The FastDay Forum

@Gillymary... short answer is "don't know"; slightly longer one is "there is guar gum"?

I've not tried making the rolls without xanthan gum - must admit I was rather attributing the decent bread like texture to it's presence (rather than the revised 'flour' mix) but it's possibly worth a shot without it. Extra egg, probably white only, given my experience earlier this evening, might be enough.

Up-thread there was a kind baker (sorry, can't remember who / when - wish the benefits of this WoE would start kicking in) who suggested that yoghurt might help with the rise; and you could try the bicarb / vinegar trick. Sorry, I've not had a go with any of these yet.

Cheers, FatDog

Friday, day one-hundred and forty-five, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 112.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~110.0lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.8, t. 31.0, h. 34.75 inches

This is getting exciting... Have just hit my target on the analogue scales "corrected" (went below the *actual* 110lbs on the analogues a while back): I've only two more pounds to go on the digital scales and I'll be into maintenance. Which reminds me that I need to come up with a maintenance plan! Eeek!

And so to "Day 2" of the RC "exercises"- they're only "toning exercises" and they hardly take more than five minutes, but one has to start somewhere. I'm aspiring to something from the "15 minute homeworkout", once I've done the 28 days of RC's plot. And then maybe I'll have the courage to look at the "30 minute shred" CD I acquired, from one of the charity stores, a while back... Or perhaps the pilates bug will bite, who knows?

I am so swithering and dithering over what to do for dinner tonight: half wanting to try the pancakes pretending to be pasta (pappardelle - wide fat ribbons) with blanched mangetout, mixed with 1/4 wee tomatoes, sesame seeds and then finally, off the heat, with roquefort (before it marches out of the fridge). But another bit of me is tempted to make bread rolls, and just have the mangetout with chickpeas slathered in a tahini sauce (adapted from Gayler, Sauce, p94). Oh decisions. Might just do the latter as (a) I get another shot at my beloved bread, and (b) the oven will warm the room up, and (c) it's more likely to turn out sensibly.

Humph. The eggs, as might have been anticipated by anyone with a brain (ah, but not the FatDog), added considerable liquid so the dough was more like muffin batter and could only be 'dolloped', thus the 'rolls' looked like rock cakes. However, they rose (okay, not hugely, but they did rise) and the texture was *pretty bloomin' convincing* - exceeding happy in that respect. But, I'm not so certain that I'm not still getting a faint hint of the dreaded 'soya flour flavour' - so the rolls are absolutely great with cheese or something with a bit of flavour (salted butter, olive oil even) but are still not quite yumptious enough to eat on their own, without anything. Adding seeds and other things will no doubt completely vitalise them, and is on the a.s.a.p. plot list. I suspect too that I can exploit the nature of linseeds to de-muffin-batter the dough... Watch this space for the next instalment

The stir-fry was nice enough, but I was slightly disappointed - I'd hoped for a blast of flavours to go along with the crunch of the mangetout and the bite of the chickpeas. Nope: the mangetout were delightfully snappy but, whilst the flavours were lovely they were *waaay* too subtle (have I heard that refrain before somewhere?). I needed to *at least* double the seasoning, herbs, spices, lemon and possibly garlic - indeed, I might try tripling them next time (I really should know better than this timidity by now). And 'value' chickpeas are not the thing to use where they are the star of the dish - soak and cook decent dried ones. In my defence, I didn't know that I'd be doing this recipe until this afternoon - but then, if I'm aspiring to be a cook of any sort, I should just have done a different recipe.

Enough with the self-flagelation - dinner was more than edible - but FatDog still skulks under the kitchen table in slight shame. Thinking about it, I must remember the mantra that one of those blokes on Masterchef bellows out: "taste! taste! taste!". I've stopped watching Masterchef - one series of each was mind-melting enough.

Oh, and it's a half-repair day, of course (it is Friday, after all). Will need to ask @Moogie for a 4.5 : 2.5 option in our settings

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

Edit: oops, those were the numbers from the other day - these are the much sorrier correct ones:
........ Calories 812.46 Carbs 42.50 Fat 36.58 Protein 37.33 Fibre 18.26

Posting now to avert any further accidents with the merlot and / or the chocolate.

