spices - you get the idea, and methought to somehow add green lentils (maybe as a side, to satiate the carnivores). Off I went for my messages but, by the time I'd got back down the road to Sainsers I was well puggled so, into my bag went ready salad and quorn fillets - instant food. What a disappointment. Still, I have the ingredients now: it'll just have to be Saturday's dinner as, sadly, cream would be too much for a repair day and Thursday's oot 'cause we're oot. Just hope the cream lasts - is cream that has gone 'off' the same as sour cream

Salad is lovely but even if one ate half a kilo of it one would only have 150 calories on the accounts sheet. Double cream and Hellman's mayo are the slacker low-carb calorie seekers' friends - the only trouble with them is their lack of fibre. And nuts, don't forget the nuts - and they have fibre.

....... Calories 1383.70 Carbs 36.93 Fat 101.04 Protein 23.03 Fibre 12.65

Wednesday, day forty-five, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 124.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.5lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.75, h. 36.5 inches

Digital scales were switching themselves off mid-weigh - methinks I have battery problems again, especially as they started off by saying I was 124.8lbs when the analogue scales show a clear decrease. That's bloomin' fast for the battery to go down - it was only replaced a month ago - though I suppose the scales have never seen so much use.

Out of sorts sort of day to start: scales depressing, feeling aimless, weather bleauch, swithering as to whether to switch repair days and do the Pilz-Stroganoff today, blah, blah, blah. We decide against the fringe event we were going to on Thursday, thus nice dinner is back on the menu for feed day. Good.

So, what's on the menu for tonight? Argh! I'd forgotten last night's delivery of four near-end-of-life yellow peppers from our freegan friend. That's simple then: chickpea and yellow pepper roast - not in your cookbook? That's because I just made it up

One might think that I had enough experience with this low-carb experiment by now to remember *not* to have legumes on repair days - they bump up the carb quotient something rotten. Never mind - the roast was delicious and worth every gram. And the linseed crackers are brilliant - made this a very civilized dinner with 'cheese and biscuits' to follow. Morning tea, slacker's yoghurt for (very) late break-fast, lovely dinner with 85% chocolate to finish... diet? What diet? I'm pretty happy with this WoE - hope it is as good for you.

....... Calories 493.23 Carbs 29.62 Fat 29.23 Protein 19.09 Fibre 16.89

Ed. Darn, not so clever - just spotted that I'd the wrong amount of boursin down (8g instead of 16g), so if you're greedy with cheese, like me, the combo above will take you just over your 500 cal allowance for the day:

....... Calories 525.71 Carbs 29.86 Fat 32.43 Protein 19.77 Fibre 16.93

Yay! That takes my calorie deficit to over 50,000 since I started 4:3 on May 1st- that feels like a milestone of sorts - not sure why, as it doesn't render a nice round number of lbs lost or anything like that, but it just does.

For the recipes the figures below are:
......... amount used : cals : carbs : fat : protein : fibre

chickpea & yellow pepper roast
bell pepper, yellow, medium chunked, 31c/C5.3/F0.2/P1.2/Fi1.7/100g
......... 4 of, 366g 113.46 19.40 0.73 4.39 6.22
chickpeas, canned, coop, 125c/C17.7/F1.9/P6.4/Fi6.2/100g
......... 242g 302.50 42.83 4.60 15.49 15.00
onion, red, medium sliced, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 70g 30.10 6.51 0.00 0.50 1.47
chilli, green, fine sliced, 40c/C9.5g/F0.2g/P2.0g/Fi1.5g/100g
......... 10g 4.00 0.95 0.02 0.20 0.15
garlic, fine chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 5g 7.45 1.65 0.03 0.32 0.11
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 15ml 123.60 0.00 13.74 0.00 0.00
balsamic vinegar
......... 5ml 0.00
mixed herbs, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 4ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for chickpea & yellow pepper roast 581.11 71.35 19.12 20.89 22.95
1/3rd portion of chickpea & yellow pepper roast 193.70 23.78 6.37 6.96 7.65

Method: 1. put all the veggies into an oven-proof dish, sprinkle with seasonings, drizzle over the liquid ingredients, and mix well to ensure that the veggies are well coated; 2. cook in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 30 minutes until they are beginning to brown nicely, giving things a good stir part way through.

If you're not too bothered about your carb levels, and you had half of this rather than just a third, this would make a fine repair-day meal . Served with a splodge of yoghurt, it's pretty substantial, filling and tasty. Throw-in a green leafy side-salad at it and you might even meet your five-a-day.

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

Thursday, day forty-six, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.25); 0.8lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.75, h. 36.5 inches

Now, this one is a proper milestone - my BMI has (just) moved into the normal range at 24.92. Yippee! The scales might be evil and steal this back tomorrow, but the trend is oh-so going down - think that justifies a tail-wagging bounce around the living room...

