The FastDay Forum

Back having made the linseed rounds which turned out ok and worked with goats cheese spread on top. Had to beat off DH from demolishing my remaining 3, as they are MINE. I think they remind me a bit of pumpernickel bread. What do you think @FatDog? The salt is needed mine could do with a bit more. I used an egg ring to cut out my rounds and experimented with the thickness and prefer thinnish.

Had a thought for an alternative menu idea for you FatDog which is what we are having for dinner which is gado gado with tofu and peanut sauce made on coconut cream. What do you think?

Definitely need the salt @gillymary - linseed crackers are a bit hair-shirt if one doesn't use any seasoning. And I'd go for thin every time. I find mine can be rather hit-or-miss : sometimes really good, others just so-so; I've learnt to let them sit upright like toast in a toast rack for a minute or two to ensure crispyness; haven't had a bad one yet (says she, tempting fate).

Your dinner of gado gado and coconut cream sounds delicious - I've been mulling the idea of gado gado for a while as CBB's New Vegetarian (p120), TWiyK (p81) and Ingram's V&V cooking (p416), amongst others, have tempting recipes; but the most delectable looking one (that seduced me in the first place) is in the World Food Cafe (p143) for Balinese Gado Gado which uses tempeh rather than tofu. Mmmm... now a hungry FatDog

Do a gado gado it is a lovely meal would be interesting to get your calculations on it but I make a bed of mixed salad leaves and generous slices of Lebanese cucumber then I add on top the pinged vegetables like carrot, green French beans, pumpkin cubes, cauliflower - all still on crunchy side. Add hard boiled egg quartered 1 per person. On the top goes generous peanut sate sauce made with peanut butter and coconut cream nicely spiced over cubed soy sauce soaked tofu which I dust in flour and sesame seeds and lightly fry to golden. I then crumble over crispy fried onion bits and some peanuts and coriander sprigs

It is such a Devine meal maybe not fast day fare but defo low carb veggo

[Betsysgr8]

OmG! I've never heard of Gado Gado but I'm going to find out more ... it's sounds absolutely delish! I love peanuts and anything peanutty! mmmmmm Off to do some recipe hunting!

Saturday, day ninety-seven, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 118.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~117.0lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Shhhhhh... still going down...

Report at the end-of-week 22 on 4:3 : 1.6lbs weight lost, no change in other measurements but, methinks, they're looser.

As others have said elsewhere - measuring consistently is *not* so easy as it involves subjective judgements of 'how tight / loose' and, I suspect, my judgement is very much coloured by my mood (however hard I try to be objective)!

Anyway, very, very waggy FatDog.

I'll endeavour not to spoil things by over-indulging this weekend and going into next week with a negative deficit (again). That said, I'm meant to be belatedly celebrating my six-months-nicotine-quit - I'll need to work out how to do it low-carb and low-calorie!

Dinner: I've a fridge full of spinach, borlotti beans, bargain red peppers and baby carrots to use up, and my bargain basil plant on the window sill (which I miraculously managed to recover from neglect) - this is all ringing 'Italian soup' bells. Think a savoury muffin something might feature too. Oh, and I have ripe pears to use, somehow, for pudding. Now to find / create recipes.

Well, soup happened (made it up in the end) but, unexpectedly, for four not two... Had a devil of a time getting the skins off the peppers (took an age to char under the grill and still didn't want to shift; wondered whether to use the skins-off-tomatoes boiling water trick but didn't want to spoil the 'roasted' flavour: duh, they're going in a *soup*!) and so everything ran a wee bit late and fraught - OH had agreed, 'on the spur of the moment', to head out to a (free) concert with one of our guests and time was short... Not a hope of muffins to go with the soup. Only remembered to put the basil in at the last moment and forgot to re-check the seasoning. OH and bestest neighbour thought the soup good though and, if I'm honest, so did I - but it was nowhere near enough for 'dinner'. Didn't want to spend another hour and a half cooking (I am *very* slow in the kitchen) so it was linseed crackers, cream cheese and quorn ham to the rescue, with an immediate boost from some nuts!

Pear pudding wasn't to be for the FatDog either - the pears were heading for heaven and there was only enough salvagable for the OH, so FD had dried apricots instead - oh too willingly, oh the carbs!

