Week 4 - Low Carb Bootcamp - how much chatting?!

[BIWI]

So much chatting, I've had to start a new thread.

here's the Spreadsheet of Absolute Fabulousness

Remember, this week (like week 3) is notorious for seeing little or no weight gain, so please don't panic if the scales aren't moving for you - always assuming, of course, that you have been following the rules 100%!

Also, the Very Amazing @StuntNun has started a thread about fasting. Fasting isn't a regular part of Bootcamp, but it's a tool that you can use in your weight loss 'journey' (sorry for the cliché!)

have a look here, and think about if it's something you might want to incorporate into Bootcamp

I hope very much that things are going well for you, and that you're into the swing of things low carb by now; but as ever, post any questions/issue here and let's see if we can help.

Theme of the week- dirty fries

I have changed my mind about celeriac, it's ok as a chip with facon and cheese on top!

I'm thinking dirty fries are what my squeezy cheese has been dreaming of.

We deep fry our celeriac chips in beef dripping by the way. No oven roasting for us. (Mixed with some vegetable oil to make it go further which I know isn't ideal.)

I made this for dinner - cafedelites.com/butter-chicken/

Didn't add sugar at the end, just used butter instead of ghee, and didn't bother blending the sauce as I had added mushroom and red pepper by that point, and turned out so so nice. Did OH's with chicken thighs and mine with paneer, and had finely chopped sweetheart cabbage as 'rice'. (For second time in a row the supermarket has substituted long grain rice for cauli rice so had to improvise.)

Lunch was avocado and fried mushroom and shallots on raw spinach and cucumber. Not drunk enough water yet though.

We have nothing special planned for V Day! Might have a romantic walk with the 2 year old 😅

Dirty celeriac fries look amazing

Today I've had -
Chicken and chicken skin cooked in butter with courgettes and mushrooms mixed with creamy mustard sauce and parmesan.

Smoked salmon and prawns mixed with cream cheese and butter.

Dinner - 2 chicken breasts cooked with peppers, tomatoes, chorizo, onion, courgette, olives, feta and served greek yoghurt.

I've had all my water but I'm still hungry! Not sure why? Might be coming up to TOTM. Or maybe I've not had enough fat or green veg.

B: creamy scrambled eggs with mushrooms fried in butter
L: Greek yoghurt
T: celeriac dauphinoise with prawns fried up with chilli, leeks, shredded sprouts and more mushrooms.

I don't normally get hungry for breakfast but I was ravenous today so feel like I've eaten a lot now today. Hoping I can shift another pound before the weigh in on Monday as that would take me into the 200s

Just catching up with today's posts after a busy week.
All the Valentine's Day meal plans sound so yummy!
@ShagMeRiggins that meal looks delish!

@Justcallmecaptainobvious @ouchmyfeet I've made this pancake recipe a couple of times which is quick and easy (a tad on the eggy side)
2oz(57g) cream cheese.
2eggs
1tsp sugar substitute
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Put all the ingredients in a blender or smoothie maker and blend till smooth. Rest 2 minutes so bubbles settle.
Grease pan with oil or butter. Cook batter for 2mins or till golden, flip and cook for about a minute more

@venusandmars sorry to hear things are hard for you with not being able to work. It's such a tough time!

It's shark week and I've been struggling with cravings the last few days. Managed to resist the carbs but ended up eating a load of buttery green beans as was hungry only to find out after looking over the list of fabulousness that they were quite carby
Today's lunch: courgetti boats stuffed with beef mince and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and a side of pak choi, small pot of coconut yoghurt
Dinner: bolognaise with buttery broccoli and cauliflower mash. Was still hungry so had about 5 walnuts and a cup of home made bone broth.

Still hungry! shtooopid hormones! Going to fill myself with more water and herbal tea!

Just a thought for the romantic Valentine carbs... if you've been off them for a while, you may find you're a bit... bloaty and windy... especially with the flour based ones. You may not be feeling terribly romantic by the end of the evening. not speaking from experience at all

@ZiggZagg those dirty fries 😍
Shopping list-must buy celeriac!

@nowlook we have an Italian cookery book like that! So many good recipes.

@BustleInYourHedgerow did you end up doing the stew as usual? Was going to say it’s probably fine to add the wine as the alcohol will cook away. It’s also fine to have a few pieces of carrot! Just don’t go overboard with it. But then I got busy and forgot to come back to the thread.

All the valentines meals sound delicious! I still don’t know what I’ll do. Maybe DH will cook instead.

Dinner tonight was Korean braised pork spareribs, stir fry veg with Gochujang sauce, omelette with sesame seeds and red chilli, rice for DH. Really yummy and not too much effort.