Tonight is to be a veritable 'feast night' with the foodie recipe from the Hiltl cookbook - it should be delicious, unless I've really messed up with google translate I'm doing butter-beans with julienned carrots on the side to give it the feel of 'meat and two veg' for the omni/carni-vores. The butter-beans could even be mashed for a 'potato' mouth-feel but OH and guests aren't needing that deception so won't try that this time.

And that was *really delicious*, though I say it myself. Not exactly to plan, but when has it been? Expected guests couldn't come, but best bargain-hunting neighbour appeared instead. I used cream instead of water (I mean, water in stroganoff?!!!!), closed cup mushrooms rather than shitake, sunflower not peanut oil, and a sweet pointed pepper instead of an ordinary red pepper (unable to resist 45p bargain in Sainsers, apart from the fact that I thought it would taste nicer). And I couldn't face fighting with the juilienne peeler (it has a nasty habit of biting my knuckles) so went for slithers using the ordinary peeler instead (which bit my knuckles anyway).

The coup-de-grace with this meal was to serve it with sugar-snap peas (thank-you kind neighbour, for bringing these by). I had but five pods but they certainly went very well with the dish, 'rounding it out to perfection'.

'Fantastic' said neighbour, 'I know I always say it's good but this really is' said the OH... Omnivore neighbour reckonned that it was a well-balanced dinner (especially with his peas), more than sufficient in the quantities served (and he's no wee at over 6 foot), and should score highly with other omnivores. Go on @Pammy : I dare you to try it on the family!

I'm having the remaining 1/4 serving for dinner tomorrow - I'll fight all-comers for it and I don't care if it is over calories, I'll just have to do a half-repair day.

This is the very first time that I've not scrupulously accounted for something that has gone down my thrapple - I haven't logged those five pods - and I'm too knacked to look the info up to do so, so there

....... Calories 1521.69 Carbs 38.08 Fat 102.99 Protein 28.11 Fibre 15.71

Pilz-Stroganoff, from the Hiltl cookbook (p.90)
chestnut mushrooms, 1/6th'd, 16cal/C0.4g/F0.5g/P1.8g/Fi1.1g/100g
......... 309g 49.44 1.24 1.55 5.56 3.40
mushrooms, cc, organic, 1/6th'd, 15cal/C0.4g/F0.5g/P1.8g/Fi1.0g/100g, Hiltl uses shitake
......... 248g 37.20 0.99 1.24 4.46 2.48
oyster mushrooms, medium sliced, 10c/C0/F0.2/P2.3/Fi2.4/100g
......... 133g 13.30 0.00 0.27 3.06 3.19
sweet pointed red pepper, fine sliced rounds, 40c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi3.4/100g
......... 95g 38.00 6.08 0.38 0.95 3.23
onion, fine sliced, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 110g 47.30 10.23 0.00 0.78 2.31
pickled gherkins, fine sliced longways, 25c/C5.5/F0.19/P0.67/Fi0/100g
......... 40g 10.00 2.20 0.08 0.27 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml, Hiltl uses peanut oil
......... 50ml 416.67 0.00 46.00 0.00 0.00
paprika, sweet, dried
......... 5ml 0.00 (I wussed and used ~1ml less: our paprika is hot rather than sweet)
chilli flakes
......... 2 large pinches 0.00
cabernet sauvignon, 83c/C2.6/F0.0/P0.07/Fi0.0/100ml
......... 150ml 124.50 3.90 0.00 0.11 0.00
crème fraiche, sainsers, 204c/C5.5/F18.4/P4.0/Fi0/100g
......... 200g 408.00 11.00 36.80 8.00 0.00
double cream, wisemans, 466c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100ml, Hiltl uses water
......... 100ml 466.00 1.60 50.50 1.50 0.00
s&p
total for Pilz-Stroganoff 1610.41 37.24 136.81 24.69 14.61
¼ portion of Pilz-Stroganoff 402.60 9.31 34.20 6.17 3.65

Method: 1. heat oil in a non-stick pan; 2. 'sear' mushrooms (also translates as 'fry vigorously' - suspect this means do them until just softening); 3. add pepper, gherkin and onion - mix and saute; 4. season and add red wine; 5. reduce the sauce; 6. add cream (originally H2O) and crème fraiche and further reduce to required consistency.

The order of 2. and 3. seems bonkers to me - with that volume of mushrooms in the pot there is no hope of the veggies in (3) being sauteed nicely at all... So, once the mushrooms had reduced somewhat, I transferred them out of the pot and bunged the other veggies in and sauteed them, and then added the mushrooms back in.

I reckon that I should have reduced the sauce more at step 5. (I rushed because we were hungry) but my neighbour disagreed, 'if it tastes good why change it'.