Not quite the 'celebration evening' that I was planning / hoping for. Oh well, maybe tomorrow? VBF will be by, along with bestest neighbour (BN) to eat the bargain, but very beautiful, savoy cabbage (and possibly the cauliflower) that he brought around with him earlier (along with a copy of Sophie Grigson's Eat Your Greens!).

Now I simply have to work out a menu...

I'm tempted to stick with more Paul Gayler recipes: 'turnip, cabbage and mustard torte' (p74) with, perhaps, 'oven-fried celeriac chips' (p92) and 'charred french beans with red onion sambal' (p92). All very appetizing, but I'll need to start nearer midday if we are to eat before midnight. However, if I use sweet potatoes instead of turnip (BN is lobbying for potatoes in there rather than turnip - sweet potato is a compromise) then, balance wise, I think that the 'celeriac chips' could justifiably be abandoned - which would be one less thing to worry about. Hmmm. Wouldn't be a proper PG recipe, but I never seem to follow recipes anyway - just use what's to hand and in the fridge.

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

FatDog's red pepper, beans and spinach soup
bell pepper, red, grill, skin, rough chop, 36c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi1.6/100g
......... 426g 153.36 27.26 1.70 4.26 6.82
carrot, very rough chop, 35c/C7.7/F0.3/P0.6/Fi3.0/100g
......... 150g 52.50 11.55 0.45 0.90 4.50
borlotti beans, 85c/C12.9/F0.6/P6.9/Fi7.7/100g
......... 135g 114.75 17.42 0.81 9.32 10.40
tomatoes, chopped, 'cook Italian' brand, 25c/C4.0/F0.2/P1.4/Fi0.9/100g
......... 390g 97.50 15.60 0.78 5.46 3.51
spinach, baby leaf, co-op, 30c/C1.6/F0.8/P2.8/Fi2.1/100g
......... 55g 16.50 0.88 0.44 1.54 1.16
onion, red, very rough chop, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 93g 39.99 8.65 0.00 0.66 1.95
chilli, green, very rough chop, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 15g 6.00 1.43 0.03 0.30 0.23
garlic, very rough chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 12g 17.88 3.97 0.06 0.76 0.25
bouillon, marigold, 243c/C29.4/F8.1/P10.5/Fi0.7/100g
......... 5g 12.15 1.47 0.41 0.53 0.04
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 25ml 208.33 0.00 23.00 0.00 0.00
basil, fresh, torn, 23c/C2.35/F0.64/P3.15/Fi1.6/100g
......... 10g 2.30 0.24 0.06 0.32 0.16
water, boiling
......... 500ml for bouillon 0.00
total red pepper, beans and spinach soup 721.26 88.46 27.74 24.03 29.00
FatDog's ¼ portion of red pepper, beans and spinach soup 180.32 22.11 6.94 6.01 7.25

Think a little lemon juice would just have lifted this a little - that'll teach me to flap so much that I don't get to check the final seasoning.

Method (-ish: I made this in the soup-maker, so this is how it would have been if I had made it in a saucepan, I suspect): 1. heat the oil and saute the onions until softened; 2. add the garlic and the chilli and saute briefly, stirring aplenty; 3. add the bouillon and then the carrots, bring to the boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring regularly; 4. add half the roasted peppers and then blend; 5. add the tomatoes, remaining pepper, spinach and beans - stir well and check seasoning; 6. heat for a minute or three then add in the basil, stir and serve with a dollop of yoghurt on the top.

Although the calories are nice and low it is very carborific (beans, red peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic: love them all but full of carbs, albeit the 'right' sort) - would be good for repair days *only* if you're not aiming for under 20% carbs.

Had a late night shufti at Grigson's Eat Your Greens (1993) - there was a copy in the shop the other day which I rather dismissed after a quick look at the intro and a couple of recipes - and I've somewhat changed my mind: it's not *quite* as useless as I'd first thought, but I still wouldn't buy it. If you can cope with the slightly patronising tone, rather a lot of meat / fish, and lots of 'baked xxx with parmesan' recipes, there are some useful 'how to prepare xxx' bits and the odd script that's interesting (usually someone else's). For example, "Matthew Fort's Ukranian Borshch" (p67) or "Medea Walker's Spinach with Apricots" (p215) - actually the spinach recipes are all quite good - and "Baked Aubergine with Tomato and Mozzarella" (p160). There's even a recipe for cabbage "Cabbage, Onion and Dolcelatte Tian" (p212) - essentially cabbage and cheese gratin, similar to PG's torte but with eggs and no flavourings (maybe the dolcelatte is meant to provide the flavour). Decisions, decisions, now I'm swithering...

