The FastDay Forum

Weigh-in at the start of day 17: oh deary dear. My OH has finally witnessed the naughtiness of the electronic scales - he's gone very quiet about it so I think their behaviour has him (a through-and-through scientist) stumped.

Nice consistent / corroborative readings between analogue (Salter) and digital for OH, happy making analogue readings and silly digital readings for FatDog:- digital anywhere between 131.0 to 132.0 today, analogue says 9 stone 2 and a bit (OH confirmed) = 128.5 ish. So what to record? I'm going conservative and rounding up again: 129lbs.

If I were in proper scientist mode I'd probably dump these data-points, and even abandon the experiement until I had 'reliable equipment' - but I'm not stopping just because of some blithering scales. However, the experimental 'results' will need viewed with the caveat that they could all be fantasy-land...

T'other measurements haven't changed except for being 'easier'.

@izzy - sorry the heat's doing in your BP - you take care lady xx

Wednesday, day seventeen, fast day: sorry, forgot to do this last night - probably because dinner didn't quite work out.

Was using up broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, slushy tomatoes etc.. Was going to just steam the veggies with a tomato sauce and grated cheese over, but had said I'd try some more CBB so looked up her luxury cauliflower cheese for the sauce and modded that (p77).

It didn't work - my error - I halved the quantities listed which gave 150ml stock whereas if I'd used her stand-alone cheese sauce recipe (p133) I would have seen only 120ml is used there. Very runny cheese sauce. Cornflour to the rescue: yikes! Eight grams (nice heaped teaspoon) has 6.7 grams of carb!!! Good thing it was a fast day and I wasn't carb-challenged.

In the end the flavours were okay, but the cheese sauce wasn't really strong enough to counter the tomato sauce, unlike my broccoli cheese special where it works a treat: I guess trying to do feast day recipes on a fast day calorie budget doesn't always come off...

And the numbers went:

...... Calories 495.76 Carbs 16.06 Fat 34.98 Protein 24.46 Fibre 9.20

Cheers, FatDog.

Weigh-in at the start of day 18: I've never known OH to be so quiet about a puzzle to be solved, methinks he's truly perplexed. Recap: his readings on digital and analogue scales concur, mine are several pounds different.

So, insanity readings for today: 130.2 on the digital, 9 stone 2 and a bit (~128.5) on the analogue. Tape measure readings the same-ish except (dare I say it) underbust down half an inch. I'm going with the ... mmmmmm ... swither ... swither ... oh, I don't know: I don't want to 'cheat' but the digital scales really have been strange, and the OH has 'calibrated' the analogue ones - so ... I'll go with 128.5lb and be happy I know, very un-scientific.

My wonderful OH has agreed to pizza again tonight! Will try to get the cauliflower a bit drier and maybe add some hazelnut meal (if the whizz machine agrees to play) - I think the topping should be Greek salad inspired, in honour of the lovely weather.

@izzy : oooh, I want a Ninja! The Kenwood I have is over 7 years old and has done about four years heavy duty in shared student digs - the blender jug is held together with duct tape - but it is still working so, as I'm broke, I'll have to wait until it's finally defunct. Please take care of yourself in the hot weather - no chasing muttley with socks, get the OH to do that

Thursday, day eighteen, feed day: PIZZA! the very hazelnut version... Methinks I used too much hazelnut (50g) and, sadly, I failed yet again to get my cauliflower dry. One really, really must get that cauliflower dry. However, it was more than edible and the OH said 'excellent' and gave it 9.5 out of 10 (but then ruined that by saying he didn't like pizza much anyway).

Took me an age, again, but mostly in cauliflower prep - the huge cauli I selected looked pretty good but turned out to have been fungal attacked extensively, which took an eternity to chop out (I was being very careful as about 450g had to go into the fridge for use later on).

However - I discovered that when recipes say 'pulse in a food processor' they mean just that: not 'pulse in your blender'. Having disinterred the processor parts from a dusty back shelf, my cauliflower rice was lovely - no poking about the bottom of the blender to get the big bits out, then the rice out, then re-whizzing the big bits, ad infinitum...

Tried to dry the cauliflower in the oven at a lower heat, 100C, for a longer time, about an hour, but it still came out damp - apart from the bits that were golden brown on top, round the edges and stuck to the foil. Sigh. I'll have to co-opt the OH into doing the great-cauli-wringing-thing next time.

And there will be a next time, soon, as this pizza is delicious and pretty healthy: okay if you load it with salami and nothing else, perhaps not so healthy, but Greek salad? Good stuff.

The hazelnuts really racked up the calories - and I'm not sure how much they added to the party anyway - so I'll maybe give them a miss next time. They, and the accidental-excess-Helmans-mayo (again? it really wasn't intended as 27g of mayo is too much even for me), meant that the evening snackettes and milky drink had to go. But there was/is still room for a square of 85% chocolate - though given my knackeredness I might just give it a miss and head to bed

The day's accounts (without chocolate):
....... Calories 1364.48 Carbs 19.85 Fat 117.63 Protein 49.99 Fibre 16.55

Sweet dreams, FatDog

Weigh-in at the start of day 19: Unnng. I'm now having doubts about the lunacy of the digital scales as they've sort-of behaved themselves for the last two days - sadly they're not in my 'favour'.

The digital scales read 130.6lbs and the analogue 129 ish. Hmm. I didn't expect to lose anything much yesterday, but I certainly didn't expect to gain. Ho hum. Indeed, since weigh-in on Saturday (131.2lb) I've had a calorie deficit of 3884.14 which should make in excess of a pound in loss, or even more if the synergy of low-carb is a reality. Oh well, it'll all come out in the wash, as they say: in this case, being 5:2, the weight will come off eventually. I'm trying not to stress - I'm really not used to the vagaries of daily weighing - but my experiment is producing slightly 'unanticipated results' (or should that be 'unwanted'). Humbug.

Planning food will make me feel better.

I've two lots of cauliflower from yesterday's humongous purchase to use up (including rations for the OH). So, I'm intending to do a cauliflower curry tonight, which I hope to serve with soya flour only chapatis - have only found one recipe for the latter on the internet so it's quite possible that it's an impossibility. Then the last of the cauliflower is going into a CBB recipe for feta-stuffed peppers (p102), substituting riced cauliflower for the bulgar. Oh, yes, I had an accident - that's a CBB recipe from her 'New Vegetarian' book, not the low-carb one - I couldn't help myself for just a penny (and postage - it arrived this morning and is already covered in book-marks). I'm drooling again. Indeed, I'm having a hard time restraining myself from buying her World Vegetarian Classics...

@izzy The dry-frying is a good idea - I might try that - but if one doesn't cook the cauliflower at all it gives off its moisture in the oven and soggifies things anyway (according to the recipe's blog comments).

Thanks for reminding me that I'd not reported on how the 'carb-cleanse' was affecting me - it's really been a doddle since day five: no untoward side-effects at all. Well, except for the fact that I've been pretty much pre-occupied with food since I started

Friday, day nineteen, fast day: That was truly a fast day feast! Dinner was utterly yumptious, though I say it myself - OH grading 9.5+ and 'perfect'; happy FatDog.