And beware that the crème fraiche might cause slight speckles in the sauce - it didn't affect the taste in the least but it might offend visual purists (suspect that sour cream wouldn't do this). The colours were *really pretty*, regardless.

And yes, we enjoyed a further glass or two of the cabernet sauvignon with our meal too... I'm sure any red plonk would have done in the sauce but I wasn't going to buy a bottle especially for cooking with. I'll put the remains by for the next recipe that needs it, but I'm not sure how long the vino will last once it has been opened - guess a week or two before it's vinegar, probably less before I just drink it...

butter bean & carrot sides
butter beans, 85c/C12.3/F0.5/P7.7/Fi6.4/100g
......... 235g 199.75 28.91 1.18 18.10 15.04
carrot, slithered, 41c/C9.58/F0.25/P0.93/Fi2.8/100g
......... 139g 56.99 13.32 0.35 1.29 3.89
parsley, fresh, rough chopped, 36c/C3/F1/P3/Fi3/100g
......... 5g 1.80 0.15 0.05 0.15 0.15
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 15ml 125.00 0.00 13.80 0.00 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for butter bean & carrot sides 383.54 42.37 15.37 19.54 19.08
¼ portion of butter bean & carrot sides 95.89 10.59 3.84 4.88 4.77

Method: 1. heat oil, add carrots and saute until softening; 2. add butter beans; 3. season generously; 4. add parsley just before serving and mix in thoroughly.

Stick with sour cream / cream rather than crème fraiche and the stroganoff (without sides) makes a pretty low-carb meal . Highly recommended, whichever way you choose to do it.

Indeed, the stroganoff might nearly fit into your 'cream diet' @PhilT

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

Friday, day forty-seven, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.25); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.75, h. 36.5 inches - or a tad less, even.

Looks as though the scales have forgotten to be evil this morning - tail still a waggin'

No decisions to make today - Pilz-Stroganoff round two, and I've two of my linseed crackers wanting eaten (with cheese, of course), which will make for a fine dinner.

Actually, it's a bit weird not having to cook / plan cooking - so much so that I feel compelled to plot the weekend's food instead. This has to involve a pointed cabbage, a gift from bargain-hunter neighbour. So far I have Italian, Indian or Japanese cabbage recipes - decisions, decisions. Will pootle round to the co-op to see if they have any bargains that will resolve the matter.

Ha! Nothing - well, two very sad looking items: some nasty looking 'Scottish meat selection' that included a strange pink slime and a dubious coloured sausage (not of interest anyway as I'm veggie), and a sorry bag of pre-chopped iceberg lettuce.

Back to the menu: the Indian dishes are more side-dishes than main courses, and the Japanese one wouldn't use the whole cabbage so, decision made. AWL's borlotti bean and cabbage soup, Italian apparently (p.61), which I'll do as more of a stew along with a rather nice recipe for an Italian chickpea bread (farinata). Good, that's sorted.

If I manage to make it to bed without indulging any further (fingers crossed) Friday's damage will be limited to:

....... Calories 798.90 Carbs 23.39 Fat 63.67 Protein 21.38 Fibre 15.64

That's not bad, given how yummy dinner was, although admittedly the Pilz-Stroganoff (and bean & carrot side) was not *quite* as nice reheated as fresh-made: the veggies had lost their crunch a bit. The linseed crackers were fine even though three days old. And 85% chocolate is always mmmmm...

Thank-you @izzy!

The balsamic on the yellow peppers was a very wee amount - you could maybe use a tiny amount of honey just for the sweetness (not very low-carb, I know - not sure how sweetener would work)? But I think the pickles in the Stroganoff were fairly important - I wasn't sure about them at all at first, but they were delicious. If you could find a very 'sour' green pepper (had one by chance the other day, I think they're maybe unripe) that might make a substitute. The sourness doesn't come through strongly - it just provides a counter to the sweetness of the red pepper and the onion. Admittedly I used cocktail gherkins (smaller jar, when am I going to use gherkins again?), not sure if that made a difference.

Most odd you should mention the cauliflower mash and sausage for the cabbage - that thought had crossed my mind (I have three Lincolnshire veggie sausages in the freezer) and I'd forgotten it. Hmmmm, would be a mighty sight easier than my bean stew plan... Good thinking! I must try to get hold of one of Madhur Jaffrey's tomes - my 'Classic 1000 Indian Recipes' is pretty basic.

Happy cooking to you too! FatDog

Hi Izzy and FatDog,

Have you tried xylitol instead of stevia? It's a birch tree extract, recommended by Patrick Holford. Somebody passed me on a book of his - low GL. It doesn't have that metallic taste of stevia but I haven't used it in large quantities.

Also wine - ours doesn't keep for a few days because it gets drunk!! So if I want to hang onto any to cook with I pop it in the ice cube tray.