oat bran rolls, experiment no. 4; for 4 rolls
... actually - I don't really need to inflict a repeat of this on you, suffice to say that the xanthan gum was reduced to 3ml, and the eggs doubled (to two, at ~116g), and no water was required. Revised macros (calories up, obviously, but not carbs):
total for oat bran rolls, experiment no. 4 621.72 24.58 35.59 39.37 15.78
total for FatDog's ¼ portion of oat bran rolls, experiment no. 4 155.43 6.15 8.90 9.84 3.95

mangetout and chickpea stir-fry, nod to Gayler, Sauce, p94
chickpeas, canned, waitrose, 109c/C16.5/F1.4/P7.7/Fi6.1/100g
......... 240g 261.60 39.60 3.36 18.48 14.64
mangetout, 40c/C4.2/F0.2/P3.6/Fi2.6/100g
......... 294g 117.60 12.35 0.59 10.58 7.64
garlic, fine chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 5g 7.45 1.65 0.03 0.32 0.11
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 5ml 41.67 0.00 4.60 0.00 0.00
tahini, 663c/C4.7/F59.4/P27.0/Fi2.6/100g
......... 30g 198.90 1.41 17.82 8.10 0.78
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 10ml 2.60 0.20 0.00 0.04 0.03
coriander seed, fresh ground
......... 3ml 0.00
cumin seed, fresh ground
......... 2ml (arms falling off) 0.00
chilli flakes
......... two good pinches 0.00
s&p 0.00
water, boiling
......... small quantity ~100ml to liquify the tahini 'sauce' 0.00
total for mangetout and chickpea stir-fry 629.82 55.21 26.39 37.52 23.20
total for FatDog's ~½ portion of mangetout and chickpea stir-fry 309.91 27.17 12.99 18.46 11.42

Method: 1. best to prepare the tahini sauce first: mix all ingredients from tahini down, using a little boiling water to de-sticky the tahini gloop and render it pourable; 2. heat the oil in a non-stick wok; 3. add the mangetout and give them a good fry for a couple of minutes (mind they don't catch - you might want just a medium heat for this); 4. add the garlic and stir that about for a couple of minutes until it's starting to turn golden; 5. add the chickpeas and the tahini sauce and make sure that they're heated through; 6. serve with one of your wonderful rolls with cream cheese

And a post script on matters culinary - yesterday's frittasha was actually rather good cold (as I discovered because it took me an age, as ever, to eat mine)!

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?

Do you think cooconut flour wouod work?i hate soya produt@fatdog it would be brilliant if once youre in maintenance you wrote a itle cokbook blog i cant figure out your recipes-i am terrible at following recipes anyway so its not your fault but i need the simlest instructions

Can you quickly explainthe quantiities?are you just giving the nutritional info for 100 g and then the 40gs actually what you used?sorry i realy am dumb when it comes to cooking

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
[i]total fur). Oh so want to try this as a loaf! Cheers, FatDog.

@FatDog
Whoop! Whoop! wag, wag! Congratulations on reaching your target! Celebrations deffo in order!

@FatDog
Whoop! Whoop! wag, wag! Congratulations on reaching your target! Celebrations deffo in order!

I've not not tried coconut flour @jmousey because (a) it's beastly expensive and (b) it's not as low carb as soya. That said, coconut flour would probably work BUT, I've read many times, that it requires much more liquid e.g. double the eggs etc.

Sorry about the hyroglyphics for macronutrient information (I do a key every now and again but, given the length of this thread, I should perhaps do it more often): hoping that @Moogie might come up with some sort of table mark-up to make it clearer.

So, for example, first line:
linseed, golden, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g

ingredient followed by the
534 calories
and then the macronutrient balance, i.e.
1.5g of carb
42.16g of fat
18.29g of protein
27.3g of fibre
per 100g
it is grams in this case, others might be 100ml, or whatever it says at the end of the line

and the next line:
......... 30g 160.20 0.45 12.65 5.49 8.19

the quantity required, 30g
and then the calories and macronutrient quantities in the amount used, i.e. in 30g there are
160.20 calories
0.45g of carb
12.65g of fat
5.49g of protein
8.19g of fibre
again, we're using grams in this case - for liquid it will be mls etc.

The idea behind all the numbers is that it makes substituting in other ingredients much easier. I'll have a think about a revised (simplified) layout but this won't happen instantly - I currently lift the recipes out of my spreadsheet without having to do masses of editing, so any major layout change might need to wait until I've databased things...

What do you folk think? Should I just 'duplicate' the recipe, i.e. do a simple one without the macros and one with?

Not whooping quite yet @callyanna, that's the analogue scales showing below my target - the digital scales have yet to catch up, I'll pre-empt my log: scales were 111.6lbs this morning so I'm still 1.6lbs off, but *very* happy!.

Congrats Fatdog!

