Monday, low-carb day one-hundred and sixty-nine, repair day Weigh-in at start of day wt. 112.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.75lbs); 0.6lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.6, t. 30.5, h. 34.5 inches
Report at the end-of-week 24 of low-carb : total low-carb weight loss 25.4lbs, and last week 2.0lbs weight loss. Shrinkage now recorded with a touch off waist and hips and a gratifying triple touch off stomach. Thought the hips loss was much more, as some days I'm seeing 33.x, but could only shimmy the tape from my bust to my knees at 34.5, so that's where it will have to be.
Groan. It actually read 112.6lbs more times than 112.4lbs, but I'm afraid that the former was all too much for me, so I went for the latter (after all, the analogues hadn't moved in any obvious way). Maybe the carbs *were* rather high yesterday and the gain is just carb-water-logging? Excess 200 calories on Sunday (unlikely, 1750 calories is equivalent to a half pound)? Eeeevil scales-fairy? Don't know. Growl. Puddling out the ketones though (4.0 mmol/L) so, if ketostix are anything to go by, I'm still fat-burning.
Odd day - grand plans for book-moving, in anticipation of Candy's arrival on Thursday, but get absolutely nowhere. Did manage to pick up four cookbooks from the library though (I'd so love to work there!) and after a quick shufti at each, I want them all. Duh.
Another microwave baking experiment. This time more bread-like: I'd been wondering how far it was possible to push the linseed minute-muffin, having added bran last time to see if one could disguise the eggy taste (to no avail). This time I did a full 150g of "flour" (soya / linseed / oatbran, as per my brown rolls), along with the whole egg, as a single "loaf". Forgot the salt. And it didn't rise much at all. However, 'twas more than edible, *no* eggy taste, cut like bread without falling apart, had the texture of a dense wholemeal bread and was certainly a jolly fine accompaniment for my cheese, salad and quorn ham dinner. Bestest neighbour was briefly by and had some with three different cheeses and rated it highly. Unfortunately I still have half the "loaf" left and it's going to be hard to resist having some with a little butter and honey tomorrow... Will try the next "bake" with slightly less "flour" to see if I can get a better rise.
Repair day not quite as good-as-it-should-be today: had this overwhelming desire for coffee with my 85% chocolate after dinner, and enjoyed it so much that I had it all over again. No self-restraint there then (but at least I'll have a good reason for not sleeping tonight). And I forgot the quorn ham in my accounts until last thing - it isn't much on it's own, but it all mounts up...
........ Calories 677.41 Carbs 23.43 Fat 44.31 Protein 42.52 Fibre 13.61
oat bran, linseed & soya loaf, no. 1, microwave version
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 56g 237.44 8.96 11.20 21.84 6.72
linseed, golden, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 46g 245.64 0.69 19.39 8.41 12.56
oat bran, Holland & Barrett, 389.2c/C59.1/F6.5/P12.6/Fi9.3/100g
......... 45g 175.14 26.60 2.93 5.67 4.19
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 60g 90.60 0.00 6.72 7.50 0.00
baking powder
......... 5ml 0.00
xanthan gum
......... 3ml 0.00
water
......... 60ml 0.00
olive oil, 824c/C0.0/F91.6/P0.0/Fi0.0/100ml
......... 10ml 82.40 0.00 9.16 0.00 0.00
salt
......... forgot it, and it was noticably absent 0.00
total for oat bran, linseed & soya loaf, no. 1, microwave version 831.22 36.25 49.40 43.42 23.46
FatDog's ¼ portion of oat bran, linseed & soya loaf, no. 1, microwave version 207.81 9.06 12.35 10.86 5.87Method: 1. mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl; 2. gradually beat in the egg and the oil - you should end up with crumbs; 3. now gradually add the water until you have a slightly wet dough; 4. splop the dough out into an appropriately shaped microwaveable tub and level it down by shaking (I squished it, which probably contributed to its not rising much); 5. ping for four minutes and then at ten second intervals thereafter until there's something like a crust on top! I took mine out and turned it over to give the bottom a chance to let off steam - really need a microwaveable rack...
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Tuesday, low-carb day one-hundred and seventy, feed day Weigh-in at start of day wt. 112.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.75lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.6, t. 30.5, h. 34.5 inches
If I'm everso, everso good, will you please keep going downwards? Just a couple of pounds off is all I'm asking for? There's considerable hope from the measurements though, as there's actually double touches or more off all these, methinks.
A more thorough perusal of the library cookbooks moves them all *off* my want list - yay!
Troth Well's "The Global Vegetarian Kitchen" is a gorgeous tome, visually and recipe wise, and would be a stonkingly brilliant book to start one's veggie cookbook collection: it has all the 'standards' from around the world plus a few less obvious recipes. *But*,
"The World in Your Kitchen", also Troth Wells, essentially covers the same ground but with more unusual recipes (though perhaps without the visual XXX food-porn factor), and where it doesn't I've other cookbooks that more than do, such as
"World Food Cafe 1 & 2", CBB's
"World Vegetarian Classics", Sarah Brown's
"World Vegetarian Cookbook", and (not forgetting) Madhur Jaffrey's
"World Vegetarian". There's just the one recipe that was really new to me - and that was from a friend of Troth's in New Zealand and it features on the front cover! Have noted it. Might give the cookbook shelf space if I found it for a couple of quid - but I would actually rather pass it on to a tyro veggie friend if I did find it at that!
