Weigh-in at start of day wt. 117.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~116.0lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.0, w. 26.4, t. 32.0, h. 35.75 inches
Why, thank-you V&P vary-fairy - I could not have asked for better today, especially as yesterday's carbs went perilously high. My ketone reading before bed was 8 mmol/L *but*, my theory is, assuming I'm not constantly going for a pee, that these are probably ketones produced earlier in the evening, prior to the cumulative carb overload. The 1.5 mmol/L this morning would indicate, to me, that the 71g of carbs took me close to the line. Wish I had a blood ketone kit, that would reveal all.
Ha! I've just noticed a major clang in my accounts for Sunday, and the increase in the calories to 1838.26 and carbs to 74.88g might go a long way to explaining the (albeit delayed) increase on the scales on Tuesday morning. I'm going to tentatively predict that the scales will remain level or even go up tomorrow morning as a result of Tuesday's indulgences, despite today's repair work. If the scales *do* go up, methinks there's good reason to believe that my ketosis Rubicon is near 70g. It would also explain the major boing (2lbs) the Monday after Saturday 21/9th's 69.32g carbs. I need to do some experimenting to see if 60g is okay, I do hope so. All good to know.
The book I 'accidentally' ordered on Monday arrived this morning (amazing): and it looks scrumptious. XXX-rated food porn. "The Modern Vegetarian", by Maria Elia (2009). I can't quite work out if the recipes are a little easier than in Gaylor's Passion - they are certainly not something you'd quickly knock together after a hard day at work. You need to enjoy cooking to do these, I suspect, and have / make a wee bit of time for them. They're not the most low-carb friendly recipes that I've seen and methinks I'll have my work cut out converting many of them. But I'm so spoilt for choice that I don't know which recipe to have a bash at first (the book will end up like Passion - so full of page markers that I might as well take them all out, on the basis that *most* pages have something delicious on them). I want to eat the "Tomato, feta, almond and date baklava" (p72) *now* - I just haven't a clue how to make it low-carb. "Sumac-spiced aubergine 'schnitzel' with tabbouleh" (p78, and the tabbouleh is made with lentils rather than couscous (p100)) is a definite go-er. This one requires no modifications either: "Mushroom, beetroot, mozzarella with a lentil cartouche" (p46) - think the FatDog version of that might happen on a feed day coming soon (my version being, for example, that I don't have any mozzerella, but I do have a large lump of Talleggio that's growing in the fridge).
Right, well, I said I'd have a go at the Cranks' muffins - so here we go; and it might warm me up too, as the room is bloomin' frigid (yup, we essentially live in one room: kitchen / living / sleeping, what do you expect from an ancient Stockbridge hippy? That's the OH, not me, I'm an alien interloper FatDog).
To the muffins: used the usual substitute soya flour (with 30g linseed as I ran out of the latter) and cheddar cheese not goats (none just now); otherwise went pretty much by the book. The muffins turned out to be great in terms of 'mouth-feel' / texture etc., they didn't rise much (if at all), but they never do - I'm now certain that's the nature of soya flour - but they were nicely cooked through with lovely baked tops. I did them in my new-to-me mini-muffin silicon tray (just to make life difficult I used standard size cases, the only ones I have) and that might have helped their cooking through. Sadly, I think I over-salted - not taking into account the sour/salty nature of the olives and the sun-dried tomatoes. And I might up the quantity of stevia next time - only used a couple of pinches as the recipe doesn't sweeten at all - but I think the very 'savoury' nature of soya flour might need it.
The cabbage stew (long lost cousin of AWL's borlotti bean stew) to go with them was more than spot on. I can see why low-carb recipes reckon to use cabbage as a pasta substitute. As winging-it recipes go that was *exceedingly* gratifying.
