Jan 23 Low Carb Bootcamp - Week 6 - just three weeks left!

[BIWI]

Morning all. Sorry for posting the thread late, but I slept in this morning. The perils of being retired!

As ever, here's the link to the spreadsheet

I hope you enjoyed the vegetarian meal challenge - I certainly did, and I loved making the aubergine, spinach and paneer curry inspired by @mimosa1.

So now we're in the last three weeks. Hopefully things have been going well, since we left behind weeks 3 & 4, and you've settled into a good routine, and have found different ways to deal with the temptation of the carbs.

This week, I'm after fish recipes. We don't tend eat much fish, which is something I feel bad about - but it's driven mainly by a poor choice in our local supermarket. So I tend to fall back on to salmon - which is fine, but I need a bit more inspiration. We do have a Waitrose not too far away, which has a fresh fish counter, so will look forward to any ideas!

Good luck for the next week

Kale crisps - genius! Thanks @Passtheturkey

Today's meals have been great and feel fantastically nutritious:
B: scrambled egg, 1/2 an avocado, the last bit of smoked salmon
L: salad of spinach tomato cucumber oil, with 1egg/mayo/slice of Cheshire mixed and 1/2 an avocado.
D: fajita chicken (spices, chicken, red & green pepper, courgette, red onion, mushrooms, grated cheese and sour cream)

@FinallyHere The Californian fish is so good it's dinner party good! (with the ends of the sole trimmed and the right accompaniments).

Lots of wonderful fish recipes so far, I'm inspired to have a meat free fish/veg week. Although it won't be this week. We have dgc with us for 2 days/nights. One has a dairy allergy, the other a nut allergy, so meat is a big source of protein for a meal we can all eat together.

Tonght I made a dish with onion, chorizo, green beans and kale. (was lovely). Lots left and will add butternut squash and potato later in the week to make dgc a chorizo/kale hash. i'll keep back a portion without the potatoes and will pick out most of the squash.

Of course tomorrow is Valentine's Day 💑I've got a coffee appointment with a friend in the morning, and dh is going out in the evening so we're having a late lunch meal together about 3pm.

Starter: Cheese and almond muffins cut in half and topped with sour cream, smoked salmon, capers and dill
Main: Scallops in white wine and cream sauce with spinach and greens beans (mashed potato piped around the scallops (Coquilles St Jacques style for dh)
Dessert: Strawberry, basil and black pepper mousse. It's essentially strawberry, basil leaves and pepper blitzed with a teaspoon of sugar. Some of the puree retained for a drizzle the rest folded in to whipped double cream (and a wee squeeze of lime).

Well done everyone

I can't believe I'm Still here plodding away.
Period started over the weekend so last week was awful
I was so hungry and felt rubbish.

Another 1lb loss for me. Its going in the right direction and I know it is a healthy loss but my impatient side is thinking this is going to take forever.
I do look slimmer though.
I've lost from my face and definitely my back.

I have introduced the seriously low carb bread and I suspect that it may be slowing down my losses? Or is that just the impatient me.
I don't have it every day. Maybe twice a week.

And I've definitely been rubbish with my water this week.
I need to be really strict with myself for the last 3 weeks.

The way statins were explained to me by a cardiologist made me realise only diet would work.

He told me that statins will lower your LDL in the same way insulin will lower blood glucose in a type 2 diabetic. However, these lower levels are not an indication of health. The reading might be low but it is low only because you are taking a drug and the health associated with lower LDL (or lower blood glucose) can not be compared with someone having naturally low LDL or low blood glucose.

This might explain why despite taking statins your mother developed dementia. If someone is on statins, it means they have high cholesterol.
High cholesterol is a massive red flag. Dementia scares me a lot and it was reading your comment about dementia that switched me from lurker to poster.