Still loving your recipes FatDog. Will get round to cooking them one day!!

Agree with Pammy and izzy love your recipes FatDog and your descriptions puts a smile on my face and gets taste buds working. Cabbage and sausages yum thanks Izzy

Aww Izzy that is so lovely about your mum, how wonderful you have her bookmarks even. Priceless

Forgot to say FatDog wonderful news about reaching your BMI

I hadn't heard of coconut sugar - I shall go snoop.

I must admit I'd rather not use 'sweeteners' whether artificial or plant derived. Given that a teaspoon of honey is only about 6g of carbs, maybe I'll get myself a pot of honey for use in recipes that require wee amounts of sweetening - including bread I suppose, mmm, that might be rather nice.

Recipes needing large quantities of sweetening are, perhaps, to be avoided anyway - especially if one is low-carbing? Or adapted - like CBB's cakes! Waaaaay too much sweetening! Spices and small quantities of dried fruits are one's friends IMHO.

Lucky you @Pammy being given Holford's low GL book - I've been stalking it on Amazon for a bargain price, to no avail so far. Low GL is an approach which makes much sense to me, but I'm still trying to see how well it fits in with low-carb, or whether it's completely subsumed by low-carb anyway... I'm not so keen on Holford himself as he's rather too keen to sell his supplements - if your diet is any good (and your health is 'normal') you shouldn't need supplements.

Your mum's cookbooks must have been very moving @Izzy - my mother didn't really cook anything more than six or so standard recipes, and never baked. Her only cookbooks were a repro of Mrs Beeton (!!!), a Readers' Digest type compendium circa 1960, and a copy of Elizabeth David (now that was / is good taste) but, as far as I know, the only thing she ever cooked out of it was white sauce (for cheese sauce) and boeuf stroganoff.

That cabbage recipe looks delicious, thank-you, and fennel and lentil au gratin sounds like something that would go nicely on a FatDog menu too - please, pretty please, do post the recipe once you've tried it!

Ed. Cabbage recipes: I'd forgotten the 'cabbage as pasta' idea - that opens up a complete new vista of recipe possiblities, oh dear...

Saturday, day forty-eight, week-end feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.2lbs (analogue scales corrected = 122.95lbs); 0.4lbs loss;
.. t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.75, h. 36.5 inches - even a tad & smidgen less.

Methinks a good fairy must have had a word with the scales

That's the end of week 15 on 4:3... So, weight at the end of the previous week was 124.6lbs, minus today's 123.2lbs, gives a loss of 1.4lbs; slowing down a bit - indeed, the loss on the analogue scales is a bit less at 1.05lbs. Tape measures haven't changed in a very obvious way either, but I'd say they were a tenth or so less than the previous week.

Think that I might stick with AWL's borlotti bean stew (soup) as I'm hankering after bread (again) and it gives me a good excuse to try out the farinata. And I'd better get on with the farinata as the gram flour should be left to slake in water for a while before using...

Ah ha, interesting: farinata is, in fact, the same thing as socca; according to the wiki entry the recipe is for 'a typical food of the Ligurian Sea coast, from Nice to Pisa'. Jolly dee - that means that I can use it with Italian *and* French recipes I've discovered that there's a whole world of farinata recipes to explore out there - yum.

Except, dear reader, that I managed to get more than half of my farinata stuck to the dish [that's the nice new-to-us dish that I'd crossed my fingers would be in the charity store when I went past to do my messages this after-noon - we had nothing in the house suitable - and lo, there it was, the woo is scary]. Bother that sticking - I think that I managed to rescue about half of the bread, if that - the reclaimed portions were very nice, if fragmentary.

The borlotti bean & cabbage stew was a far greater success. Indeed, I'll go so far as to call it delicious if I may. A late visitor who dropped by and consumed the last quarter (yes, OH and I scranned the rest between us) when asked whether it would do for omnivores said "on its own, perhaps not, but it was pretty darn good" - he reckoned a good chunk of bread would complete it (I'm afraid we'd only the OH's bargain brown-pretend-wholemeal stuff to offer him).

Sadly it all went rather horribly wrong on the carbs front - the extra third of a portion of stew in addition to four glasses of vino (100ml) wasn't a bright idea. Greedy FatDog. I seem to have been remarkably lucky so far in not being overly punished for such misdemeanours - fingers crossed that I remain so.