Saturday, day one-hundred and forty-six, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 111.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~109.25lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.8, t. 31.0, h. 34.75 inches

Speechless. Okay - I know I'm *meant* to be losing weight, but that's a mighty generous loss over the last week. Indeed, the downwards trend on my tracker graph for the last eleven days is positively beautiful! Thank-you very much V&P vary-fairy, please don't stop.

So, report for the end of week 29 on 4 : 3 4.5 : 2.5 - weight loss of 2.0lbs (total loss 34.4lbs), and a touch off waist, bit more off hips and 1/4 inch off stomach measurements.

That's "Day 3" of RC's toning done - lovely muscle burns in the biceps and the quads (separate exercises, of course!), very gratifying. Think that I managed to do the "chest shaper" properly this time so didn't get any "ouch, don't do that" warnings. Jolly dee.

Was playing with my recipe book stacks (?!) late last night and snooped into my veggie Arto Haroutunian at the 'chickpea with tahini' recipe - no wonder my effort yesterday was a little lack-lustre: Arto uses ten times the tahini that Gayler does and considerably more cumin and chilli. Right - *must* get books accessible, then I can cross check between them more easily.

Inspired by @gillymary, I'm wondering whether to have a shot at the rolls without using any xanthan gum, as this ingredient is missing from most store cupboards (okay, so is soya but *all* low-carb bakers should have a bag of this in their kitchen). Will have to forage for more eggs; might go for one whole egg plus one egg white, so now for a recipe that can use an egg yolk; I'm not sure how to work out the calories / macronutrients for just an egg white...?

Dinner. Well, bestest neighbour brought by a 200g lump of taleggio the other day, so I wonder if that could feature? And then there's the remnants of the roquefort. Otherwise, not a clue, except that that aborted pasta dish from yesterday is lurking in my head - will need to go forage for bargains, see if I can find things to go with it... Maria Elia (Modern Vegetarian, p48) has a rather delicious pasta recipe with mushrooms, Brussels sprouts and chestnuts - not sure if I can get the roquefort in there though. Why not? Instead of parmesan. Ha! As well as!

Well that was a foray and a half. Made two half-hearted attempts to find somewhere to have my hair cut, to no avail. Bargains hadn't been reduced below 3/4 price anywhere (I was out slightly too early, perhaps). Was going to get oyster mushrooms from Mr Akram's then noticed they were themselves growing other fungi upon them and decided against... Co-op has had a delivery failure with their egg supply - only four boxes of eggs upon their shelves: duck eggs all and, apart from them being £2.59 a box, I've gorn off duck eggs a little (see up-thread a while back for why). Back to Sainsers for (non-bargain, but reasonably priced) sprouts and mushrooms, eggstraordinarily eggspensive organic eggs (sorry, couldn't resist) and bargain salad, and bargain broccoli & cauliflower that will have something to do with tomorrow night's dinner. Heading to the near co-op before home, and can't resist the charity store bins: whole bleeping dinner service, and then some, in the bucket. [yet-another-rant] Oh for xxxx sake. Risk slitting my wrists on the shattered ceramics and fish the set out, along with near to a dozen Ikea plates. Even if we can't use the stuff we'll find some one who can. I really can't bear it - so criminally wasteful for it, hand-crafted vases and all, to end up smashed up in the landfill... [/yet-another-rant]

Pancake rags with chestnuts, sprouts, roquefort and mushrooms served with rocket. Yum and double yum. And, yay, just as I was muttering to the OH that we really needed a third diner, bestest neigbour is at the door bearing *more* bargain veggies - ha! dinner victim number three.

The cooking had some bumps along the way - the lovely looking fresh chestnuts that I bought the other day were more than half rotten, and the remains were, mostly, rock like (mea culpa? too long in the oven? only too late did I realise that I could have whizzed them and subbed them in for some of the soya flour in the pancakes - as the Elia recipe does with the pasta flour). So, BN was sent to the co-op clutching a couple of quid and Merchant Gourmet vacuum packed chestnuts came to the rescue (not cheap at £1.51 for 200g, but much cheaper than a bag of rotten / inedible ones at any price, any day). And I shouldn't have been nearly so stingy with the butter - *blushes*, just 5g for the mushrooms then no more - and Elia uses 50g. Maybe I should have found a better compromise... but... but... I had a roquefort sauce (~80g cheese melted with a wee bit soya milk) instead, surely that counts (Elia has no sauce)? I'm still minded that 20g of butter would have made it utterly lush, rather than just double yum.