The cardiologist offered me two options; to be put on statins straight away or to try a statin-like diet for 6 weeks and repeat blood test. Well after his chat, of course, I went for the diet. It has lots of soya, viscous fibre (eggplants, okra, ...) , nuts, seeds , plant sterols and beans , lentils, .... This is the diet recipes.portfoliodiet.app/about-2/about-the-portfolio-diet/
It is more focused on things you must eat every day , then around those, it is quite free, of course no junk, processed food, refined grains, but I have cut saturated fat as well because when I asked my cardiologist about them, and that I had read, they weren't actually bad, he pulled quite a face and I felt stupid.

@Jenasaurus consider the statin-like diet for a few weeks while you wait for your appointment and see how your levels are going. I don't know if you have a cardiologist, mine was part of a check up with work.

Morning everyone, happy Valentine's Day!! First year in forever I've not been bought sugar in some form which is great. I am looking rather glam though, wearing my new necklace and earrings for today's round on Teams calls. I hope my colleagues appreciate it

Tuesday night is football night chez Coffee so we're just having a slow cooked chilli as it'll be late when the boys get home. We'll celebrate at some point but lord knows when as I'm out all weekend too!!

Trying a bit of a carb refeed tonight as my weight loss has slowed right down, even though it's never fast anyway. This is not recommended for most but I have an underactive thyroid so need a carb boost every few weeks. Chilli has kidney beans and I'll have a bit of brown rice too and see if that helps getting the scales moving.

Morning everyone. Well done on the losses and NSV this week. Putting on clothes that previously didn't fit is such a great feeling.
I've had a gain this week but I think it's due to the alcohol from my holiday and lack of water despite trying to drink enough. So going back to full boot camp this week so get that under control. Anxiety is bad this week and that's when I eat carbs so it's going to be a challenge.
@BIWI I've got a lovely Goan fish curry recipe I will dig out and post later.

This is an Australian Women's Weekly slow cooker recipe. I've successfully swapped out the onions for leeks, red caps for green and potatoes for turnips. I find it such a good recipe, I buy the cheapest white fish available at the market and it always tastes great.

Some lovely ideas for fish - thank you!

I'm not around much this week as we have people staying with us, but I'll try to check in from time to time.

👀<--- always watching ...

I've just made the loveliest soup if anyone is after a recipe (not fish related though!),

I sautéed shallots, leek, mushroom, courgette and garlic in butter til soft then added a load of chicken stock (I used home made but not compulsory) and simmered for 20 mins. I blended it til smooth and added a very generous splash of double cream. Then added a load of chopped up chicken (the dark meat we'd picked from the carcass after Sunday's roast, added that and warmed through. Then we served it with a big chunk of Saint Auger blue cheese in which melted as I stirred it through. Bloody lovely and so filling. And we have enough for tomorrow too!

These are on this weeks meal plan here - he has a section in both his lean in 15 books for lower carb recipes which I’d totally forgotten about!

AllTheBlackCoffee that soup sounds incredible. I love blue cheese.

An unexpected side effect of following this diet has been the fact that I hardly drink tea anymore. I literally used to drink it non stop (at least 6/7 cups of decaf tea a day ) now I drink herbal (in pint glasses) all day.

Placemarking!

@AllTheBlackCoffee cheeseburger pie is the best for picnics. I'll dig out the recipe for you.

Catching up on the thread. Unfortunately my middle DD was allergic (anaphylaxis) to white fish until a couple of years ago. So much so we couldn’t have it in the house or eat it whilst out, so for 15 years it’s been seafood and pink fish only (salmon, sardines, tuna). So at least the ‘good’ oily fishes. As you can imagine no one has a taste for white fish. Now she’s ok I’ve occasionally offered pan-fried or wrapped in foil with chorizo etc but everyone struggles. I tend to always choose fish if it’s on the menu when we’re out or if the DDs are away. We rarely have sardines but we do eat a lot of salmon and tuna. The latter I sear gently on both sides so it’s not quite cooked in the centre, serve with capers, lemon wedges and veggies. Salmon I pan fry in butter, skin side down to crisp up and don’t flip, usually served with a sprinkle of dill and stir fry veg.