....... Calories 1451.71 Carbs 55.84 Fat 88.07 Protein 34.94 Fibre 19.37

For the recipes the figures below are:
......... amount used : cals : carbs : fat : protein : fibre

borlotti bean & cabbage stew, adapted from AWL's GI diet, p61
borlotti beans, 85c/C12.9/F0.6/P6.9/Fi7.7/100g
......... 235g (tin) 199.75 30.32 1.41 16.22 18.10
sweetheart cabbage, fine shredded, 25c/C5.0/F0.2/P1.4/Fi2.3/100g *
......... 451g 112.75 22.55 0.90 6.31 10.37
plum tomatoes, tinned, coop, rough 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 chopped, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 144g 61.92 13.39 0.00 1.02 3.02
chilli, red, very fine chopped, 40c/C9.5g/F0.2g/P2.0g/Fi1.5g/100g
......... 19g 7.60 1.81 0.04 0.38 0.29
garlic, fine chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 10g 14.90 3.31 0.05 0.63 0.21
parsley, fresh, rough chopped, 36c/C3/F1/P3/Fi3/100g
......... 5g 1.80 0.15 0.05 0.15 0.15
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 45ml, AWL==30ml, sad dieters:) 370.80 0.00 41.22 0.00 0.00
bay leaf
......... 2 of 0.00
thyme, dried
......... 4ml 0.00
marjoram, dried
......... 10ml 0.00
s&p 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, 300ml 0.00
total for borlotti bean & cabbage stew 829.52 83.52 44.07 28.71 34.94
¼ portion of borlotti bean & cabbage stew 207.38 20.88 11.02 7.18 8.73

* the cabbage carbs story revisited: yes, that really is 5g of carb per 100g - it was written upon the package; slaw is now back off the low-carb menu...

Method: 1. heat oil in a large non-stick pan and saute the onions until they're softening, along with the garlic, chilli, thyme and bay leaves; 2. add the tomatoes and other herbs, s&p and cook for 3 minutes, then add the borlotti beans; 3. ping the shredded cabbage with a little salted water for 3 minutes **; 4. drain the cabbage and add it to the pot along with 300ml veggie bouillon; 5. stew for a further 10 minutes; 6. serve with slithers of parmesan cheese - the more the merrier.

** the pinging of cabbage is my move - I didn't trust it to cook in the stew in just ten minutes and I think I got it right: and you do need to take care that your cabbage is shredded fine or you'll end up with sore-dente rather than al-dente.

The recipe calls for fresh herbs all the way through - I don't have a herb garden so used guestimated quantities for dried herbs, which came off rather well. Herb growing really is something that I should try to do on our window-sill - I've had the parsley and coriander for a week now and they're still alive, just.

I'm exceedingly tempted to do that sauce, without the cabbage, over home-made pasta (or maybe just less cabbage?)... It had one of those rare 'Ah Bisto' aromas whilst cooking - not just good, but very, very good.

farinata (chickpea bread), from hungrygirls.com.au/wordpress/2010/11/24/italian-chickpea-bread/
besan (chickpea flour), 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 100g 352.00 55.90 5.30 20.10 4.70
water
......... 200ml 0.00
salt
......... 3ml 0.00
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 50ml 412.00 0.00 45.80 0.00 0.00
rosemary, dried
......... 3ml 0.00
total for farinata 764.00 55.90 51.10 20.10 4.70
¼ portion of farinata 191.00 13.98 12.78 5.03 1.18

Method: 1. place chickpea flour in a bowl and gradually whisk in the water - eliminating the lumps as you go; 2. go do something else for several hours (overnight even) to allow the flour to 'slake'; 3. add the oil into an appropriate oven-proof dish (my nice new flan dish obviously wasn't) and then add the batter, salt and rosemary; 4. whisk until well mixed (mine then sat a while until the oven temperature came up and had a little re-whisk); 5. place in a pre-heated oven at 220C and cook for 30 minutes or until golden brown; 6. eat whilst warm.

Definitely having another bash at this - will see what happens if some of the chickpea flour is substituted out with soya flour (*much* lower carb). And I'll use a more appropriate dish / parchment paper / cooking method (big frying pan?). Google will be my friend.

I've just realized that I really need to go through my log to extract of all those recipes that I said I'd try again, but haven't yet because it's so much fun trying new ones! My supposed two week budget for the experiment is rather straining now I'm near the end of seven weeks - guess the recipes might be hitting the big economy button any time soon because, even with considerable help from freegan and bargain-hunting friends, this WoE is a tad expensive

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

Sunday, day forty-nine, week-end feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 124.2lbs (analogue scales corrected = 123.0lbs); 1.0lbs gain;
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.75, h. 36.5 inches

Gah! Spoke too soon and tempted fate? Foolish FatDog is now officially over-weight again. That's one whole pound gained, overnight! The Good Fairy of the digital scales has gone on holiday and the carbs are taking their revenge.

Forgive the cliches - I should be spitting fire but I'm cool as a cucumber because the analogue scales' Good Fairy is still here: 121.25lbs precisely. It's one of those rare times that I can give an analogue reading with any certainty as they are very clearly bang on 55kg. With the usual correction that makes me 123.0lbs. My tail is still wagging.

