2021 Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Welcome to the last Bootcamp of 2021!

This Bootcamp will last for 8 weeks, which will take us up to Monday 13 December.

It's slightly different from other Bootcamps - firstly because it only lasts for 8 weeks (rather than 10), but also because there are going to be different stages.

So ...

Weeks 1 and 2 will be, as ever, strict Bootcamp.

Weeks 3-6 will be strict Bootcamp during the week, but relaxing into Bootcamp Light at weekends

In weeks 7-8 you will have a choice - either back to strict Bootcamp or full-on Bootcamp Light for the last fortnight

Welcome @averywittyusername! Sounds like you're doing brilliantly well

Also, you can change your butter up a little by adding herbs/garlic etc, rolling into a log and then freezing. Pop it on your hot food. This is a bearnaise butter, by way of example (shop version, but should be easy enough to recreate).

bearnaise butter

Excellent going witty!

@catwithflowers yes - I hardly ever have any heartburn - not sure if it is the low carbs or not eating after 18.00 but my sleep is so much better.

Thanks all for all the soup thickening tips. I love leeks and think they will go nicely with the chicken and mushroom flavours so will try that next time. I love a nice thick soup.

I have pork belly strips to take out of the freezer tonight. Going to serve them with some roasted brussel sprouts topped with parmesan. One of my favourite dinners!

Ooh @MilesJuppIsMyBitch I’d completely forgotten about shoogled sprouts. Now I’m adding to the plan. Along with the full fat Fairy

Pity about the celeriac curry. Thanks for road testing it @BIWI

Sorry you had a rubbish day @ListenLinda. Hope your DD is better soon

I suspect one of the issues with the curry might be the lack of fat - first when baking the celeriac, the recipe said only 1 tablespoon of fat, which really isn't enough to coat a large, chopped celeriac. And second, you make a paste with onion, chilli, garlic and ginger (a very common method in Indian cookery), and then fry this, and it's to this that you add the roasted celeriac. But the amount of fat suggested was very low, and I think the paste ended up steaming and then catching on the bottom of the pan, rather than frying off.

I also think that it might work better using ground cumin, coriander and black pepper rather than the whole spices.

I might have another go at it another time making my own changes!

@catwithflowers I'm with you on the heartburn. Carbs and alcohol are the culprit here - soothed by the infamous butter coffee (coffee blitzed with butter and cream - for very rare occassions only!!). Plus without (processed) carbs there is no wind. Some crisps, bread, cakes and there's a fart with every step!

As someone who has met @prettybird in real life I can confirm she is gorgeous and as far from looking like a rugby player as you could imagine!

I love these threads for all the amazing talk about food and recipes. There are not enough days/meals in the week for everything I want to try.

Today's food plan got derailed because dh took a walk to the local fish shop. Oysters with a squeeze of lemon and some tobasco. Then delicious whole trout fried / baked in butter. First 2 weeks of bootcamp so I didn't even have flaked almonds with it. Roast cauliflower and broccoli with it.

Thank you for the ideas nowlook and BIWI i will confess since i asked for a homemade recipe for mayo i have not had chance to try to make it yet.
I don't think i have ever eaten hollandaise sauce so will have to google that and see if doable with allergies.
You are quite right wrt fattier cuts of meat, i have been slacking on my meat consumption (maybe eating meat 2 or 3 times a week only) for a while. So i will need to look into this. I remember roast port belly being particularly delicious.

Thank you. I will go forth and have a planning day again tomo and see where i can get up to.

Thank you for the soup thickening ideas and the cheese sauce recipe.

I think you're right about the fat in your celeriac curry @BIWI. Many Indian- style recipes need a lot more than listed. I'm inspired to see if there are any low carb curries in my favourite curry book.

This isn't a low carb be ok but it is my favourite curry book. Everything works.

www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/camellia-panjabi/50-great-curries-of-india/9781856265461?gclid=CjwKCAjw2bmLBhBREiwAZ6ugo6zaQBks6_mGYcs8-k0_1QWnPQgoxHOa56Jbk5nRnkWsHTSyF-6DpBoC5yYQAvD_BwE

Just a thought: I tried thickening a soup with psyllium husk once. The result had a very spooky texture. I do NOT recommend!

Maybe for Halloween....

Morning all. My favourite curry book which I’ve been cooking from for nearly 40 years is Madhur Jaffrey’s Eastern Vegetarian Cooking. It’s quite Carby though but is probably one of the major influences on my cooking. I bought it as a student and read it cover to cover when I first had it. Low Carb favourite however is this spiced paneer www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spiced-paneer

B Black coffee as seasoned 16:8 adherent
L asparagus and poached egg with greens and Parmesan - inspired by @venusandmars
D pan fried sea bass with herb butter and braised fennel.