........ Calories 1594.51 Carbs 55.09 Fat 88.17 Protein 48.76 Fibre 18.75

pancake rags with chestnuts, sprouts, roquefort & mushrooms, nod to Elia, the Modern Vegetarian, p48
pancakes
gram flour, 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 30g 105.60 16.77 1.59 6.03 1.41
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 45g 190.80 7.20 9.00 17.55 5.40
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 63g 95.13 0.00 7.06 7.88 0.00
basil, dried leaf
......... 10ml 0.00
chilli flakes
......... two good pinches 0.00
garlic flakes
......... several good grinds 0.00
s&p 0.00
water
......... 135ml 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 7.5ml 62.50 0.00 6.90 0.00 0.00
rag topping
chestnut mushrooms, 6thd, 16cal/C0.4g/F0.5g/P1.8g/Fi1.1g/100g
......... 262g 41.92 1.05 1.31 4.72 2.88
brussels sprouts, sainsers, ¼'d, 42c/C3.9/F1.4/P3.5/Fi4.1/100g
......... 240g 100.80 9.36 3.36 8.40 9.84
chestnuts, Merchant Gourmet, ¼'d, 163c/C31.6/F1.0/P4.3/Fi5.2/100g
......... 200g 326.00 63.20 2.00 8.60 10.40
butter, melted, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 5g 36.00 0.03 4.00 0.03 0.00
roquefort, tesco, crumbled, 375c/C0.0/F32.0/P21.0/Fi0.0/100g
......... 79g 296.25 0.00 25.28 16.59 0.00
soya milk, coop org unsw, 30c/C0.1/F1.9/P3.4/Fi0.6/100ml
......... 25ml 7.50 0.03 0.48 0.85 0.15
s&p 0.00
total for pancake rags with chestnuts, sprouts, roquefort & mushrooms 1262.50 97.63 60.97 70.64 30.08
FatDog's portion of pancake with chestnuts, sprouts, roquefort & mushrooms 403.89 31.23 19.51 22.60 9.62

Method: 1. pancakes as before, then shred them to make the 'rags' (I'd make these shorter - 4cm max - next time, easier to mix in); 2. rinse the sprouts in salted water, drain crudely and ping in a lidded dish for 3 minutes, then drain thoroughly; 3. meantime heat the butter in a non-stick pan and cook the mushrooms until their 'juice' has gone; 4. ping the roquefort with the soya milk to make a sauce; 5. add the chestnuts and sprouts to the mushrooms, then the rags and then the roquefort sauce; 6. check seasoning and serve with a sprinkle of parmesan and a leafy salad (such as rocket).

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

Sunday, day one-hundred and forty-seven, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 112.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~109.25lbs); 0.4lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.8, t. 31.0, h. 34.75 inches

The black dog was nipping at my heels as I clambered out of bed this morning, and then this ^ to cheer me up, not. Yeah, yeah, I know - it's the V&P vary-fairy at it but... That lovely downwards slope was too good to last, I suppose. Still did RC's "Day 4" though - thought that exercise was supposed to generate "feel-good endorphins"?

Self-medicating against the black dog with 85% chocolate - double dose - as this is *horrid*; and chocolate is better than meths or a bottle of vodka, though chocolate eating at any time other than after dinner is pretty much unheard of for a FatDog. Although I now find reporting on this paper (WebMD, NHS, BBC) 'suggesting' that higher consumption of chocolate is associated with greater depression http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article ... eid=415834. A brief shufti and my hackles are going up - FFS, they don't even define what counts as chocolate (% cocoa and other ingredients *not* analysed) - 'chocolate candy' anyone? Their conclusion is okay "Whether there is a causal connection, and if so in which direction, is a matter for future prospective study". But all of the mainstream reporting fails to mention this. Utterly misleading. Grrrrrr.

Five for dinner and I can't even find the oomph for working out the recipe. Sh*te. Maybe I could just leave them all to it and go crawl under the nearest park bench. Gawd, or maybe I should just try a rock? Gah!

Sufficiently "recovered" (maybe "retrieved" would be a more appropriate epithet) to *do* dins... Aye, it did, just. Eejit features forgot to pre-reduce the mushrooms (as she'd originally planned, so somewhat soggy at base) but otherwise well edible. And there was nowhere near enough for five, or a possible six - so thank goodness for the forays of our bargain-hunting-lawyer-friend: nice big spinach naan bread to go with it for the carbivores. Extra nuts for the FatDog.

Too < choose expletive / expression of deep misery > to finish posting - will need to do tomorrow.