I really can't explain why the analogue and digital scales diverge occasionally (I am meticulous about setting / checking the former) BUT there is a hint of a good reason for the weight increase when I look at my records more closely. On four of the six occasions that my weight has gone up, I've breached my carb allowance substantially on the previous day... but then on another occasion I went over the carb allowance and was down 0.2lbs the next day. That accounts for all five times that I've seriously gone over my allowance. Hmm. Don't think the statisticians could make much of this.

I simply *must* get this data into a database so that I can pull it about a bit more easily, and probably plug it in with less faff too. Slack FatDog - databases were, after all, my bread-and-butter in a previous incarnation, and I've been pondering the recipe builder / nutrition side of things for ages.

Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but there's actually quite a good meal planner on-line called Eat This Much http://www.eatthismuch.com/ which allows you to specify the macronutrient balance that you require. It's a bit limited in its range of recipes, especially for vegetarians, but this will no doubt be remedied as more users join and add recipes. It doesn't *quite* do what I want - which is why I've been pondering knitting-my-own.

Enough! What's for dinner? Not a scoobie - to the recipe books right now... I've woefully neglected CBB's lovely low-carb veggie book in the excitement of all the other recipe book acquisitions. Time to put that right: methinks Thai hot and sour salad with crispy tofu (p59) meets the bill.

Except, I *really* want a pizza. In fact I want something ready-made or, even better, someone to cook for me. I think it's the weighing-out of everything that is wearying me a little, though I suspect that half my weight-loss is down to the cooking and clearing kitchen duties.

"I want pizza" won. Adapted from a gluten-free pizza base recipe from the big book of bread (tBBoB) and decorated with various cheeses that needed used along with a red pepper and a red onion, garlic, etc. etc. (such forbidden fruits). Heaven. Bag of bargain salad sealed the meal. If you are on a diet, do not share your salad with others - you'll only end up with good intentions and a lousy fibre intake.

There is a point at which one realizes one has blown it, carb wise, and (especially if one has had a glass o' wine or two) that, if one is damned, one might as well be weel an truly damned...

....... Calories 2049.97 Carbs 53.02 Fat 109.48 Protein 53.47 Fibre 16.41

Maybe I could just look at it this way: my carb allowance is going up to 50g on Monday, so maybe Monday just came a couple of days early? But the calories, oh dear. The Carb : Fat : Protein percentages were a perfect 15% : 70% : 15% though...

Shoot - yae'll want the recips, right? Aye, right.

Flanizza(TM) no. 1, adapted (substantially) from tBBoB p195, FatDog copyright
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g *
......... 115g 487.60 18.40 23.00 44.85 13.80
brazil nuts, floured, 700c/C3.1/F68.2/P14.1/Fi7.5/100g
......... 55g 385.00 1.71 37.51 7.76 4.13
besan (chickpea flour), 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 30g 105.60 16.77 1.59 6.03 1.41
linseed, brown, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 25g 133.50 0.38 10.54 4.57 6.83
baking powder
......... 5ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
mixed herbs, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
soya milk, coop org unsw, 30c/C0.1/F1.9/P3.4/Fi0.6/100ml
......... 115ml 34.50 0.12 2.19 3.91 0.69 **
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 70ml 576.80 0.00 64.12 0.00 0.00 ***
total for Flanizza(TM) no. 1 1723.00 37.37 138.95 67.12 26.85
1/3rd portion of Flanizza(TM) no. 1 574.33 12.46 46.32 22.37 8.95

* the flours in the original recipe were 115g corn meal, 55g potato flour and 55g soya flour; maybe 'adapted' isn't a strong enough word, how about 'radically changed'?

** recipe calls for 7 TBSP milk, ~105ml, but we needed more because of the linseed which soaks liquid up like a sponge (given that I use linseed daily I should have been well prepared, but wasn't)

*** the original recipe calls for 55g butter so I weighed out the olive oil to 55g and ended up with about 70ml: seems this was definitely not equivalent to 55g butter and it should have been 45ml! oops

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. split the dough into the required number of portions - this quantity will do three 8 inch tins nicely - and flatten them out: I used my knuckles to make rounds on baking parchment paper which saved using extra flour for rolling (reminiscences of childhood mud pies); 5. spread the tomato concentrate evenly over the base and add your toppings (see below); 6. then bung into a pre-heated oven at 200C for 25 to 30 minutes until the base is nicely golden brown and crispy round the edge.