Accounts a little on the high side courtesy of a craving for salty nuts:
........ Calories 587.82 Carbs 23.40 Fat 37.69 Protein 32.42 Fibre 13.93
cheese, olive and tomato mini-muffins, adapted from Cranks Bible p362
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 90g 381.60 14.40 18.00 35.10 10.80
linseed, brown, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 23g 122.82 0.35 9.70 4.21 6.28
baking powder
......... 8ml 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
garlic flakes
......... multiple grindings 0.00
pepper, fresh ground
......... several good grindings 0.00
butter, melted, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 15g 108.00 0.09 12.00 0.08 0.00
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 50g 207.50 0.70 17.25 12.20 0.00
olives, black, medium chopped, 134c/C0/F15/P0.5/Fi2.5/100g
......... 32g 40.20 0.00 4.50 0.15 0.75
sun-dried tomatoes, medium fine chopped, 145c/C9.0/F9.6/P2.6/Fi5.6/100g
......... 47g 65.25 4.05 4.32 1.17 2.52
basil, fresh, torn, 23c/C2.35/F0.64/P3.15/Fi1.6/100g
......... 8g 2.30 0.24 0.06 0.32 0.16
eggs, brown, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
soya milk, coop org unsw, 30c/C0.1/F1.9/P3.4/Fi0.6/100ml
......... 125ml 37.50 0.13 2.38 4.25 0.75
total for cheese, olive and tomato mini-muffins 1047.51 20.13 74.25 64.22 21.26
FatDog's 3/11 portion cheese, olive and tomato mini-muffins 285.68 5.49 20.25 17.51 5.80
Method: 1. mix the dry stuff in one bowl; 2. mix the wet stuff in another bowl; 3. add in the semi-wet stuff (cheese, olives, tomatoes, basil) to the wet stuff; 4. using the minimal mixing possible mix the wet stuff in with the dry stuff; 5. dollop a desert spoonful into each muffin case in your mini-muffin tray; 6. bake in a pre-heated oven at 220C (200C our oven) for 18 to 20 minutes; 7. remove and rest them for 5 minutes then transfer onto a wire rack and rest a little more; 8. eat warm.
cabbage stew; vaguely inspired by AWL's borlotti bean stew
savoy cabbage, narrow strips, 32c/C4.1/F0.4/P1.7/Fi2.4/100g
......... 236g 75.52 9.68 0.94 4.01 5.66
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
onion, red, fine chopped, 43c/C9.3/F0.0/P0.71/Fi2.1/100g
......... 45g 19.35 4.19 0.00 0.32 0.95
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 5ml 41.20 0.00 4.58 0.00 0.00
garlic flakes
......... several good grindings 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 2 large pinches 0.00
parsley, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
bay leaf
......... 2 of 0.00
thyme, dried
......... 4ml 0.00
marjoram, dried
......... 10ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for cabbage stew 233.57 29.46 6.30 9.79 10.12
FatDog's ½ portion of cabbage stew 116.79 14.73 3.15 4.90 5.06
Method: 1. wash and roughly drain the cabbage in a microwaveable dish then cover and ping for 4 minutes, then drain thoroughly; 2, meantime heat the oil in a non-stick pan and soften the onion; 3. add all the herbs and spices and stir until fragrant; 4. add the tomatoes and the cabbage and mix well - you might need to add just a little water; 5. serve with grated parmesan on top.
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Thursday, day one-hundred and two, feed day
Weigh-in at start of day wt. 118.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~116.0lbs); 0.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.0, w. 26.4, t. 32.0, h. 35.75 inches
Ha! I'm getting a job as 'Mystic Meg'.
I really need to pull the finger and get my database going - I think there's some seriously interesting stuff going on between carbs, calories, and weight-loss that might show up over my 102 days... Something for the geeks, myself included, to get their teeth into (oh, and if anyone fancies playing about with the raw data I'd be more than happy to send it to you).
Dinner is to be whatever's-in-the-fridge soup. With cream. And coconut. And Thai green curry paste, home made tonight, think it might be rather good. Bother, just remembered, I've still half a jar of ready made and I really ought to use that first - I was rather looking forward to making my own. Also, I do want a bash at yeast based bread of some sort.