Only woke once for a wee, and that wasn’t until 5-25 , that was a good nights sleep !
Drank my first glass of water when I got back to bed , and then couldn’t go back to sleep as we had a tremendous thunder and lightning rain storm
Plan for today is
B fried eggs and mushrooms
L home made creamy leek soup
My tip for soup is not add as much stock / water as you think you need , add more once it’s blended - which I realise isn’t much help if you’ve already made it 😀 but , next time
D salmon and loads of veg , and I might have a go at making hollandaise sauce
Hoping it stops raining and we’ll get out for a walk this afternoon
Off to grab another glass of water and then tackle the pile of ironing

Good morning, all this talk of curry making my mouth water!

Looks like another busy one at work today and I'm not feeling great 😌

L will be cheese salad sandwich (SLCR)
D will be broccoli and cauliflower cheese with lamb breast

Enjoy your day everyone!

PS Would love a @ShagMeRiggins app which shouts WATER at me at regular intervals through the day

That sounds like a great book @MerylSqueak - and what an amazing website! I'm trying very hard to wean myself off Amazon, so sites like are really good to know. I'm also a fan of Bookshop for the same reason.

I'm a bit annoyed about the recipe not working, as I did trust the recipe writers at Olive - but actually also annoyed with myself as I should have known that a) celeriac will take longer to cook than that and b) a good curry needs more fat!

@H1Drangea you're absolutely right about the soup - it's also the reason why so many manufactured soups are so high in carbs, because they tend to thickened either with potato or other kinds of starch.

@Jollyholibobs I have that book too - must have a good read of that. I have so many cookery books I keep forgetting to use any of them, ironically. It's so easy these days to just Google.

Which also reminds me of a challenge I a couple of Bootcamps ago, for everyone to find a recipe they've not cooked before, or one of their favourite recipes, and post it here for everyone else to try. Obviously it needs to be a low carb one - or you need to find a way to make it low carb.

Next week's challenge, therefore, is for everyone to find a good, low carb vegetarian recipe.

Oh - and @ZiggZagg? WATER WATER WATER

Hello all. I’m a bit late to the party as was away with work last 2 days and although have been following the rules since Monday, didn’t manage to weigh myself until this morning. That was certainly all the motivation I needed to stay on plan - I have never been this heavy in my life (at 6ft tall it tends not to show for a while and then plop - I look massive !). I have read all the posts but sadly only saw the celeriac curry review just now as that’s my planned dinner tonight. Had a nice mushroom stroganoff with cauliflower rice yesterday. Hope everyone has a good day and will try to do more individual responses next time.

Oh bless him. My lovely husband really doesn’t get the concept of low carb does he 🤦🏻‍♀️
Can’t fault the man for his kindness as he knows I’m having a lazy start today following my long shift days and some stress. But…

Mushroom stroganoff recipe (vegetarian friendly as is, although I also tend to add chopped bacon)

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-stroganoff

Lovely recipe suggestions- thanks everyone.

This is a really nice Ottolenghi recipe for cauliflower cheese- the spices make a nice change. You can leave out the onion and breadcrumbs.

Would also recommend this recipe for fish cake tacos- it’s really delicious. Carb-eaters can have the tacos and low carbers a lettuce leaf. Its lovely and you don’t miss the taco. (I find recipes like this really useful as the rest of my family aren’t low-carbing- anything which avoids extra cooking is a godsend).

@JumperandJacket that does sound good. Definitely leave out the breadcrumbs! I'd substitute shallots for the onion though, as I think something onion-y in the base would add a lot of lovely flavour

Ps also give the mango a skip, obviously

@LowlyTheWorm While that is very kind of him, please don't eat it just to show your appreciation. Your needs to have to come first!

Wow this thread moves fast! Not sure I'll manage to keep up - but great reading and definitely providing inspiration. Going well here so far, aided by some delicious truffle cream cheese I bought on ocado this week - delicious!

A quick question - what are the thoughts on cocoa powder? I mean just plain, unsweetened cocoa - the one in cupboard I have is 9g/100g and I do like a bit sprinkled on Greek yoghurt. I'm breastfeeding so doing bootcamp light if that makes a difference!

I picked up one of those “magic boxes” from Morrison’s last night and it had three cauliflowers in along with some pak Choi and some sad looking french beans. All this talk of curry has made me hungry for it so I’m going to make a big batch of cauliflower curry today. Hopefully it’ll be tasty cos I’m going to be eating it for quite a while!! The cauliflower cheeses sound lush as well.

Does anyone have any interesting ideas for baking avocados / including them in hot meals? I’ve got a crate of them and I’m surprised to say that I’m getting a bit fed up of prawn / salmon / avo salads and guacamole … and it’s getting pretty cold up north so I fancy something warm!

@SamuelWhiskey - good quality cocoa powder is fine to sprinkle onto Greek yoghurt

Other alternatives to flavour the yoghurt are cinnamon or vanilla powder (never tried the latter but I believe you can buy it in Waitrose).

Hi I can’t add on to the spread sheet but I’m (gulp) 184lbs and 5 ft 7 if someone can add me please xx
All set with food today x