The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

I also need soya flour before I can try the rolls. Don't worry, we ARE reading your entries with great interest!

It would be great if you could collate your recipes together somewhere. I find them a leeetle hard to read as I'm not sure what numbers are what, so it would help a bear of little brain to have just the measures for each ingredient and a final calorie and carb count. So many fantastic recipes here though...thank you so much for keeping the blog.

have signed into myfitnesspal, after a few false starts. Will see how I get on with it. Certainly looks useful. Thanks again.

Agree Caroline fabulous recipes on this thread. I have soy flour somweekend baking ... banana cake and now bread rolls

Thank-you all!

Not going to swear to it @chingola, but methinks alcohol sugars are metabolised as per fructose - if there's no 'space' for it to be stored as glycogen (in liver or muscle) it goes straight to *FAT* (hence alcoholic fatty liver). Whatever - it's anecdotally famed for reducing weight loss. Personally, I avoid alcohol on repair days (half-repair Fridays excepted), (try to) limit it during the week on feed days, and (over-) indulge at the weekend... For example, the damage for a 100ml glass of merlot is 83 calories, 2.6g carbs and sweet xxx all for fat, protein and fibre, and spirits are just calories, nothing else - both are probably nearly as bad as sugar water

I suspect that gram flour would work fine @callyanna but it (a) will dramatically change the macronutrient balance as it is much higher in carbs (56g per 100g versus 16g ish), and (b) has a distinct flavour all of its own (which I like - it makes brilliant chapatis / pancakes - but some don't).

Aye @carorees - the numbers... I quite like having the individual macros as it makes substitutions easier (well, that was the idea) but I agree that it does make things rather hard to read. Do you know if there's a (very) easy way of getting a table into a forum posting - think I could make things clearer that way?

[carorees]

Umm, no idea on how to get a table into a forum post. Sorry! I worked out lists the other week, but tables elude me! We need to ask @Moogie!

[Betsysgr8]

I look for your updates everytime I login. I'm anxiously awaiting your final recipe for the bread-rolls and agree the format can be a bit challenging to identify what is the actual measurement for an ingredient. We ARE here and reading!

[Moogie]

Umm, no idea on how to get a table into a forum post. Sorry! I worked out lists the other week, but tables elude me! We need to ask @Moogie!

I don't think there's any easy way to add a table to a post. The issue with the way tables are coded, it can all too easily screw up the entire page's layout if someone doesn't code the table perfectly.
I'll take a look and see if there's some BBcode and forum mods to ensure the tags are always closed properly.

yes FatDog, I did think the gram flour would make the rolls just too carb heavy so will wait until I buy some soya flour and try your recipe as you suggest.

Wednesday, day one-hundred and forty-three, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 113.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~110.25lbs); 0.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.9, t. 31.25, h. 34.9 inches

Not wholly unexpected - though the scales did flicker upon 112.8 before fixing 113.0lbs so I'll not sulk *too* much. And anyway, I can shimmy the tape over my hips fixed at 34.75 inches.

It has to be carrot soup tonight. As it's a repair day (thus carb grams are meant to be 19g or below), and the carrots are already quite carby, I can't bump up the nutritiousness with legumes so think the remains of my cream cheese will have to go into it; then what, I'm not sure... I might go in the curry direction but I'm getting bored with trying to get turmeric stains out of plastic-ware

Maybe 'Thai-style' curry? Can't use coconut milk (calories too high, although cream cheese is similar I only need to use a quarter of the amount, e.g. 100g not 400ml) but can add 10 or 20g of desiccated coconut without too much pain. Then maybe, onion, cheat's lemongrass, basil and mint (apparently does instead of Thai sweet basil (but not equivalent to), which I've yet to find in the shops), chilli flakes, lime or lemon, coriander fresh / ground, ginger (use ground to save cals/carbs), kaffir lime leaves, maybe a splash of reduced salt soy sauce (which is actually much lower carb too), hmm - think that might do it.

And there will be bread rolls of course (possibly slightly revised - have just realised, for example that the baking powder quantity proposed, but not used, in the first run was waaay too low *). Just need to persuade the OH to venture out for organic eggs - if the FatDog goes there's bound to be a charity-store accident.

* I've been here before - not sure what happened to that "learning experience", maybe the dementia is already sneeking in? The dementia jest is only partial - I really am quite concerned that I'm going the way of my Granny, for whom the loopyness started to manifest subtly when she was in her early fifties. It's one of the reasons I'm determined to stick with IF and low-carbing: both WoEs are believed to have beneficial effects with regards to brain / mental degeneration.