Has anyone got a good recipe for pheasant breasts? DH was rather happy with himself bringing them back from the butcher for Sunday, but I’m not really a big fan and not sure what to do with them! (I’d put burgers on the meal plan, apparently that wasn’t special enough!).

Glad to see the dirty fries catching on! Still haven't worked out which recipe thread they go on, but it's not even really a recipe. I'd quite like Ragz' Dirty Fries to be my Bootcamp legacy

Breakfast - creamy coffee
Lunch - cajun chicken strips, coleslaw, salad leaves, parmesan.
Dinner - more of yesterday's aubergine lasagne with air fried kale (same dinner as yesterday).
Creamy coffee again.

Agree with PP re PPE making you thirsty. I spent the morning vaccinating so almost constantly talking while wearing a mask and get so dry and croaky (I usually get to take mine off between patients). Thankfully we have lovely volunteers who bring us hot drinks. I was also swigging electrolyte water all morning. One of our GPs was complaining of a headache and feeling faint this afternoon (we had a stressful time!) so I made her an electrolyte drink, half an hour later she was fine and thought it was amazing!

My seriously low carb bread and rolls arrived, very exciting! Smelled the bread, it smells like bread! Not sure what I was expecting, but not that, very soft too. Haven't tried it yet, frozen the sliced loaf in portions and the rolls in their bags. Can't wait to have a burger though! Not sure what to use the sliced for, maybe a ham and cheese toastie. They are tiny slices and remind me of eating bread on slimming world!

Never cooked pheasant!

I'm currently eating low carb toast with butter marmite and 2 boiled eggs as I was starving after my dinner but dont know why?

I've added my 'sort of kedgeree' to the fish recipe thread. Sorry it's got no measurements, I just do it by guess work.

Basically a base of curried veg (e.g. cauliflower, cabbage, courgette), topped with smoked fish, chopped egg, and herbs. Mmmm...

Sorry, far too many !!! in my last post. I'm really not that excited, honest.

@Ninkanink that looks lovely. Top marks for presentation too, I like your crockery

Ragz - I'd put the recipe for your dirty fries on the Vegetarian thread, which also has the recipes for side dishes. You can always point out that the bacon is optional which it is

That's what I did with my scallops dish, which I put onto the Fish recipe thread but said that the bacon was optional (and gave an alternative option for the black pudding)

@RagzReturnsRebooted I'd shoot for a ham and cheese toastie. My bread is en route.

We've got a couple of pheasant breasts in the freezer. They're so small I can't see how we are going to split them between us! I would fry them though - they'll dry out very easily and I think the oven would be too much if they're not on the bone.

Pheasant works well in a Thai curry, @Justcallmecaptainobvious. There's bound to be a chicken one on the recipe thread for you to sub!

Or anything with a marinade. Treat them like a really dry chicken breast

Here's a simple marinade that will be a bit more refined for DH

garlic wine pheasant

Will definitely make dirty celariac fries tomorrow ( don’t have a deep fryer though so I think there’ll be more like dirty oven chips , but hey hoe )
Had a good day , woke up hungry ,so ..
B Buttery scrambled eggs
L Homemade creamy leek and mushroom soup
D Seabass with chorizo , green beans , spinach , courgettes and broccoli

Had to have a slice of cheese as an afternoon snack

We’d been for a very cold walk , and had to leap,into the hedge about 12 times as huge tractors with silage tankers behind them went back and fore in relay

Bought ground almonds ( for the scone / muffins ) and dark chocolate for the mousse on Sunday , ( and yes we also will be having dinner for 3 on valentines night as DD will be here )

Anyone else watching Amazing Hotels ? In St Lucia , looks amazing
If I can’t go on holiday , at least I can watch somewhere nice

@nowlook thank you!

@Dailyhandtowelwash there’s a whole bag of the damn things...

pheasant can be pretty dry - it doesn't have much fat, so I'd possibly confit it in duck fat..

Grandma-school tomorrow will include snow experiments - a bit of creative snow animal / bird building, and some melting snow to make a drink. In my mind it is one of these from the ice hotel in Sweden in reality it will be compressed snow in some orange juice.

Lunch tomorrow is roast chicken, with lots of veg. Hash browns for dgc.

Dinner - who knows? cheese? eggs?

Evening all.

Some amazing valentines menus on here today!

Ructions continue (albeit silently). I suspect we maybe like this for some time.

It's not put me off my food though (not much does) OH made me fat head pizza yesterday and I've had 3 meals out of it! I'm not sure on the carb count, but it was from diet doctor so should be ok 😬

Am still in the zone, which is unheard of after 6 weeks! I'm stunned.

You know the water rules... well I have just hit the bracket where I can drop half a litre of water a day.. feels a bit wrong dropping my water.. does anyone else just carry on drinking the original volume they started on?