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

Sunday, day ninety-eight, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 118.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~116.75lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.10, w. 26.60, t. 32.40, h. 36.00 inches

Crivvens! Perhaps it's Friday's repair loss delayed (I confess, I was hoping for a wee bit more off yesterday) but, whatever the cause, it's jolly welcome. This is how the weight was shifting before my August / September hiatus - maybe that was the dreaded 'six month plateau' just a bit early? Anyway...

Thank-you V&P vary-fairy, thank-you! Happy, happy FatDog.

Have just updated my tracker and it says that I should hit my target three days after my birthday - that would be a really nice belated birthday present. Except, I'll be shifting my target weight in the light of the 'New BMI' calculator thingy as that says that I am still overweight; it reckons that the normal range for someone of my height is between 84lbs (six stone???) to 114lbs! So new target will be 114lbs, at the top of that range - anything less and I'll look emaciated.

Random aside: lignans (found in linseed) are thought to reduce IGF-1 levels (see Tuesday's pdf) - goody... But then I'm confused by this paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC156352/ which seems to say that IF puts up IGF-1 levels and that this might have a neuroprotective effect. Most perplexed.

Right, orf to do the messages for tonight's dinner - here's hoping that I don't get too diverted!

Oops, I had a new-to-me frock accident (which entailed a new-to-me belt accident as well because the belt that went with the dress was waaaay too big); and that was *after* the new-to-me scarf accident (which genuinely became necessary because the dress that I was wearing was revealing far more than decent, let alone modest, due to my 'shrinkage'!). Still, jolly happy with a new outfit that fits for less than ten quid.

Thought that the far Asian grocer would be good for sweet potatoes (I could blame 'them' for my frock accident as that's the only reason I went up 'the high street' that far) but it transpired, for once, that the Co-op was (much) better value.

Somehow took an age to prep. and cook everything but, with exceedingly random and minimal 'help' from the VBF (bestest neighbour was here and they were bestest friends at one point - major distraction - so kitchen slavery out of the question), we eventually dined.

And, oh, did we *dine*. That was *so* seriously yummtious. Definitely heading for the 'fine dining' category. Despite my adulterations, I would still suggest that Paul Gayler is a culinary genius.

A couple of "our diner's comments" from tonight should suffice: "it's not proper vegetarian food because it's got far too many flavours"; and, "that was fantastic, a most most memorable meal, a taste sensation - it incorporated nearly all my taste buds - it was incredible"; or, more simply, "that was so lovely". Happy FatDog, trying not to grin and look too smug (I suspect bestest neighbour was being 'slightly ironic'). But bl**dy good, in other words.

Will need to post the calories etc. report and recipes on Monday as I've not 'dissected' the recipe nutrients yet. I'm hoping that it was not all too carb/cal-iferous as it would be wonderful to keep with the downward trend. But I don't suppose my cab. sauv. consumption will have helped - did enjoy it though, and that was some celebration so, whatever happens, it was worth it

Sleep tight all xxx FatDog.

[carorees]

well done on persevering and breaking the plateau!

re IGF1 in mice study...the mice were on an ADF regimen, which for a mouse is like us fasting for 10 days then gorging for 10 days. I wouldn't read much into it! human studies have shown decreased IGF1 with IF.

Sunday, day ninety-eight - accounts & recipes

Well I'm rather impressed with my guestimation efforts: I had the cabbage at 500 calories and 35g carbs, in reality it was 504.30 and 37.72 respectively; the beans at 50 calories and 5g carbs, in reality they were 62.23 and 3.26 respectively; and, finally the sambal at 100 calories and 15g carb, and it was 37.44 and 7.54 respectively. Okay, I was way off with the sambal, *but* that's because I estimated for eating a quarter of it and we only used half between all four of us - double my 1/8th portion figures for a quarter and you get 74.88 calories and 15.08g carbs: not bad after all, eh?

I'm dead chuffed with my accounts - dinner was a veritable feast but it hasn't ruined the 'bottom line' (pun only partially intended):

........ Calories 1340.26 Carbs 59.28 Fat 98.88 Protein 30.26 Fibre 14.62

Edit: oops - major omission from the accounts means the 'bottom line' was very much larger! Thought it was a bit too good to be true (and it wasn't the dinner what done it either *shame-faced emoticon*):

........ Calories 1838.26 Carbs 74.88 Fat 98.88 Protein 30.86 Fibre 14.62


Checked urinary ketones: 8 mmol/L last thing last night and 1.5 mmol/L at 11:30 this morning (fasted state) so it doesn't even look as though I knocked myself out of ketosis.

