Happy Christmas Bootcampers!

[BIWI]

Morning all.

We've completed our ten weeks - and I can see from the Spreadsheet just how well it's gone!

But just because the ten weeks are up, doesn't mean we have to stop. So here's a bright, shiny new chat thread for us to keep chatting and supporting each other.

Ohhhhh @StuntNun it sounds divine! 👍👍

Letting myself have one salted caramel lindor a day until they've gone.
(There seems to be very few "safe" MN places at the moment. It's mad out there I tell you. Mad!)

I was awake at 6.15am and feeling a bit rubbish with a cold so ate 1.5sl white toast. That's the most bread I've eaten in one go in 5 months. Pulled it back with turkey mayo salad but since had a hot chocolate. I do feel safe that once we're back in bootcamp I'll feel more motivated.
Is a sous vide a water bath?
My DH and I are trying to stick to a no spend January. I figure I can cut carbs I can quit mindless spending right? I have a much better handle on our finances since he dropped his debt bombshell in November(?) but with our level of debt it's going to be a long game - much longer than losing weight

I’ve done a sort of quasi egg fast today (so egg and butter plus feta) to try and ensure any sticky Christmas pounds go before my weigh in tomorrow. I already knew weighing daily sent me a bit mad but I’ve now realised that waiting two weeks also sends me a bit mad. I feel like I’m totally stumbling in the dark with no idea how much damage I’ve done.

Roast beef sounds so lovely, StuntNun! Do you have any other sous vide recommendations? I bought the Anova a few years ago but I rarely used it past the initial enthusiastic glut of sous vide EVERYTHING. The only thing I really liked were sous vide egg pots (they taste like savoury creme brûlée) but they were more of a breakfast food and now I just have coffee.

Next week I’m going to try and make a cream of chicken soup using cauliflower (rather than potato) and cream. I’m quite excited. The cauliflower soup I made last year was so filling but with just cream (in coffee) for breakfast I was pretty much at 0g of protein by dinner which I worry about.

BIWI are you doing a NEw Year thread?
I could do with joining.

Oblomov20
There is a new sign up thread here

Been back on it today following a total carb
Letdown yesterday.

L: low carb bread, cheese and salad
D: Fish in Butter Sauce, Cauliflower Mash, Cabbage and Shoogled Sprouts

Looking forward to being accountable from now on! I just avoided the thread yesterday as I was so ashamed

Laska I have a sous vide wand that can be attached to any container; it's a cheap version of the Anova. Slow cooking doesn't produce the same effect as sous vide. It's the precise temperature control that lets you choose the doneness. So I've cooked beef brisket at 54C for 48 hours that's tender enough to cut with a fork but still medium-rare and keeps its shape when carved. If you slow-cooked it then it will be falling apart tender and not rare. Oneborn sous vide is cooking vacuum-sealed meat in a water bath at temperatures well below 100C. It's basically what you would get if a physicist invented cooking. Lyrata I mostly use the sous vide for meat as it's perfection for roasts, steak, duck, lamb, etc. Apparently sous vide chicken breast is wonderful but I haven't tried that yet. I also make my own gin using the sous vide as an infuser. It makes the best hollandaise sauce - you simply put all the ingredients in a bag and put in the water then blend at the end - no stirring and no splitting! It makes amazing corn on the cob but obviously we're not allowed that on Bootcamp. I don't even think I've got the measure of sous vide yet but it's one of my favourite kitchen gadgets along with my beloved air fryer, deep fat fryer and Instant Pot!

stuntnun a rare treat of roast beef, or a treat of rare roast beef? Sounds lovely either way and might be on my plan for next weekend. Thanks for the inspiration.

On the sous vide topic - presumably you need the water bath and a vacuum thingy, and all the plastic bags? That would take up quite a lot of space, so it might have to wait until I have my dream auxiliary kitchen where the blender, ice cream machine, pasta maker food processor, sous vide kit, dehydrator etc all sit out on the work surface ready and accessible at any moment and don't involve going to the garage with a step ladder to retrieve the bulky equipment!

oneborn can you have a 'pounds lost chart'? something visible that shows both weight and money as they improve. My no-spend January includes using up my Brexit low-carb stock pile includes toilet rolls and also using up all my Tesco vouchers. I reckon we might just make it.

