Week 3 - May 22 Low Carb Bootcamp - moving on to Light?

[BIWI]

Good morning!

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness once more

So today you have a choice: you can move on to Bootcamp Light, if you wish - which means you can re-introduce some fruit, some nuts/seeds and some alcohol. Note the use of the word 'some'!

If you wish, you can also now introduce/re-introduce intermittent fasting - most people drop breakfast, but it's up to you how you want to do this. @StuntNun has a thread about how to combine fasting with low carb for anyone who is interested in this approach.

You can, if you wish, remain on Bootcamp, if it suits you and it's working for you. Alternatively you can adopt a hybrid - so Bootcamp during the week and Bootcamp Light at the weekend.

Whichever route you decide upon, good luck!

I like the idea of the cookery book challenge @BIWI , I’ll have a look this evening as I’m doing my online shop so would like up perfectly.

oh @TheOnlyMrsW that's tough but you can swerve them - I know you can

It's only the alcohol that gets burned off when you cook with wine - AFAIK the carbs will still be there. However, I'd guess you're not really using that much wine, are you?

Cook Book Challenge: Jamie Oliver's Mushroom Curry (look away now @prettybird ).

Ingredients
500 g mixed mushrooms (portobello, chestnut etc)
2 cloves of garlic
5 cm piece of ginger
1 onion 2/3 shallots
½–1 fresh red chilli
500 g ripe mixed-colour tomatoes
groundnut oil olive oil or cocnut oil
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon fenugreek
1 heaped teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 heaped teaspoon medium curry powder
1 tablespoon mango chutney
1 x 400 ml tin of light full fat coconut milk
30 g paneer or halloumi
400 g brown basmati rice cauliflower rice
2 limes
1 bunch of fresh coriander

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
Roughly chop some of the mushrooms, keeping the smaller ones whole and tearing up the rest. Tip into a large casserole dish and toast on the hob over a medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes, until nutty and really golden.
Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the garlic, ginger and shallot. Trim and finely slice the chilli, then roughly chop the tomatoes.
Add all of it to the pan except the tomatoes, then add 1 tablespoon of oil and the spices. Toss for 2 minutes, or until the spices are toasted and it’s smelling lovely, stirring continuously.
Add the tomatoes and coconut milk, stir to combine and season well with sea salt and black pepper.
Top with bits of the paneer or halloumi and place in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes, or until all cooked through and gnarly.
Meanwhile, cook your cauliflower rice.
Taste and season as required, adding a little lime juice if needed.
Spoon the curry over the cauliflower rice, then roughly chop the coriander leaves and scatter over the top. Cut the remaining lime into wedges for people to squeeze over the top.

AFAIK the carbs will still be there. However, I'd guess you're not really using that much wine, are you?

I might put as much as half a bottle of red wine into a big casserole which I think is about 10-12g carb in total, and then obviously that would serve many, many portions.

The bigger problem is the risk of what might happen to the remaining half bottle of wine while I was cooking

I saw 165 on the scales today. Amazing! I was 164 after a previous successful BC but am THRILLED to be almost there now. I know it'll move up again, but the general trajectory is down.

<scuttles off in search of cookbook>

Veggie recipe: Fried vegetables in garlic yoghurt

Fry aubergine, courgettes and red peppers in olive oil until floppy.

Mix plain yoghurt with a clove of garlic, salt, olive oil and fresh mint.

Stir together and serve. (You can shake over some pomegranate seeds if they're to hand and you're on BC lite).

(I think I tore this recipe out of the Observer Food Magazine years ago).

Forgot to say you grate the raw garlic, and best to avoid breathing on people for a few hours afterwards.

@APerfectlyGoodName well done you!

I've eaten scrambled egg for lunch. The funny thing is that I actually don't like scrambled egg because of the texture but I knew it would go down and stay down. Black pepper made it nicer.

Really good idea about the recipe challenge, @BIWI - I'll have a think.

That is exactly my problem 😆

Hope you’re feeling better soon Lougle

Loving all the rhubarb talk! How are people having it? I’ve got some lovely forced rhubarb from my allotment in the freezer but to be honest I thought it would still be too tart without sugar.

Im staying off the scales this week as wobbled up a pound yesterday. Annoying.

Today
B- cheese and ham omlette, coffee & cream
L- one chicken thigh, one sausage, salad
D- asparagus and avocado salad with mozzarella and basil, drizzled with a good glug of olive oil
S- couple slices of salami, tea

An interesting video here about the impact of the menopause on weight loss - for all those of us who may be affected!

@TheRealShedSadie I add a bit of natvia to rhubarb, just enough to make it not eye watering and serve with 1/3 tub of clotted cream.