I'm sore tempted to start tweaking the recipe already, but *must resist tempation* so that I have a good basic working version, at least. Which the first recipe was, except for the xanthan gum and baking powder quantities being unknowns(!) - that's what I'm hoping to resolve with tonight's run. Somehow I'll just have to exercise some extra-ordinary self-restraint and eat just *one* of my rolls - maybe I can bribe myself with the promise of the other one toasted for early break-fast tomorrow?

But I'm itching to make a loaf! And to see if I can get the bran down just a tad to reduce carbs: upping the soya might bring on the 'curse of soya flour texture' - but it is lower in calories than the linseed (reducing bran will, sadly, up the calories) - then again the linseed is rock-bottom in terms of carbs (and costs less than organic soya flour - organic as I'm not into supporting GM producers like Monsanto, for many reasons OT). Swithers.

I think that I need to disable my Amazon account - either that, or get some sort of parental control lock on it - I seem to have absolutely *no* self-restraint with cookery books just now and, although they're just £2.81 a pop, cumulatively they're making a large hole in my bank balance (and soon one in the floor, if I don't get them properly shelved).

The third batch of rolls is now in the oven and is making lovely bready smells as it bakes. Which reminds me, the second batch did not have that heavenly baking bready smell until I opened the oven door to remove the foil - and they did not rise. The first batch did have the lovely baking smell and they did rise. Wonder if there is any correlation there? Could 'wonderful baking smells' be indicative of a 'good bake', or am I completely barking? The latter I fear, but one lives in hope - if the correlation holds then I'll have a really good rise on my rolls tonight

As for the carrot soup, we reckoned that some pulse / legume would have gone well in this (not possible today as it's a repair day); FatDog's thought that mini cauliflower florets would have made it a dream was instantly agreed. The flavours were strange, but in a pleasant, interesting and verging on delicious way. Definitely needed the bread roll to go with it as it didn't quite stand on it's own (but then, I don't think I've had many smooth soups that I've not wanted something to go with, either). The rolls weren't hugely risen, but were perfect with the soup. Pretty happy with that, all round.

Bestest neighbour (BN) appeared (hence the we above - OH doesn't do food 'critiques') bearing casserole veggies, mashed carrots & swede, green beans, roquefort (WOOF!) and some brie that is trying to crawl out of the fridge at this minute! Oh, and two small mixed leaf salads. Tomorrow's dinner somehow... And BN requests butter beans rather than lentils, if possible.

I'm not sure whether to make a 'big' dish that incorporates everything (except the salad, obviously) or two or three dishes. The lazy bit of me (and, in my defence, I will only get back from work at about seven) is up for the 'big' dish: casserole veggies and green beans with lentils and slushy tomatoes, coverered with the mash mixed with roquefort, and with rough chopped walnuts on top... and salad on the side. But my inner-cook wants to do a warm green beans, roquefort and walnut salad (with added butter beans to satisfy the BN) with a lime and chilli dressing, along with roasted veggies, but then what to do with the mash? And where does the leaf salad come in.

Okay. Have just had a menu-storming session with the BN and here's what we came up with: <baked casserole veggies with lentils and slushy tomatoes, covered with the mash> and <warm green beans, butter beans, roquefort and walnut salad and the mixed leaf salads with a lime and chilli dressing>. Not quite as simple as a FatDog might like, but hopefully it will fly, though that's one michty guddle of a salad! And now the BN has gorn home, I'm changing the salad's dressing - think lime and chilli would be horrid (don't know what I was thinking there), and going for classic lemon - olive oil - balsamic vinegar - garlic - s&p. Should all be a doddle really

