The FastDay Forum

I've never baked much before either @FatDog, but having said that needed a sweet fix yesterday and made CBB's Cardamom cake. Don't know if you've tried it but it is scrumptious! Think her servings are a bit optimistic though, might serve 8 midgets but 4 would be more realistic, or maybe we're just greedy guts in our house! x

Ooooh, cardamom cake. Did that back at the end of July (progress-f4/topic6427-105.html#p81616) and really loved it. As this was quite early in my low-carb experiment, my carb allowance was pretty low (35g on a feed day) so a "whole 1/8th slice of cake" would have seemed ginormous at the time. @izzy is rather partial to this cake too. Would also recommend CBB's almond muffins

Soya flour - the "cheap" saving grace of low-carb / low-cal baking at just 16g carbs / 424 calories per 100g, but the mouth feel is "claggy" (?) and, even when it smells lovely and nutty prior to baking, somehow the lovely nuttiness doesn't come through in the baked product, but something distinctively soya flour does. I have a love / hate relationship with it: one day I'll work out (or some kind baker will tell me) how to use it properly, and then I'll, probably, love it.

[Betsysgr8]

If FatDog doesn't like soy flour then I haven't any reason to like it either. lol I haven't tried soy flour yet, not likely too either since I really don't like the flavor/texture of soy milk, very chalky feel and taste too me. I'll be making Rawkarens pumpkin bread this afternoon with almond/coconut flour, first time baking in years and years! lol I can't wait!

Hi Fatdog. I found a Scandi recipe for a kale, mushroom and walnut loaf this week that I'm planning on trying. However it contains oats and spelt. Any ideas for substitutes that would work with these ingredients? I might just do it anyway as I'm going to ease up on low carbs for a bit, but interested in your views on alternatives. Ta muchly.

Soya flour - the "cheap" saving grace of low-carb / low-cal baking at just 16g carbs / 424 calories per 100g, but the mouth feel is "claggy" (?) and, even when it smells lovely and nutty prior to baking, somehow the lovely nuttiness doesn't come through in the baked product, but something distinctively soya flour does. I have a love / hate relationship with it: one day I'll work out (or some kind baker will tell me) how to use it properly, and then I'll, probably, love it.

that was the first time I used soya flour in the cardamom cake yesterday and didn't mind the taste, but@rawkaren'spumpkin bread certainly takes some beating, just sweet enough with no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.

@izzy some mouth watering recipes on that site, thanks for posting the link which I have saved to my favourites! x

I am smitten too and have already made a recipe from that site. Think it's too late ... feel another book will be wending its way to someone's door

Hi Fatdog. I found a Scandi recipe for a kale, mushroom and walnut loaf this week that I'm planning on trying. However it contains oats and spelt. Any ideas for substitutes that would work with these ingredients? I might just do it anyway as I'm going to ease up on low carbs for a bit, but interested in your views on alternatives. Ta muchly.

Hmmm, 'fraid I'm no expert at this game @rawkaren - I've winged-it rather a lot and been frightfully lucky! At the moment, for my 100g "flour mix", I'm cutting my soya flour (40 grams; quite low carb, 16g/100g) with oat bran (30 grams; not low carb, 59g/100g) and ground golden linseed (30 grams; very low carb, 1.5g/100g). It's all a bit of a juggling act as the linseed is quite calorific (534kcal/100g) and the oats rather less so (~390kcal/100g). This is working quite well with egg or yeast - well, the flavour / texture is great, just the rising that's being awkward squad.

As you can't do oats, I'd be tempted to try a mix of ground linseed and maybe gram flour (chickpea; not low carb, 56g/100g) with as much soya as you can cope with - something like 40g linseed, 30g chickpea, and 30g soya? Beware that linseed is an absolute sponge for liquid, and both gram and soya flours seem to need extra water, but the mushrooms might be quite wet, thus balance the thirsty linseed. Possibly, you could just do a direct sub of linseed for oats quantity and 50/50 gram and soya for the spelt? Don't know if that makes sense as I don't have your recipe!

Yes it does FatDog. Thank you very much indeed. Certainly the linseed is a great sub for oats. The recipe uses the spelt as a whole grain rather than the flour so I'm contemplating using buckwheat seeds (because they are not grains). The only problem is that they are not low carb either.

I made it today with the original ingredients, because I have lots of veggie mates who don't care about carbs and I'm testing crimbo dishes. I will post it tomorrow which might give you more thoughts. It actually didn't turn out too carbiferous. I worked it out as 20g carbs and 218 cals per serving. However on testing a slice, it felt sooooo heavy, as I don't eat too many grains these days, but a wonderful change from the usual nut roast.