L: rollitos (ham and 3 wedges of gruyere) spinach, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, 1/2 avo
D: lamb meatballs with lettuce, roasted pepper, more ham, tzatziki with cucumber(was supposed to have with tomato sauce but kids had eaten it all so was a bit of fridge picnic)
2 creamy coffees
4L of water
Went for a swim this morning and feel delighted with myself 😆 have been meaning to go for ages but hate getting up early (only 20mins before I normally do but I usually press snooze till the last minute)

Thanks Baystard that sounds good!

I can definitely see the difference in the fitting of your trousers @ditavonteesed 😀and I'm glad to hear you've managed some scrambled egg @Lougle - hope you feel back to normal soon!

Can I please pick all your brains on moussaka? I love the stuff but find making it incredibly laborious as it takes so long to fry all the aubergine slices. Is there a cheats way of doing this? And if you have any other tips or recipes for speeding up the general making of it then please throw those at me too! I'd love to be able to make one without spending half the day in the kitchen using every kitchen utensil I own 😁

Roast the aubergine rather than fry it? Not quicker, but easier to leave to its own devices.

Frozen, sliced aubergine? Maybe defrost, put on some paper towels to take out the water. It would at least save the faff of cutting & slicing.

Then—as suggested, roast rather than fry. At least you could put it on one try for one amount of time rather than being chained to the stove, frying away.

worth a shot!

In fact, maybe grill the slices on the oven rather than roast—possibly a former outcome than roasting, more like frying.

(I don’t know, I’m just making this up.)

I brush/spray slices with oil and air-fry in batches while cooking the filling.

Grilling also works, if you don't have an air fryer. I just like not having to watch them as they tend to catch fire under the grill if you're doing something else at the same time!

Made chili in the Instant Pot last night and had mine (kidney beans removed) with buttery fried sweetheart cabbage. Had leftovers for lunch today. Dinner today was DH's doing, so burgers and chips for everyone else, double cheese burger in a SLC roll for me. Breakfast was Greek yoghurt and olives (not together).

Had been making batches of roasted Mediterranean veg for lunches the last few weeks, but ran out. First batch I had with feta mixed in and second batch I cooked chicken thighs at the same time and had those with it. Still got some chicken so may have to pull the meat off and mix with mayo for tomorrow and put in a SLC roll as we're out of most salad and veg.

When I make moussaka, if I don't pan fry the aubergine, I'll bake it in the oven. Secret is lots of olive oil.

I did a cheesy bolognese bake a couple of weeks ago and just put the layer of aubergine on raw, sprinkled with salt. It tasted fine (and I'm quite fussy about food flavours/textures).

Today for me:
B - scrambled egg (cream & butter)
L - scrambled egg (cream & butter)
D - cavolo nero steamed in butter, bolognese sauce (20% fat mince, onions, mushrooms and meat fried in butter)

Fluid: 3x 750ml electrolyte water, 6 cups of tea with almond milk.

I quite like the frying of aubergines... And I always make some extra slices, seasoned with S&P, to 'test' while I'm cooking the rest of the moussakka. I always thought the worst part was making the cheese sauce, so the simple mixing of eggs, cream, feta leaves me space to slice and fry aubergines. Plus in my mind, one of the glories of moussakka is the tomato-ey, oily bit that bubbles up around it, and the meltingly soft, aubergine - no chewy skin.

If I wanted to make it simpler, I'd pre-cook (and batch cook) the minced lamb layer. Then the only 'cooking' process is frying the aubergine. The rest is stirring and assembing.

Dinner tonight was (from the freezer) prawn and salmon curry, served on thinly sliced and fried cabbage with mustard seeds and black onion seeds.

Going to visit PILs at the weekend and planning what to cook and take. MIL (age 93 and very frail) is finding it difficult to eat with a knife and fork, but manages much better with a spoon, or her fingers. So I'm thinking shepherd's pie. I'll see if I can find some celeriac and put that topping on mine, and will probably make individual little pies (plus a big one for dh) - plus several little pies for PILs freezer. I can put carrots and spinich in to avoid having side veg (which usually get left). Also thinking [for them, not me] of some kind of tiny, mini sausage roll - literally one very small bite, or a very mini vol-au-vent with creamed cabbage and a slice of sausage. They get meals-on-wheels but the portions are enormous and MIL takes one look and feels full. It's a challenge to get enough nutrition into things. And to have them look and taste appetising. Always the easy answer is to eat a biscuit or have a chocolate mousse (great texture, easy to easy with a spoon, east to swallow and digest).

Ooh la la! I was looking for something on vol-au-vents (for PILs dinner, not for me) and I cam across the you tube videos Mmmmm... venus lusts after a young french chef I think it is only fair that I watch many of the videos to find the ones that are boot-camp compatible. I may be while .