........ Calories 591.98 Carbs 26.31 Fat 40.10 Protein 24.84 Fibre 15.40

carrot soup, with Thai aspirations, a FatDog concoction
carrot, baby (chantenay), ½ longways 35c/C7.7/F0.3/P0.6/Fi3.0/100g
......... 363g 130.55 28.72 1.12 2.24 11.19
soft cheese, full fat, tesco, 240c/C2.4/F23.0/P5.5/F0.0/100g
......... 100g 240.00 2.40 23.00 5.50 0.00
coconut, desiccated 635c/C6.4/F62.0/P5.6/Fi13.7/100g
......... 25g 158.75 1.60 15.50 1.40 3.43
onion, white, co-op, rough chopped, 40c/C7.6/F0.2/P1.3/Fi1.4/100g
......... 62g 24.80 4.71 0.12 0.81 0.87
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 10ml 83.33 0.00 9.20 0.00 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
lemongrass, very lazy, 107c/C13.9/F4.2/P0.5/Fi6.0/100g
......... 15g 16.05 2.09 0.63 0.08 0.90
soy sauce, low salt, amoy, 52c/C9.2/F0/P3.9/Fi0/100ml
......... 10ml 5.20 0.92 0.00 0.39 0.00
lime juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 10ml 2.60 0.20 0.00 0.04 0.03
basil, fresh, torn, 23c/C2.35/F0.64/P3.15/Fi1.6/100g
......... 8g 2.30 0.24 0.06 0.32 0.16
coriander, fresh ground
......... 5ml 0.00
basil, dried leaf
......... 5ml 0.00
mint, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 3ml 0.00
ginger, dried ground
......... 5ml 0.00
water, boiling, for stock
......... 600ml 0.00
total for carrot soup, with Thai aspirations 675.73 42.34 50.04 11.29 16.61
total for FatDog's 1/3rd portion of carrot soup, with Thai aspirations 225.24 14.11 16.68 3.76 5.54

Method - this was a soup machine effort so this is an outline: 1. heat the oil and then soften the onions; 2. add the carrots, stock, dried herbs & spices, lime juice and soy sauce; 3. mix well, bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes until the carrots are soft; 4. blitz the soup until it is smooth; 5. add the soft cheese, coconut, lemongrass, and fresh basil; 6. mix thoroughly and serve with brown bread rolls...

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

Thursday, low-carb day one-hundred and forty-four, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 112.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~110.25lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.8, t. 31.0, h. 34.75 inches

So much happening this morning I'm all of a tizz!

First the scales - well, what can one say except WOOF! WOOF!! WOOF!!! And I'm recording the tape measure shrinkages today as they've been sneaking up for a while so seem pretty 'real' (rather than bleary-eyed FatDog optimism). So more WOOFing.

And then, last night I decided that I *had* to do something about the floppy skin: I'd tried a dress on in Bethany the day before and was strip-jack (bar knickers) in front of the mirror. I was absolutely horrified at what I saw: slimmer yes, scrawny YES, loose pickled walnut skin everywhere YES. UGGGGH! Thus I determined last night to start Rosemary Conley's "Amazing Inch Loss Plan" (*don't laugh*, it's ideal for semi-crippled premature-geriatrics like me) this morning. Just the exercises not the diet bit, of course (I'm way too happy with my current WoE to change); methinks the diet's dodgy as, apart from many other vices, it bangs on about low-fat all the time and suffers from the usual unsustainability problems. So that's me just done "Day 1". Woof! Shoulders, left in particular, did *not* like the "chest shaper" exercise (weights, at 2kg, too heavy maybe) so I limited this to 2x5 reps, and right (prosthetic) knee wasn't too keen on the bum lifts or crunches, but it was more a muscle stretch objection, not a "stop you're doing damage" one. I shall persevere - will need to find smaller weights though (just for shoulder stuff): I've seen them often enough in the charity stores, so fingers crossed.

Then (see, the excitement continues) the postie arrived with *two* books!! Habeeb Salloum's "Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa", which was my cheapskate alternative to Haroutunian's veggie ME book (mentioned up-thread), and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "River Cottage veg everyday". FatDog on its back, wriggling ecstatically (actually, I was probably doing crunches - but that's poetic license for you).

Salloum's pictureless but priceless tome should satisfy my itch for Middle Eastern food, and means I'll never have a problem finding a stew or a soup recipe for whatever's in the house (though I'll need to acquire a couple more spices, e.g. mace, and some sumac). And HFW? Well, the lower rating reviews did warn "nothing new here" *but* I'm not disappointed at all: yes, many of the recipes are for old favourites / vaguely familiar but they're done with refreshing twists; I've only had a quick shufti (drool, actually) but the recipes all look delightful, simple and do-able. Dead chuffed - especially at £5 - I think that this will be a regular go-to!

Leading us to tonight's dinner - which has now been modified courtesy of inspiration from HFW's Veg: the casserole veggies are getting frittata'd - I'll ping, then fry them (as originally planned), but then swathe them in beaten eggs mixed with the veggie mash, with a small amount of brie mixed through it, and bung it in the oven to cook and brown on top (wee bit parmesan mixed into the top bit of mash maybe). Ha! Means I don't have to forage for lentils and slushy tomatoes. Oooh. Wish It were time to cook already - but, sadly, must do my ablutions and then off to 'work'...