I have also been practising low carb crepes which as I found at lunchtime, make fabulous lasagne sheets. Joy

Thank's for your flour mix FatDog. I couldn't find it on your thread, but now I have it!!

Saturday, day one-hundred and fity-three, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 110.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.0lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.8, t. 31.0, h. 34.75 inches

Report for the end of week 30 on 4 : 3 4.5 : 2.5 - weight loss of 0.8lbs this week (total loss 35.2lbs), and there has been a wee bit shrinkage measured but I'm just not ready to register it yet....

With a sub 2000 calorie deficit for the week, I'm lucky to be reporting any loss at all! Oh, and should mention that I *did* do RC's "Day 9" yesterday - split into two sections as unexpected droppers-by dropped by, but was fine.

Noooooo... Have just received my "The Gate" cookery book and it's *soggy*!!! The packaging has come open, more than once by the looks as the cover is badly torn too and there's sellotape all over it, and the book has escaped into a puddle (of what I sadly know not! Anyone know how to sterilize a book?) so the pages are wrinkled and the cover is spongy (I know the book "escaped" and that the whole package wasn't dropped because the packaging itself is bone dry). I'm heart-broken, I can't bear books being hurt. Have no idea who gets to "fix" the situation, but if it's Royal Mail that'll be one penny, as its value, in recompense, as the remaining £2.80 of the cost was for postage (is that irony?). Have amazon-mailed the seller - two hours later (now thirteen hours) and not even an auto-acknowledgement. Bodes not well.

Have realised that the reason I keep blowing my nose is that I have a stinker of a cold; good thing that RC's "Day 10" is aerobics only today - which I've not really bothered with so far (count 'energetically doing stuff' as compensation).

Feeling sufficiently xxxx that bread making is off the menu - the carbivores can eat the loaf our freegan friend brought by the other day, and I'll scran one of the last two of my rolls, so that's that sorted. The rest of dinner shouldn't be too arduous. Sauce the carrots, boil the soya beans (for once I remembered to soak them overnight), ping the broccoli & carrots, bung the cheese and carrot sauces over the veggies, along with some wholegrain mustard, and throw it into the oven. That's it, I think.

Well, never quite that simple - 'twas semi-arduous - but was done in time and edible, which is what matters I guess. Wee bit like veggies in an orange coloured cheesy custard. Bestest neighbour agreed with me - bizarre; other guest said to let him know when I was next doing the recipe and he'd be here - friend for life; OH said it was excellent - but then, he has to live with me

Horribly over on cals / carbs / everything, but I don't care: I'm being nice to myself as I feel snotty-bogged-headed and monumentally sh*te. So there. Anyway, one is meant to "feed a cold and starve a fever", right? Best indulgence so far is lemon and ginger tea with a shot of gin in it, just wish I'd thought of it earlier (need to stock up on more gin, excellent stuff). It was the closest I could manufacture to a hot toddy - bit like tonight's dinner: bizarre but very good. Oooh, think I could manage another couple of those. Best not, I'll be snoring enough as it is (and I've only one shot of gin left anyway)!

........ Calories 2009.50 Carbs 62.83 Fat 111.34 Protein 57.79 Fibre 22.81

broccoli, carrot and soya bean cheesy bake, a FatDog bottom-of-the-fridge concoction
broccoli & carrot mix, co-op, 35c/C4.8/F0.5/P1.7/Fi2.7/100g
......... 465g 162.75 22.32 2.33 7.91 12.56
carrot, batons, co-op, 35c/C6.0/F0.5/P0.7/Fi2.8/100g
......... 414g 144.90 24.84 2.07 2.90 11.59
soya beans, pre-soaked, cooked, 446c/C21.0/F2.9/P36.0/Fi9.0/100g (dry weight)
......... 120g 535.20 25.20 3.48 43.20 10.80
onion, tesco 'sweet', fine sliced, 25c/C4.4/F0.2/P0.8/Fi1.3/100g
......... 167g 41.75 7.35 0.33 1.34 2.17
wholegrain mustard, 150c/C6.8/F9.5/P8.8/Fi7.8/100g
......... 15g 22.50 1.02 1.43 1.32 1.17
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 5ml 41.67 0.00 4.60 0.00 0.00
four cheese sauce, co-op, 145c/C5.9/F10.8/P6.4/Fi0.5/100g
......... 300g 435.00 17.70 32.40 19.20 1.50
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 42g 174.30 0.59 14.49 10.25 0.00
fennel seed
......... 5ml 0.00
cumin seed
......... 5ml 0.00
total for broccoli, carrot and soya bean cheesy bake 1558.07 99.02 61.12 86.11 39.79
FatDog's 826/3342 portion of broccoli, carrot and soya bean cheesy bake 385.09 24.47 15.11 21.28 9.83

