Week 8 - Low carb Bootcamp - only 3 weeks to go ...

[BIWI]

Morning all.

On a train now and access to Google docs is blocked, so I can't link to the spreadsheet I'm afraid. So if someone else could do that I'd be very grateful.

Breakfast at Leon this morning so a good low carb start to the day. Two poached eggs and truffled ham hock.

Good luck to everyone this week and thanks for all your good wishes. Forgive me if I'm not around and posting that much this week.

[StuntNun]

Gcalgske the crispy chicken and bacon salad is the best low carb option at McDs. I sometimes have the chicken strips when I'm there with the kids.

Seaoflove look for fattier cuts of meat. Chicken wings, legs, thighs are better than breastmeat. Lamb is usually good. Choose beef mince that's 20% fat. A lot of people eat pork scratchings.

After someone mentioned it on here I bought a packet of halloumi. Any suggestions for what to do with it?

And is the fathead pizza really that good? I tend to be sceptical of meals that try to recreate inherently carby foods.

[StoneFoxMama]

Thanks wine the consultant seemed very positive that it would be all we would need so I'm tentatively hopeful. It's nice to hear of successes.

BIWI glad that things are improving, I hope it continues.

lex I'm jealous of your lovely conch meals.

My asparagus and feta tart was delicious, the almond crust is so good, going to try a few mini pie crusts with coconut, cream and berries and as of next week a little drizzle of dark chocolate.

Today will be almond bread with nut butter and butter
Bpc
Small slice of leftover asparagus tart with salad,avocado and brie
Butter roasted chicken with tarragon, cauliflower mash and broccoli

I had a few gin and sodas on friday and saturday night. I couldn't manage more than 2 at a time. What has become of me?

[StoneFoxMama]

Stuntnun the fathead pizza is amazing. Way more delicious than normal pizza and so satisfying. I only managed a quarter of it, absolutely worth a try. You also dont have to make traditional pizza with it, it's a good carrier, I've spread it with hm pesto and dotted goats cheese olives and parma ham on it then topped with rocket and oil. Dh wants to bake things into it like a topped foccacia.

Halloumi is good soaked in olive oil then griddled and topped with caper vinaigrette or chilli oil on a salad or just to pick at on its own.

[billabye]

Stuntnun, I slice and fry my halloumi in a little olive oil until it starts to get brown and a little crispy. It's lovely with salad

And fathead pizza is definitely worth the effort. We now have a family make your own pizza night on a Friday. I buy the ready made Sainsburys bases for DP though as the fathead crust can work out pricey

[10lbsleft]

can anyone tell me how to make cream cheese pancakes please? do i need eggs cos I used the last for yesterday's breakfast?

[BIWI]

Halloumi is fab on the barbecue (although you have to keep an eye on it as it goes from raw to charred very quickly!), with this dressing:

3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 finely chopped clove of garlic
handful chopped fresh coriander

[BIWI]

Is the fathead pizza on the recipe thread? If it isn't, would one of you kindly post it there, please? Many thanks!

[StoneFoxMama]

I found one or two on the recipe thread and made an amalgamation of the 2 i think.
If i recall 1 cup almonds was 110g and i doubled it and the rest of the ingredients to make 2 massive pizzas. I added, parmesan a dash of double cream and garlic powder.
I baked it for 10/15mins before topping.

I think it was
poster Gcalgske on week 5
Cobb the BEST low carb pizza in my humble opinion is fathead crust.
It's 200g shredded mozzarella, 3/4 cup group almonds. 1 egg and 2 heaped tbsp cream cheese. You microwave the cheeses until the mozzarella goes stringy then beat in the egg/ almond. It's like a proper dough. I've made Stromboli and sausage rolls and even had s go at a pasty with the dough.

Pizza on recipe thread was:

Ingredients
Crust-
2 Eggs
4 oz. Cream Cheese
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 1/4 Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1/8 Tsp Garlic Powder
1/8 Tsp Onion Powder
1/4 oregano

Directions
Crust -
Preheat oven to 375*

Spray a 9x13 Glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment paper. After lining the dish with the parchment paper, also spray the paper with non-stick cooking spray

In a large mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese and eggs with a hand mixer on medium speed until well blended.

Next, add in the Parmesan cheese and all three spices. Stir in thoroughly. Stir in the mozzarella cheese until all of the ingredients are completely mixed together.

With a rubber spatula scrape the mixture in to the glass baking dish and spread around evenly, lining the entire bottom of the dish.

Bake on the middle rack for 20-25 minutes. If you like a crispier crust, you can leave it in the oven longer. Just be sure to keep checking on it so it does not burn.

When the crust is done baking, let it cool on a cooling rack while still on the parchment paper but not in the dish. After the crust has cooled, slide a spatula under the crust to loosen it from the parchment paper but leave it on the paper and place it back in the baking dish.