For mains: shahi gobhi masala (cauliflower curry), soybean chapati (bajra roti style), green side salad and a dollop of yoghurt to cool things down. And for pud an hour or so later: slacker's yoghurt with bournville cocoa (yes, that's my breakfast in disguise). That lot and my morning tea were within the 500 calorie limit. I went over my limit to have two 85% chocolate squares later on - well, it is Friday after all.

I'd never tried this shahi gobhi masala recipe before but I will be doing it again (and again) - I've tinkered very little with the original version here: http://www.divyascookbook.com/2013/05/s ... style.html
It was, quite simply, plate-lickingly good. Indeed, as good as my all-time favourite feast day cauliflower dish, gobi musallam here: http://www.korasoi.com/blog/2013/03/gobi-musallam which I think is cauliflower heaven. Edit: should note that I substituted coconut milk for both the milk and the yoghurt in this recipe - yes... very rich but delicious.

As for the chapati, well, I know what to add to the pizza recipe now to make the base more biscuity - soya flour... Really, they weren't bad - it would have helped if I had had a non-stick pan to do them in, oh, and a rolling pin to roll them out (only thought of the wine bottle trick later). And I'd certainly add a little oil and lots more spices next time round (there will be one). Original recipe here (I could only find two for soya flour exclusively, this was the second): http://www.indiacurry.com/weightlossrec ... hapati.htm . I didn't have any gummy stuff so did without, and cooked them under the grill. I probably wouldn't eat them on their own, but they were great with the curry.

Calorific damage:
....... Calories 545.99 Carbs 20.20 Fat 37.69 Protein 26.98 Fibre 12.53

shahi gobhi masala
cauliflower, small florets 35c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi2.5/100g
......... 246g 86.10 7.38 2.21 8.86 6.15
ginger & garlic paste (dried used)
......... 2ml each 0.00
s&p 0.00
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 15ml 123.60 0.00 13.74 0.00 0.00
almonds, 640c/C6.9/F55.8/P21.1/Fi11.8/100g
......... 15g 96.00 1.04 8.37 3.17 1.77
soya milk, coop org unsw, 30c/C0.1/F1.9/P3.4/Fi0.6/100ml
......... 15ml 4.50 0.02 0.29 0.51 0.09
onion, fine chopped, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 40g 17.20 3.72 0.00 0.28 0.84
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 15ml 123.60 0.00 13.74 0.00 0.00
ginger & garlic paste (dried used)
......... 2ml each 0.00
tomatoes, tinned, chopped 15c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.0/Fi0.7/100g
......... 200g 30.00 6.00 0.20 2.00 1.40
chilli flakes
......... 2ml 0.00
coriander seed, fresh ground
......... 5ml 0.00
turmeric
......... 1ml 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
s&p 0.00
garam masala
......... 2ml 0.00
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 5ml 1.30 0.10 0.00 0.02 0.02
total 483.10 18.44 38.55 14.84 10.27
FatDog's half portion shahi gobhi masala 241.55 9.22 19.27 7.42 5.13

Method: 1. distribute the dry mix of ginger, garlic, s&p over the cauliflower 2. heat oil in pan and then saute cauli for about ten minutes (I needed to add water to stop things sticking but a non-stick pan would obviate the need for this) 3. blitz the almonds, soy milk and tomatoes (had to do these together as my blitzer doesn't handle very small quantities) 4. put cooked cauli to one side and in the same pan heat the oil and cook the onion until it is softened 5. add ginger&garlic and almond & tomato mix and cook for a few minutes 6. add chilli, coriander, turmeric, sweetener and s&p 7. simmer a little then add the cauliflower, garam masala and lemon and cook for a further seven minutes or so (I did mine on a very low heat for longer)

If you've spare calories I think this would look even lovelier if it had a few flaked almonds sprinkled over it...

Soybean Chapati (Bajra Roti Style)
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 42g 178.08 6.72 8.40 16.38 5.04
s&p 0.00
cumin seed, fresh ground
......... a very good grinding 0.00
water
......... 75ml, approx 0.00
total 178.08 6.72 8.40 16.38 5.04
FatDog's half portion soybean chapati 89.04 3.36 4.20 8.19 2.52

Method: 1. thoroughly mix the dry ingredients 2. tip onto a board and make a wee mountain 3. make a finger hole at the top of the mountain and fill with water 4. work the water into the flour 5. repeat from 3 until the mixture is convincingly dough-like: not too dry and not too wet 6. cover for twenty to thirty minutes - I plonked a glass bowl over it 7. divvy it up into the number of chapatis that you want 8. form each portion into a ball and then flatten it (roll it out if you have a rolling pin) on a pre-oiled baking tray working it from the middle to the edge to form a round - it tends to go 'frilly' at the edges* 9. lightly oil the top and grill on each side for two or three minutes.

* If you don't get the dough very thin you'll end up with a biscuity round, as I did - it's edible, but it is not a chapati!

In all honesty, I think that this was the best feed that I've had on a fast day since I started (May 1st), and as a menu it ranks pretty high against full feast day fare.

Enjoy, FatDog.

I'm cross-posting to the recipes section (again) as this will only get buried here...

Weigh-in at the start of day 20: that's the third day in a row that the digital scales haven't played silly whatsits... I might need to start believing them again.

Digital reading 129.8 (yes! that's an interim milestone of breaking below 130lbs met) and analogue a much nicer 9 stone 2lbs - 128lbs. I'm beginning to think that the start of the week might well have been a rise / mini-plateau (Sunday's indulgence has much to answer for - I'm wondering if it was the re-introduction of alcohol after two weeks without any?), though the 136.6lbs and other considerably higher readings were patently crazy.

The digital scales have been consistent (well, at least for the last three days that they've not been playing daft) in reading about 1.75lbs more than the analogue. I trust the analogue readings but don't like that I've had a 'free extra 1.75 pounds off' my tally by swapping between the scale readings. So, there's nothing like re-writing history, I'm going to 'correct' my weigh-ins to be analogue+1.75lb (or there abouts - the digital scales only do 0.2 gradations so I'll round to the nearest).

Corrections going in:
day 15: lowest digital 131.2, sadly this was probably right...
day 16: digital range 130 to 136.6; analogue 9 stone 3lbs and a bit => 129.5? + 1.75 ~= 131.2
day 17 digital variable again; analogue just under 9 stone 3lbs => 128.8 + 1.75 ~= 130.6
day 18 digital 130.2, analogue 9 stone 2lbs and a bit => 128.5? + 1.75 ~= 130.2
day 19 digital 130.6, analogue touch under 9 stone 3lbs => 128.8 + 1.75 ~= 130.6
day 20 digital 129.8, analogue 9 stone 2lbs => 128 + 1.75 ~= 129.8

I think the weight fluctuation is down to the naughty fairies - they heard me saying that I thought a weight-loss pattern post-feed/fast days was emerging so they decided to mix things up a bit...

I'll put the scales' berserker behaviour down to flat / changed battery instability (just wish it hadn't happened at the same time as the fairies were having a laugh).