Method: 1. boil the carrots, with fennel seed and a wee bit salt, then whizz to a puree and mix in the cheese sauce (soup-maker job), check seasoning; 2. meantimes, rinse the broccoli & carrot mix in salted water and roughly drain, cover and ping for about 5 minutes until al dente, then drain thoroughly; 3. double meantimes, heat the oil in a non-stick pan and fry the onions along with the cumin until they're caramelizing; 4. mix the pre-cooked soya beans with the veggies in a grill-proof dish; 5. layer the fried onions on top and then pour the carrot & cheese sauce over the top, shoogle the dish to get the sauce down into the veggies; 6. sprinkle the grated cheese over the top, give it a flourish or two of black pepper then bung it under a hot grill until the cheese is golden brown...

I rather liked this - I'd certainly do / eat it again, odd though it was, but the likelihood of bargain cheese sauce and bargain veggies happening simultaneously isn't that high.

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

Sunday, day one-hundred and fifty-four, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 110.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~107.75lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

Thank-you. And I'm registering the incy-wincy shrinkage on the tape measure too - it's nice to see those numbers going down...

RC's "Day 11" will be deferred until this horrid cold has dribbled its last - no point in stressing the immune system unnecessarily, and I'm not in any hurry.

Bestest neighbour didn't come by empty handed yesterday evening, oh no: 360g mixed veggies (broccoli, carrot, green beans and baby corn), 300g cherry tomatoes, 200g chiquino mini-peppers and 300ml extra thick cream. This initially spoke to me of something with coconut milk and reminded me of World Food Cafe's "Borneo rainforest vegetables"... but that didn't quite work, the tomatoes didn't really fit in, nor the cream. Heading for bed last night and I was struck by the obvious: veggie fajitas with sour cream (think I can sour it with lemon?), salsa and guacamole - all I need to acquire is fresh coriander and an avocado.

....... Calories 2155.35 Carbs 44.55 Fat 131.21 Protein 61.57 Fibre 25.05
Edit: the sharp-eyed might have spotted that those numbers were, rather strangely, just the same as last week... (cut&paste error - sorry)
........ Calories 1590.01 Carbs 59.59 Fat 76.68 Protein 35.08 Fibre 16.44

low-carb tortillas, experiment no. 1; a FatDog mad half hour, based on basic wheatflour tortilla recipes that are ubiquitous on the internet
gram flour, 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 60g 211.20 33.54 3.18 12.06 2.82
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 90g 381.60 14.40 18.00 35.10 10.80
coconut oil, warmed to liquid, 39cal/C0/F4.5/P0/Fi0/4g/5ml
......... 20ml 156.00 0.00 18.00 0.00 0.00
water, warm
......... ~115ml 0.00
coriander seed, fresh ground
......... 3ml 0.00
baking powder
......... 10ml
xanthan gum
......... 3ml 0.00
total low-carb tortillas, experiment no. 1 748.80 47.94 39.18 47.16 13.62
1/12th (single tortilla) low-carb tortillas, experiment no. 1 62.40 4.00 3.27 3.93 1.14
¼ portion (three tortillas) low-carb tortillas, experiment no. 1 187.20 11.99 9.80 11.79 3.41

Method: 1. sift the dry stuff into a biggish bowl and mix it well; 2. make a well and fill with the oil; 3. gradually work the dry stuff into the oil (I use a big flat bladed old knife for this), then 'using finger tips' work the oily bits in so there aren't any big lumps of anything - you want something like rough breadcrumbs; 4. gradually work in your water, tablespoon by tablespoon until you have a nice squishy (but not wet) dough; 5. form a ball and set it aside in a bowl covered in a damp tea towel whilst faffing with the other stuff, an hour at least... ; 6. split your dough up into 12 equal wee nuggets (I weighed them - hey! I'm an OCDer counting carbs and calories, so...); 7. here's the neat bit - use small sheets of non-stick cooking liner: squish a nugget into as flat round as you can get, using your fingers / knuckles, on one liner sheet then plonk another sheet of liner on top and roll the nugget into a nice thin tortilla thickness (or you can do the usual stuff dusting the board & pin with flour etc.); 8. peel one of the liners off, place the other with the tortilla stuck to it (tortilla side up) in a medium hot frying pan and cook for up to a minute (no oil needed - even if the pan is a non non-stick), then flip the tortilla over and do the other side the same; 9. set your cooked tortilla in a warm place and cover with a damp cloth to prevent it drying out (we didn't, they dried a bit); 10. "rinse and repeat", as they say...