To the food: get the sambal done first as it is best if it marinades for more than an hour - ours had about a three and a half hours and the flavours changed quite dramatically during that time (I confess I had wee tastes / sniffs every now and again).

sweet potato, cabbage and mustard torte; adapted from PG's turnip recipe, Passion p74
savoy cabbage, narrow strips, 32c/C4.1/F0.4/P1.7/Fi2.4/100g
......... 330g 105.60 13.53 1.32 5.61 7.92
sweet potato, thin sliced, 95c/C21.3/F0.3/P1.2/Fi2.4/100g
......... 532g 505.40 113.32 1.60 6.38 12.77
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 152g 630.80 2.13 52.44 37.09 0.00
crème fraiche, 204c/C5.5/F18.4/P4.0/Fi0/100g
......... 100g 204.00 5.50 18.40 4.00 0.00
onion, fine sliced, 43c/C9.3/F0.0/P0.71/Fi2.1/100g
......... 166g 71.38 15.44 0.00 1.18 3.49
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 15ml 125.00 0.00 13.80 0.00 0.00
cumin seed, whole
......... 5ml 0.00
butter, melted, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 50g 360.00 0.30 40.00 0.25 0.00
wholegrain mustard, 150c/C6.8/F9.5/P8.8/Fi7.8/100g
......... 10g 15.00 0.68 0.95 0.88 0.78
s&p 0.00
total for sweet potato, cabbage and mustard torte 2017.18 150.89 128.51 55.39 24.95
FatDog's ¼ portion of sweet potato, cabbage and mustard torte 504.30 37.72 32.13 13.85 6.24

Makes four substantial servings.

Method: 1. wash, crudely drain and then ping the cabbage for 3.5 minutes in a covered dish, then drain thoroughly, set aside; 2. heat the oil in a non-stick pan and add the cumin and onions and fry until golden, allow to cool and then mix in the mustard, set aside; 3. mix about a 1/4 of the grated cheese with the crème fraiche and season well, set aside; 4. do a layer of sweet potato at the bottom of your large deep oven-proof dish, drizzle with some of the melted butter, season; 5. then do a layer of the cheese, then the cabbage, then the onion mix, then back to the sweet potato and repeat, finishing with a layer of sweet potato and the crème fraiche mix; 6. cook in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 30 to 35 minutes until nice and golden brown on top.

fine green beans (with sambal, below); PG's Passion p96
fine green beans, coop, 30c/C3.2/F0.5/P1.9/Fi2.9/100g
......... 300g 90.00 9.60 1.50 5.70 8.70
butter, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 20g 144.00 0.12 16.00 0.10 0.00
garlic, minced, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 10g 14.90 3.31 0.05 0.63 0.21
s&p 0.00
total for fine green beans 248.90 13.03 17.55 6.43 8.91
FatDog's ¼ portion of fine green beans 62.23 3.26 4.39 1.61 2.23

Method: 1. wash, crudely drain and then ping the beans for 4 minutes in a covered grill-proof dish, then drain thoroughly; 2. mix the butter, garlic and beans together; 3. bung under a hot grill until the beans are little charred; 4. serve with the sambal.

red onion sambal; adapted from PG's Passion p96
onion, red, fine sliced, 43c/C9.3/F0.0/P0.71/Fi2.1/100g
......... 306g 131.58 28.46 0.00 2.17 6.43
apricot, dried, co-op, very fine chop, 185c/C36.5/F0.6/P4.0/Fi8.4/100g
......... 80g 148.00 29.20 0.48 3.20 6.72
chilli, red, very fine chop, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 15g 6.00 1.43 0.03 0.30 0.23
white wine vinegar, 22c/C0.7/F0.0/P0.0/Fi0.0/100ml
......... 45ml 9.90 0.32 0.00 0.00 0.00
pure via (stevia based sweetener) 2c/C0.47/F0/P0/Fi0/0.5g/5ml
......... 10ml 4.00 0.94 0.00 0.00 0.00
coriander leaf, dried
......... 8ml 0.00
mint, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
total for red onion sambal 299.48 60.34 0.51 5.67 13.37
FatDog's 1/8th portion of red onion sambal 37.44 7.54 0.06 0.71 1.67

This is some way off PG's recipe as he uses apricot jam, rice wine vinegar and, of course, fresh herbs - but it seemed to work rather well regardless.