Enough! I'm going to bake CBB's almond muffins (p27) in a minute - OH has kindly offered to pick up almond extract on his travels, so I've no excuse. I'm going to blow a whole carb on a cup of coffee with cream to have with an early (for me) muffin breakfast when they're done

Saturday, day twenty, feed day: ooooohhh, the wonderful smell of baking. If I'm not very much mistaken, that's the first time ever that I have baked a cake (I'm 51)!

So now we have: Almond Muffins a la Celia Brooks Brown (p27). Except that there aren't any muffins because the muffin tin has been incinerated, so we have 'muffin cake'.

And right now (17:00), I'm enjoying a slice (329 cals, 4.4 carbs) with a little butter and a cup of coffee with cream. Mmmmm.

A wee bit on the savory side perhaps - oddly enough I kept wanting to add salt and pepper whilst mixing things, as I've not had sweet stuff for weeks - but otherwise texture, bite, etc. etc. are great. I'm wondering if the '15 tbsp of sweetener' for the full recipe (which would be 5 tbsp for a third) was a typo after all - has to be, surely? Anyway, I assumed it was a missing decimal point so used .5 of a tbsp of sweetener - I think it could have done with a little more, but not much mind.

I've all sorts of plans for this one: savoury, with dried herbs & spices or perhaps even fine chopped chilli / cheese / olives, or seeds; and sweet, with a little dried apricot or other dried fruit, but not so much as to ruin the low-carb profile. Methinks it's the basis for many a pleasure to come - and if a cake-making tyro like me can do it, anyone can.

That is, as long as I have a functional whizz machine. Set the wee love up for flouring my almonds, plugged it in and switched it on at the mains, and off it went without a by-your-leave or dial turned or pulse button pressed or any thing! And the burning electrical smell was unpleasant. It did the nuts in nano seconds. Maybe a Ninja will be coming to this household sooner rather than later

I've just been comparing food-processor prices on amazon (OH is rather quailing at a fifty quid outlay for a Ninja) - and my search for 'food processors' turned up a lavatory cleaning brush (with three replacable heads mind), mouse poison and 20L canisters of degreaser: the mind boggles.

Meantime, I have a problem with tonight's dinner as I hoped to 'rice' my cauliflower. I wonder if the OH could be persuaded to grate it for me...

Ha, back past the witching hour and the cooking and feeding is all done.

Cauliflower ricing was resolved fairly painlessly: I needed to break it into smallish florettes anyway (to eliminate the grey furry bits that had snuck back in) and then it was pretty easy to rice it using a manual spring loaded 'chopper' acquired for two quid from a charity store a few weeks back - best two quid I've spent for a while, it did the walnuts too.

Dinner was CBB's feta-stuffed peppers as planned, with cauliflower rice instead of bulghur wheat, (New Veg, p102 - they were delicious, that's another one on the repeat list) - except that two unexpected (but very welcome) guests arrived so it was short rations, made up for the guests with carby stuff and me later by a large lump of cheese and a creamy bedtime cocoa - aahhh.

A caveat for unwary low-carbers: green peppers are 2.6g carb per 100g whereas red are 6.1g - was not good for my carb balance, but the days accounts are acceptable:

....... Calories 1451.39 Carbs 21.03 Fat 122.35 Protein 63.97 Fibre 12.26

Almond Muffins CBB p27 - I did 1/3 of her recipe for a theoretical 4 muffins
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 75g 318.00 12.00 15.00 29.25 9.00
almonds, ground, 640c/C6.9/F55.8/P21.1/Fi11.8/100g
......... 50g 320.00 3.45 27.90 10.55 5.90
baking powder
......... 5ml 0.00
pure via (stevia based sweetener) 2c/C0.47/F0/P0/Fi0/0.5g/5ml *
......... 7.5ml 3.00 0.71 0.00 0.00 0.00
salt, pinch 0.00
eggs, brown, 151cal/C0g/F11.2g/P12.5/Fi0g/100g
......... ~54g x 2 of 163.08 0.00 12.10 13.50 0.00
cream cheese, almette, 270c/C3.0/F26.0/P5.9/Fi0/100g
......... 50g, CBB says 45ml 135.00 1.50 13.00 2.95 0.00
vanilla essence
......... 1/3rd tbsp ~= 4ml 0.00
almond essence
......... 2ml 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 45ml 375.00 0.00 41.40 0.00 0.00
almonds, flaked, 645c/C6.5/F55.8/P25.4/Fi7.4/100g
......... 4g 25.80 0.26 2.23 1.02 0.30
total 1314.08 17.66 109.40 56.25 14.90
single muffin (==1/4 of cake) 328.52 4.41 27.35 14.06 3.73

* printed recipe asks for 15 tbsp sweetener for 12 muffins, or 5 tbsp for 4 - not quite right methinks, but you decide

Method: 1. mix all dry stuff (except almond flakes) in one bowl 2. mix / beat all wet stuff in another bowl 3. add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix well but don't over mix 4. squish (it doesn't pour) into greased flan tray (or muffin tray if you have one) 5. sprinkle the almond flakes on top 6. bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 20 to 30 minutes 7. remove from oven when nicely golden and let stand for 5 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack 8. eat warm with butter ... mmmm...

feta-stuffed peppers CBB New Veg p102
bell peppers, green/red/yellow 28c/C4.5/F0.35/P0.9/Fi1.6/100g
......... 420g 117.60 18.90 1.47 3.78 6.72
cauliflower, riced, 35c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi2.5/100g
......... raw wt. 248g 86.80 7.44 2.23 8.93 6.20
feta, organic, tesco cut into 1cm cubes, 275c/C1.0/F23.0/P16.0/Fi0/100g
......... 146g 401.50 1.46 33.58 23.36 0.00
walnuts, raw, rough chopped, 654c/C7.0/F65.2/P15.2/Fi7.0/100g
......... 50g 327.00 3.50 32.60 7.60 3.50
garlic, chopped, 149cal/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 2g 2.98 0.66 0.01 0.13 0.04
ginger, fine chopped, 100cal/C15.8g/F0?g/P1.8g/Fi?g/100g
......... 12g 12.00 1.90 0.00 0.22 0.00
basil, coriander, parsley, dried *; good sprinkle of each 0.00
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 30ml 247.20 0.00 27.48 0.00 0.00
s&p
total 1195.08 33.86 97.37 44.01 16.46
FatDog's quarter portion feta-stuffed peppers 298.77 8.46 24.34 11.00 4.12

Method: 1. mix cauli, walnuts, garlic, ginger and herbs together 2. heat oil in pan and then saute the mix until volume has reduced and the cauli is near cooked 3. halve and deseed the bell peppers but leave the stalk in to provide structure (I trimmed mine a little so they didn't look so daft) 4. put the peppers cut side up into a pre-greased oven proof dish 5. distribute the cauli mix between the halves 6. pack the feta on top of the stuffed peppers 7. cook in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 20 minutes until the feta is nicely browned **

* if you have fresh herbs, all the better
** the peppers won't cook to 'softness' in this time, but I like them with a bit of crunch: if you prefer them cooked more you could put them in the oven for a wee while before stuffing them...