The tortillas worked rather well - could have done better by covering them with a damp tea towel to stop them drying out a little - but, in combination with the veggie fajita, salsa, cream (we didn't bother souring it in the end), "refried beans", and guacamole, managed to elicit a "superb" from bestest neighbour and a 10/10 from the VBF (that's a first!), plus an "excellent" from the OH. Happy eaters all round. Now, you don't *really* want the other recipes do you? You'll have to prod me if you do

sorry you've been a poorly FatDog and hope you're soon feeling better. How come all these fantastic recipe ideas just seem to pop into your head when I need to have every last little detail spelled out for me? Wish I had your culinary imagination. You're a genius cook! x

@izzy some mouth watering recipes on that site, thanks for posting the link which I have saved to my favourites! x

Thanks for the link izzy Have made the bliss Bally things from this site which are featured on the index page and they are positively devine. Might substitute for that late night fix one needs I would say not on a fast day

Monday, day one-hundred and fifty-five, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 110.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~107.75lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

Report at the end-of-week 23 of low-carb : total low-carb weight loss 27.2lbs, and last week 1.4lbs weight loss, and the tape measure shows a touch off everything *again*.

I'd be doing a small but merry doggins' jig, but I'm still majorly snotty, so just a feeble WAG, WAG. Wondering whether to lay off repairing today - I've b*gger all energy and haven't even logged my morning coffee today, let alone managed to work up my recipes for the weekend.

Get. A. Grip.

One uplifting thing tho' : World of Books has been in touch (mid p.m. today) to say that they'll replace the book if they have one in stock! Well, they *do* have one in stock, but it's much more expensive than the "very good" condition one I bought (six quid rather than a penny!) so I don't know if they'll wear that - we shall see...

Started out trying very hard to do a repair day, but properly broke fast at three with half a "linseed minute muffin" (added extra oat bran (15g and H2O the same) in the hopes of disguising the egginess - the ploy didn't work in that respect but did make the muffin texturally very "wholemeal roll" like, especially toasted) with cream cheese, quorn and mustard (my "healthy" alternative to the butter and honey that was trying to tempt me). Don't think that I've eaten so early since starting LC - I wasn't actually hungry but something in my body was telling me that I *should* eat.

Then conceded further at half five and went for a half repair day with some nuts, and 'dinner' - the other half of my linseed muffin with toppings as before and a bag of salad - at about eight.

But come 9pm I was still *wanting* more food (not such a frequent phenomenon these days), but quite what I wanted I wasn't sure, so tried chocolate and more tea. To no avail - I'm still wanting *something*... Think I'll try some hard cheese, and cancel all / any idea of repair altogether. No! D*mn it! I shan't.

And I didn't:

........ Calories 892.96 Carbs 25.86 Fat 66.38 Protein 39.53 Fibre 18.54

Can't believe that it's taken me until gone midnight to finally work up yesterdays' eatings! Brain really isn't functioning - took me nearly a quarter of an hour to make a cup of fruit tea earlier too, and grilling my minute muffin was a pantomime performance that would challenge this year's best selling tickets. Och well, tomorrow is another day, and all that.

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

Tuesday, low-carb day one-hundred and fifty-six, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 110.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~107.75lbs); 0.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.8, w. 25.8, t. 31.0, h. 34.75 inches

Boingy, boingy, boing. Actually, it might be far worse than this as the eeeeevil scales fairy was at it and the readings were all over the place this morning, up to 111.4lbs - but the analogue reading does *not* appear to have shifted so I went for the number closest to yesterday's.

Still full of the snots and, as a slight wheeze is lurking at the top of my windpipe, I shall give RC's "Day 11" a miss again. Which is getting frustrating, as I'm rather looking forward to her leg-raise-and-crunch combination - which looks painfully good.

No food in the fridge except for a handful of cherry tomatoes and loads of cream and various cheeses (that need used), and the OH has some apples in there which I think he's forgotten about (~2 months and counting) and his own cherry tomatoes, which I might be able to predate upon. I'm struggling to find a light for this combination... oooh, maybe, just maybe? Two-sauce "pasta rags": i.e. shredded gram & soya flour pancakes pretending to be pasta (as per the other day) turned over in a creamy cheese sauce, served with a tomato, bean and chilli (should have mentioned, I've a couple of those - can't have a fridge without chillies in it) sauce on top. Leaves a bit to be desired with respect to "five a day" (not sure if onions, garlic and chilli count!), so maybe OH could be persuaded to forage for a bag of salad.