Bread didn't happen - got home too knackered and the promised washing up hadn't happened so the kitchen was non-functional. Glad I had the ready made sauce after all. The soup (gloup?) was delicious: fed OH and myself, and an extra large portion was waiting for our mad film-maker friend's (MFMF) arrival. MFMF 'phoned to say stuck in the borders so wouldn't get here; meantimes bestest-neighbour turns up, then the VBF who had been waiting for the MFMF at a local watering hole. Jolly dee, that's those two fed instead - mini-muffins from last night filled in their gaps (which were, enjoyed, remarkably). Verdicts on the gloup? Gloup, glorious gloup. Mmmmm.
Had a further book accident at work: shhhhh... the OH doesn't know about this one - but he's never read any of my log so I should be safe. It's another Paul Gayler - this time his Sauce book (2008). I know, I've broken my new-ish rule about no meat again, but *most* of the sauce recipes are veggie and many of the accompaniments are veggie too. Sorry, couldn't resist it, even at an eye-watering six quid (turns out that was a bargain as the cheapest on Amazon just now is £13.95+p&p). It really is more, serious, XXX-rated food porn - I doubt I'll sleep tonight with thinking about its contents. I will, of course, report on my progress through its pages - but if you spot it at a bargain price I would not hesitate to get it if you're into taking a wee bit of time to cook delicious food (and a wee bit of improvisation too, if you're low-carb and / or veggie).
Reasonably happy with the accounts, though fibre is a bit on the low side: that's because, instead of making myself some linseed crackers, I was a lazy FatDog and ate the last two poppadums from Tuesday night. I'd scran a dried apricot or two for a belated pudding / fibre boost but it's jolly late now and they're high carb and no high carbs before bed-time, remember?
........ Calories 1443.10 Carbs 45.33 Fat 97.29 Protein 21.04 Fibre 11.20
Thai green curry coconut cream veggie soup, a FatDog bottom-of-the-fridge concoction (TM)
broccoli and carrot mix, ready-prepped, co-op, 35c/C4.8/F0.5/P1.7/Fi2.7/100g
......... 500g 175.00 24.00 2.50 8.50 13.50
sweet potato, chunked, 95c/C21.3/F0.3/P1.2/Fi2.4/100g
......... 205g 194.75 43.67 0.62 2.46 4.92
bouillon, marigold, 243c/C29.4/F8.1/P10.5/Fi0.7/100g
......... 5g 12.15 1.47 0.41 0.53 0.04
onion, red, chunked, 43c/C9.3/F0.0/P0.71/Fi2.1/100g
......... 128g 55.04 11.90 0.00 0.91 2.69
Thai green curry sauce, Dragon, 108c/C8.1/F7.7/P0.8/F0.9/100g
......... 114g (approx 2/5 of jar) 123.12 9.23 8.78 0.91 1.03
coconut, desiccated 635c/C6.4/F62.0/P5.6/Fi13.7/100g
......... 40g 254.00 2.56 24.80 2.24 5.48
double cream, coop, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100ml
......... 200ml 930.00 3.20 101.00 3.00 0.00
coconut oil, 39cal/C0/F4.5/P0/Fi0/4g/5ml
......... 25ml 195.00 0.00 22.50 0.00 0.00
water, boiling
......... 500ml for bouillon 0.00
total for Thai green curry coconut cream veggie soup 1939.06 96.03 160.60 18.55 27.65
FatDog's 400/1800ml portion of Thai green curry coconut cream veggie soup 430.90 21.34 35.69 4.12 6.14
Method: 1. (soup-maker) heat the oil and saute the onions on high for 30 seconds then low for a couple of minutes, stirring so that the onions don't stick; 2. add the Thai green curry paste and heat & stir some more; 3. add the bouillon and the veggies, bring to the boil then simmer for 25 minutes odd; 4. blitz to required consistency; 5. add cream and coconut and bring back to bubble, stirring; 6. serve (with a sprig of fresh coriander, if you remember).
Have been hankering after roasted beetroot ever since I discovered that Mr Akram stocked raw beets. I have to do the recipe that I have (vaguely) in my head before I become so completely distracted by the beautiful beet recipes in Elia's and Gayler's books... So, beets it is tomorrow (I bought two beauties on my way home) - hell or high water: carrot, cheese (cream? cottage? crème fraîche?), watercress and maybe apricot will feature. I think.
Sweet dreams are made of food xxx FatDog