Another fine feeding day, sleep tight all - I'll be dreaming of my coffee with cream and toasted and buttered almond-muffin-cake for Sunday's breakfast FatDog

Weigh-in at the start of day 21: digital scales are giving a friendly 129.4lbs, that's 0.4lb off from yesterday. The analogue scales initially looked as though they were reading 9 stone, woohoo, but with my glasses on it became evident that it was 9 stone and 1lb and a bit. So, sanity check is not too far off : 127.5? reading + 1.75 analogue adjustment ~= 129.25lbs, that'll just do to go with the digital reading. Tape measures are the same, though I do 'feel' slimmer...

I'm swithering as to what to do for tonight's dinner - a sunny day rather calls for a salad of some sort, but then I've a pack of quorn mince in our freezer section of the fridge that the OH is threatening to throw out if it's not used soon. Hmm. Inspiration needed.

@izzy funny you should say that, OH is going through the Argos stuff just now...

Chickpeas are exceedingly high on my list of favourite foods - too carby for the moment but I'm having my salad Chana Dal (chickpea curry, recipe on recipe thread) as soon as the carbs allow...

Sunday, day twenty-one, feed day: heavenly breakfast (after four as usual) of toasted almond-muffin-cake with butter and coffee with cream - feed days on low-carb can be deliciously indulgent. Dinner was just that: field mushrooms with blue cheese custard - time pressed so the eggy bit of the custard didn't happen, still delicious and yet another on the repeat list. Oh, and dinner was accompanied with a pinot grigio spritzer

The damage was:

....... Calories 1393.41 Carbs 22.16 Fat 108.01 Protein 43.82 Fibre 8.21

No hardships on this diet.

field mushrooms with blue cheese - inspired by CBB p37
flat field mushrooms, large 15c/C0.4/F0.5/P1.8/Fi1.0/100g
......... 270g 40.50 1.08 1.35 4.86 2.70
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 30ml 247.20 0.00 27.48 0.00 0.00
garlic, 149cal/Fa0.5g/Ca33.06g/Fi2.1g/P6.36g/100g
......... 2 cloves 6g 8.94 1.98 0.03 0.38 0.13
s&p 0.00
stilton, 410c/C0.1/F35.0/P23.7/F0/100g
......... 96g 393.60 0.10 33.60 22.75 0.00
crème fraiche, 204c/C5.5/F18.4/P4.0/Fi0/100g
......... 200g CBB gives 150ml 408.00 11.00 36.80 8.00 0.00
tarragon, dried (or better still fresh)
......... good pinch to each mushroom, more added to creme fraiche 0.00
s&p 0.00
almonds, flaked, 645c/C6.5/F55.8/P25.4/Fi7.4/100g
......... 4g 25.80 0.26 2.23 1.02 0.30
broccoli, floretted 35c/C1.8/F0.9/P4.4/Fi2.6/100g
......... 290g 101.50 5.22 2.61 12.76 7.54
total 1426.76 18.63 127.38 50.23 6.55
FatDog's 1/3 of field mushrooms and blue cheese 475.59 6.21 42.46 16.74 2.18

Method: 1. ping or blanche the broccoli (dry this out as best you can to avoid a soggy-bottomed dish) 2. add half the oil to an oven-proof dish (large enough for the mushrooms and broccoli), use this to coat the topsides of the mushrooms then evenly place them in the dish, stalks up 3. distribute the garlic and remaining oil over the gills of the mushrooms, adding good pinch of tarragon and s&p to each 4. pack the broccoli between the mushrooms 5. sloop the crème fraiche over the mushrooms and broccoli, then crumble over the stilton 6. bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 20 minutes until the cheese is browning and bubbly

Broccoli & mushroom cheese perhaps, but it was rather special - I'll definitely do the custard bit next time. Finished off with my ritual 85% chocolate squares, this made for very fine dining

Weigh-in at the start of day 22: end of week 3 on Rose Elliot's low-carb vegetarian.

Today's stats: digital scales showed a tail-wagging 129.0lbs, and analogue showed a touch over 9 stone 1lbst => 127.2? + 1.75lb ~= 128.95 so digital probably correct. That's 0.4lb loss - making-up a little for the ups-and-downs earlier in the week. Tape measures are the same, except I do believe that my waist has gone down to 28 inches.

I have a dirty little confession: all my tape measurements have been a little 'muffin-topped' - that's because the first ones were so bad that I felt compelled to pull things a bit tight to reduce the horrendous numbers (rather than having the tape loose as one is meant to)... and now I have to continue muffin-topping in order to remain consistent. oops. I'm very gradually reducing the tightness so it'll all come right in the end, and the absolute amount lost is the same, so it's not cheating in that respect.

Ta-daaah - the week's stats: weigh-in last Monday was 131.2lbs so that's 2.2 pounds lost in the week. Not as splendiferous as the 3.6lbs and 3.0lbs losses of the previous weeks but probably more than 5:2 alone would have managed and more than my calorie deficit of 4904.82 accounts for. I'm still working with a TDEE of 1700 for my calculations which is exceedingly generous - if I used the tracker's suggestion of about 1340 that calorie deficit would be even lower (~2385), and thus the 'unexplained' loss even greater.

I think this is woo-woo of mystery rather than woo-science. Still a case study does not data make, so we'll need to wait for some real research for this 'synergy' between low-carb and 5:2 to be properly demonstrated (or not!).

If there are any of you wonderful techy-bods out there, I'd love to hear what you think... @carorees, @kencc, @philT?

After discussion with OH, who I rather think would like his FatDog to be eating normal instant-prep food again, I'm doing a double jump with an increase in my carb allowance to 30g. I hope that I'm not so carb intolerant that the increase takes me out of fat-burning mode: bother this for a game of soldiers if it does...

@izzy - the poor old Kenwood is now deid : with a flash and a bang it passed away whilst OH was seeing if he could revive it. I should never have mentioned its age and its sturdiness.

All the other parts are immaculate (except the blender jug - blade bit is okay but has started to leak, which is maybe why the beasty shorted) so if anyone wants them they're yours for the postage (or collect if in Edinburgh)... Like an idiot, I heaved the poor body into the communal bucket before making a note of the model number (have tried to retrieve it but it has been buried under other's waste). However, it looks exactly like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-FP580-2 ... ssor+fp580. I'll bung the parts on gumtree if no one here can use them.

The Ninjas were calling but a wee Cuisinart Mini Food Processor gem at £19.50 (was £60 in Debenhams) proved budgetarily irresistible and there's a video of it flouring hazelnuts. Yes! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000 ... UTF8&psc=1 . I'll just have to keep the OH away from it.

Oh, and Lidl has non-stick pans just now, so that's that problem solved for under a tenner - bought the wok as I can use less oil but it's still wide enough at the bottom to do small omelettes or chapatis. All I need now is a rolling pin.