Method: 1. mix all the ingredients together (I confess, the wee whizz did the chopping for me) and let sit for *at least* an hour.

Can't recommend this menu any higher - it was utterly delicious

Monday, day ninety-nine, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 118.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~116.25lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.0, w. 26.4, t. 32.0, h. 35.75 inches

... and Help ma Boab! I'm well shocked, but exceedingly happy

Report at the end-of-week 14 of low-carb : total low-carb weight loss 19.0lbs, and this week 4.0lbs lost *, and there is shrinkage, all a bit hand-waving but definite shrinkage.... Under-bust just a touch, waist two touches, stomach near half an inch, and hips I've not really a clue - I think hips might actually be nearer straight 35 inches but that seems inconceivable.

* that was the V&P vary-fairy at it, 'real' loss more like 2.0lbs

Now I need to work out how to use the remains of the red onion sambal in dinner tonight.

But I'm going to cry - I fear that the two (affy expensive) Paul Gayler books that I've just ordered will be the USian editions, i.e. cup measurements, so I'll need to convert everything. Plus, I suspect, some of the ingredients will have been modified for the USian market. Oh howwwwwwl. Sniff. I think some Muttley style expletives are appropriate at this moment.

Okay. I've taken a few deep breaths and have reailzed that the USian measures are *not* the end of the world - I just need to get myself a set of USian cup measures (not so easy on amazon - most of them use commonwealth cups at 250ml whereas the USian one is 240ml, probably wouldn't matter for most things but quite definitely does for baking!). Not sure about ingredient changes though - just hope they're limited. Note to self: in future, remember *not* to order cookbooks from the USofA.

Ung. Writing up yesterday's culinary efforts is taking me ages and driving me mad - I want to do tonight's menu! Can you tell that I'm a tad wanting my dinner (it's 17:00hrs)? I usually stave off any glimmer of the munchies for another hour or two by plotting my food to come. Dry roast nuts to the rescue before I go *totally* nuts (bodes ill for the calorie count).

The cauliflower was calling, but I couldn't be doing with cauliflower cheese for the third time in a week, and the OH wasn't into anything Indian, for reasons unknown. Plus, the sambal needed using up. Google being the cook's friend - I was reminded of that wonderful carb lover's substitute - cauliflower crust pizza. This time I followed the base recipe from the Graun (the other recipes there are no bad either) http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... er-recipes and topped it with some tomato puree and sambal, and then grated cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and olives. It was nothing like pizza, it was almost omelette in fluffy texture (and collapsibility), but it was considered by all (me too) to be exceedingly tasty ('fantastic' said one happy eater). Oh good.

Cemented the calorie overload with double chocolate rations - not sure what's got into me this evening. *And* I've ordered another cookbook; at this rate I'll run out of living funds this year not next year. Eek!

........ Calories 647.23 Carbs 20.86 Fat 45.55 Protein 25.97 Fibre 10.41

Over-night pizza crust trouble shooting (I have such exotic dreams, really): it occurs to me that it might be our 'fast' oven - so, next time, I'll move the crust to a lower shelf, drop the temperature by 20C and cook a while longer, and maybe cover with tin-foil for the first half of the cooking time. Too much (damp) cauliflower wouldn't have helped either.

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

Tuesday, low-carb day one-hundred, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 118.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~116.25lbs); 0.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.0, w. 26.4, t. 32.0, h. 35.75 inches

Never take the V&P vary-fairy's good offices for granted, *never*. I feel myself duly reprimanded; now, please may I have that repair-day half-pound off tomorrow instead? Pretty, please?

So, in one hundred days I have lost 19.6lbs and have shrunk in a most gratifying manner.

I've lost 3.5 inches off my waist, stomach and probably hips (no measurement on hips until over a week in), a couple of inches under-bust (and loads over-bust though I never measured here - I have lopsided boobs and now have a pancake one side and double pancake the other). I'm down by at least two dress sizes. The spare tyre is looking distinctly deflated and, I'm fairly sure, the dreadful saggy skin is beginning to tighten up: there is hope, ladies of a certain age, there is hope.