Nigel Slater's "Tender, volume I" is a lovely, lovely read and is a treat for sore eyes; he deals comprehensively with thirty or so veg types - planting, growing, harvesting and cooking. His 'tenderness' for veggies shines through. Anyone with a veg patch should get it, methinks. I don't have a veg patch. And I don't eat meat - and, sadly, this volume is surprisingly generously flavoured with meat (or fish, or fowl). Many of his veggie recipes seem vaguely familiar (cauliflower, for example, has nothing really new), but look lovely in their simplicity. And I do like the section for each veggie "seasoning your xxxx" - very useful. Sure, I'd be thrilled to give it shelf space but would I buy it? Probably not, unless it were at a very silly price that I couldn't resist; though I'd be breaking my "no meat cookbooks" rule, this is a volume worthy of such a breach.
I am wont to avoid 'compendium' type cookbooks; in my, albeit limited, experience, if it doesn't have a named author it's probably not going to be very good - my huge
"The Food of the World - a journey for food lovers" by Murdoch Books is a rare exception. So, the
"Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook" isn't a huge disappointment, as I wasn't expecting much. It *is* exceedingly comprehensive, nay encyclopaedic even - it has all the standards and then some: "Norwegian winter fruit salad" anyone? Maybe it's the lack of pictures, though that doesn't usually deter me (Jaffrey's tome for example), but somehow it doesn't inspire - there are no "oooh, I want to cook / eat that" moments. And it uses a fair amount of convenience foods (e.g. "fresh cheese-filled raviolli") which rather defeats the purpose of a cookbook. In it's favour, it does do a full macronutrient breakdown of each serving. Useful as a starting-out reference but, even if it were a bargain, I now don't have shelf space for it.
Finally,
Nicola Graimes' "New Vegetarian Kitchen". I've encountered NG's stuff somewhere in the dim distant past, and vaguely remember being unimpressed (maybe her slightly patronising tone put my hackles up). This, however, caught my eye on the shelf when I went to collect the three books above (that I'd actually ordered) and a quick shufti piqued my interest. She's still patronising, likes 'fancy' / obscure ingredients (we all know what "kecap manis" is, don't we? you don't? really? Indonesian soy sauce), but there's considerably more than a handful of recipes in there that have me *drooling* (and they don't all have pictures, maybe just one in four?). Many of the recipes seem original to me, and those that obviously aren't, at least have varying degrees of novel twist on the familiar. Yup. There's stuff in there that I definitely want to eat / cook; I'd give it shelf space without any hesitation, but do I want to buy it? Not so sure. Let's see how long I can keep it out of the library before someone puts a reserve on it - and if I can't bear to part with it I'll bung it on my stalk-it-on-Amazon-and-buy-when-it's-less-than-a-fiver list.
Oops, time flies by when one is going through cookbooks (and that, along with the approx 700 words above, has taken me all afternoon) - that's put paid to my 'sorting out the shelves' as it's now near six, and OH needs dinner on the table when he gets in. Mixed veg frittata methinks, but I'll need to "cull" the veggies as they're bargain ones and they're looking a tad sorry around the edges.
Dinner's done and dusted - OH is terribly impressed with the frittata and seems inordinately upset that this particular version will only go on the menu again when I can get the muhumarra for less than near three quid a tub (50p this time).
Now for pudding. Perhaps I'm not so mad with my plum and pink grapefruit compote idea? Here's a recipe from the St. Petersburg Times from 1970
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=8 ... 30,53239961 (16 ounces) can or jar of purple plums
? pink grapefruit (I can't work out if it's 3 or 8 - neither seems very likely!)
1 cup of grapes, halved (do you think red wine would do?)
1/2 cup plum syrup
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 to 1/4 tsp mint (yes, mint) flavouring
Oh, and "orange drink" can be used in place of the mint (?) and rum instead of the lemon juice (hmmm).Well, it's another bottom-of-the-fridge concoction, so plums, grapefruit, maybe one or more of orange / vanilla / almond essence and cinnamon are going into a pot together to reduce and we'll see what happens. I'm tempted to bung in some star anise too (it sounds so alluring) but I've never used it before! Hope to serve with cream or yoghurt - will decide once we find out how sweet / sour it is. OH, kind heart, is prep'ing the fruit for me! I'm going to faint - he's just washed up too (he does occasionally, but usually only when he can't find his favourite spoon anywhere)! Think my almond cookies would go beautifully with this - but might just hold the experiments to one thing at a time - almond flakes on top will do... And cream, the aroma is saying cream. A sprinkle of oat bran and a shot of whisky and we'll have a twist on cranachan (cream, whisky, honey, raspberries and oatmeal). I fear this experiment is going to take me a wee bit beyond my limits, carb-wise at least - but what's life for, if not experimentation? Okay, I'll use the almond flakes in lieu of the oat bran - that'll down the carbs (a little, shame about the calories).