Some hours later - off to the Co-op for my mushrooms and sidled into the charity shop on my way, as is my wont, and there was a lovely wooden rolling pin waiting for me... That's more woo than my weight loss - enough good fortune for one day methinks

[carorees]

Ta-daaah - the week's stats: weigh-in last Monday was 131.2lbs so that's 2.2 pounds lost in the week. Not as splendiferous as the 3.6lbs and 3.0lbs losses of the previous weeks but probably more than 5:2 alone would have managed and more than my calorie deficit of 4904.82 accounts for. I'm still working with a TDEE of 1700 for my calculations which is exceedingly generous - if I used the tracker's suggestion of about 1340 that calorie deficit would be even lower (~2385), and thus the 'unexplained' loss even greater.

I think this is woo-woo of mystery rather than woo-science. Still a case study does not data make, so we'll need to wait for some real research for this 'synergy' between low-carb and 5:2 to be properly demonstrated (or not!).

If there are any of you wonderful techy-bods out there, I'd love to hear what you think... @carorees, @kencc, @philT?

Well, when I found there was a big discrepancy between my apparent TDEE and the weight loss I was experiencing it turned out to be my faulty scales which made me out as lighter than I actually was and so my TDEE was calculated as being lower than it actually was!

There are many factors affecting TDEE including NEAT, metabolic rate, muscle mass etc, which combined can result in the actual TDEE being different from the calculated TDEE.

There is also the 'metabolic advantage' as Peter Attia calls it of low carbing which would apply to fasting as well and may result in bigger losses than expected.

Probably adding all these factors together would result in the discrepancy you're seeing (but that's just my guess of course).

Cheers @izzy. No exciting mushroom recipe I'm afraid, just an omelette - but using stilton in it along with red chilli, garlic, onion, green pepper etc. did make for a very tasty dinner. I've no reason to believe that I'm carb intolerant other than big carb intakes tend to have the usual unpleasant after effects... Fingers crossed with the extra carb rations too

Thanks @Carorees : I think I can safely say that the scales are within a couple of pounds of being right (the two sets I have are now consistently sanity checking each other +/- 2lbs). Being a sedentary slug with little muscle I doubt that's a factor upping my metabolism. But methinks you've possibly nailed it with Attia's 'metabolic advantage' idea - I must go dig further for the science.

Cheers all, FatDog.

Weight-loss for week 4 is 1.8lbs and tape measure losses are 0.5 inches off under-bust, 0.5 inches off waist, and just over 0.5 inches off hips.

Weight-loss would probably have been 2.2lbs if I hadn't indulged yesterday (carbocalypse at 41g too). Continuing to assume a TDEE of 1700, the calorie deficit for the week was 4418 which would give a 1.26lb loss.

Excellent. Getting into clothes that I wore and loved nearly twenty years ago and even "real" size 10s are beginning to look at me again.

After conflab with OH, I'm going to increase the carbs for this week by just 5g to 35g rather than doing another 10g jump. Should be able to squeeze some chickpeas in there now


... figures are for the start of day so reflect loss of the previous day

N.B. analogue scales now consistently sanity checking digital (when digital ain't mad) at
... digital lbs = analogue lbs + ~1.75lbs

Monday day 22: wt. 129lbs = baseline end of week 3 / start week 4
... t.measures - ub. 30.5, w. 28, t. 34.5, h. 37.5
Tuesday day 23: wt. 128.4lbs (analogue sanity checks digital); loss 0.6lb;
... t.measures - ub. 30.25, w. 28, t. 34.5, h. 37.25
Wednesday day 24: wt. 128.4lbs; loss 0.0lb;
... n.b. scales unstable, today's digital: 128.4lbs (or 129.4 yeh...)
... analogue: 9 stone 0lbs => 126lbs + 1.75lbs ~= 127.75lbs; would indicate digital loss but revised thought that it's an analogue misread as one wouldn't necessarily expect more than 0.2lbs, if any, loss after feed day
... t.measures - ub. 30.25, w. 28, t. 34.5, h. 37.25 but slacker
Thursday day 25: wt. 127.8lbs (analogue sanity checks digital); loss 0.6lbs;
... t.measures - ub. 30.25, w. 28, t. 34.5, h. 37.25 but tighter - salt / water retention?
Friday day 26: wt. 127.7lbs; loss 0.1lbs (split the difference);
... n.b. scales unstable, today's digital: 127.8lbs (or 128.xx, 129.xx whatever)
... analogue: a tad under 9 stone => 125.8lbs + 1.75lbs ~= 127.55lbs
... t.measures, forgot until too late
Saturday day 27: wt. 127.2lbs (analogue sanity checks); loss 0.5lbs;
... t.measures - ub. 30.25, w. 27.9, t. 34.5, h. 37.0
Sunday day 28: wt. 126.8lbs; loss 0.4lbs;
... n.b. scales daft, today's digital: 131.6lbs (I put on 4.4lbs overnight?), then 126.8lbs
... analogue: 8 stone 13 lbs (OH confirmed) => 125.0lbs + 1.75lbs ~= 126.75lbs
... t.measures - ub. 30.25, w. 27.9, t. 34.5, h. 37.0
Monday day 29: wt. 127.2lbs (analogue sanity checks); regained 0.4lbs - G&Ts?
... t.measures - ub. 30.0, w. 27.5, t. 34.5, h. 36.9 - that's ub., w. and h. all down

I'm moving to a weekly report - will revert to daily if there's an outcry from my kind and faithful readers

Monday, day twenty-two, fast day: a time for playing with the new wok so omelette it is for dinner tonight. I'm attempting to get my slacker's yoghurt in earlier so that dinner time isn't such a carb-assult on the system: managed to eat it at 19:00 (and then dinner at 22:00 on account of a neighbour press-ganging me into baby sitting until after nine) - I'm aiming to break-fast earlier than 18:00 from now on.

Monday's damage was:
....... Calories 483.96 Carbs 11.41 Fat 35.08 Protein 27.29 Fibre 7.99

stilton, mushroom and pepper omelette
eggs, brown, 151cal/C0g/F11.2g/P12.5/Fi0g/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
stilton, 410c/C0.1/F35.0/P23.7/F0/100g
......... 30g 123.00 0.03 10.50 7.11 0.00
bell pepper, green, 20c/C2.6/F0.3/P0.8/Fi1.6/100g
......... 50g 10.00 1.30 0.15 0.40 0.80
mushrooms, cc, organic, 15cal/C0.4g/F0.5g/P1.8g/Fi1.0g/100g
......... 104g 15.60 0.42 0.52 1.87 1.04
onion, fine chopped, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 22g 9.46 2.05 0.00 0.16 0.46
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 5ml 41.20 0.00 4.58 0.00 0.00
garlic, 149cal/Fa0.5g/Ca33.06g/Fi2.1g/P6.36g/100g
......... 1 big clove 4g 5.96 1.32 0.02 0.25 0.08
chilli, red, 40cal/Fa0.2g/Ca9.5g/Fi1.5g/P2.0g/100g GL4
......... 4g 1.60 0.38 0.01 0.08 0.06
s&p 0.00
total 288.36 5.49 21.83 16.62 2.45

Method: 1. heat oil in non-stick pan with a small base, saute onions until softening 2. add pepper, mushrooms, garlic and chilli and saute until the mushrooms have reduced 3. drain off any excess mushroom juice 4. beat the egg in a bowl and mix in crumbled stilton 5. add cheesy egg mix to pan 6. cook omelette for a few minutes on each side and serve with salad

That was delicious and the wok worked like a dream: I'm more than half a century old and I don't think I've ever had a proper non-stick pan - what a revelation, it makes life so much easier!