I fell from grace spectacularly last night. I ate prawn crackers, two mini spring rolls, a spoonful of rice and then ten jammy dodgers.

I don't know why, I kept in mind the mantra of what feels better: eating now or how you'll feel tomorrow, and I still did it.

I've paid for it, I had a terrible night's sleep and woke with a carb hangover. I kick started the day with paracetamol and Greek Yog+Cream (have been IF for a few weeks now).

Koko

And I ate the biscuits in secret, I forced myself to tell DH this morning though

I'm not a big fish eater but I like Nicoise salad as long as the Tuna isn't in brine. I use this recipe but omit the potatoes and use more beans

I had a transgression too yesterday. I was out with the DC, half term here, in one of those street food type halls, and ended up having a paneer dosa with dahl for lunch. I was thinking I'd pick out the paneer, but then they'd grated it so I couldn't. I felt so heavy and stuffed after - and didn't finish the dosa. Annoyed with myself as I'd finally been losing weight this week. Will draw a line and start again.

I’m sure I found a BC moussaka on the ‘meat recipe’ thread but now I can’t find it. Any one got a good one please? TIA x

Morning all,

I can't find the cheese and almond muffin recipe in the recipe thread, please can someone point me to it?

I've just been sent this recipe in an email and fancy giving it a try. What would you substitute the potatoes for? Leave them out completely or put something else in instead? www.healthspan.co.uk/advice/seafood-chowder I'll probably make it with a pack of fish pie mix rather than buying all the individual fish types 😁

@NotDonna here you go:

IPD (Idiot Proof Diet) Moussaka

500g lamb mince
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons tomato puree
100ml water
1 large aubergine
olive or groundnut oil
3 eggs
300ml double cream
200g Feta cheese

Pre-heat the oven to 180/GM4
Fry the lamb mince until starting to brown, breaking up lumps as it fries
Add the onion and garlic and continue frying until the onion has softened
Stir in the oregano, cinnamon, tomato puree and water. Bring to a simmer and then cover and cook for 20 mins over a low heat
Slice the aubergine, brush with oil and grill, fry or griddle until softened but not mushy - it should be golden coloured
Stir the meat and if it still looks a bit too liquid, simmer with the lid off for 5 minutes or so
Beat together the eggs and cream and stir in the crumbled Feta
Layer the aubergine over the meat and pour the Feta custard over the top
Bake in the oven for approximately 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown

In the book it says that this serves 2 - but I would make this quantity for 4. I'm sure it's a typo!

@pinknsparkly You could sub fennel or celeriac for the potatoes - both go well with fish.

@pinknsparkly I'd use celeriac - the potato in a chowder is in there to give it texture.

Here's the muffin recipe:

Low carb Muffins

1 cup ground almond (100g)
1 tbsp (30g) very cold solid fat such as butter or plant butter.

Three medium eggs chilled.

1 generous tsp baking powder I use the individual sachets and it was the perfect amount

At this stage it can changed to be sweet muffins by adding in 2 tablespoons of sweetener with 1tsp vanilla extract

Or cheese muffins

60g or a large handful of cold grated mature cheddar and some Chopped chives.

Pre heat oven to 180. Prepare muffin tin with paper cups.

The next bit needs to be done swiftly so things don’t get to room temperature, it’s the shock of the oven that makes them rise well.

If you have a food processor, blitz the almond flour with the butter briefly until just mixed. Otherwise grate the butter into the almonds. Add all other ingredients and blitz until just mixed. Spoon into cases. This should do 4, but the cheese mix often makes 5 smaller ones.

It’s about 14 mins in the oven but might need a little longer.

They are best eaten cold as they don’t come out of the wrappers easily when warm

thanks @TangledWebOfDeception! I've never actually managed to find a celeriac to buy so I'll use this an incentive to try finally hunting one down 😄