[CompletelyOffTopic]
And now the fun starts - the Scottish Government has just released its 'White Paper on Independence'. Yay! Well, that's if you can get to it on the web-site: it would appear that the demand has been significantly greater than anticipated - excellent stuff, if it's people genuinely wanting to read the document (sadly, the conspiracy theorist that lurks deeply inside me says that it's more likely a "denial of service" (DoS) effort). It has to be the most important decision that the people of Scotland get to make for a *long* while. We *must* make sure that we're informed - and, preferably, look well beyond the main-stream media (with its head well stuck up the back end of the establishment, as any low-carber with their thinking cap on could attest) for any breadth or depth of understanding.

That's 650 plus pages of tough reading between now and Saturday for me (going to a whole day's debate * on it, so it might help to have read it!) - that should take my mind off the sniffles. Ha! Bonus points to the Glasgow Herald - they've put up a copy of the White Paper pdf (if it were a DoS, it's just been countered: game on).

So, say, sixty pages between now and bed? Think I'll need to get some ready-made dinner in, and lock-down with the head-phones, and pin a label on my back, "not available just now, please call later".

* If you're interested in the issue, and live near Edinburgh, get along to it, where ever you are in relation to the fence - the better informed we all are, the better the decision (one hopes)! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/explorin ... 9157545465 'Tis free, and they feed you lunch too - if you're camera shy you'll just need to remember the brown paper bag as the Beeb are filming it (I'll be the one with an organic veggie bag over their head at the back left).
[/CompletelyOffTopic]

And World of Books have come up trumps - they're sending me a replacement copy of "the Gate cookbook". Five stars and mega-lots of brownie points to them.

And my London Fruit and Herb Company Green Tea Variety Packs have turned out to be an excellent choice (okay - I did have to order nearly a year's supply, *just slightly risky*!). I knew I liked the green tea and orange flavour, and guessed I'd like the raspberry and the peach ones, but had reservations about the 99% green tea with a hint of jasmine (previous green tea experiences = yuck / bitter). I should not have feared, it's lovely, subtle and not in the least bit bitter.

Bother the ready-made dinner: if I get stuck in just now I can get it all prep'd and have the evening to digest my sixty pages. Except that the OH has now decided to prepare "a little something to sustain him", so the kitchen will be off limits for the next half hour and will then require a clear-up before I can use it... Ung. Give up.

Aw bless the OH, who has gone into superhero mode - he'll venture out into the dark and wet to Waitrose for pasta, stuffed mushrooms and salad (well, he has a bus pass and the bus stop is just around the corner). Wheee! Carbocalypse, pasta heaven and a no-cook evening here I come.

Actually dinner is not that wicked after all: here be the damage for the cannelloni and the mushrooms - not repair day fare perhaps, but fine (if you're not avoiding gluten) for a feed day, and please serve it with a nice green leafy salad (rocket anyone? its virtue somehow counters the naughtiness of the pasta):

spinach cannelloni, waitrose, 295g
... 377.60 cals
... 26.26 carbs
... 21.24 fat
... 18.00 protein
... 4.72 fibre
stuffed mushrooms, co-op, 100g
... 94.00 cals
... 9.70 carbs
... 4.10 fat
... 4.30 protein
... 0.60 fibre

And the ingredients lists didn't have anything *too* objectionable / unrecognisable in them.

However, it went all indulgent, and FatDog had a creamy hot cocoa (30ml extra thick cream and 200ml soya milk) with a wee shot of whisky in it (call it a belated toddy - I felt unreasonably deprived today having abstained yesterday so sanctimoniously) - and extra chocolate, oops. There's a difference between "feeding a cold" and "feeding a piggy FatDog", methinks the FatDog has lost her ability to discern between the two...

........ Calories 1850.37 Carbs 62.19 Fat 111.54 Protein 52.83 Fibre 14.77

Maybe the "post it now and be held to account" trick will save me from the last dribble of Cabernet; here's hoping. Sleep tight all xxx FatDog.

Sometimes a girl just has to eat, I think you were instinctively replenishing. I bet you will feel better for it and you have the solution to repair any damage. Good news about your precious book. Happy reading

Hope you are feeling better this morning FatDog. I bet that cocoa with a wee dram did you the world of good