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

Tuesday, day twenty-three, feed day : I really should know better than trying to do a stir-fry on a feed day - the carb / calories balance never works out quite right... Still, gave the wok another run, and it really is a wonder to cook with.

Tuesday's accounts, worked out okay in the end but only with the help of lots of brazil nuts, emmental and, the final saviour, a milky (soy) bed-time drink:
....... 1378.53 29.77 111.42 56.95 19.06

stir fry number 4
stir fry mix, coop, 35c/C4.8/F0.4/P1.8/Fi2.3/100g
......... 700g 245.00 33.60 2.80 12.60 16.10
pnuts, large salt coop, 610cal/C10.5/F51.3/P26.4/Fi6.9/100g
......... 75g 457.50 7.88 38.48 19.80 5.18
mushrooms, cc, organic, 15cal/C0.4g/F0.5g/P1.8g/Fi1.0g/100g
......... 115g 17.25 0.46 0.58 2.07 1.15
onion, fine chopped, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 48g 20.64 4.46 0.00 0.34 1.01
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 30ml 247.20 0.00 27.48 0.00 0.00
garlic, 149cal/Fa0.5g/Ca33.06g/Fi2.1g/P6.36g/100g
......... 2 big cloves 8g 11.92 2.64 0.04 0.50 0.17
chilli, red, 40cal/Fa0.2g/Ca9.5g/Fi1.5g/P2.0g/100g GL4
......... 8g 3.20 0.76 0.02 0.16 0.12
ginger, fine chopped, 100cal/C15.8g/F0?g/P1.8g/Fi?g/100g
......... 20g 20.00 3.16 0.00 0.36 0.00
soy sauce, low salt, amoy, 52c/C9.2/F0/P3.9/Fi0/100ml
......... 15ml 7.80 1.38 0.00 0.59 0.00
s&p 0.00
total 1030.51 54.34 69.39 36.42 23.72
0.22 0.63 0.15
FatDog's 1/3rd stir fry number 4 total 343.50 18.11 23.13 12.14 7.91

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

Wednesday, day twenty-four, fast day : Oh the excitement - my wee Cuisinart arrived this morning, and it wasn't meant to arrive until Saturday! That settles it: tonight's dinner will involve cauliflower rice - the cauliflower being a 20p bargain from the Co-op last night. So I think that it has to be skinny fast-day pizza with rocket / spinach / watercress salad for me this evening, and OH is happy to have a base to accompany the stir-fry leftovers.

Have checked that the wee beasty works by grinding the linseeds that we need for the next few days: brilliant - though linseeds are a menace at getting everywhere the clean-up was a doddle.

Dinner prep with the wee beasty was great - riced my cauliflower in five batches, minced my garlic, chopped the onions and the tomatoes. Absolutely no complaints. I'm in love - I'll need a better name than the 'wee beasty'.

It's amazing how proper quantities of chilli / tomato / garlic / onion bump up one's carb intake (8.9g of carb from those four alone in my pizza tonight): I remember a few weeks ago being most disconcerted at having to take them out or use them very sparingly. So glad my allowance is up so these tasty things can be part of my food again!

Pizza base sogginess was probably the worst so far, BUT... the taste was great - I think the added soya flour makes it more pizza-base-like (the nut addition last time was a bit too nut-roast for pizza). Soggification was not helped by adding lots of wet tomato on top, but I still have a problem with drying the cauliflower: I tried dry frying it this time - nicely golden but still damp; oh, and I used far too much - I thought I was dealing with a 'small head' but it was 100g more than previous runs.

Wednesday's damage:
... 548.94 22.69 34.81 32.01 13.72

Skinny fast-day pizza version no. 1
cauliflower, riced, cooked, dried 35c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi2.5/100g
......... 368g 128.80 11.04 3.31 13.25 9.20
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 20g 84.80 3.20 4.00 7.80 2.40
eggs, brown, 151cal/C0g/F11.2g/P12.5/Fi0g/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
cream cheese, full-fat, 260c/C2.8/F25.0/P5.4/Fi0/100g
......... 30g 78.00 0.84 7.50 1.62 0.00
parmesan cheese, 392cal/C0g/F28.4g/P33.0g/Fi0g/100g
......... 5g 19.60 0.00 1.42 1.65 0.00
garlic powder
......... 2ml 0.00
italian herbs, schwartz
......... 5ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
skinny fast-day pizza no. 1 base total 392.74 15.08 22.28 31.07 11.60
FatDog's ½ skinny fast-day pizza no. 1 base total 196.37 7.54 11.14 15.53 5.80

feta, organic, crumbled, tesco, 275c/C1.0/F23.0/P16.0/Fi0/100g
......... 35g 96.25 0.35 8.05 5.60 0.00
chilli, green, fine chopped, 40cal/Fa0.2g/Ca9.5g/Fi1.5g/P2.0g/100g
......... 5g 2.00 0.48 0.01 0.10 0.08
onion, red, fine chopped, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 36g 15.48 3.35 0.00 0.26 0.76
tomato, vine, chopped 20c/C3.1/F0.3/P0.7/Fi1.2/100g
......... 120g 24.00 3.72 0.36 0.84 1.20
olives, black, chopped 134c/C0/F15/P0.5/Fi2.5/100g
......... 17g 22.78 0.00 2.55 0.09 0.43
garlic, fine chopped, 149cal/Fa0.5g/Ca33.06g/Fi2.1g/P6.36g/100g
......... 1 big clove 4g 5.96 1.32 0.02 0.25 0.08
basil, dried
......... good couple of pinches 0.00
s&p 0.00
FatDog's skinny fast-day pizza no. 1 toppings total 166.47 9.22 10.99 7.13 2.54

FatDog's skinny fast-day pizza no. 1 grand total 362.84 16.76 22.13 22.67 8.34

Method: 1. prep and dry your cauliflower rice, somehow; 2. mix dried stuff together with cheeses; 3. beat / whisk egg; 4. add egg to dried stuff and cheeses and fold in thoroughly; 5. dollop a well heaped tablespoonful (for four, or less if you're stretching to six) onto pre-oiled parchment on a baking tray; 6. flatten (1/3 rd to ½ inch thick) to form into a circle**; 7. cook 10 minutes each side in preheated oven at 200C; 8. add toppings and either grill or bake again until golden brown / bubbling.

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

Thursday, day twenty-five, feed day : right, I need to use my two mangoes before they fester in the fridge (they were my 'reward' for the press-ganged baby-sitting). Methinks Caribbean salad will do the trick - it's a delicious recipe that originally came (I think, circa 1995) from an Oxfam world cookery book. Oh for a banana mudslide to go with it...