Top with sauce, remainder of the cheese and the toppings of your choice. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool, slice, and enjoy!!

[StoneFoxMama]

Whoops 3/4 cup ground almonds was 110g and i had no cream cheese so substituted a large dash of double cream, was delicious!

[StuntNun]

I managed to dig out the graphs Trash mentioned the other day. In 2012 on Bootcamp Light I lost 30lb in five months going from 11st 8lb to 9st 6lb. That's a very respectable average of 1.4lb per week BUT the weight by no means came off in a linear fashion.

I'm a daily weigher and the first graph shows every weigh-in. You can see that while the overall trend is downwards there were a number of occasions where my weight went up, sometimes quite drastically. The second graph shows the weekly Bootcamp weigh-ins and you can see that the weight increases aren't as apparent even though the underlying data is the same. The third graph shows that if I had only weighed monthly then I wouldn't have noticed any of the temporary weight increases at all.

The bottom line is that weight loss is not linear and weight loss plateaus and even gains are to be expected, they are part and parcel of the process.

[Kleptronic]

Thank you so much StuntNun.

[StuntNun]

I'm not sure about the halloumi tbh. I fried slices in olive oil for lunch but it was a bit meh.

[StoneFoxMama]

It definitely needs an added flavour, either something acidic like capers with garlic, lime and olive oil or spices like chilli oil or cumin and paprika dusted on.

[LexLoofah]

stone love the idea of topping the fathead base with pesto and olives, mmmm and to second what others have said stunt yes it is worth it, whole family prefer this and the cauli one to the wheat one now, I do individual ones so they get crispier and we can have our own toppings

I can't stand halloumi though, I must be doing it wrong as like melted plastic for me

So I forgot to ship my cookery books, they were in A cupboard that I didn't check. I am going to scan a few key recipes and then give them away but more importantly I went through my recipe binder and bade farewell to all the carby recipes that I won't be making again, had the odd little pang with a few of them but I know now they are gone I won't think of them again and best not to keep coming across them and being tempted to mAke them, for me it is harder to avoid baking Than actually eating the end result - think that is a bit of a breakthrough for me and further commitment to this way of eating - plus it saves a bit of weight in the suitcase !

[seaoflove]

I love halloumi! I usually dust it in flour and paprika (that's obviously not an option!) and dry fry until it's well browned and completely softened, then eat with roasted veg.

[billabye]

I made oopsie rolls yesterday and im not impressed at all. They came out very fluffy and eggy tasting. Is that right? Or did i do something wrong?

[LexLoofah]

OK might give halloumi one more go

B - 3 streaky bacon, egg fried in butter, cup of tea, BPC shaken up in a mason jar in the absence of a blender, not as good
L - in using up stuff from the fridge have discovered that a courgette grated and mixed with olive oil, vinegar and black pepper is a rather nice side salad and more filling than lettuce, would be nice with mayo if I had any left, had with Parma ham, corner of Edam, nibble of saint Andre cheese, 3 slices of salami
D will be BBQ at a friends condo on the beach, all LC friendly meat and veg but we are planning going to the gelato after so might have a lick or two

Packing almost done, one more sleep then we are homeward bound, will see how we manage with LCHF on two flights and 24 hours of travelling, had better fat load before we go

[WineCheeseSleep]

Good luck with the move Lex it's actually pretty sunny where we are at the moment, hopefully you get a nice homecoming!

[mrsboltz]

is coconut water allowed?

[BIWI]

I doubt it, mrsboltz - the ones I've looked at all have had high carb counts. But check the back of the pack.

[Gcalgske]

Thanks stunt, our little maccidees didn't have any salad left though :/
I'll bear that in mind if I go to the bigger one though(try to steer clear but it's easy for getting the cmpa daughter a df meal she'll eat)
Today's food:

Bpc
2x boiled eggs with mayo, radishes from the garden
Roast chicken with skin and lots of olive oil Rosemary, thyme and garlic, hm coleslaw, avocado /mozErella & tomato salad
Cheese crisps, 2 strawberries

[Gcalgske]

Bill sounds about right. I don't mind oopsies but I'm not their biggest fan. Fried in butter and cinnamon smothered in cream they make an ok French toast.

[LexLoofah]

Hthanks wine, yes warm weather would be nice to ease DCs in gently and me too Iguess,have gone soft after years out here. Had a perfect last day, BBQ was great, veggies, salad and ribeye but did have a gelato to myself instead of the planned few licks. At the hotel where we got the gelato they were also doing roast your own marshmallows In a fire pit on the beach and making s'mores which the DCs loved, grown ups except me had margaritas, walked back along the beach as the sun went down. Some might say we are mad to be leaving but we are so ready.

Won't weight in tomorrow, scales have been shipped, hope everyone sees what they are hoping for, will catch up next time I have internet connection and a bit of time

[ditavonteesed]

good luck with everything lex

[BIWI]

Week 9 chat thread here