Acquire another dinner victim (bestest neighbour already joining us) on the way home from work - serendipity and all that - whilst in the co-op looking for bargains for tomorrow's dins (mangetout - not a scoobie what I'll do with them). Would have had food on the table at nine, for when OH returned, but for the green beans taking 9(!) minutes to ping rather than the usual 3 or 4. Food enjoyed by all, and much hilarity in coming up with names for the dishes: frittasha - a play on frittata, mash and the diminutive of my name.

Ummph - sandbagged, delightful cooking, gustations and company - but now I need to "work-up" the recipes (i.e. go through the nutrition stuff on the back of the pack or, that failing, look the macros up on the internet), groan, 'tis unlikely that this will get posted on Thursday eve...

That's just reminded me: I hope that those of you who are *really* tracking your intake (to OCD level, like myself) realise that the quantities writ upon the back of the pack bear no relation to the actual quantity inside? To wit: casserole veggies this evening - 600g on the label, but I culled them quite viciously for grotty bits and still had near 600g on the scales. Does it matter? Not if you're on a 'liberal' diet but it can, and does, matter when you're religiously counting carbs... That's actually a not very extreme example - I've seen far worse e.g. near 670g of vine tomatoes when the pack was for 425g - a serious bonus, for which I was very grateful, but a really good reminder that one does need to *weigh things*.

........ Calories 1540.52 Carbs 57.69 Fat 83.55 Protein 33.71 Fibre 18.15

frittasha, variation no. 1, with thanks to an inspirational nudge from HFW, R.C. Veg everyday, p234 (and dinner guests for the name)
carrot, swede, leek, potato & onion mix, co-op, 40c/C7.5/F0.3/P1.2/Fi2.1/100g
......... 598g 239.20 44.85 1.79 7.18 12.56
garlic, fine chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 9g 13.41 2.98 0.05 0.57 0.19
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 15ml 125.00 0.00 13.80 0.00 0.00
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 113g 170.63 0.00 12.66 14.13 0.00
brie de meaux, tesco, 260c/C0.0/F20.0/P18.4/Fi1.0/100g
......... 67g 174.20 0.00 13.40 12.33 0.67
carrot & swede mash, co-op, 65c/C9.1/F2.1/P1.0/Fi2.1/100g
......... 400g 260.00 36.40 8.40 4.00 8.40
wholegrain mustard, 150c/C6.8/F9.5/P8.8/Fi7.8/100g
......... 5g (~tsp) 7.50 0.34 0.48 0.44 0.39
soya milk, coop org unsw, 30c/C0.1/F1.9/P3.4/Fi0.6/100ml
......... 100ml 30.00 0.10 1.90 3.40 0.60
s&p 0.00
total for frittasha, variation no. 1 1019.94 84.67 52.47 42.04 22.81
total for FatDog's ¼ portion of frittasha, variation no. 1 254.99 21.17 13.12 10.51 5.70

Method: 1. lop the veggies into small bite-sized chunks and separate the swede, carrot and potato into a lidded microwaveable dish; 2. rinse root veggies in salted water and crudely drain then ping them for 5 or so minutes until the veggies are par-cooked, then drain them well; 3. meantime heat the oil in a non-stick pan and soften the leeks and onions, then add the garlic, then add the root veggies; 4. let these sizzle (stir occasionally) whilst beating the two eggs in a bowl, then mixing in the mash, brie, mustard and milk to the eggs, liberally season; 5. transfer the veggies to an oven-proof dish, pour over the eggy mash mix, shoogle it to settle the mix down(or even stir), and bake (covered with foil for the first 15 or so minutes) at 190C for about 25 minutes until the eggy mix is visibly set; 6. bung under the grill for a minute or two if crisping up is required; 7. serve with the beans and roquefort salad.