And in the evening? Sadly I was utterly flattened by the heat - I do not recommend an afternoon moving in and out of the lovely sunny window of a very hot charity bookshop for raising one's energy levels: the Caribbean salad will have to wait until tomorrow (fortunately it's carborific not calorific - more on that tomorrow).

So tonight's delight was the other half of the skinny fast-day pizza bases with a lovely tomato, olive, chilli, onion, garlic and feta salad plus the remains of the watercress, spinach and rocket... Genuinely mmmm. Fortunately I'd bumped my calories with a 60g brazil nut break-fast (in anticipation of the non-calorific Caribbean offering) so no problems ensuring the calories were okay - especially after adding a (well needed) glass of pinot grigio into the mix. Just 10g of pistachios before bed and that's my feeding done - or perhaps I could have a second glass of vino instead?! Hick.

Too knackered even for shelling the pistachios - the peanut version of accounts is:
... 1379.91 27.78 111.38 41.93 17.96

It doesn't cease to amaze me how few peanuts one gets for one's calories - I've merrily scranned half a packet of them before now: nothing like counting carbs and cals to make one aware of quite what one is shoving into one's mouth

Oooh, and I'd like a little rant: the idea that 5:2 practice brings a wonderful food mindfulness with it is very true. BUT (and I think it's a big one) I'm finding that I continue to eat when satiated "because I've counted those calories so I can't leave them on my plate" and / or "because I don't want to eat too far below my TDEE as I'm terrified of shifting my metabolism". I don't think either of these scenarios is a healthy way of eating, but I'm not quite sure how to work round them...

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

Friday, day twenty-six, fast day : okay - I'd expected the mango, avocado and even the red pepper to bump up the carbs, but the cabbage? Really? Yes, really - it's more carbiferous than cauliflower (3g) or broccoli (1.8g): that cabbage might look harmless but at 5g carb per 100g you need to watch out for it... I'm not sure where the cabbage carb figures for day two's cabbage gratin came from, but they're wrong. Caribbean salad is lots of prep work, totally unsuitable for low-carb (30g) *feed* days, as it runs one right out of carbs, but it is well worth the trouble.

Knew it was going to be pretty tight with the carbs and the salad, so 'cleared the decks' by having flax seeds in water (not as revolting as it sounds - quite nutty really) and abandoning any thought of a soya drink at night.

Longing for a wee glass of cool white wine on this lovely sunny day, but it's a fast-day...

Then my very bestest friend (VBF) came by and the flexibility of 5:2 kicked in - I decided to turn today into a half-fast (750cals). G&T (carb free), wicked salad, salted almonds, 2 squares of 85% and a happy-sigh - could almost be back in the Caribbean ...

Surprisingly, and happily, the damage wasn't too terminal:
....... 760.21 29.54 38.05 14.05 15.50

Caribbean salad
bell pepper, red, finely sliced, 36c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi1.6/100g
......... 200g 72.00 12.80 0.80 2.00 3.20
avocado, chunked, 160c/C8.53/F14.66/P2.0/Fi6.7/100g
......... 224g 358.40 19.11 32.84 4.48 15.01
mango, chopped, 56c/C14.8/F0.4/P0.8/Fi1.6/100g
......... 338g 189.28 50.02 1.35 2.70 5.41
cabbage, white, fine shredded, 32c/C5.0/F0.2/P1.4/Fi2.1/100g
......... 489g 156.48 24.45 0.98 6.85 10.27
cucumber, finely chopped*, 11c/C1.5/F0.1/P0.7/Fi0.6/100g
......... 381g 41.91 5.72 0.38 2.67 2.29
spring onions, chopped, 28c/C3.0/F0.5/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 95g 26.60 2.85 0.48 1.90 1.43
garlic, fine chop, 149cal/Fa0.5g/Ca33.06g/Fi2.1g/P6.36g/100g
......... 2 big clove 10g 14.90 3.31 0.05 0.63 0.21
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 15ml 3.90 0.30 0.00 0.06 0.05
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 45ml 370.80 0.00 41.22 0.00 0.00
s&p 0.00
total Caribbean salad 1234.27 118.55 78.09 21.29 37.85
FatDog's 396g portion of Caribbean salad 271.99 26.13 17.21 4.69 8.34

* I used my new wee whizz to fine chop the cucumber - made it easy to drain off the excess liquid.

Method: 1. blitz garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning for the dressing; 2. mix everything else together thoroughly and dress...

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

Saturday, day twenty-seven, feed day : the plot was Antony Worrall Thompson's green beans p96 (GI diet book) and CBB's almond muffins p27 with major modifications to make savoury scones with cheese and seeds and mmmm. Then I remembered that we took delivery of two pots of spinach & feta dipping sauce from a freegan friend - one of those would do very well instead of creme fraiche in the savoury scones, methinks?

AWT's beans were abandoned as I didn't fancy slaving over a hot cooker in this lovely hot weather, but the muffin-bread did happen (that just needed bunged in the oven - I didn't have to stand over it). So OH enjoyed the last of the Caribbean salad and FatDog just had a leafy salad with feta, onion, tomato, olives, garlic and etc. with buttered savoury muffin-cake (scone idea didn't come off as the dough mix is way to gloopy).

Oh, and FatDog also had a 100ml of pinot grigio in 1L of fizzy water, plus (as ever) 2 squares of 85% chocolate. Not forgetting standard feed-day victuals of soya milk in tea, brazils for break-fast, slacker's yoghurt pre-dinner and nuts as a late night snack, of course.

So, unless I fall off the wagon in some way before bed, the accounts for today are:
... 1358.49 25.85 107.68 44.58 17.64

Savoury muffin-cake variation no. 1 - inspired by CBB p27 (one third recipe)
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 75g 318.00 12.00 15.00 29.25 9.00
almonds, ground, 640c/C6.9/F55.8/P21.1/Fi11.8/100g
......... 50g 320.00 3.45 27.90 10.55 5.90
baking powder
......... 5ml 0.00
pure via (stevia based sweetener) 2c/C0.47/F0/P0/Fi0/0.5g/5ml
......... 2ml 3.00 0.71 0.00 0.00 0.00
s&p 0.00
caraway seed, whole
......... 2ml 0.00
eggs, brown, 151cal/C0g/F11.2g/P12.5/Fi0g/100g
......... ~54g x 2 of 163.08 0.00 12.10 13.50 0.00
spinach, feta & cashew dip, 376c/C5.8/F34.8/P8.2/Fi0/100g
......... 135g 507.60 7.83 46.98 11.07 0.00
total for four savoury muffins variation no.1 1311.68 23.99 101.98 64.37 14.90
1/4 muffin-cake slice 327.92 6.00 25.49 16.09 3.73

Method: 1. mix all dry stuff in one bowl; 2. mix / beat all wet stuff in another bowl; 3. add the dry stuff to the wet stuff and mix well but don't over mix; 4. squish (it doesn't pour) into greased flan tray (or muffin tray if you have one); 5. bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 20 to 30 minutes; 6. remove from oven when nicely golden and let stand for 5 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack; 7. eat warm with butter

I meant to add some sunflower, pumpkin and pinenut mix but forgot - mattered not methinks as the spinach & feta dip had nutty bits (cashew) in it anyway.