....... Calories 2155.35 Carbs 44.55 Fat 131.21 Protein 61.57 Fibre 25.05

broccoli, cauliflower & mushrooms with blue cheese bake - inspired by CBB p37
broccoli & cauliflower mix, tesco, 38c/C2.5/F0.9/P3.9/Fi2.1/100g
......... 524g 199.12 13.10 4.72 20.44 11.00
mushrooms, closed cup, co-op, 15c/C0.4/F0.5/P1.8/Fi1.0/100g
......... 444g 66.60 1.78 2.22 7.99 4.44
garlic, fine chopped, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 14g 20.86 4.63 0.07 0.88 0.29
butter, melted, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 26g 187.20 0.16 20.80 0.13 0.00
s&p 0.00
lentils, waitrose, 73c/C10.0/F0.6/P6.1/Fi4.4/100g
......... 265g 193.45 26.50 1.59 16.17 11.66
stilton, 410c/C0.1/F35.0/P23.7/F0/100g
......... 126g 516.60 0.13 44.10 29.86 0.00
soft cheese, full fat, tesco, 240c/C2.4/F23.0/P5.5/F0.0/100g
......... 98g 235.20 2.35 22.54 5.39 0.00
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 112g 169.12 0.00 12.54 14.00 0.00
soya milk, coop org unsw, 30c/C0.1/F1.9/P3.4/Fi0.6/100ml
......... 50ml 15.00 0.05 0.95 1.70 0.30
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 100g 415.00 1.40 34.50 24.40 0.00
tarragon, dried
......... 15ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for broccoli, cauliflower & mushrooms with blue cheese bake 2018.15 50.09 144.03 120.96 27.70
FatDog's 3/12 portion of broccoli, cauliflower & mushrooms with blue cheese bake 504.54 12.52 36.01 30.24 6.92

Edit: helps if one includes the methods...

Method: 1. place the mushrooms on the bottom of a large oven-proof dish, sprinkle over the garlic and dribble over the melted butter, season and sprinkle half of the tarragon over; 2. then layer the lentils and then the broccoli and cauliflower mix on top, season; 3. ping the stilton and soft cheese to melt it, let it cool a little then mix in the soya milk and the remains of the taragon, then beat in the eggs, season to taste, and pour over the veggies; 4. sprinkle the grated cheese over the top, in particular the patches bald of sauce; 5. bake, covered for the first 20 minutes, in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 30 minutes; 6. serve with good bread for the carbivores (a salad would probably go nicely too).

Oh sad little FatDog if I could I'd give you a hug to cheer you up double hug instead. Hope you feel better soon.

You made me smile about the mushrooms growing their own fungi. Best to move on from Mr A's. Can hardly keep my eyes open here. Just wanted to report @rawkaren recipe for low carb spicy pumpkin loaf on the forum was Devine and made me keep baking and I made this most devine low carb banana bread. I will post the recipe soon. Hope you feel better tomorrow

Hope the fiendish black dog has been given his marching orders today and you are back to your upbeat self. Think cocoa rich dark chocolate is supposed to release endorphins so double whammy with your new exercise regime! x Bought some soya flour on Saturday but just waiting to finish off a few other baked goodies before I give your rolls a try.

Hope you are feeling back on top form soon FatDog

Whilst Chateau Crapaud has been without a router these last few days, hubs has almost gone mad without his internet fix, a little bird told me that a certain Fatdog has reached her target weight, so, CONGRATULATIONS

Ballerina x

Whilst Chateau Crapaud has been without a router these last few days, hubs has almost gone mad without his internet fix, a little bird told me that a certain Fatdog has reached her target weight, so, CONGRATULATIONS

Ballerina x

Awww, thank-you @Ballerina! The analogue scales and my BMI are beyond / at target respectively : but I'm still waiting for the digital scales to catch-up (1.6lbs off) - when they do you'll hear the celebrations from here to Australia

OH gets seriously angsty when our internet goes down (which it does, regularly, for several hours at a time - thanks Virgin) and it doesn't improve my temper much either (though I'm content if I'm allowed to get my nose into a book). Need to speak to our nice neighbour for his wifi password methinks, emergency uses only - of course - maybe you have a nice neighbour too?

Fatdog, Celia Brown has a new low carb vegetarian cookbook coming out. This may have already been mentioned, but don't have the patience to go thorugh the 27 pages of posts!

I saw it on amazon when I was searching for vegetarian low carb. I'm tempted to do this; we'll see - still just thinking about it!