Hmmm... agree with @gillymary - last week's blog-in-one-post is a heck of a long read: I'll try to split it into at least two or three food posts a week...
As for energy levels with the low-carb, you know, I actually think mine have gone up - well I suppose they have to, to cope with all the extra standing, stirring and cooking - though I must confess to being knackered by the end of the day.
Monday, day twenty-nine, fast day: what to do with a quarter of a cabbage and a large carrot that need eaten before they walk out of the fridge? CBB's cabbage gratin comes to mind (p82, day 2 of low-carb log), but it's actually too good a recipe to mess with, and it makes for four servings. So, somehow, the idea of cooked eggy, cheesy slaw emerged... dog's dinner no. 4 is born.
The recipe ate up all of my post break-fast calories and most of the carbs, but it was worth it. I further blew the calorie budget with a square of 85% chocolate - simply can't find food 'closure' without it:
....... Calories 569.45 Carbs 31.29 Fat 35.18 Protein 27.30 Fibre 12.51
For the recipes the figures below are: ......... amount used : cals : carbs : fat : protein : fibre
dog's dinner no. 4 - cooked eggy cheesy slawcabbage, white, shredded, 32c/C5.0/F0.2/P1.4/Fi2.1/100g
......... 274g 87.68 13.70 0.55 3.84 5.75
carrot, julienned, 41c/C9.58/F0.25/P0.93/Fi2.8/100g
......... 87g 35.67 8.33 0.22 0.81 2.44
onion, fine sliced, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 42g 18.06 3.91 0.00 0.30 0.88
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
......... 32g 131.20 0.03 11.20 7.58 0.00
chilli, red, fine chopped, 40cal/Fa0.2g/Ca9.5g/Fi1.5g/P2.0g/100g
......... 7g 2.80 0.67 0.01 0.14 0.11
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 7.5ml 62.50 0.00 6.90 0.00 0.00
s&p; 0.0
total for dog's dinner no. 4 419.45 26.64 24.93 19.42 9.18
Method: 1. heat the oil in a non-stick pan (wok even!!); 2. soften the onions, add the chilli and after a couple of minutes add the cabbage; 3. cook the cabbage until it has softened which might take ten minutes or more; 4. add the carrot and soften it down too; 5. in a separate bowl, beat the egg and then mix in the cheese and plenty of salt and pepper; 6. pour the cheesy egg over the veggies and after three or so minutes turn and mix cheesy egg in with the veg.
This quantity of cabbage is unlikely to be to a normal being's taste, but FatDogs are strange beasts and, although I had to reheat my dinner part way through because it took a while to eat, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd suggest a half-serving of this with something else would be more likely to be appreciated by humans
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Tuesday, day thirty, feed day: right - time to shift that quorn mince out of the freezer before the OH heaves it. I'm thinking of lasagne, as my cheese stocks are rather high and I wouldn't be venturing into completely unexplored territory.
Except I'm not sure what to substitute for the pasta: cabbage (if only I'd planned ahead - I could have saved myself from eating 274g of it last night!); aubergine or courgette - not fond of either when cooked in sauces; or the 'egg and cream-cheese pizza-base / pancake' - suggested by some bright spark on-line, might be a bit much with cheese sauce too; or very thin egg crepes - another on-line suggestion, has certain merits; or even low-carb / gluten free fresh pasta - I seem to have all the ingredients that are needed for one of the recipes (see below), just not the pasta rolling machine... I think I'll have a bash at the fresh pasta (so much for not venturing off-piste).
There are quite a few low-carb / gluten free fresh pasta recipes out there - the most disappointing have a great fanfare and then list 'gluten free / low-carb flour mix' in their ingredients, duh.
A couple of the more useful hopeful ones:
http://glutenfreegirl.com/2011/07/glute ... esh-pasta/ uses gram flour, millet and potato starch amongst other things...
or maybe chickpea and flaxseed pasta (third and only other ingredient is water!)
http://backtoherroots.com/2011/09/27/ch ... uten-free/ which one commenter made with soy - needed 2T extra water
And the one I'm going to try:
http://yourlighterside.com/2009/05/reci ... aghetti-2/ It was posted four years ago and has very few comments so it could be a complete disaster, but nothing ventured, nothing gained... Looking at the on-line wisdom I'll make sure to boil it very briefly, a minute maybe, before putting it into the dish. I'm pondering one of the comments which suggests a little cornflour. I think I'll also put a little black pepper in with the salt...
Fingers crossed.
Well, gosh. I do believe that that worked - OH gave it 9.8 (a little generous perhaps) and, if fed to the unwary / slightly sloshed, they might not even notice that they weren't eating real pasta lasagne.