I wasn't very critical of the almond version of the muffin-cake that I made last weekend as I was so thrilled at getting my first cake baked. However, I'm not so sure that soya flour will be to everyone's liking - there's almost a chalky texture to the cake. The cake is also a little dense - not quite the fluffy-looking product that CBB has illustrated - this might be because they're not 'muffined' but more likely I'm not doing something correctly. If there are any cake-makers out there, your advice would be much appreciated. I'll need to experiment. But please don't get me wrong - the cake is jolly good, and for a bread deprived low-carber it's heaven!

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

Sunday, day twenty-eight, feed day : break-fast was another quarter of my savoury muffin with a portion of black pepper boursin, mmmm. And dinner: a modified version of RE's Thai bean cakes (FFF p92) with a red chilli dipping sauce, yoghurt satay (peanut) sauce - there are a gadzillion recipes for these generic sauces on the internet and I just mixed and made-up to suit what I had in the fridge / was in the shop next-door - and a nice green leaf salad. Linseed in water (saves carbs & calories), plus the usual nuts and the 85% addiction sealed the day. Did I mention the odd G&T?

Dinner took an age to do (my inefficiency) but was thoroughly worth it in the end: far, far from authentic Thai (lemon not lime, no lemon-grass, no red chilli), but still another one to go into the 'one of the nicest meals I've ever made' book. The only thing I'd change is perhaps oven-baking the 'cakes' rather than frying - not very Thai either I'm sure, but possibly easier (and they'd maybe not disintegrate so readily).

All very delicious but at a carbocalyptic cost:
....... Calories 1572.29 Carbs 41.41 Fat 92.94 Protein 52.43 Fibre 4.99

Thai inspired bean cakes
cannelli beans, canned, rough chopped, 89c/C13.3/F0.6/P7.5/Fi6.4/100g
......... 235g 209.15 31.26 1.41 17.63 15.04
green lentils, canned, 73c/C10.9/F0.6/P6.1/F4.4/100g
......... 265g 193.45 28.89 1.59 16.17 11.66
spring onions, very fine chopped, 28c/C3.0/F0.5/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 58g 16.24 1.74 0.29 1.16 0.87
fresh coriander, rough chopped, 23c/C0.87/F0.52/P2.13/Fi2.8/100g
......... 8g 1.84 0.07 0.04 0.17 0.22
sweet red pepper, very fine chopped, 32c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi0/100g
......... 58g 7.04 1.41 0.09 0.22 0.00
red Thai paste see recip below
......... 110.76 5.24 9.38 1.03 0.41
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 60ml 500.00 0.00 55.20 0.00 0.00
total for Thai bean cakes 1281.34 79.05 87.68 40.83 33.87
FatDog's 7/24th portion of Thai inspired bean cakes 373.72 23.06 25.57 11.91 9.88
(less than a third but more than a quarter)

Method: 1. thoroughly mix all ingredients, except oil; 2. form into patties (about a large heaped tablespoon each for this quantity will give six patties); 3. squeeze the patties very hard to remove as much liquid as possible; 4. heat oil in a non-stick pan and fry the patties for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until nicely brown

red Thai paste
chilli, green, 40c/C9.5g/F0.2g/P2.0g/Fi1.5g/100g
......... 11g 4.40 1.05 0.02 0.22 0.17
coriander seed, fresh ground
......... 5ml 0.00
ginger, 100cal/C15.8g/F0?g/P1.8g/Fi?g/100g
......... 5g 5.00 0.79 0.00 0.09 0.00
cumin seed, fresh ground
......... 5ml 0.00
spring onions, white heads, 28c/C3.0/F0.5/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 8g 2.24 0.24 0.04 0.16 0.12
garlic, 149c/C33.06g/F0.5g/P6.36g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 2 cloves 5g 7.45 1.65 0.03 0.32 0.11
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 5ml 1.30 0.10 0.00 0.02 0.02
sweet red pepper, 32c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi0/100g
......... 22g 7.04 1.41 0.09 0.22 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 10ml 83.33 0.00 9.20 0.00 0.00
total for red Thai paste 110.76 5.24 9.38 1.03 0.41

Method: 1. blitz all ingredients to form as fine a paste as possible

Thai red chilli dipping sauce
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 30ml 7.80 0.60 0.00 0.12 0.09
soy sauce, low salt, amoy, 52c/C9.2/F0/P3.9/Fi0/100ml
......... 30ml 15.60 2.76 0.00 1.17 0.00
pure via (stevia based sweetener) 2c/C0.47/F0/P0/Fi0/0.5g/5ml
......... 15ml 6.00 1.41 0.00 0.00 0.00
ginger, 100cal/C15.8g/F0?g/P1.8g/Fi?g/100g
......... 4g 4.00 0.63 0.00 0.07 0.00
garlic, 149cal/Fa0.5g/Ca33.06g/Fi2.1g/P6.36g/100g
......... 4g 5.96 1.32 0.02 0.25 0.08
chilli, green, 40c/C9.5g/F0.2g/P2.0g/Fi1.5g/100g
......... 7g 2.80 0.67 0.01 0.14 0.11
water
......... 15ml 0.00
sweet red pepper, 32c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi0/100g
......... 54g 17.28 3.46 0.22 0.54 0.00
total for Thai red chilli dipping sauce 59.44 10.85 0.25 2.29 0.28
FatDog's 1/4 portion of red chilli dipping sauce 14.86 2.71 0.06 0.57 0.07

Method: 1. blitz all ingredients to form a smooth sauce

Satay sauce
garlic, 149cal/Fa0.5g/Ca33.06g/Fi2.1g/P6.36g/100g
......... 4g 5.96 1.32 0.02 0.25 0.08
spring onions, 28c/C3.0/F0.5/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 15g 4.20 0.45 0.08 0.30 0.23
chilli flakes
......... 2ml 0.00
pnuts, large salt coop, 625cal/C10.5/F51.3/P26.4/Fi6.9/100g
......... 100g 625.00 10.50 51.30 26.40 6.90
water
......... 40ml 0.00
youghurt (yeo valley), 82c/C6.5/F4.2/P4.6/Fi0/100g
......... 40g 32.80 2.60 1.68 1.84 0.00
total for Satay sauce 682.82 17.58 53.14 29.37 7.28
FatDog's ¼ portion of Satay sauce 170.71 4.40 13.28 7.34 1.82

Method: 1. medium fine grind the peanuts in a processor, set aside; 2. fine chop the garlic and spring onions in processor; 3. then finally whizz everything together in the processor (add more water if a more liquid sauce is required)

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P.S. My 'daily accounts' fibre figures prior to this week are well nargled and oft significantly lower than they should have been (the recipe figures are fine). There was an error in my spreadsheet that has propagated it's way all through the low-carb experiment for the fibre totals. I'm not going back to fix them all on the blog just now, sorry, but as a rule-of-thumb fast-day fibre intake was generally over 10g (often more) and feed-day intake 20g (again, often more).