Flanizza(TM) no. 1 toppings
tomato concentrate, coop, 80c/C14.2/F0.3/P5.0/Fi2.0/100g
......... 45g 36.00 6.39 0.14 2.25 0.90
taleggio, f.f. semi-hard cheese, diced, 330c/C1..1/F27.0/P20.4/Fi0/100g
......... 50g 165.00 0.55 13.50 10.20 0.00 *
mozzerella, thin sliced, 250.7c/C1.0/F19.1/P18.7/Fi0/100g
......... 10g 25.07 0.10 1.91 1.87 0.00
bell pepper, red, finely chopped, 36c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi1.6/100g
......... 30g 10.80 1.92 0.12 0.30 0.48
onion, red, fine chopped, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 25g 10.75 2.33 0.00 0.18 0.53
garlic, rough chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 3g 4.47 0.99 0.02 0.19 0.06
olives, black, chopped, 134c/C0/F15/P0.5/Fi2.5/100g
......... 3g 4.02 0.00 0.45 0.02 0.08
basil, dried
......... good sprinkling 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 2 large pinches 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for Flanizza(TM) no. 1 toppings 252.09 12.28 15.68 14.99 1.97

* cheese selection dictated by circumstance: taleggio was a 40p bargain from the co-op and the, slightly more appropriate, mozzerella came from our freegan friend.

VBF volunteered as my kitchen slave and did all the chopping - which was wonderful - now just need the OH to volunteer for the washing-up.

You will, dear reader, have realized from the name of the recipe that the dough didn't quite make it as a conventional pizza base and was rather a cross between a short-crust pastry and a pizza dough - hence Flanizza(TM). If there had been any chance of there developing air bubbles in the dough structure I pretty much ruined it by working the dough for too long I suspect.

However, it was delicious and it is definitely going onto the 'do again' list. I'd kill for a slice right now. OH's and VBF's Flanizzas(TM) had slightly soggy bottoms - mine was beautifully crispy - because they (over-)loaded the toppings on. VBF maintained that it was my best culinary effort yet; I'm not sure that I buy that, as she says that every time

Monday, day fifty, repair day

Baseline at the start of low-carb week 8
Weigh-in at start of day wt. 124.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.0lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.75, h. 36.5 inches

So for low-carb week 7 there was a loss of just 0.8lbs (125-124.2) unless one chooses to selectively disbelieve the digital scales, in which case the loss is maybe a pound more. No loss on the tape measure again, but there's really a distinct reduction in muffin-top when I take them.

I've decided to not get hung up on the ups-and-downs, or at least try not to. I might not like to admit it but there will be a reason for the 1.0lb gain other than the Good Fairy being on holiday (and the scales being evil). Sometimes I might struggle to see that reason, but it will be there. A more obvious example: apart from greater carbs and a greater food volume, there's probably different food-types, and thus perhaps more salt leading to water retention.

I'm surprised that Sunday's over-indulgence didn't hit the scales - apart from the carbocalypse I came out of the week-end with a *negative* calorie deficit (i.e. I went over my TDEE allowance for the two days by more than net 100 calories), nasty; that's the first time that's happened since I started low-carbing.

My weight is trending down and my figure is shrinking; I'm (usually) having fun with the recipes and things; my carb allowance goes up to 50g today and will be a respectable 60g in two weeks time. I'll stick, thanks, and with good grace at that.

Food for the day was a strange one - I couldn't decide quite what to do and ended up with dog's dinner no. 7 - a cheesy, mushroom, green bean omelette. I think there was too much Stilton in it (58g) even for a greedy FatDog, but the lump really needed finishing. And then I got the munchies later in the evening - don't think they were down to real hunger but fed them with fat and protein to shut them up: slice of quorn ham with 15g of peanut butter rolled in it. That worked a treat, but blew the calories for the day (don't know what happened to the fibre either, except that I forgot to have my linseed!).

........ Calories 624.38 Carbs 15.70 Fat 42.96 Protein 39.88 Fibre 9.90

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

Tuesday, day fifty-one, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.75lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.50, h. 36.5 inches

Ooooh, the tape measure moved - I'm pretty sure that's my tummy shrinking! I'm just praying that my ageing skin will shrink with it - it's not looking too good so far.

Yesterday I was pondering doing back-to-back repair days (Mon/Tue) as we've been invited out to lunch on Wednesday. Decided against doing so late last night - sadly that was after feeding the munchies, which I might have staved off knowing that today was a feed day after all. Strange psychology, as I was fine with back-to-back when I first started in May but just the thought of doing it this week filled me with dread.

Might simply have to make this a 5:2 week rather than 4:3 - I need to remind myself that the 'rules' of this WoE are not writ in stone and that it's *meant* to be flexible (I can see a veritable fight coming up tomorrow with the OCD side of my nature).

........ Calories 1484.71 Carbs 41.55 Fat 89.47 Protein 31.15 Fibre 14.96

The ratios are okayish (calories C15%:F73%:P11%) but I'm really not that happy with the fibre - it would be nice to blame the cream, but suspect that it's more to do with calories coming from vino (400c) that are 100% fibre free (and anything else useful, for that matter).