I'm almost inclined to do a 'centennial dance'. Anyway, I'm posting this early as this is too good to keep to myself all day, and sharing with you kind people with save me from accosting strangers in the street to tell them my good news

Will update with the accounts and recipes, if any, later.

Have a wonderful day, FatDog xxx

Edit: it's a red-letter day

Good on you SkinnyDog ~ woof woof and a woof whistle too

Wufff..wufff!! Time to wag your tail!! Roll over and get your belly tickled, you clever girl you!

Fat dog no more whoop whoop! Congratulations and thank you for keeping us entertained with your posts and recipes. On measuring cups BTW. I use the bog standard ones from the local cook shop. I had no idea there was a difference until you said but I have had absolutely no probs with mixing euro/commonwealth cup sizes and US books and blogs.

Hi Fatdog,

Been away for a few daya so it is GREAT to read your news, so, who is a clever girl? I bet you feel wonderful. Hope you are still up for afternoon tea,or whatever, at the Balmoral/Dome next time I am up your way,

Ballerina x

Thank-you @all!

If I ignore that naughty V&P vary-fairy and go with yesterday's weight, that makes a whole *two stones* (28lbs) lost since I started 4:3 in May.

There's no doubt (in my mind) that doing low-carb combined with 5:2 / 4:3 really puts the skates on the weight-loss.

But, as / if not more importantly to me, both approaches have health benefits *way beyond* the weight-loss: e.g. anti-gaga (neuroregeneration), anti-inflamatory, fat-not-muscle loss, reduction in insulin resistance, anti-cancer... and the list goes on! Given the synergy between the approaches with regards to the weight-loss, who knows what synergies there might be with the other stuff?

The repair days are great - refreshing and liberating in a way - occasionally tir-ing/some, "but there's always tomorrow". And low-carbing has, genuinely been fun / an adventure: sure there have been days where I could have mugged a granny for a loaf of tacky but aromatic white bread and / or a student for a pot noodle, but most times I've been able to counter that with a muffin-cake, a random concoction, or even a slight deviation into ready-made food (I've not attached a granny / student, yet, honest)

Totally happy with the life-changing WoE and hope to stick with it, for good...

Thanks again for the good-wishes, from a rather moved / emotional FatDog WOOF!

Edit to add accounts and recipes:

Well, I'm utterly swithering now: I had AWL's lovely borlotti bean stew (GI, p61; see 10th August) in mind for the remains of the savoy cabbage, and thought to adulterate it with an egg or two (freegan delivery of eggs yesterday) and bake it in the oven (an Italian dish I've seen somewhere but can't remember where). Grigson does the eggy thing in Sunshine Food and calls it 'chak-chouka', Tunisian apparently (p84). But I've just been slightly seduced by a cabbage and coconut recipe in Rose's Fast, Fresh & Fab (p57), which I could do with a nice lentil dish.

Hmmm. And I *do* want to do something bread-wise; I'm even contemplating *using yeast for the first time*. Eeek.

I *must* stop buying new cookbooks until I've done a decent audit of the ones that I have already. There are enough delicious-looking recipes between them to keep me in doggy heaven for at least a couple of years! Discipline, that's what you need FatDog, self-discipline. Trouble is, who can resist an even partially yummy recipe book for just two or three quid? I certainly can't.

Darn, I've just been to AWT's web site and seen one of his latest tweets - don't think that I like his politics *at all*, and there was me ready to worship him. Oh well, some of his recipes are great even if his politics stink.

Well, what was meant to be a quick boodle up to the far co-op to check for bargains, and then the near one, to pick up slushy tomatoes and an onion too, turned into an expedition to the far end of the 'high-street' (Oxfam don't take videos so I volunteered to take them to Shelter, which does). I had *three* book accidents to go with *two* lots of bake-ware acquisition. So FatDog returns home without her messages but laden with other stuff - and well puggled...

Sorry, no recipes as no nice cooking for FatDog tonight - instant dinner to knackered-body rescue. Which requires a swift sortie to the near co-op: tarka dhal (oops, forgot how carbiforous it was - and that was only nine days ago - sad / bad; however, there's not a single 'chemical' ingredient ingredient in the dhal and sugar comes waaay down the list), poppadums, bargain salad and bargain Indian dips.