I'd probably put some grated cheese on the top for the grilling, as ours never quite had that lovely crispy cheese topping (maybe the eggy mix was a little too wet - one could reduce the quantity of soya milk to get a more mash-like texture).

green & butter beans with roquefort & walnuts & leaf salad
green beans, 29c/C3.2/F0.5/P1.9/Fi2.2/100g
......... 188g 54.52 6.02 0.94 3.57 4.14
butter beans, tinned, co-op, 110c/C15.6c/F0.6/P7.3/Fi5.3/100g
......... 235g 258.50 36.66 1.41 17.16 12.46
roquefort, tesco, crumbled, 375c/C0.0/F32.0/P21.0/Fi0.0/100g
......... 90g 337.50 0.00 28.80 18.90 0.00
walnuts, raw, medium chopped, 654c/C7.0/F65.2/P15.2/Fi7.0/100g
......... 64g 418.56 4.48 41.73 9.73 4.48
"sweet" salad, co-op, 35c/C5.9/F0.3/P1.1/F1.8/100g
......... 120g 42.00 7.08 0.36 1.32 2.16
"bright side salad", tesco, 27c/C3.5/F0.4/P1.3/Fi2.0/100g
......... 85g 22.95 2.98 0.34 1.11 1.70
olive oil, 824c/C0.0/F91.6/P0.0/Fi0.0/100ml
......... 15ml 123.60 0.00 13.74 0.00 0.00
balsamic vinegar, 88c/C17/F0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 15ml 13.20 2.55 0.00 0.08 0.00
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 5ml 1.30 0.10 0.00 0.02 0.02
s&p 0.00
total for green & butter beans with roquefort & walnuts & leaf salad 1272.13 59.86 87.32 51.88 24.95
total for FatDog's ¼ portion of green & butter beans, roquefort & walnuts & leaf salad 318.03 14.97 21.83 12.97 6.24

Method: 1. trim, quarter length-ways, wash and ping the green beans - usually they only take 3 minutes to be nicely al dente, but for some reason they took 9 - rinse in very cold water as soon as done to stop them cooking any further, then drain thoroughly; 2. mix everything together and enjoy!

Bestest neighbour was ecstatic with the salad - he loves butter beans and I've not done them for a while... I don't, particularly, have a butter bean fixation and I thought it pretty delicious too. The selection of "sweet" co-op salad and "bright" tesco salad was utterly random and determined purely by the fact that they were bargains!

All round, there were very satisfied slurpings and munchings so I was well pleased with this effort, even though there was room for improvement with the frittasha (TM)

Sorry about the hands @izzy, no ideas as to what would help for cooking (except using the OH as a remote controlled robot), but for computing have you thought about a speech control program, e.g. Dragon Naturally Speaking? When my shoulders were well shafted a few years back I used that along with a "Bamboo" touch and pen tablet - they both helped a little (if only to swap about the bits that hurt).

well done FatDog on your continuing losses!
Have you got a definitive recipe for your low carb rolls now after your final tweaks pretty please?

Ah ha, well spotted @callyanna - I just noted that myself as I was re-reading my ramblings.

oat bran rolls, experiment no. 3, a FatDog concoction; for 4 rolls
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 40g 169.60 6.40 8.00 15.60 4.80
linseed, golden, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 30g 160.20 0.45 12.65 5.49 8.19
oat bran, Holland & Barrett, 389.2c/C59.1/F6.5/P12.6/Fi9.3/100g
......... 30g 116.76 17.73 1.95 3.78 2.79
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 63g 95.13 0.00 7.06 7.88 0.00
xanthan gum
......... 4ml 0.00
baking powder
......... 7ml 0.00
salt
......... very small pinch 0.00
pure via (stevia sweetener)
......... very small pinch 0.00
water
......... up to 25ml 0.00
total for oat bran rolls, experiment no. 3 541.69 24.58 29.65 32.74 15.78
total for FatDog's ¼ portion of oat bran rolls, experiment no. 3 135.42 6.15 7.41 8.19 3.95

I'm not certain how 'definitive' this is yet... Want to try an extra egg (possibly just the egg white), and then see if I can drop the xanthan gum a little as that's double the recommended amount on the packet (though they're not using the dreaded soya flour). Oh so want to try this as a loaf! Cheers, FatDog.

Thanks, as always, you're a star!
Just need to track down some soya flour tomorrow (Holland & Barrett?) and I'm all set to have a go. Even got the xanthum gum!

Yup - Holland and Barrett have soya flour (not sure how GM free it is). I started with the H&B stuff but, currently, get mine from Real Foods in Edinburgh (organic, definitely GM free) and it has a lovely nutty smell (doesn't seem to improve its behaviour otherwise!).
Cheers, FatDog


Edit: complete aside, but it's got me barking, I've just noticed this on my tracker "Your Goal BMI of 22.50 is now 0.08 points away". Oh my goodness...

@FatDog, oh thanks for that, just googled them and see they sell online so off to have a good shuftie!

Is there any substitute for xanthum gum @FatDog as have everything else