Lunch today was more glorious spinach soup, and dinner is stuffed mushrooms (shallot, butter, garlic, bacon, blue cheese, mushroom stalks, ground almonds) followed by raspberries and cream.

Haha StuntNun, you’re clearly as much of a kitchen gadget fiend as me. I am so tempted by the air fryer!

Great idea on the Hollandaise. Mine is about 70/30 success when I do it in the pan. I mostly did small cuts of rare meat when I was in my honeymoon phase. Never a whole joint though!

@venusandmars that's a good idea, I created one for the debt but hadn't thought of combining them. Good luck with your no spend Jan!

@StuntNun your kitchen must be the size of my downstairs, or bigger ha

Venusandmars yes! The sous vide wand isn't big and I attach it to the side of a big stock pot rather than having a dedicated water bath. I do have a cheap vacuum sealer from Lidl but you don't need one; you can use ziplock bags and put them in water to get the air out instead of vacuum sealing. My kitchen is rubbish for storage as well so I have shelves in the garage for my extra kitchen equipment. One day I will have a utility room to store them all in...

Wow Stunt that impressive scientific cooking.

@venusandmars also the pleasure that comes from vacuum sealing things is so intense that I would recommend it even without a sous vide

Lyrata I love kitchen gadgets. I have an Instant Pot, air fryer, deep fat fryer, ice maker, Magimix, Le Saucier (it's a self-heating, self-stirring saucepan for making gravies and sauces), bread maker that doesn't get a lot of use, cream whipper, blender, stick blender, electric steamer, vacuum sealer, sous vide wand, mandolin slicer, hand mixer, and not one but two coffee machines plus a coffee grinders. Also the obligatory kettle, toaster and microwave. And nowhere in the kitchen for storing all that stuff so it lives in the garage.

Brassica the technique of sous vide is something else. You can cook corn on the cob so that it's cooked but still crisp like raw. Or you can cook a cheap cut of meat for ages and have it come out tender but still rare. It's really easy to cook perfect steak to the doneness you prefer then finish it off for 30 seconds each side in a frying pan to brown it. My DH has taken to infusing his own "gin" using Tesco Value vodka as a base.

stuntnun making your own Gin ! now THAT is something I need to learn how to do...

StuntNun I’m so jealous! I have the sous vide, one singular coffee machine, a slow cooker, a pizza stone (underused), a Nutribullet, a waffle maker (also underused) and (tragically on ice because I have a balcony not a garden right now) a meat smoker.

I would buy a bread maker and ice cream maker in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for this darned low carb thing. Any chance the January Bootcamp could be a high carb version?

That's an excellent and impressive gadget collection Lyrata

I have an pizza oven that also makes excellent bread. Can't bring myself to light it for just roast meat

When we had our new extension/kitchen, I looked at getting a sous vide oven, to go under the double oven/microwave combination. But it was going to be over £1200 so I decided against it. Part of me wishes, given how much I spent on everything else, in the great scheme of things, that I had done it.

I've never heard of a sous vide oven, BIWI that's sounds fancy. Probably not worth £1200 though when you can get a wand for £100. I would love a meat smoker Lyrata. DS1 has started making his own beef jerky and a smoker would be perfect for that. Also DH went through a phase of making bacon which would have been even better smoked. It would be lovely to be able to smoke your own fish too. My aspirational kitchen equipment is a meat slicer but alas they're expensive and huge so it probably won't happen.

I have ordered a beautiful dress for BIL's wedding in April. It's in a size 14 and I will be wearing it! 2 dress sizes to go

Gorgeous dress @ZiggZagg make sure to share a photo

Thanks I will when it fits 🙈 the wedding is in Algeria so we are really hoping borders will be open! Anyway, every time we go there's a party so I will have something to wear

I often think same with the neff hide and slides. I saved £500 not doing so (we have 2 ovens) but everytime I'm leaning over doors scrubbing them i curse myself.

Ziggzagg i have a very similar dress with tags on in a 16, you're welcome to it! (I'll never wear it now, so if you can make use? That dress is lovely though!!

I've fucked up. Ate one of the kids freshly baked cupcakes and some left over chips. Why i would do that is beyond me!?

I was in our local garden centre and there was an outdoor gas barbeque system for £3K++ What? In Scotland, for those 5 variable days of summer? Just cook it inside and bring it out...

And if there are 7 days of hot weather, you get to complain for another 2 days.

For the rest of the year spend your money on other good things.