Heads on homewards past the charity shop trade bins, which I usually check as they're now wont to have seriously useful stuff in them; if not useful to me at least to someone else. Lo! They've thrown out *hundreds* of CDs. Now, I'm not into Shirley Bassey or the Chemical Brothers but some folks are - so FatDog and a nice lady passer-by fish out all the CDs so that I can take them up to a charity shop that can be *rsed to sell them. Oh, and I carried them home in two perfectly servicable bags - one a hessian Waitrose effort (okay, it's slightly redolent of potting shed, but so what?) and the other a bit like a log-carrier - both thrown out. I used to like this charity store, but I'm getting a bit pissed off with their <it's such a faff reducing things to 50p, we'll just shove them in the bin instead> attitude - I'll certainly not donate anything to them anymore. No doubt if they read this they won't fix the problem and stop chucking stuff out - they'll just lock their bins and / or try to disguise it - a bit like Sainsbury trashing their remaindered bread. Sorry, rant over :0

Oops, I'm meant to post this tonight and I've been enjoying tGBBO instead - to the numbers immediately! Done. I'm wondering whether to post - and thus prevent any further wee accidents with the vino tinto - or to hang on, relax, and maybe have another grape juice (I'm celebrating, after all)? Tea or vino?

Meantimes I should tell you all about the books...

Bit embarrassed about the first one - "the Crank's Bible", Nadine Abensur (2003 ed.) - having spent the best part of Sunday evening slagging off Crank's 'hair-shirt' cooking and horribly dated approach - rewind please. Some of the recipes look delectable: "Moroccan pumpkin couscous with a prune and onion confit" (p106, pictured - yum), "Homity pies - the new way" (p112, also pictured - yum), "Roasted vegetables with mango and tamarind" (p150, no pic. but reads like yum), "Goat's cheese, olive and sunblushed tomato muffins" (p362, pictured; right, I am doing these tomorrow, regardless of it being a repair day). I'll report back - but the Guardian might have had it right back then when they said "one of the best books of the year" (books, note, not cook-books!!).

I had only put the next one on my list of 'get it if you see it', when I ran into it by accident whilst googling, a week ago: the "Buddha's Table", Chat Mingkwan (2004). Noooo, now don't run away - it's a rare thing to find a fully vegetarian Thai cook-book, written by someone born and bred in Thailand (rather than some lame European / Westerner* who thinks London or New York is a good base for writing East Asian cook-books when they've never left their 'homeland'). This one looks pretty tasty - very few pictures but the ingredients lists are enough to get one going. At random, I love the substitution offer of Granny Smiths apples for green mango in the Khao Yum. However, the photographer for the eight or so colour pages should be ashamed. * No racist offence meant: I'm European / Western myself, well, partly - I'm actually a complete mongrel.

The last one was an inexcusable acquisition, except I had a £3 credit note at the shop and this cost £3: "The food of the world - a journey for food lovers", Murdoch books (2008). And it looked amazing - the photography is *lush*. Okay, it broke my new rule of 'only meat-free' but it would appear to have some lovely and interesting veggie recipes in there too. And I'm usually a bit funny about books-without-authors, but this one seemed exceptional. One (very) odd thing though, it doesn't tell you which country the recipe comes from - oft one can work it out from the picture(s), but not always. It near broke my back getting it home - it must weigh four kilos at least - giving it a secondary use, just to placate the OH, as a door-stop.

Darn, vino won - mainly to sedate me because my blood was beginning to boil whilst I started to go through the CDs: one of the first ones I hauled out has a used list price on amazon of £9.37 (plus £1.26 p&p), the next £6.29 (+p&p) etc. Sorry, but in my book this charity is bunging money in the bin, and it's pretty inexcusable. Yup, lots of the CDs are pretty cr*p / seriously obscure, but there's a goodly few that aren't. Grrrr.

Forgive me body, for I have abused thee (V&P vary-fairy, please don't punish me):

........ Calories 1514.79 Carbs 71.03 Fat 69.61 Protein 36.33 Fibre 12.07

Yep a beacon of positivity and the reason why we mainly came here - to share the journey while we lose weight. Congratulations you skinny mini. It hasn't been easy and you have been faithfully giving us such detailed descriptions and recipes - it has been an amazing journey thus far

4:3 version of 5:2 low carb ummm have to go away and think it through as my mind was boggled by the numbers but the recipes all looked to be so yummy and a couple I have tried I loved.

I echo rawkaren's sentiments and Izzys thank you for writing