As my first attempt at making fresh pasta of *any* sort, I'm rather proud of myself! The pasta could certainly have done with being rolled *much* thinner; overlaps are probably to be avoided - those bits were give-aways, possibly because of the thickness; salt and then salt a bit more; and it might be worth investigating whether the pasta does better with being boiled a wee bit first (which I did) ,or not doing this step at all, in relation to its 'bite'.
Yippee! Pasta is back on the menu! Now all I need is one of those pasta mangle-wurzle machines so that I don't have to fight with the rolling pin and bread board.
As for the recipe overall, I'll do something better next time than the 'cream cheese with grated cheese' that substituted for a proper cheese sauce.
Otherwise - jolly tasty and it didn't cripple the calories or dent the carbs:
....... Calories 1387.39 Carbs 25.74 Fat 94.96 Protein 55.01 Fibre 20.24
FatDog's low-carb lasagne no. 1quorn mince saucequorn mince, 105c/C4.5/F2.0/P14.5/Fi5.5/100g
......... 350g 367.50 15.75 7.00 50.75 19.25
mushrooms, cc, organic, 15cal/C0.4g/F0.5g/P1.8g/Fi1.0g/100g
......... 105g 15.75 0.42 0.53 1.89 1.05
bell pepper, green, 20c/C2.6/F0.3/P0.8/Fi1.6/100g
......... 96g 19.20 2.50 0.29 0.77 1.54
tomatoes, tinned, chopped 15c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.0/Fi0.7/100g
......... 400g 60.00 12.00 0.40 4.00 2.80
onion, red, co-op, fine sliced, 35cal/C7.6g/F0.2g/P1.3g/Fi1.4g/100g
......... 116g 40.60 8.82 0.23 1.51 1.62
garlic, fine chopped, 149cal/Fa0.5g/Ca33.06g/Fi2.1g/P6.36g/100g
......... 7g 10.43 2.31 0.04 0.44 0.15
chilli flakes
......... 5ml 0.00
italian herbs
......... 5ml 0.00
basil, dried
......... needed an extra 10ml 0.00
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 15ml 3.90 0.30 0.00 0.06 0.05
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 30ml 250.00 0.00 27.60 0.00 0.00
s&p 0.00
Method: 1. heat oil in non-stick pan (a wok, even); 2. add onions and cook until softening; 3. add green peppers and cook a minute or two, then add garlic, mushrooms, herbs and spices; 4. when mushrooms are somewhat reduced add quorn mince and slushy tomatoes; 5. cook until reduced, season and put on very low heat until needed.
cheese saucecream cheese, full-fat, 260c/C2.8/F25.0/P5.4/Fi0/100g
......... 100g 260.00 2.80 25.00 5.40 0.00
mature cheddar, sainsers, grated, 390c/C0.1/F32.0/P25.5/Fi0/100g
......... 180g 748.80 0.18 62.82 45.90 0.00
nutmeg, ground
......... 2ml 0.00
water
......... enough to make the 'cheese sauce' just about spreadable! 0.00
s&p 0.00
Method: 1. add water to cream cheese for a spreadable consistency; 2. season generously and mix in nutmeg; 3. grate (or slither) cheddar cheese and set aside.
pastasoya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 84g (== 1 cup) 356.16 13.44 16.80 32.76 10.08
eggs, brown, 151cal/C0g/F11.2g/P12.5/Fi0g/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 15ml 125.00 0.00 13.80 0.00 0.00
water
......... 30ml to 40ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
Method: 1. mix soy flour, salt and pepper in a big bowl; 2. make a pit in the centre of the mix and add the egg and the oil; 3. gradually whisk / mix in the flour with a fork until dough is crumbly; 4. add a little water at a time until you have a not-too-dry / not-too-wet dough; 5. work the dough with the heel of your hand for about five minutes; 6. cover with cling-film (or an upside-down bowl will do) and rest for about half an hour; 7. we're not too bothered about the shape of our pasta sheets as we can simply jigsaw them in, so just break off walnut sized pieces of the dough and roll them
as thin as is humanly possible (a little extra soy flour on the board and rolling pin might help here), some suggest resting the rolled pasta for a while too (I had no time to do this and was actually rolling them whilst boiling and layering!)
bringing it all togetherMethod: 1. bring salted water to the boil in a large pan; 2. using half the quorn sauce make a first layer in an oven-proof dish; 3. dunk a pasta sheet into the boiling water for a minute, drain the water off and layer onto your sauce and repeat until the sauce is covered; 4. cover the pasta with a layer of cream cheese (thin, if anything like mine) and then slithered cheddar; 5. use the remains of the quorn sauce to make another layer and repeat 3. & 4.; 6. bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown and bubbling; 7. serve with a nice leafy salad
total Cals 2338.88 Carbs 58.52 Fat 160.55 Protein 150.23 Fibre 36.53
FatDog's ΒΌ portion of dog's low-carb lasagne no. 1 584.72 14.63 40.14 37.56 9.13
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