Think that I need to make 'the week' a hooch free zone (except for invites out / *real* special occasions) and just have the week-end in liberty-hall. I don't do half-measures very well (no pun intended - I use a 100ml wine glass which is small by most standards). Hick. I actually rather liked the carb-cleanse for being an alcohol-free zone: no extended explanations or rationalizations required for anyone, least of all myself.

nutty cauliflower rissoles, vaguely inspired by red rice rissoles, Christine Ingram, Veggie cooking, p308
cauliflower, co-op, riced, 35c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi2.5/100g
......... 444g 155.40 13.32 4.00 15.98 11.10
hazelnuts, medium fine chopped, 695c/C7.0/F60.8/P15.0/Fi9.7/100g
......... 45g 312.75 3.15 27.36 6.75 4.37
mature cheddar, lake district, chunked, 416cal/C0.1/F34.9/P25.4/Fi0/100g
......... 58g 241.28 0.06 20.24 14.79 0.00
onion, red,chunked, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 164g 70.52 15.25 0.00 1.16 3.44
chilli, green&red, chunked 40c/C9.5g/F0.2g/P2.0g/Fi1.5g/100g
......... 41g 16.40 3.90 0.08 0.82 0.62
garlic, chunked, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 6g 8.94 1.98 0.03 0.38 0.13
tomato puree, 86c/C14.9/F0.4/P4.7/Fi2.0/100g
......... 30g 25.80 4.47 0.12 1.41 0.6
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 30ml 250.00 0.00 27.60 0.00 0.00
marjoram, dried
......... 10ml 0.00
s&p 0
total for nutty cauliflower rissoles 1081.09 42.13 79.43 41.30 20.25
dog's ¼ portion of nutty cauliflower rissoles 270.27 10.53 19.86 10.32 5.06

Method - this is a wonderful job for a food processor (or someone with decent 'knife skills'): 1. medium grind the hazelnuts and set aside; 2. rice the cauliflower in machine; 3. separately fine chop the garlic, chilli, onion and cheese (cheat's grating) in machine; 4. heat olive oil in a non-stick pan and add the onion, then the garlic and chilli and saute until the onions are softening; 5. add the cauliflower, tomato puree, marjoram and s&p - mix and saute a little until the cauliflower is just turning golden; 6. take off the heat and allow to cool a bit (or you'll burn your hands); 7. thoroughly mix in the cheese and parsley (I forgot the latter); 8. form into patties then press into the ground hazelnuts to coat; 9. place on greased baking tray and bake in oven for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown, turning half-way through *

* I didn't turn them - they were waaaaay too frangible

Hmmm: disappointed - not a huge amount of work compared to some recipes, but simply didn't feel worth the effort for what I expected, hoped for or even fancied. Guests (2 of) and OH said very nice things (unprompted, honest) and one even said he'd like a really big slab of the same again (not very filling then, or just exceedingly tasty?). Well, it was meant as a recipe for two, to stretch to three (guest I'd forgotten was coming when planning stuff) but did a fourth (unexpected, but always welcome, guest). Omnivores did have extra carby stuff to go with it. I suppose the flavour was quite good, actually pretty good - I just didn't like the texture: much too soggy-cauliflower (and my regular readers will know that I love cauliflower, just not soggy cauliflower). Needs a radical rethink. Probably without cauliflower.

Unless I'm mistaken (and please do correct me kind reader, that way I know you exist:)) that that is my first seriously 'bleauch' recipe.

Compensation, after guests had gorn, shared between OH and me was the bargain 40p 'fruit medley' from the co-op that should have been eaten last night: it hadn't gone fungal (thank goodness) and did as a real treat with (bargain) whipping cream (which went everywhere but wouldn't whip) and flaked almonds. We had half the strawberries each, and I had the blueberries and the OH had the grapes. Wag-wag.

Sad about the nutty cauliflower rissoles. I was hoping they would be fabulous.

Aye - the rissoles were a real disappointment.

The flavour really was pretty good, and the crunch of the hazelnuts and the outer layer yummy. I think that there might be a couple of ways to possibly rescue this one: a) do them very thin - indeed, near pizza thin but in mug sized circles, and I suspect that they'll crisp through a bit; and b) as for a) but don't add all the cheese to the body of the rissole, press some of it in on the top along with all the hazelnuts (none underside).

Served with a good salad methinks they might even satisfy an omnivore. Thank-you @gillymary, maybe I'll give this one another bash after all...

Is the cheese the only binding agent,

Yes - no proper binding: I had originally thought to use an egg, but that got lost somewhere in the making In fact, ground linseed might do a treat as that goes gloopy and soaks up liquid. Hmm.

Cheers, FatDog.