Oh wow! I'm trying to think whether I've made a pudding before (excepting cake, that is, or simply an assembly), and get the feeling that this might be a first. Whatever, it certainly won't be a last!
That is good, very good. I *like* the fact that the fruit is tart (and hot), it offsets the sweetness of the cream and the whisky and the almonds. And the textures work too, at least for me - crunchy almond, gloopy fruit, smooth cream and, well, spiky whisky. I've not done the numbers yet, but I'd have a second portion (if there were one) anyhow. That certainly goes on the menu again, regardless of whether the plums & grapefruit & cream are bargain! One might add extra spices but, methinks, wouldn't as it would over-complicate something that already seems to work rather well. Fear that the OH found it a little *too* tart (think bestest neighbour would have too, had he been here, the plums were pretty sour) - but OH scranned it all anyway, wish he hadn't - I'd have easily scranned it for him
![smile :)](https://forum.fastday.com/images/smilies/smile.png)
Ooops, good thing that OH ate all his pud, and that there were no seconds... I've just done the numbers... *majorly embarrassed thingy*
........ Calories 1804.82 Carbs 62.09 Fat 103.19 Protein 43.70 Fibre 13.18
cheese, mixed veg and muhumarra frittata; a FatDog bottom-of-the-fridge concoction
eggs, brown, beaten & seasoned, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... ~50g x 4 of 302.00 0.00 22.40 25.00 0.00
red cheddar, graham's, grated, 416c/C0.1/F34.9/P25.4/Fi0/100g
......... 102g 424.32 0.10 35.60 25.91 0.00
carrot, cauliflower & broccoli, co-op, 40c/C5.0/F0.6/P2.4/Fi2.7/100g
......... 241g 96.40 12.05 1.45 5.78 6.51
muhumarra, g'nosh, 113c/C13.8/F5.3/P2.4/Fi2.9/100g
......... 150g 169.50 20.70 7.95 3.60 4.35
onion, red, co-op, medium chopped, 35c/C7.6/F0.2/P1.3/Fi1.4/100g
......... 50g 17.50 3.80 0.10 0.65 0.70
olive oil, 824c/C0.0/F91.6/P0.0/Fi0.0/100ml
......... 5ml 41.20 0.00 4.58 0.00 0.00
garlic flakes 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for cheese, mixed veg and muhumarra frittata 1050.92 36.65 67.49 60.94 11.56
FatDog's ½ portion of cheese, mixed veg and muhumarra frittata 525.46 18.33 33.75 30.47 5.78Method: 1. soften onions in heated oil; 2. add the veggies and give them a good stir-fry for a minute or four; 3. transfer all to a medium sized oven-proof dish; 4. spread the muhumarra evenly over the top; 5. layer half the cheese over, then pour over the beaten eggs, then sprinkle over the remaining cheese; 6. bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 15 to 20 minutes until going golden brown (if the bottom looks affy cooked it can be finished off under the grill for the last crispiness)
plum & grapefruit compote cranachanesque; another FatDog bottom-of-the-fridge concoction
pink grapefruit, segmented, rough chopped, 30c/C6.4/F0.1/P0.55/Fi1.1/100g
......... 154g 46.20 9.86 0.15 0.85 1.69
plums, destoned, rough chopped, tesco, 42c/C8.8/F0.1/P0.6/Fi1.6/100g
......... 267g 112.14 23.50 0.27 1.60 4.27
double cream, sainsers, 445c/C2.6/F47.5/P1.75/Fi0/100ml
......... 100ml 445.00 2.60 47.50 1.75 0.00
almonds, flaked, 645c/C6.5/F55.8/P25.4/Fi7.4/100g
......... 20g 129.00 1.30 11.16 5.08 1.48
whisky, 40% @ 7kcal per gram of alcohol
......... 40g 112.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
honey
......... 5ml 18.00 4.60 0.00 0.00 0.00
vanilla extract, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 2ml 16.67 0.00 1.84 0.00 0.00
almond extract, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 2ml 16.67 0.00 1.84 0.00 0.00
cinnamon, dried ground
......... 5ml 0.00
water
......... 200ml 0.00
total for plum & grapefruit compote cranachanesque 895.67 41.85 62.76 9.28 7.45
FatDog's ½ portion of plum & grapefruit compote cranachanesque 447.84 20.93 31.38 4.64 3.72Method: 1. bung the fruit, cinnamon, vanilla & almond extracts, and water into a pan, bring to the boil then simmer... for an age (probably an hour or more)... until it is reduced to a nice thick gloopy state - you'll need to stir more frequently towards the end or it will stick; 2. meantimes, roast your almond flakes; 3. take the fruit off the heat and add the honey and mix in well; 4. put the cream into bowls (extra thick or whipping cream would be wonderful here), dollop the fruit gloop in the middle, dribble the whisky over the fruit, and sprinkle the almond flakes on top (I died and went to heaven).